Energy analysis of robot task motions

An energy criterion for choosing the best type of manipulator for a specified task is developed. First, the energy required to perform the robotic task is calculated. Then the lower bound of the mechanical energy consumed by the various kinds of manipulators during their motion, while performing a task, is calculated. Thus, the efficiency of a manipulator for the task is determined. Some examples show that the proper selection of the manipulator configuration can reduce the required energy to a quarter of that of a less suitable one. Once the most suitable manipulator is chosen, the criterion for its most energy efficient motion is developed. The model takes into account the kinematic configuration of the robot, gravitational and other external and internal forces acting on the robot during its operation, and the electric motor driving the robot links. Energy optimization of different paths of motion in joint coordinates is discussed briefly.     

Cable-direct-driven-robot (CDDR) with a 3-link passive serial support

Cable-direct-driven-robots (CDDRs) provided with a passive serial support represent an interesting and rising evolution of planar cable robots. The paper is devoted to present and analyze a novel CDDR robot. The robot consists in a fully actuated CDDR supported against loading normal to the motion plane with a 3-link passive planar serial manipulator. This hybrid structure combines positive features of both parallel and serial architectures, and prevents out-of-plane movements without the necessity for the robot to be supported on the motion plane. The adoption of a 3-link serial manipulator ensures a greater workspace area compared with similar structures that adopt a smaller number of links, and improves specific characteristics of their dynamics. Nevertheless undesired oscillations may occur since the serial manipulator is underconstrained. For this reason damping elements are inserted in the structure. Simulation examples are presented to demonstrate the novel CDDR concept and its dynamics. In addition, a strategy to select proper values of damping coefficients is presented.     

Robust motion control with the consideration algorithm of joint torque saturation for a redundant manipulator

As each joint actuator of a robot manipulator has a limit value of torque, the motion control system should consider the torque saturation. In order to consider the torque saturation in a transient state, this paper proposes a new redundant motion control system using the autonomous consideration algorithm on torque saturation. A Jacobian matrix of a redundant robot manipulator can select the optimal one considering its motion energy in the steady state. When the motion control system carries out fast motion and quick disturbance suppression, a high joint torque is required in a transient state. In the experimental results, under the condition of having a large payload torque and a fast motion reference, the proposed redundant manipulator control realizes the quick robot motion robustly and smoothly.     

Gunryu III: reconfigurable magnetic wall-climbing robot for decommissioning of nuclear reactor

To perform the decommissioning on the inaccessible area to human workers, the need to develop a wall-climbing robot is increasing. In these wall-climbing robots, high mobility and stability on a surface of walls are most important required features. To achieve both of these features, the new type of arm-equipped reconfigurable multi-modules wall-climbing robot was proposed in this research. The stability and high mobility can be achieved by reconfiguration using attached arm as a connection mechanism. And the robot system composed of two mobile modules and 6DOF manipulator was developed as a proof mechanism. In this robot, for energy efficient and stable mobility at the environment of steel structure, the adsorption method based on magnet was selected and its functionality was confirmed. And, to enable intuitive control, the kinematic solver was developed and verified. Finally, basic experiment of motion test was performed, and it was confirmed that the proposed wall-climbing robot satisfies required functions, such as high mobility and stability.     

基于FuzzyP的多臂机器人机械臂控制系统设计

机械臂是多臂机器人的重要组成部分,针对基于姿态识别控制及位置识别控制系统受到被控量振荡影响,而导致机械臂运动轨迹控制不精准的问题,提出了基于FuzzyP的多臂机器人机械臂控制系统设计;基于FuzzyP控制系统,找到系统控制平衡点,设计系统硬件结构包含3个机械臂,共十八个自由度,简化关节控制器连线,选择直流有刷电机,采用增量型编码器,设计H桥电路,配合74ACT244增强驱动电路,利用NRF24L01无线模块获取与处理位置信息;使用FuzzyP控制器,抑制被控量振荡,控制连杆运动,完成多臂机器人机械臂控制方案设计;由实验结果可知,该系统轨迹与预期轨迹基本一致,较好解决多臂机器人机械臂对接精确定位要求。     

一种基于总线的移动探测机器人控制系统设计与实现

针对机械臂定位相关的控制算法缺乏合适验证平台的问题,将移动机器人技术和机械臂控制技术相结合,在分布式控制系统结构的基础上设计并实现了移动探测机器人原型样机。该系统由一个中央主控单元和多个从控制单元构成,单元之间通过总线相连,以实现探测机械臂各部分的模块化。该控制系统已经成功应用于实验室的探测机器人中。该设计能够完成对机械臂运动控制任务,可以用于移动探测机器人平台的建立以及相关算法的实现。     

Real-time trajectory generation in multi-RCCL

This article describes the design of the trajectory generator for a robot programming system called Multi-RCCL, which is a package of “C” routines for doing real-time manipulator control in a UNIX environment. RCCL has been used successfully in developing robot control applications in numerous research and industry facilities over the last several years. One of its strongest features is the ability to integrate real-time sensor control into the manipulator task specification. RCCL primitives supply the trajectory generator with target points for motions in joint or Cartesian coordinates. Other primitives allow the code developer to specify on-line functions that can modify the target points, or possibly cancel motion requests, in response to various sensor or control inputs. The design requirements of the trajectory generator are that it be able to integrate these on-line modifications into the overall robot motion and provide a smooth path between adjacent motions even when sensor inputs make the future trajectory uncertain. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Quasi-Omnidirectional Fuzzy Control of a Climbing Robot for Inspection Tasks

This work presents a novel method to quasi-omnidirectional control of an intelligent inspection robot designed to work inside and outside spherical storage tanks. The main objective is to promote a stable and smooth navigation during inspection tasks, ensuring the safety motion under adhesion and kinematic constraints. The robot is designed with four independent steerable magnetic wheels and a mechanical topology that allows the correct adjustment of adhesion system. A scheduled Fuzzy control is developed to achieve an optimal behavior and maximize the robot’s maneuverability, considering the magnetic restrictions of adhesion system and kinematic constraints of the inspection robot. The high adaptability of its mechanical topology (i.e., wheel misalignment, magnetic adhesion system, wheel camber and flexibilities in mechanical structure) and gravitational disturbance introduce many nonlinear characteristics in dynamic behavior that cannot be neglected, making the determination of its dynamic model a complex task. The Fuzzy approach allows to project a control system without a depth knowledge of its dynamic properties, to minimize the dynamic disturbances found in robot structure. Thus, the proposed motion control works according to the robot specific characteristics to ensure the quasi-omnidirectional motion over a reliable adhesion to tank surface and to minimize the effects of wheels kinematic constraints.     

三自由度苹果采摘机器人本体设计

目前绝大部分应用在水果采摘上的关节型机器人控制复杂,成本高,而且采摘效率低,设计结构简单的采摘机器人是研究的重点。针对苹果种植的园艺特点和关节型采摘机械臂的不足,设计了一套基于圆柱坐标的三自由度苹果采摘机器人本体结构。控制系统采用基于PC&MP2100的分布式控制方案,阐明了机器人作业流程,编写了采摘控制程序,控制中引入模糊PID和偏差耦合同步控制方法,并基于C#,开发了人机交互界面。在实验室对机械臂进行了单轴调试、多轴同步调试、运动耗时和定位精度试验,结果表明采摘机械臂单次运动时间平均为6.619 s,平均运动误差值只有4.929 mm,相比关节型机械臂减少了耗时,降低了成本并且提高了定位精度和采摘效率。     

旋翼飞行机器人研究进展

旋翼飞行机器人是面向空中自主作业需求,将旋翼飞行器与多自由度机械臂相结合所提出的新型机器人.该机器人作业过程中旋翼飞行器、机械臂与作业目标之间的动态相对运动以及与作业目标接触过程中未建模外力、力矩扰动使自主控制受到极大挑战.本文将针对旋翼飞行机器人的结构演变及关键技术、作业机构集成技术进行综述.从动力学建模及动力学特性分析、动态运动约束/力约束下的协调规划、非结构环境下的运动和作业控制、面向任务动态操作的环境感知、面向任务的实验系统构建与实验验证五个方面初步构建了旋翼飞行机器人自主作业理论体系.     

Motion and force control with a nonlinear force error filter for underwater vehicle-manipulator systems

This paper deals with a control scheme for autonomous underwater robots equipped with manipulators. Several motion and force controllers have been developed. Most of them were designed in disregard of the dynamics of marine thrusters to develop a controller with a simple structure. However, the robot body propelled by thrusters generally has a considerably slower time response than the manipulator driven by electrical motors. Therefore, it may be difficult to construct a high-gain feedback control system to achieve a good control performance, because the high gain may excite the slow thruster dynamics ignored in the controller design, and the excitation will degrade the control performance. In this paper, we develop a motion and force controller for mathematical models with the dynamics of thrusters. It includes a nonlinear force error filter which allows us to construct a stable motion and force control system. To investigate its control performance, we conducted numerical simulations for comparing the proposed control scheme with an existing control scheme designed in disregard of the thruster dynamics. Simulation results demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed controller.     

Structures and characteristics of parallel manipulators

Parallel structures have remarkable characteristics such as high precision, high load capacity, high rigidity and high speed. Therefore, they have received a lot of attention as alternative structures for robot manipulators. This paper reviews the recent results on properties of the parallel manipulator. First, the basics of the link mechanism, which is necessary to understand the structure of the parallel manipulator, is summarized before the structure of the parallel manipulator is defined. Then, the parallel manipulator is compared with the serial manipulator. The singular point of the parallel manipulator and the optimum design of the structure of the parallel manipulator are also discussed.     

基于关联规则挖掘的全向轮移动机器人目标跟踪控制系统设计

为使全向轮机器人在移动过程中所捕获到的目标对象能够完全符合理想目标设定条件,准确追踪目标节点的运动行为,设计基于关联规则挖掘的全向轮移动机器人目标跟踪控制系统。根据CAN主控框架的部署形式,按需连接核心管控电路与I/O跟踪模块,分别以转向控制器、速度控制器为例,完善全向轮控制结构的物理作用能力,实现机器人目标跟踪控制系统的应用结构部件设计。在此基础上,定义频繁项集合,按照具体的关联规则特征描述结果,确定挖掘程序指令的执行能力,得到准确的关联离散度指标计算结果,实现控制系统的关联规则挖掘,再联合相关硬件设备结构,完成基于关联规则挖掘的全向轮移动机器人目标跟踪控制系统设计。分析对比实验结果可知,随着关联规则挖掘控制系统的应用,全向轮机器人在移动过程中所捕获到的目标对象能够将理想目标完全包含在内,可以辅助全向轮移动机器人更加准确地追踪目标节点的运动行为,符合实际应用需求。     

基于力阻抗模型的上肢康复机器人交互控制系统设计

传统上肢康复机器人交互控制系统受到奇异位形影响,导致系统控制精准度较低,为此提出基于力阻抗模型的上肢康复机器人交互控制系统;设计上肢康复机器人交互控制系统结构,选取双串口12CSA60S2系列单片机作为下位机控制核心模块,利用椎齿轮改变驱动力方向,设计机械臂肘部结构,通过同步带传动,将器件隐藏于空手柄中;设计机械臂腕部结构,满足临床康复时上肢患者站姿与坐姿训练需求;选择箔式应变片BF350力传感器,设计电阻应变片桥接电路,处理传输信号;构建机器人目标阻抗模型,设计基于力阻抗控制策略,调节位置、速度和关节;为改善奇异位形情况,在奇异位形附近关节角速度指令直接由各个关节力矩阻尼控制得到,实现角速度精准输出,完成系统控制;由实验结果可知,该系统直线运动位置、旋转关节位置和伸缩关节位置跟踪结果与标准值基本一致,满足系统设计需求。     

Computer-aided-design tool for simplification of robot dynamic model based on manipulator system performance

The dynamic performance of a robot manipulator is directly dependent on the efficiency of the controller and the dynamic model of the robot. This paper addresses the fundamental issue of how much manipulator dynamics information should be included in the manipulator dynamic model for control such that the manipulator will achieve the desired system performance under a proportional-plus-derivative control scheme. An efficient minimax simplification scheme has been developed which automatically generates simplified closed-form manipulator motion equations in symbolic form while maintaining the desired manipulator system performance under a proportional-plus-derivative controller. The scheme involves the identification and selection of basis functions that represent the dynamic coefficients in the dynamic model. These basis functions consist of a linear combination of the product terms of sinusoidal and polynomial functions of the generalized coordinates and form a Chebyshev set on the workspace of the manipulator. A multi-layered decision scheme is developed for selecting significant basis terms in each layer for each dynamic coefficient. The linear combination of these significant basis terms is then utilized to construct each simplified dynamic coefficient based on the minimax approximation technique. A verification of the proposed scheme on a Stanford robot arm is included for discussion.     

Walking-support robot system for walking rehabilitation: design and control

An intelligent walking-assistance robot system has been developed to help the elderly or the disabled in rehabilitation programs. From the design viewpoint, several different mechanisms to satisfy the strict requirements for use in a rehabilitation program were considered and studied. A two-wheel mobile mechanism was developed to provide motions to follow the patient's walking trajectory, and also to make the patient follow a specified trajectory. Equations of motion were derived for the unloading control, and a force control algorithm was developed. For motion control of the mobile base, virtual trajectory planning by the B-spline method and PID control were used. Sensing the motion of the patient is performed by a linear potentiometer and a rotating encoder attached to the robot manipulator. The system was tested on patients in hospital and the experimental results are reported.     

An adaptive observer for a spacecraft–manipulator system using a camera mounted on its spacecraft

This paper deals with a motion control system for a space robot with a manipulator. Many motion controllers require the positions of the robot body and the manipulator hand with respect to an inertial coordinate system. In order to measure them, a visual sensor using a camera is frequently used. However, there are two difficulties in measuring them by means of a camera. The first one is that a camera is mounted on the robot body, and hence it is difficult to directly measure the position of the robot body by means of it. The second one is that the sampling period of a vision system with a general-purpose camera is much longer than that of a general servo system. In this paper, we develop an adaptive state observer that overcomes the two difficulties. In order to investigate its performance, we design a motion control system that is constructed by combining the observer with a PD control input, and then conduct numerical simulations for the control system. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed observer.     

Motion planning and contact control for a tele-assisted hydraulic underwater robot

Implementing tele-assistance or supervisory control for autonomous subsea robots requires atomic actions that can be called from high level task planners or mission managers. This paper reports on the design and implementation of a particular atomic action for the case of a subsea robot carrying out tasks in contact with the surrounding environment.Subsea vehicles equipped with manipulators can have upward of 11 degrees of freedom (DOF), with degenerate and redundant inverse kinematics. Distributed local motion planning is presented as a means to specify the motion of each robot DOF given a goal point or trajectory. Results are presented to show the effectiveness of the distributed versus non-distributed approach, a means to deal with local minima difficulties, and the performance for trajectory following with and without saturated joint angles on a robot arm.Consideration is also given to the modelling of hydraulic underwater robots and to the resulting design of hybrid position/force control strategies. A model for a hydraulically actuated robot is developed, taking into account the electrohydraulic servovalve, the bulk modulus of oil, piston area, friction, hose compliance and other arm parameters. Open and closed-loop control results are reported for simulated and real systems.Finally, the use of distributed motion planning and sequential position/force control of a Slingsby TA-9 hydraulic underwater manipulator is described, to implement an atomic action for tele-assistance. The specific task of automatically positioning and inserting a Tronic subsea mateable connector is illustrated, with results showing the contact conditions during insertion.     

Projection operator-based robust adaptive control of an aerial robot with a manipulator

This paper describes a quadcopter manipulator system, an aerial robot with an extended workspace, its controller design, and experimental validation. The aerial robot is based on a quadcopter with a three degree of freedom robotic arm connected to the base of the vehicle. The work aims to create a stable airborne robot with a robotic arm that can work above and below the airframe, regardless of where the arm is attached. Integrating a robotic arm into an underactuated, unstable system like a quadcopter can enhance the vehicle's functionality while increasing instability. To execute a mission with accuracy and reliability during a real-time task, the system must overcome the inter-coupling effects and external disturbances. This work presents a novel design for a robust adaptive feedback linearization controller with a model reference adaptive controller and hardware implementation of the quadcopter manipulator system with plant uncertainties. The closed-loop stability of the aerial robot and the tracking error convergence with the robust controller is analyzed using Lyapunov stability analysis. The quadcopter manipulator system is custom developed in the lab with an off-the-shelf quadcopter and a 3D-printed robotic arm. The robotic system architecture is implemented using a Jetson Nano companion computer for autonomous onboard flight. Experiments were conducted on quadcopter manipulator system to evaluate the autonomous aerial robot's stability and trajectory tracking with the proposed controller.     

Nonlinear Performance Index (npi): A Tool for Manipulator Dynamics Improvement

The precise control of manipulators depends nonlinearly on the velocity of the motion as well as on manipulator configuration and commanded acceleration requiring complex control strategies. This paper presents a useful tool for identifying and quantifying nonlinear effects appearing during the motion of any manipulator, the Nonlinear Performance Index (npi). The npi takes into account not only the geometrical parameters defining the manipulator but also its structural dynamics through the use of inertial parameters like mass, inertia, centre of mass... The npi can be used in the design stage for analysing and reducing these undesirable nonlinear effects in any general motion or in the trajectory planning looking for paths along which more precise control is expected. The last part of the paper shows how this design optimisation and path planning has been applied to the Agribot, a fruit picking robot designed at the IAI.