Artificial neural networks for coordination and control: The portability of experiential representations

It is time to locate connectionist representation theory in the new wave of robotics research. The utility of representations developed in artificial neural networks (ANNs) during learning has been demonstrated in cognitive science research since the 1980s. The research reported here puts learned representations to work in a decentered control task, the disembodied arm problem, in which a mobile robot operates an arm fixed to a table to pick up objects. There is no physical linkage between the arm and the robot and so the robot's point of view must be decentered. This is done by developing a modular Artificial Neural Net system in three stages: (i) a classifier net is trained with laser scan data to output transformationally invariant position classes; (ii) an arm net is trained for picking up objects; (iii) an inter net is trained to communicate and coordinate the sensing and acting. The completed system is shown to create new nonsymbolic transformationally invariant representations in order to perform the effective generalization of decentered viewpoints.     

Theoretical Investigation of Time Suboptimal Control of Industrial Manipulators Along Specified Paths

A method for the time suboptimal control of an industrial manipulator from an initial position and orientation to a final position and orientation as it moves along a specified path is proposed. Nonlinear system equations that describe the manipulator motion are linearized at each time step along the path. A method which gives the control inputs (joint angular velocities) for time suboptimal control of the manipulator is developed. In the formulation, joint angular velocity and acceleration limitations are also taken into consideration. A six degree of freedom elbow type manipulator is used in numerical examples to verify the method developed.     

基于栅格法-模拟退火法的机器人路径规划

路径规划是机器人技术中的重要组成部分,分全局路径规划和局部路径规划。本文将栅格法与模拟退火法结合,采用栅格法表示环境信息。局部路径规划主要基于模拟退火法,使路径跳出局部极小点,到达目标位置。     

BIMORPH PIEZOELECTRIC ACTUATOR FOR SMALL PIPE ROBOT

An experimental bimorph piezoelectric element (PZT) actuator for small pipe robot is developed. The robot can move in φ20 mm pipe, and can carry a CCD camera for detecting cracks or fine holes on inner surface of pipe. The velocity of the robot can reach 17～22 mm/s for vertical pipe up/down, respectively. Moving principle and its performance characteristics are presented.     

Insulating safety analysis of the hot-line sweeping robot

This paper presents a method of calculating the insulating safety distances for hot-line working robots at high voltage when dielectric is adulterated with conducts. Also, finite element method is adopted to calculate the electric field strength to find whether it is beyond the critical. The above methods have been applied to analyze the insulating safety of the robot for hot-line sweeping post insulators in a 220 KV substation. They have also been testified by experimentations.     

Self-calibration based on invariant view recognition: Dynamic approach to navigation

We extend a dynamic approach of behavior generation to the representation of spatial information. Two levels of dynamics integrate dead-reckoning, dominant far from home bases, and piloting, dominant near home bases. When the view-based piloting system recognizes a home base, visual place information recalibrates the dead-reckoning system, inverting the hierarchical ordering of the two dynamic levels by time scale inversion. Reference views taken at discrete home bases are recognized invariantly under rotation of views. This process yields compass information. Continuous translational information is obtained as a neural place representation built from view correlations with a scattered set of local views. This self-calibrating cognitive map couples into a dynamics of heading direction integrating the behaviors of obstacle avoidance and target acquisition. Targets can be designated in terms of the cognitive map. We demonstrate the dynamical model in simulation.     

基于专家系统的机器人高层规划

本文介绍一个基于专家系统的机器人高层规划系统,阐述几个潜在应用子系统,并应用专家系统方法进行多机器人协调避碰运动规划。本系统具有良好的规划性能。     

Development and implementation of a NURBS curve motion interpolator

This paper deals with the issues of development and implementation of a real-time NURBS interpolator for a six-axis robot. Using an open-architecture controller system as a testbed, a real-time NURBS curve interpolator was developed, implemented and tested. Sample runs were conducted with the resulting trajectories measured in real-time during robot motion. The resulting trajectories are analyzed, discussed and compared with those from a commonly used point-to-point approximation technique. The real-time NURBS curve interpolator's feasibility, advantages and related issues are also discussed.     

Two years of operational use of Subpixel Automatic Navigation of AVHRR scheme: accuracy assessment and validation

Automated techniques for satellite imagery navigation and co-location are especially required for environmental monitoring activities intensively using satellite data. In this work are presented the results obtained after 2 years of operational use of the Subpixel Automatic Navigation of AVHRR (SANA) scheme. An automatic method for accuracy assessment of satellite navigation techniques, which permits a preliminary evaluation of their performances, dealing with a large collection of test images is also proposed. The navigation accuracy assessment, performed by using a selection of small islands as reference points, is discussed.Results achieved over more than 400 Advanced Very-High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) scenes confirm that the SANA scheme is a very accurate one (computed mean navigation error is generally about one AVHRR pixel). Furthermore, because of its high processing speed, it can be considered a suitable tool for intensive satellite data processing in multitemporal analyses, especially required for environmental studies as well as for operational monitoring purposes.     

万顷沙西十三涌油轮码头模型试验研究

华隆公司拟在万顷沙西十二涌与十三涌之间兴十三涌３０００Ｔ级油轮港口码头。本文分析了该河段水文泥沙的特性、河道演变趋势及河段稳定性，通过物理模型试验研究及对航道、港池的回淤计算分析，预测工程建成后引起局部水流流态的变化，对水道泄洪、潮排、潮灌的影响，以及港池、航道建成后的泥沙淤积情况。