Speed-accuracy characteristics of human-machine cooperative manipulation using virtual fixtures with variable admittance

This work explores the effect of virtual fixture admittance on the performance, defined by error and time, of task execution with a human-machine cooperative system. A desired path is obtained using computer vision, and virtual fixtures for assistance in planar path following were implemented on an admittance-controlled robot. The admittance controller uses a velocity gain, so that the speed of the robot is proportional to the force applied by the operator. The level of virtual fixture guidance is determined by the admittance ratio, which is the ratio of the admittance gain of the force components orthogonal to the path to the gain of the force components parallel to the path. In Experiment 1, we found a linear relationship between admittance ratio and performance. In Experiment 2, we examined the effect of admittance ratio on the performance of three tasks: path following, off-path targeting, and obstacle avoidance. An algorithm was developed to select an appropriate admittance ratio based on the nature of the task. Automatic admittance ratio tuning is recommended for next-generation virtual fixtures. Actual or potential applications of this research include surgery, assembly, and manipulation at the macro and micro scales.     

工业机器人遥操作系统的空间映射与控制策略

针对工业机器人遥操作系统中存在的主从机器人工作空间差异以及运动控制精度与安全问题,提出了一种工作空间映射算法与位置—速度混合控制策略。首先,将遥操作划分为自由运动和交互两个阶段,在自由运动阶段采用映射算法使主从机器人的工作空间高度覆盖,使主机器人可操控的从机器人运动范围最大化。进一步,在交互阶段设计了一种位置—速度混合控制策略对工业机器人的运动进行准确的控制,使主从机器人的实际位置轨迹准确的跟随,并进一步引入反馈引导力以实现安全的控制。最后在Touch-ABB IRB120主从机器人遥操作实验平台上对所提控制方法进行验证,实验结果表明该方法使得主从机器人运动范围在高度覆盖的同时可以保证遥操作控制的精度。     

A novel path planning and control framework for passive resistance therapy with a robot manipulator

In this article, we present a paradigm for safe path generation and control for a robotic manipulator such that it provides programmable passive resistance therapy to patients with deficits in the upper extremities. When the patient applies an interaction force at the robot's end-effector, a dynamic path generator time parameterises any therapist-specified contour in the robot's workspace–thus, the robot mimics the dynamics of a passive impedance whose anisotropy vector can be continuously reconfigured. The proposed algorithm is easily implementable because it is robust to uncertainty in the robot dynamics. Moreover, the proposed strategy also guarantees user safety by maintaining the net flow of energy during the human robot interaction from the user towards the manipulator.     

Integrated sliding-mode algorithms in robot tracking applications

An integrated solution based on sliding mode ideas is proposed for robotic trajectory tracking. The proposal includes three sliding-mode algorithms for speed auto-regulation, path conditioning and redundancy resolution in order to fulfill velocity, workspace and C-space constraints, respectively. The proposed method only requires a few program lines and simplifies the robot user interface since it directly deals with the fulfillment of the constraints to find a feasible solution for the robot trajectory tracking in a short computation time. The proposed approach is evaluated in simulation on the freely accessible 6R robot model PUMA-560, for which the main features of the method are illustrated.     

AR-based interaction for human-robot collaborative manufacturing

Industrial standards define safety requirements for Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) in industrial manufacturing. The standards particularly require real-time monitoring and securing of the minimum protective distance between a robot and an operator. This paper proposes a depth-sensor based model for workspace monitoring and an interactive Augmented Reality (AR) User Interface (UI) for safe HRC. The AR UI is implemented on two different hardware: a projector-mirror setup and a wearable AR gear (HoloLens). The workspace model and UIs are evaluated in a realistic diesel engine assembly task. The AR-based interactive UIs provide 21–24% and 57–64% reduction in the task completion and robot idle time, respectively, as compared to a baseline without interaction and workspace sharing. However, user experience assessment reveal that HoloLens based AR is not yet suitable for industrial manufacturing while the projector-mirror setup shows clear improvements in safety and work ergonomics.     

Safe planning for human‐robot interaction

This paper presents a strategy for improving the safety of human‐robot interaction by minimizing a danger criterion during the planning stage. This strategy is one part of the overall methodology for safe planning and control in human‐robot interaction. The focus application is a hand‐off task between an articulated robot and an inexpert human user. Two formulations of the danger criterion are proposed: a criterion assuming independent safety‐related factors, and a criterion assuming mutually dependent factors. Simulations of the proposed planning strategy are presented for both 2D and 3D robots. The results indicate that a criterion based on scaled mutually dependent factors such as the robot inertia and the human robot distance generates safe, feasible paths for interaction. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Human robot cooperation with compliance adaptation along the motion trajectory

In this paper we propose a novel approach for intuitive and natural physical human–robot interaction in cooperative tasks. Through initial learning by demonstration, robot behavior naturally evolves into a cooperative task, where the human co-worker is allowed to modify both the spatial course of motion as well as the speed of execution at any stage. The main feature of the proposed adaptation scheme is that the robot adjusts its stiffness in path operational space, defined with a Frenet–Serret frame. Furthermore, the required dynamic capabilities of the robot are obtained by decoupling the robot dynamics in operational space, which is attached to the desired trajectory. Speed-scaled dynamic motion primitives are applied for the underlying task representation. The combination allows a human co-worker in a cooperative task to be less precise in parts of the task that require high precision, as the precision aspect is learned and provided by the robot. The user can also freely change the speed and/or the trajectory by simply applying force to the robot. The proposed scheme was experimentally validated on three illustrative tasks. The first task demonstrates novel two-stage learning by demonstration, where the spatial part of the trajectory is demonstrated independently from the velocity part. The second task shows how parts of the trajectory can be rapidly and significantly changed in one execution. The final experiment shows two Kuka LWR-4 robots in a bi-manual setting cooperating with a human while carrying an object.     

A three-dimensional measurement system for robot applications

This paper presents a 3D noncontacting sensor system designed to measure the position and orientation of a robot end effector. This measurement system includes two parts: a tridimensional object including four spheres placed along the axes of a tetrahedron and a set of three orthogonally pointed cameras. The purpose is to design a measurement system characterized by easy relationships in order to satisfy real-time constraints. The system has been used in two experiments: first, to calibrate a parallel robot and validate the geometrical control performance, then as an exteroceptive sensor in an assembly task. The system computes position and orientation of the tetrahedron in 100 ms time. The position and orientation accuracy are, respectively, 0.6 mm and 0.2 deg in a workspace, being a cube with 0.3 m sides.     

Grasp capability analysis of multifingered robot hands

This paper addresses the problem of grasp capability analysis of multifingered robot hands. The aim of the grasp capability analysis is to find the maximum external wrench that the multifingered robot hands can withstand, which is an important criterion in the evaluation of robotic systems. The study of grasp capability provides a basis for the task planning of force control of multifingered robot hands. For a given multifingered hand geometry, the grasp capability depends on the joint driving torque limits, grasp configuration, contact model and so on. A systematic method of the grasp capability analysis, which is in fact a constrained optimization algorithm, is presented. In this optimization, the optimality criterion is the maximum external wrench, and the constraints include the equality constraints and the inequality constraints. The equality constraints are for the grasp to balance the given external wrench, and the inequality constraints are to prevent the slippage of fingertips, the overload of joint actuators, the excessive forces over the physical limits of the object, etc. The advantages of this method are the ability to accomodate diverse areas such as multiple robot arms, intelligent fixtures and so on. The effectiveness of the proposed method is confirmed with a numerical example of a trifingered grasp.     

A KinFu based approach for robot spatial attention and view planning

When a user and a robot share the same physical workspace the robot may need to keep an updated 3D representation of the environment. Indeed, robot systems often need to reconstruct relevant parts of the environment where the user executes manipulation tasks. This paper proposes a spatial attention approach for a robot manipulator with an eye-in-hand Kinect range sensor. Salient regions of the environment, where user manipulation actions are more likely to have occurred, are detected by applying a clustering algorithm based on Gaussian Mixture Models applied to the user hand trajectory. A motion capture sensor is used for hand tracking. The robot attentional behavior is driven by a next-best view algorithm that computes the most promising range sensor viewpoints to observe the detected salient regions, where potential changes in the environment have occurred. The environment representation is built upon the PCL KinFu Large Scale project [1], an open source implementation of KinectFusion. KinFu has been modified to support the execution of the next-best view algorithm directly on the GPU and to properly manage voxel data. Experiments are reported to illustrate the proposed attention based approach and to show the effectiveness of GPU-based next-best view planning compared to the same algorithm executed on the CPU.     

Optimal design and workspace analysis of a mobile welding robot with a 3P3R serial manipulator

This paper presents the design optimization of a mobile welding robot based on the analysis of its workspace. A welding robot has been developed to be used inside the double-hull structure of ships, and it shows good welding functionality. But there is a need to optimize the kinematic variables ensuring that the required welding functions inside the ships are satisfied. The task-oriented workspace, which is the workspace enabling specific rotations, has been defined in order to validate the welding ability of the robot, and incorporating the required rotational capabilities. To calculate the workspace, a geometric approach is adopted which considers the pitching and yawing angles simultaneously. Based on the workspace analysis, a scenario is compiled for considering a mass reduction, and a ratio between the design parameters and the workspace, with constraints on the workspace margins. The proposed optimization procedure is composed of two steps of coarse and fine searching. In the coarse searching step, a feasible parameter region (FPR) is defined, which satisfies the geometrical design constraints, and can be obtained without any considerations of the objective functions. In the fine searching step, the design parameters are determined by using the optimization technique of the conjugate gradient method in the overall FPRs. The suggested approach to calculating the task-oriented workspace, and the procedure of optimal design, are expected to be applied to general industrial robots.     

Calibration of an smt robot assembly cell

A new calibration method for an assembly robot cell is described. The proposed method is a combination of a model-free, numerical, relative robot calibration procedure and a procedure for the robot periphery calibration. Two important simplifications based on the study of an assembly process are introduced into the calibration strategy. A robot is calibrated in a task (Cartesian) space. The robot workspace and the number of calibrated degrees of freedom (dof) in the task space are reduced in accordance with the difficulty measure of the task. An automatic measurement system for measuring the relative robot accuracy was developed. An original principle of transforming the robot endpoint approach distance into the one-dimensional position displacement error is introduced. The accuracy errors of each particular calibrated dof in the task space is measured separately. The error tables are used in a direct robot calibration procedure that is based on the linear interpolation of the discrete position-error functions. An iterative inverse calibration algorithm used in a particular robot cell is described. An efficient sensor-based system for an additional simultaneous robot periphery calibration is presented. The implementation of the proposed calibration methodology in the pick-and-place robot cell for Surface Mount Technology (SMT) is presented. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

基于状态空间的机械臂轨迹规划

提出一种基于状态空间的机械臂轨迹规划方法,定义并构造了机械臂系统的状态空间,根据内在机构约束与外部环境约束描述出系统状态的可达范围,并给出了任务的可实现条件.对于可实现任务,在状态空间能搜索到任务完成的最优解.如果任务无法完成,则修改系统配置或约束,在新的状态空间确定任务实现的转化条件,并对任务的设计与规划给予指导.研究了障碍约束下两连杆机械臂的点到点任务,实验结果验证了该方法的有效性.     

Interactive robot trajectory planning and simulation using Augmented Reality

Human-robot interaction in industrial robotics has largely been confined to finding better ways to reconfigure or program the robots. In this paper, an Augmented Reality based (RPAR-II) system is proposed to facilitate robot programming and trajectory planning considering the dynamic constraints of the robots. Through the various simulation capabilities provided in the proposed AR environment, the users are able to preview the simulated motion, perceive any possible overshoot, and resolve discrepancies between the planned and simulated paths prior to the execution of a task. By performing the simulation, the performance of the trajectory planning and the fitness of the selection of the robot controller model/parameters in the robot programming process can be visually evaluated. Practical issues concerning the system implementation are also discussed.     

Human-robot coexistence and interaction in open industrial cells

Recent research results on human–robot interaction and collaborative robotics are leaving behind the traditional paradigm of robots living in a separated space inside safety cages, allowing humans and robot to work together for completing an increasing number of complex industrial tasks. In this context, safety of the human operator is a main concern. In this paper, we present a framework for ensuring human safety in a robotic cell that allows human–robot coexistence and dependable interaction. The framework is based on a layered control architecture that exploits an effective algorithm for online monitoring of relative human–robot distance using depth sensors. This method allows to modify in real time the robot behavior depending on the user position, without limiting the operative robot workspace in a too conservative way. In order to guarantee redundancy and diversity at the safety level, additional certified laser scanners monitor human–robot proximity in the cell and safe communication protocols and logical units are used for the smooth integration with an industrial software for safe low-level robot control. The implemented concept includes a smart human-machine interface to support in-process collaborative activities and for a contactless interaction with gesture recognition of operator commands. Coexistence and interaction are illustrated and tested in an industrial cell, in which a robot moves a tool that measures the quality of a polished metallic part while the operator performs a close evaluation of the same workpiece.     

Modelling and analysis of a novel CT-guided puncture robot for lung brachytherapy

In this paper, we present a novel CT-guided needle puncture robot system with seven degree of freedoms. All basic requirements of interventional radiology can be met. To solve the space constraints and compatibility requirement, tendon-sheath transmission is used as the drive mode of the end-effector. According to the kinematics analysis of the robot configuration, the reachable workspace is obtained, which can completely cover the chest of patient. Based on the Jacobian matrix, dimension parameters are optimised for better flexibility and kinematic performance in the workspace. Since respiratory movement will cause real-time motion of the tumour, a method is proposed to decrease the puncture error caused by respiratory movement. And the feasibility of this method is verified by puncture experiment based on independent design of respiratory motion simulation device. It is proved that this method will lead to an increase in the puncture accuracy by 2.4 times. In addition, the CT compatibility of the robot is verified, and the positioning accuracy is also measured through the experiments.     

Fuzzy-based-admittance controller for safe natural human–robot interaction

ABSTRACT

In recent years, a great amount of research on physical human–robot interaction has been conducted, and mainly concentrated on safety issues to minimize the risk of accidents to the operator during the cooperation between human and robot. Unfortunately, the identification of inertia and damping matrices in the dynamic admittance model is time-consuming, which is still an open problem of previous admittance controllers. Additionally, the natural cooperation is that cooperative movements are implemented in every degree of freedom in space, which is rarely concerned while it is important to implement more complex cooperative movements, and to help operator feels naturally during the cooperation. This paper presents an alternative admittance controller based on inference mechanism of fuzzy logic to eliminate the identification of inertia and damping matrices during the process of controller formulation in which the end-effector’s velocity is adaptively adjusted via external wrench (force/torque measured by a sensor mounted on end-effector) and power transmitted by the robot. Moreover, the proposed controller also considers end-effector’s full DOF to guarantee the natural human–robot interaction. The fuzzy-admittance controller is evaluated by an experimental set-up of teaching task using 6-DOF manipulator in which manipulator moves passively via the human impact on real-time force/torque sensor mounted on end-effector.     

Path feasibility and modification

Kinematic feasibility of a planned robot path is restrained by the kinematic constraints of the robot executing the task, such as workspace, configuration, and singularity. Since these kinematic constraints can be described utilizing the geometry of the given robot, corresponding regions within the robot workspace can be expressed in geometrical representation. Consequently, geometric information can be derived from the planned path and the geometric boundaries of these regions. Then, by utilizing the geometric information and proper modification strategies, a Cartesian robot path that is kinematically infeasible can be modified according to different task requirements. To demonstrate the proposed feasibility and modification schemes, simulations for a 6R robot manipulator are executed.     

Robot coordination using task-priority and sliding-mode techniques

In this work, an approach based on task-priority redundancy resolution and sliding mode ideas is proposed for robot coordination. In particular, equality and inequality constraints representing the coordination of the multi-robot system are considered as mandatory (for instance, rigid-body manipulation constraints to distance between the end-effectors of several robot arms, or other inequality constraints guaranteeing safe operation of a robotic swarm or confining the robot's workspace to avoid collision and joint limits). Besides the mandatory constraints, other constraints with lower priority are considered for the tracking of the workspace reference and to achieve secondary goals. Thus, lower-priority constraints are satisfied only in the null space of the higher-priority ones. The fulfillment of the constraints is achieved using geometric invariance and sliding mode control theory. The validity and effectiveness of the proposed approach are substantiated by 2D and 3D simulation results using two 3R planar robots and two 6R PUMA-762 robots, respectively.     

Appearance-based navigation and homing for autonomous mobile robot

In this paper, we develop an algorithm for navigating a mobile robot using the visual potential. The visual potential is computed from an image sequence and optical flow computed from successive images captured by a camera mounted on the robot, that is, the visual potential for navigation is computed from appearances of the workspace observed as an image sequence. The direction to the destination is provided at the initial position of the robot. The robot dynamically selects a local pathway to the destination without collision with obstacles and without any knowledge of the robot workspace. Furthermore, the guidance algorithm to destination allows the mobile robot to return from the destination to the initial position. We present the experimental results of navigation and homing in synthetic and real environments.