Inverse Kinematics Based Human Mimicking System using Skeletal Tracking Technology

Humanoid robots needs to have human-like motions and appearance in order to be well-accepted by humans. Mimicking is a fast and user-friendly way to teach them human-like motions. However, direct assignment of observed human motions to robot’s joints is not possible due to their physical differences. This paper presents a real-time inverse kinematics based human mimicking system to map human upper limbs motions to robot’s joints safely and smoothly. It considers both main definitions of motion similarity, between end-effector motions and between angular configurations. Microsoft Kinect sensor is used for natural perceiving of human motions. Additional constraints are proposed and solved in the projected null space of the Jacobian matrix. They consider not only the workspace and the valid motion ranges of the robot’s joints to avoid self-collisions, but also the similarity between the end-effector motions and the angular configurations to bring highly human-like motions to the robot. Performance of the proposed human mimicking system is quantitatively and qualitatively assessed and compared with the state-of-the-art methods in a human-robot interaction task using Nao humanoid robot. The results confirm applicability and ability of the proposed human mimicking system to properly mimic various human motions.     

An analysis of the inverse kinematics for a 5-DOF manipulator

This paper proposes an analytical solution for a 5-DOF manipulator to follow a given trajectory while keeping the orientation of one axis in the end-effector frame. The forward kinematics and inverse kinematics for a 5-DOF manipulator are analyzed systemically. The singular problem is discussed after the forward kinematics is provided. For any given reachable position and orientation of the end-effector, the derived inverse kinematics will provide an accurate solution. In other words, there exists no singular problem for the 5-DOF manipulator, which has wide application areas such as welding, spraying, and painting. Experiment results verify the effectiveness of the methods developed in this paper.     

A biomimetic approach to inverse kinematics for a redundant robot arm

Redundant robots have received increased attention during the last decades, since they provide solutions to problems investigated for years in the robotic community, e.g. task-space tracking, obstacle avoidance etc. However, robot redundancy may arise problems of kinematic control, since robot joint motion is not uniquely determined. In this paper, a biomimetic approach is proposed for solving the problem of redundancy resolution. First, the kinematics of the human upper limb while performing random arm motion are investigated and modeled. The dependencies among the human joint angles are described using a Bayesian network. Then, an objective function, built using this model, is used in a closed-loop inverse kinematic algorithm for a redundant robot arm. Using this algorithm, the robot arm end-effector can be positioned in the three dimensional (3D) space using human-like joint configurations. Through real experiments using an anthropomorphic robot arm, it is proved that the proposed algorithm is computationally fast, while it results to human-like configurations compared to previously proposed inverse kinematics algorithms. The latter makes the proposed algorithm a strong candidate for applications where anthropomorphism is required, e.g. in humanoids or generally in cases where robotic arms interact with humans.     

Motion in human and machine: A virtual fatigue approach

Achieving human-like behavior of a robot is a key issue of the paper. Redundancy in the inverse kinematics problem is resolved using a biological analogue. It is shown that by means of "virtual fatigue" functions, it is possible to generate robot movements similar to movements of a human arm subject to muscle fatigue. Analytic method enabling control of robot motions in a human-like fashion is described. An example of an anthropomorphic robot arm performing a screw-driving task illustrates the method.     

Human-like redundancy resolution: An integrated inverse kinematics scheme for anthropomorphic manipulators with radial elbow offset

As a mimic of the human arm structure, anthropomorphic manipulators with radial elbow offset (AMREO) are often deployed on humanoid service robots. However, the unique offset leads to difficulties in solving the analytical inverse kinematics (IK), which poses a challenge for further anthropomorphic control. This paper presents an integrated scheme for solving the path-wise IK problem of a 7-DoF AMREO in the position domain. Unlike other approaches, special attention is paid to the naturalness of the arm configuration, with the aim of making AMREO exhibit human-like behavior in human-centered environments. First, an analytical IK solution of AMREO for a single end-effector pose is derived based on the arm angle parameterization. Then, inspired by the habitual arm configurations in human reaching movements, the natural arm configuration mapped to wrist position is proposed for AMREO. To learn the patterns implied therein, a LSTM-based natural arm angle prediction network (NAPN) is designed and trained based on a human demonstration dataset. Finally, a redundancy resolution framework embedded with NAPN is built to generate smooth and natural joint configurations in the path-wise IK tasks. Comparative experiments show that the proposed analytical IK algorithm has better computational efficiency and precision than conventional methods, and can give complete results for one IK call within 4 μs. In addition, continuous path tracking experiments on a real robot validate the effectiveness and anthropomorphism of the redundancy resolution scheme based on NAPN.     

面向冗余机器人实时控制的逆运动学求解有效方法

针对7自由度冗余机器人实时运动控制,对机器人逆运动学提出了一种新的求解方法.采用位姿分解方式,使7自由度冗余机器人逆运动学简化为4自由度位置逆运动学求解.在梯度投影法得到位置优化解的基础上,利用机器人封闭解公式求得一组优化解.通过对7自由度机器人仿真分析,表明了该方法的有效性.     

关节型机器人的似人操作构型规划

对关节型机器人的操作构型进行规划时,本文提出了一种新的规划方法,它结合了似人评估准则和机器人传速特性优化的概念,可实现有最大末端传速特性的操作,同时与人类手臂操作的特点最为相似.该方法首先利用应用人体工程学中的快速上肢评价准则(RULA)对机器人的操作空间进行划分,然后在各子空间内最大化机器人末端沿指定方向的传速速率.最终选定一个最符合人类操作特性又同时满足操作任务的机器人操作构型.通过在2自由度平面机器人和7自由度拟人机械臂上的规划实验进一步展示了本方法的使用,规划结果验证了其有效性.     

全局和声搜索方法及其在仿人灵巧臂逆运动学求解中的应用

仿人灵巧臂逆运动学(IK)问题可转化为等效的最小化问题,并采用数值优化方法求解.和声搜索(HS)是模拟乐师在音乐演奏中调整音调现象的一种启发式搜索方法,目前还尚未在机器人机械臂逆运动学问题中得到应用.本文提出一种基于粒子群体智能的全局和声搜索方法(GHSA),该方法在和声搜索算法中引入微粒群操作(PSO),采用粒子群策略替代常规和声搜索算法中的搜索法则创作新和声,通过粒子自身认知和群体知识更新和声变量位置信息平衡算法对解空间全局探索与局部开发间能力;同时算法还引入变异操作增强算法跳出局部最优解能力,基准函数测试表明该方法改善了全局搜索能力及求解可靠性.在此基础上以七自由度(7-DOF)冗余仿人灵巧臂为例,考虑以灵巧臂末端位姿误差和“舒适度”指标构建适应度函数并采用GHSA算法求解其逆运动学(IK)问题,数值仿真结果表明了该方法是解决仿人灵巧臂逆运动学问题的一种有效方法.     

Trajectory Planning with Collision Avoidance for Redundant Robots Using Jacobian and Artificial Potential Field-based Real-time Inverse Kinematics

This study proposes an algorithm for combining the Jacobian-based numerical approach with a modified potential field to solve real-time inverse kinematics and path planning problems for redundant robots in unknown environments. With an increase in the degree of freedom (DOF) of the manipulator, however, the problems in realtime inverse kinematics become more difficult to solve. Although the analytical and geometrical inverse kinematics approach can obtain the exact solution, it is considerably difficult to solve as the DOF increases, and it necessitates recalculations whenever the robot arm DOF or Denavit-Hartenberg (D-H) parameters change. In contrast, the numerical method, particularly the Jacobian-based numerical method, can easily solve inverse kinematics irrespective of the aforementioned changes including those in the robot shape. The latter method, however, is not employed in path planning for collision avoidance, and it presents real-time calculation problems. This study accordingly proposes the Jacobian-based numerical approach with a modified potential field method that can realize real-time calculations of inverse kinematics and path planning with collision avoidance irrespective of whether the case is redundant or non-redundant. To achieve this goal, the use of a judgment matrix is proposed for obstacle condition identification based on the obstacle boundary definition; an approach for avoiding the local minimum is also proposed. After the obstacle avoidance path is generated, a trajectory plan that follows the path and avoids the obstacle is designed. Finally, the proposed method is evaluated by implementing a motion planning simulation of a 7-DOF manipulator, and an experiment is performed on a 7-DOF real robot.

     

基于解析法和遗传算法的机械手运动学逆解

研究优化机械手轨迹规划问题,机械手运动时要具有稳定性避障性能。针对平面3自由度冗余机械手优化控制问题,建立机械手的结构模型。提出用解析法和遗传算法相结合满足具有计算量小和适应性强的特点。在给定机械手末端执行器的运动轨迹,按着机械手冗余自由度,运动轨迹上每个点对应的关节角有无穷多个解。而通过算法可以找到一组最优的关节角,可得到优化机械手运动过程中柔顺性和避障点。仿真结果表明,该算法可以快速收敛到全局最优解,可用于计算冗余机械手运动学逆解,并可实现机器人的轨迹规划和避障优化控制。     

机器人的CP-nets优化类人轨迹规划

机器人移动轨迹按照人的手臂来模拟是提高机器人安全性和人机交互能力的有效方法,特别是针对机器人抓取路径不唯一的场合,类人行为对于人机系统表现更加自然。此前,通常利用Kinect等设备,基于人工神经网络和K近邻算法等智能算法对类人轨迹进行规划,但无法获得未采样过的最优轨迹。本文基于CP-nets采用偏好模型研究类人运动轨迹,然后将该模型应用于机器人控制,在没有采样的情况下,也可得到最优的类人轨迹。实验结果表明,基于CP-nets 的类人规划轨迹具有较高的效率和舒适性,符合人的运动特征。     

An efficient motion generation method for redundant humanoid robot arms based on motion continuity

This paper proposes a novel method of motion generation for redundant humanoid robot arms, which can efficiently generate continuous collision-free arm motion for the preplanned hand trajectory. The proposed method generates the whole arm motion first and then computes the actuators’ motion, which is different from IK (inverse kinematics)-based motion generation methods. Based on the geometric constraints of the preplanned trajectory and the geometric structure of humanoid robot arms, the wrist trajectory and elbow trajectory can be got first without solving inverse kinematics and forward kinematics. Meanwhile, the constraints restrict all feasible arm configurations to an elbow-circle and reduce the arm configuration space to a two-dimension space. By combining the configuration space and collision distribution of arm motion, collision-free arm configurations can be identified and be used to generate collision-free arm motion, which can avoid unnecessary forward and inverse kinematics. The experiments show that the proposed method can generate continuous and collision-free arm motion for preplanned hand trajectories.     

基于改进天牛须算法的电力攀爬机器人运动学逆解算法

为了提高电力系统的自动化水平,减轻电力工人在检修高压输电系统时的劳动强度,同时保障电力工人人身安全,提出并设计一种可以攀爬电力铁塔的六自由度关节式机器人,针对该构型进行运动学分析和求解.为解决传统的解析法用于机械臂逆运动学求解过程中存在操作繁琐和奇异点无法逆运算等问题,提出一种基于改进天牛须算法的电力攀爬机器人运动学逆解算法.首先,对电力攀爬机器人进行DH建模,得到正运动学方程;然后,使用正运动学方程和目标位姿建立代价函数,采用改进天牛须算法对代价函数优化;最后,使用Matlab实现此算法进行仿真验证.实验结果表明,与传统的天牛须算法、改进遗传算法以及改进粒子群算法相比,所提出算法具有较好的收敛性,求解精度较高.     

Learnt inverse kinematics for animation synthesis

Existing work on animation synthesis can be roughly split into two approaches, those that combine segments of motion-capture data, and those that perform inverse kinematics. In this paper, we present a method for performing animation synthesis of an articulated object (e.g. human body and a dog) from a minimal set of body joint positions, following the approach of inverse kinematics. We tackle this problem from a learning perspective. Firstly, we address the need for knowledge on the physical constraints of the articulated body, so as to avoid the generation of a physically impossible poses. A common solution is to heuristically specify the kinematic constraints for the skeleton model. In this paper however, the physical constraints of the articulated body are represented using a hierarchical cluster model learnt from a motion capture database. Additionally, we shall show that the learnt model automatically captures the correlation between different joints through simultaneous modelling of their angles. We then show how this model can be utilised to perform inverse kinematics in a simple and efficient manner. Crucially, we describe how IK is carried out from a minimal set of end-effector positions. Following this, we show how this “learnt inverse kinematics” framework can be used to perform animation syntheses on different types of articulated structures. To this end, the results presented include the retargeting of a flat surface walking animation to various uneven terrains to demonstrate the synthesis of a full human body motion from the positions of only the hands, feet and torso. Additionally, we show how the same method can be applied to the animation synthesis of a dog using only its feet and torso positions.     

Automated polishing of an unknown three-dimensional surface

An automatic system for polishing an unknown three-dimensional surface using a passively compliant end-effector mounted on the wrist of an industrial robot is described. As polishing proceeds, the end-effector uses position sensors to measure the misalignment of the robot's wrist from the local surface normal. A personal computer is used to acquire sensory data, to compute the desired configuration of the robot wrist, and to control the robot in a point-to-point mode. Low bandwidth point-to-point control is possible because of the passive compliant movement of the end-effector. Contact with the work surface can be maintained within an angular range of ±8° and a ±10 mm range of normal translational movement. Experimental performance tests show that the polishing system can function well under a variety of working conditions.     

Kinematic calibration of modular reconfigurable robots using product-of-exponentials formula

A modular reconfigurable robot system is a collection of individual link and joint components that can be assembled into different robot geometries for specific task requirements. However, the machining tolerance and assembly errors at the module interconnections affect the positioning accuracy of the end-effector. This article describes a novel kinematic calibration algorithm for modular robots based on recursive forward dyad kinematics. The forward kinematic model derived from the Product-of-Exponentials formula is configuration independent. The error correction parameters are assumed to be in the relative initial positions of the dyads. Two calibration models, namely the six- and seven-parameter methods, are derived on the grounds of the linear superposition principle and differential transformation. An iterative least square algorithm is employed for the calibration solution. Two simulation examples of calibrating a three-module manipulator and a 4-DOF SCARA type manipulator are demonstrated. The result has shown that the average positioning accuracy of the end-effector increases two orders of magnitude after the calibration. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

基于SimMechanics的三自由度并联机器人仿真

Delta型机器人是一种三自由度纯平动并联机构,介绍了应用Simulink的SimMechanics模块集对Delta平台进行仿真研究的方法。运用SimMechanics模块对并联机器人进行建模,并根据机构的几何特性建立运动学逆解求取模块,给出动平台规划运动轨迹,通过运动学逆解求取模块生成机构驱动轴输入运动信号,对机构模型进行运动仿真。仿真结果表明,所建立的机械模型和逆解求取模块以及轨迹跟踪都符合实际系统特性,仿真方法高效、实用。     

Optimal robot placement with consideration of redundancy problem for wrist-partitioned 6R articulated robots

Rapid set-up of robotic system is critical for realising the high-mix low-volume applications. This paper presents an efficient method to determine the optimal robot base placement for executing required end-effector trajectories while dealing with redundancy problem for wrist-partitioned 6 R articulated robots. The main feature of the method includes the integration of two multi-objectives optimization loops that involve parameterized inverse kinematics of the robot to find the proper robot configurations. Firstly, an optimization scheme is introduced in consideration of all the robot and operational constraints including reachability, singularity avoidance, and collision avoidance. Then, a redundancy resolution scheme is proposed based on a modified particle swarm optimization (MPSO) for the considered target point. Consequently, the optimal robot base placement is obtained via another optimization loop which includes all robot trajectories for the application. The method was applied in a complex robotic welding application. For a set of desired welding torch trajectories on the workpiece, the optimal robot base placement is computed within a few minutes.     

约束条件下的巡线机器人逆运动学求解

高压输电线路巡检机器人是一种多关节悬挂运动机构,要实现其运动控制就需要根据机器人的本身机构特点和悬挂系统的运动约束条件进行运动学分析.本文利用微分扭转法对巡线机器人的正向运动学进行了求解,并通过对机器人悬挂系统的力学分析,得到了机器人运动学的约束条件,并在这种约束条件下,采用了一种可用来进行实时控制的迭代循环坐标下降(CCD)算法,来进行机器人的逆运动学求解.这种迭代算法对于有运动约束系统的逆运动学求解具有较强的适用性,而且它具有较好的收敛性和有效性,适合于在线计算,便于巡线机器人的实时运动控制.     

Comparison of RBF and MLP neural networks to solve inverse kinematic problem for 6R serial robot by a fusion approach

In this paper, a fusion approach to determine inverse kinematics solutions of a six degree of freedom serial robot is proposed. The proposed approach makes use of radial basis function neural network for prediction of incremental joint angles which in turn are transformed into absolute joint angles with the assistance of forward kinematics relations. In this approach, forward kinematics relations of robot are used to obtain the data for training of neural network as well to estimate the deviation of predicted inverse kinematics solution from the desired solution. The effectiveness of the fusion process is shown by comparing the inverse kinematics solutions obtained for an end-effector of industrial robot moving along a specified path with the solutions obtained from conventional neural network approaches as well as iterative technique. The prominent features of the fusion process include the accurate prediction of inverse kinematics solutions with less computational time apart from the generation of training data for neural network with forward kinematics relations of the robot.