Mobile robot trajectory tracking using noisy RSS measurements: an RFID approach.

PubMed

Miah, M Suruz; Gueaieb, Wail

2014-03-01

Most RF beacons-based mobile robot navigation techniques rely on approximating line-of-sight (LOS) distances between the beacons and the robot. This is mostly performed using the robot's received signal strength (RSS) measurements from the beacons. However, accurate mapping between the RSS measurements and the LOS distance is almost impossible to achieve in reverberant environments. This paper presents a partially-observed feedback controller for a wheeled mobile robot where the feedback signal is in the form of noisy RSS measurements emitted from radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. The proposed controller requires neither an accurate mapping between the LOS distance and the RSS measurements, nor the linearization of the robot model. The controller performance is demonstrated through numerical simulations and real-time experiments. ©2013 Published by ISA. All rights reserved.

Trial Development of a Mobile Feeding Assistive Robotic Arm for People with Physical Disabilities of the Extremities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Uehara, Hideyuki; Higa, Hiroki; Soken, Takashi; Namihira, Yoshinori

A mobile feeding assistive robotic arm for people with physical disabilities of the extremities has been developed in this paper. This system is composed of a robotic arm, microcontroller, and its interface. The main unit of the robotic arm can be contained in a laptop computer's briefcase. Its weight is 5kg, including two 12-V lead acid rechargeable batteries. This robotic arm can be also mounted on a wheelchair. To verify performance of the mobile robotic arm system, drinking tea task was experimentally performed by two able-bodied subjects as well as three persons suffering from muscular dystrophy. From the experimental results, it was clear that they could smoothly carry out the drinking task, and that the robotic arm could firmly grasp a commercially available 500-ml plastic bottle. The eating task was also performed by the two able-bodied subjects. The experimental results showed that they could eat porridge by using a spoon without any difficulty.

Numerical evaluation of mobile robot navigation in static indoor environment via EGAOR Iteration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dahalan, A. A.; Saudi, A.; Sulaiman, J.; Din, W. R. W.

2017-09-01

One of the key issues in mobile robot navigation is the ability for the robot to move from an arbitrary start location to a specified goal location without colliding with any obstacles while traveling, also known as mobile robot path planning problem. In this paper, however, we examined the performance of a robust searching algorithm that relies on the use of harmonic potentials of the environment to generate smooth and safe path for mobile robot navigation in a static known indoor environment. The harmonic potentials will be discretized by using Laplacian’s operator to form a system of algebraic approximation equations. This algebraic linear system will be computed via 4-Point Explicit Group Accelerated Over-Relaxation (4-EGAOR) iterative method for rapid computation. The performance of the proposed algorithm will then be compared and analyzed against the existing algorithms in terms of number of iterations and execution time. The result shows that the proposed algorithm performed better than the existing methods.

Advanced wireless mobile collaborative sensing network for tactical and strategic missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Hao

2017-05-01

In this paper, an advanced wireless mobile collaborative sensing network will be developed. Through properly combining wireless sensor network, emerging mobile robots and multi-antenna sensing/communication techniques, we could demonstrate superiority of developed sensing network. To be concrete, heterogeneous mobile robots including unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) are equipped with multi-model sensors and wireless transceiver antennas. Through real-time collaborative formation control, multiple mobile robots can team the best formation that can provide most accurate sensing results. Also, formatting multiple mobile robots can also construct a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system that can provide a reliable and high performance communication network.

Determining robot actions for tasks requiring sensor interaction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Budenske, John; Gini, Maria

1989-01-01

The performance of non-trivial tasks by a mobile robot has been a long term objective of robotic research. One of the major stumbling blocks to this goal is the conversion of the high-level planning goals and commands into the actuator and sensor processing controls. In order for a mobile robot to accomplish a non-trivial task, the task must be described in terms of primitive actions of the robot's actuators. Most non-trivial tasks require the robot to interact with its environment; thus necessitating coordination of sensor processing and actuator control to accomplish the task. The main contention is that the transformation from the high level description of the task to the primitive actions should be performed primarily at execution time, when knowledge about the environment can be obtained through sensors. It is proposed to produce the detailed plan of primitive actions by using a collection of low-level planning components that contain domain specific knowledge and knowledge about the available sensors, actuators, and sensor/actuator processing. This collection will perform signal and control processing as well as serve as a control interface between an actual mobile robot and a high-level planning system. Previous research has shown the usefulness of high-level planning systems to plan the coordination of activities such to achieve a goal, but none have been fully applied to actual mobile robots due to the complexity of interacting with sensors and actuators. This control interface is currently being implemented on a LABMATE mobile robot connected to a SUN workstation and will be developed such to enable the LABMATE to perform non-trivial, sensor-intensive tasks as specified by a planning system.

Multi Sensor Fusion Framework for Indoor-Outdoor Localization of Limited Resource Mobile Robots

PubMed Central

Marín, Leonardo; Vallés, Marina; Soriano, Ángel; Valera, Ángel; Albertos, Pedro

2013-01-01

This paper presents a sensor fusion framework that improves the localization of mobile robots with limited computational resources. It employs an event based Kalman Filter to combine the measurements of a global sensor and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) on an event based schedule, using fewer resources (execution time and bandwidth) but with similar performance when compared to the traditional methods. The event is defined to reflect the necessity of the global information, when the estimation error covariance exceeds a predefined limit. The proposed experimental platforms are based on the LEGO Mindstorm NXT, and consist of a differential wheel mobile robot navigating indoors with a zenithal camera as global sensor, and an Ackermann steering mobile robot navigating outdoors with a SBG Systems GPS accessed through an IGEP board that also serves as datalogger. The IMU in both robots is built using the NXT motor encoders along with one gyroscope, one compass and two accelerometers from Hitecnic, placed according to a particle based dynamic model of the robots. The tests performed reflect the correct performance and low execution time of the proposed framework. The robustness and stability is observed during a long walk test in both indoors and outdoors environments. PMID:24152933

Multi sensor fusion framework for indoor-outdoor localization of limited resource mobile robots.

PubMed

Marín, Leonardo; Vallés, Marina; Soriano, Ángel; Valera, Ángel; Albertos, Pedro

2013-10-21

This paper presents a sensor fusion framework that improves the localization of mobile robots with limited computational resources. It employs an event based Kalman Filter to combine the measurements of a global sensor and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) on an event based schedule, using fewer resources (execution time and bandwidth) but with similar performance when compared to the traditional methods. The event is defined to reflect the necessity of the global information, when the estimation error covariance exceeds a predefined limit. The proposed experimental platforms are based on the LEGO Mindstorm NXT, and consist of a differential wheel mobile robot navigating indoors with a zenithal camera as global sensor, and an Ackermann steering mobile robot navigating outdoors with a SBG Systems GPS accessed through an IGEP board that also serves as datalogger. The IMU in both robots is built using the NXT motor encoders along with one gyroscope, one compass and two accelerometers from Hitecnic, placed according to a particle based dynamic model of the robots. The tests performed reflect the correct performance and low execution time of the proposed framework. The robustness and stability is observed during a long walk test in both indoors and outdoors environments.

Multisensor-based human detection and tracking for mobile service robots.

PubMed

Bellotto, Nicola; Hu, Huosheng

2009-02-01

One of fundamental issues for service robots is human-robot interaction. In order to perform such a task and provide the desired services, these robots need to detect and track people in the surroundings. In this paper, we propose a solution for human tracking with a mobile robot that implements multisensor data fusion techniques. The system utilizes a new algorithm for laser-based leg detection using the onboard laser range finder (LRF). The approach is based on the recognition of typical leg patterns extracted from laser scans, which are shown to also be very discriminative in cluttered environments. These patterns can be used to localize both static and walking persons, even when the robot moves. Furthermore, faces are detected using the robot's camera, and the information is fused to the legs' position using a sequential implementation of unscented Kalman filter. The proposed solution is feasible for service robots with a similar device configuration and has been successfully implemented on two different mobile platforms. Several experiments illustrate the effectiveness of our approach, showing that robust human tracking can be performed within complex indoor environments.

Autonomous mobile robot teams

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Agah, Arvin; Bekey, George A.

1994-01-01

This paper describes autonomous mobile robot teams performing tasks in unstructured environments. The behavior and the intelligence of the group is distributed, and the system does not include a central command base or leader. The novel concept of the Tropism-Based Cognitive Architecture is introduced, which is used by the robots in order to produce behavior transforming their sensory information to proper action. The results of a number of simulation experiments are presented. These experiments include worlds where the robot teams must locate, decompose, and gather objects, and defend themselves against hostile predators, while navigating around stationary and mobile obstacles.

Mobile Robot Self-Localization by Matching Range Maps Using a Hausdorff Measure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Olson, C. F.

1997-01-01

This paper examines techniques for a mobile robot to perform self-localization in natural terrain by comparing a dense range map computed from stereo imagery to a range map in a known frame of reference.

Investigation of human-robot interface performance in household environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cremer, Sven; Mirza, Fahad; Tuladhar, Yathartha; Alonzo, Rommel; Hingeley, Anthony; Popa, Dan O.

2016-05-01

Today, assistive robots are being introduced into human environments at an increasing rate. Human environments are highly cluttered and dynamic, making it difficult to foresee all necessary capabilities and pre-program all desirable future skills of the robot. One approach to increase robot performance is semi-autonomous operation, allowing users to intervene and guide the robot through difficult tasks. To this end, robots need intuitive Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs) that support fine motion control without overwhelming the operator. In this study we evaluate the performance of several interfaces that balance autonomy and teleoperation of a mobile manipulator for accomplishing several household tasks. Our proposed HMI framework includes teleoperation devices such as a tablet, as well as physical interfaces in the form of piezoresistive pressure sensor arrays. Mobile manipulation experiments were performed with a sensorized KUKA youBot, an omnidirectional platform with a 5 degrees of freedom (DOF) arm. The pick and place tasks involved navigation and manipulation of objects in household environments. Performance metrics included time for task completion and position accuracy.

A Tree Based Self-routing Scheme for Mobility Support in Wireless Sensor Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Young-Duk; Yang, Yeon-Mo; Kang, Won-Seok; Kim, Jin-Wook; An, Jinung

Recently, WSNs (Wireless Sensor Networks) with mobile robot is a growing technology that offer efficient communication services for anytime and anywhere applications. However, the tiny sensor node has very limited network resources due to its low battery power, low data rate, node mobility, and channel interference constraint between neighbors. Thus, in this paper, we proposed a tree based self-routing protocol for autonomous mobile robots based on beacon mode and implemented in real test-bed environments. The proposed scheme offers beacon based real-time scheduling for reliable association process between parent and child nodes. In addition, it supports smooth handover procedure by reducing flooding overhead of control packets. Throughout the performance evaluation by using a real test-bed system and simulation, we illustrate that our proposed scheme demonstrates promising performance for wireless sensor networks with mobile robots.

Mobile robotics application in the nuclear industry

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jones, S.L.; White, J.R.

1995-03-01

Mobile robots have been developed to perform hazardous operations in place of human workers. Applications include nuclear plant inspection/maintenance, decontamination and decommissioning police/military explosive ordinance disposal (EOD), hostage/terrorist negotiations and fire fighting. Nuclear facilities have proven that robotic applications can be cost-effective solutions to reducing personnel exposure and plant downtime. The first applications of mobile robots in the nuclear industry began in the early 1980`s, with the first vehicles being one of a kind machines or adaptations of commercial EOD robots. These activities included efforts by numerous commercial companies, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, EPRI, and several national laboratories. Somemore » of these efforts were driven by the recovery and cleanup activities at TMI which demonstrated the potential and need for a remote means of performing surveillance and maintenance tasks in nuclear plants. The use of these machines is now becoming commonplace in nuclear facilities throughout the world. The hardware maturity and the confidence of the users has progressed to the point where the applications of mobile robots is not longer considered a novelty. These machines are being used in applications where the result is to help achieve more aggressive goals for personnel radiation exposure and plant availability, perform tasks more efficiently, and allow plant operators to retrieve information from areas previously considered inaccessible. Typical examples include surveillance in high radiation areas (during operation and outage activities), radiation surveys, waste handling, and decontamination evolutions. This paper will discuss this evolution including specific applications experiences, examples of currently available technology, and the benefits derived from the use of mobile robotic vehicles in commercial nuclear power facilities.« less

A hardware/software environment to support R D in intelligent machines and mobile robotic systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mann, R.C.

1990-01-01

The Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) serves as a focal point at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for basic and applied research in intelligent machines. R D at CESAR addresses issues related to autonomous systems, unstructured (i.e. incompletely known) operational environments, and multiple performing agents. Two mobile robot prototypes (HERMIES-IIB and HERMIES-III) are being used to test new developments in several robot component technologies. This paper briefly introduces the computing environment at CESAR which includes three hypercube concurrent computers (two on-board the mobile robots), a graphics workstation, VAX, and multiple VME-based systems (several on-board the mobile robots).more » The current software environment at CESAR is intended to satisfy several goals, e.g.: code portability, re-usability in different experimental scenarios, modularity, concurrent computer hardware transparent to applications programmer, future support for multiple mobile robots, support human-machine interface modules, and support for integration of software from other, geographically disparate laboratories with different hardware set-ups. 6 refs., 1 fig.« less

ALLIANCE: An architecture for fault tolerant, cooperative control of heterogeneous mobile robots

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Parker, L.E.

1995-02-01

This research addresses the problem of achieving fault tolerant cooperation within small- to medium-sized teams of heterogeneous mobile robots. The author describes a novel behavior-based, fully distributed architecture, called ALLIANCE, that utilizes adaptive action selection to achieve fault tolerant cooperative control in robot missions involving loosely coupled, largely independent tasks. The robots in this architecture possess a variety of high-level functions that they can perform during a mission, and must at all times select an appropriate action based on the requirements of the mission, the activities of other robots, the current environmental conditions, and their own internal states. Since suchmore » cooperative teams often work in dynamic and unpredictable environments, the software architecture allows the team members to respond robustly and reliably to unexpected environmental changes and modifications in the robot team that may occur due to mechanical failure, the learning of new skills, or the addition or removal of robots from the team by human intervention. After presenting ALLIANCE, the author describes in detail experimental results of an implementation of this architecture on a team of physical mobile robots performing a cooperative box pushing demonstration. These experiments illustrate the ability of ALLIANCE to achieve adaptive, fault-tolerant cooperative control amidst dynamic changes in the capabilities of the robot team.« less

Homography-based visual servo regulation of mobile robots.

PubMed

Fang, Yongchun; Dixon, Warren E; Dawson, Darren M; Chawda, Prakash

2005-10-01

A monocular camera-based vision system attached to a mobile robot (i.e., the camera-in-hand configuration) is considered in this paper. By comparing corresponding target points of an object from two different camera images, geometric relationships are exploited to derive a transformation that relates the actual position and orientation of the mobile robot to a reference position and orientation. This transformation is used to synthesize a rotation and translation error system from the current position and orientation to the fixed reference position and orientation. Lyapunov-based techniques are used to construct an adaptive estimate to compensate for a constant, unmeasurable depth parameter, and to prove asymptotic regulation of the mobile robot. The contribution of this paper is that Lyapunov techniques are exploited to craft an adaptive controller that enables mobile robot position and orientation regulation despite the lack of an object model and the lack of depth information. Experimental results are provided to illustrate the performance of the controller.

Cooperating mobile robots

DOEpatents

Harrington, John J.; Eskridge, Steven E.; Hurtado, John E.; Byrne, Raymond H.

2004-02-03

A miniature mobile robot provides a relatively inexpensive mobile robot. A mobile robot for searching an area provides a way for multiple mobile robots in cooperating teams. A robotic system with a team of mobile robots communicating information among each other provides a way to locate a source in cooperation. A mobile robot with a sensor, a communication system, and a processor, provides a way to execute a strategy for searching an area.

Automatic Operation For A Robot Lawn Mower

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Y. Y.; Cao, Z. L.; Oh, S. J.; Kattan, E. U.; Hall, E. L.

1987-02-01

A domestic mobile robot, lawn mower, which performs the automatic operation mode, has been built up in the Center of Robotics Research, University of Cincinnati. The robot lawn mower automatically completes its work with the region filling operation, a new kind of path planning for mobile robots. Some strategies for region filling of path planning have been developed for a partly-known or a unknown environment. Also, an advanced omnidirectional navigation system and a multisensor-based control system are used in the automatic operation. Research on the robot lawn mower, especially on the region filling of path planning, is significant in industrial and agricultural applications.

A PIC microcontroller-based system for real-life interfacing of external peripherals with a mobile robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, N. Nirmal; Chatterjee, Amitava; Rakshit, Anjan

2010-02-01

The present article describes the development of a peripheral interface controller (PIC) microcontroller-based system for interfacing external add-on peripherals with a real mobile robot, for real life applications. This system serves as an important building block of a complete integrated vision-based mobile robot system, integrated indigenously in our laboratory. The system is composed of the KOALA mobile robot in conjunction with a personal computer (PC) and a two-camera-based vision system where the PIC microcontroller is used to drive servo motors, in interrupt-driven mode, to control additional degrees of freedom of the vision system. The performance of the developed system is tested by checking it under the control of several user-specified commands, issued from the PC end.

Human-Robot Interface: Issues in Operator Performance, Interface Design, and Technologies

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-07-01

and the use of lightweight portable robotic sensor platforms. 5 robotics has reached a point where some generalities of HRI transcend specific...displays with control devices such as joysticks, wheels, and pedals (Kamsickas, 2003). Typical control stations include panels displaying (a) sensor ...tasks that do not involve mobility and usually involve camera control or data fusion from sensors Active search: Search tasks that involve mobility

Miniature surgical robot for laparoendoscopic single-incision colectomy.

PubMed

Wortman, Tyler D; Meyer, Avishai; Dolghi, Oleg; Lehman, Amy C; McCormick, Ryan L; Farritor, Shane M; Oleynikov, Dmitry

2012-03-01

This study aimed to demonstrate the effectiveness of using a multifunctional miniature in vivo robotic platform to perform a single-incision colectomy. Standard laparoscopic techniques require multiple ports. A miniature robotic platform to be inserted completely into the peritoneal cavity through a single incision has been designed and built. The robot can be quickly repositioned, thus enabling multiquadrant access to the abdominal cavity. The miniature in vivo robotic platform used in this study consists of a multifunctional robot and a remote surgeon interface. The robot is composed of two arms with shoulder and elbow joints. Each forearm is equipped with specialized interchangeable end effectors (i.e., graspers and monopolar electrocautery). Five robotic colectomies were performed in a porcine model. For each procedure, the robot was completely inserted into the peritoneal cavity, and the surgeon manipulated the user interface to control the robot to perform the colectomy. The robot mobilized the colon from its lateral retroperitoneal attachments and assisted in the placement of a standard stapler to transect the sigmoid colon. This objective was completed for all five colectomies without any complications. The adoption of both laparoscopic and single-incision colectomies currently is constrained by the inadequacies of existing instruments. The described multifunctional robot provides a platform that overcomes existing limitations by operating completely within one incision in the peritoneal cavity and by improving visualization and dexterity. By repositioning the small robot to the area of the colon to be mobilized, the ability of the surgeon to perform complex surgical tasks is improved. Furthermore, the success of the robot in performing a completely in vivo colectomy suggests the feasibility of using this robotic platform to perform other complex surgeries through a single incision.

Tank-automotive robotics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lane, Gerald R.

1999-07-01

To provide an overview of Tank-Automotive Robotics. The briefing will contain program overviews & inter-relationships and technology challenges of TARDEC managed unmanned and robotic ground vehicle programs. Specific emphasis will focus on technology developments/approaches to achieve semi- autonomous operation and inherent chassis mobility features. Programs to be discussed include: DemoIII Experimental Unmanned Vehicle (XUV), Tactical Mobile Robotics (TMR), Intelligent Mobility, Commanders Driver Testbed, Collision Avoidance, International Ground Robotics Competition (ICGRC). Specifically, the paper will discuss unique exterior/outdoor challenges facing the IGRC competing teams and the synergy created between the IGRC and ongoing DoD semi-autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicle and DoT Intelligent Transportation System programs. Sensor and chassis approaches to meet the IGRC challenges and obstacles will be shown and discussed. Shortfalls in performance to meet the IGRC challenges will be identified.

Real-time optical flow estimation on a GPU for a skied-steered mobile robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kniaz, V. V.

2016-04-01

Accurate egomotion estimation is required for mobile robot navigation. Often the egomotion is estimated using optical flow algorithms. For an accurate estimation of optical flow most of modern algorithms require high memory resources and processor speed. However simple single-board computers that control the motion of the robot usually do not provide such resources. On the other hand, most of modern single-board computers are equipped with an embedded GPU that could be used in parallel with a CPU to improve the performance of the optical flow estimation algorithm. This paper presents a new Z-flow algorithm for efficient computation of an optical flow using an embedded GPU. The algorithm is based on the phase correlation optical flow estimation and provide a real-time performance on a low cost embedded GPU. The layered optical flow model is used. Layer segmentation is performed using graph-cut algorithm with a time derivative based energy function. Such approach makes the algorithm both fast and robust in low light and low texture conditions. The algorithm implementation for a Raspberry Pi Model B computer is discussed. For evaluation of the algorithm the computer was mounted on a Hercules mobile skied-steered robot equipped with a monocular camera. The evaluation was performed using a hardware-in-the-loop simulation and experiments with Hercules mobile robot. Also the algorithm was evaluated using KITTY Optical Flow 2015 dataset. The resulting endpoint error of the optical flow calculated with the developed algorithm was low enough for navigation of the robot along the desired trajectory.

Using insects to drive mobile robots - hybrid robots bridge the gap between biological and artificial systems.

PubMed

Ando, Noriyasu; Kanzaki, Ryohei

2017-09-01

The use of mobile robots is an effective method of validating sensory-motor models of animals in a real environment. The well-identified insect sensory-motor systems have been the major targets for modeling. Furthermore, mobile robots implemented with such insect models attract engineers who aim to avail advantages from organisms. However, directly comparing the robots with real insects is still difficult, even if we successfully model the biological systems, because of the physical differences between them. We developed a hybrid robot to bridge the gap. This hybrid robot is an insect-controlled robot, in which a tethered male silkmoth (Bombyx mori) drives the robot in order to localize an odor source. This robot has the following three advantages: 1) from a biomimetic perspective, the robot enables us to evaluate the potential performance of future insect-mimetic robots; 2) from a biological perspective, the robot enables us to manipulate the closed-loop of an onboard insect for further understanding of its sensory-motor system; and 3) the robot enables comparison with insect models as a reference biological system. In this paper, we review the recent works regarding insect-controlled robots and discuss the significance for both engineering and biology. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mapping of unknown industrial plant using ROS-based navigation mobile robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Priyandoko, G.; Ming, T. Y.; Achmad, M. S. H.

2017-10-01

This research examines how humans work with teleoperated unmanned mobile robot inspection in industrial plant area resulting 2D/3D map for further critical evaluation. This experiment focuses on two parts, the way human-robot doing remote interactions using robust method and the way robot perceives the environment surround as a 2D/3D perspective map. ROS (robot operating system) as a tool was utilized in the development and implementation during the research which comes up with robust data communication method in the form of messages and topics. RGBD SLAM performs the visual mapping function to construct 2D/3D map using Kinect sensor. The results showed that the mobile robot-based teleoperated system are successful to extend human perspective in term of remote surveillance in large area of industrial plant. It was concluded that the proposed work is robust solution for large mapping within an unknown construction building.

Front and Back Movement Analysis of a Triangle-Structured Three-Wheeled Omnidirectional Mobile Robot by Varying the Angles between Two Selected Wheels

PubMed Central

Mohanraj, A. P.; Elango, A.; Reddy, Mutra Chanakya

2016-01-01

Omnidirectional robots can move in all directions without steering their wheels and it can rotate clockwise and counterclockwise with reference to their axis. In this paper, we focused only on front and back movement, to analyse the square- and triangle-structured omnidirectional robot movements. An omnidirectional mobile robot shows different performances with the different number of wheels and the omnidirectional mobile robot's chassis design. Research is going on in this field to improve the accurate movement capability of omnidirectional mobile robots. This paper presents a design of a unique device of Angle Variable Chassis (AVC) for linear movement analysis of a three-wheeled omnidirectional mobile robot (TWOMR), at various angles (θ) between the wheels. Basic mobility algorithm is developed by varying the angles between the two selected omnidirectional wheels in TWOMR. The experiment is carried out by varying the angles (θ = 30°, 45°, 60°, 90°, and 120°) between the two selected omniwheels and analysing the movement of TWOMR in forward direction and reverse direction on a smooth cement surface. Respectively, it is compared to itself for various angles (θ), to get its advantages and weaknesses. The conclusion of the paper provides effective movement of TWOMR at a particular angle (θ) and also the application of TWOMR in different situations. PMID:26981585

Front and Back Movement Analysis of a Triangle-Structured Three-Wheeled Omnidirectional Mobile Robot by Varying the Angles between Two Selected Wheels.

PubMed

Mohanraj, A P; Elango, A; Reddy, Mutra Chanakya

2016-01-01

Omnidirectional robots can move in all directions without steering their wheels and it can rotate clockwise and counterclockwise with reference to their axis. In this paper, we focused only on front and back movement, to analyse the square- and triangle-structured omnidirectional robot movements. An omnidirectional mobile robot shows different performances with the different number of wheels and the omnidirectional mobile robot's chassis design. Research is going on in this field to improve the accurate movement capability of omnidirectional mobile robots. This paper presents a design of a unique device of Angle Variable Chassis (AVC) for linear movement analysis of a three-wheeled omnidirectional mobile robot (TWOMR), at various angles (θ) between the wheels. Basic mobility algorithm is developed by varying the angles between the two selected omnidirectional wheels in TWOMR. The experiment is carried out by varying the angles (θ = 30°, 45°, 60°, 90°, and 120°) between the two selected omniwheels and analysing the movement of TWOMR in forward direction and reverse direction on a smooth cement surface. Respectively, it is compared to itself for various angles (θ), to get its advantages and weaknesses. The conclusion of the paper provides effective movement of TWOMR at a particular angle (θ) and also the application of TWOMR in different situations.

Energy efficiency of mobile soft robots.

PubMed

Shui, Langquan; Zhu, Liangliang; Yang, Zhe; Liu, Yilun; Chen, Xi

2017-11-15

The performance of mobile soft robots is usually characterized by their locomotion/velocity efficiency, whereas the energy efficiency is a more intrinsic and fundamental criterion for the performance evaluation of independent or integrated soft robots. In this work, a general framework is established to evaluate the energy efficiency of mobile soft robots by considering the efficiency of the energy source, actuator and locomotion, and some insights for improving the efficiency of soft robotic systems are presented. Proposed as the ratio of the desired locomotion kinetic energy to the input mechanical energy, the energy efficiency of locomotion is found to play a critical role in determining the overall energy efficiency of soft robots. Four key factors related to the locomotion energy efficiency are identified, that is, the locomotion modes, material properties, geometric sizes, and actuation states. It is found that the energy efficiency of most mobile soft robots reported in the literature is surprisingly low (mostly below 0.1%), due to the inefficient mechanical energy that essentially does not contribute to the desired locomotion. A comparison of the locomotion energy efficiency for several representative locomotion modes in the literature is presented, showing a descending ranking as: jumping ≫ fish-like swimming > snake-like slithering > rolling > rising/turning over > inchworm-like inching > quadruped gait > earthworm-like squirming. Besides, considering the same locomotion mode, soft robots with lower stiffness, higher density and larger size tend to have higher locomotion energy efficiency. Moreover, a periodic pulse actuation instead of a continuous actuation mode may significantly reduce the input mechanical energy, thus improving the locomotion energy efficiency, especially when the pulse actuation matches the resonant states of the soft robots. The results presented herein indicate a large and necessary space for improving the locomotion energy efficiency, which is of practical significance for the future development and application of soft robots.

Intelligent robot control using an adaptive critic with a task control center and dynamic database

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hall, E. L.; Ghaffari, M.; Liao, X.; Alhaj Ali, S. M.

2006-10-01

The purpose of this paper is to describe the design, development and simulation of a real time controller for an intelligent, vision guided robot. The use of a creative controller that can select its own tasks is demonstrated. This creative controller uses a task control center and dynamic database. The dynamic database stores both global environmental information and local information including the kinematic and dynamic models of the intelligent robot. The kinematic model is very useful for position control and simulations. However, models of the dynamics of the manipulators are needed for tracking control of the robot's motions. Such models are also necessary for sizing the actuators, tuning the controller, and achieving superior performance. Simulations of various control designs are shown. Also, much of the model has also been used for the actual prototype Bearcat Cub mobile robot. This vision guided robot was designed for the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Contest. A novel feature of the proposed approach is that the method is applicable to both robot arm manipulators and robot bases such as wheeled mobile robots. This generality should encourage the development of more mobile robots with manipulator capability since both models can be easily stored in the dynamic database. The multi task controller also permits wide applications. The use of manipulators and mobile bases with a high-level control are potentially useful for space exploration, certain rescue robots, defense robots, and medical robotics aids.

Classification of Odours for Mobile Robots Using an Ensemble of Linear Classifiers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trincavelli, Marco; Coradeschi, Silvia; Loutfi, Amy

2009-05-01

This paper investigates the classification of odours using an electronic nose mounted on a mobile robot. The samples are collected as the robot explores the environment. Under such conditions, the sensor response differs from typical three phase sampling processes. In this paper, we focus particularly on the classification problem and how it is influenced by the movement of the robot. To cope with these influences, an algorithm consisting of an ensemble of classifiers is presented. Experimental results show that this algorithm increases classification performance compared to other traditional classification methods.

Automation for nondestructive inspection of aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Siegel, M. W.

1994-01-01

We discuss the motivation and an architectural framework for using small mobile robots as automated aids to operators of nondestructive inspection (NDI) equipment. We review the need for aircraft skin inspection, and identify the constraints in commercial airlines operations that make small mobile robots the most attractive alternative for automated aids for NDI procedures. We describe the design and performance of the robot (ANDI) that we designed, built, and are testing for deployment of eddy current probes in prescribed commercial aircraft inspections. We discuss recent work aimed at also providing robotic aids for visual inspection.

Sensor Fusion Based Model for Collision Free Mobile Robot Navigation.

PubMed

Almasri, Marwah; Elleithy, Khaled; Alajlan, Abrar

2015-12-26

Autonomous mobile robots have become a very popular and interesting topic in the last decade. Each of them are equipped with various types of sensors such as GPS, camera, infrared and ultrasonic sensors. These sensors are used to observe the surrounding environment. However, these sensors sometimes fail and have inaccurate readings. Therefore, the integration of sensor fusion will help to solve this dilemma and enhance the overall performance. This paper presents a collision free mobile robot navigation based on the fuzzy logic fusion model. Eight distance sensors and a range finder camera are used for the collision avoidance approach where three ground sensors are used for the line or path following approach. The fuzzy system is composed of nine inputs which are the eight distance sensors and the camera, two outputs which are the left and right velocities of the mobile robot's wheels, and 24 fuzzy rules for the robot's movement. Webots Pro simulator is used for modeling the environment and the robot. The proposed methodology, which includes the collision avoidance based on fuzzy logic fusion model and line following robot, has been implemented and tested through simulation and real time experiments. Various scenarios have been presented with static and dynamic obstacles using one robot and two robots while avoiding obstacles in different shapes and sizes.

Trajectory planning and optimal tracking for an industrial mobile robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Huosheng; Brady, J. Michael; Probert, Penelope J.

1994-02-01

This paper introduces a unified approach to trajectory planning and tracking for an industrial mobile robot subject to non-holonomic constraints. We show (1) how a smooth trajectory is generated that takes into account the constraints from the dynamic environment and the robot kinematics; and (2) how a general predictive controller works to provide optimal tracking capability for nonlinear systems. The tracking performance of the proposed guidance system is analyzed by simulation.

Development of dog-like retrieving capability in a ground robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

MacKenzie, Douglas C.; Ashok, Rahul; Rehg, James M.; Witus, Gary

2013-01-01

This paper presents the Mobile Intelligence Team's approach to addressing the CANINE outdoor ground robot competition. The competition required developing a robot that provided retrieving capabilities similar to a dog, while operating fully autonomously in unstructured environments. The vision team consisted of Mobile Intelligence, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Wayne State University. Important computer vision aspects of the project were the ability to quickly learn the distinguishing characteristics of novel objects, searching images for the object as the robot drove a search pattern, identifying people near the robot for safe operations, correctly identify the object among distractors, and localizing the object for retrieval. The classifier used to identify the objects will be discussed, including an analysis of its performance, and an overview of the entire system architecture presented. A discussion of the robot's performance in the competition will demonstrate the system's successes in real-world testing.

The Challenge of Planning and Execution for Spacecraft Mobile Robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dorais, Gregory A.; Gawdiak, Yuri; Clancy, Daniel (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

The need for spacecraft mobile robots continues to grow. These robots offer the potential to increase the capability, productivity, and duration of space missions while decreasing mission risk and cost. Spacecraft Mobile Robots (SMRs) can serve a number of functions inside and outside of spacecraft from simpler tasks, such as performing visual diagnostics and crew support, to more complex tasks, such as performing maintenance and in-situ construction. One of the predominant challenges to deploying SMRs is to reduce the need for direct operator interaction. Teleoperation is often not practical due to the communication latencies incurred because of the distances involved and in many cases a crewmember would directly perform a task rather than teleoperate a robot to do it. By integrating a mixed-initiative constraint-based planner with an executive that supports adjustably autonomous control, we intend to demonstrate the feasibility of autonomous SMRs by deploying one inside the International Space Station (ISS) and demonstrate in simulation one that operates outside of the ISS. This paper discusses the progress made at NASA towards this end, the challenges ahead, and concludes with an invitation to the research community to participate.

Distributed and Modular CAN-Based Architecture for Hardware Control and Sensor Data Integration

PubMed Central

Losada, Diego P.; Fernández, Joaquín L.; Paz, Enrique; Sanz, Rafael

2017-01-01

In this article, we present a CAN-based (Controller Area Network) distributed system to integrate sensors, actuators and hardware controllers in a mobile robot platform. With this work, we provide a robust, simple, flexible and open system to make hardware elements or subsystems communicate, that can be applied to different robots or mobile platforms. Hardware modules can be connected to or disconnected from the CAN bus while the system is working. It has been tested in our mobile robot Rato, based on a RWI (Real World Interface) mobile platform, to replace the old sensor and motor controllers. It has also been used in the design of two new robots: BellBot and WatchBot. Currently, our hardware integration architecture supports different sensors, actuators and control subsystems, such as motor controllers and inertial measurement units. The integration architecture was tested and compared with other solutions through a performance analysis of relevant parameters such as transmission efficiency and bandwidth usage. The results conclude that the proposed solution implements a lightweight communication protocol for mobile robot applications that avoids transmission delays and overhead. PMID:28467381

Distributed and Modular CAN-Based Architecture for Hardware Control and Sensor Data Integration.

PubMed

Losada, Diego P; Fernández, Joaquín L; Paz, Enrique; Sanz, Rafael

2017-05-03

In this article, we present a CAN-based (Controller Area Network) distributed system to integrate sensors, actuators and hardware controllers in a mobile robot platform. With this work, we provide a robust, simple, flexible and open system to make hardware elements or subsystems communicate, that can be applied to different robots or mobile platforms. Hardware modules can be connected to or disconnected from the CAN bus while the system is working. It has been tested in our mobile robot Rato, based on a RWI (Real World Interface) mobile platform, to replace the old sensor and motor controllers. It has also been used in the design of two new robots: BellBot and WatchBot. Currently, our hardware integration architecture supports different sensors, actuators and control subsystems, such as motor controllers and inertial measurement units. The integration architecture was tested and compared with other solutions through a performance analysis of relevant parameters such as transmission efficiency and bandwidth usage. The results conclude that the proposed solution implements a lightweight communication protocol for mobile robot applications that avoids transmission delays and overhead.

RoboJockey: Designing an Entertainment Experience with Robots.

PubMed

Yoshida, Shigeo; Shirokura, Takumi; Sugiura, Yuta; Sakamoto, Daisuke; Ono, Tetsuo; Inami, Masahiko; Igarashi, Takeo

2016-01-01

The RoboJockey entertainment system consists of a multitouch tabletop interface for multiuser collaboration. RoboJockey enables a user to choreograph a mobile robot or a humanoid robot by using a simple visual language. With RoboJockey, a user can coordinate the mobile robot's actions with a combination of back, forward, and rotating movements and coordinate the humanoid robot's actions with a combination of arm and leg movements. Every action is automatically performed to background music. RoboJockey was demonstrated to the public during two pilot studies, and the authors observed users' behavior. Here, they report the results of their observations and discuss the RoboJockey entertainment experience.

Global Output-Feedback Control for Simultaneous Tracking and Stabilization of Wheeled Mobile Robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, J.; Zhang, L. J.; Xue, D.

A time-varying global output-feedback controller is presented that solves both tracking and stabilization for wheeled mobile robots simultaneously at the torque level. The controller synthesis is based on a coordinate transformation, Lyapunov direct method and backstepping technique. The performance of the proposed controller is demonstrated by simulation.

Analyzing Cyber-Physical Threats on Robotic Platforms.

PubMed

Ahmad Yousef, Khalil M; AlMajali, Anas; Ghalyon, Salah Abu; Dweik, Waleed; Mohd, Bassam J

2018-05-21

Robots are increasingly involved in our daily lives. Fundamental to robots are the communication link (or stream) and the applications that connect the robots to their clients or users. Such communication link and applications are usually supported through client/server network connection. This networking system is amenable of being attacked and vulnerable to the security threats. Ensuring security and privacy for robotic platforms is thus critical, as failures and attacks could have devastating consequences. In this paper, we examine several cyber-physical security threats that are unique to the robotic platforms; specifically the communication link and the applications. Threats target integrity, availability and confidential security requirements of the robotic platforms, which use MobileEyes/arnlServer client/server applications. A robot attack tool (RAT) was developed to perform specific security attacks. An impact-oriented approach was adopted to analyze the assessment results of the attacks. Tests and experiments of attacks were conducted in simulation environment and physically on the robot. The simulation environment was based on MobileSim; a software tool for simulating, debugging and experimenting on MobileRobots/ActivMedia platforms and their environments. The robot platform PeopleBot TM was used for physical experiments. The analysis and testing results show that certain attacks were successful at breaching the robot security. Integrity attacks modified commands and manipulated the robot behavior. Availability attacks were able to cause Denial-of-Service (DoS) and the robot was not responsive to MobileEyes commands. Integrity and availability attacks caused sensitive information on the robot to be hijacked. To mitigate security threats, we provide possible mitigation techniques and suggestions to raise awareness of threats on the robotic platforms, especially when the robots are involved in critical missions or applications.

Analyzing Cyber-Physical Threats on Robotic Platforms †

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

Robots are increasingly involved in our daily lives. Fundamental to robots are the communication link (or stream) and the applications that connect the robots to their clients or users. Such communication link and applications are usually supported through client/server network connection. This networking system is amenable of being attacked and vulnerable to the security threats. Ensuring security and privacy for robotic platforms is thus critical, as failures and attacks could have devastating consequences. In this paper, we examine several cyber-physical security threats that are unique to the robotic platforms; specifically the communication link and the applications. Threats target integrity, availability and confidential security requirements of the robotic platforms, which use MobileEyes/arnlServer client/server applications. A robot attack tool (RAT) was developed to perform specific security attacks. An impact-oriented approach was adopted to analyze the assessment results of the attacks. Tests and experiments of attacks were conducted in simulation environment and physically on the robot. The simulation environment was based on MobileSim; a software tool for simulating, debugging and experimenting on MobileRobots/ActivMedia platforms and their environments. The robot platform PeopleBotTM was used for physical experiments. The analysis and testing results show that certain attacks were successful at breaching the robot security. Integrity attacks modified commands and manipulated the robot behavior. Availability attacks were able to cause Denial-of-Service (DoS) and the robot was not responsive to MobileEyes commands. Integrity and availability attacks caused sensitive information on the robot to be hijacked. To mitigate security threats, we provide possible mitigation techniques and suggestions to raise awareness of threats on the robotic platforms, especially when the robots are involved in critical missions or applications. PMID:29883403

Using advanced computer vision algorithms on small mobile robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kogut, G.; Birchmore, F.; Biagtan Pacis, E.; Everett, H. R.

2006-05-01

The Technology Transfer project employs a spiral development process to enhance the functionality and autonomy of mobile robot systems in the Joint Robotics Program (JRP) Robotic Systems Pool by converging existing component technologies onto a transition platform for optimization. An example of this approach is the implementation of advanced computer vision algorithms on small mobile robots. We demonstrate the implementation and testing of the following two algorithms useful on mobile robots: 1) object classification using a boosted Cascade of classifiers trained with the Adaboost training algorithm, and 2) human presence detection from a moving platform. Object classification is performed with an Adaboost training system developed at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Computer Vision Lab. This classification algorithm has been used to successfully detect the license plates of automobiles in motion in real-time. While working towards a solution to increase the robustness of this system to perform generic object recognition, this paper demonstrates an extension to this application by detecting soda cans in a cluttered indoor environment. The human presence detection from a moving platform system uses a data fusion algorithm which combines results from a scanning laser and a thermal imager. The system is able to detect the presence of humans while both the humans and the robot are moving simultaneously. In both systems, the two aforementioned algorithms were implemented on embedded hardware and optimized for use in real-time. Test results are shown for a variety of environments.

Dual adaptive dynamic control of mobile robots using neural networks.

PubMed

Bugeja, Marvin K; Fabri, Simon G; Camilleri, Liberato

2009-02-01

This paper proposes two novel dual adaptive neural control schemes for the dynamic control of nonholonomic mobile robots. The two schemes are developed in discrete time, and the robot's nonlinear dynamic functions are assumed to be unknown. Gaussian radial basis function and sigmoidal multilayer perceptron neural networks are used for function approximation. In each scheme, the unknown network parameters are estimated stochastically in real time, and no preliminary offline neural network training is used. In contrast to other adaptive techniques hitherto proposed in the literature on mobile robots, the dual control laws presented in this paper do not rely on the heuristic certainty equivalence property but account for the uncertainty in the estimates. This results in a major improvement in tracking performance, despite the plant uncertainty and unmodeled dynamics. Monte Carlo simulation and statistical hypothesis testing are used to illustrate the effectiveness of the two proposed stochastic controllers as applied to the trajectory-tracking problem of a differentially driven wheeled mobile robot.

Path optimisation of a mobile robot using an artificial neural network controller

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, M. K.; Parhi, D. R.

2011-01-01

This article proposed a novel approach for design of an intelligent controller for an autonomous mobile robot using a multilayer feed forward neural network, which enables the robot to navigate in a real world dynamic environment. The inputs to the proposed neural controller consist of left, right and front obstacle distance with respect to its position and target angle. The output of the neural network is steering angle. A four layer neural network has been designed to solve the path and time optimisation problem of mobile robots, which deals with the cognitive tasks such as learning, adaptation, generalisation and optimisation. A back propagation algorithm is used to train the network. This article also analyses the kinematic design of mobile robots for dynamic movements. The simulation results are compared with experimental results, which are satisfactory and show very good agreement. The training of the neural nets and the control performance analysis has been done in a real experimental setup.

Two modular neuro-fuzzy system for mobile robot navigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bobyr, M. V.; Titov, V. S.; Kulabukhov, S. A.; Syryamkin, V. I.

2018-05-01

The article considers the fuzzy model for navigation of a mobile robot operating in two modes. In the first mode the mobile robot moves along a line. In the second mode, the mobile robot looks for an target in unknown space. Structural and schematic circuit of four-wheels mobile robot are presented in the article. The article describes the movement of a mobile robot based on two modular neuro-fuzzy system. The algorithm of neuro-fuzzy inference used in two modular control system for movement of a mobile robot is given in the article. The experimental model of the mobile robot and the simulation of the neuro-fuzzy algorithm used for its control are presented in the article.

Development of robotic mobility for infants: rationale and outcomes.

PubMed

Larin, Hélène M; Dennis, Carole W; Stansfield, Sharon

2012-09-01

To assess the feasibility of a robotic mobility device for infants using alternative control interfaces aimed at promoting early self-initiated mobility, and to assess the effects of a training protocol and robot experience. Observational and pre-post quantitative case studies. Standardised, research laboratory and day-care centres with toys and individuals familiar to infants. Children with and without disabilities, aged 5 months to 3 years. In each study, infants were seated over a Pioneer™ 3-DX mobile robot. Some infants controlled the directional movement of the robot by weight shifting their body on a Nintendo® Wii™ Balance Board (the WeeBot), while others used a modified joystick. Infants participated in five sessions over 2 to 5 weeks. Sessions consisted of administering a 10-minute training protocol preceded and followed by 2 to 3 minutes of free play. One child with motor impairment used a button switch array and a different experimental design. From the videotaped free-play periods, goal-directed behaviours were coded and time in motion was measured. In the training period, a scoring system was developed to measure the infants' driving performance. Preliminary outcomes indicate that infants without disabilities, aged 5 to 10 months, demonstrated significant improvement in driving performance and goal-directed movement using the WeeBot. Infants who used the joystick were less successful on all measures. Results for infants with disabilities using the WeeBot were mixed. Mobile robots offer promise to enhance the development of early self-mobility. Novel types of interfaces, such as the WeeBot, warrant further investigation. Copyright © 2012 Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

People Detection by a Mobile Robot Using Stereo Vision in Dynamic Indoor Environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Méndez-Polanco, José Alberto; Muñoz-Meléndez, Angélica; Morales, Eduardo F.

People detection and tracking is a key issue for social robot design and effective human robot interaction. This paper addresses the problem of detecting people with a mobile robot using a stereo camera. People detection using mobile robots is a difficult task because in real world scenarios it is common to find: unpredictable motion of people, dynamic environments, and different degrees of human body occlusion. Additionally, we cannot expect people to cooperate with the robot to perform its task. In our people detection method, first, an object segmentation method that uses the distance information provided by a stereo camera is used to separate people from the background. The segmentation method proposed in this work takes into account human body proportions to segment people and provides a first estimation of people location. After segmentation, an adaptive contour people model based on people distance to the robot is used to calculate a probability of detecting people. Finally, people are detected merging the probabilities of the contour people model and by evaluating evidence over time by applying a Bayesian scheme. We present experiments on detection of standing and sitting people, as well as people in frontal and side view with a mobile robot in real world scenarios.

Adapting sensory data for multiple robots performing spill cleanup

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Storjohann, K.; Saltzen, E.

1990-09-01

This paper describes a possible method of converting a single performing robot algorithm into a multiple performing robot algorithm without the need to modify previously written codes. The algorithm to be converted involves spill detection and clean up by the HERMIES-III mobile robot. In order to achieve the goal of multiple performing robots with this algorithm, two steps are taken. First, the task is formally divided into two sub-tasks, spill detection and spill clean-up, the former of which is allocated to the added performing robot, HERMIES-IIB. Second, a inverse perspective mapping, is applied to the data acquired by the newmore » performing robot (HERMIES-IIB), allowing the data to be processed by the previously written algorithm without re-writing the code. 6 refs., 4 figs.« less

Characterization of the Hokuyo URG-04LX laser rangefinder for mobile robot obstacle negotiation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Okubo, Yoichi; Ye, Cang; Borenstein, Johann

2009-05-01

This paper presents a characterization study of the Hokuyo URG-04LX scanning laser rangefinder (LRF). The Hokuyo LRF is similar in function to the Sick LRF, which has been the de-facto standard range sensor for mobile robot obstacle avoidance and mapping applications for the last decade. Problems with the Sick LRF are its relatively large size, weight, and power consumption, allowing its use only on relatively large mobile robots. The Hokuyo LRF is substantially smaller, lighter, and consumes less power, and is therefore more suitable for small mobile robots. The question is whether it performs just as well as the Sick LRF in typical mobile robot applications. In 2002, two of the authors of the present paper published a characterization study of the Sick LRF. For the present paper we used the exact same test apparatus and test procedures as we did in the 2002 paper, but this time to characterize the Hokuyo LRF. As a result, we are in the unique position of being able to provide not only a detailed characterization study of the Hokuyo LRF, but also to compare the Hokuyo LRF with the Sick LRF under identical test conditions. Among the tested characteristics are sensitivity to a variety of target surface properties and incidence angles, which may potentially affect the sensing performance. We also discuss the performance of the Hokuyo LRF with regard to the mixed pixels problem associated with LRFs. Lastly, the present paper provides a calibration model for improving the accuracy of the Hokuyo LRF.

Wearable computer for mobile augmented-reality-based controlling of an intelligent robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turunen, Tuukka; Roening, Juha; Ahola, Sami; Pyssysalo, Tino

2000-10-01

An intelligent robot can be utilized to perform tasks that are either hazardous or unpleasant for humans. Such tasks include working in disaster areas or conditions that are, for example, too hot. An intelligent robot can work on its own to some extent, but in some cases the aid of humans will be needed. This requires means for controlling the robot from somewhere else, i.e. teleoperation. Mobile augmented reality can be utilized as a user interface to the environment, as it enhances the user's perception of the situation compared to other interfacing methods and allows the user to perform other tasks while controlling the intelligent robot. Augmented reality is a method that combines virtual objects into the user's perception of the real world. As computer technology evolves, it is possible to build very small devices that have sufficient capabilities for augmented reality applications. We have evaluated the existing wearable computers and mobile augmented reality systems to build a prototype of a future mobile terminal- the CyPhone. A wearable computer with sufficient system resources for applications, wireless communication media with sufficient throughput and enough interfaces for peripherals has been built at the University of Oulu. It is self-sustained in energy, with enough operating time for the applications to be useful, and uses accurate positioning systems.

Robot map building based on fuzzy-extending DSmT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Xinde; Huang, Xinhan; Wu, Zuyu; Peng, Gang; Wang, Min; Xiong, Youlun

2007-11-01

With the extensive application of mobile robots in many different fields, map building in unknown environments has been one of the principal issues in the field of intelligent mobile robot. However, Information acquired in map building presents characteristics of uncertainty, imprecision and even high conflict, especially in the course of building grid map using sonar sensors. In this paper, we extended DSmT with Fuzzy theory by considering the different fuzzy T-norm operators (such as Algebraic Product operator, Bounded Product operator, Einstein Product operator and Default minimum operator), in order to develop a more general and flexible combinational rule for more extensive application. At the same time, we apply fuzzy-extended DSmT to mobile robot map building with the help of new self-localization method based on neighboring field appearance matching( -NFAM), to make the new tool more robust in very complex environment. An experiment is conducted to reconstruct the map with the new tool in indoor environment, in order to compare their performances in map building with four T-norm operators, when Pioneer II mobile robot runs along the same trace. Finally, a conclusion is reached that this study develops a new idea to extend DSmT, also provides a new approach for autonomous navigation of mobile robot, and provides a human-computer interactive interface to manage and manipulate the robot remotely.

Conceptual design and kinematic analysis of a novel parallel robot for high-speed pick-and-place operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meng, Qizhi; Xie, Fugui; Liu, Xin-Jun

2018-06-01

This paper deals with the conceptual design, kinematic analysis and workspace identification of a novel four degrees-of-freedom (DOFs) high-speed spatial parallel robot for pick-and-place operations. The proposed spatial parallel robot consists of a base, four arms and a 1½ mobile platform. The mobile platform is a major innovation that avoids output singularity and offers the advantages of both single and double platforms. To investigate the characteristics of the robot's DOFs, a line graph method based on Grassmann line geometry is adopted in mobility analysis. In addition, the inverse kinematics is derived, and the constraint conditions to identify the correct solution are also provided. On the basis of the proposed concept, the workspace of the robot is identified using a set of presupposed parameters by taking input and output transmission index as the performance evaluation criteria.

PD-like controller for delayed bilateral teleoperation of wheeled robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slawiñski, E.; Mut, V.; Santiago, D.

2016-08-01

This paper proposes a proportional derivative (PD)-like controller applied to the delayed bilateral teleoperation of wheeled robots with force feedback in face of asymmetric and varying-time delays. In contrast to bilateral teleoperation of manipulator robots, in these systems, there is a mismatch between the models of the master and slave (mobile robot), problem that is approached in this work, where the system stability is analysed. From this study, it is possible to infer the control parameters, depending on the time delay, necessary to assure stability. Finally, the performance of the delayed teleoperation system is evaluated through tests where a human operator drives a 3D simulator as well as a mobile robot for pushing objects.

Estimating Position of Mobile Robots From Omnidirectional Vision Using an Adaptive Algorithm.

PubMed

Li, Luyang; Liu, Yun-Hui; Wang, Kai; Fang, Mu

2015-08-01

This paper presents a novel and simple adaptive algorithm for estimating the position of a mobile robot with high accuracy in an unknown and unstructured environment by fusing images of an omnidirectional vision system with measurements of odometry and inertial sensors. Based on a new derivation where the omnidirectional projection can be linearly parameterized by the positions of the robot and natural feature points, we propose a novel adaptive algorithm, which is similar to the Slotine-Li algorithm in model-based adaptive control, to estimate the robot's position by using the tracked feature points in image sequence, the robot's velocity, and orientation angles measured by odometry and inertial sensors. It is proved that the adaptive algorithm leads to global exponential convergence of the position estimation errors to zero. Simulations and real-world experiments are performed to demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm.

Tandem robot control system and method for controlling mobile robots in tandem

DOEpatents

Hayward, David R.; Buttz, James H.; Shirey, David L.

2002-01-01

A control system for controlling mobile robots provides a way to control mobile robots, connected in tandem with coupling devices, to navigate across difficult terrain or in closed spaces. The mobile robots can be controlled cooperatively as a coupled system in linked mode or controlled individually as separate robots.

Muscular Dystrophy

MedlinePlus

... to improve mobility a ventilator to support breathing robotics to help perform routine daily tasks Physical Therapy ... to meet their needs as muscle deterioration advances. Robotic technologies also are under development to help kids ...

Fuzzy Logic Based Control for Autonomous Mobile Robot Navigation

PubMed Central

Masmoudi, Mohamed Slim; Masmoudi, Mohamed

2016-01-01

This paper describes the design and the implementation of a trajectory tracking controller using fuzzy logic for mobile robot to navigate in indoor environments. Most of the previous works used two independent controllers for navigation and avoiding obstacles. The main contribution of the paper can be summarized in the fact that we use only one fuzzy controller for navigation and obstacle avoidance. The used mobile robot is equipped with DC motor, nine infrared range (IR) sensors to measure the distance to obstacles, and two optical encoders to provide the actual position and speeds. To evaluate the performances of the intelligent navigation algorithms, different trajectories are used and simulated using MATLAB software and SIMIAM navigation platform. Simulation results show the performances of the intelligent navigation algorithms in terms of simulation times and travelled path. PMID:27688748

Lightweight robotic mobility: template-based modeling for dynamics and controls using ADAMS/car and MATLAB

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adamczyk, Peter G.; Gorsich, David J.; Hudas, Greg R.; Overholt, James

2003-09-01

The U.S. Army is seeking to develop autonomous off-road mobile robots to perform tasks in the field such as supply delivery and reconnaissance in dangerous territory. A key problem to be solved with these robots is off-road mobility, to ensure that the robots can accomplish their tasks without loss or damage. We have developed a computer model of one such concept robot, the small-scale "T-1" omnidirectional vehicle (ODV), to study the effects of different control strategies on the robot's mobility in off-road settings. We built the dynamic model in ADAMS/Car and the control system in Matlab/Simulink. This paper presents the template-based method used to construct the ADAMS model of the T-1 ODV. It discusses the strengths and weaknesses of ADAMS/Car software in such an application, and describes the benefits and challenges of the approach as a whole. The paper also addresses effective linking of ADAMS/Car and Matlab for complete control system development. Finally, this paper includes a section describing the extension of the T-1 templates to other similar ODV concepts for rapid development.

Sensor Fusion Based Model for Collision Free Mobile Robot Navigation

PubMed Central

Almasri, Marwah; Elleithy, Khaled; Alajlan, Abrar

2015-01-01

Autonomous mobile robots have become a very popular and interesting topic in the last decade. Each of them are equipped with various types of sensors such as GPS, camera, infrared and ultrasonic sensors. These sensors are used to observe the surrounding environment. However, these sensors sometimes fail and have inaccurate readings. Therefore, the integration of sensor fusion will help to solve this dilemma and enhance the overall performance. This paper presents a collision free mobile robot navigation based on the fuzzy logic fusion model. Eight distance sensors and a range finder camera are used for the collision avoidance approach where three ground sensors are used for the line or path following approach. The fuzzy system is composed of nine inputs which are the eight distance sensors and the camera, two outputs which are the left and right velocities of the mobile robot’s wheels, and 24 fuzzy rules for the robot’s movement. Webots Pro simulator is used for modeling the environment and the robot. The proposed methodology, which includes the collision avoidance based on fuzzy logic fusion model and line following robot, has been implemented and tested through simulation and real time experiments. Various scenarios have been presented with static and dynamic obstacles using one robot and two robots while avoiding obstacles in different shapes and sizes. PMID:26712766

Coordinated Control Of Mobile Robotic Manipulators

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seraji, Homayoun

1995-01-01

Computationally efficient scheme developed for on-line coordinated control of both manipulation and mobility of robots that include manipulator arms mounted on mobile bases. Applicable to variety of mobile robotic manipulators, including robots that move along tracks (typically, painting and welding robots), robots mounted on gantries and capable of moving in all three dimensions, wheeled robots, and compound robots (consisting of robots mounted on other robots). Theoretical basis discussed in several prior articles in NASA Tech Briefs, including "Increasing the Dexterity of Redundant Robots" (NPO-17801), "Redundant Robot Can Avoid Obstacles" (NPO-17852), "Configuration-Control Scheme Copes With Singularities" (NPO-18556), "More Uses for Configuration Control of Robots" (NPO-18607/NPO-18608).

Intelligent lead: a novel HRI sensor for guide robots.

PubMed

Cho, Keum-Bae; Lee, Beom-Hee

2012-01-01

This paper addresses the introduction of a new Human Robot Interaction (HRI) sensor for guide robots. Guide robots for geriatric patients or the visually impaired should follow user's control command, keeping a certain desired distance allowing the user to work freely. Therefore, it is necessary to acquire control commands and a user's position on a real-time basis. We suggest a new sensor fusion system to achieve this objective and we will call this sensor the "intelligent lead". The objective of the intelligent lead is to acquire a stable distance from the user to the robot, speed-control volume and turn-control volume, even when the robot platform with the intelligent lead is shaken on uneven ground. In this paper we explain a precise Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) procedure for this. The intelligent lead physically consists of a Kinect sensor, the serial linkage attached with eight rotary encoders, and an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) and their measurements are fused by the EKF. A mobile robot was designed to test the performance of the proposed sensor system. After installing the intelligent lead in the mobile robot, several tests are conducted to verify that the mobile robot with the intelligent lead is capable of achieving its goal points while maintaining the appropriate distance between the robot and the user. The results show that we can use the intelligent lead proposed in this paper as a new HRI sensor joined a joystick and a distance measure in the mobile environments such as the robot and the user are moving at the same time.

Estimating the position and orientation of a mobile robot with respect to a trajectory using omnidirectional imaging and global appearance.

PubMed

Payá, Luis; Reinoso, Oscar; Jiménez, Luis M; Juliá, Miguel

2017-01-01

Along the past years, mobile robots have proliferated both in domestic and in industrial environments to solve some tasks such as cleaning, assistance, or material transportation. One of their advantages is the ability to operate in wide areas without the necessity of introducing changes into the existing infrastructure. Thanks to the sensors they may be equipped with and their processing systems, mobile robots constitute a versatile alternative to solve a wide range of applications. When designing the control system of a mobile robot so that it carries out a task autonomously in an unknown environment, it is expected to take decisions about its localization in the environment and about the trajectory that it has to follow in order to arrive to the target points. More concisely, the robot has to find a relatively good solution to two crucial problems: building a model of the environment, and estimating the position of the robot within this model. In this work, we propose a framework to solve these problems using only visual information. The mobile robot is equipped with a catadioptric vision sensor that provides omnidirectional images from the environment. First, the robot goes along the trajectories to include in the model and uses the visual information captured to build this model. After that, the robot is able to estimate its position and orientation with respect to the trajectory. Among the possible approaches to solve these problems, global appearance techniques are used in this work. They have emerged recently as a robust and efficient alternative compared to landmark extraction techniques. A global description method based on Radon Transform is used to design mapping and localization algorithms and a set of images captured by a mobile robot in a real environment, under realistic operation conditions, is used to test the performance of these algorithms.

SLAM algorithm applied to robotics assistance for navigation in unknown environments.

PubMed

Cheein, Fernando A Auat; Lopez, Natalia; Soria, Carlos M; di Sciascio, Fernando A; Pereira, Fernando Lobo; Carelli, Ricardo

2010-02-17

The combination of robotic tools with assistance technology determines a slightly explored area of applications and advantages for disability or elder people in their daily tasks. Autonomous motorized wheelchair navigation inside an environment, behaviour based control of orthopaedic arms or user's preference learning from a friendly interface are some examples of this new field. In this paper, a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithm is implemented to allow the environmental learning by a mobile robot while its navigation is governed by electromyographic signals. The entire system is part autonomous and part user-decision dependent (semi-autonomous). The environmental learning executed by the SLAM algorithm and the low level behaviour-based reactions of the mobile robot are robotic autonomous tasks, whereas the mobile robot navigation inside an environment is commanded by a Muscle-Computer Interface (MCI). In this paper, a sequential Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) feature-based SLAM algorithm is implemented. The features correspond to lines and corners -concave and convex- of the environment. From the SLAM architecture, a global metric map of the environment is derived. The electromyographic signals that command the robot's movements can be adapted to the patient's disabilities. For mobile robot navigation purposes, five commands were obtained from the MCI: turn to the left, turn to the right, stop, start and exit. A kinematic controller to control the mobile robot was implemented. A low level behavior strategy was also implemented to avoid robot's collisions with the environment and moving agents. The entire system was tested in a population of seven volunteers: three elder, two below-elbow amputees and two young normally limbed patients. The experiments were performed within a closed low dynamic environment. Subjects took an average time of 35 minutes to navigate the environment and to learn how to use the MCI. The SLAM results have shown a consistent reconstruction of the environment. The obtained map was stored inside the Muscle-Computer Interface. The integration of a highly demanding processing algorithm (SLAM) with a MCI and the communication between both in real time have shown to be consistent and successful. The metric map generated by the mobile robot would allow possible future autonomous navigation without direct control of the user, whose function could be relegated to choose robot destinations. Also, the mobile robot shares the same kinematic model of a motorized wheelchair. This advantage can be exploited for wheelchair autonomous navigation.

Experiments in autonomous robotics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hamel, W.R.

1987-01-01

The Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) is performing basic research in autonomous robotics for energy-related applications in hazardous environments. The CESAR research agenda includes a strong experimental component to assure practical evaluation of new concepts and theories. An evolutionary sequence of mobile research robots has been planned to support research in robot navigation, world sensing, and object manipulation. A number of experiments have been performed in studying robot navigation and path planning with planar sonar sensing. Future experiments will address more complex tasks involving three-dimensional sensing, dexterous manipulation, and human-scale operations.

Robust mobility in human-populated environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gonzalez, Juan Pablo; Phillips, Mike; Neuman, Brad; Likhachev, Max

2012-06-01

Creating robots that can help humans in a variety of tasks requires robust mobility and the ability to safely navigate among moving obstacles. This paper presents an overview of recent research in the Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance (RCTA) that addresses many of the core requirements for robust mobility in human-populated environments. Safe Interval Path Planning (SIPP) allows for very fast planning in dynamic environments when planning timeminimal trajectories. Generalized Safe Interval Path Planning extends this concept to trajectories that minimize arbitrary cost functions. Finally, generalized PPCP algorithm is used to generate plans that reason about the uncertainty in the predicted trajectories of moving obstacles and try to actively disambiguate the intentions of humans whenever necessary. We show how these approaches consider moving obstacles and temporal constraints and produce high-fidelity paths. Experiments in simulated environments show the performance of the algorithms under different controlled conditions, and experiments on physical mobile robots interacting with humans show how the algorithms perform under the uncertainties of the real world.

Augmented reality user interface for mobile ground robots with manipulator arms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vozar, Steven; Tilbury, Dawn M.

2011-01-01

Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology in which real-world visual data is combined with an overlay of computer graphics, enhancing the original feed. AR is an attractive tool for teleoperated UGV UIs as it can improve communication between robots and users via an intuitive spatial and visual dialogue, thereby increasing operator situational awareness. The successful operation of UGVs often relies upon both chassis navigation and manipulator arm control, and since existing literature usually focuses on one task or the other, there is a gap in mobile robot UIs that take advantage of AR for both applications. This work describes the development and analysis of an AR UI system for a UGV with an attached manipulator arm. The system supplements a video feed shown to an operator with information about geometric relationships within the robot task space to improve the operator's situational awareness. Previous studies on AR systems and preliminary analyses indicate that such an implementation of AR for a mobile robot with a manipulator arm is anticipated to improve operator performance. A full user-study can determine if this hypothesis is supported by performing an analysis of variance on common test metrics associated with UGV teleoperation.

Paralyzed subject controls telepresence mobile robot using novel sEMG brain-computer interface: case study.

PubMed

Lyons, Kenneth R; Joshi, Sanjay S

2013-06-01

Here we demonstrate the use of a new singlesignal surface electromyography (sEMG) brain-computer interface (BCI) to control a mobile robot in a remote location. Previous work on this BCI has shown that users are able to perform cursor-to-target tasks in two-dimensional space using only a single sEMG signal by continuously modulating the signal power in two frequency bands. Using the cursor-to-target paradigm, targets are shown on the screen of a tablet computer so that the user can select them, commanding the robot to move in different directions for a fixed distance/angle. A Wifi-enabled camera transmits video from the robot's perspective, giving the user feedback about robot motion. Current results show a case study with a C3-C4 spinal cord injury (SCI) subject using a single auricularis posterior muscle site to navigate a simple obstacle course. Performance metrics for operation of the BCI as well as completion of the telerobotic command task are developed. It is anticipated that this noninvasive and mobile system will open communication opportunities for the severely paralyzed, possibly using only a single sensor.

Learning for intelligent mobile robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hall, Ernest L.; Liao, Xiaoqun; Alhaj Ali, Souma M.

2003-10-01

Unlike intelligent industrial robots which often work in a structured factory setting, intelligent mobile robots must often operate in an unstructured environment cluttered with obstacles and with many possible action paths. However, such machines have many potential applications in medicine, defense, industry and even the home that make their study important. Sensors such as vision are needed. However, in many applications some form of learning is also required. The purpose of this paper is to present a discussion of recent technical advances in learning for intelligent mobile robots. During the past 20 years, the use of intelligent industrial robots that are equipped not only with motion control systems but also with sensors such as cameras, laser scanners, or tactile sensors that permit adaptation to a changing environment has increased dramatically. However, relatively little has been done concerning learning. Adaptive and robust control permits one to achieve point to point and controlled path operation in a changing environment. This problem can be solved with a learning control. In the unstructured environment, the terrain and consequently the load on the robot"s motors are constantly changing. Learning the parameters of a proportional, integral and derivative controller (PID) and artificial neural network provides an adaptive and robust control. Learning may also be used for path following. Simulations that include learning may be conducted to see if a robot can learn its way through a cluttered array of obstacles. If a situation is performed repetitively, then learning can also be used in the actual application. To reach an even higher degree of autonomous operation, a new level of learning is required. Recently learning theories such as the adaptive critic have been proposed. In this type of learning a critic provides a grade to the controller of an action module such as a robot. The creative control process is used that is "beyond the adaptive critic." A mathematical model of the creative control process is presented that illustrates the use for mobile robots. Examples from a variety of intelligent mobile robot applications are also presented. The significance of this work is in providing a greater understanding of the applications of learning to mobile robots that could lead to many applications.

Ultra wide-band localization and SLAM: a comparative study for mobile robot navigation.

PubMed

Segura, Marcelo J; Auat Cheein, Fernando A; Toibero, Juan M; Mut, Vicente; Carelli, Ricardo

2011-01-01

In this work, a comparative study between an Ultra Wide-Band (UWB) localization system and a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithm is presented. Due to its high bandwidth and short pulses length, UWB potentially allows great accuracy in range measurements based on Time of Arrival (TOA) estimation. SLAM algorithms recursively estimates the map of an environment and the pose (position and orientation) of a mobile robot within that environment. The comparative study presented here involves the performance analysis of implementing in parallel an UWB localization based system and a SLAM algorithm on a mobile robot navigating within an environment. Real time results as well as error analysis are also shown in this work.

Arash: A social robot buddy to support children with cancer in a hospital environment.

PubMed

Meghdari, Ali; Shariati, Azadeh; Alemi, Minoo; Vossoughi, Gholamreza R; Eydi, Abdollah; Ahmadi, Ehsan; Mozafari, Behrad; Amoozandeh Nobaveh, Ali; Tahami, Reza

2018-06-01

This article presents the thorough design procedure, specifications, and performance of a mobile social robot friend Arash for educational and therapeutic involvement of children with cancer based on their interests and needs. Our research focuses on employing Arash in a pediatric hospital environment to entertain, assist, and educate children with cancer who suffer from physical pain caused by both the disease and its treatment process. Since cancer treatment causes emotional distress, which can reduce the efficiency of medications, using social robots to interact with children with cancer in a hospital environment could decrease this distress, thereby improving the effectiveness of their treatment. Arash is a 15 degree-of-freedom low-cost humanoid mobile robot buddy, carefully designed with appropriate measures and developed to interact with children ages 5-12 years old. The robot has five physical subsystems: the head, arms, torso, waist, and mobile-platform. The robot's final appearance is a significant novel concept; since it was selected based on a survey taken from 50 children with chronic diseases at three pediatric hospitals in Tehran, Iran. Founded on these measures and desires, Arash was designed, built, improved, and enhanced to operate successfully in pediatric cancer hospitals. Two experiments were devised to evaluate the children's level of acceptance and involvement with the robot, assess their feelings about it, and measure how much the robot was similar to the favored conceptual sketch. Both experiments were conducted in the form of storytelling and appearance/performance evaluations. The obtained results confirm high engagement and interest of pediatric cancer patients with the constructed robot.

Adaptive Tracking Control for Robots With an Interneural Computing Scheme.

PubMed

Tsai, Feng-Sheng; Hsu, Sheng-Yi; Shih, Mau-Hsiang

2018-04-01

Adaptive tracking control of mobile robots requires the ability to follow a trajectory generated by a moving target. The conventional analysis of adaptive tracking uses energy minimization to study the convergence and robustness of the tracking error when the mobile robot follows a desired trajectory. However, in the case that the moving target generates trajectories with uncertainties, a common Lyapunov-like function for energy minimization may be extremely difficult to determine. Here, to solve the adaptive tracking problem with uncertainties, we wish to implement an interneural computing scheme in the design of a mobile robot for behavior-based navigation. The behavior-based navigation adopts an adaptive plan of behavior patterns learning from the uncertainties of the environment. The characteristic feature of the interneural computing scheme is the use of neural path pruning with rewards and punishment interacting with the environment. On this basis, the mobile robot can be exploited to change its coupling weights in paths of neural connections systematically, which can then inhibit or enhance the effect of flow elimination in the dynamics of the evolutionary neural network. Such dynamical flow translation ultimately leads to robust sensory-to-motor transformations adapting to the uncertainties of the environment. A simulation result shows that the mobile robot with the interneural computing scheme can perform fault-tolerant behavior of tracking by maintaining suitable behavior patterns at high frequency levels.

Behavior coordination of mobile robotics using supervisory control of fuzzy discrete event systems.

PubMed

Jayasiri, Awantha; Mann, George K I; Gosine, Raymond G

2011-10-01

In order to incorporate the uncertainty and impreciseness present in real-world event-driven asynchronous systems, fuzzy discrete event systems (DESs) (FDESs) have been proposed as an extension to crisp DESs. In this paper, first, we propose an extension to the supervisory control theory of FDES by redefining fuzzy controllable and uncontrollable events. The proposed supervisor is capable of enabling feasible uncontrollable and controllable events with different possibilities. Then, the extended supervisory control framework of FDES is employed to model and control several navigational tasks of a mobile robot using the behavior-based approach. The robot has limited sensory capabilities, and the navigations have been performed in several unmodeled environments. The reactive and deliberative behaviors of the mobile robotic system are weighted through fuzzy uncontrollable and controllable events, respectively. By employing the proposed supervisory controller, a command-fusion-type behavior coordination is achieved. The observability of fuzzy events is incorporated to represent the sensory imprecision. As a systematic analysis of the system, a fuzzy-state-based controllability measure is introduced. The approach is implemented in both simulation and real time. A performance evaluation is performed to quantitatively estimate the validity of the proposed approach over its counterparts.

Google glass-based remote control of a mobile robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Song; Wen, Xi; Li, Wei; Chen, Genshe

2016-05-01

In this paper, we present an approach to remote control of a mobile robot via a Google Glass with the multi-function and compact size. This wearable device provides a new human-machine interface (HMI) to control a robot without need for a regular computer monitor because the Google Glass micro projector is able to display live videos around robot environments. In doing it, we first develop a protocol to establish WI-FI connection between Google Glass and a robot and then implement five types of robot behaviors: Moving Forward, Turning Left, Turning Right, Taking Pause, and Moving Backward, which are controlled by sliding and clicking the touchpad located on the right side of the temple. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed Google Glass-based remote control system, we navigate a virtual Surveyor robot to pass a maze. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed control system achieves the desired performance.

Laser-based pedestrian tracking in outdoor environments by multiple mobile robots.

PubMed

Ozaki, Masataka; Kakimuma, Kei; Hashimoto, Masafumi; Takahashi, Kazuhiko

2012-10-29

This paper presents an outdoors laser-based pedestrian tracking system using a group of mobile robots located near each other. Each robot detects pedestrians from its own laser scan image using an occupancy-grid-based method, and the robot tracks the detected pedestrians via Kalman filtering and global-nearest-neighbor (GNN)-based data association. The tracking data is broadcast to multiple robots through intercommunication and is combined using the covariance intersection (CI) method. For pedestrian tracking, each robot identifies its own posture using real-time-kinematic GPS (RTK-GPS) and laser scan matching. Using our cooperative tracking method, all the robots share the tracking data with each other; hence, individual robots can always recognize pedestrians that are invisible to any other robot. The simulation and experimental results show that cooperating tracking provides the tracking performance better than conventional individual tracking does. Our tracking system functions in a decentralized manner without any central server, and therefore, this provides a degree of scalability and robustness that cannot be achieved by conventional centralized architectures.

Application of neural models as controllers in mobile robot velocity control loop

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cerkala, Jakub; Jadlovska, Anna

2017-01-01

This paper presents the application of an inverse neural models used as controllers in comparison to classical PI controllers for velocity tracking control task used in two-wheel, differentially driven mobile robot. The PI controller synthesis is based on linear approximation of actuators with equivalent load. In order to obtain relevant datasets for training of feed-forward multi-layer perceptron based neural network used as neural model, the mathematical model of mobile robot, that combines its kinematic and dynamic properties such as chassis dimensions, center of gravity offset, friction and actuator parameters is used. Neural models are trained off-line to act as an inverse dynamics of DC motors with particular load using data collected in simulation experiment for motor input voltage step changes within bounded operating area. The performances of PI controllers versus inverse neural models in mobile robot internal velocity control loops are demonstrated and compared in simulation experiment of navigation control task for line segment motion in plane.

Trajectory planning of mobile robots using indirect solution of optimal control method in generalized point-to-point task

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nazemizadeh, M.; Rahimi, H. N.; Amini Khoiy, K.

2012-03-01

This paper presents an optimal control strategy for optimal trajectory planning of mobile robots by considering nonlinear dynamic model and nonholonomic constraints of the system. The nonholonomic constraints of the system are introduced by a nonintegrable set of differential equations which represent kinematic restriction on the motion. The Lagrange's principle is employed to derive the nonlinear equations of the system. Then, the optimal path planning of the mobile robot is formulated as an optimal control problem. To set up the problem, the nonlinear equations of the system are assumed as constraints, and a minimum energy objective function is defined. To solve the problem, an indirect solution of the optimal control method is employed, and conditions of the optimality derived as a set of coupled nonlinear differential equations. The optimality equations are solved numerically, and various simulations are performed for a nonholonomic mobile robot to illustrate effectiveness of the proposed method.

Control system of the inspection robots group applying auctions and multi-criteria analysis for task allocation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Panfil, Wawrzyniec; Moczulski, Wojciech

2017-10-01

In the paper presented is a control system of a mobile robots group intended for carrying out inspection missions. The main research problem was to define such a control system in order to facilitate a cooperation of the robots resulting in realization of the committed inspection tasks. Many of the well-known control systems use auctions for tasks allocation, where a subject of an auction is a task to be allocated. It seems that in the case of missions characterized by much larger number of tasks than number of robots it will be better if robots (instead of tasks) are subjects of auctions. The second identified problem concerns the one-sided robot-to-task fitness evaluation. Simultaneous assessment of the robot-to-task fitness and task attractiveness for robot should affect positively for the overall effectiveness of the multi-robot system performance. The elaborated system allows to assign tasks to robots using various methods for evaluation of fitness between robots and tasks, and using some tasks allocation methods. There is proposed the method for multi-criteria analysis, which is composed of two assessments, i.e. robot's concurrency position for task among other robots and task's attractiveness for robot among other tasks. Furthermore, there are proposed methods for tasks allocation applying the mentioned multi-criteria analysis method. The verification of both the elaborated system and the proposed tasks' allocation methods was carried out with the help of simulated experiments. The object under test was a group of inspection mobile robots being a virtual counterpart of the real mobile-robot group.

Automatic detection and classification of obstacles with applications in autonomous mobile robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ponomaryov, Volodymyr I.; Rosas-Miranda, Dario I.

2016-04-01

Hardware implementation of an automatic detection and classification of objects that can represent an obstacle for an autonomous mobile robot using stereo vision algorithms is presented. We propose and evaluate a new method to detect and classify objects for a mobile robot in outdoor conditions. This method is divided in two parts, the first one is the object detection step based on the distance from the objects to the camera and a BLOB analysis. The second part is the classification step that is based on visuals primitives and a SVM classifier. The proposed method is performed in GPU in order to reduce the processing time values. This is performed with help of hardware based on multi-core processors and GPU platform, using a NVIDIA R GeForce R GT640 graphic card and Matlab over a PC with Windows 10.

Integrated mobile robot control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Amidi, Omead; Thorpe, Charles

1991-01-01

This paper describes the structure, implementation, and operation of a real-time mobile robot controller which integrates capabilities such as: position estimation, path specification and tracking, human interfaces, fast communication, and multiple client support. The benefits of such high-level capabilities in a low-level controller was shown by its implementation for the Navlab autonomous vehicle. In addition, performance results from positioning and tracking systems are reported and analyzed.

Integrated mobile robot control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amidi, Omead; Thorpe, Chuck E.

1991-03-01

This paper describes the strucwre implementation and operation of a real-time mobile robot controller which integrates capabilities such as: position estimation path specification and hacking human interfaces fast communication and multiple client support The benefits of such high-level capabilities in a low-level controller was shown by its implementation for the Naviab autonomous vehicle. In addition performance results from positioning and tracking systems are reported and analyzed.

Using qualitative maps to direct reactive robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bertin, Randolph; Pendleton, Tom

1992-01-01

The principal advantage of mobile robots is that they are able to go to specific locations to perform useful tasks rather than have the tasks brought to them. It is important therefore that the robot be used to reach desired locations efficiently and reliably. A mobile robot whose environment extends significantly beyond its sensory horizon must maintain a representation of the environment, a map, in order to attain these efficiency and reliability requirements. We believe that qualitative mapping methods provide useful and robust representation schemes and that such maps may be used to direct the actions of a reactively controlled robot. In this paper we describe our experience in employing qualitative maps to direct, through the selection of desired control strategies, a reactive-behavior based robot. This mapping capability represents the development of one aspect of a successful deliberative/reactive hybrid control architecture.

A locust-inspired miniature jumping robot.

PubMed

Zaitsev, Valentin; Gvirsman, Omer; Ben Hanan, Uri; Weiss, Avi; Ayali, Amir; Kosa, Gabor

2015-11-25

Unmanned ground vehicles are mostly wheeled, tracked, or legged. These locomotion mechanisms have a limited ability to traverse rough terrain and obstacles that are higher than the robot's center of mass. In order to improve the mobility of small robots it is necessary to expand the variety of their motion gaits. Jumping is one of nature's solutions to the challenge of mobility in difficult terrain. The desert locust is the model for the presented bio-inspired design of a jumping mechanism for a small mobile robot. The basic mechanism is similar to that of the semilunar process in the hind legs of the locust, and is based on the cocking of a torsional spring by wrapping a tendon-like wire around the shaft of a miniature motor. In this study we present the jumping mechanism design, and the manufacturing and performance analysis of two demonstrator prototypes. The most advanced jumping robot demonstrator is power autonomous, weighs 23 gr, and is capable of jumping to a height of 3.35 m, covering a distance of 1.37 m.

Soft mobile robots driven by foldable dielectric elastomer actuators

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sun, Wenjie; Liu, Fan; Ma, Ziqi

A cantilever beam with elastic hinge pulled antagonistically by two dielectric elastomer (DE) membranes in tension forms a foldable actuator if one DE membrane is subject to a voltage and releases part of tension. Simply placing parallel rigid bars on the prestressed DE membranes results in enhanced actuators working in a pure shear state. We report design, analysis, fabrication, and experiment of soft mobile robots that are moved by such foldable DE actuators. We describe systematic measurement of the foldable actuators and perform theoretical analysis of such actuators based on minimization of total energy, and a good agreement is achievedmore » between model prediction and measurement. We develop two versions of prototypes of soft mobile robots driven either by two sets of DE membranes or one DE membrane and elastic springs. We demonstrate locomotion of these soft mobile robots and highlight several key design parameters that influence locomotion of the robots. A 45 g soft robot driven by a cyclic triangle voltage with amplitude 7.4 kV demonstrates maximal stroke 160 mm or maximal rolling velocity 42 mm/s. The underlying mechanics and physics of foldable DE actuators can be leveraged to develop other soft machines for various applications.« less

Mobility of lightweight robots over snow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lever, James H.; Shoop, Sally A.

2006-05-01

Snowfields are challenging terrain for lightweight (<50 kg) unmanned ground vehicles. Deep sinkage, high snowcompaction resistance, traction loss while turning and ingestion of snow into the drive train can cause immobility within a few meters of travel. However, for suitably designed vehicles, deep snow offers a smooth, uniform surface that can obliterate obstacles. Key requirements for good over-snow mobility are low ground pressure, large clearance relative to vehicle size and a drive system that tolerates cohesive snow. A small robot will invariably encounter deep snow relative to its ground clearance. Because a single snowstorm can easily deposit 30 cm of fresh snow, robots with ground clearance less than about 10 cm must travel over the snow rather than gain support from the underlying ground. This can be accomplished using low-pressure tracks (< 1.5 kPa). Even still, snow-compaction resistance can exceed 20% of vehicle weight. Also, despite relatively high traction coefficients for low track pressures, differential or skid steering is difficult because the outboard track can easily break traction as the vehicle attempts to turn against the snow. Short track lengths (relative to track separation) or coupled articulated robots offer steering solutions for deep snow. This paper presents preliminary guidance to design lightweight robots for good mobility over snow based on mobility theory and tests of PackBot, Talon and SnoBot, a custom-designed research robot. Because many other considerations constrain robot designs, this guidance can help with development of winterization kits to improve the over-snow performance of existing robots.

Mobile robots: motor challenges and materials solutions.

PubMed

Madden, John D

2007-11-16

Bolted-down robots labor in our factories, performing the same task over and over again. Where are the robots that run and jump? Equaling human performance is very difficult for many reasons, including the basic challenge of demonstrating motors and transmissions that efficiently match the power per unit mass of muscle. In order to exceed animal agility, new actuators are needed. Materials that change dimension in response to applied voltage, so-called artificial muscle technologies, outperform muscle in most respects and so provide a promising means of improving robots. In the longer term, robots powered by atomically perfect fibers will outrun us all.

Mobile robot navigation modulated by artificial emotions.

PubMed

Lee-Johnson, C P; Carnegie, D A

2010-04-01

For artificial intelligence research to progress beyond the highly specialized task-dependent implementations achievable today, researchers may need to incorporate aspects of biological behavior that have not traditionally been associated with intelligence. Affective processes such as emotions may be crucial to the generalized intelligence possessed by humans and animals. A number of robots and autonomous agents have been created that can emulate human emotions, but the majority of this research focuses on the social domain. In contrast, we have developed a hybrid reactive/deliberative architecture that incorporates artificial emotions to improve the general adaptive performance of a mobile robot for a navigation task. Emotions are active on multiple architectural levels, modulating the robot's decisions and actions to suit the context of its situation. Reactive emotions interact with the robot's control system, altering its parameters in response to appraisals from short-term sensor data. Deliberative emotions are learned associations that bias path planning in response to eliciting objects or events. Quantitative results are presented that demonstrate situations in which each artificial emotion can be beneficial to performance.

Concurrent planning and execution for a walking robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Simmons, Reid

1990-07-01

The Planetary Rover project is developing the Ambler, a novel legged robot, and an autonomous software system for walking the Ambler over rough terrain. As part of the project, we have developed a system that integrates perception, planning, and real-time control to navigate a single leg of the robot through complex obstacle courses. The system is integrated using the Task Control Architecture (TCA), a general-purpose set of utilities for building and controlling distributed mobile robot systems. The walking system, as originally implemented, utilized a sequential sense-plan-act control cycle. This report describes efforts to improve the performance of the system by concurrently planning and executing steps. Concurrency was achieved by modifying the existing sequential system to utilize TCA features such as resource management, monitors, temporal constraints, and hierarchical task trees. Performance was increased in excess of 30 percent with only a relatively modest effort to convert and test the system. The results lend support to the utility of using TCA to develop complex mobile robot systems.

Flocking of multiple mobile robots based on backstepping.

PubMed

Dong, Wenjie

2011-04-01

This paper considers the flocking of multiple nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots. Distributed controllers are proposed with the aid of backstepping techniques, results from graph theory, and singular perturbation theory. The proposed controllers can make the states of a group of robots converge to a desired geometric pattern whose centroid moves along a desired trajectory under the condition that the desired trajectory is available to a portion of the group of robots. Since communication delay is inevitable in distributed control, its effect on the performance of the closed-loop systems is analyzed. It is shown that the proposed controllers work well if communication delays are constant. To show effectiveness of the proposed controllers, simulation results are included.

Cooperative Autonomous Robots for Reconnaissance

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-03-06

REPORT Cooperative Autonomous Robots for Reconnaissance 14. ABSTRACT 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: Collaborating mobile robots equipped with WiFi ...Cooperative Autonomous Robots for Reconnaissance Report Title ABSTRACT Collaborating mobile robots equipped with WiFi transceivers are configured as a mobile...equipped with WiFi transceivers are configured as a mobile ad-hoc network. Algorithms are developed to take advantage of the distributed processing

Multi-Robot Assembly Strategies and Metrics.

PubMed

Marvel, Jeremy A; Bostelman, Roger; Falco, Joe

2018-02-01

We present a survey of multi-robot assembly applications and methods and describe trends and general insights into the multi-robot assembly problem for industrial applications. We focus on fixtureless assembly strategies featuring two or more robotic systems. Such robotic systems include industrial robot arms, dexterous robotic hands, and autonomous mobile platforms, such as automated guided vehicles. In this survey, we identify the types of assemblies that are enabled by utilizing multiple robots, the algorithms that synchronize the motions of the robots to complete the assembly operations, and the metrics used to assess the quality and performance of the assemblies.

Multi-Robot Assembly Strategies and Metrics

PubMed Central

MARVEL, JEREMY A.; BOSTELMAN, ROGER; FALCO, JOE

2018-01-01

We present a survey of multi-robot assembly applications and methods and describe trends and general insights into the multi-robot assembly problem for industrial applications. We focus on fixtureless assembly strategies featuring two or more robotic systems. Such robotic systems include industrial robot arms, dexterous robotic hands, and autonomous mobile platforms, such as automated guided vehicles. In this survey, we identify the types of assemblies that are enabled by utilizing multiple robots, the algorithms that synchronize the motions of the robots to complete the assembly operations, and the metrics used to assess the quality and performance of the assemblies. PMID:29497234

Ultra Wide-Band Localization and SLAM: A Comparative Study for Mobile Robot Navigation

PubMed Central

Segura, Marcelo J.; Auat Cheein, Fernando A.; Toibero, Juan M.; Mut, Vicente; Carelli, Ricardo

2011-01-01

In this work, a comparative study between an Ultra Wide-Band (UWB) localization system and a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithm is presented. Due to its high bandwidth and short pulses length, UWB potentially allows great accuracy in range measurements based on Time of Arrival (TOA) estimation. SLAM algorithms recursively estimates the map of an environment and the pose (position and orientation) of a mobile robot within that environment. The comparative study presented here involves the performance analysis of implementing in parallel an UWB localization based system and a SLAM algorithm on a mobile robot navigating within an environment. Real time results as well as error analysis are also shown in this work. PMID:22319397

SLAM algorithm applied to robotics assistance for navigation in unknown environments

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background The combination of robotic tools with assistance technology determines a slightly explored area of applications and advantages for disability or elder people in their daily tasks. Autonomous motorized wheelchair navigation inside an environment, behaviour based control of orthopaedic arms or user's preference learning from a friendly interface are some examples of this new field. In this paper, a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithm is implemented to allow the environmental learning by a mobile robot while its navigation is governed by electromyographic signals. The entire system is part autonomous and part user-decision dependent (semi-autonomous). The environmental learning executed by the SLAM algorithm and the low level behaviour-based reactions of the mobile robot are robotic autonomous tasks, whereas the mobile robot navigation inside an environment is commanded by a Muscle-Computer Interface (MCI). Methods In this paper, a sequential Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) feature-based SLAM algorithm is implemented. The features correspond to lines and corners -concave and convex- of the environment. From the SLAM architecture, a global metric map of the environment is derived. The electromyographic signals that command the robot's movements can be adapted to the patient's disabilities. For mobile robot navigation purposes, five commands were obtained from the MCI: turn to the left, turn to the right, stop, start and exit. A kinematic controller to control the mobile robot was implemented. A low level behavior strategy was also implemented to avoid robot's collisions with the environment and moving agents. Results The entire system was tested in a population of seven volunteers: three elder, two below-elbow amputees and two young normally limbed patients. The experiments were performed within a closed low dynamic environment. Subjects took an average time of 35 minutes to navigate the environment and to learn how to use the MCI. The SLAM results have shown a consistent reconstruction of the environment. The obtained map was stored inside the Muscle-Computer Interface. Conclusions The integration of a highly demanding processing algorithm (SLAM) with a MCI and the communication between both in real time have shown to be consistent and successful. The metric map generated by the mobile robot would allow possible future autonomous navigation without direct control of the user, whose function could be relegated to choose robot destinations. Also, the mobile robot shares the same kinematic model of a motorized wheelchair. This advantage can be exploited for wheelchair autonomous navigation. PMID:20163735

The Performance Analysis of AN Indoor Mobile Mapping System with Rgb-D Sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsai, G. J.; Chiang, K. W.; Chu, C. H.; Chen, Y. L.; El-Sheimy, N.; Habib, A.

2015-08-01

Over the years, Mobile Mapping Systems (MMSs) have been widely applied to urban mapping, path management and monitoring and cyber city, etc. The key concept of mobile mapping is based on positioning technology and photogrammetry. In order to achieve the integration, multi-sensor integrated mapping technology has clearly established. In recent years, the robotic technology has been rapidly developed. The other mapping technology that is on the basis of low-cost sensor has generally used in robotic system, it is known as the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). The objective of this study is developed a prototype of indoor MMS for mobile mapping applications, especially to reduce the costs and enhance the efficiency of data collection and validation of direct georeferenced (DG) performance. The proposed indoor MMS is composed of a tactical grade Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), the Kinect RGB-D sensor and light detection, ranging (LIDAR) and robot. In summary, this paper designs the payload for indoor MMS to generate the floor plan. In first session, it concentrates on comparing the different positioning algorithms in the indoor environment. Next, the indoor plans are generated by two sensors, Kinect RGB-D sensor LIDAR on robot. Moreover, the generated floor plan will compare with the known plan for both validation and verification.

Calculating distance by wireless ethernet signal strength for global positioning method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Seung-Yong; Kim, Jeehong; Lee, Chang-goo

2005-12-01

This paper investigated mobile robot localization by using wireless Ethernet for global localization and INS for relative localization. For relative localization, the low-cost INS features self-contained was adopted. Low-cost MEMS-based INS has a short-period response and acceptable performance. Generally, variety sensor was used for mobile robot localization. In spite of precise modeling of the sensor, it leads inevitably to the accumulation of errors. The IEEE802.11b wireless Ethernet standard has been deployed in office building, museums, hospitals, shopping centers and other indoor environments. Many mobile robots already make use of wireless networking for communication. So location sensing with wireless Ethernet might be very useful for a low-cost robot. This research used wireless Ethernet card for compensation the accumulation of errors. So the mobile robot can use that for global localization through the installed many IEEE802.11b wireless Ethernets in indoor environments. The chief difficulty in localization with wireless Ethernet is predicting signal strength. As a sensor, RF signal strength measured indoors is non-linear with distance. So, there made the profiles of signal strength for points and used that. We wrote using function between signal strength profile and distance from the wireless Ethernet point.

Energy optimization in mobile sensor networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Shengwei

Mobile sensor networks are considered to consist of a network of mobile robots, each of which has computation, communication and sensing capabilities. Energy efficiency is a critical issue in mobile sensor networks, especially when mobility (i.e., locomotion control), routing (i.e., communications) and sensing are unique characteristics of mobile robots for energy optimization. This thesis focuses on the problem of energy optimization of mobile robotic sensor networks, and the research results can be extended to energy optimization of a network of mobile robots that monitors the environment, or a team of mobile robots that transports materials from stations to stations in a manufacturing environment. On the energy optimization of mobile robotic sensor networks, our research focuses on the investigation and development of distributed optimization algorithms to exploit the mobility of robotic sensor nodes for network lifetime maximization. In particular, the thesis studies these five problems: 1. Network-lifetime maximization by controlling positions of networked mobile sensor robots based on local information with distributed optimization algorithms; 2. Lifetime maximization of mobile sensor networks with energy harvesting modules; 3. Lifetime maximization using joint design of mobility and routing; 4. Optimal control for network energy minimization; 5. Network lifetime maximization in mobile visual sensor networks. In addressing the first problem, we consider only the mobility strategies of the robotic relay nodes in a mobile sensor network in order to maximize its network lifetime. By using variable substitutions, the original problem is converted into a convex problem, and a variant of the sub-gradient method for saddle-point computation is developed for solving this problem. An optimal solution is obtained by the method. Computer simulations show that mobility of robotic sensors can significantly prolong the lifetime of the whole robotic sensor network while consuming negligible amount of energy for mobility cost. For the second problem, the problem is extended to accommodate mobile robotic nodes with energy harvesting capability, which makes it a non-convex optimization problem. The non-convexity issue is tackled by using the existing sequential convex approximation method, based on which we propose a novel procedure of modified sequential convex approximation that has fast convergence speed. For the third problem, the proposed procedure is used to solve another challenging non-convex problem, which results in utilizing mobility and routing simultaneously in mobile robotic sensor networks to prolong the network lifetime. The results indicate that joint design of mobility and routing has an edge over other methods in prolonging network lifetime, which is also the justification for the use of mobility in mobile sensor networks for energy efficiency purpose. For the fourth problem, we include the dynamics of the robotic nodes in the problem by modeling the networked robotic system using hybrid systems theory. A novel distributed method for the networked hybrid system is used to solve the optimal moving trajectories for robotic nodes and optimal network links, which are not answered by previous approaches. Finally, the fact that mobility is more effective in prolonging network lifetime for a data-intensive network leads us to apply our methods to study mobile visual sensor networks, which are useful in many applications. We investigate the joint design of mobility, data routing, and encoding power to help improving the video quality while maximizing the network lifetime. This study leads to a better understanding of the role mobility can play in data-intensive surveillance sensor networks.

A salient region detection model combining background distribution measure for indoor robots.

PubMed

Li, Na; Xu, Hui; Wang, Zhenhua; Sun, Lining; Chen, Guodong

2017-01-01

Vision system plays an important role in the field of indoor robot. Saliency detection methods, capturing regions that are perceived as important, are used to improve the performance of visual perception system. Most of state-of-the-art methods for saliency detection, performing outstandingly in natural images, cannot work in complicated indoor environment. Therefore, we propose a new method comprised of graph-based RGB-D segmentation, primary saliency measure, background distribution measure, and combination. Besides, region roundness is proposed to describe the compactness of a region to measure background distribution more robustly. To validate the proposed approach, eleven influential methods are compared on the DSD and ECSSD dataset. Moreover, we build a mobile robot platform for application in an actual environment, and design three different kinds of experimental constructions that are different viewpoints, illumination variations and partial occlusions. Experimental results demonstrate that our model outperforms existing methods and is useful for indoor mobile robots.

Tandem mobile robot system

DOEpatents

Buttz, James H.; Shirey, David L.; Hayward, David R.

2003-01-01

A robotic vehicle system for terrain navigation mobility provides a way to climb stairs, cross crevices, and navigate across difficult terrain by coupling two or more mobile robots with a coupling device and controlling the robots cooperatively in tandem.

Using sensor habituation in mobile robots to reduce oscillatory movements in narrow corridors.

PubMed

Chang, Carolina

2005-11-01

Habituation is a form of nonassociative learning observed in a variety of species of animals. Arguably, it is the simplest form of learning. Nonetheless, the ability to habituate to certain stimuli implies plastic neural systems and adaptive behaviors. This paper describes how computational models of habituation can be applied to real robots. In particular, we discuss the problem of the oscillatory movements observed when a Khepera robot navigates through narrow hallways using a biologically inspired neurocontroller. Results show that habituation to the proximity of the walls can lead to smoother navigation. Habituation to sensory stimulation to the sides of the robot does not interfere with the robot's ability to turn at dead ends and to avoid obstacles outside the hallway. This paper shows that simple biological mechanisms of learning can be adapted to achieve better performance in real mobile robots.

Evaluation by Expert Dancers of a Robot That Performs Partnered Stepping via Haptic Interaction.

PubMed

Chen, Tiffany L; Bhattacharjee, Tapomayukh; McKay, J Lucas; Borinski, Jacquelyn E; Hackney, Madeleine E; Ting, Lena H; Kemp, Charles C

2015-01-01

Our long-term goal is to enable a robot to engage in partner dance for use in rehabilitation therapy, assessment, diagnosis, and scientific investigations of two-person whole-body motor coordination. Partner dance has been shown to improve balance and gait in people with Parkinson's disease and in older adults, which motivates our work. During partner dance, dance couples rely heavily on haptic interaction to convey motor intent such as speed and direction. In this paper, we investigate the potential for a wheeled mobile robot with a human-like upper-body to perform partnered stepping with people based on the forces applied to its end effectors. Blindfolded expert dancers (N=10) performed a forward/backward walking step to a recorded drum beat while holding the robot's end effectors. We varied the admittance gain of the robot's mobile base controller and the stiffness of the robot's arms. The robot followed the participants with low lag (M=224, SD=194 ms) across all trials. High admittance gain and high arm stiffness conditions resulted in significantly improved performance with respect to subjective and objective measures. Biomechanical measures such as the human hand to human sternum distance, center-of-mass of leader to center-of-mass of follower (CoM-CoM) distance, and interaction forces correlated with the expert dancers' subjective ratings of their interactions with the robot, which were internally consistent (Cronbach's α=0.92). In response to a final questionnaire, 1/10 expert dancers strongly agreed, 5/10 agreed, and 1/10 disagreed with the statement "The robot was a good follower." 2/10 strongly agreed, 3/10 agreed, and 2/10 disagreed with the statement "The robot was fun to dance with." The remaining participants were neutral with respect to these two questions.

Evaluation by Expert Dancers of a Robot That Performs Partnered Stepping via Haptic Interaction

PubMed Central

Chen, Tiffany L.; Bhattacharjee, Tapomayukh; McKay, J. Lucas; Borinski, Jacquelyn E.; Hackney, Madeleine E.; Ting, Lena H.; Kemp, Charles C.

2015-01-01

Our long-term goal is to enable a robot to engage in partner dance for use in rehabilitation therapy, assessment, diagnosis, and scientific investigations of two-person whole-body motor coordination. Partner dance has been shown to improve balance and gait in people with Parkinson's disease and in older adults, which motivates our work. During partner dance, dance couples rely heavily on haptic interaction to convey motor intent such as speed and direction. In this paper, we investigate the potential for a wheeled mobile robot with a human-like upper-body to perform partnered stepping with people based on the forces applied to its end effectors. Blindfolded expert dancers (N=10) performed a forward/backward walking step to a recorded drum beat while holding the robot's end effectors. We varied the admittance gain of the robot's mobile base controller and the stiffness of the robot's arms. The robot followed the participants with low lag (M=224, SD=194 ms) across all trials. High admittance gain and high arm stiffness conditions resulted in significantly improved performance with respect to subjective and objective measures. Biomechanical measures such as the human hand to human sternum distance, center-of-mass of leader to center-of-mass of follower (CoM-CoM) distance, and interaction forces correlated with the expert dancers' subjective ratings of their interactions with the robot, which were internally consistent (Cronbach's α=0.92). In response to a final questionnaire, 1/10 expert dancers strongly agreed, 5/10 agreed, and 1/10 disagreed with the statement "The robot was a good follower." 2/10 strongly agreed, 3/10 agreed, and 2/10 disagreed with the statement "The robot was fun to dance with." The remaining participants were neutral with respect to these two questions. PMID:25993099

The Personal Mobility and Manipulation Appliance (PerMMA): a robotic wheelchair with advanced mobility and manipulation.

PubMed

Wang, Hongwu; Grindle, Garrett G; Candiotti, Jorge; Chung, Chengshiu; Shino, Motoki; Houston, Elaine; Cooper, Rory A

2012-01-01

The Personal Mobility and Manipulation Appliance (PerMMA) is a recently developed personal assistance robot developed to provide people with disabilities and older adults enhanced assistance in both mobility and manipulation, which are two fundamental components for independently activities of daily life performing, community participation, and quality of life. Technologies to assist with mobility and manipulation are among the most important tools for clinicians, end users and caregivers; however, there are currently few systems that provide practical and coordinated assistance with mobility and manipulation tasks. The PerMMA was not only developed and evaluated to provide users and caregivers enhanced mobility and manipulation options, but also as a clinical tool as well as research platform. The development and evaluation of PerMMA are presented in the paper.

Optimization of power utilization in multimobile robot foraging behavior inspired by honeybees system.

PubMed

Ahmad, Faisul Arif; Ramli, Abd Rahman; Samsudin, Khairulmizam; Hashim, Shaiful Jahari

2014-01-01

Deploying large numbers of mobile robots which can interact with each other produces swarm intelligent behavior. However, mobile robots are normally running with finite energy resource, supplied from finite battery. The limitation of energy resource required human intervention for recharging the batteries. The sharing information among the mobile robots would be one of the potentials to overcome the limitation on previously recharging system. A new approach is proposed based on integrated intelligent system inspired by foraging of honeybees applied to multimobile robot scenario. This integrated approach caters for both working and foraging stages for known/unknown power station locations. Swarm mobile robot inspired by honeybee is simulated to explore and identify the power station for battery recharging. The mobile robots will share the location information of the power station with each other. The result showed that mobile robots consume less energy and less time when they are cooperating with each other for foraging process. The optimizing of foraging behavior would result in the mobile robots spending more time to do real work.

Optimization of Power Utilization in Multimobile Robot Foraging Behavior Inspired by Honeybees System

PubMed Central

Ahmad, Faisul Arif; Ramli, Abd Rahman; Samsudin, Khairulmizam; Hashim, Shaiful Jahari

2014-01-01

Deploying large numbers of mobile robots which can interact with each other produces swarm intelligent behavior. However, mobile robots are normally running with finite energy resource, supplied from finite battery. The limitation of energy resource required human intervention for recharging the batteries. The sharing information among the mobile robots would be one of the potentials to overcome the limitation on previously recharging system. A new approach is proposed based on integrated intelligent system inspired by foraging of honeybees applied to multimobile robot scenario. This integrated approach caters for both working and foraging stages for known/unknown power station locations. Swarm mobile robot inspired by honeybee is simulated to explore and identify the power station for battery recharging. The mobile robots will share the location information of the power station with each other. The result showed that mobile robots consume less energy and less time when they are cooperating with each other for foraging process. The optimizing of foraging behavior would result in the mobile robots spending more time to do real work. PMID:24949491

A Unified Approach to Motion Control of Motion Robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seraji, H.

1994-01-01

This paper presents a simple on-line approach for motion control of mobile robots made up of a manipulator arm mounted on a mobile base. The proposed approach is equally applicable to nonholonomic mobile robots, such as rover-mounted manipulators and to holonomic mobile robots such as tracked robots or compound manipulators. The computational efficiency of the proposed control scheme makes it particularly suitable for real-time implementation.

Laser-Based Pedestrian Tracking in Outdoor Environments by Multiple Mobile Robots

PubMed Central

Ozaki, Masataka; Kakimuma, Kei; Hashimoto, Masafumi; Takahashi, Kazuhiko

2012-01-01

This paper presents an outdoors laser-based pedestrian tracking system using a group of mobile robots located near each other. Each robot detects pedestrians from its own laser scan image using an occupancy-grid-based method, and the robot tracks the detected pedestrians via Kalman filtering and global-nearest-neighbor (GNN)-based data association. The tracking data is broadcast to multiple robots through intercommunication and is combined using the covariance intersection (CI) method. For pedestrian tracking, each robot identifies its own posture using real-time-kinematic GPS (RTK-GPS) and laser scan matching. Using our cooperative tracking method, all the robots share the tracking data with each other; hence, individual robots can always recognize pedestrians that are invisible to any other robot. The simulation and experimental results show that cooperating tracking provides the tracking performance better than conventional individual tracking does. Our tracking system functions in a decentralized manner without any central server, and therefore, this provides a degree of scalability and robustness that cannot be achieved by conventional centralized architectures. PMID:23202171

Adaptive tracking control of a wheeled mobile robot via an uncalibrated camera system.

PubMed

Dixon, W E; Dawson, D M; Zergeroglu, E; Behal, A

2001-01-01

This paper considers the problem of position/orientation tracking control of wheeled mobile robots via visual servoing in the presence of parametric uncertainty associated with the mechanical dynamics and the camera system. Specifically, we design an adaptive controller that compensates for uncertain camera and mechanical parameters and ensures global asymptotic position/orientation tracking. Simulation and experimental results are included to illustrate the performance of the control law.

Perspectives on mobile robots as tools for child development and pediatric rehabilitation.

PubMed

Michaud, François; Salter, Tamie; Duquette, Audrey; Laplante, Jean-François

2007-01-01

Mobile robots (i.e., robots capable of translational movements) can be designed to become interesting tools for child development studies and pediatric rehabilitation. In this article, the authors present two of their projects that involve mobile robots interacting with children: One is a spherical robot deployed in a variety of contexts, and the other is mobile robots used as pedagogical tools for children with pervasive developmental disorders. Locomotion capability appears to be key in creating meaningful and sustained interactions with children: Intentional and purposeful motion is an implicit appealing factor in obtaining children's attention and engaging them in interaction and learning. Both of these projects started with robotic objectives but are revealed to be rich sources of interdisciplinary collaborations in the field of assistive technology. This article presents perspectives on how mobile robots can be designed to address the requirements of child-robot interactions and studies. The authors also argue that mobile robot technology can be a useful tool in rehabilitation engineering, reaching its full potential through strong collaborations between roboticists and pediatric specialists.

Robotic Vehicle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1994-01-01

A commercially available ANDROS Mark V-A robot was used by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as the departure point in the development of the HAZBOT III, a prototype teleoperated mobile robot designed for response to emergencies. Teleoperated robots contribute significantly to reducing human injury levels by performing tasks too hazardous for humans. ANDROS' manufacturer, REMOTEC, Inc., in turn, adopted some of the JPL concepts, particularly the control panel. HAZBOT III has exceptional mobility, employs solid state electronics and brushless DC motors for safer operation, and is designed so combustible gases cannot penetrate areas containing electronics and motors. Other features include the six-degree-of-freedom manipulator, the 30-pound squeeze force parallel jaw gripper and two video cameras, one for general viewing and navigation and the other for manipulation/grasping.

The mechanical design of a humanoid robot with flexible skin sensor for use in psychiatric therapy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burns, Alec; Tadesse, Yonas

2014-03-01

In this paper, a humanoid robot is presented for ultimate use in the rehabilitation of children with mental disorders, such as autism. Creating affordable and efficient humanoids could assist the therapy in psychiatric disability by offering multimodal communication between the humanoid and humans. Yet, the humanoid development needs a seamless integration of artificial muscles, sensors, controllers and structures. We have designed a human-like robot that has 15 DOF, 580 mm tall and 925 mm arm span using a rapid prototyping system. The robot has a human-like appearance and movement. Flexible sensors around the arm and hands for safe human-robot interactions, and a two-wheel mobile platform for maneuverability are incorporated in the design. The robot has facial features for illustrating human-friendly behavior. The mechanical design of the robot and the characterization of the flexible sensors are presented. Comprehensive study on the upper body design, mobile base, actuators selection, electronics, and performance evaluation are included in this paper.

Development of intelligent robots - Achievements and issues

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nitzan, D.

1985-03-01

A flexible, intelligent robot is regarded as a general purpose machine system that may include effectors, sensors, computers, and auxiliary equipment and, like a human, can perform a variety of tasks under unpredictable conditions. Development of intelligent robots is essential for increasing the growth rate of today's robot population in industry and elsewhere. Robotics research and development topics include manipulation, end effectors, mobility, sensing (noncontact and contact), adaptive control, robot programming languages, and manufacturing process planning. Past achievements and current issues related to each of these topics are described briefly.

Controlling robots in the home: Factors that affect the performance of novice robot operators.

PubMed

McGinn, Conor; Sena, Aran; Kelly, Kevin

2017-11-01

For robots to successfully integrate into everyday life, it is important that they can be effectively controlled by laypeople. However, the task of manually controlling mobile robots can be challenging due to demanding cognitive and sensorimotor requirements. This research explores the effect that the built environment has on the manual control of domestic service robots. In this study, a virtual reality simulation of a domestic robot control scenario was developed. The performance of fifty novice users was evaluated, and their subjective experiences recorded through questionnaires. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis, it was found that untrained operators frequently perform poorly at navigation-based robot control tasks. The study found that passing through doorways accounted for the largest number of collisions, and was consistently identified as a very difficult operation to perform. These findings suggest that homes and other human-orientated settings present significant challenges to robot control. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A natural-language interface to a mobile robot

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Michalowski, S.; Crangle, C.; Liang, L.

1987-01-01

The present work on robot instructability is based on an ongoing effort to apply modern manipulation technology to serve the needs of the handicapped. The Stanford/VA Robotic Aid is a mobile manipulation system that is being developed to assist severely disabled persons (quadriplegics) in performing simple activities of everyday living in a homelike, unstructured environment. It consists of two major components: a nine degree-of-freedom manipulator and a stationary control console. In the work presented here, only the motions of the Robotic Aid's omnidirectional motion base have been considered, i.e., the six degrees of freedom of the arm and gripper have been ignored. The goal has been to develop some basic software tools for commanding the robot's motions in an enclosed room containing a few objects such as tables, chairs, and rugs. In the present work, the environmental model takes the form of a two-dimensional map with objects represented by polygons. Admittedly, such a highly simplified scheme bears little resemblance to the elaborate cognitive models of reality that are used in normal human discourse. In particular, the polygonal model is given a priori and does not contain any perceptual elements: there is no polygon sensor on board the mobile robot.

Symmetric caging formation for convex polygonal object transportation by multiple mobile robots based on fuzzy sliding mode control.

PubMed

Dai, Yanyan; Kim, YoonGu; Wee, SungGil; Lee, DongHa; Lee, SukGyu

2016-01-01

In this paper, the problem of object caging and transporting is considered for multiple mobile robots. With the consideration of minimizing the number of robots and decreasing the rotation of the object, the proper points are calculated and assigned to the multiple mobile robots to allow them to form a symmetric caging formation. The caging formation guarantees that all of the Euclidean distances between any two adjacent robots are smaller than the minimal width of the polygonal object so that the object cannot escape. In order to avoid collision among robots, the parameter of the robots radius is utilized to design the caging formation, and the A⁎ algorithm is used so that mobile robots can move to the proper points. In order to avoid obstacles, the robots and the object are regarded as a rigid body to apply artificial potential field method. The fuzzy sliding mode control method is applied for tracking control of the nonholonomic mobile robots. Finally, the simulation and experimental results show that multiple mobile robots are able to cage and transport the polygonal object to the goal position, avoiding obstacles. Copyright © 2015 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Autonomous mobile robot research using the HERMIES-III robot

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pin, F.G.; Beckerman, M.; Spelt, P.F.

1989-01-01

This paper reports on the status and future directions in the research, development and experimental validation of intelligent control techniques for autonomous mobile robots using the HERMIES-III robot at the Center for Engineering Systems Advanced research (CESAR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). HERMIES-III is the fourth robot in a series of increasingly more sophisticated and capable experimental test beds developed at CESAR. HERMIES-III is comprised of a battery powered, onmi-directional wheeled platform with a seven degree-of-freedom manipulator arm, video cameras, sonar range sensors, laser imaging scanner and a dual computer system containing up to 128 NCUBE nodes in hypercubemore » configuration. All electronics, sensors, computers, and communication equipment required for autonomous operation of HERMIES-III are located on board along with sufficient battery power for three to four hours of operation. The paper first provides a more detailed description of the HERMIES-III characteristics, focussing on the new areas of research and demonstration now possible at CESAR with this new test-bed. The initial experimental program is then described with emphasis placed on autonomous performance of human-scale tasks (e.g., valve manipulation, use of tools), integration of a dexterous manipulator and platform motion in geometrically complex environments, and effective use of multiple cooperating robots (HERMIES-IIB and HERMIES- III). The paper concludes with a discussion of the integration problems and safety considerations necessarily arising from the set-up of an experimental program involving human-scale, multi-autonomous mobile robots performance. 10 refs., 3 figs.« less

Web Environment for Programming and Control of a Mobile Robot in a Remote Laboratory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

dos Santos Lopes, Maísa Soares; Gomes, Iago Pacheco; Trindade, Roque M. P.; da Silva, Alzira F.; de C. Lima, Antonio C.

2017-01-01

Remote robotics laboratories have been successfully used for engineering education. However, few of them use mobile robots to to teach computer science. This article describes a mobile robot Control and Programming Environment (CPE) and its pedagogical applications. The system comprises a remote laboratory for robotics, an online programming tool,…

Design of an HF-Band RFID System with Multiple Readers and Passive Tags for Indoor Mobile Robot Self-Localization

PubMed Central

Mi, Jian; Takahashi, Yasutake

2016-01-01

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has already been explored for efficient self-localization of indoor mobile robots. A mobile robot equipped with RFID readers detects passive RFID tags installed on the floor in order to locate itself. The Monte-Carlo localization (MCL) method enables the localization of a mobile robot equipped with an RFID system with reasonable accuracy, sufficient robustness and low computational cost. The arrangements of RFID readers and tags and the size of antennas are important design parameters for realizing accurate and robust self-localization using a low-cost RFID system. The design of a likelihood model of RFID tag detection is also crucial for the accurate self-localization. This paper presents a novel design and arrangement of RFID readers and tags for indoor mobile robot self-localization. First, by considering small-sized and large-sized antennas of an RFID reader, we show how the design of the likelihood model affects the accuracy of self-localization. We also design a novel likelihood model by taking into consideration the characteristics of the communication range of an RFID system with a large antenna. Second, we propose a novel arrangement of RFID tags with eight RFID readers, which results in the RFID system configuration requiring much fewer readers and tags while retaining reasonable accuracy of self-localization. We verify the performances of MCL-based self-localization realized using the high-frequency (HF)-band RFID system with eight RFID readers and a lower density of RFID tags installed on the floor based on MCL in simulated and real environments. The results of simulations and real environment experiments demonstrate that our proposed low-cost HF-band RFID system realizes accurate and robust self-localization of an indoor mobile robot. PMID:27483279

Design of an HF-Band RFID System with Multiple Readers and Passive Tags for Indoor Mobile Robot Self-Localization.

PubMed

Mi, Jian; Takahashi, Yasutake

2016-07-29

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has already been explored for efficient self-localization of indoor mobile robots. A mobile robot equipped with RFID readers detects passive RFID tags installed on the floor in order to locate itself. The Monte-Carlo localization (MCL) method enables the localization of a mobile robot equipped with an RFID system with reasonable accuracy, sufficient robustness and low computational cost. The arrangements of RFID readers and tags and the size of antennas are important design parameters for realizing accurate and robust self-localization using a low-cost RFID system. The design of a likelihood model of RFID tag detection is also crucial for the accurate self-localization. This paper presents a novel design and arrangement of RFID readers and tags for indoor mobile robot self-localization. First, by considering small-sized and large-sized antennas of an RFID reader, we show how the design of the likelihood model affects the accuracy of self-localization. We also design a novel likelihood model by taking into consideration the characteristics of the communication range of an RFID system with a large antenna. Second, we propose a novel arrangement of RFID tags with eight RFID readers, which results in the RFID system configuration requiring much fewer readers and tags while retaining reasonable accuracy of self-localization. We verify the performances of MCL-based self-localization realized using the high-frequency (HF)-band RFID system with eight RFID readers and a lower density of RFID tags installed on the floor based on MCL in simulated and real environments. The results of simulations and real environment experiments demonstrate that our proposed low-cost HF-band RFID system realizes accurate and robust self-localization of an indoor mobile robot.

Context recognition and situation assessment in autonomous mobile robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yavnai, Arie

1993-05-01

The capability to recognize the operating context and to assess the situation in real-time is needed, if a high functionality autonomous mobile robot has to react properly and effectively to continuously changing situations and events, either external or internal, while the robot is performing its assigned tasks. A new approach and architecture for context recognition and situation assessment module (CORSA) is presented in this paper. CORSA is a multi-level information processing module which consists of adaptive decision and classification algorithms. It performs dynamic mapping from the data space to the context space, and dynamically decides on the context class. Learning mechanism is employed to update the decision variables so as to minimize the probability of misclassification. CORSA is embedded within the Mission Manager module of the intelligent autonomous hyper-controller (IAHC) of the mobile robot. The information regarding operating context, events and situation is then communicated to other modules of the IAHC where it is used to: (a) select the appropriate action strategy; (b) support the processes to arbitration and conflict resolution between reflexive behaviors and reasoning-driven behaviors; (c) predict future events and situations; and (d) determine criteria and priorities for planning, replanning, and decision making.

A review of physical security robotics at Sandia National Laboratories

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Roerig, S.C.

1990-01-01

As an outgrowth of research into physical security technologies, Sandia is investigating the role of robotics in security systems. Robotics may allow more effective utilization of guard forces, especially in scenarios where personnel would be exposed to harmful environments. Robots can provide intrusion detection and assessment functions for failed sensors or transient assets, can test existing fixed site sensors, and can gather additional intelligence and dispense delaying elements. The Robotic Security Vehicle (RSV) program for DOE/OSS is developing a fieldable prototype for an exterior physical security robot based upon a commercial four wheel drive vehicle. The RSV will be capablemore » of driving itself, being driven remotely, or being driven by an onboard operator around a site and will utilize its sensors to alert an operator to unusual conditions. The Remote Security Station (RSS) program for the Defense Nuclear Agency is developing a proof-of-principle robotic system which will be used to evaluate the role, and associated cost, of robotic technologies in exterior security systems. The RSS consists of an independent sensor pod, a mobile sensor platform and a control and display console. Sensor data fusion is used to optimize the system's intrusion detection performance. These programs are complementary, the RSV concentrates on developing autonomous mobility, while the RSS thrust is on mobile sensor employment. 3 figs.« less

Testbed for remote telepresence research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adnan, Sarmad; Cheatham, John B., Jr.

1992-11-01

Teleoperated robots offer solutions to problems associated with operations in remote and unknown environments, such as space. Teleoperated robots can perform tasks related to inspection, maintenance, and retrieval. A video camera can be used to provide some assistance in teleoperations, but for fine manipulation and control, a telepresence system that gives the operator a sense of actually being at the remote location is more desirable. A telepresence system comprised of a head-tracking stereo camera system, a kinematically redundant arm, and an omnidirectional mobile robot has been developed at the mechanical engineering department at Rice University. This paper describes the design and implementation of this system, its control hardware, and software. The mobile omnidirectional robot has three independent degrees of freedom that permit independent control of translation and rotation, thereby simulating a free flying robot in a plane. The kinematically redundant robot arm has eight degrees of freedom that assist in obstacle and singularity avoidance. The on-board control computers permit control of the robot from the dual hand controllers via a radio modem system. A head-mounted display system provides the user with a stereo view from a pair of cameras attached to the mobile robotics system. The head tracking camera system moves stereo cameras mounted on a three degree of freedom platform to coordinate with the operator's head movements. This telepresence system provides a framework for research in remote telepresence, and teleoperations for space.

The Design and Development of an Omni-Directional Mobile Robot Oriented to an Intelligent Manufacturing System

PubMed Central

Qian, Jun; Zi, Bin; Ma, Yangang; Zhang, Dan

2017-01-01

In order to transport materials flexibly and smoothly in a tight plant environment, an omni-directional mobile robot based on four Mecanum wheels was designed. The mechanical system of the mobile robot is made up of three separable layers so as to simplify its combination and reorganization. Each modularized wheel was installed on a vertical suspension mechanism, which ensures the moving stability and keeps the distances of four wheels invariable. The control system consists of two-level controllers that implement motion control and multi-sensor data processing, respectively. In order to make the mobile robot navigate in an unknown semi-structured indoor environment, the data from a Kinect visual sensor and four wheel encoders were fused to localize the mobile robot using an extended Kalman filter with specific processing. Finally, the mobile robot was integrated in an intelligent manufacturing system for material conveying. Experimental results show that the omni-directional mobile robot can move stably and autonomously in an indoor environment and in industrial fields. PMID:28891964

The Design and Development of an Omni-Directional Mobile Robot Oriented to an Intelligent Manufacturing System.

PubMed

Qian, Jun; Zi, Bin; Wang, Daoming; Ma, Yangang; Zhang, Dan

2017-09-10

In order to transport materials flexibly and smoothly in a tight plant environment, an omni-directional mobile robot based on four Mecanum wheels was designed. The mechanical system of the mobile robot is made up of three separable layers so as to simplify its combination and reorganization. Each modularized wheel was installed on a vertical suspension mechanism, which ensures the moving stability and keeps the distances of four wheels invariable. The control system consists of two-level controllers that implement motion control and multi-sensor data processing, respectively. In order to make the mobile robot navigate in an unknown semi-structured indoor environment, the data from a Kinect visual sensor and four wheel encoders were fused to localize the mobile robot using an extended Kalman filter with specific processing. Finally, the mobile robot was integrated in an intelligent manufacturing system for material conveying. Experimental results show that the omni-directional mobile robot can move stably and autonomously in an indoor environment and in industrial fields.

Control of wheeled mobile robot in restricted environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ali, Mohammed A. H.; En, Chang Yong

2018-03-01

This paper presents a simulation and practical control system for wheeled mobile robot in restricted environment. A wheeled mobile robot with 3 wheels is fabricated and controlled by proportional derivative active force control (PD-AFC) to move in a pre-planned restricted environment to maintain the tracking errors at zero level. A control system with two loops, outer by PD controller and inner loop by Active Force Control, are designed to control the wheeled mobile robot. Fuzzy logic controller is implemented in the Active force Control to estimate the inertia matrix that will be used to calculate the actual torque applied on the wheeled mobile robot. The mobile robot is tested in two different trajectories, namely are circular and straight path. The actual path and desired path are compared.

A Mobile Robot for Locomotion Through a 3D Periodic Lattice Environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jenett, Benjamin; Cellucci, Daniel; Cheung, Kenneth

2017-01-01

This paper describes a novel class of robots specifically adapted to climb periodic lattices, which we call 'Relative Robots'. These robots use the regularity of the structure to simplify the path planning, align with minimal feedback, and reduce the number of degrees of freedom (DOF) required to locomote. They can perform vital inspection and repair tasks within the structure that larger truss construction robots could not perform without modifying the structure. We detail a specific type of relative robot designed to traverse a cuboctahedral (CubOct) cellular solids lattice, show how the symmetries of the lattice simplify the design, and test these design methodologies with a CubOct relative robot that traverses a 76.2 mm (3 in.) pitch lattice, MOJO (Multi-Objective JOurneying robot). We perform three locomotion tasks with MOJO: vertical climbing, horizontal climbing, and turning, and find that, due to changes in the orientation of the robot relative to the gravity vector, the success rate of vertical and horizontal climbing is significantly different.

A Low Cost Mobile Robot Based on Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) Control System and Odometer for Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haq, R.; Prayitno, H.; Dzulkiflih; Sucahyo, I.; Rahmawati, E.

2018-03-01

In this article, the development of a low cost mobile robot based on PID controller and odometer for education is presented. PID controller and odometer is applied for controlling mobile robot position. Two-dimensional position vector in cartesian coordinate system have been inserted to robot controller as an initial and final position. Mobile robot has been made based on differential drive and sensor magnetic rotary encoder which measured robot position from a number of wheel rotation. Odometry methode use data from actuator movements for predicting change of position over time. The mobile robot is examined to get final position with three different heading angle 30°, 45° and 60° by applying various value of KP, KD and KI constant.

Research state-of-the-art of mobile robots in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Lin; Zhao, Jinglun; Zhang, Peng; Li, Shiqing

1991-03-01

Several newly developed mobile robots in china are described in the paper. It includes masterslave telerobot sixleged robot biped walking robot remote inspection robot crawler moving robot and autonomous mobi le vehicle . Some relevant technology are also described.

Fundamentals of soft robot locomotion

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Soft robotics and its related technologies enable robot abilities in several robotics domains including, but not exclusively related to, manipulation, manufacturing, human–robot interaction and locomotion. Although field applications have emerged for soft manipulation and human–robot interaction, mobile soft robots appear to remain in the research stage, involving the somehow conflictual goals of having a deformable body and exerting forces on the environment to achieve locomotion. This paper aims to provide a reference guide for researchers approaching mobile soft robotics, to describe the underlying principles of soft robot locomotion with its pros and cons, and to envisage applications and further developments for mobile soft robotics. PMID:28539483

Fundamentals of soft robot locomotion.

PubMed

Calisti, M; Picardi, G; Laschi, C

2017-05-01

Soft robotics and its related technologies enable robot abilities in several robotics domains including, but not exclusively related to, manipulation, manufacturing, human-robot interaction and locomotion. Although field applications have emerged for soft manipulation and human-robot interaction, mobile soft robots appear to remain in the research stage, involving the somehow conflictual goals of having a deformable body and exerting forces on the environment to achieve locomotion. This paper aims to provide a reference guide for researchers approaching mobile soft robotics, to describe the underlying principles of soft robot locomotion with its pros and cons, and to envisage applications and further developments for mobile soft robotics. © 2017 The Author(s).

Performance analysis of jump-gliding locomotion for miniature robotics.

PubMed

Vidyasagar, A; Zufferey, Jean-Christohphe; Floreano, Dario; Kovač, M

2015-03-26

Recent work suggests that jumping locomotion in combination with a gliding phase can be used as an effective mobility principle in robotics. Compared to pure jumping without a gliding phase, the potential benefits of hybrid jump-gliding locomotion includes the ability to extend the distance travelled and reduce the potentially damaging impact forces upon landing. This publication evaluates the performance of jump-gliding locomotion and provides models for the analysis of the relevant dynamics of flight. It also defines a jump-gliding envelope that encompasses the range that can be achieved with jump-gliding robots and that can be used to evaluate the performance and improvement potential of jump-gliding robots. We present first a planar dynamic model and then a simplified closed form model, which allow for quantification of the distance travelled and the impact energy on landing. In order to validate the prediction of these models, we validate the model with experiments using a novel jump-gliding robot, named the 'EPFL jump-glider'. It has a mass of 16.5 g and is able to perform jumps from elevated positions, perform steered gliding flight, land safely and traverse on the ground by repetitive jumping. The experiments indicate that the developed jump-gliding model fits very well with the measured flight data using the EPFL jump-glider, confirming the benefits of jump-gliding locomotion to mobile robotics. The jump-glide envelope considerations indicate that the EPFL jump-glider, when traversing from a 2 m height, reaches 74.3% of optimal jump-gliding distance compared to pure jumping without a gliding phase which only reaches 33.4% of the optimal jump-gliding distance. Methods of further improving flight performance based on the models and inspiration from biological systems are presented providing mechanical design pathways to future jump-gliding robot designs.

Meeting the challenges of installing a mobile robotic system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Decorte, Celeste

1994-01-01

The challenges of integrating a mobile robotic system into an application environment are many. Most problems inherent to installing the mobile robotic system fall into one of three categories: (1) the physical environment - location(s) where, and conditions under which, the mobile robotic system will work; (2) the technological environment - external equipment with which the mobile robotic system will interact; and (3) the human environment - personnel who will operate and interact with the mobile robotic system. The successful integration of a mobile robotic system into these three types of application environment requires more than a good pair of pliers. The tools for this job include: careful planning, accurate measurement data (as-built drawings), complete technical data of systems to be interfaced, sufficient time and attention of key personnel for training on how to operate and program the robot, on-site access during installation, and a thorough understanding and appreciation - by all concerned - of the mobile robotic system's role in the security mission at the site, as well as the machine's capabilities and limitations. Patience, luck, and a sense of humor are also useful tools to keep handy during a mobile robotic system installation. This paper will discuss some specific examples of problems in each of three categories, and explore approaches to solving these problems. The discussion will draw from the author's experience with on-site installations of mobile robotic systems in various applications. Most of the information discussed in this paper has come directly from knowledge learned during installations of Cybermotion's SR2 security robots. A large part of the discussion will apply to any vehicle with a drive system, collision avoidance, and navigation sensors, which is, of course, what makes a vehicle autonomous. And it is with these sensors and a drive system that the installer must become familiar in order to foresee potential trouble areas in the physical, technical, and human environment.

Task automation in a successful industrial telerobot

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spelt, Philip F.; Jones, Sammy L.

1994-01-01

In this paper, we discuss cooperative work by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Remotec, Inc., to automate components of the operator's workload using Remotec's Andros telerobot, thereby providing an enhanced user interface which can be retrofit to existing fielded units as well as being incorporated into new production units. Remotec's Andros robots are presently used by numerous electric utilities to perform tasks in reactors where substantial exposure to radiation exists, as well as by the armed forces and numerous law enforcement agencies. The automation of task components, as well as the video graphics display of the robot's position in the environment, will enhance all tasks performed by these users, as well as enabling performance in terrain where the robots cannot presently perform due to lack of knowledge about, for instance, the degree of tilt of the robot. Enhanced performance of a successful industrial mobile robot leads to increased safety and efficiency of performance in hazardous environments. The addition of these capabilities will greatly enhance the utility of the robot, as well as its marketability.

Embodied Computation: An Active-Learning Approach to Mobile Robotics Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riek, L. D.

2013-01-01

This paper describes a newly designed upper-level undergraduate and graduate course, Autonomous Mobile Robots. The course employs active, cooperative, problem-based learning and is grounded in the fundamental computational problems in mobile robotics defined by Dudek and Jenkin. Students receive a broad survey of robotics through lectures, weekly…

Addressing the Movement of a Freescale Robotic Car Using Neural Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Horváth, Dušan; Cuninka, Peter

2016-12-01

This article deals with the management of a Freescale small robotic car along the predefined guide line. Controlling of the direction of movement of the robot is performed by neural networks, and scales (memory) of neurons are calculated by Hebbian learning from the truth tables as learning with a teacher. Reflexive infrared sensors serves as inputs. The results are experiments, which are used to compare two methods of mobile robot control - tracking lines.

Dynamical network interactions in distributed control of robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buscarino, Arturo; Fortuna, Luigi; Frasca, Mattia; Rizzo, Alessandro

2006-03-01

In this paper the dynamical network model of the interactions within a group of mobile robots is investigated and proposed as a possible strategy for controlling the robots without central coordination. Motivated by the results of the analysis of our simple model, we show that the system performance in the presence of noise can be improved by including long-range connections between the robots. Finally, a suitable strategy based on this model to control exploration and transport is introduced.

Integrating obstacle avoidance, global path planning, visual cue detection, and landmark triangulation in a mobile robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kortenkamp, David; Huber, Marcus J.; Congdon, Clare B.; Huffman, Scott B.; Bidlack, Clint R.; Cohen, Charles J.; Koss, Frank V.; Raschke, Ulrich; Weymouth, Terry E.

1993-05-01

This paper describes the design and implementation of an integrated system for combining obstacle avoidance, path planning, landmark detection and position triangulation. Such an integrated system allows the robot to move from place to place in an environment, avoiding obstacles and planning its way out of traps, while maintaining its position and orientation using distinctive landmarks. The task the robot performs is to search a 22 m X 22 m arena for 10 distinctive objects, visiting each object in turn. This same task was recently performed by a dozen different robots at a competition in which the robot described in this paper finished first.

Toward a practical mobile robotic aid system for people with severe physical disabilities.

PubMed

Regalbuto, M A; Krouskop, T A; Cheatham, J B

1992-01-01

A simple, relatively inexpensive robotic system that can aid severely disabled persons by providing pick-and-place manipulative abilities to augment the functions of human or trained animal assistants is under development at Rice University and the Baylor College of Medicine. A stand-alone software application program runs on a Macintosh personal computer and provides the user with a selection of interactive windows for commanding the mobile robot via cursor action. A HERO 2000 robot has been modified such that its workspace extends from the floor to tabletop heights, and the robot is interfaced to a Macintosh SE via a wireless communications link for untethered operation. Integrated into the system are hardware and software which allow the user to control household appliances in addition to the robot. A separate Machine Control Interface device converts breath action and head or other three-dimensional motion inputs into cursor signals. Preliminary in-home and laboratory testing has demonstrated the utility of the system to perform useful navigational and manipulative tasks.

[Mobile autonomous robots-Possibilities and limits].

PubMed

Maehle, E; Brockmann, W; Walthelm, A

2002-02-01

Besides industrial robots, which today are firmly established in production processes, service robots are becoming more and more important. They shall provide services for humans in different areas of their professional and everyday environment including medicine. Most of these service robots are mobile which requires an intelligent autonomous behaviour. After characterising the different kinds of robots the relevant paradigms of intelligent autonomous behaviour for mobile robots are critically discussed in this paper and illustrated by three concrete examples of robots realized in Lübeck. In addition a short survey of actual kinds of surgical robots as well as an outlook to future developments is given.

Design, Simulation, Fabrication and Testing of a Bio-Inspired Amphibious Robot with Multiple Modes of Mobility

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-01-01

performance. Ob- stacle climbing using the tail is compared to results from a previous robot with a posterior body segment and body flexion joint. Actual...3. Mechanisms of Locomotion for Multi-Modal Mobility 3.1. Gate and Tail Design Demands of multi-modal locomotion motivated a quadruped design for...tail instead of a rear body segment simplifies waterproofing design requirements and adds stability both on land and in water. This new morphology is

Unified Approach To Control Of Motions Of Mobile Robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seraji, Homayoun

1995-01-01

Improved computationally efficient scheme developed for on-line coordinated control of both manipulation and mobility of robots that include manipulator arms mounted on mobile bases. Present scheme similar to one described in "Coordinated Control of Mobile Robotic Manipulators" (NPO-19109). Both schemes based on configuration-control formalism. Present one incorporates explicit distinction between holonomic and nonholonomic constraints. Several other prior articles in NASA Tech Briefs discussed aspects of configuration-control formalism. These include "Increasing the Dexterity of Redundant Robots" (NPO-17801), "Redundant Robot Can Avoid Obstacles" (NPO-17852), "Configuration-Control Scheme Copes with Singularities" (NPO-18556), "More Uses for Configuration Control of Robots" (NPO-18607/NPO-18608).

A novel traveling wave piezoelectric actuated tracked mobile robot utilizing friction effect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Liang; Shu, Chengyou; Jin, Jiamei; Zhang, Jianhui

2017-03-01

A novel traveling wave piezoelectric-actuated tracked mobile robot with potential application to robotic rovers was proposed and investigated in this study. The proposed tracked mobile robot is composed of a parallelogram-frame-structure piezoelectric transducer with four rings and a metal track. Utilizing the converse piezoelectric and friction effects, traveling waves were propagated in the rings and then the metal track was actuated by the piezoelectric transducer. Compared with traditional tracked mechanisms, the proposed tracked mobile robot has a simpler and more compact structure without lubricant, which eliminates the problem of lubricant volatilization and deflation, thus, it could be operated in the vacuum environment. Dynamic characteristics were simulated and measured to reveal the mechanism of actuating track of the piezoelectric transducer. Experimental investigations of the traveling wave piezoelectric-actuated tracked mobile robot were then carried out, and the results indicated that the robot prototype with a pair of exciting voltages of 460 Vpp is able to achieve a maximum velocity of 57 mm s-1 moving on the foam plate and possesses the obstacle crossing capability with a maximum height of 27 mm. The proposed tracked mobile robot exhibits potential to be the driving system of robotic rovers.

Robust multiperson detection and tracking for mobile service and social robots.

PubMed

Li, Liyuan; Yan, Shuicheng; Yu, Xinguo; Tan, Yeow Kee; Li, Haizhou

2012-10-01

This paper proposes an efficient system which integrates multiple vision models for robust multiperson detection and tracking for mobile service and social robots in public environments. The core technique is a novel maximum likelihood (ML)-based algorithm which combines the multimodel detections in mean-shift tracking. First, a likelihood probability which integrates detections and similarity to local appearance is defined. Then, an expectation-maximization (EM)-like mean-shift algorithm is derived under the ML framework. In each iteration, the E-step estimates the associations to the detections, and the M-step locates the new position according to the ML criterion. To be robust to the complex crowded scenarios for multiperson tracking, an improved sequential strategy to perform the mean-shift tracking is proposed. Under this strategy, human objects are tracked sequentially according to their priority order. To balance the efficiency and robustness for real-time performance, at each stage, the first two objects from the list of the priority order are tested, and the one with the higher score is selected. The proposed method has been successfully implemented on real-world service and social robots. The vision system integrates stereo-based and histograms-of-oriented-gradients-based human detections, occlusion reasoning, and sequential mean-shift tracking. Various examples to show the advantages and robustness of the proposed system for multiperson tracking from mobile robots are presented. Quantitative evaluations on the performance of multiperson tracking are also performed. Experimental results indicate that significant improvements have been achieved by using the proposed method.

Robot flow, clogging and jamming in confined spaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Monaenkova, Daria; Linevich, Vadim; Goodisman, Michael A. D.; Goldman, Daniel I.

We hypothesized that when a collection of robots operate in confined space, maximization of individual effort could negatively affect the collective performance by impeding the mobility of the individuals. To test our hypothesis, we built and programmed groups of 1-4 autonomous robotic diggers to construct a tunnel in a model cohesive soil. The robots' mobility, defined in terms of the residence time (T) required for a robot to move one body-length within the tunnel, was compared between groups of maximally active robots (mode 1), groups with different levels of activity between individuals (mode 2), and maximally active robots with a ``giving up'' behavior (mode 3), in which the robot ceased the attempt to excavate in a crowded tunnel. In small groups of two robots, T was ~3 sec and did not depend on the mode of operation. However, an increase in the number of robots caused an increase in T which depended upon mode. The residence time in groups of four robots in mode 1 (~9 sec) significantly exceeded the residence time in mode 2 and 3 (~4 sec), indicating that crowding was causing slower movement of individuals, particularly under maximum effort (mode 1). We will use our robophysical studies to discover principles of collective construction in subterranean social animals.

Modular Track System For Positioning Mobile Robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miller, Jeff

1995-01-01

Conceptual system for positioning mobile robotic manipulators on large main structure includes modular tracks and ancillary structures assembled easily along with main structure. System, called "tracked robotic location system" (TROLS), originally intended for application to platforms in outer space, but TROLS concept might also prove useful on Earth; for example, to position robots in factories and warehouses. T-cross-section rail keeps mobile robot on track. Bar codes mark locations along track. Each robot equipped with bar-code-recognizing circuitry so it quickly finds way to assigned location.

Long-Term Simultaneous Localization and Mapping in Dynamic Environments

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-01

core competencies required for autonomous mobile robotics is the ability to use sensors to perceive the environment. From this noisy sensor data, the...and mapping (SLAM), is a prerequisite for almost all higher-level autonomous behavior in mobile robotics. By associating the robot???s sensory...distributed stochastic neighbor embedding x ABSTRACT One of the core competencies required for autonomous mobile robotics is the ability to use sensors

Three-dimensional sensor system using multistripe laser and stereo camera for environment recognition of mobile robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Min Young; Cho, Hyung Suck; Kim, Jae H.

2002-10-01

In recent years, intelligent autonomous mobile robots have drawn tremendous interests as service robots for serving human or industrial robots for replacing human. To carry out the task, robots must be able to sense and recognize 3D space that they live or work. In this paper, we deal with the topic related to 3D sensing system for the environment recognition of mobile robots. For this, the structured lighting is basically utilized for a 3D visual sensor system because of the robustness on the nature of the navigation environment and the easy extraction of feature information of interest. The proposed sensing system is classified into a trinocular vision system, which is composed of the flexible multi-stripe laser projector, and two cameras. The principle of extracting the 3D information is based on the optical triangulation method. With modeling the projector as another camera and using the epipolar constraints which the whole cameras makes, the point-to-point correspondence between the line feature points in each image is established. In this work, the principle of this sensor is described in detail, and a series of experimental tests is performed to show the simplicity and efficiency and accuracy of this sensor system for 3D the environment sensing and recognition.

A Simple Interface for 3D Position Estimation of a Mobile Robot with Single Camera

PubMed Central

Chao, Chun-Tang; Chung, Ming-Hsuan; Chiou, Juing-Shian; Wang, Chi-Jo

2016-01-01

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of mobile robots controlled by a smart phone or tablet. This paper proposes a visual control interface for a mobile robot with a single camera to easily control the robot actions and estimate the 3D position of a target. In this proposal, the mobile robot employed an Arduino Yun as the core processor and was remote-controlled by a tablet with an Android operating system. In addition, the robot was fitted with a three-axis robotic arm for grasping. Both the real-time control signal and video transmission are transmitted via Wi-Fi. We show that with a properly calibrated camera and the proposed prototype procedures, the users can click on a desired position or object on the touchscreen and estimate its 3D coordinates in the real world by simple analytic geometry instead of a complicated algorithm. The results of the measurement verification demonstrates that this approach has great potential for mobile robots. PMID:27023556

Adding navigation, artificial audition and vital sign monitoring capabilities to a telepresence mobile robot for remote home care applications.

PubMed

Laniel, Sebastien; Letourneau, Dominic; Labbe, Mathieu; Grondin, Francois; Polgar, Janice; Michaud, Francois

2017-07-01

A telepresence mobile robot is a remote-controlled, wheeled device with wireless internet connectivity for bidirectional audio, video and data transmission. In health care, a telepresence robot could be used to have a clinician or a caregiver assist seniors in their homes without having to travel to these locations. Many mobile telepresence robotic platforms have recently been introduced on the market, bringing mobility to telecommunication and vital sign monitoring at reasonable costs. What is missing for making them effective remote telepresence systems for home care assistance are capabilities specifically needed to assist the remote operator in controlling the robot and perceiving the environment through the robot's sensors or, in other words, minimizing cognitive load and maximizing situation awareness. This paper describes our approach adding navigation, artificial audition and vital sign monitoring capabilities to a commercially available telepresence mobile robot. This requires the use of a robot control architecture to integrate the autonomous and teleoperation capabilities of the platform.

A Simple Interface for 3D Position Estimation of a Mobile Robot with Single Camera.

PubMed

Chao, Chun-Tang; Chung, Ming-Hsuan; Chiou, Juing-Shian; Wang, Chi-Jo

2016-03-25

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of mobile robots controlled by a smart phone or tablet. This paper proposes a visual control interface for a mobile robot with a single camera to easily control the robot actions and estimate the 3D position of a target. In this proposal, the mobile robot employed an Arduino Yun as the core processor and was remote-controlled by a tablet with an Android operating system. In addition, the robot was fitted with a three-axis robotic arm for grasping. Both the real-time control signal and video transmission are transmitted via Wi-Fi. We show that with a properly calibrated camera and the proposed prototype procedures, the users can click on a desired position or object on the touchscreen and estimate its 3D coordinates in the real world by simple analytic geometry instead of a complicated algorithm. The results of the measurement verification demonstrates that this approach has great potential for mobile robots.

A Microfluidics-HPLC/Differential Mobility Spectrometer Macromolecular Detection System for Human and Robotic Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coy, S. L.; Killeen, K.; Han, J.; Eiceman, G. A.; Kanik, I.; Kidd, R. D.

2011-01-01

Our goal is to develop a unique, miniaturized, solute analyzer based on microfluidics technology. The analyzer consists of an integrated microfluidics High Performance Liquid Chromatographic chip / Differential Mobility Spectrometer (?HPLCchip/ DMS) detection system

A simple highly efficient non invasive EMG-based HMI.

PubMed

Vitiello, N; Olcese, U; Oddo, C M; Carpaneto, J; Micera, S; Carrozza, M C; Dario, P

2006-01-01

Muscle activity recorded non-invasively is sufficient to control a mobile robot if it is used in combination with an algorithm for its asynchronous analysis. In this paper, we show that several subjects successfully can control the movements of a robot in a structured environment made up of six rooms by contracting two different muscles using a simple algorithm. After a small training period, subjects were able to control the robot with performances comparable to those achieved manually controlling the robot.

Human-Centered Design and Evaluation of Haptic Cueing for Teleoperation of Multiple Mobile Robots.

PubMed

Son, Hyoung Il; Franchi, Antonio; Chuang, Lewis L; Kim, Junsuk; Bulthoff, Heinrich H; Giordano, Paolo Robuffo

2013-04-01

In this paper, we investigate the effect of haptic cueing on a human operator's performance in the field of bilateral teleoperation of multiple mobile robots, particularly multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Two aspects of human performance are deemed important in this area, namely, the maneuverability of mobile robots and the perceptual sensitivity of the remote environment. We introduce metrics that allow us to address these aspects in two psychophysical studies, which are reported here. Three fundamental haptic cue types were evaluated. The Force cue conveys information on the proximity of the commanded trajectory to obstacles in the remote environment. The Velocity cue represents the mismatch between the commanded and actual velocities of the UAVs and can implicitly provide a rich amount of information regarding the actual behavior of the UAVs. Finally, the Velocity+Force cue is a linear combination of the two. Our experimental results show that, while maneuverability is best supported by the Force cue feedback, perceptual sensitivity is best served by the Velocity cue feedback. In addition, we show that large gains in the haptic feedbacks do not always guarantee an enhancement in the teleoperator's performance.

Agile and dexterous robot for inspection and EOD operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Handelman, David A.; Franken, Gordon H.; Komsuoglu, Haldun

2010-04-01

The All-Terrain Biped (ATB) robot is an unmanned ground vehicle with arms, legs and wheels designed to drive, crawl, walk and manipulate objects for inspection and explosive ordnance disposal tasks. This paper summarizes on-going development of the ATB platform. Control technology for semi-autonomous legged mobility and dual-arm dexterity is described as well as preliminary simulation and hardware test results. Performance goals include driving on flat terrain, crawling on steep terrain, walking on stairs, opening doors and grasping objects. Anticipated benefits of the adaptive mobility and dexterity of the ATB platform include increased robot agility and autonomy for EOD operations, reduced operator workload and reduced operator training and skill requirements.

High-frequency imaging radar for robotic navigation and situational awareness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thomas, David J.; Luo, Changan; Knox, Robert

2011-05-01

With increasingly available high frequency radar components, the practicality of imaging radar for mobile robotic applications is now practical. Navigation, ODOA, situational awareness and safety applications can be supported in small light weight packaging. Radar has the additional advantage of being able sense through aerosols, smoke and dust that can be difficult for many optical systems. The ability to directly measure the range rate of an object is also an advantage in radar applications. This paper will explore the applicability of high frequency imaging radar for mobile robotics and examine a W-band 360 degree imaging radar prototype. Indoor and outdoor performance data will be analyzed and evaluated for applicability to navigation and situational awareness.

Robotic kidney autotransplantation in a porcine model: a procedure-specific training platform for the simulation of robotic intracorporeal vascular anastomosis.

PubMed

Tiong, Ho Yee; Goh, Benjamin Yen Seow; Chiong, Edmund; Tan, Lincoln Guan Lim; Vathsala, Anatharaman

2018-03-31

Robotic-assisted kidney transplantation (RKT) with the Da Vinci (Intuitive, USA) platform has been recently developed to improve outcomes by decreasing surgical site complications and morbidity, especially in obese patients. This potential paradigm shift in the surgical technique of kidney transplantation is performed in only a few centers. For wider adoption of this high stake complex operation, we aimed to develop a procedure-specific simulation platform in a porcine model for the training of robotic intracorporeal vascular anastomosis and evaluating vascular anastomoses patency. This paper describes the requirements and steps developed for the above training purpose. Over a series of four animal ethics' approved experiments, the technique of robotic-assisted laparoscopic autotransplantation of the kidney was developed in Amsterdam live pigs (60-70 kg). The surgery was based around the vascular anastomosis technique described by Menon et al. This non-survival porcine training model is targeted at transplant surgeons with robotic surgery experience. Under general anesthesia, each pig was placed in lateral decubitus position with the placement of one robotic camera port, two robotic 8 mm ports and one assistant port. Robotic docking over the pig posteriorly was performed. The training platform involved the following procedural steps. First, ipsilateral iliac vessel dissection was performed. Second, robotic-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy was performed with in situ perfusion of the kidney with cold Hartmann's solution prior to complete division of the hilar vessels, ureter and kidney mobilization. Thirdly, the kidney was either kept in situ for orthotopic autotransplantation or mobilized to the pelvis and orientated for the vascular anastomosis, which was performed end to end or end to side after vessel loop clamping of the iliac vessels, respectively, using 6/0 Gore-Tex sutures. Following autotransplantation and release of vessel loops, perfusion of the graft was assessed using intraoperative indocyanine green imaging and monitoring urine output after unclamping. This training platform demonstrates adequate face and content validity. With practice, arterial anastomotic time could be improved, showing its construct validity. This porcine training model can be useful in providing training for robotic intracorporeal vascular anastomosis and may facilitate confident translation into a transplant human recipient.

Mobile robotics research at Sandia National Laboratories

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Morse, W.D.

Sandia is a National Security Laboratory providing scientific and engineering solutions to meet national needs for both government and industry. As part of this mission, the Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center conducts research and development in robotics and intelligent machine technologies. An overview of Sandia`s mobile robotics research is provided. Recent achievements and future directions in the areas of coordinated mobile manipulation, small smart machines, world modeling, and special application robots are presented.

Design, characterization and control of the Unique Mobility Corporation robot

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Velasco, Virgilio B., Jr.; Newman, Wyatt S.; Steinetz, Bruce; Kopf, Carlo; Malik, John

1994-01-01

Space and mass are at a premium on any space mission, and thus any machinery designed for space use should be lightweight and compact, without sacrificing strength. It is for this reason that NASA/LeRC contracted Unique Mobility Corporation to exploit their novel actuator designs to build a robot that would advance the present state of technology with respect to these requirements. Custom-designed motors are the key feature of this robot. They are compact, high-performance dc brushless servo motors with a high pole count and low inductance, thus permitting high torque generation and rapid phase commutation. Using a custom-designed digital signal processor-based controller board, the pulse width modulation power amplifiers regulate the fast dynamics of the motor currents. In addition, the programmable digital signal processor (DSP) controller permits implementation of nonlinear compensation algorithms to account for motoring vs. regeneration, torque ripple, and back-EMF. As a result, the motors produce a high torque relative to their size and weight, and can do so with good torque regulation and acceptably high velocity saturation limits. This paper presents the Unique Mobility Corporation robot prototype: its actuators, its kinematic design, its control system, and its experimental characterization. Performance results, including saturation torques, saturation velocities and tracking accuracy tests are included.

From Autonomous Robots to Artificial Ecosystems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mastrogiovanni, Fulvio; Sgorbissa, Antonio; Zaccaria, Renato

During the past few years, starting from the two mainstream fields of Ambient Intelligence [2] and Robotics [17], several authors recognized the benefits of the socalled Ubiquitous Robotics paradigm. According to this perspective, mobile robots are no longer autonomous, physically situated and embodied entities adapting themselves to a world taliored for humans: on the contrary, they are able to interact with devices distributed throughout the environment and get across heterogeneous information by means of communication technologies. Information exchange, coupled with simple actuation capabilities, is meant to replace physical interaction between robots and their environment. Two benefits are evident: (i) smart environments overcome inherent limitations of mobile platforms, whereas (ii) mobile robots offer a mobility dimension unknown to smart environments.

Motion generation of peristaltic mobile robot with particle swarm optimization algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Homma, Takahiro; Kamamichi, Norihiro

2015-03-01

In developments of robots, bio-mimetics is attracting attention, which is a technology for the design of the structure and function inspired from biological system. There are a lot of examples of bio-mimetics in robotics such as legged robots, flapping robots, insect-type robots, fish-type robots. In this study, we focus on the motion of earthworm and aim to develop a peristaltic mobile robot. The earthworm is a slender animal moving in soil. It has a segmented body, and each segment can be shorted and lengthened by muscular actions. It can move forward by traveling expanding motions of each segment backward. By mimicking the structure and motion of the earthworm, we can construct a robot with high locomotive performance against an irregular ground or a narrow space. In this paper, to investigate the motion analytically, a dynamical model is introduced, which consist of a series-connected multi-mass model. Simple periodic patterns which mimic the motions of earthworms are applied in an open-loop fashion, and the moving patterns are verified through numerical simulations. Furthermore, to generate efficient motion of the robot, a particle swarm optimization algorithm, one of the meta-heuristic optimization, is applied. The optimized results are investigated by comparing to simple periodic patterns.

Tracking Control of Mobile Robots Localized via Chained Fusion of Discrete and Continuous Epipolar Geometry, IMU and Odometry.

PubMed

Tick, David; Satici, Aykut C; Shen, Jinglin; Gans, Nicholas

2013-08-01

This paper presents a novel navigation and control system for autonomous mobile robots that includes path planning, localization, and control. A unique vision-based pose and velocity estimation scheme utilizing both the continuous and discrete forms of the Euclidean homography matrix is fused with inertial and optical encoder measurements to estimate the pose, orientation, and velocity of the robot and ensure accurate localization and control signals. A depth estimation system is integrated in order to overcome the loss of scale inherent in vision-based estimation. A path following control system is introduced that is capable of guiding the robot along a designated curve. Stability analysis is provided for the control system and experimental results are presented that prove the combined localization and control system performs with high accuracy.

Usability testing of a mobile robotic system for in-home telerehabilitation.

PubMed

Boissy, Patrick; Brière, Simon; Corriveau, Hélène; Grant, Andrew; Lauria, Michel; Michaud, François

2011-01-01

Mobile robots designed to enhance telepresence in the support of telehealth services are being considered for numerous applications. TELEROBOT is a teleoperated mobile robotic platform equipped with videoconferencingcapabilities and designed to be used in a home environment to. In this study, learnability of the system's teleoperation interface and controls was evaluated with ten rehabilitation professionals during four training sessions in a laboratory environment and in an unknown home environment while performing the execution of a standardized evaluation protocol typically used in home care. Results show that the novice teleoperators' performances on two of the four metrics used (number of command and total time) improved significantly across training sessions (ANOVAS, p<0.05) and that performance in these metrics in the last training session reflected teleoperation abilities seen in the unknown home environment during navigation tasks (r=0,77 and 0,60). With only 4 hours of training, rehabilitation professionals were able learn to teleoperate successfully TELEROBOT. However teleoperation performances remained significantly less efficient then those of an expert. Under the home task condition (navigating the home environment from one point to the other as fast as possible) this translated to completion time between 350 seconds (best performance) and 850 seconds (worse performance). Improvements in other usability aspects of the system will be needed to meet the requirements of in-home telerehabilitation.

Serendipitous Offline Learning in a Neuromorphic Robot.

PubMed

Stewart, Terrence C; Kleinhans, Ashley; Mundy, Andrew; Conradt, Jörg

2016-01-01

We demonstrate a hybrid neuromorphic learning paradigm that learns complex sensorimotor mappings based on a small set of hard-coded reflex behaviors. A mobile robot is first controlled by a basic set of reflexive hand-designed behaviors. All sensor data is provided via a spike-based silicon retina camera (eDVS), and all control is implemented via spiking neurons simulated on neuromorphic hardware (SpiNNaker). Given this control system, the robot is capable of simple obstacle avoidance and random exploration. To train the robot to perform more complex tasks, we observe the robot and find instances where the robot accidentally performs the desired action. Data recorded from the robot during these times is then used to update the neural control system, increasing the likelihood of the robot performing that task in the future, given a similar sensor state. As an example application of this general-purpose method of training, we demonstrate the robot learning to respond to novel sensory stimuli (a mirror) by turning right if it is present at an intersection, and otherwise turning left. In general, this system can learn arbitrary relations between sensory input and motor behavior.

On the Use of a Low-Cost Thermal Sensor to Improve Kinect People Detection in a Mobile Robot

PubMed Central

Susperregi, Loreto; Sierra, Basilio; Castrillón, Modesto; Lorenzo, Javier; Martínez-Otzeta, Jose María; Lazkano, Elena

2013-01-01

Detecting people is a key capability for robots that operate in populated environments. In this paper, we have adopted a hierarchical approach that combines classifiers created using supervised learning in order to identify whether a person is in the view-scope of the robot or not. Our approach makes use of vision, depth and thermal sensors mounted on top of a mobile platform. The set of sensors is set up combining the rich data source offered by a Kinect sensor, which provides vision and depth at low cost, and a thermopile array sensor. Experimental results carried out with a mobile platform in a manufacturing shop floor and in a science museum have shown that the false positive rate achieved using any single cue is drastically reduced. The performance of our algorithm improves other well-known approaches, such as C4 and histogram of oriented gradients (HOG). PMID:24172285

Intelligence Level Performance Standards Research for Autonomous Vehicles

PubMed Central

Bostelman, Roger B.; Hong, Tsai H.; Messina, Elena

2017-01-01

United States and European safety standards have evolved to protect workers near Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV’s). However, performance standards for AGV’s and mobile robots have only recently begun development. Lessons can be learned from research and standards efforts for mobile robots applied to emergency response and military applications. Research challenges, tests and evaluations, and programs to develop higher intelligence levels for vehicles can also used to guide industrial AGV developments towards more adaptable and intelligent systems. These other efforts also provide useful standards development criteria for AGV performance test methods. Current standards areas being considered for AGVs are for docking, navigation, obstacle avoidance, and the ground truth systems that measure performance. This paper provides a look to the future with standards developments in both the performance of vehicles and the dynamic perception systems that measure intelligent vehicle performance. PMID:28649189

Intelligence Level Performance Standards Research for Autonomous Vehicles.

PubMed

Bostelman, Roger B; Hong, Tsai H; Messina, Elena

2015-01-01

United States and European safety standards have evolved to protect workers near Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV's). However, performance standards for AGV's and mobile robots have only recently begun development. Lessons can be learned from research and standards efforts for mobile robots applied to emergency response and military applications. Research challenges, tests and evaluations, and programs to develop higher intelligence levels for vehicles can also used to guide industrial AGV developments towards more adaptable and intelligent systems. These other efforts also provide useful standards development criteria for AGV performance test methods. Current standards areas being considered for AGVs are for docking, navigation, obstacle avoidance, and the ground truth systems that measure performance. This paper provides a look to the future with standards developments in both the performance of vehicles and the dynamic perception systems that measure intelligent vehicle performance.

Robot Trajectories Comparison: A Statistical Approach

PubMed Central

Ansuategui, A.; Arruti, A.; Susperregi, L.; Yurramendi, Y.; Jauregi, E.; Lazkano, E.; Sierra, B.

2014-01-01

The task of planning a collision-free trajectory from a start to a goal position is fundamental for an autonomous mobile robot. Although path planning has been extensively investigated since the beginning of robotics, there is no agreement on how to measure the performance of a motion algorithm. This paper presents a new approach to perform robot trajectories comparison that could be applied to any kind of trajectories and in both simulated and real environments. Given an initial set of features, it automatically selects the most significant ones and performs a statistical comparison using them. Additionally, a graphical data visualization named polygraph which helps to better understand the obtained results is provided. The proposed method has been applied, as an example, to compare two different motion planners, FM2 and WaveFront, using different environments, robots, and local planners. PMID:25525618

Localization of Non-Linearly Modeled Autonomous Mobile Robots Using Out-of-Sequence Measurements

PubMed Central

Besada-Portas, Eva; Lopez-Orozco, Jose A.; Lanillos, Pablo; de la Cruz, Jesus M.

2012-01-01

This paper presents a state of the art of the estimation algorithms dealing with Out-of-Sequence (OOS) measurements for non-linearly modeled systems. The state of the art includes a critical analysis of the algorithm properties that takes into account the applicability of these techniques to autonomous mobile robot navigation based on the fusion of the measurements provided, delayed and OOS, by multiple sensors. Besides, it shows a representative example of the use of one of the most computationally efficient approaches in the localization module of the control software of a real robot (which has non-linear dynamics, and linear and non-linear sensors) and compares its performance against other approaches. The simulated results obtained with the selected OOS algorithm shows the computational requirements that each sensor of the robot imposes to it. The real experiments show how the inclusion of the selected OOS algorithm in the control software lets the robot successfully navigate in spite of receiving many OOS measurements. Finally, the comparison highlights that not only is the selected OOS algorithm among the best performing ones of the comparison, but it also has the lowest computational and memory cost. PMID:22736962

Localization of non-linearly modeled autonomous mobile robots using out-of-sequence measurements.

PubMed

Besada-Portas, Eva; Lopez-Orozco, Jose A; Lanillos, Pablo; de la Cruz, Jesus M

2012-01-01

This paper presents a state of the art of the estimation algorithms dealing with Out-of-Sequence (OOS) measurements for non-linearly modeled systems. The state of the art includes a critical analysis of the algorithm properties that takes into account the applicability of these techniques to autonomous mobile robot navigation based on the fusion of the measurements provided, delayed and OOS, by multiple sensors. Besides, it shows a representative example of the use of one of the most computationally efficient approaches in the localization module of the control software of a real robot (which has non-linear dynamics, and linear and non-linear sensors) and compares its performance against other approaches. The simulated results obtained with the selected OOS algorithm shows the computational requirements that each sensor of the robot imposes to it. The real experiments show how the inclusion of the selected OOS algorithm in the control software lets the robot successfully navigate in spite of receiving many OOS measurements. Finally, the comparison highlights that not only is the selected OOS algorithm among the best performing ones of the comparison, but it also has the lowest computational and memory cost.

Mamdani Fuzzy System for Indoor Autonomous Mobile Robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khan, M. K. A. Ahamed; Rashid, Razif; Elamvazuthi, I.

2011-06-01

Several control algorithms for autonomous mobile robot navigation have been proposed in the literature. Recently, the employment of non-analytical methods of computing such as fuzzy logic, evolutionary computation, and neural networks has demonstrated the utility and potential of these paradigms for intelligent control of mobile robot navigation. In this paper, Mamdani fuzzy system for an autonomous mobile robot is developed. The paper begins with the discussion on the conventional controller and then followed by the description of fuzzy logic controller in detail.

Trajectory tracking control for a nonholonomic mobile robot under ROS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lakhdar Besseghieur, Khadir; Trębiński, Radosław; Kaczmarek, Wojciech; Panasiuk, Jarosław

2018-05-01

In this paper, the implementation of the trajectory tracking control strategy on a ROS-based mobile robot is considered. Our test-bench is the nonholonomic mobile robot ‘TURTLEBOT’. ROS facilitates considerably setting-up a suitable environment to test the designed controller. Our aim is to develop a framework using ROS concepts so that a trajectory tracking controller can be implemented on any ROS-enabled mobile robot. Practical experiments with ‘TURTLEBOT’ are conducted to assess the framework reliability.

Real-time multiple human perception with color-depth cameras on a mobile robot.

PubMed

Zhang, Hao; Reardon, Christopher; Parker, Lynne E

2013-10-01

The ability to perceive humans is an essential requirement for safe and efficient human-robot interaction. In real-world applications, the need for a robot to interact in real time with multiple humans in a dynamic, 3-D environment presents a significant challenge. The recent availability of commercial color-depth cameras allow for the creation of a system that makes use of the depth dimension, thus enabling a robot to observe its environment and perceive in the 3-D space. Here we present a system for 3-D multiple human perception in real time from a moving robot equipped with a color-depth camera and a consumer-grade computer. Our approach reduces computation time to achieve real-time performance through a unique combination of new ideas and established techniques. We remove the ground and ceiling planes from the 3-D point cloud input to separate candidate point clusters. We introduce the novel information concept, depth of interest, which we use to identify candidates for detection, and that avoids the computationally expensive scanning-window methods of other approaches. We utilize a cascade of detectors to distinguish humans from objects, in which we make intelligent reuse of intermediary features in successive detectors to improve computation. Because of the high computational cost of some methods, we represent our candidate tracking algorithm with a decision directed acyclic graph, which allows us to use the most computationally intense techniques only where necessary. We detail the successful implementation of our novel approach on a mobile robot and examine its performance in scenarios with real-world challenges, including occlusion, robot motion, nonupright humans, humans leaving and reentering the field of view (i.e., the reidentification challenge), human-object and human-human interaction. We conclude with the observation that the incorporation of the depth information, together with the use of modern techniques in new ways, we are able to create an accurate system for real-time 3-D perception of humans by a mobile robot.

Mobile app for human-interaction with sitter robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Das, Sumit Kumar; Sahu, Ankita; Popa, Dan O.

2017-05-01

Human environments are often unstructured and unpredictable, thus making the autonomous operation of robots in such environments is very difficult. Despite many remaining challenges in perception, learning, and manipulation, more and more studies involving assistive robots have been carried out in recent years. In hospital environments, and in particular in patient rooms, there are well-established practices with respect to the type of furniture, patient services, and schedule of interventions. As a result, adding a robot into semi-structured hospital environments is an easier problem to tackle, with results that could have positive benefits to the quality of patient care and the help that robots can offer to nursing staff. When working in a healthcare facility, robots need to interact with patients and nurses through Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs) that are intuitive to use, they should maintain awareness of surroundings, and offer safety guarantees for humans. While fully autonomous operation for robots is not yet technically feasible, direct teleoperation control of the robot would also be extremely cumbersome, as it requires expert user skills, and levels of concentration not available to many patients. Therefore, in our current study we present a traded control scheme, in which the robot and human both perform expert tasks. The human-robot communication and control scheme is realized through a mobile tablet app that can be customized for robot sitters in hospital environments. The role of the mobile app is to augment the verbal commands given to a robot through natural speech, camera and other native interfaces, while providing failure mode recovery options for users. Our app can access video feed and sensor data from robots, assist the user with decision making during pick and place operations, monitor the user health over time, and provides conversational dialogue during sitting sessions. In this paper, we present the software and hardware framework that enable a patient sitter HMI, and we include experimental results with a small number of users that demonstrate that the concept is sound and scalable.

AltiVec performance increases for autonomous robotics for the MARSSCAPE architecture program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gothard, Benny M.

2002-02-01

One of the main tall poles that must be overcome to develop a fully autonomous vehicle is the inability of the computer to understand its surrounding environment to a level that is required for the intended task. The military mission scenario requires a robot to interact in a complex, unstructured, dynamic environment. Reference A High Fidelity Multi-Sensor Scene Understanding System for Autonomous Navigation The Mobile Autonomous Robot Software Self Composing Adaptive Programming Environment (MarsScape) perception research addresses three aspects of the problem; sensor system design, processing architectures, and algorithm enhancements. A prototype perception system has been demonstrated on robotic High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle and All Terrain Vehicle testbeds. This paper addresses the tall pole of processing requirements and the performance improvements based on the selected MarsScape Processing Architecture. The processor chosen is the Motorola Altivec-G4 Power PC(PPC) (1998 Motorola, Inc.), a highly parallized commercial Single Instruction Multiple Data processor. Both derived perception benchmarks and actual perception subsystems code will be benchmarked and compared against previous Demo II-Semi-autonomous Surrogate Vehicle processing architectures along with desktop Personal Computers(PC). Performance gains are highlighted with progress to date, and lessons learned and future directions are described.

Demonstration testing of a surveillance robot at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant: Analysis of costs and benefits

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

White, J.R.; Farnstrom, K.A.; Harvey, H.W.

1987-03-01

This report presents the results of an NRC project to determine whether robotics equipment can be cost effective in performing surveillance and inspection work at existing nuclear power plants. A mobile surveillance robot, called SURBOT, was developed by the Remote Technology Corporation (REMOTEC) to perform visual, sound, and radiation surveillance within rooms designated as radiologically hazardous. SURBOT was tested in the turbine building of the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant (BFNP) by TVA personnel for a five-month period. The results showed that SURBOT obtains higher quality data and can perform more thorough surveillance within radiation areas than workers wearing protective clothing.more » SURBOT can be transferred between rooms without releasing contamination in the hallways using a portable enclosure. TVA has estimated that over 100 person-rem exposure and $100,000 operating costs can be saved annually at the BFNP using SURBOT for surveillance in 54 turbine and reactor building rooms. TVA recommendations for improving the function, reliability, and maintainability have been incorporated into a production model of SURBOT which is now commercially available from REMOTEC along with other types of mobile robots and manipulators.« less

Smart mobile robot system for rubbish collection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ali, Mohammed A. H.; Sien Siang, Tan

2018-03-01

This paper records the research and procedures of developing a smart mobility robot with detection system to collect rubbish. The objective of this paper is to design a mobile robot that can detect and recognize medium-size rubbish such as drinking cans. Besides that, the objective is also to design a mobile robot with the ability to estimate the position of rubbish from the robot. In addition, the mobile robot is also able to approach the rubbish based on position of rubbish. This paper explained about the types of image processing, detection and recognition methods and image filters. This project implements RGB subtraction method as the prior system. Other than that, algorithm for distance measurement based on image plane is implemented in this project. This project is limited to use computer webcam as the sensor. Secondly, the robot is only able to approach the nearest rubbish in the same views of camera vision and any rubbish that contain RGB colour components on its body.

Conduction Electrohydrodynamics with Mobile Electrodes: A Novel Actuation System for Untethered Robots.

PubMed

Cacucciolo, Vito; Shigemune, Hiroki; Cianchetti, Matteo; Laschi, Cecilia; Maeda, Shingo

2017-09-01

Electrohydrodynamics (EHD) refers to the direct conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy of a fluid. Through the use of mobile electrodes, this principle is exploited in a novel fashion for designing and testing a millimeter-scale untethered robot, which is powered harvesting the energy from an external electric field. The robot is designed as an inverted sail-boat, with the thrust generated on the sail submerged in the liquid. The diffusion constant of the robot is experimentally computed, proving that its movement is not driven by thermal fluctuations, and then its kinematic and dynamic responses are characterized for different applied voltages. The results show the feasibility of using EHD with mobile electrodes for powering untethered robots and provide new evidences for the further development of this actuation system for both mobile robots and compliant actuators in soft robotics.

A Novel Robot System Integrating Biological and Mechanical Intelligence Based on Dissociated Neural Network-Controlled Closed-Loop Environment.

PubMed

Li, Yongcheng; Sun, Rong; Wang, Yuechao; Li, Hongyi; Zheng, Xiongfei

2016-01-01

We propose the architecture of a novel robot system merging biological and artificial intelligence based on a neural controller connected to an external agent. We initially built a framework that connected the dissociated neural network to a mobile robot system to implement a realistic vehicle. The mobile robot system characterized by a camera and two-wheeled robot was designed to execute the target-searching task. We modified a software architecture and developed a home-made stimulation generator to build a bi-directional connection between the biological and the artificial components via simple binomial coding/decoding schemes. In this paper, we utilized a specific hierarchical dissociated neural network for the first time as the neural controller. Based on our work, neural cultures were successfully employed to control an artificial agent resulting in high performance. Surprisingly, under the tetanus stimulus training, the robot performed better and better with the increasement of training cycle because of the short-term plasticity of neural network (a kind of reinforced learning). Comparing to the work previously reported, we adopted an effective experimental proposal (i.e. increasing the training cycle) to make sure of the occurrence of the short-term plasticity, and preliminarily demonstrated that the improvement of the robot's performance could be caused independently by the plasticity development of dissociated neural network. This new framework may provide some possible solutions for the learning abilities of intelligent robots by the engineering application of the plasticity processing of neural networks, also for the development of theoretical inspiration for the next generation neuro-prostheses on the basis of the bi-directional exchange of information within the hierarchical neural networks.

From decimeter- to centimeter-sized mobile microrobots: the development of the MINIMAN system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woern, Heinz; Schmoeckel, Ferdinand; Buerkle, Axel; Samitier, Josep; Puig-Vidal, Manel; Johansson, Stefan A. I.; Simu, Urban; Meyer, Joerg-Uwe; Biehl, Margit

2001-10-01

Based on small mobile robots the presented MINIMAN system provides a platform for micro-manipulation tasks in very different kinds of applications. Three exemplary applications demonstrate the capabilities of the system. Both the high precision assembly of an optical system consisting of three millimeter-sized parts and the positioning of single 20-μm-cells under the light microscope as well as the handling of tiny samples inside the scanning electron microscope are done by the same kind of robot. For the different tasks, the robot is equipped with appropriate tools such as micro-pipettes or grippers with force and tactile sensors. For the extension to a multi-robot system, it is necessary to further reduce the size of robots. For the above mentioned robot prototypes a slip-stick driving principle is employed. While this design proves to work very well for the described decimeter-sized robots, it is not suitable for further miniaturized robots because of their reduced inertia. Therefore, the developed centimeter-sized robot is driven by multilayered piezoactuators performing defined steps without a slipping phase. To reduce the number of connecting wires the microrobot has integrated circuits on board. They include high voltage drivers and a serial communication interface for a minimized number of wires.

Applications for the MATILDA robotic platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Munkeby, Steve H.; Jones, Don; Bugg, George; Smith, Kathryn

2002-07-01

Most robotic platforms have, up to this point, been designed with emphasis placed on improving mobility technologies. Minimal emphasis has been placed on payloads and mission execution. Using a top-down approach, Mesa Associates, Inc. identified specific UGV mission applications and structured its MATILDA platform using these applications for vehicle mobility and motion control requirements. Specific applications identified for the MATILDA platform include: Target surveillance, explosive device neutralization, material pickup and transport, weapon transport and firing, and law enforcement. Current performance results, lessons-learned, technical hurdles, and future applications are examined.

Guarded Motion for Mobile Robots

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

2005-03-30

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has created codes that ensure that a robot will come to a stop at a precise, specified distance from any obstacle regardless of the robot's initial speed, its physical characteristics, and the responsiveness of the low-level motor control schema. This Guarded Motion for Mobile Robots system iteratively adjusts the robot's action in response to information about the robot's environment.

Adaptive Control Parameters for Dispersal of Multi-Agent Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) Swarms

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kurt Derr; Milos Manic

A mobile ad hoc network is a collection of independent nodes that communicate wirelessly with one another. This paper investigates nodes that are swarm robots with communications and sensing capabilities. Each robot in the swarm may operate in a distributed and decentralized manner to achieve some goal. This paper presents a novel approach to dynamically adapting control parameters to achieve mesh configuration stability. The presented approach to robot interaction is based on spring force laws (attraction and repulsion laws) to create near-optimal mesh like configurations. In prior work, we presented the extended virtual spring mesh (EVSM) algorithm for the dispersionmore » of robot swarms. This paper extends the EVSM framework by providing the first known study on the effects of adaptive versus static control parameters on robot swarm stability. The EVSM algorithm provides the following novelties: 1) improved performance with adaptive control parameters and 2) accelerated convergence with high formation effectiveness. Simulation results show that 120 robots reach convergence using adaptive control parameters more than twice as fast as with static control parameters in a multiple obstacle environment.« less

JOMAR: Joint Operations with Mobile Autonomous Robots

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-12-21

AFRL-AFOSR-JP-TR-2015-0009 JOMAR: Joint Operations with Mobile Autonomous Robots Edwin Olson UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Final Report 12/21/2015...SUBTITLE JOMAR: Joint Operations with Mobile Autonomous Robots 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER FA23861114024 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6...14. ABSTRACT Under this grant, we formulated and implemented a variety of novel algorithms that address core problems in multi- robot systems. These

ANYmal - A Highly Mobile and Dynamic Quadrupedal Robot

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-10-09

ANYmal - A Highly Mobile and Dynamic Quadrupedal Robot * Marco Hutter1, Christian Gehring2, Dominic Jud1, Andreas Lauber1, C. Dario Bellicoso1...Abstract— This paper introduces ANYmal, a quadrupedal robot that features outstanding mobility and dynamic motion capability. Thanks to novel...compliant joint modules with integrated electronics, the 30 kg, 0.5 m tall robotic dog is torque controllable and very robust against impulsive loads during

A miniature cable-driven robot for crawling on the heart.

PubMed

Patronik, N A; Zenati, M A; Riviere, C N

2005-01-01

This document describes the design and preliminary testing of a cable-driven robot for the purpose of traveling on the surface of the beating heart to administer therapy. This methodology obviates mechanical stabilization and lung deflation, which are typically required during minimally invasive cardiac surgery. Previous versions of the robot have been remotely actuated through push-pull wires, while visual feedback was provided by fiber optic transmission. Although these early models were able to perform locomotion in vivo on porcine hearts, the stiffness of the wire-driven transmission and fiber optic camera limited the mobility of the robots. The new prototype described in this document is actuated by two antagonistic cable pairs, and contains a color CCD camera located in the front section of the device. These modifications have resulted in superior mobility and visual feedback. The cable-driven prototype has successfully demonstrated prehension, locomotion, and tissue dye injection during in vitro testing with a poultry model.

Modelling of Dynamics of a Wheeled Mobile Robot with Mecanum Wheels with the use of Lagrange Equations of the Second Kind

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hendzel, Z.; Rykała, Ł.

2017-02-01

The work presents the dynamic equations of motion of a wheeled mobile robot with mecanum wheels derived with the use of Lagrange equations of the second kind. Mecanum wheels are a new type of wheels used in wheeled mobile robots and they consist of freely rotating rollers attached to the circumference of the wheels. In order to derive dynamic equations of motion of a wheeled mobile robot, the kinetic energy of the system is determined, as well as the generalised forces affecting the system. The resulting mathematical model of a wheeled mobile robot was generated with the use of Maple V software. The results of a solution of inverse and forward problems of dynamics of the discussed object are also published.

On-Line Method and Apparatus for Coordinated Mobility and Manipulation of Mobile Robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seraji, Homayoun (Inventor)

1996-01-01

A simple and computationally efficient approach is disclosed for on-line coordinated control of mobile robots consisting of a manipulator arm mounted on a mobile base. The effect of base mobility on the end-effector manipulability index is discussed. The base mobility and arm manipulation degrees-of-freedom are treated equally as the joints of a kinematically redundant composite robot. The redundancy introduced by the mobile base is exploited to satisfy a set of user-defined additional tasks during the end-effector motion. A simple on-line control scheme is proposed which allows the user to assign weighting factors to individual degrees-of-mobility and degrees-of-manipulation, as well as to each task specification. The computational efficiency of the control algorithm makes it particularly suitable for real-time implementations. Four case studies are discussed in detail to demonstrate the application of the coordinated control scheme to various mobile robots.

Conduction Electrohydrodynamics with Mobile Electrodes: A Novel Actuation System for Untethered Robots

PubMed Central

Shigemune, Hiroki; Cianchetti, Matteo; Laschi, Cecilia

2017-01-01

Electrohydrodynamics (EHD) refers to the direct conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy of a fluid. Through the use of mobile electrodes, this principle is exploited in a novel fashion for designing and testing a millimeter‐scale untethered robot, which is powered harvesting the energy from an external electric field. The robot is designed as an inverted sail‐boat, with the thrust generated on the sail submerged in the liquid. The diffusion constant of the robot is experimentally computed, proving that its movement is not driven by thermal fluctuations, and then its kinematic and dynamic responses are characterized for different applied voltages. The results show the feasibility of using EHD with mobile electrodes for powering untethered robots and provide new evidences for the further development of this actuation system for both mobile robots and compliant actuators in soft robotics. PMID:28932659

Modeling, validation and analysis of a Whegs robot in the USARSim environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taylor, Brian K.; Balakirsky, Stephen; Messina, Elena; Quinn, Roger D.

2008-04-01

Simulation of robots in a virtual domain has multiple benefits. End users can use the simulation as a training tool to increase their skill with the vehicle without risking damage to the robot or surrounding environment. Simulation allows researchers and developers to benchmark robot performance in a range of scenarios without having the physical robot or environment present. The simulation can also help guide and generate new design concepts. USARSim (Unified System for Automation and Robot Simulation) is a tool that is being used to accomplish these goals, particularly within the realm of search and rescue. It is based on the Unreal Tournament 2004 gaming engine, which approximates the physics of how a robot interacts with its environment. A family of vehicles that can benefit from simulation in USARSim are Whegs TM robots. Developed in the Biorobotics Laboratory at Case Western Reserve University, Whegs TM robots are highly mobile ground vehicles that use abstracted biological principles to achieve a robust level of locomotion, including passive gait adaptation and enhanced climbing abilities. This paper describes a Whegs TM robot model that was constructed in USARSim. The model was configured with the same kinds of behavioral characteristics found in real Whegs TM vehicles. Once these traits were implemented, a validation study was performed using identical performance metrics measured on both the virtual and real vehicles to quantify vehicle performance and to ensure that the virtual robot's performance matched that of the real robot.

Development and Control of Multi-Degree-of-Freedom Mobile Robot for Acquisition of Road Environmental Modes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murata, Naoya; Katsura, Seiichiro

Acquisition of information about the environment around a mobile robot is important for purposes such as controlling the robot from a remote location and in situations such as that when the robot is running autonomously. In many researches, audiovisual information is used. However, acquisition of information about force sensation, which is included in environmental information, has not been well researched. The mobile-hapto, which is a remote control system with force information, has been proposed, but the robot used for the system can acquire only the horizontal component of forces. For this reason, in this research, a three-wheeled mobile robot that consists of seven actuators was developed and its control system was constructed. It can get information on horizontal and vertical forces without using force sensors. By using this robot, detailed information on the forces in the environment can be acquired and the operability of the robot and its capability to adjust to the environment are expected to improve.

All-Terrain Intelligent Robot Braves Battlefront to Save Lives

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2005-01-01

As NASA s lead center for creating robotic spacecraft and rovers, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) builds smart machines that can perform very complicated tasks, far, far away from the homeland. JPL s robotic proficiency is making an impact millions of miles away on Mars, where two rovers are presently unlocking the secrets of the Red Planet s rugged terrain, and thousands of miles away in the embattled regions of Iraq and Afghanistan, where robots sown from the seeds of JPL machines have been deployed to be the "eyes and ears" of humans on the front line. This commercial offspring, known as the PackBot Tactical Mobile Robot, is manufactured by iRobot, Inc., of Burlington, Massachusetts.

Mobile locally operated detachable end-effector manipulator for endoscopic surgery.

PubMed

Kawai, Toshikazu; Shin, Myongyu; Nishizawa, Yuji; Horise, Yuki; Nishikawa, Atsushi; Nakamura, Tatsuo

2015-02-01

Local surgery is safer than remote surgery because emergencies can be more easily addressed. Although many locally operated surgical robots and devices have been developed, none can safely grasp organs and provide traction. A new manipulator with a detachable commercial forceps was developed that can act as a third arm for a surgeon situated in a sterile area near the patient. This mechanism can be disassembled into compact parts that enable mobile use. A mobile locally operated detachable end-effector manipulator (LODEM) was developed and tested. This device uses crank-slider and cable-rod mechanisms to achieve 5 degrees of freedom and an acting force of more than 5 N. The total mass is less than 15 kg. The positional accuracy and speed of the prototype device were evaluated while performing simulated in vivo surgery. The accuracy of the mobile LODEM was 0.4 mm, sufficient for handling organs. The manipulator could be assembled and disassembled in 8 min, making it highly mobile. The manipulator could successfully handle the target organs with the required level of dexterity during an in vivo laparoscopic surgical procedure. A mobile LODEM was designed that allows minimally invasive robotically assisted endoscopic surgery by a surgeon working near the patient. This device is highly promising for robotic surgery applications.

Cooperative system and method using mobile robots for testing a cooperative search controller

DOEpatents

Byrne, Raymond H.; Harrington, John J.; Eskridge, Steven E.; Hurtado, John E.

2002-01-01

A test system for testing a controller provides a way to use large numbers of miniature mobile robots to test a cooperative search controller in a test area, where each mobile robot has a sensor, a communication device, a processor, and a memory. A method of using a test system provides a way for testing a cooperative search controller using multiple robots sharing information and communicating over a communication network.

US Army TARDEC Ground Vehicle Mobility: Dynamics Modeling, Simluation, and Research

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-10-24

DRIVEN. WARFIGHTER FOCUSED. For official use only Stair Climbing of a Small Robot Robotic Vehicle Step Climbing UNCLASSIFIED For official use only...NOTES NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, mobility, and robotics section. Briefing to the jet propulsion lab. 14. ABSTRACT N/A 15. SUBJECT TERMS 16...JLTV GCV M2 M915 ASV FTTS HMMWV Platforms Supported APDSmall Robot UNCLASSIFIED For official use only Mobility Events • Vehicle stability • Ride

A satellite orbital testbed for SATCOM using mobile robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, Dan; Lu, Wenjie; Wang, Zhonghai; Jia, Bin; Wang, Gang; Wang, Tao; Chen, Genshe; Blasch, Erik; Pham, Khanh

2016-05-01

This paper develops and evaluates a satellite orbital testbed (SOT) for satellite communications (SATCOM). SOT can emulate the 3D satellite orbit using the omni-wheeled robots and a robotic arm. The 3D motion of satellite is partitioned into the movements in the equatorial plane and the up-down motions in the vertical plane. The former actions are emulated by omni-wheeled robots while the up-down motions are performed by a stepped-motor-controlled-ball along a rod (robotic arm), which is attached to the robot. The emulated satellite positions will go to the measure model, whose results will be used to perform multiple space object tracking. Then the tracking results will go to the maneuver detection and collision alert. The satellite maneuver commands will be translated to robots commands and robotic arm commands. In SATCOM, the effects of jamming depend on the range and angles of the positions of satellite transponder relative to the jamming satellite. We extend the SOT to include USRP transceivers. In the extended SOT, the relative ranges and angles are implemented using omni-wheeled robots and robotic arms.

Extensible Hardware Architecture for Mobile Robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Park, Eric; Kobayashi, Linda; Lee, Susan Y.

2005-01-01

The Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA Ames Research Center has developed a new mobile robot hardware architecture designed for extensibility and reconfigurability. Currently implemented on the k9 rover. and won to be integrated onto the K10 series of human-robot collaboration research robots, this architecture allows for rapid changes in instrumentation configuration and provides a high degree of modularity through a synergistic mix of off-the-shelf and custom designed components, allowing eased transplantation into a wide vane6 of mobile robot platforms. A component level overview of this architecture is presented along with a description of the changes required for implementation on K10 , followed by plans for future work.

Finite-time tracking control for multiple non-holonomic mobile robots based on visual servoing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ou, Meiying; Li, Shihua; Wang, Chaoli

2013-12-01

This paper investigates finite-time tracking control problem of multiple non-holonomic mobile robots via visual servoing. It is assumed that the pinhole camera is fixed to the ceiling, and camera parameters are unknown. The desired reference trajectory is represented by a virtual leader whose states are available to only a subset of the followers, and the followers have only interaction. First, the camera-objective visual kinematic model is introduced by utilising the pinhole camera model for each mobile robot. Second, a unified tracking error system between camera-objective visual servoing model and desired reference trajectory is introduced. Third, based on the neighbour rule and by using finite-time control method, continuous distributed cooperative finite-time tracking control laws are designed for each mobile robot with unknown camera parameters, where the communication topology among the multiple mobile robots is assumed to be a directed graph. Rigorous proof shows that the group of mobile robots converges to the desired reference trajectory in finite time. Simulation example illustrates the effectiveness of our method.

A New Conflict Resolution Method for Multiple Mobile Robots in Cluttered Environments With Motion-Liveness.

PubMed

Shahriari, Mohammadali; Biglarbegian, Mohammad

2018-01-01

This paper presents a new conflict resolution methodology for multiple mobile robots while ensuring their motion-liveness, especially for cluttered and dynamic environments. Our method constructs a mathematical formulation in a form of an optimization problem by minimizing the overall travel times of the robots subject to resolving all the conflicts in their motion. This optimization problem can be easily solved through coordinating only the robots' speeds. To overcome the computational cost in executing the algorithm for very cluttered environments, we develop an innovative method through clustering the environment into independent subproblems that can be solved using parallel programming techniques. We demonstrate the scalability of our approach through performing extensive simulations. Simulation results showed that our proposed method is capable of resolving the conflicts of 100 robots in less than 1.23 s in a cluttered environment that has 4357 intersections in the paths of the robots. We also developed an experimental testbed and demonstrated that our approach can be implemented in real time. We finally compared our approach with other existing methods in the literature both quantitatively and qualitatively. This comparison shows while our approach is mathematically sound, it is more computationally efficient, scalable for very large number of robots, and guarantees the live and smooth motion of robots.

Control of a free-flying robot manipulator system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alexander, H.

1986-01-01

The development of and test control strategies for self-contained, autonomous free flying space robots are discussed. Such a robot would perform operations in space similar to those currently handled by astronauts during extravehicular activity (EVA). Use of robots should reduce the expense and danger attending EVA both by providing assistance to astronauts and in many cases by eliminating altogether the need for human EVA, thus greatly enhancing the scope and flexibility of space assembly and repair activities. The focus of the work is to develop and carry out a program of research with a series of physical Satellite Robot Simulator Vehicles (SRSV's), two-dimensionally freely mobile laboratory models of autonomous free-flying space robots such as might perform extravehicular functions associated with operation of a space station or repair of orbiting satellites. It is planned, in a later phase, to extend the research to three dimensions by carrying out experiments in the Space Shuttle cargo bay.

Differential-Drive Mobile Robot Control Design based-on Linear Feedback Control Law

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nurmaini, Siti; Dewi, Kemala; Tutuko, Bambang

2017-04-01

This paper deals with the problem of how to control differential driven mobile robot with simple control law. When mobile robot moves from one position to another to achieve a position destination, it always produce some errors. Therefore, a mobile robot requires a certain control law to drive the robot’s movement to the position destination with a smallest possible error. In this paper, in order to reduce position error, a linear feedback control is proposed with pole placement approach to regulate the polynoms desired. The presented work leads to an improved understanding of differential-drive mobile robot (DDMR)-based kinematics equation, which will assist to design of suitable controllers for DDMR movement. The result show by using the linier feedback control method with pole placement approach the position error is reduced and fast convergence is achieved.

A mobile robot system for ground servicing operations on the space shuttle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dowling, K.; Bennett, R.; Blackwell, M.; Graham, T.; Gatrall, S.; O'Toole, R.; Schempf, H.

1992-11-01

A mobile system for space shuttle servicing, the Tessellator, has been configured, designed and is currently being built and integrated. Robot tasks include chemical injection and inspection of the shuttle's thermal protection system. This paper outlines tasks, rationale, and facility requirements for the development of this system. A detailed look at the mobile system and manipulator follow with a look at mechanics, electronics, and software. Salient features of the mobile robot include omnidirectionality, high reach, high stiffness and accuracy with safety and self-reliance integral to all aspects of the design. The robot system is shown to meet task, facility, and NASA requirements in its design resulting in unprecedented specifications for a mobile-manipulation system.

A mobile robot system for ground servicing operations on the space shuttle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dowling, K.; Bennett, R.; Blackwell, M.; Graham, T.; Gatrall, S.; O'Toole, R.; Schempf, H.

1992-01-01

A mobile system for space shuttle servicing, the Tessellator, has been configured, designed and is currently being built and integrated. Robot tasks include chemical injection and inspection of the shuttle's thermal protection system. This paper outlines tasks, rationale, and facility requirements for the development of this system. A detailed look at the mobile system and manipulator follow with a look at mechanics, electronics, and software. Salient features of the mobile robot include omnidirectionality, high reach, high stiffness and accuracy with safety and self-reliance integral to all aspects of the design. The robot system is shown to meet task, facility, and NASA requirements in its design resulting in unprecedented specifications for a mobile-manipulation system.

Curb Mounting, Vertical Mobility, and Inverted Mobility on Rough Surfaces Using Microspine-Enabled Robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parness, Aaron

2012-01-01

Three robots that extend microspine technology to enable advanced mobility are presented. First, the Durable Reconnaissance and Observation Platform (DROP) and the ReconRobotics Scout platform use a new rotary configuration of microspines to provide improved soldier-portable reconnaissance by moving rapidly over curbs and obstacles, transitioning from horizontal to vertical surfaces, climbing rough walls and surviving impacts. Next, the four-legged LEMUR robot uses new configurations of opposed microspines to anchor to both manmade and natural rough surfaces. Using these anchors as feet enables mobility in unstructured environments, from urban disaster areas to deserts and caves.

Industrial-Like Vehicle Platforms for Postgraduate Laboratory Courses on Robotics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Navarro, P. J.; Fernandez, C.; Sanchez, P.

2013-01-01

The interdisciplinary nature of robotics allows mobile robots to be used successfully in a broad range of courses at the postgraduate level and in Ph.D. research. Practical industrial-like mobile robotic demonstrations encourage students and increase their motivation by providing them with learning benefits not achieved with traditional…

Brain Computer Interfaces for Enhanced Interaction with Mobile Robot Agents

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-07-27

synergistic and complementary way. This project focused on acquiring a mobile robotic agent platform that can be used to explore these interfaces...providing a test environment where the human control of a robot agent can be experimentally validated in 1. REPORT DATE (DD-MM-YYYY) 4. TITLE AND...Distribution Unlimited UU UU UU UU 27-07-2016 17-Sep-2013 16-Sep-2014 Final Report: Brain Computer Interfaces for Enhanced Interactions with Mobile Robot

A Novel Robot System Integrating Biological and Mechanical Intelligence Based on Dissociated Neural Network-Controlled Closed-Loop Environment

PubMed Central

Wang, Yuechao; Li, Hongyi; Zheng, Xiongfei

2016-01-01

We propose the architecture of a novel robot system merging biological and artificial intelligence based on a neural controller connected to an external agent. We initially built a framework that connected the dissociated neural network to a mobile robot system to implement a realistic vehicle. The mobile robot system characterized by a camera and two-wheeled robot was designed to execute the target-searching task. We modified a software architecture and developed a home-made stimulation generator to build a bi-directional connection between the biological and the artificial components via simple binomial coding/decoding schemes. In this paper, we utilized a specific hierarchical dissociated neural network for the first time as the neural controller. Based on our work, neural cultures were successfully employed to control an artificial agent resulting in high performance. Surprisingly, under the tetanus stimulus training, the robot performed better and better with the increasement of training cycle because of the short-term plasticity of neural network (a kind of reinforced learning). Comparing to the work previously reported, we adopted an effective experimental proposal (i.e. increasing the training cycle) to make sure of the occurrence of the short-term plasticity, and preliminarily demonstrated that the improvement of the robot’s performance could be caused independently by the plasticity development of dissociated neural network. This new framework may provide some possible solutions for the learning abilities of intelligent robots by the engineering application of the plasticity processing of neural networks, also for the development of theoretical inspiration for the next generation neuro-prostheses on the basis of the bi-directional exchange of information within the hierarchical neural networks. PMID:27806074

The design of mobile robot control system for the aged and the disabled

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qiang, Wang; Lei, Shi; Xiang, Gao; Jin, Zhang

2017-01-01

This paper designs a control system of mobile robot for the aged and the disabled, which consists of two main parts: human-computer interaction and drive control module. The data of the two parts is transferred via universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter. In the former part, the speed and direction information of the mobile robot is obtained by hall joystick. In the latter part, the electronic differential algorithm is developed to implement the robot mobile function by driving two-wheel motors. In order to improve the comfort of the robot when speed or direction is changed, the least squares algorithm is used to optimize the speed characteristic curves of the two motors. Experimental results have verified the effectiveness of the designed system.

Collaboration of Miniature Multi-Modal Mobile Smart Robots over a Network

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-08-14

theoretical research on mathematics of failures in sensor-network-based miniature multimodal mobile robots and electromechanical systems. The views...theoretical research on mathematics of failures in sensor-network-based miniature multimodal mobile robots and electromechanical systems. The...independently evolving research directions based on physics-based models of mechanical, electromechanical and electronic devices, operational constraints

SyRoTek--Distance Teaching of Mobile Robotics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kulich, M.; Chudoba, J.; Kosnar, K.; Krajnik, T.; Faigl, J.; Preucil, L.

2013-01-01

E-learning is a modern and effective approach for training in various areas and at different levels of education. This paper gives an overview of SyRoTek, an e-learning platform for mobile robotics, artificial intelligence, control engineering, and related domains. SyRoTek provides remote access to a set of fully autonomous mobile robots placed in…

Global Coverage Measurement Planning Strategies for Mobile Robots Equipped with a Remote Gas Sensor

PubMed Central

Arain, Muhammad Asif; Trincavelli, Marco; Cirillo, Marcello; Schaffernicht, Erik; Lilienthal, Achim J.

2015-01-01

The problem of gas detection is relevant to many real-world applications, such as leak detection in industrial settings and landfill monitoring. In this paper, we address the problem of gas detection in large areas with a mobile robotic platform equipped with a remote gas sensor. We propose an algorithm that leverages a novel method based on convex relaxation for quickly solving sensor placement problems, and for generating an efficient exploration plan for the robot. To demonstrate the applicability of our method to real-world environments, we performed a large number of experimental trials, both on randomly generated maps and on the map of a real environment. Our approach proves to be highly efficient in terms of computational requirements and to provide nearly-optimal solutions. PMID:25803707

Global coverage measurement planning strategies for mobile robots equipped with a remote gas sensor.

PubMed

Arain, Muhammad Asif; Trincavelli, Marco; Cirillo, Marcello; Schaffernicht, Erik; Lilienthal, Achim J

2015-03-20

The problem of gas detection is relevant to many real-world applications, such as leak detection in industrial settings and landfill monitoring. In this paper, we address the problem of gas detection in large areas with a mobile robotic platform equipped with a remote gas sensor. We propose an algorithm that leverages a novel method based on convex relaxation for quickly solving sensor placement problems, and for generating an efficient exploration plan for the robot. To demonstrate the applicability of our method to real-world environments, we performed a large number of experimental trials, both on randomly generated maps and on the map of a real environment. Our approach proves to be highly efficient in terms of computational requirements and to provide nearly-optimal solutions.

Lyapunov vector function method in the motion stabilisation problem for nonholonomic mobile robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andreev, Aleksandr; Peregudova, Olga

2017-07-01

In this paper we propose a sampled-data control law in the stabilisation problem of nonstationary motion of nonholonomic mobile robot. We assume that the robot moves on a horizontal surface without slipping. The dynamical model of a mobile robot is considered. The robot has one front free wheel and two rear wheels which are controlled by two independent electric motors. We assume that the controls are piecewise constant signals. Controller design relies on the backstepping procedure with the use of Lyapunov vector-function method. Theoretical considerations are verified by numerical simulation.

OLDER ADULTS’ PREFERENCES FOR AND ACCEPTANCE OF ROBOT ASSISTANCE FOR EVERYDAY LIVING TASKS

PubMed Central

Smarr, Cory-Ann; Prakash, Akanksha; Beer, Jenay M.; Mitzner, Tracy L.; Kemp, Charles C.; Rogers, Wendy A.

2014-01-01

Many older adults value their independence and prefer to age in place. Robots can be designed to assist older people with performing everyday living tasks and maintaining their independence at home. Yet, there is a scarcity of knowledge regarding older adults’ attitudes toward robots and their preferences for robot assistance. Twenty-one older adults (M = 80.25 years old, SD = 7.19) completed questionnaires and participated in structured group interviews investigating their openness to and preferences for assistance from a mobile manipulator robot. Although the older adults were generally open to robot assistance for performing home-based tasks, they were selective in their views. Older adults preferred robot assistance over human assistance for many instrumental (e.g., housekeeping, laundry, medication reminders) and enhanced activities of daily living (e.g., new learning, hobbies). However, older adults were less open to robot assistance for some activities of daily living (e.g., shaving, hair care). Results from this study provide insight into older adults’ attitudes toward robot assistance with home-based everyday living tasks. PMID:25284971

Visual terrain mapping for traversable path planning of mobile robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shirkhodaie, Amir; Amrani, Rachida; Tunstel, Edward W.

2004-10-01

In this paper, we have primarily discussed technical challenges and navigational skill requirements of mobile robots for traversability path planning in natural terrain environments similar to Mars surface terrains. We have described different methods for detection of salient terrain features based on imaging texture analysis techniques. We have also presented three competing techniques for terrain traversability assessment of mobile robots navigating in unstructured natural terrain environments. These three techniques include: a rule-based terrain classifier, a neural network-based terrain classifier, and a fuzzy-logic terrain classifier. Each proposed terrain classifier divides a region of natural terrain into finite sub-terrain regions and classifies terrain condition exclusively within each sub-terrain region based on terrain visual clues. The Kalman Filtering technique is applied for aggregative fusion of sub-terrain assessment results. The last two terrain classifiers are shown to have remarkable capability for terrain traversability assessment of natural terrains. We have conducted a comparative performance evaluation of all three terrain classifiers and presented the results in this paper.

Proceedings of the 1989 CESAR/CEA (Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research/Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique) workshop on autonomous mobile robots (May 30--June 1, 1989)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Harber, K.S.; Pin, F.G.

1990-03-01

The US DOE Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique's (CEA) Office de Robotique et Productique within the Directorat a la Valorization are working toward a long-term cooperative agreement and relationship in the area of Intelligent Systems Research (ISR). This report presents the proceedings of the first CESAR/CEA Workshop on Autonomous Mobile Robots which took place at ORNL on May 30, 31 and June 1, 1989. The purpose of the workshop was to present and discuss methodologies and algorithms under development at the two facilities in themore » area of perception and navigation for autonomous mobile robots in unstructured environments. Experimental demonstration of the algorithms and comparison of some of their features were proposed to take place within the framework of a previously mutually agreed-upon demonstration scenario or base-case.'' The base-case scenario described in detail in Appendix A, involved autonomous navigation by the robot in an a priori unknown environment with dynamic obstacles, in order to reach a predetermined goal. From the intermediate goal location, the robot had to search for and locate a control panel, move toward it, and dock in front of the panel face. The CESAR demonstration was successfully accomplished using the HERMIES-IIB robot while subsets of the CEA demonstration performed using the ARES robot simulation and animation system were presented. The first session of the workshop focused on these experimental demonstrations and on the needs and considerations for establishing benchmarks'' for testing autonomous robot control algorithms.« less

Counter tunnel exploration, mapping, and localization with an unmanned ground vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Larson, Jacoby; Okorn, Brian; Pastore, Tracy; Hooper, David; Edwards, Jim

2014-06-01

Covert, cross-border tunnels are a security vulnerability that enables people and contraband to illegally enter the United States. All of these tunnels to-date have been constructed for the purpose of drug smuggling, but they may also be used to support terrorist activity. Past robotic tunnel exploration efforts have had limited success in aiding law enforcement to explore and map the suspect cross-border tunnels. These efforts have made use of adapted explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) or pipe inspection robotic systems that are not ideally suited to the cross-border tunnel environment. The Counter Tunnel project was sponsored by the Office of Secretary of Defense (OSD) Joint Ground Robotics Enterprise (JGRE) to develop a prototype robotic system for counter-tunnel operations, focusing on exploration, mapping, and characterization of tunnels. The purpose of this system is to provide a safe and effective solution for three-dimensional (3D) localization, mapping, and characterization of a tunnel environment. The system is composed of the robotic mobility platform, the mapping sensor payload, and the delivery apparatus. The system is able to deploy and retrieve the robotic mobility platform through a 20-cm-diameter borehole into the tunnel. This requirement posed many challenges in order to design and package the sensor and robotic system to fit through this narrow opening and be able to perform the mission. This paper provides a short description of a few aspects of the Counter Tunnel system such as mobility, perception, and localization, which were developed to meet the unique challenges required to access, explore, and map tunnel environments.

System design of a hand-held mobile robot for craniotomy.

PubMed

Kane, Gavin; Eggers, Georg; Boesecke, Robert; Raczkowsky, Jörg; Wörn, Heinz; Marmulla, Rüdiger; Mühling, Joachim

2009-01-01

This contribution reports the development and initial testing of a Mobile Robot System for Surgical Craniotomy, the Craniostar. A kinematic system based on a unicycle robot is analysed to provide local positioning through two spiked wheels gripping directly onto a patients skull. A control system based on a shared control system between both the Surgeon and Robot is employed in a hand-held design that is tested initially on plastic phantom and swine skulls. Results indicate that the system has substantially lower risk than present robotically assisted craniotomies, and despite being a hand-held mobile robot, the Craniostar is still capable of sub-millimetre accuracy in tracking along a trajectory and thus achieving an accurate transfer of pre-surgical plan to the operating room procedure, without the large impact of current medical robots based on modified industrial robots.

Minimal-Drift Heading Measurement using a MEMS Gyro for Indoor Mobile Robots.

PubMed

Hong, Sung Kyung; Park, Sungsu

2008-11-17

To meet the challenges of making low-cost MEMS yaw rate gyros for the precise self-localization of indoor mobile robots, this paper examines a practical and effective method of minimizing drift on the heading angle that relies solely on integration of rate signals from a gyro. The main idea of the proposed approach is consists of two parts; 1) self-identification of calibration coefficients that affects long-term performance, and 2) threshold filter to reject the broadband noise component that affects short-term performance. Experimental results with the proposed phased method applied to Epson XV3500 gyro demonstrate that it effectively yields minimal drift heading angle measurements getting over major error sources in the MEMS gyro output.

Evolutionary Fuzzy Control and Navigation for Two Wheeled Robots Cooperatively Carrying an Object in Unknown Environments.

PubMed

Juang, Chia-Feng; Lai, Min-Ge; Zeng, Wan-Ting

2015-09-01

This paper presents a method that allows two wheeled, mobile robots to navigate unknown environments while cooperatively carrying an object. In the navigation method, a leader robot and a follower robot cooperatively perform either obstacle boundary following (OBF) or target seeking (TS) to reach a destination. The two robots are controlled by fuzzy controllers (FC) whose rules are learned through an adaptive fusion of continuous ant colony optimization and particle swarm optimization (AF-CACPSO), which avoids the time-consuming task of manually designing the controllers. The AF-CACPSO-based evolutionary fuzzy control approach is first applied to the control of a single robot to perform OBF. The learning approach is then applied to achieve cooperative OBF with two robots, where an auxiliary FC designed with the AF-CACPSO is used to control the follower robot. For cooperative TS, a rule for coordination of the two robots is developed. To navigate cooperatively, a cooperative behavior supervisor is introduced to select between cooperative OBF and cooperative TS. The performance of the AF-CACPSO is verified through comparisons with various population-based optimization algorithms for the OBF learning problem. Simulations and experiments verify the effectiveness of the approach for cooperative navigation of two robots.

Mobile robot sense net

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Konolige, Kurt G.; Gutmann, Steffen; Guzzoni, Didier; Ficklin, Robert W.; Nicewarner, Keith E.

1999-08-01

Mobile robot hardware and software is developing to the point where interesting applications for groups of such robots can be contemplated. We envision a set of mobots acting to map and perform surveillance or other task within an indoor environment (the Sense Net). A typical application of the Sense Net would be to detect survivors in buildings damaged by earthquake or other disaster, where human searchers would be put a risk. As a team, the Sense Net could reconnoiter a set of buildings faster, more reliably, and more comprehensibly than an individual mobot. The team, for example, could dynamically form subteams to perform task that cannot be done by individual robots, such as measuring the range to a distant object by forming a long baseline stereo sensor form a pari of mobots. In addition, the team could automatically reconfigure itself to handle contingencies such as disabled mobots. This paper is a report of our current progress in developing the Sense Net, after the first year of a two-year project. In our approach, each mobot has sufficient autonomy to perform several tasks, such as mapping unknown areas, navigating to specific positions, and detecting, tracking, characterizing, and classifying human and vehicular activity. We detail how some of these tasks are accomplished, and how the mobot group is tasked.

Algorithms and Sensors for Small Robot Path Following

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hogg, Robert W.; Rankin, Arturo L.; Roumeliotis, Stergios I.; McHenry, Michael C.; Helmick, Daniel M.; Bergh, Charles F.; Matthies, Larry

2002-01-01

Tracked mobile robots in the 20 kg size class are under development for applications in urban reconnaissance. For efficient deployment, it is desirable for teams of robots to be able to automatically execute path following behaviors, with one or more followers tracking the path taken by a leader. The key challenges to enabling such a capability are (l) to develop sensor packages for such small robots that can accurately determine the path of the leader and (2) to develop path following algorithms for the subsequent robots. To date, we have integrated gyros, accelerometers, compass/inclinometers, odometry, and differential GPS into an effective sensing package. This paper describes the sensor package, sensor processing algorithm, and path tracking algorithm we have developed for the leader/follower problem in small robots and shows the result of performance characterization of the system. We also document pragmatic lessons learned about design, construction, and electromagnetic interference issues particular to the performance of state sensors on small robots.

Mobile robot exploration and navigation of indoor spaces using sonar and vision

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kortenkamp, David; Huber, Marcus; Koss, Frank; Belding, William; Lee, Jaeho; Wu, Annie; Bidlack, Clint; Rodgers, Seth

1994-01-01

Integration of skills into an autonomous robot that performs a complex task is described. Time constraints prevented complete integration of all the described skills. The biggest problem was tuning the sensor-based region-finding algorithm to the environment involved. Since localization depended on matching regions found with the a priori map, the robot became lost very quickly. If the low level sensing of the world is not working, then high level reasoning or map making will be unsuccessful.

Development of a telepresence robot for medical consultation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bugtai, Nilo T.; Ong, Aira Patrice R.; Angeles, Patrick Bryan C.; Cervera, John Keen P.; Ganzon, Rachel Ann E.; Villanueva, Carlos A. G.; Maniquis, Samuel Nazirite F.

2017-02-01

There are numerous efforts to add value for telehealth applications in the country. In this study, the design of a telepresence doctor to facilitate remote medical consultations in the wards of Philippine General Hospital is proposed. This includes the design of a robot capable of performing a medical consultation with clear audio and video information for both ends. It also provides the operating doctor full control of the telepresence robot and gives a user-friendly interface for the controlling doctor. The results have shown that it provides a stable and reliable mobile medical service through the use of the telepresence robot.

A design strategy for autonomous systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Forster, Pete

1989-01-01

Some solutions to crucial issues regarding the competent performance of an autonomously operating robot are identified; namely, that of handling multiple and variable data sources containing overlapping information and maintaining coherent operation while responding adequately to changes in the environment. Support for the ideas developed for the construction of such behavior are extracted from speculations in the study of cognitive psychology, an understanding of the behavior of controlled mechanisms, and the development of behavior-based robots in a few robot research laboratories. The validity of these ideas is supported by some simple simulation experiments in the field of mobile robot navigation and guidance.

Advanced Robotics for Air Force Operations

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-06-01

evaluated current and potential uses of advanced robotics to support Air Force systems, (2) recommended the most effective aplications of advanced robotics...manpower. Such a robot system would The boom would not only transfer fuel, be considerably more mobile and effi- 10 ADVANCED ROBOTICS FOR AIR FORCE...increased manpower resources in war tive clothing reduce vision, hearing, and make this an attractive potential appli- mobility , which further reduce

Local Free-Space Mapping and Path Guidance for Mobile Robots.

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-03-01

CM a CD U 00 Technical Document 1227 March 1988 Local Free- Space Mapping o and Path Guidance for Mobile Robots o William T. Gex N’% Nancy L. Campbell...TITLE (inludvSeocutCl&sas~o*) Local Free- Space Mapping and Path Guidance for Mobile Robots 12. PERSONAL AUTHOR(S) William T. Gex and Nancy L...Description of Robot System... 2 Free- Space Mapping ... 4 Map Construction ... 4 . ,12pping Examplk... 5 ’ft Sensor Unreliability... 8 % Path Guidance

Vision-Based Real-Time Traversable Region Detection for Mobile Robot in the Outdoors.

PubMed

Deng, Fucheng; Zhu, Xiaorui; He, Chao

2017-09-13

Environment perception is essential for autonomous mobile robots in human-robot coexisting outdoor environments. One of the important tasks for such intelligent robots is to autonomously detect the traversable region in an unstructured 3D real world. The main drawback of most existing methods is that of high computational complexity. Hence, this paper proposes a binocular vision-based, real-time solution for detecting traversable region in the outdoors. In the proposed method, an appearance model based on multivariate Gaussian is quickly constructed from a sample region in the left image adaptively determined by the vanishing point and dominant borders. Then, a fast, self-supervised segmentation scheme is proposed to classify the traversable and non-traversable regions. The proposed method is evaluated on public datasets as well as a real mobile robot. Implementation on the mobile robot has shown its ability in the real-time navigation applications.

Teleautonomous guidance for mobile robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Borenstein, J.; Koren, Y.

1990-01-01

Teleautonomous guidance (TG), a technique for the remote guidance of fast mobile robots, has been developed and implemented. With TG, the mobile robot follows the general direction prescribed by an operator. However, if the robot encounters an obstacle, it autonomously avoids collision with that obstacle while trying to match the prescribed direction as closely as possible. This type of shared control is completely transparent and transfers control between teleoperation and autonomous obstacle avoidance gradually. TG allows the operator to steer vehicles and robots at high speeds and in cluttered environments, even without visual contact. TG is based on the virtual force field (VFF) method, which was developed earlier for autonomous obstacle avoidance. The VFF method is especially suited to the accommodation of inaccurate sensor data (such as that produced by ultrasonic sensors) and sensor fusion, and allows the mobile robot to travel quickly without stopping for obstacles.

Applying robotics to HAZMAT

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Welch, Richard V.; Edmonds, Gary O.

1994-01-01

The use of robotics in situations involving hazardous materials can significantly reduce the risk of human injuries. The Emergency Response Robotics Project, which began in October 1990 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is developing a teleoperated mobile robot allowing HAZMAT (hazardous materials) teams to remotely respond to incidents involving hazardous materials. The current robot, called HAZBOT III, can assist in locating characterizing, identifying, and mitigating hazardous material incidents without risking entry team personnel. The active involvement of the JPL Fire Department HAZMAT team has been vital in developing a robotic system which enables them to perform remote reconnaissance of a HAZMAT incident site. This paper provides a brief review of the history of the project, discusses the current system in detail, and presents other areas in which robotics can be applied removing people from hazardous environments/operations.

Autonomous Mobile Platform for Research in Cooperative Robotics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Daemi, Ali; Pena, Edward; Ferguson, Paul

1998-01-01

This paper describes the design and development of a platform for research in cooperative mobile robotics. The structure and mechanics of the vehicles are based on R/C cars. The vehicle is rendered mobile by a DC motor and servo motor. The perception of the robot's environment is achieved using IR sensors and a central vision system. A laptop computer processes images from a CCD camera located above the testing area to determine the position of objects in sight. This information is sent to each robot via RF modem. Each robot is operated by a Motorola 68HC11E micro-controller, and all actions of the robots are realized through the connections of IR sensors, modem, and motors. The intelligent behavior of each robot is based on a hierarchical fuzzy-rule based approach.

Self-Adaptive Correction of Heading Direction in Stair Climbing for Tracked Mobile Robots Using Visual Servoing Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ji, Peng; Song, Aiguo; Song, Zimo; Liu, Yuqing; Jiang, Guohua; Zhao, Guopu

2017-02-01

In this paper, we describe a heading direction correction algorithm for a tracked mobile robot. To save hardware resources as far as possible, the mobile robot’s wrist camera is used as the only sensor, which is rotated to face stairs. An ensemble heading deviation detector is proposed to help the mobile robot correct its heading direction. To improve the generalization ability, a multi-scale Gabor filter is used to process the input image previously. Final deviation result is acquired by applying the majority vote strategy on all the classifiers’ results. The experimental results show that our detector is able to enable the mobile robot to correct its heading direction adaptively while it is climbing the stairs.

A Car Transportation System in Cooperation by Multiple Mobile Robots for Each Wheel: iCART II

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kashiwazaki, Koshi; Yonezawa, Naoaki; Kosuge, Kazuhiro; Sugahara, Yusuke; Hirata, Yasuhisa; Endo, Mitsuru; Kanbayashi, Takashi; Shinozuka, Hiroyuki; Suzuki, Koki; Ono, Yuki

The authors proposed a car transportation system, iCART (intelligent Cooperative Autonomous Robot Transporters), for automation of mechanical parking systems by two mobile robots. However, it was difficult to downsize the mobile robot because the length of it requires at least the wheelbase of a car. This paper proposes a new car transportation system, iCART II (iCART - type II), based on “a-robot-for-a-wheel” concept. A prototype system, MRWheel (a Mobile Robot for a Wheel), is designed and downsized less than half the conventional robot. First, a method for lifting up a wheel by MRWheel is described. In general, it is very difficult for mobile robots such as MRWheel to move to desired positions without motion errors caused by slipping, etc. Therefore, we propose a follower's motion error estimation algorithm based on the internal force applied to each follower by extending a conventional leader-follower type decentralized control algorithm for cooperative object transportation. The proposed algorithm enables followers to estimate their motion errors and enables the robots to transport a car to a desired position. In addition, we analyze and prove the stability and convergence of the resultant system with the proposed algorithm. In order to extract only the internal force from the force applied to each robot, we also propose a model-based external force compensation method. Finally, proposed methods are applied to the car transportation system, the experimental results confirm their validity.

Performance standards for urban search and rescue robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Messina, Elena; Jacoff, Adam

2006-05-01

In this paper, we describe work in performance standards for urban search and rescue (USAR) robots begun in 2004 by the Department of Homeland Security. This program is being coordinated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and will result in consensus standards developed through ASTM International, under the Operational Equipment Subcommittee of their Homeland Security Committee. The first phase of the program involved definition of requirements by subject matter experts. Responders participated in a series of workshops to identify deployment categories for robots, performance categories, and ranges of acceptable or target performance in the various categories. Over one hundred individual requirements were identified, within main categories such as Human-System Interaction, Logistics, Operating Environment, and System (which includes Chassis, Communications, Mobility, Payload, Power, and Sensing). To ensure that the robot developers and eventual end users work closely together, "responders meet robots" events at situationally relevant sites are being held to refine and extend the performance requirements and develop standard test methods. The results of these standard performance tests will be captured in a compendium of existing and developmental robots with classifications and descriptors to differentiate particular robotic capabilities. This, along with ongoing efforts to categorize situational USAR constraints such as building collapse types or the presence of hazardous materials, will help responders match particular robotic capabilities to response needs. In general, these efforts will enable responders to effectively use robotic tools to enhance their effectiveness while reducing risk to personnel during disasters.

A Mobile, Map-Based Tasking Interface for Human-Robot Interaction

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-12-01

A MOBILE, MAP-BASED TASKING INTERFACE FOR HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION By Eli R. Hooten Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of...SUBTITLE A Mobile, Map-Based Tasking Interface for Human-Robot Interaction 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6...3 II.1 Interactive Modalities and Multi-Touch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 II.2

Multi-Robot, Multi-Target Particle Swarm Optimization Search in Noisy Wireless Environments

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kurt Derr; Milos Manic

Multiple small robots (swarms) can work together using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to perform tasks that are difficult or impossible for a single robot to accomplish. The problem considered in this paper is exploration of an unknown environment with the goal of finding a target(s) at an unknown location(s) using multiple small mobile robots. This work demonstrates the use of a distributed PSO algorithm with a novel adaptive RSS weighting factor to guide robots for locating target(s) in high risk environments. The approach was developed and analyzed on multiple robot single and multiple target search. The approach was further enhancedmore » by the multi-robot-multi-target search in noisy environments. The experimental results demonstrated how the availability of radio frequency signal can significantly affect robot search time to reach a target.« less

Gas Source Localization via Behaviour Based Mobile Robot and Weighted Arithmetic Mean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yeon, Ahmad Shakaff Ali; Kamarudin, Kamarulzaman; Visvanathan, Retnam; Mamduh Syed Zakaria, Syed Muhammad; Zakaria, Ammar; Munirah Kamarudin, Latifah

2018-03-01

This work is concerned with the localization of gas source in dynamic indoor environment using a single mobile robot system. Algorithms such as Braitenberg, Zig-Zag and the combination of the two were implemented on the mobile robot as gas plume searching and tracing behaviours. To calculate the gas source location, a weighted arithmetic mean strategy was used. All experiments were done on an experimental testbed consisting of a large gas sensor array (LGSA) to monitor real-time gas concentration within the testbed. Ethanol gas was released within the testbed and the source location was marked using a pattern that can be tracked by a pattern tracking system. A pattern template was also mounted on the mobile robot to track the trajectory of the mobile robot. Measurements taken by the mobile robot and the LGSA were then compared to verify the experiments. A combined total of 36.5 hours of real time experimental runs were done and the typical results from such experiments were presented in this paper. From the results, we obtained gas source localization errors between 0.4m to 1.2m from the real source location.

Evaluation of a Home Biomonitoring Autonomous Mobile Robot.

PubMed

Dorronzoro Zubiete, Enrique; Nakahata, Keigo; Imamoglu, Nevrez; Sekine, Masashi; Sun, Guanghao; Gomez, Isabel; Yu, Wenwei

2016-01-01

Increasing population age demands more services in healthcare domain. It has been shown that mobile robots could be a potential solution to home biomonitoring for the elderly. Through our previous studies, a mobile robot system that is able to track a subject and identify his daily living activities has been developed. However, the system has not been tested in any home living scenarios. In this study we did a series of experiments to investigate the accuracy of activity recognition of the mobile robot in a home living scenario. The daily activities tested in the evaluation experiment include watching TV and sleeping. A dataset recorded by a distributed distance-measuring sensor network was used as a reference to the activity recognition results. It was shown that the accuracy is not consistent for all the activities; that is, mobile robot could achieve a high success rate in some activities but a poor success rate in others. It was found that the observation position of the mobile robot and subject surroundings have high impact on the accuracy of the activity recognition, due to the variability of the home living daily activities and their transitional process. The possibility of improvement of recognition accuracy has been shown too.

Constrained motion model of mobile robots and its applications.

PubMed

Zhang, Fei; Xi, Yugeng; Lin, Zongli; Chen, Weidong

2009-06-01

Target detecting and dynamic coverage are fundamental tasks in mobile robotics and represent two important features of mobile robots: mobility and perceptivity. This paper establishes the constrained motion model and sensor model of a mobile robot to represent these two features and defines the k -step reachable region to describe the states that the robot may reach. We show that the calculation of the k-step reachable region can be reduced from that of 2(k) reachable regions with the fixed motion styles to k + 1 such regions and provide an algorithm for its calculation. Based on the constrained motion model and the k -step reachable region, the problems associated with target detecting and dynamic coverage are formulated and solved. For target detecting, the k-step detectable region is used to describe the area that the robot may detect, and an algorithm for detecting a target and planning the optimal path is proposed. For dynamic coverage, the k-step detected region is used to represent the area that the robot has detected during its motion, and the dynamic-coverage strategy and algorithm are proposed. Simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of the coverage algorithm in both convex and concave environments.

An integrated collision prediction and avoidance scheme for mobile robots in non-stationary environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kyriakopoulos, K. J.; Saridis, G. N.

1993-01-01

A formulation that makes possible the integration of collision prediction and avoidance stages for mobile robots moving in general terrains containing moving obstacles is presented. A dynamic model of the mobile robot and the dynamic constraints are derived. Collision avoidance is guaranteed if the distance between the robot and a moving obstacle is nonzero. A nominal trajectory is assumed to be known from off-line planning. The main idea is to change the velocity along the nominal trajectory so that collisions are avoided. A feedback control is developed and local asymptotic stability is proved if the velocity of the moving obstacle is bounded. Furthermore, a solution to the problem of inverse dynamics for the mobile robot is given. Simulation results verify the value of the proposed strategy.

Experiments with a small behaviour controlled planetary rover

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miller, David P.; Desai, Rajiv S.; Gat, Erann; Ivlev, Robert; Loch, John

1993-01-01

A series of experiments that were performed on the Rocky 3 robot is described. Rocky 3 is a small autonomous rover capable of navigating through rough outdoor terrain to a predesignated area, searching that area for soft soil, acquiring a soil sample, and depositing the sample in a container at its home base. The robot is programmed according to a reactive behavior control paradigm using the ALFA programming language. This style of programming produces robust autonomous performance while requiring significantly less computational resources than more traditional mobile robot control systems. The code for Rocky 3 runs on an eight bit processor and uses about ten k of memory.

Application requirements for Robotic Nursing Assistants in hospital environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cremer, Sven; Doelling, Kris; Lundberg, Cody L.; McNair, Mike; Shin, Jeongsik; Popa, Dan

2016-05-01

In this paper we report on analysis toward identifying design requirements for an Adaptive Robotic Nursing Assistant (ARNA). Specifically, the paper focuses on application requirements for ARNA, envisioned as a mobile assistive robot that can navigate hospital environments to perform chores in roles such as patient sitter and patient walker. The role of a sitter is primarily related to patient observation from a distance, and fetching objects at the patient's request, while a walker provides physical assistance for ambulation and rehabilitation. The robot will be expected to not only understand nurse and patient intent but also close the decision loop by automating several routine tasks. As a result, the robot will be equipped with sensors such as distributed pressure sensitive skins, 3D range sensors, and so on. Modular sensor and actuator hardware configured in the form of several multi-degree-of-freedom manipulators, and a mobile base are expected to be deployed in reconfigurable platforms for physical assistance tasks. Furthermore, adaptive human-machine interfaces are expected to play a key role, as they directly impact the ability of robots to assist nurses in a dynamic and unstructured environment. This paper discusses required tasks for the ARNA robot, as well as sensors and software infrastructure to carry out those tasks in the aspects of technical resource availability, gaps, and needed experimental studies.

A tele-operated mobile ultrasound scanner using a light-weight robot.

PubMed

Delgorge, Cécile; Courrèges, Fabien; Al Bassit, Lama; Novales, Cyril; Rosenberger, Christophe; Smith-Guerin, Natalie; Brù, Concepció; Gilabert, Rosa; Vannoni, Maurizio; Poisson, Gérard; Vieyres, Pierre

2005-03-01

This paper presents a new tele-operated robotic chain for real-time ultrasound image acquisition and medical diagnosis. This system has been developed in the frame of the Mobile Tele-Echography Using an Ultralight Robot European Project. A light-weight six degrees-of-freedom serial robot, with a remote center of motion, has been specially designed for this application. It holds and moves a real probe on a distant patient according to the expert gesture and permits an image acquisition using a standard ultrasound device. The combination of mechanical structure choice for the robot and dedicated control law, particularly nearby the singular configuration allows a good path following and a robotized gesture accuracy. The choice of compression techniques for image transmission enables a compromise between flow and quality. These combined approaches, for robotics and image processing, enable the medical specialist to better control the remote ultrasound probe holder system and to receive stable and good quality ultrasound images to make a diagnosis via any type of communication link from terrestrial to satellite. Clinical tests have been performed since April 2003. They used both satellite or Integrated Services Digital Network lines with a theoretical bandwidth of 384 Kb/s. They showed the tele-echography system helped to identify 66% of lesions and 83% of symptomatic pathologies.

MIMO-OFDM System's Performance Using LDPC Codes for a Mobile Robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Daoud, Omar; Alani, Omar

This work deals with the performance of a Sniffer Mobile Robot (SNFRbot)-based spatial multiplexed wireless Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) transmission technology. The use of Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO)-OFDM technology increases the wireless transmission rate without increasing transmission power or bandwidth. A generic multilayer architecture of the SNFRbot is proposed with low power and low cost. Some experimental results are presented and show the efficiency of sniffing deadly gazes, sensing high temperatures and sending live videos of the monitored situation. Moreover, simulation results show the achieved performance by tackling the Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) problem of the used technology using Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes; and the effect of combating the PAPR on the bit error rate (BER) and the signal to noise ratio (SNR) over a Doppler spread channel.

Pose Estimation of a Mobile Robot Based on Fusion of IMU Data and Vision Data Using an Extended Kalman Filter.

PubMed

Alatise, Mary B; Hancke, Gerhard P

2017-09-21

Using a single sensor to determine the pose estimation of a device cannot give accurate results. This paper presents a fusion of an inertial sensor of six degrees of freedom (6-DoF) which comprises the 3-axis of an accelerometer and the 3-axis of a gyroscope, and a vision to determine a low-cost and accurate position for an autonomous mobile robot. For vision, a monocular vision-based object detection algorithm speeded-up robust feature (SURF) and random sample consensus (RANSAC) algorithms were integrated and used to recognize a sample object in several images taken. As against the conventional method that depend on point-tracking, RANSAC uses an iterative method to estimate the parameters of a mathematical model from a set of captured data which contains outliers. With SURF and RANSAC, improved accuracy is certain; this is because of their ability to find interest points (features) under different viewing conditions using a Hessain matrix. This approach is proposed because of its simple implementation, low cost, and improved accuracy. With an extended Kalman filter (EKF), data from inertial sensors and a camera were fused to estimate the position and orientation of the mobile robot. All these sensors were mounted on the mobile robot to obtain an accurate localization. An indoor experiment was carried out to validate and evaluate the performance. Experimental results show that the proposed method is fast in computation, reliable and robust, and can be considered for practical applications. The performance of the experiments was verified by the ground truth data and root mean square errors (RMSEs).

Pose Estimation of a Mobile Robot Based on Fusion of IMU Data and Vision Data Using an Extended Kalman Filter

PubMed Central

Hancke, Gerhard P.

2017-01-01

Using a single sensor to determine the pose estimation of a device cannot give accurate results. This paper presents a fusion of an inertial sensor of six degrees of freedom (6-DoF) which comprises the 3-axis of an accelerometer and the 3-axis of a gyroscope, and a vision to determine a low-cost and accurate position for an autonomous mobile robot. For vision, a monocular vision-based object detection algorithm speeded-up robust feature (SURF) and random sample consensus (RANSAC) algorithms were integrated and used to recognize a sample object in several images taken. As against the conventional method that depend on point-tracking, RANSAC uses an iterative method to estimate the parameters of a mathematical model from a set of captured data which contains outliers. With SURF and RANSAC, improved accuracy is certain; this is because of their ability to find interest points (features) under different viewing conditions using a Hessain matrix. This approach is proposed because of its simple implementation, low cost, and improved accuracy. With an extended Kalman filter (EKF), data from inertial sensors and a camera were fused to estimate the position and orientation of the mobile robot. All these sensors were mounted on the mobile robot to obtain an accurate localization. An indoor experiment was carried out to validate and evaluate the performance. Experimental results show that the proposed method is fast in computation, reliable and robust, and can be considered for practical applications. The performance of the experiments was verified by the ground truth data and root mean square errors (RMSEs). PMID:28934102

A Null Space Control of Two Wheels Driven Mobile Manipulator Using Passivity Theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shibata, Tsuyoshi; Murakami, Toshiyuki

This paper describes a control strategy of null space motion of a two wheels driven mobile manipulator. Recently, robot is utilized in various industrial fields and it is preferable for the robot manipulator to have multiple degrees of freedom motion. Several studies of kinematics for null space motion have been proposed. However stability analysis of null space motion is not enough. Furthermore, these approaches apply to stable systems, but they do not apply unstable systems. Then, in this research, base of manipulator equips with two wheels driven mobile robot. This robot is called two wheels driven mobile manipulator, which becomes unstable system. In the proposed approach, a control design of null space uses passivity based stabilizing. A proposed controller is decided so that closed-loop system of robot dynamics satisfies passivity. This is passivity based control. Then, control strategy is that stabilizing of the robot system applies to work space observer based approach and null space control while keeping end-effector position. The validity of the proposed approach is verified by simulations and experiments of two wheels driven mobile manipulator.

Portable control device for networked mobile robots

DOEpatents

Feddema, John T.; Byrne, Raymond H.; Bryan, Jon R.; Harrington, John J.; Gladwell, T. Scott

2002-01-01

A handheld control device provides a way for controlling one or multiple mobile robotic vehicles by incorporating a handheld computer with a radio board. The device and software use a personal data organizer as the handheld computer with an additional microprocessor and communication device on a radio board for use in controlling one robot or multiple networked robots.

Innovative Mobile Robot Method: Improving the Learning of Programming Languages in Engineering Degrees

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ortiz, Octavio Ortiz; Pastor Franco, Juan Ángel; Alcover Garau, Pedro María; Herrero Martín, Ruth

2017-01-01

This paper describes a study of teaching a programming language in a C programming course by having students assemble and program a low-cost mobile robot. Writing their own programs to define the robot's behavior raised students' motivation. Working in small groups, students programmed the robots by using the control structures of structured…

Laser-Camera Vision Sensing for Spacecraft Mobile Robot Navigation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maluf, David A.; Khalil, Ahmad S.; Dorais, Gregory A.; Gawdiak, Yuri

2002-01-01

The advent of spacecraft mobile robots-free-flyng sensor platforms and communications devices intended to accompany astronauts or remotely operate on space missions both inside and outside of a spacecraft-has demanded the development of a simple and effective navigation schema. One such system under exploration involves the use of a laser-camera arrangement to predict relative positioning of the mobile robot. By projecting laser beams from the robot, a 3D reference frame can be introduced. Thus, as the robot shifts in position, the position reference frame produced by the laser images is correspondingly altered. Using normalization and camera registration techniques presented in this paper, the relative translation and rotation of the robot in 3D are determined from these reference frame transformations.

Hierarchical Modelling Of Mobile, Seeing Robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luh, Cheng-Jye; Zeigler, Bernard P.

1990-03-01

This paper describes the implementation of a hierarchical robot simulation which supports the design of robots with vision and mobility. A seeing robot applies a classification expert system for visual identification of laboratory objects. The visual data acquisition algorithm used by the robot vision system has been developed to exploit multiple viewing distances and perspectives. Several different simulations have been run testing the visual logic in a laboratory environment. Much work remains to integrate the vision system with the rest of the robot system.

Hierarchical modelling of mobile, seeing robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Luh, Cheng-Jye; Zeigler, Bernard P.

1990-01-01

This paper describes the implementation of a hierarchical robot simulation which supports the design of robots with vision and mobility. A seeing robot applies a classification expert system for visual identification of laboratory objects. The visual data acquisition algorithm used by the robot vision system has been developed to exploit multiple viewing distances and perspectives. Several different simulations have been run testing the visual logic in a laboratory environment. Much work remains to integrate the vision system with the rest of the robot system.

A Mobile Sensor Network System for Monitoring of Unfriendly Environments.

PubMed

Song, Guangming; Zhou, Yaoxin; Ding, Fei; Song, Aiguo

2008-11-14

Observing microclimate changes is one of the most popular applications of wireless sensor networks. However, some target environments are often too dangerous or inaccessible to humans or large robots and there are many challenges for deploying and maintaining wireless sensor networks in those unfriendly environments. This paper presents a mobile sensor network system for solving this problem. The system architecture, the mobile node design, the basic behaviors and advanced network capabilities have been investigated respectively. A wheel-based robotic node architecture is proposed here that can add controlled mobility to wireless sensor networks. A testbed including some prototype nodes has also been created for validating the basic functions of the proposed mobile sensor network system. Motion performance tests have been done to get the positioning errors and power consumption model of the mobile nodes. Results of the autonomous deployment experiment show that the mobile nodes can be distributed evenly into the previously unknown environments. It provides powerful support for network deployment and maintenance and can ensure that the sensor network will work properly in unfriendly environments.

Exhaustive geographic search with mobile robots along space-filling curves

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Spires, S.V.; Goldsmith, S.Y.

1998-03-01

Swarms of mobile robots can be tasked with searching a geographic region for targets of interest, such as buried land mines. The authors assume that the individual robots are equipped with sensors tuned to the targets of interest, that these sensors have limited range, and that the robots can communicate with one another to enable cooperation. How can a swarm of cooperating sensate robots efficiently search a given geographic region for targets in the absence of a priori information about the target`s locations? Many of the obvious approaches are inefficient or lack robustness. One efficient approach is to have themore » robots traverse a space-filling curve. For many geographic search applications, this method is energy-frugal, highly robust, and provides guaranteed coverage in a finite time that decreases as the reciprocal of the number of robots sharing the search task. Furthermore, it minimizes the amount of robot-to-robot communication needed for the robots to organize their movements. This report presents some preliminary results from applying the Hilbert space-filling curve to geographic search by mobile robots.« less

Using mixed-initiative human-robot interaction to bound performance in a search task

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Curtis W. Nielsen; Douglas A. Few; Devin S. Athey

2008-12-01

Mobile robots are increasingly used in dangerous domains, because they can keep humans out of harm’s way. Despite their advantages in hazardous environments, their general acceptance in other less dangerous domains has not been apparent and, even in dangerous environments, robots are often viewed as a “last-possible choice.” In order to increase the utility and acceptance of robots in hazardous domains researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory have both developed and tested novel mixed-initiative solutions that support the human-robot interactions. In a recent “dirty-bomb” experiment, participants exhibited different search strategies making it difficult to determine any performance benefits. This papermore » presents a method for categorizing the search patterns and shows that the mixed-initiative solution decreased the time to complete the task and decreased the performance spread between participants independent of prior training and of individual strategies used to accomplish the task.« less

Robotic-Assisted Sleeve Lobectomy Using the Four-Arm Technique in the DaVinci Si® and Xi® Systems.

PubMed

Egberts, Jan-Hendrik; Möller, Thorben; Becker, Thomas

2018-06-16

Sleeve lobectomy (SL) makes it possible to resect centrally located lung carcinoma oncological correct while protecting healthy lung tissue. However, this procedure is often limited with conventional video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, due to the limited mobility of the rigid and long instruments and the limited visualization. Therefore, these interventions are often still performed in the open conventional technique with the well-known disadvantages. Particularly in the reconstruction of the respiratory tract, precise sewing must be performed in a small space to avoid stenosis of the different diameter of the lumina. Robotic surgery offers several advantages through an enlarged three-dimensional view and flexibility of the robotic instruments, which are particularly evident when sewing. So far, there are only a few reports of robotic SL. Here, we describe our experience of performing robotic SL with four arms on both, the currently available DaVinci Xi ® and Si ® systems. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

A Mobile Service Robot for Life Science Laboratories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schulenburg, Erik; Elkmann, Norbert; Fritzsche, Markus; Teutsch, Christian

In this paper we presents a project that is developing a mobile service robot to assist users in biological and pharmaceutical laboratories by executing routine jobs such as filling and transporting microplates. A preliminary overview of the design of the mobile platform with a robotic arm is provided. Safety aspects are one focus of the project since the robot and humans will share a common environment. Hence, several safety sensors such as laser scanners, thermographie components and artificial skin are employed. These are described along with the approaches to object recognition.

Verification hybrid control of a wheeled mobile robot and manipulator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muszynska, Magdalena; Burghardt, Andrzej; Kurc, Krzysztof; Szybicki, Dariusz

2016-04-01

In this article, innovative approaches to realization of the wheeled mobile robots and manipulator tracking are presented. Conceptions include application of the neural-fuzzy systems to compensation of the controlled system's nonlinearities in the tracking control task. Proposed control algorithms work on-line, contain structure, that adapt to the changeable work conditions of the controlled systems, and do not require the preliminary learning. The algorithm was verification on the real object which was a Scorbot - ER 4pc robotic manipulator and a Pioneer - 2DX mobile robot.

Path planning in GPS-denied environments via collective intelligence of distributed sensor networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jha, Devesh K.; Chattopadhyay, Pritthi; Sarkar, Soumik; Ray, Asok

2016-05-01

This paper proposes a framework for reactive goal-directed navigation without global positioning facilities in unknown dynamic environments. A mobile sensor network is used for localising regions of interest for path planning of an autonomous mobile robot. The underlying theory is an extension of a generalised gossip algorithm that has been recently developed in a language-measure-theoretic setting. The algorithm has been used to propagate local decisions of target detection over a mobile sensor network and thus, it generates a belief map for the detected target over the network. In this setting, an autonomous mobile robot may communicate only with a few mobile sensing nodes in its own neighbourhood and localise itself relative to the communicating nodes with bounded uncertainties. The robot makes use of the knowledge based on the belief of the mobile sensors to generate a sequence of way-points, leading to a possible goal. The estimated way-points are used by a sampling-based motion planning algorithm to generate feasible trajectories for the robot. The proposed concept has been validated by numerical simulation on a mobile sensor network test-bed and a Dubin's car-like robot.

Control of an automated mobile manipulator using artificial immune system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deepak, B. B. V. L.; Parhi, Dayal R.

2016-03-01

This paper addresses the coordination and control of a wheeled mobile manipulator (WMM) using artificial immune system. The aim of the developed methodology is to navigate the system autonomously and transport jobs and tools in manufacturing environments. This study integrates the kinematic structures of a four-axis manipulator and a differential wheeled mobile platform. The motion of the developed WMM is controlled by the complete system of parametric equation in terms of joint velocities and makes the robot to follow desired trajectories by the manipulator and platform within its workspace. The developed robot system performs its action intelligently according to the sensed environmental criteria within its search space. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed immune-based motion planner for WMM, simulations as well as experimental results are presented in various unknown environments.

Study of the Navigation Method for a Snake Robot Based on the Kinematics Model with MEMS IMU.

PubMed

Zhao, Xu; Dou, Lihua; Su, Zhong; Liu, Ning

2018-03-16

A snake robot is a type of highly redundant mobile robot that significantly differs from a tracked robot, wheeled robot and legged robot. To address the issue of a snake robot performing self-localization in the application environment without assistant orientation, an autonomous navigation method is proposed based on the snake robot's motion characteristic constraints. The method realized the autonomous navigation of the snake robot with non-nodes and an external assistant using its own Micro-Electromechanical-Systems (MEMS) Inertial-Measurement-Unit (IMU). First, it studies the snake robot's motion characteristics, builds the kinematics model, and then analyses the motion constraint characteristics and motion error propagation properties. Second, it explores the snake robot's navigation layout, proposes a constraint criterion and the fixed relationship, and makes zero-state constraints based on the motion features and control modes of a snake robot. Finally, it realizes autonomous navigation positioning based on the Extended-Kalman-Filter (EKF) position estimation method under the constraints of its motion characteristics. With the self-developed snake robot, the test verifies the proposed method, and the position error is less than 5% of Total-Traveled-Distance (TDD). In a short-distance environment, this method is able to meet the requirements of a snake robot in order to perform autonomous navigation and positioning in traditional applications and can be extended to other familiar multi-link robots.

Robotic acquisition programs: technical and performance challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thibadoux, Steven A.

2002-07-01

The Unmanned Ground Vehicles/ Systems Joint Project Office (UGV/S JPO) is developing and fielding a variety of tactical robotic systems for the Army and Marine Corps. The Standardized Robotic System (SRS) provides a family of common components that can be installed in existing military vehicles, to allow unmanned operation of the vehicle and its payloads. The Robotic Combat Support System (RCSS) will be a medium sized unmanned system with interchangeable attachments, allowing a remote operator to perform a variety of engineering tasks. The Gladiator Program is a USMC initiative for a small to medium sized, highly mobile UGV to conduct scout/ surveillance missions and to carry various lethal and non-lethal payloads. Acquisition plans for these programs require preplanned evolutionary block upgrades to add operational capability, as new technology becomes available. This paper discusses technical and performance issues that must be resolved and the enabling technologies needed for near term block upgrades of these first generation robotic systems. Additionally, two Joint Robotics Program (JRP) initiatives, Robotic Acquisition through Virtual Environments and Networked Simulations (RAVENS) and Joint Architecture for Unmanned Ground Systems (JAUGS), will be discussed. RAVENS and JAUGS will be used to efficiently evaluate and integrate new technologies to be incorporated in system upgrades.

Soft Robots: Manipulation, Mobility, and Fast Actuation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shepherd, Robert; Ilievski, Filip; Choi, Wonjae; Stokes, Adam; Morin, Stephen; Mazzeo, Aaron; Kramer, Rebecca; Majidi, Carmel; Wood, Rob; Whitesides, George

2012-02-01

Material innovation will be a key feature in the next generation of robots. A simple, pneumatically powered actuator composed of only soft-elastomers can perform the function of a complex arrangement of mechanical components and electric motors. This talk will focus on soft-lithography as a simple method to fabricate robots--composed of exclusively soft materials (elastomeric polymers). These robots have sophisticated capabilities: a gripper (with no electrical sensors) can manipulate delicate and irregularly shaped objects and a quadrupedal robot can walk to an obstacle (a gap smaller than its walking height) then shrink its body and squeeze through the gap using an undulatory gait. This talk will also introduce a new method of rapidly actuating soft robots. Using this new method, a robot can be caused to jump more than 30 times its height in under 200 milliseconds.

Additive Manufacturing of Parts and Tooling in Robotic Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Love, Lonnie J.; Hassen, Ahmed A.; Chesser, Phillip C.

ORNL worked with Transcend Robotics, LLC to explore additive manufacturing of the two-piece compression body for their ARTI mobile robot platform. Extrusion compression molding was identified as an effective means of manufacturing these parts. ORNL consulted on modifications to the housing design to accommodate the selected manufacturing process. Parts were printed using ORNL's FDM machines for testing and evaluation of the design as a precursor to molding the parts. The assembly and evaluation of the parts proved favorable and minor design changes to improve assembly and performance were identified.The goal is to develop a light weight and rugged two-part roboticmore » enclosure for an unmanned ground vehicle UGV) that will be used in search and rescue applications. The FDM parts fabricated by ORNL allowed Transcend Robotics to assemble a prototype robot and verify that the new parts will meet the performance requirements. ORNL fabricated enclosure parts out of ABS and Nylon 12 materials such that the design could be tested prior to fabricating tooling for compression molding of Nylon 6 with carbon fiber fill. The robot was performance tested and compared with the previous manufacturing techniques and found to have superior performance.« less

Localization of Mobile Robots Using Odometry and an External Vision Sensor

PubMed Central

Pizarro, Daniel; Mazo, Manuel; Santiso, Enrique; Marron, Marta; Jimenez, David; Cobreces, Santiago; Losada, Cristina

2010-01-01

This paper presents a sensor system for robot localization based on the information obtained from a single camera attached in a fixed place external to the robot. Our approach firstly obtains the 3D geometrical model of the robot based on the projection of its natural appearance in the camera while the robot performs an initialization trajectory. This paper proposes a structure-from-motion solution that uses the odometry sensors inside the robot as a metric reference. Secondly, an online localization method based on a sequential Bayesian inference is proposed, which uses the geometrical model of the robot as a link between image measurements and pose estimation. The online approach is resistant to hard occlusions and the experimental setup proposed in this paper shows its effectiveness in real situations. The proposed approach has many applications in both the industrial and service robot fields. PMID:22319318

Localization of mobile robots using odometry and an external vision sensor.

PubMed

Pizarro, Daniel; Mazo, Manuel; Santiso, Enrique; Marron, Marta; Jimenez, David; Cobreces, Santiago; Losada, Cristina

2010-01-01

This paper presents a sensor system for robot localization based on the information obtained from a single camera attached in a fixed place external to the robot. Our approach firstly obtains the 3D geometrical model of the robot based on the projection of its natural appearance in the camera while the robot performs an initialization trajectory. This paper proposes a structure-from-motion solution that uses the odometry sensors inside the robot as a metric reference. Secondly, an online localization method based on a sequential Bayesian inference is proposed, which uses the geometrical model of the robot as a link between image measurements and pose estimation. The online approach is resistant to hard occlusions and the experimental setup proposed in this paper shows its effectiveness in real situations. The proposed approach has many applications in both the industrial and service robot fields.

Have I Been Here Before? A Method for Detecting Loop Closure With LiDAR

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-01

mobile robot system, which has the unfortunate task of exploring a system of austere underground tunnels with only a laser scanner as a guide. 15...INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK. 1 1. Introduction Techniques for using mobile robots to generate detailed maps of different environments...durations. This is especially true for applications involving small mobile robots where sensor drift and inaccuracies can cause significant mistakes

A dragline-forming mobile robot inspired by spiders.

PubMed

Wang, Liyu; Culha, Utku; Iida, Fumiya

2014-03-01

Mobility of wheeled or legged machines can be significantly increased if they are able to move from a solid surface into a three-dimensional space. Although that may be achieved by addition of flying mechanisms, the payload fraction will be the limiting factor in such hybrid mobile machines for many applications. Inspired by spiders producing draglines to assist locomotion, the paper proposes an alternative mobile technology where a robot achieves locomotion from a solid surface into a free space. The technology resembles the dragline production pathway in spiders to a technically feasible degree and enables robots to move with thermoplastic spinning of draglines. As an implementation, a mobile robot has been prototyped with thermoplastic adhesives as source material of the draglines. Experimental results show that a dragline diameter range of 1.17-5.27 mm was achievable by the 185 g mobile robot in descending locomotion from the solid surface of a hanging structure with a power consumption of 4.8 W and an average speed of 5.13 cm min(-1). With an open-loop controller consisting of sequences of discrete events, the robot has demonstrated repeatable dragline formation with a relative deviation within -4% and a length close to the metre scale.

Distributed finite-time trajectory tracking control for multiple nonholonomic mobile robots with uncertainties and external disturbances

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ou, Meiying; Sun, Haibin; Gu, Shengwei; Zhang, Yangyi

2017-11-01

This paper investigates the distributed finite-time trajectory tracking control for a group of nonholonomic mobile robots with time-varying unknown parameters and external disturbances. At first, the tracking error system is derived for each mobile robot with the aid of a global invertible transformation, which consists of two subsystems, one is a first-order subsystem and another is a second-order subsystem. Then, the two subsystems are studied respectively, and finite-time disturbance observers are proposed for each robot to estimate the external disturbances. Meanwhile, distributed finite-time tracking controllers are developed for each mobile robot such that all states of each robot can reach the desired value in finite time, where the desired reference value is assumed to be the trajectory of a virtual leader whose information is available to only a subset of the followers, and the followers are assumed to have only local interaction. The effectiveness of the theoretical results is finally illustrated by numerical simulations.

2010 Combat Vehicles Conference

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-11-09

7 The Tactical Wheeled Vehicle Challenge… Performance ProtectionPayload Weight Mobility Transportability Cost / Benefit The fully burdened cost of...employment of robotic systems 10 Ground Combat Vehicle… Versatility – Configuration and employment options – Employed across full range of military...Synchronization 11-12 13-14 15-16 17-18 19-20 21-22 23-24 25-26 = Increment Point STOP STOP ~ 2034 Developing a Combat Vehicle Strategy… 11 “… robotics

A Developmental Learning Approach of Mobile Manipulator via Playing

PubMed Central

Wu, Ruiqi; Zhou, Changle; Chao, Fei; Zhu, Zuyuan; Lin, Chih-Min; Yang, Longzhi

2017-01-01

Inspired by infant development theories, a robotic developmental model combined with game elements is proposed in this paper. This model does not require the definition of specific developmental goals for the robot, but the developmental goals are implied in the goals of a series of game tasks. The games are characterized into a sequence of game modes based on the complexity of the game tasks from simple to complex, and the task complexity is determined by the applications of developmental constraints. Given a current mode, the robot switches to play in a more complicated game mode when it cannot find any new salient stimuli in the current mode. By doing so, the robot gradually achieves it developmental goals by playing different modes of games. In the experiment, the game was instantiated into a mobile robot with the playing task of picking up toys, and the game is designed with a simple game mode and a complex game mode. A developmental algorithm, “Lift-Constraint, Act and Saturate,” is employed to drive the mobile robot move from the simple mode to the complex one. The experimental results show that the mobile manipulator is able to successfully learn the mobile grasping ability after playing simple and complex games, which is promising in developing robotic abilities to solve complex tasks using games. PMID:29046632

Maneuverability and mobility in palm-sized legged robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohut, Nicholas J.; Birkmeyer, Paul M.; Peterson, Kevin C.; Fearing, Ronald S.

2012-06-01

Palm sized legged robots show promise for military and civilian applications, including exploration of hazardous or difficult to reach places, search and rescue, espionage, and battlefield reconnaissance. However, they also face many technical obstacles, including- but not limited to- actuator performance, weight constraints, processing power, and power density. This paper presents an overview of several robots from the Biomimetic Millisystems Laboratory at UC Berkeley, including the OctoRoACH, a steerable, running legged robot capable of basic navigation and equipped with a camera and active tail; CLASH, a dynamic climbing robot; and BOLT, a hybrid crawling and flying robot. The paper also discusses, and presents some preliminary solutions to, the technical obstacles listed above plus issues such as robustness to unstructured environments, limited sensing and communication bandwidths, and system integration.

Research and development at ORNL/CESAR towards cooperating robotic systems for hazardous environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mann, R. C.; Fujimura, K.; Unseren, M. A.

1992-01-01

One of the frontiers in intelligent machine research is the understanding of how constructive cooperation among multiple autonomous agents can be effected. The effort at the Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) focuses on two problem areas: (1) cooperation by multiple mobile robots in dynamic, incompletely known environments; and (2) cooperating robotic manipulators. Particular emphasis is placed on experimental evaluation of research and developments using the CESAR robot system testbeds, including three mobile robots, and a seven-axis, kinematically redundant mobile manipulator. This paper summarizes initial results of research addressing the decoupling of position and force control for two manipulators holding a common object, and the path planning for multiple robots in a common workspace.

Modelling and precision of the localization of the robotic mobile platforms for constructions with laser tracker and SmartTrack sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dima, M.; Francu, C.

2016-08-01

This paper presents a way to expand the field of use of the laser tracker and SmartTrack sensor localization device used in lately for the localisation of the end effector of the industrial robots to the localization of the mobile construction robots. The research paper presents the equipment along with its characteristics, determines the relationships for the localization coordinates by comparison to the forward kinematics of the industrial robot's spherical arm (positioning mechanism in spherical coordinates) and the orientation mechanism with three revolute axes. In the end of the paper the accuracy of the mobile robot's localization is analysed.

Rice-obot 1: An intelligent autonomous mobile robot

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Defigueiredo, R.; Ciscon, L.; Berberian, D.

1989-01-01

The Rice-obot I is the first in a series of Intelligent Autonomous Mobile Robots (IAMRs) being developed at Rice University's Cooperative Intelligent Mobile Robots (CIMR) lab. The Rice-obot I is mainly designed to be a testbed for various robotic and AI techniques, and a platform for developing intelligent control systems for exploratory robots. Researchers present the need for a generalized environment capable of combining all of the control, sensory and knowledge systems of an IAMR. They introduce Lisp-Nodes as such a system, and develop the basic concepts of nodes, messages and classes. Furthermore, they show how the control system of the Rice-obot I is implemented as sub-systems in Lisp-Nodes.

Olfaction and Hearing Based Mobile Robot Navigation for Odor/Sound Source Search

PubMed Central

Song, Kai; Liu, Qi; Wang, Qi

2011-01-01

Bionic technology provides a new elicitation for mobile robot navigation since it explores the way to imitate biological senses. In the present study, the challenging problem was how to fuse different biological senses and guide distributed robots to cooperate with each other for target searching. This paper integrates smell, hearing and touch to design an odor/sound tracking multi-robot system. The olfactory robot tracks the chemical odor plume step by step through information fusion from gas sensors and airflow sensors, while two hearing robots localize the sound source by time delay estimation (TDE) and the geometrical position of microphone array. Furthermore, this paper presents a heading direction based mobile robot navigation algorithm, by which the robot can automatically and stably adjust its velocity and direction according to the deviation between the current heading direction measured by magnetoresistive sensor and the expected heading direction acquired through the odor/sound localization strategies. Simultaneously, one robot can communicate with the other robots via a wireless sensor network (WSN). Experimental results show that the olfactory robot can pinpoint the odor source within the distance of 2 m, while two hearing robots can quickly localize and track the olfactory robot in 2 min. The devised multi-robot system can achieve target search with a considerable success ratio and high stability. PMID:22319401

Advances in Simultaneous Localization and Mapping in Confined Underwater Environments Using Sonar and Optical Imaging

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-01-01

satisfying journeys in my life. I would like to thank Ryan for his guidance through the truly exciting world of mobile robotics and robotic perception. Thank...Multi-session and Multi-robot SLAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 1.3.3 Robust Techniques for SLAM Backends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 1.4 A...sonar. xv CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1.1 The Importance of SLAM in Autonomous Robotics Autonomous mobile robots are becoming a promising aid in a wide

Fast instantaneous center of rotation estimation algorithm for a skied-steered robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kniaz, V. V.

2015-05-01

Skid-steered robots are widely used as mobile platforms for machine vision systems. However it is hard to achieve a stable motion of such robots along desired trajectory due to an unpredictable wheel slip. It is possible to compensate the unpredictable wheel slip and stabilize the motion of the robot using visual odometry. This paper presents a fast optical flow based algorithm for estimation of instantaneous center of rotation, angular and longitudinal speed of the robot. The proposed algorithm is based on Horn-Schunck variational optical flow estimation method. The instantaneous center of rotation and motion of the robot is estimated by back projection of optical flow field to the ground surface. The developed algorithm was tested using skid-steered mobile robot. The robot is based on a mobile platform that includes two pairs of differential driven motors and a motor controller. Monocular visual odometry system consisting of a singleboard computer and a low cost webcam is mounted on the mobile platform. A state-space model of the robot was derived using standard black-box system identification. The input (commands) and the output (motion) were recorded using a dedicated external motion capture system. The obtained model was used to control the robot without visual odometry data. The paper is concluded with the algorithm quality estimation by comparison of the trajectories estimated by the algorithm with the data from motion capture system.

Space Technology Game Changing Development Astrobee: ISS Robotic Free Flyer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bualat, Maria Gabriele

2015-01-01

Astrobee will be a free-flying robot that can be remotely operated by astronauts in space or by mission controllers on the ground. NASA is developing Astrobee to perform a variety of intravehicular activities (IVA), such as operations inside the International Space Station. These IVA tasks include interior environmental surveys (e.g., sound level measurement), inventory and mobile camera work. Astrobee will also serve as a platform for robotics research in microgravity. Here we describe the Astrobee project objectives, concept of operations, development approach, key challenges, and initial design.

Advanced dexterous manipulation for IED defeat : report on the feasibility of using the ShadowHand for remote operations.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Anderson, Robert J.

2011-01-01

Improvised Explosive Device (IED) defeat (IEDD) operations can involve intricate operations that exceed the current capabilities of the grippers on board current bombsquad robots. The Shadow Dexterous Hand from the Shadow Robot Company or 'ShadowHand' for short (www.shadowrobot.com) is the first commercially available robot hand that realistically replicates the motion, degrees-of-freedom and dimensions of a human hand (Figure 1). In this study we evaluate the potential for the ShadowHand to perform potential IED defeat tasks on a mobile platform.

Towards Autonomous Inspection of Space Systems Using Mobile Robotic Sensor Platforms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wong, Edmond; Saad, Ashraf; Litt, Jonathan S.

2007-01-01

The space transportation systems required to support NASA's Exploration Initiative will demand a high degree of reliability to ensure mission success. This reliability can be realized through autonomous fault/damage detection and repair capabilities. It is crucial that such capabilities are incorporated into these systems since it will be impractical to rely upon Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA), visual inspection or tele-operation due to the costly, labor-intensive and time-consuming nature of these methods. One approach to achieving this capability is through the use of an autonomous inspection system comprised of miniature mobile sensor platforms that will cooperatively perform high confidence inspection of space vehicles and habitats. This paper will discuss the efforts to develop a small scale demonstration test-bed to investigate the feasibility of using autonomous mobile sensor platforms to perform inspection operations. Progress will be discussed in technology areas including: the hardware implementation and demonstration of robotic sensor platforms, the implementation of a hardware test-bed facility, and the investigation of collaborative control algorithms.

Development of robotic mobile platform with the universal chassis system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ryadchikov, I.; Nikulchev, E.; Sechenev, S.; Drobotenko, M.; Svidlov, A.; Volkodav, P.; Feshin, A.

2018-02-01

The problem of stabilizing the position of mobile devices is extremely relevant at the modern level of technology development. This includes the problem of stabilizing aircraft and stabilizing the pitching of ships. In the laboratory of robotics and mechatronics of the Kuban State University, a robot is developed. The robot has additional internal degrees of freedom, responsible for compensating for deflections - the dynamic stabilization system.

Navigation system for a mobile robot with a visual sensor using a fish-eye lens

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kurata, Junichi; Grattan, Kenneth T. V.; Uchiyama, Hironobu

1998-02-01

Various position sensing and navigation systems have been proposed for the autonomous control of mobile robots. Some of these systems have been installed with an omnidirectional visual sensor system that proved very useful in obtaining information on the environment around the mobile robot for position reckoning. In this article, this type of navigation system is discussed. The sensor is composed of one TV camera with a fish-eye lens, using a reference target on a ceiling and hybrid image processing circuits. The position of the robot, with respect to the floor, is calculated by integrating the information obtained from a visual sensor and a gyroscope mounted in the mobile robot, and the use of a simple algorithm based on PTP control for guidance is discussed. An experimental trial showed that the proposed system was both valid and useful for the navigation of an indoor vehicle.

Assistant Personal Robot (APR): Conception and Application of a Tele-Operated Assisted Living Robot.

PubMed

Clotet, Eduard; Martínez, Dani; Moreno, Javier; Tresanchez, Marcel; Palacín, Jordi

2016-04-28

This paper presents the technical description, mechanical design, electronic components, software implementation and possible applications of a tele-operated mobile robot designed as an assisted living tool. This robotic concept has been named Assistant Personal Robot (or APR for short) and has been designed as a remotely telecontrolled robotic platform built to provide social and assistive services to elderly people and those with impaired mobility. The APR features a fast high-mobility motion system adapted for tele-operation in plain indoor areas, which incorporates a high-priority collision avoidance procedure. This paper presents the mechanical architecture, electrical fundaments and software implementation required in order to develop the main functionalities of an assistive robot. The APR uses a tablet in order to implement the basic peer-to-peer videoconference and tele-operation control combined with a tactile graphic user interface. The paper also presents the development of some applications proposed in the framework of an assisted living robot.

Proposal of Path Following and Arrival Judgement Methods Using Target Vector for Teleoperation of a Mobile Robot on Uneven Ground by Image Pointing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tamura, Sho; Maeyama, Shoichi

Rescue robots have been actively developed since Hanshin-Awaji (Kobe) Earthquake. Recently, the rescue robot to reduce the risk of the secondary disaster on NBC terror and critical accident is also developed. For such a background, the development project of mobile RT system in the collapsed is started. This research also participates in this project. It is useful to use the image pointing for the control interface of the rescue robot because it can control the robot by the simple operation. However, the conventional method cannot work on a rough terrain. In this research, we propose the system which controls the robot to arrive the target position on the rough terrain. It is constructed the methods which put the destination into the vector, and control the 3D localizated robot to follow the vector. Finally, the proposed system is evaluated through experiments by remote control of a mobile robot in slope and cofirmed the feasibility.

Non-contact versus contact-based sensing methodologies for in-home upper arm robotic rehabilitation.

PubMed

Howard, Ayanna; Brooks, Douglas; Brown, Edward; Gebregiorgis, Adey; Chen, Yu-Ping

2013-06-01

In recent years, robot-assisted rehabilitation has gained momentum as a viable means for improving outcomes for therapeutic interventions. Such therapy experiences allow controlled and repeatable trials and quantitative evaluation of mobility metrics. Typically though these robotic devices have been focused on rehabilitation within a clinical setting. In these traditional robot-assisted rehabilitation studies, participants are required to perform goal-directed movements with the robot during a therapy session. This requires physical contact between the participant and the robot to enable precise control of the task, as well as a means to collect relevant performance data. On the other hand, non-contact means of robot interaction can provide a safe methodology for extracting the control data needed for in-home rehabilitation. As such, in this paper we discuss a contact and non-contact based method for upper-arm rehabilitation exercises that enables quantification of upper-arm movements. We evaluate our methodology on upper-arm abduction/adduction movements and discuss the advantages and limitations of each approach as applied to an in-home rehabilitation scenario.

Robotic vehicle with multiple tracked mobility platforms

DOEpatents

Salton, Jonathan R [Albuquerque, NM; Buttz, James H [Albuquerque, NM; Garretson, Justin [Albuquerque, NM; Hayward, David R [Wetmore, CO; Hobart, Clinton G [Albuquerque, NM; Deuel, Jr., Jamieson K.

2012-07-24

A robotic vehicle having two or more tracked mobility platforms that are mechanically linked together with a two-dimensional coupling, thereby forming a composite vehicle of increased mobility. The robotic vehicle is operative in hazardous environments and can be capable of semi-submersible operation. The robotic vehicle is capable of remote controlled operation via radio frequency and/or fiber optic communication link to a remote operator control unit. The tracks have a plurality of track-edge scallop cut-outs that allow the tracks to easily grab onto and roll across railroad tracks, especially when crossing the railroad tracks at an oblique angle.

The Embudito Mission: A Case Study of the Systematics of Autonomous Ground Mobile Robots

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

EICKER,PATRICK J.

2001-02-01

Ground mobile robots are much in the mind of defense planners at this time, being considered for a significant variety of missions with a diversity ranging from logistics supply to reconnaissance and surveillance. While there has been a very large amount of basic research funded in the last quarter century devoted to mobile robots and their supporting component technologies, little of this science base has been fully developed and deployed--notable exceptions being NASA's Mars rover and several terrestrial derivatives. The material in this paper was developed as a first exemplary step in the development of a more systematic approach tomore » the R and D of ground mobile robots.« less

A brain-machine interface to navigate a mobile robot in a planar workspace: enabling humans to fly simulated aircraft with EEG.

PubMed

Akce, Abdullah; Johnson, Miles; Dantsker, Or; Bretl, Timothy

2013-03-01

This paper presents an interface for navigating a mobile robot that moves at a fixed speed in a planar workspace, with noisy binary inputs that are obtained asynchronously at low bit-rates from a human user through an electroencephalograph (EEG). The approach is to construct an ordered symbolic language for smooth planar curves and to use these curves as desired paths for a mobile robot. The underlying problem is then to design a communication protocol by which the user can, with vanishing error probability, specify a string in this language using a sequence of inputs. Such a protocol, provided by tools from information theory, relies on a human user's ability to compare smooth curves, just like they can compare strings of text. We demonstrate our interface by performing experiments in which twenty subjects fly a simulated aircraft at a fixed speed and altitude with input only from EEG. Experimental results show that the majority of subjects are able to specify desired paths despite a wide range of errors made in decoding EEG signals.

Exception handling for sensor fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chavez, G. T.; Murphy, Robin R.

1993-08-01

This paper presents a control scheme for handling sensing failures (sensor malfunctions, significant degradations in performance due to changes in the environment, and errant expectations) in sensor fusion for autonomous mobile robots. The advantages of the exception handling mechanism are that it emphasizes a fast response to sensing failures, is able to use only a partial causal model of sensing failure, and leads to a graceful degradation of sensing if the sensing failure cannot be compensated for. The exception handling mechanism consists of two modules: error classification and error recovery. The error classification module in the exception handler attempts to classify the type and source(s) of the error using a modified generate-and-test procedure. If the source of the error is isolated, the error recovery module examines its cache of recovery schemes, which either repair or replace the current sensing configuration. If the failure is due to an error in expectation or cannot be identified, the planner is alerted. Experiments using actual sensor data collected by the CSM Mobile Robotics/Machine Perception Laboratory's Denning mobile robot demonstrate the operation of the exception handling mechanism.

Mobile tele-echography: user interface design.

PubMed

Cañero, Cristina; Thomos, Nikolaos; Triantafyllidis, George A; Litos, George C; Strintzis, Michael Gerassimos

2005-03-01

Ultrasound imaging allows the evaluation of the degree of emergency of a patient. However, in some instances, a well-trained sonographer is unavailable to perform such echography. To cope with this issue, the Mobile Tele-Echography Using an Ultralight Robot (OTELO) project aims to develop a fully integrated end-to-end mobile tele-echography system using an ultralight remote-controlled robot for population groups that are not served locally by medical experts. This paper focuses on the user interface of the OTELO system, consisting of the following parts: an ultrasound video transmission system providing real-time images of the scanned area, an audio/video conference to communicate with the paramedical assistant and with the patient, and a virtual-reality environment, providing visual and haptic feedback to the expert, while capturing the expert's hand movements. These movements are reproduced by the robot at the patient site while holding the ultrasound probe against the patient skin. In addition, the user interface includes an image processing facility for enhancing the received images and the possibility to include them into a database.

Surgeons' display reduced mental effort and workload while performing robotically assisted surgical tasks, when compared to conventional laparoscopy.

PubMed

Moore, Lee J; Wilson, Mark R; McGrath, John S; Waine, Elizabeth; Masters, Rich S W; Vine, Samuel J

2015-09-01

Research has demonstrated the benefits of robotic surgery for the patient; however, research examining the benefits of robotic technology for the surgeon is limited. This study aimed to adopt validated measures of workload, mental effort, and gaze control to assess the benefits of robotic surgery for the surgeon. We predicted that the performance of surgical training tasks on a surgical robot would require lower investments of workload and mental effort, and would be accompanied by superior gaze control and better performance, when compared to conventional laparoscopy. Thirty-two surgeons performed two trials on a ball pick-and-drop task and a rope-threading task on both robotic and laparoscopic systems. Measures of workload (the surgery task load index), mental effort (subjective: rating scale for mental effort and objective: standard deviation of beat-to-beat intervals), gaze control (using a mobile eye movement recorder), and task performance (completion time and number of errors) were recorded. As expected, surgeons performed both tasks more quickly and accurately (with fewer errors) on the robotic system. Self-reported measures of workload and mental effort were significantly lower on the robotic system compared to the laparoscopic system. Similarly, an objective cardiovascular measure of mental effort revealed lower investment of mental effort when using the robotic platform relative to the laparoscopic platform. Gaze control distinguished the robotic from the laparoscopic systems, but not in the predicted fashion, with the robotic system associated with poorer (more novice like) gaze control. The findings highlight the benefits of robotic technology for surgical operators. Specifically, they suggest that tasks can be performed more proficiently, at a lower workload, and with the investment of less mental effort, this may allow surgeons greater cognitive resources for dealing with other demands such as communication, decision-making, or periods of increased complexity in the operating room.

A tesselated probabilistic representation for spatial robot perception and navigation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Elfes, Alberto

1989-01-01

The ability to recover robust spatial descriptions from sensory information and to efficiently utilize these descriptions in appropriate planning and problem-solving activities are crucial requirements for the development of more powerful robotic systems. Traditional approaches to sensor interpretation, with their emphasis on geometric models, are of limited use for autonomous mobile robots operating in and exploring unknown and unstructured environments. Here, researchers present a new approach to robot perception that addresses such scenarios using a probabilistic tesselated representation of spatial information called the Occupancy Grid. The Occupancy Grid is a multi-dimensional random field that maintains stochastic estimates of the occupancy state of each cell in the grid. The cell estimates are obtained by interpreting incoming range readings using probabilistic models that capture the uncertainty in the spatial information provided by the sensor. A Bayesian estimation procedure allows the incremental updating of the map using readings taken from several sensors over multiple points of view. An overview of the Occupancy Grid framework is given, and its application to a number of problems in mobile robot mapping and navigation are illustrated. It is argued that a number of robotic problem-solving activities can be performed directly on the Occupancy Grid representation. Some parallels are drawn between operations on Occupancy Grids and related image processing operations.

A Kinect-Based Real-Time Compressive Tracking Prototype System for Amphibious Spherical Robots

PubMed Central

Pan, Shaowu; Shi, Liwei; Guo, Shuxiang

2015-01-01

A visual tracking system is essential as a basis for visual servoing, autonomous navigation, path planning, robot-human interaction and other robotic functions. To execute various tasks in diverse and ever-changing environments, a mobile robot requires high levels of robustness, precision, environmental adaptability and real-time performance of the visual tracking system. In keeping with the application characteristics of our amphibious spherical robot, which was proposed for flexible and economical underwater exploration in 2012, an improved RGB-D visual tracking algorithm is proposed and implemented. Given the limited power source and computational capabilities of mobile robots, compressive tracking (CT), which is the effective and efficient algorithm that was proposed in 2012, was selected as the basis of the proposed algorithm to process colour images. A Kalman filter with a second-order motion model was implemented to predict the state of the target and select candidate patches or samples for the CT tracker. In addition, a variance ratio features shift (VR-V) tracker with a Kalman estimation mechanism was used to process depth images. Using a feedback strategy, the depth tracking results were used to assist the CT tracker in updating classifier parameters at an adaptive rate. In this way, most of the deficiencies of CT, including drift and poor robustness to occlusion and high-speed target motion, were partly solved. To evaluate the proposed algorithm, a Microsoft Kinect sensor, which combines colour and infrared depth cameras, was adopted for use in a prototype of the robotic tracking system. The experimental results with various image sequences demonstrated the effectiveness, robustness and real-time performance of the tracking system. PMID:25856331

A Kinect-based real-time compressive tracking prototype system for amphibious spherical robots.

PubMed

Pan, Shaowu; Shi, Liwei; Guo, Shuxiang

2015-04-08

A visual tracking system is essential as a basis for visual servoing, autonomous navigation, path planning, robot-human interaction and other robotic functions. To execute various tasks in diverse and ever-changing environments, a mobile robot requires high levels of robustness, precision, environmental adaptability and real-time performance of the visual tracking system. In keeping with the application characteristics of our amphibious spherical robot, which was proposed for flexible and economical underwater exploration in 2012, an improved RGB-D visual tracking algorithm is proposed and implemented. Given the limited power source and computational capabilities of mobile robots, compressive tracking (CT), which is the effective and efficient algorithm that was proposed in 2012, was selected as the basis of the proposed algorithm to process colour images. A Kalman filter with a second-order motion model was implemented to predict the state of the target and select candidate patches or samples for the CT tracker. In addition, a variance ratio features shift (VR-V) tracker with a Kalman estimation mechanism was used to process depth images. Using a feedback strategy, the depth tracking results were used to assist the CT tracker in updating classifier parameters at an adaptive rate. In this way, most of the deficiencies of CT, including drift and poor robustness to occlusion and high-speed target motion, were partly solved. To evaluate the proposed algorithm, a Microsoft Kinect sensor, which combines colour and infrared depth cameras, was adopted for use in a prototype of the robotic tracking system. The experimental results with various image sequences demonstrated the effectiveness, robustness and real-time performance of the tracking system.

Mobile robots IV; Proceedings of the Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, Nov. 6, 7, 1989

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wolfe, W.J.; Chun, W.H.

1990-01-01

The present conference on mobile robot systems discusses high-speed machine perception based on passive sensing, wide-angle optical ranging, three-dimensional path planning for flying/crawling robots, navigation of autonomous mobile intelligence in an unstructured natural environment, mechanical models for the locomotion of a four-articulated-track robot, a rule-based command language for a semiautonomous Mars rover, and a computer model of the structured light vision system for a Mars rover. Also discussed are optical flow and three-dimensional information for navigation, feature-based reasoning trail detection, a symbolic neural-net production system for obstacle avoidance and navigation, intelligent path planning for robot navigation in an unknown environment,more » behaviors from a hierarchical control system, stereoscopic TV systems, the REACT language for autonomous robots, and a man-amplifying exoskeleton.« less

Evolutionary programming-based univector field navigation method for past mobile robots.

PubMed

Kim, Y J; Kim, J H; Kwon, D S

2001-01-01

Most of navigation techniques with obstacle avoidance do not consider the robot orientation at the target position. These techniques deal with the robot position only and are independent of its orientation and velocity. To solve these problems this paper proposes a novel univector field method for fast mobile robot navigation which introduces a normalized two dimensional vector field. The method provides fast moving robots with the desired posture at the target position and obstacle avoidance. To obtain the sub-optimal vector field, a function approximator is used and trained by evolutionary programming. Two kinds of vector fields are trained, one for the final posture acquisition and the other for obstacle avoidance. Computer simulations and real experiments are carried out for a fast moving mobile robot to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Space-time modeling using environmental constraints in a mobile robot system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Slack, Marc G.

1990-01-01

Grid-based models of a robot's local environment have been used by many researchers building mobile robot control systems. The attraction of grid-based models is their clear parallel between the internal model and the external world. However, the discrete nature of such representations does not match well with the continuous nature of actions and usually serves to limit the abilities of the robot. This work describes a spatial modeling system that extracts information from a grid-based representation to form a symbolic representation of the robot's local environment. The approach makes a separation between the representation provided by the sensing system and the representation used by the action system. Separation allows asynchronous operation between sensing and action in a mobile robot, as well as the generation of a more continuous representation upon which to base actions.

Interaction dynamics of multiple mobile robots with simple navigation strategies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, P. K. C.

1989-01-01

The global dynamic behavior of multiple interacting autonomous mobile robots with simple navigation strategies is studied. Here, the effective spatial domain of each robot is taken to be a closed ball about its mass center. It is assumed that each robot has a specified cone of visibility such that interaction with other robots takes place only when they enter its visibility cone. Based on a particle model for the robots, various simple homing and collision-avoidance navigation strategies are derived. Then, an analysis of the dynamical behavior of the interacting robots in unbounded spatial domains is made. The article concludes with the results of computer simulations studies of two or more interacting robots.

Study on a practical robotic follower to support home oxygen therapy patients--questionnaire-based concept evaluation by the patients-.

PubMed

Endo, Gen; Iemura, Yu; Fukushima, Edwardo F; Hirose, Shigeo; Iribe, Masatsugu; Ikeda, Ryota; Onishi, Kohei; Maeda, Naoto; Takubo, Toshio; Ohira, Mineko

2013-06-01

Home oxygen therapy (HOT) is a medical treatment for the patients suffering from severe lung diseases. Although walking outdoors is recommended for the patients to maintain physical strength, the patients always have to carry a portable oxygen supplier which is not sufficiently light weight for this purpose. Our ultimate goal is to develop a mobile robot to carry an oxygen tank and follow a patient in an urban outdoor environment. We have proposed a mobile robot with a tether interface to detect the relative position of the foregoing patient. In this paper, we report the questionnaire-based evaluation about the two developed prototypes by the HOT patients. We conduct maneuvering experiments, and then obtained questionnaire-based evaluations from the 20 patients. The results show that the basic following performance is sufficient and the pulling force of the tether is sufficiently small for the patients. Moreover, the patients prefer the small-sized prototype for compactness and light weight to the middle-sized prototype which can carry larger payload. We also obtained detailed requests to improve the robots. Finally the results show the general concept of the robot is favorably received by the patients.

Improving Lunar Exploration with Robotic Follow-up

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fong, T.; Bualat, M.; Deans, M.; Heggy E.; Helper, M.; Hodges, K.; Lee, P.

2011-01-01

We are investigating how augmenting human field work with subsequent robot activity can improve lunar exploration. Robotic "follow-up" might involve: completing geology observations; making tedious or long-duration measurements of a target site or feature; curating samples in-situ; and performing unskilled, labor-intensive work. To study this technique, we have begun conducting a series of lunar analog field tests at Haughton Crater (Canada). Motivation: In most field geology studies on Earth, explorers often find themselves left with a set of observations they would have liked to make, or samples they would have liked to take, if only they had been able to stay longer in the field. For planetary field geology, we can imagine mobile robots - perhaps teleoperated vehicles previously used for manned exploration or dedicated planetary rovers - being deployed to perform such follow-up activities [1].

Peer-to-peer model for the area coverage and cooperative control of mobile sensor networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tan, Jindong; Xi, Ning

2004-09-01

This paper presents a novel model and distributed algorithms for the cooperation and redeployment of mobile sensor networks. A mobile sensor network composes of a collection of wireless connected mobile robots equipped with a variety of sensors. In such a sensor network, each mobile node has sensing, computation, communication, and locomotion capabilities. The locomotion ability enhances the autonomous deployment of the system. The system can be rapidly deployed to hostile environment, inaccessible terrains or disaster relief operations. The mobile sensor network is essentially a cooperative multiple robot system. This paper first presents a peer-to-peer model to define the relationship between neighboring communicating robots. Delaunay Triangulation and Voronoi diagrams are used to define the geometrical relationship between sensor nodes. This distributed model allows formal analysis for the fusion of spatio-temporal sensory information of the network. Based on the distributed model, this paper discusses a fault tolerant algorithm for autonomous self-deployment of the mobile robots. The algorithm considers the environment constraints, the presence of obstacles and the nonholonomic constraints of the robots. The distributed algorithm enables the system to reconfigure itself such that the area covered by the system can be enlarged. Simulation results have shown the effectiveness of the distributed model and deployment algorithms.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mann, R.C.; Fujimura, K.; Unseren, M.A.

One of the frontiers in intelligent machine research is the understanding of how constructive cooperation among multiple autonomous agents can be effected. The effort at the Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR)at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) focuses on two problem areas: (1) cooperation by multiple mobile robots in dynamic, incompletely known environments; and (2) cooperating robotic manipulators. Particular emphasis is placed on experimental evaluation of research and developments using the CESAR robot system testbeds, including three mobile robots, and a seven-axis, kinematically redundant mobile manipulator. This paper summarizes initial results of research addressing the decoupling of positionmore » and force control for two manipulators holding a common object, and the path planning for multiple robots in a common workspace. 15 refs., 3 figs.« less

Remotely controlling of mobile robots using gesture captured by the Kinect and recognized by machine learning method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hsu, Roy CHaoming; Jian, Jhih-Wei; Lin, Chih-Chuan; Lai, Chien-Hung; Liu, Cheng-Ting

2013-01-01

The main purpose of this paper is to use machine learning method and Kinect and its body sensation technology to design a simple, convenient, yet effective robot remote control system. In this study, a Kinect sensor is used to capture the human body skeleton with depth information, and a gesture training and identification method is designed using the back propagation neural network to remotely command a mobile robot for certain actions via the Bluetooth. The experimental results show that the designed mobile robots remote control system can achieve, on an average, more than 96% of accurate identification of 7 types of gestures and can effectively control a real e-puck robot for the designed commands.

Ego-location and situational awareness in semistructured environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goodsell, Thomas G.; Snorrason, Magnus S.; Stevens, Mark R.; Stube, Brian; McBride, Jonah

2003-09-01

The success of any potential application for mobile robots depends largely on the specific environment where the application takes place. Practical applications are rarely found in highly structured environments, but unstructured environments (such as natural terrain) pose major challenges to any mobile robot. We believe that semi-structured environments-such as parking lots-provide a good opportunity for successful mobile robot applications. Parking lots tend to be flat and smooth, and cars can be uniquely identified by their license plates. Our scenario is a parking lot where only known vehicles are supposed to park. The robot looks for vehicles that do not belong in the parking lot. It checks both license plates and vehicle types, in case the plate is stolen from an approved vehicle. It operates autonomously, but reports back to a guard who verifies its performance. Our interest is in developing the robot's vision system, which we call Scene Estimation & Situational Awareness Mapping Engine (SESAME). In this paper, we present initial results from the development of two SESAME subsystems, the ego-location and license plate detection systems. While their ultimate goals are obviously quite different, our design demonstrates that by sharing intermediate results, both tasks can be significantly simplified. The inspiration for this design approach comes from the basic tenets of Situational Awareness (SA), where the benefits of holistic perception are clearly demonstrated over the more typical designs that attempt to solve each sensing/perception problem in isolation.

[Service robots in elderly care. Possible application areas and current state of developments].

PubMed

Graf, B; Heyer, T; Klein, B; Wallhoff, F

2013-08-01

The term "Service robotics" describes semi- or fully autonomous technical systems able to perform services useful to the well-being of humans. Service robots have the potential to support and disburden both persons in need of care as well as nursing care staff. In addition, they can be used in prevention and rehabilitation in order to reduce or avoid the need for help. Products currently available to support people in domestic environments are mainly cleaning or remote-controlled communication robots. Examples of current research activities are the (further) development of mobile robots as advanced communication assistants or the development of (semi) autonomous manipulation aids and multifunctional household assistants. Transport robots are commonly used in many hospitals. In nursing care facilities, the first evaluations have already been made. So-called emotional robots are now sold as products and can be used for therapeutic, occupational, or entertainment activities.

Obstacle negotiation control for a mobile robot suspended on overhead ground wires by optoelectronic sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Li; Yi, Ruan

2009-11-01

Power line inspection and maintenance already benefit from developments in mobile robotics. This paper presents mobile robots capable of crossing obstacles on overhead ground wires. A teleoperated robot realizes inspection and maintenance tasks on power transmission line equipment. The inspection robot is driven by 11 motor with two arms, two wheels and two claws. The inspection robot is designed to realize the function of observation, grasp, walk, rolling, turn, rise, and decline. This paper is oriented toward 100% reliable obstacle detection and identification, and sensor fusion to increase the autonomy level. An embedded computer based on PC/104 bus is chosen as the core of control system. Visible light camera and thermal infrared Camera are both installed in a programmable pan-and-tilt camera (PPTC) unit. High-quality visual feedback rapidly becomes crucial for human-in-the-loop control and effective teleoperation. The communication system between the robot and the ground station is based on Mesh wireless networks by 700 MHz bands. An expert system programmed with Visual C++ is developed to implement the automatic control. Optoelectronic laser sensors and laser range scanner were installed in robot for obstacle-navigation control to grasp the overhead ground wires. A novel prototype with careful considerations on mobility was designed to inspect the 500KV power transmission lines. Results of experiments demonstrate that the robot can be applied to execute the navigation and inspection tasks.

Mobile robot motion estimation using Hough transform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aldoshkin, D. N.; Yamskikh, T. N.; Tsarev, R. Yu

2018-05-01

This paper proposes an algorithm for estimation of mobile robot motion. The geometry of surrounding space is described with range scans (samples of distance measurements) taken by the mobile robot’s range sensors. A similar sample of space geometry in any arbitrary preceding moment of time or the environment map can be used as a reference. The suggested algorithm is invariant to isotropic scaling of samples or map that allows using samples measured in different units and maps made at different scales. The algorithm is based on Hough transform: it maps from measurement space to a straight-line parameters space. In the straight-line parameters, space the problems of estimating rotation, scaling and translation are solved separately breaking down a problem of estimating mobile robot localization into three smaller independent problems. The specific feature of the algorithm presented is its robustness to noise and outliers inherited from Hough transform. The prototype of the system of mobile robot orientation is described.

A Remote Lab for Experiments with a Team of Mobile Robots

PubMed Central

Casini, Marco; Garulli, Andrea; Giannitrapani, Antonio; Vicino, Antonio

2014-01-01

In this paper, a remote lab for experimenting with a team of mobile robots is presented. Robots are built with the LEGO Mindstorms technology and user-defined control laws can be directly coded in the Matlab programming language and validated on the real system. The lab is versatile enough to be used for both teaching and research purposes. Students can easily go through a number of predefined mobile robotics experiences without having to worry about robot hardware or low-level programming languages. More advanced experiments can also be carried out by uploading custom controllers. The capability to have full control of the vehicles, together with the possibility to define arbitrarily complex environments through the definition of virtual obstacles, makes the proposed facility well suited to quickly test and compare different control laws in a real-world scenario. Moreover, the user can simulate the presence of different types of exteroceptive sensors on board of the robots or a specific communication architecture among the agents, so that decentralized control strategies and motion coordination algorithms can be easily implemented and tested. A number of possible applications and real experiments are presented in order to illustrate the main features of the proposed mobile robotics remote lab. PMID:25192316

A remote lab for experiments with a team of mobile robots.

PubMed

Casini, Marco; Garulli, Andrea; Giannitrapani, Antonio; Vicino, Antonio

2014-09-04

In this paper, a remote lab for experimenting with a team of mobile robots is presented. Robots are built with the LEGO Mindstorms technology and user-defined control laws can be directly coded in the Matlab programming language and validated on the real system. The lab is versatile enough to be used for both teaching and research purposes. Students can easily go through a number of predefined mobile robotics experiences without having to worry about robot hardware or low-level programming languages. More advanced experiments can also be carried out by uploading custom controllers. The capability to have full control of the vehicles, together with the possibility to define arbitrarily complex environments through the definition of virtual obstacles, makes the proposed facility well suited to quickly test and compare different control laws in a real-world scenario. Moreover, the user can simulate the presence of different types of exteroceptive sensors on board of the robots or a specific communication architecture among the agents, so that decentralized control strategies and motion coordination algorithms can be easily implemented and tested. A number of possible applications and real experiments are presented in order to illustrate the main features of the proposed mobile robotics remote lab.

Dynamic multisensor fusion for mobile robot navigation in an indoor environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jin, Taeseok; Lee, Jang-Myung; Luk, Bing L.; Tso, Shiu K.

2001-10-01

In this study, as the preliminary step for developing a multi-purpose Autonomous robust carrier mobile robot to transport trolleys or heavy goods and serve as robotic nursing assistant in hospital wards. The aim of this paper is to present the use of multi-sensor data fusion such as sonar, CCD camera dn IR sensor for map-building mobile robot to navigate, and presents an experimental mobile robot designed to operate autonomously within both indoor and outdoor environments. Smart sensory systems are crucial for successful autonomous systems. We will give an explanation for the robot system architecture designed and implemented in this study and a short review of existing techniques, since there exist several recent thorough books and review paper on this paper. Instead we will focus on the main results with relevance to the intelligent service robot project at the Centre of Intelligent Design, Automation & Manufacturing (CIDAM). We will conclude by discussing some possible future extensions of the project. It is first dealt with the general principle of the navigation and guidance architecture, then the detailed functions recognizing environments updated, obstacle detection and motion assessment, with the first results form the simulations run.

Omni-Directional Scanning Localization Method of a Mobile Robot Based on Ultrasonic Sensors.

PubMed

Mu, Wei-Yi; Zhang, Guang-Peng; Huang, Yu-Mei; Yang, Xin-Gang; Liu, Hong-Yan; Yan, Wen

2016-12-20

Improved ranging accuracy is obtained by the development of a novel ultrasonic sensor ranging algorithm, unlike the conventional ranging algorithm, which considers the divergence angle and the incidence angle of the ultrasonic sensor synchronously. An ultrasonic sensor scanning method is developed based on this algorithm for the recognition of an inclined plate and to obtain the localization of the ultrasonic sensor relative to the inclined plate reference frame. The ultrasonic sensor scanning method is then leveraged for the omni-directional localization of a mobile robot, where the ultrasonic sensors are installed on a mobile robot and follow the spin of the robot, the inclined plate is recognized and the position and posture of the robot are acquired with respect to the coordinate system of the inclined plate, realizing the localization of the robot. Finally, the localization method is implemented into an omni-directional scanning localization experiment with the independently researched and developed mobile robot. Localization accuracies of up to ±3.33 mm for the front, up to ±6.21 for the lateral and up to ±0.20° for the posture are obtained, verifying the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed localization method.

Millimeter-scale MEMS enabled autonomous systems: system feasibility and mobility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pulskamp, Jeffrey S.

2012-06-01

Millimeter-scale robotic systems based on highly integrated microelectronics and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) could offer unique benefits and attributes for small-scale autonomous systems. This extreme scale for robotics will naturally constrain the realizable system capabilities significantly. This paper assesses the feasibility of developing such systems by defining the fundamental design trade spaces between component design variables and system level performance parameters. This permits the development of mobility enabling component technologies within a system relevant context. Feasible ranges of system mass, required aerodynamic power, available battery power, load supported power, flight endurance, and required leg load bearing capability are presented for millimeter-scale platforms. The analysis illustrates the feasibility of developing both flight capable and ground mobile millimeter-scale autonomous systems while highlighting the significant challenges that must be overcome to realize their potential.

Human-Robot Interaction Directed Research Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sandor, Aniko; Cross, Ernest V., II; Chang, Mai Lee

2014-01-01

Human-robot interaction (HRI) is a discipline investigating the factors affecting the interactions between humans and robots. It is important to evaluate how the design of interfaces and command modalities affect the human's ability to perform tasks accurately, efficiently, and effectively when working with a robot. By understanding the effects of interface design on human performance, workload, and situation awareness, interfaces can be developed to appropriately support the human in performing tasks with minimal errors and with appropriate interaction time and effort. Thus, the results of research on human-robot interfaces have direct implications for the design of robotic systems. This DRP concentrates on three areas associated with interfaces and command modalities in HRI which are applicable to NASA robot systems: 1) Video Overlays, 2) Camera Views, and 3) Command Modalities. The first study focused on video overlays that investigated how Augmented Reality (AR) symbology can be added to the human-robot interface to improve teleoperation performance. Three types of AR symbology were explored in this study, command guidance (CG), situation guidance (SG), and both (SCG). CG symbology gives operators explicit instructions on what commands to input, whereas SG symbology gives operators implicit cues so that operators can infer the input commands. The combination of CG and SG provided operators with explicit and implicit cues allowing the operator to choose which symbology to utilize. The objective of the study was to understand how AR symbology affects the human operator's ability to align a robot arm to a target using a flight stick and the ability to allocate attention between the symbology and external views of the world. The study evaluated the effects type of symbology (CG and SG) has on operator tasks performance and attention allocation during teleoperation of a robot arm. The second study expanded on the first study by evaluating the effects of the type of navigational guidance (CG and SG) on operator task performance and attention allocation during teleoperation of a robot arm through uplinked commands. Although this study complements the first study on navigational guidance with hand controllers, it is a separate investigation due to the distinction in intended operators (i.e., crewmembers versus ground-operators). A third study looked at superimposed and integrated overlays for teleoperation of a mobile robot using a hand controller. When AR is superimposed on the external world, it appears to be fixed onto the display and internal to the operators' workstation. Unlike superimposed overlays, integrated overlays often appear as three-dimensional objects and move as if part of the external world. Studies conducted in the aviation domain show that integrated overlays can improve situation awareness and reduce the amount of deviation from the optimal path. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether these results apply to HRI tasks, such as navigation with a mobile robot.

Research and development of electric vehicles for clean transportation.

PubMed

Wada, Masayoshi

2009-01-01

This article presents the research and development of an electric vehicle (EV) in Department of Human-Robotics Saitama Institute of Technology, Japan. Electric mobile systems developed in our laboratory include a converted electric automobile, electric wheelchair and personal mobile robot. These mobile systems contribute to realize clean transportation since energy sources and devices from all vehicles, i.e., batteries and electric motors, does not deteriorate the environment. To drive motors for vehicle traveling, robotic technologies were applied.

Human-Robot Interaction Directed Research Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sandor, Aniko; Cross, Ernest V., II; Chang, M. L.

2014-01-01

Human-robot interaction (HRI) is a discipline investigating the factors affecting the interactions between humans and robots. It is important to evaluate how the design of interfaces and command modalities affect the human's ability to perform tasks accurately, efficiently, and effectively when working with a robot. By understanding the effects of interface design on human performance, workload, and situation awareness, interfaces can be developed to appropriately support the human in performing tasks with minimal errors and with appropriate interaction time and effort. Thus, the results of research on human-robot interfaces have direct implications for the design of robotic systems. This DRP concentrates on three areas associated with interfaces and command modalities in HRI which are applicable to NASA robot systems: 1) Video Overlays, 2) Camera Views, and 3) Command Modalities. The first study focused on video overlays that investigated how Augmented Reality (AR) symbology can be added to the human-robot interface to improve teleoperation performance. Three types of AR symbology were explored in this study, command guidance (CG), situation guidance (SG), and both (SCG). CG symbology gives operators explicit instructions on what commands to input, whereas SG symbology gives operators implicit cues so that operators can infer the input commands. The combination of CG and SG provided operators with explicit and implicit cues allowing the operator to choose which symbology to utilize. The objective of the study was to understand how AR symbology affects the human operator's ability to align a robot arm to a target using a flight stick and the ability to allocate attention between the symbology and external views of the world. The study evaluated the effects type of symbology (CG and SG) has on operator tasks performance and attention allocation during teleoperation of a robot arm. The second study expanded on the first study by evaluating the effects of the type of navigational guidance (CG and SG) on operator task performance and attention allocation during teleoperation of a robot arm through uplinked commands. Although this study complements the first study on navigational guidance with hand controllers, it is a separate investigation due to the distinction in intended operators (i.e., crewmembers versus ground-operators). A third study looked at superimposed and integrated overlays for teleoperation of a mobile robot using a hand controller. When AR is superimposed on the external world, it appears to be fixed onto the display and internal to the operators' workstation. Unlike superimposed overlays, integrated overlays often appear as three-dimensional objects and move as if part of the external world. Studies conducted in the aviation domain show that integrated overlays can improve situation awareness and reduce the amount of deviation from the optimal path. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether these results apply to HRI tasks, such as navigation with a mobile robot. HRP GAPS This HRI research contributes to closure of HRP gaps by providing information on how display and control characteristics - those related to guidance, feedback, and command modalities - affect operator performance. The overarching goals are to improve interface usability, reduce operator error, and develop candidate guidelines to design effective human-robot interfaces.

Bioinspired Intelligent Algorithm and Its Applications for Mobile Robot Control: A Survey.

PubMed

Ni, Jianjun; Wu, Liuying; Fan, Xinnan; Yang, Simon X

2016-01-01

Bioinspired intelligent algorithm (BIA) is a kind of intelligent computing method, which is with a more lifelike biological working mechanism than other types. BIAs have made significant progress in both understanding of the neuroscience and biological systems and applying to various fields. Mobile robot control is one of the main application fields of BIAs which has attracted more and more attention, because mobile robots can be used widely and general artificial intelligent algorithms meet a development bottleneck in this field, such as complex computing and the dependence on high-precision sensors. This paper presents a survey of recent research in BIAs, which focuses on the research in the realization of various BIAs based on different working mechanisms and the applications for mobile robot control, to help in understanding BIAs comprehensively and clearly. The survey has four primary parts: a classification of BIAs from the biomimetic mechanism, a summary of several typical BIAs from different levels, an overview of current applications of BIAs in mobile robot control, and a description of some possible future directions for research.

Bioinspired Intelligent Algorithm and Its Applications for Mobile Robot Control: A Survey

PubMed Central

Ni, Jianjun; Wu, Liuying; Fan, Xinnan; Yang, Simon X.

2016-01-01

Bioinspired intelligent algorithm (BIA) is a kind of intelligent computing method, which is with a more lifelike biological working mechanism than other types. BIAs have made significant progress in both understanding of the neuroscience and biological systems and applying to various fields. Mobile robot control is one of the main application fields of BIAs which has attracted more and more attention, because mobile robots can be used widely and general artificial intelligent algorithms meet a development bottleneck in this field, such as complex computing and the dependence on high-precision sensors. This paper presents a survey of recent research in BIAs, which focuses on the research in the realization of various BIAs based on different working mechanisms and the applications for mobile robot control, to help in understanding BIAs comprehensively and clearly. The survey has four primary parts: a classification of BIAs from the biomimetic mechanism, a summary of several typical BIAs from different levels, an overview of current applications of BIAs in mobile robot control, and a description of some possible future directions for research. PMID:26819582

An earthworm-like robot using origami-ball structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fang, Hongbin; Zhang, Yetong; Wang, K. W.

2017-04-01

Earthworms possess extraordinary on-ground and underground mobility, which inspired researchers to mimic their morphology characteristics and locomotion mechanisms to develop crawling robots. One of the bottlenecks that constrain the development and wide-spread application of earthworm-like robots is the process of design, fabrication and assembly of the robot frameworks. Here we present a new earthworm-like robot design and prototype by exploring and utilizing origami ball structures. The origami ball is able to antagonistically output both axial and radial deformations, similar as an earthworm's body segment. The origami folding techniques also introduce many advantages to the robot development, including precise and low cost fabrication and high customizability. Starting from a flat polymer film, we adopt laser machining technique to engrave the crease pattern and manually fold the patterned flat film into an origami ball. Coupling the ball with a servomotor-driven linkage yields a robot segment. Connecting six segments in series, we obtain an earthworm-like origami robot prototype. The prototype is tested in a tube to evaluate its locomotion performance. It shows that the robot could crawl effectively in the tube, manifesting the feasibility of the origami-based design. In addition, test results indicate that the robot's locomotion could be tailored by employing different peristalsis-wave based gaits. The robot design and prototype reported in this paper could foster a new breed of crawling robots with simply design, fabrication, and assemble processes, and improved locomotion performance.

HAZBOT - A hazardous materials emergency response mobile robot

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stone, H. W.; Edmonds, G.

1992-01-01

The authors describe the progress that has been made towards the development of a mobile robot that can be used by hazardous materials emergency response teams to perform a variety of tasks including incident localization and characterization, hazardous material identification/classification, site surveillance and monitoring, and ultimately incident mitigation. In September of 1991, the HAZBOT II vehicle performed its first end-to-end demonstration involving a scenario in which the vehicle: navigated to the incident location from a distant (150-200 ft.) deployment site; entered a building through a door with thumb latch style handle and door closer; located and navigated to the suspected incident location (a chemical storeroom); unlocked and opened the storeroom's door; climbed over the storeroom's 12 in. high threshold to enter the storeroom; and located and identified a broken container of benzene.

HAZBOT - A hazardous materials emergency response mobile robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stone, H. W.; Edmonds, G.

The authors describe the progress that has been made towards the development of a mobile robot that can be used by hazardous materials emergency response teams to perform a variety of tasks including incident localization and characterization, hazardous material identification/classification, site surveillance and monitoring, and ultimately incident mitigation. In September of 1991, the HAZBOT II vehicle performed its first end-to-end demonstration involving a scenario in which the vehicle: navigated to the incident location from a distant (150-200 ft.) deployment site; entered a building through a door with thumb latch style handle and door closer; located and navigated to the suspected incident location (a chemical storeroom); unlocked and opened the storeroom's door; climbed over the storeroom's 12 in. high threshold to enter the storeroom; and located and identified a broken container of benzene.

Integrating Mobile Robotics and Vision with Undergraduate Computer Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cielniak, G.; Bellotto, N.; Duckett, T.

2013-01-01

This paper describes the integration of robotics education into an undergraduate Computer Science curriculum. The proposed approach delivers mobile robotics as well as covering the closely related field of Computer Vision and is directly linked to the research conducted at the authors' institution. The paper describes the most relevant details of…

From Sci-Fi to Reality--Mobile Robots Get the Job Done

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roman, Harry T.

2006-01-01

Robots are simply computers that can interact with their environment. Some are fixed in place in industrial assembly plants for cars, appliances, micro electronic circuitry, and pharmaceuticals. Another important category of robots is the mobiles, machines that can be driven to the workplace, often designed for hazardous duty operation or…

Speed Daemon: Experience-Based Mobile Robot Speed Scheduling

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-10-01

a wheeled mobile robot. Robotica , 20(2): 181–193, 2002. [7] O. Purwin and R. D‘Andrea. Trajectory generation and control for four wheeled...robot on an uneven surface. Robotica , 27(4):481–498, 2009. [9] S. Thrun, M. Montemerlo, H. Dahlkamp, D. Stavens, A. Aron, J. Diebel, P. Fong, J. Gale

A Contest-Oriented Project for Learning Intelligent Mobile Robots

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Hsin-Hsiung; Su, Juing-Huei; Lee, Chyi-Shyong

2013-01-01

A contest-oriented project for undergraduate students to learn implementation skills and theories related to intelligent mobile robots is presented in this paper. The project, related to Micromouse, Robotrace (Robotrace is the title of Taiwanese and Japanese robot races), and line-maze contests was developed by the embedded control system research…

Effects of robot-guided passive stretching and active movement training of ankle and mobility impairments in stroke.

PubMed

Waldman, Genna; Yang, Chung-Yong; Ren, Yupeng; Liu, Lin; Guo, Xin; Harvey, Richard L; Roth, Elliot J; Zhang, Li-Qun

2013-01-01

To investigate the effects of controlled passive stretching and active movement training using a portable rehabilitation robot on stroke survivors with ankle and mobility impairment. Twenty-four patients at least 3 months post stroke were assigned to receive 6 week training using the portable robot in a research laboratory (robot group) or an instructed exercise program at home (control group). All patients underwent clinical and biomechanical evaluations in the laboratory at pre-evaluation, post-evaluation, and 6-week follow-up. Subjects in the robot group improved significantly more than that in the control group in reduction in spasticity measured by modified Ashworth scale, mobility by Stroke Rehabilitation Assessment of Movement (STREAM), the balance by Berg balance score, dorsiflexion passive range of motion, dorsiflexion strength, and load bearing on the affected limb during gait after 6-week training. Both groups improved in the STREAM, dorsiflexion active range of motion and dorsiflexor strength after the training, which were retained in the follow-up evaluation. Robot-assisted passive stretching and active movement training is effective in improving motor function and mobility post stroke.

Design of a novel wheeled tensegrity robot: a comparison of tensegrity concepts and a prototype for travelling air ducts.

PubMed

Carreño, Francisco; Post, Mark A

2018-01-01

Efforts in the research of tensegrity structures applied to mobile robots have recently been focused on a purely tensegrity solution to all design requirements. Locomotion systems based on tensegrity structures are currently slow and complex to control. Although wheeled locomotion provides better efficiency over distances there is no literature available on the value of wheeled methods with respect to tensegrity designs, nor on how to transition from a tensegrity structure to a fixed structure in mobile robotics. This paper is the first part of a larger study that aims to combine the flexibility, light weight, and strength of a tensegrity structure with the efficiency and simple control of a wheeled locomotion system. It focuses on comparing different types of tensegrity structure for applicability to a mobile robot, and experimentally finding an appropriate transitional region from a tensegrity structure to a conventional fixed structure on mobile robots. It applies this transitional structure to what is, to the authors' knowledge, the design of the world's first wheeled tensegrity robot that has been designed with the goal of traversing air ducts.

Adaptive Behavior for Mobile Robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huntsberger, Terrance

2009-01-01

The term "System for Mobility and Access to Rough Terrain" (SMART) denotes a theoretical framework, a control architecture, and an algorithm that implements the framework and architecture, for enabling a land-mobile robot to adapt to changing conditions. SMART is intended to enable the robot to recognize adverse terrain conditions beyond its optimal operational envelope, and, in response, to intelligently reconfigure itself (e.g., adjust suspension heights or baseline distances between suspension points) or adapt its driving techniques (e.g., engage in a crabbing motion as a switchback technique for ascending steep terrain). Conceived for original application aboard Mars rovers and similar autonomous or semi-autonomous mobile robots used in exploration of remote planets, SMART could also be applied to autonomous terrestrial vehicles to be used for search, rescue, and/or exploration on rough terrain.

A low cost indoor localization system for mobile robot experimental setup

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adinandra, S.; Syarif, A.

2018-04-01

Indoor localization becomes one of the most important part in mobile robot system One fundamental requirement is to provide an easy-to-use and practical localization system for real-time experiments. In this paper we propose a combination of a recent open source virtual reality (VR) tools, a simple MATLAB code and a low cost USB webcam as an indoor mobile robot localization system Using the VR tools as a server and MATLAB as a client, the proposed solution can cover up to 1.6 [m] × 3.2 [m] with the measurement position accuracy up to 1.2 [cm]. The system is insensitive to light, easy to move and can be quickly set up. A series of successful real-time experiments with three different mobile robot types has been conducted.

Method of mobile robot indoor navigation by artificial landmarks with use of computer vision

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glibin, E. S.; Shevtsov, A. A.; Enik, O. A.

2018-05-01

The article describes an algorithm of the mobile robot indoor navigation based on the use of visual odometry. The results of the experiment identifying calculation errors in the distance traveled on a slip are presented. It is shown that the use of computer vision allows one to correct erroneous coordinates of the robot with the help of artificial landmarks. The control system utilizing the proposed method has been realized on the basis of Arduino Mego 2560 controller and a single-board computer Raspberry Pi 3. The results of the experiment on the mobile robot navigation with the use of this control system are presented.

Adaptive Formation Control of Electrically Driven Nonholonomic Mobile Robots With Limited Information.

PubMed

Bong Seok Park; Jin Bae Park; Yoon Ho Choi

2011-08-01

We present a leader-follower-based adaptive formation control method for electrically driven nonholonomic mobile robots with limited information. First, an adaptive observer is developed under the condition that the velocity measurement is not available. With the proposed adaptive observer, the formation control part is designed to achieve the desired formation and guarantee the collision avoidance. In addition, neural network is employed to compensate the actuator saturation, and the projection algorithm is used to estimate the velocity information of the leader. It is shown, by using the Lyapunov theory, that all errors of the closed-loop system are uniformly ultimately bounded. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed control system.

Application of historical mobility testing to sensor-based robotic performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Willoughby, William E.; Jones, Randolph A.; Mason, George L.; Shoop, Sally A.; Lever, James H.

2006-05-01

The USA Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) has conducted on-/off-road experimental field testing with full-sized and scale-model military vehicles for more than fifty years. Some 4000 acres of local terrain are available for tailored field evaluations or verification/validation of future robotic designs in a variety of climatic regimes. Field testing and data collection procedures, as well as techniques for quantifying terrain in engineering terms, have been developed and refined into algorithms and models for predicting vehicle-terrain interactions and resulting forces or speeds of military-sized vehicles. Based on recent experiments with Matilda, Talon, and Pacbot, these predictive capabilities appear to be relevant to most robotic systems currently in development. Utilization of current testing capabilities with sensor-based vehicle drivers, or use of the procedures for terrain quantification from sensor data, would immediately apply some fifty years of historical knowledge to the development, refinement, and implementation of future robotic systems. Additionally, translation of sensor-collected terrain data into engineering terms would allow assessment of robotic performance a priori deployment of the actual system and ensure maximum system performance in the theater of operation.

Usability Study and Heuristic Evaluation of the Applied Robotics for Installations and Base Operations (ARIBO) Driverless Vehicle Reservation Application ARIBO Mobile

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-03-01

ARL-TN-0814 ● MAR 2017 US Army Research Laboratory Usability Study and Heuristic Evaluation of the Applied Robotics for...ARL-TN-0814 ● MAR 2017 US Army Research Laboratory Usability Study and Heuristic Evaluation of the Applied Robotics for...Heuristic Evaluation of the Applied Robotics for Installations and Base Operations (ARIBO) Driverless Vehicle Reservation Application ARIBO Mobile 5a

Research in mobile robotics at ORNL/CESAR (Oak Ridge National Laboratory/Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mann, R.C.; Weisbin, C.R.; Pin, F.G.

1989-01-01

This paper reviews ongoing and planned research with mobile autonomous robots at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR). Specifically we report on results obtained with the robot HERMIES-IIB in navigation, intelligent sensing, learning, and on-board parallel computing in support of these functions. We briefly summarize an experiment with HERMIES-IIB that demonstrates the capability of smooth transitions between robot autonomy and tele-operation. This experiment results from collaboration among teams at the Universities of Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, and Texas; and ORNL in a program targeted at robotics for advanced nuclear power stations. We conclude bymore » summarizing ongoing R D with our new mobile robot HERMIES-III which is equipped with a seven degree-of-freedom research manipulator arm. 12 refs., 4 figs.« less

Mobility Systems For Robotic Vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chun, Wendell

1987-02-01

The majority of existing robotic systems can be decomposed into five distinct subsystems: locomotion, control/man-machine interface (MMI), sensors, power source, and manipulator. When designing robotic vehicles, there are two main requirements: first, to design for the environment and second, for the task. The environment can be correlated with known missions. This can be seen by analyzing existing mobile robots. Ground mobile systems are generally wheeled, tracked, or legged. More recently, underwater vehicles have gained greater attention. For example, Jason Jr. made history by surveying the sunken luxury liner, the Titanic. The next big surge of robotic vehicles will be in space. This will evolve as a result of NASA's commitment to the Space Station. The foreseeable robots will interface with current systems as well as standalone, free-flying systems. A space robotic vehicle is similar to its underwater counterpart with very few differences. Their commonality includes missions and degrees-of-freedom. The issues of stability and communication are inherent in both systems and environment.

Power And Propulsion Systems For Mobile Robotic Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Layuan, Li; Haiming, Zou

1987-02-01

Choosing the best power and propulsion systems for mobile robotic land vehicle applications requires consideration of technologies. The electric power requirements for onboard electronic and auxiliary equipment include 110/220 volt 60 Hz ac power as well as low voltage dc power. Weight and power are saved by either direct dc power distribution, or high frequency (20 kHz) ac power distribution. Vehicle control functions are performed electronically but steering, braking and traction power may be distributed electrically, mechanically or by fluid (hydraulic) means. Electric drive is practical, even for small vehicles, provided that advanced electric motors are used. Such electric motors have demonstrated power densities of 3.1 kilowatts per kilogram with devices in the 15 kilowatt range. Electric motors have a lower torque, but higher power density as compared to hydraulic or mechanical transmission systems. Power density being comparable, electric drives were selected to best meet the other requirements for robotic vehicles. Two robotic vehicle propulsion system designs are described to illustrate the implementation of electric drive over a vehicle size range of 250-7500 kilograms.

Development of a sonar-based object recognition system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ecemis, Mustafa Ihsan

2001-02-01

Sonars are used extensively in mobile robotics for obstacle detection, ranging and avoidance. However, these range-finding applications do not exploit the full range of information carried in sonar echoes. In addition, mobile robots need robust object recognition systems. Therefore, a simple and robust object recognition system using ultrasonic sensors may have a wide range of applications in robotics. This dissertation develops and analyzes an object recognition system that uses ultrasonic sensors of the type commonly found on mobile robots. Three principal experiments are used to test the sonar recognition system: object recognition at various distances, object recognition during unconstrained motion, and softness discrimination. The hardware setup, consisting of an inexpensive Polaroid sonar and a data acquisition board, is described first. The software for ultrasound signal generation, echo detection, data collection, and data processing is then presented. Next, the dissertation describes two methods to extract information from the echoes, one in the frequency domain and the other in the time domain. The system uses the fuzzy ARTMAP neural network to recognize objects on the basis of the information content of their echoes. In order to demonstrate that the performance of the system does not depend on the specific classification method being used, the K- Nearest Neighbors (KNN) Algorithm is also implemented. KNN yields a test accuracy similar to fuzzy ARTMAP in all experiments. Finally, the dissertation describes a method for extracting features from the envelope function in order to reduce the dimension of the input vector used by the classifiers. Decreasing the size of the input vectors reduces the memory requirements of the system and makes it run faster. It is shown that this method does not affect the performance of the system dramatically and is more appropriate for some tasks. The results of these experiments demonstrate that sonar can be used to develop a low-cost, low-computation system for real-time object recognition tasks on mobile robots. This system differs from all previous approaches in that it is relatively simple, robust, fast, and inexpensive.

Simulation tools for robotics research and assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fields, MaryAnne; Brewer, Ralph; Edge, Harris L.; Pusey, Jason L.; Weller, Ed; Patel, Dilip G.; DiBerardino, Charles A.

2016-05-01

The Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance (RCTA) program focuses on four overlapping technology areas: Perception, Intelligence, Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), and Dexterous Manipulation and Unique Mobility (DMUM). In addition, the RCTA program has a requirement to assess progress of this research in standalone as well as integrated form. Since the research is evolving and the robotic platforms with unique mobility and dexterous manipulation are in the early development stage and very expensive, an alternate approach is needed for efficient assessment. Simulation of robotic systems, platforms, sensors, and algorithms, is an attractive alternative to expensive field-based testing. Simulation can provide insight during development and debugging unavailable by many other means. This paper explores the maturity of robotic simulation systems for applications to real-world problems in robotic systems research. Open source (such as Gazebo and Moby), commercial (Simulink, Actin, LMS), government (ANVEL/VANE), and the RCTA-developed RIVET simulation environments are examined with respect to their application in the robotic research domains of Perception, Intelligence, HRI, and DMUM. Tradeoffs for applications to representative problems from each domain are presented, along with known deficiencies and disadvantages. In particular, no single robotic simulation environment adequately covers the needs of the robotic researcher in all of the domains. Simulation for DMUM poses unique constraints on the development of physics-based computational models of the robot, the environment and objects within the environment, and the interactions between them. Most current robot simulations focus on quasi-static systems, but dynamic robotic motion places an increased emphasis on the accuracy of the computational models. In order to understand the interaction of dynamic multi-body systems, such as limbed robots, with the environment, it may be necessary to build component-level computational models to provide the necessary simulation fidelity for accuracy. However, the Perception domain remains the most problematic for adequate simulation performance due to the often cartoon nature of computer rendering and the inability to model realistic electromagnetic radiation effects, such as multiple reflections, in real-time.

Navigation strategies for multiple autonomous mobile robots moving in formation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, P. K. C.

1991-01-01

The problem of deriving navigation strategies for a fleet of autonomous mobile robots moving in formation is considered. Here, each robot is represented by a particle with a spherical effective spatial domain and a specified cone of visibility. The global motion of each robot in the world space is described by the equations of motion of the robot's center of mass. First, methods for formation generation are discussed. Then, simple navigation strategies for robots moving in formation are derived. A sufficient condition for the stability of a desired formation pattern for a fleet of robots each equipped with the navigation strategy based on nearest neighbor tracking is developed. The dynamic behavior of robot fleets consisting of three or more robots moving in formation in a plane is studied by means of computer simulation.

Mobile robots for localizing gas emission sources on landfill sites: is bio-inspiration the way to go?

PubMed

Hernandez Bennetts, Victor; Lilienthal, Achim J; Neumann, Patrick P; Trincavelli, Marco

2011-01-01

Roboticists often take inspiration from animals for designing sensors, actuators, or algorithms that control the behavior of robots. Bio-inspiration is motivated with the uncanny ability of animals to solve complex tasks like recognizing and manipulating objects, walking on uneven terrains, or navigating to the source of an odor plume. In particular the task of tracking an odor plume up to its source has nearly exclusively been addressed using biologically inspired algorithms and robots have been developed, for example, to mimic the behavior of moths, dung beetles, or lobsters. In this paper we argue that biomimetic approaches to gas source localization are of limited use, primarily because animals differ fundamentally in their sensing and actuation capabilities from state-of-the-art gas-sensitive mobile robots. To support our claim, we compare actuation and chemical sensing available to mobile robots to the corresponding capabilities of moths. We further characterize airflow and chemosensor measurements obtained with three different robot platforms (two wheeled robots and one flying micro-drone) in four prototypical environments and show that the assumption of a constant and unidirectional airflow, which is the basis of many gas source localization approaches, is usually far from being valid. This analysis should help to identify how underlying principles, which govern the gas source tracking behavior of animals, can be usefully "translated" into gas source localization approaches that fully take into account the capabilities of mobile robots. We also describe the requirements for a reference application, monitoring of gas emissions at landfill sites with mobile robots, and discuss an engineered gas source localization approach based on statistics as an alternative to biologically inspired algorithms.

Mobile Robots for Localizing Gas Emission Sources on Landfill Sites: Is Bio-Inspiration the Way to Go?

PubMed Central

Hernandez Bennetts, Victor; Lilienthal, Achim J.; Neumann, Patrick P.; Trincavelli, Marco

2011-01-01

Roboticists often take inspiration from animals for designing sensors, actuators, or algorithms that control the behavior of robots. Bio-inspiration is motivated with the uncanny ability of animals to solve complex tasks like recognizing and manipulating objects, walking on uneven terrains, or navigating to the source of an odor plume. In particular the task of tracking an odor plume up to its source has nearly exclusively been addressed using biologically inspired algorithms and robots have been developed, for example, to mimic the behavior of moths, dung beetles, or lobsters. In this paper we argue that biomimetic approaches to gas source localization are of limited use, primarily because animals differ fundamentally in their sensing and actuation capabilities from state-of-the-art gas-sensitive mobile robots. To support our claim, we compare actuation and chemical sensing available to mobile robots to the corresponding capabilities of moths. We further characterize airflow and chemosensor measurements obtained with three different robot platforms (two wheeled robots and one flying micro-drone) in four prototypical environments and show that the assumption of a constant and unidirectional airflow, which is the basis of many gas source localization approaches, is usually far from being valid. This analysis should help to identify how underlying principles, which govern the gas source tracking behavior of animals, can be usefully “translated” into gas source localization approaches that fully take into account the capabilities of mobile robots. We also describe the requirements for a reference application, monitoring of gas emissions at landfill sites with mobile robots, and discuss an engineered gas source localization approach based on statistics as an alternative to biologically inspired algorithms. PMID:22319493

Dynamic whole-body robotic manipulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abe, Yeuhi; Stephens, Benjamin; Murphy, Michael P.; Rizzi, Alfred A.

2013-05-01

The creation of dynamic manipulation behaviors for high degree of freedom, mobile robots will allow them to accomplish increasingly difficult tasks in the field. We are investigating how the coordinated use of the body, legs, and integrated manipulator, on a mobile robot, can improve the strength, velocity, and workspace when handling heavy objects. We envision that such a capability would aid in a search and rescue scenario when clearing obstacles from a path or searching a rubble pile quickly. Manipulating heavy objects is especially challenging because the dynamic forces are high and a legged system must coordinate all its degrees of freedom to accomplish tasks while maintaining balance. To accomplish these types of manipulation tasks, we use trajectory optimization techniques to generate feasible open-loop behaviors for our 28 dof quadruped robot (BigDog) by planning trajectories in a 13 dimensional space. We apply the Covariance Matrix Adaptation (CMA) algorithm to solve for trajectories that optimize task performance while also obeying important constraints such as torque and velocity limits, kinematic limits, and center of pressure location. These open-loop behaviors are then used to generate desired feed-forward body forces and foot step locations, which enable tracking on the robot. Some hardware results for cinderblock throwing are demonstrated on the BigDog quadruped platform augmented with a human-arm-like manipulator. The results are analogous to how a human athlete maximizes distance in the discus event by performing a precise sequence of choreographed steps.

A two-class self-paced BCI to control a robot in four directions.

PubMed

Ron-Angevin, Ricardo; Velasco-Alvarez, Francisco; Sancha-Ros, Salvador; da Silva-Sauer, Leandro

2011-01-01

In this work, an electroencephalographic analysis-based, self-paced (asynchronous) brain-computer interface (BCI) is proposed to control a mobile robot using four different navigation commands: turn right, turn left, move forward and move back. In order to reduce the probability of misclassification, the BCI is to be controlled with only two mental tasks (relaxed state versus imagination of right hand movements), using an audio-cued interface. Four healthy subjects participated in the experiment. After two sessions controlling a simulated robot in a virtual environment (which allowed the user to become familiar with the interface), three subjects successfully moved the robot in a real environment. The obtained results show that the proposed interface enables control over the robot, even for subjects with low BCI performance. © 2011 IEEE

Mobile Robot Positioning with 433-MHz Wireless Motes with Varying Transmission Powers and a Particle Filter.

PubMed

Canedo-Rodriguez, Adrian; Rodriguez, Jose Manuel; Alvarez-Santos, Victor; Iglesias, Roberto; Regueiro, Carlos V

2015-04-30

In wireless positioning systems, the transmitter's power is usually fixed. In this paper, we explore the use of varying transmission powers to increase the performance of a wireless localization system. To this extent, we have designed a robot positioning system based on wireless motes. Our motes use an inexpensive, low-power sub-1-GHz system-on-chip (CC1110) working in the 433-MHz ISM band. Our localization algorithm is based on a particle filter and infers the robot position by: (1) comparing the power received with the expected one; and (2) integrating the robot displacement. We demonstrate that the use of transmitters that vary their transmission power over time improves the performance of the wireless positioning system significantly, with respect to a system that uses fixed power transmitters. This opens the door for applications where the robot can localize itself actively by requesting the transmitters to change their power in real time.

Mobile Robot Positioning with 433-MHz Wireless Motes with Varying Transmission Powers and a Particle Filter

PubMed Central

Canedo-Rodriguez, Adrian; Rodriguez, Jose Manuel; Alvarez-Santos, Victor; Iglesias, Roberto; Regueiro, Carlos V.

2015-01-01

In wireless positioning systems, the transmitter's power is usually fixed. In this paper, we explore the use of varying transmission powers to increase the performance of a wireless localization system. To this extent, we have designed a robot positioning system based on wireless motes. Our motes use an inexpensive, low-power sub-1-GHz system-on-chip (CC1110) working in the 433-MHz ISM band. Our localization algorithm is based on a particle filter and infers the robot position by: (1) comparing the power received with the expected one; and (2) integrating the robot displacement. We demonstrate that the use of transmitters that vary their transmission power over time improves the performance of the wireless positioning system significantly, with respect to a system that uses fixed power transmitters. This opens the door for applications where the robot can localize itself actively by requesting the transmitters to change their power in real time. PMID:25942641

Sandia National Laboratories proof-of-concept robotic security vehicle

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Harrington, J.J.; Jones, D.P.; Klarer, P.R.

1989-01-01

Several years ago Sandia National Laboratories developed a prototype interior robot that could navigate autonomously inside a large complex building to air and test interior intrusion detection systems. Recently the Department of Energy Office of Safeguards and Security has supported the development of a vehicle that will perform limited security functions autonomously in a structured exterior environment. The goal of the first phase of this project was to demonstrate the feasibility of an exterior robotic vehicle for security applications by using converted interior robot technology, if applicable. An existing teleoperational test bed vehicle with remote driving controls was modified andmore » integrated with a newly developed command driving station and navigation system hardware and software to form the Robotic Security Vehicle (RSV) system. The RSV, also called the Sandia Mobile Autonomous Navigator (SANDMAN), has been successfully used to demonstrate that teleoperated security vehicles which can perform limited autonomous functions are viable and have the potential to decrease security manpower requirements and improve system capabilities. 2 refs., 3 figs.« less

Control of a free-flying robot manipulator system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alexander, H.; Cannon, R. H., Jr.

1985-01-01

The goal of the research is to develop and test control strategies for a self-contained, free flying space robot. Such a robot would perform operations in space similar to those currently handled by astronauts during extravehicular activity (EVA). The focus of the work is to develop and carry out a program of research with a series of physical Satellite Robot Simulator Vehicles (SRSV's), two-dimensionally freely mobile laboratory models of autonomous free-flying space robots such as might perform extravehicular functions associated with operation of a space station or repair of orbiting satellites. The development of the SRSV and of some of the controller subsystems are discribed. The two-link arm was fitted to the SRSV base, and researchers explored the open-loop characteristics of the arm and thruster actuators. Work began on building the software foundation necessary for use of the on-board computer, as well as hardware and software for a local vision system for target identification and tracking.

Recognition and Classification of Road Condition on the Basis of Friction Force by Using a Mobile Robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Watanabe, Tatsuhito; Katsura, Seiichiro

A person operating a mobile robot in a remote environment receives realistic visual feedback about the condition of the road on which the robot is moving. The categorization of the road condition is necessary to evaluate the conditions for safe and comfortable driving. For this purpose, the mobile robot should be capable of recognizing and classifying the condition of the road surfaces. This paper proposes a method for recognizing the type of road surfaces on the basis of the friction between the mobile robot and the road surfaces. This friction is estimated by a disturbance observer, and a support vector machine is used to classify the surfaces. The support vector machine identifies the type of the road surface using feature vector, which is determined using the arithmetic average and variance derived from the torque values. Further, these feature vectors are mapped onto a higher dimensional space by using a kernel function. The validity of the proposed method is confirmed by experimental results.

Mobility Performance Algorithms for Small Unmanned Ground Vehicles

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-05-01

obstacles need to be developed; specifically, models and data for wheeled vehicle skid steering, interior building floor and roof surfaces, and stair ...an 80-lb SUGV; PackBot® at 50 lb, and GatorTM at 2500 lb. Additionally, the FCS projects that 40% of the military fleet may eventually be robotic ...sensor input analysis and decision-making time. Fields (2002a) discusses representing interaction of humans and robots in the OneSAF Testbed Baseline

Tool for Experimenting with Concepts of Mobile Robotics as Applied to Children's Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jimenez Jojoa, E. M.; Bravo, E. C.; Bacca Cortes, E. B.

2010-01-01

This paper describes the design and implementation of a tool for experimenting with mobile robotics concepts, primarily for use by children and teenagers, or by the general public, without previous experience in robotics. This tool helps children learn about science in an approachable and interactive way, using scientific research principles in…

Research on robot mobile obstacle avoidance control based on visual information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jin, Jiang

2018-03-01

Robots to detect obstacles and control robots to avoid obstacles has been a key research topic of robot control. In this paper, a scheme of visual information acquisition is proposed. By judging visual information, the visual information is transformed into the information source of path processing. In accordance with the established route, in the process of encountering obstacles, the algorithm real-time adjustment trajectory to meet the purpose of intelligent control of mobile robots. Simulation results show that, through the integration of visual sensing information, the obstacle information is fully obtained, while the real-time and accuracy of the robot movement control is guaranteed.

Embedded mobile farm robot for identification of diseased plants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sadistap, S. S.; Botre, B. A.; Pandit, Harshavardhan; Chandrasekhar; Rao, Adesh

2013-07-01

This paper presents the development of a mobile robot used in farms for identification of diseased plants. It puts forth two of the major aspects of robotics namely automated navigation and image processing. The robot navigates on the basis of the GPS (Global Positioning System) location and data obtained from IR (Infrared) sensors to avoid any obstacles in its path. It uses an image processing algorithm to differentiate between diseased and non-diseased plants. A robotic platform consisting of an ARM9 processor, motor drivers, robot mechanical assembly, camera and infrared sensors has been used. Mini2440 microcontroller has been used wherein Embedded linux OS (Operating System) is implemented.

Measuring the Performance and Intelligence of Systems: Proceedings of the 2002 PerMIS Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Messina, E. R.; Meystel, A. M.

2002-01-01

Contents include the following: Performance Metrics; Performance of Multiple Agents; Performance of Mobility Systems; Performance of Planning Systems; General Discussion Panel 1; Uncertainty of Representation I; Performance of Robots in Hazardous Domains; Modeling Intelligence; Modeling of Mind; Measuring Intelligence; Grouping: A Core Procedure of Intelligence; Uncertainty in Representation II; Towards Universal Planning/Control Systems.

Surgical evaluation of a novel tethered robotic capsule endoscope using micro-patterned treads.

PubMed

Sliker, Levin J; Kern, Madalyn D; Schoen, Jonathan A; Rentschler, Mark E

2012-10-01

The state-of-the-art technology for gastrointestinal (GI) tract exploration is a capsule endoscope (CE). Capsule endoscopes are pill-sized devices that provide visual feedback of the GI tract as they move passively through the patient. These passive devices could benefit from a mobility system enabling maneuverability and controllability. Potential benefits of a tethered robotic capsule endoscope (tRCE) include faster travel speeds, reaction force generation for biopsy, and decreased capsule retention. In this work, a tethered CE is developed with an active locomotion system for mobility within a collapsed lumen. Micro-patterned polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) treads are implemented onto a custom capsule housing as a mobility method. The tRCE housing contains a direct current (DC) motor and gear train to drive the treads, a video camera for visual feedback, and two light sources (infrared and visible) for illumination. The device was placed within the insufflated abdomen of a live anesthetized pig to evaluate mobility performance on a planar tissue surface, as well as within the cecum to evaluate mobility performance in a collapsed lumen. The tRCE was capable of forward and reverse mobility for both planar and collapsed lumen tissue environments. Also, using an onboard visual system, the tRCE was capable of demonstrating visual feedback within an insufflated, anesthetized porcine abdomen. Proof-of-concept in vivo tRCE mobility using micro-patterned PDMS treads was shown. This suggests that a similar method could be implemented in future smaller, faster, and untethered RCEs.

3D joystick for robotic arm control by individuals with high level spinal cord injuries.

PubMed

Jiang, Hairong; Wachs, Juan P; Pendergast, Martin; Duerstock, Bradley S

2013-06-01

An innovative 3D joystick was developed to enable quadriplegics due to spinal cord injuries (SCIs) to more independently and efficiently operate a robotic arm as an assistive device. The 3D joystick was compared to two different manual input modalities, a keyboard control and a traditional joystick, in performing experimental robotic arm tasks by both subjects without disabilities and those with upper extremity mobility impairments. Fitts's Law targeting and practical pouring tests were conducted to compare the performance and accuracy of the proposed 3D joystick. The Fitts's law measurements showed that the 3D joystick had the best index of performance (IP), though it required an equivalent number of operations and errors as the standard robotic arm joystick. The pouring task demonstrated that the 3D joystick took significantly less task completion time and was more accurate than keyboard control. The 3D joystick also showed a decreased learning curve to the other modalities.

A robotic system for automation of logistics functions on the Space Station

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martin, J. C.; Purves, R. B.; Hosier, R. N.; Krein, B. A.

1988-01-01

Spacecraft inventory management is currently performed by the crew and as systems become more complex, increased crew time will be required to perform routine logistics activities. If future spacecraft are to function effectively as research labs and production facilities, the efficient use of crew time as a limited resource for performing mission functions must be employed. The use of automation and robotics technology, such as automated warehouse and materials handling functions, can free the crew from many logistics tasks and provide more efficient use of crew time. Design criteria for a Space Station Automated Logistics Inventory Management System is focused on through the design and demonstration of a mobile two armed terrestrial robot. The system functionally represents a 0 gravity automated inventory management system and the problems associated with operating in such an environment. Features of the system include automated storage and retrieval, item recognition, two armed robotic manipulation, and software control of all inventory item transitions and queries.

Effect of spine motion on mobility in quadruped running

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Dongliang; Liu, Qi; Dong, Litao; Wang, Hong; Zhang, Qun

2014-11-01

Most of current running quadruped robots have similar construction: a stiff body and four compliant legs. Many researches have indicated that the stiff body without spine motion is a main factor in limitation of robots' mobility. Therefore, investigating spine motion is very important to build robots with better mobility. A planar quadruped robot is designed based on cheetahs' morphology. There is a spinal driving joint in the body of the robot. When the spinal driving joint acts, the robot has spine motion; otherwise, the robot has not spine motion. Six group prototype experiments with the robot are carried out to study the effect of spine motion on mobility. In each group, there are two comparative experiments: the spinal driving joint acts in one experiment but does not in the other experiment. The results of the prototype experiments indicate that the average speeds of the robot with spine motion are 8.7%-15.9% larger than those of the robot without spine motion. Furthermore, a simplified sagittal plane model of quadruped mammals is introduced. The simplified model also has a spinal driving joint. Using a similar process as the prototype experiments, six group simulation experiments with the simplified model are conducted. The results of the simulation experiments show that the maximum rear leg horizontal thrusts of the simplified mode with spine motion are 68.2%-71.3% larger than those of the simplified mode without spine motion. Hence, it is found that spine motion can increase the average running speed and the intrinsic reason of speed increase is the improvement of the maximum rear leg horizontal thrust.

Hopper on wheels: evolving the hopping robot concept

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schell, S.; Tretten, A.; Burdick, J.; Fuller, S. B.; Fiorini, P.

2001-01-01

This paper describes the evolution of our concept of hopping robot for planetary exploration, that combines coarse long range mobility achieved by hopping, with short range wheeled mobility for precision target acquisition.

Reachability Analysis for Base Placement in Mobile Manipulators

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seraji, H.

1994-01-01

This paper addresses the problem of base placement for mobile robots, and proposes a simple off-line solution to determine the appropriate base locations from which the robot can reach a target point.

Performance analysis of medical video streaming over mobile WiMAX.

PubMed

Alinejad, Ali; Philip, N; Istepanian, R H

2010-01-01

Wireless medical ultrasound streaming is considered one of the emerging application within the broadband mobile healthcare domain. These applications are considered as bandwidth demanding services that required high data rates with acceptable diagnostic quality of the transmitted medical images. In this paper, we present the performance analysis of a medical ultrasound video streaming acquired via special robotic ultrasonography system over emulated WiMAX wireless network. The experimental set-up of this application is described together with the performance of the relevant medical quality of service (m-QoS) metrics.

High-Performance 3D Articulated Robot Display

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Powell, Mark W.; Torres, Recaredo J.; Mittman, David S.; Kurien, James A.; Abramyan, Lucy

2011-01-01

In the domain of telerobotic operations, the primary challenge facing the operator is to understand the state of the robotic platform. One key aspect of understanding the state is to visualize the physical location and configuration of the platform. As there is a wide variety of mobile robots, the requirements for visualizing their configurations vary diversely across different platforms. There can also be diversity in the mechanical mobility, such as wheeled, tracked, or legged mobility over surfaces. Adaptable 3D articulated robot visualization software can accommodate a wide variety of robotic platforms and environments. The visualization has been used for surface, aerial, space, and water robotic vehicle visualization during field testing. It has been used to enable operations of wheeled and legged surface vehicles, and can be readily adapted to facilitate other mechanical mobility solutions. The 3D visualization can render an articulated 3D model of a robotic platform for any environment. Given the model, the software receives real-time telemetry from the avionics system onboard the vehicle and animates the robot visualization to reflect the telemetered physical state. This is used to track the position and attitude in real time to monitor the progress of the vehicle as it traverses its environment. It is also used to monitor the state of any or all articulated elements of the vehicle, such as arms, legs, or control surfaces. The visualization can also render other sorts of telemetered states visually, such as stress or strains that are measured by the avionics. Such data can be used to color or annotate the virtual vehicle to indicate nominal or off-nominal states during operation. The visualization is also able to render the simulated environment where the vehicle is operating. For surface and aerial vehicles, it can render the terrain under the vehicle as the avionics sends it location information (GPS, odometry, or star tracking), and locate the vehicle over or on the terrain correctly. For long traverses over terrain, the visualization can stream in terrain piecewise in order to maintain the current area of interest for the operator without incurring unreasonable resource constraints on the computing platform. The visualization software is designed to run on laptops that can operate in field-testing environments without Internet access, which is a frequently encountered situation when testing in remote locations that simulate planetary environments such as Mars and other planetary bodies.

Performance Evaluation of a Mobile Touchscreen Interface for Assistive Robotic Manipulators: A Pilot Study.

PubMed

Chung, Cheng-Shiu; Ka, Hyun W; Wang, Hongu; Ding, Dan; Kelleher, Annmarie; Cooper, Rory A

2017-01-01

Background: Assistive robotic manipulators (ARMs) have been developed to provide enhanced assistance and independence in performance of daily activities among people with spinal cord injury when a caregiver is not on site. However, the current commercial ARM user interfaces (UIs) may be difficult to learn and control. A touchscreen mobile UI was developed to overcome these challenges. Objective: The object of this study was to evaluate the performance between 2 ARM UIs, touchscreen and the original joystick, using an ARM evaluation tool (ARMET). Methods: This is a pilot study of people with upper extremity impairments ( N = 8). Participants were trained on 2 UIs, and then they chose one to use when performing 3 tasks on the ARMET: flipping a toggle switch, pushing down a door handle, and turning a knob. Task completion time, mean velocity, and open interviews were the main outcome measurements. Results: Among 8 novice participants, 7 chose the touchscreen UI and 1 chose the joystick UI. All participants could complete the ARMET tasks independently. Use of the touchscreen UI resulted in enhanced ARMET performance (higher mean moving speed and faster task completion). Conclusions: Mobile ARM UIs demonstrated easier learning experience, less physical effort, and better ARMET performance. The improved performance, the accessibility, and lower physical effort suggested that the touchscreen UI might be an efficient tool for the ARM users.

Control solutions for robots using Android and iOS devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Evans, A. William, III; Gray, Jeremy P.; Rudnick, Dave; Karlsen, Robert E.

2012-06-01

As more Soldiers seek to utilize robots to enhance their mission capabilities, controls are needed which are intuitive, portable, and adaptable to a wide range of mission tasks. Android™ and iOS™ devices have the potential to meet each of these requirements as well as being based on readily available hardware. This paper will focus on some of the ways in which an Android™ or iOS™ device could be used to control specific and varied robot mobility functions and payload tools. Several small unmanned ground vehicle (SUGV) payload tools will have been investigated at Camp Pendleton during a user assessment and mission feasibility study for automatic remote tool changing. This group of payload tools will provide a basis, to researchers, concerning what types of control functions are needed to fully utilize SUGV robotic capabilities. Additional, mobility functions using tablet devices have been used as part of the Safe Operation of Unmanned systems for Reconnaissance in Complex Environments Army Technology Objective (SOURCE ATO) which is investigating the safe operation of robotics. Using Android™ and iOS™ hand-held devices is not a new concept in robot manipulation. However, the authors of this paper hope to introduce some novel concepts that may serve to make the interaction between Soldier and machine more fluid and intuitive. By creating a better user experience, Android™ and iOS™ devices could help to reduce training time, enhance performance, and increase acceptance of robotics as valuable mission tools for Soldiers.

SMARBot: a modular miniature mobile robot platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meng, Yan; Johnson, Kerry; Simms, Brian; Conforth, Matthew

2008-04-01

Miniature robots have many advantages over their larger counterparts, such as low cost, low power, and easy to build a large scale team for complex tasks. Heterogeneous multi miniature robots could provide powerful situation awareness capability due to different locomotion capabilities and sensor information. However, it would be expensive and time consuming to develop specific embedded system for different type of robots. In this paper, we propose a generic modular embedded system architecture called SMARbot (Stevens Modular Autonomous Robot), which consists of a set of hardware and software modules that can be configured to construct various types of robot systems. These modules include a high performance microprocessor, a reconfigurable hardware component, wireless communication, and diverse sensor and actuator interfaces. The design of all the modules in electrical subsystem, the selection criteria for module components, and the real-time operating system are described. Some proofs of concept experimental results are also presented.

A Face Attention Technique for a Robot Able to Interpret Facial Expressions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Simplício, Carlos; Prado, José; Dias, Jorge

Automatic facial expressions recognition using vision is an important subject towards human-robot interaction. Here is proposed a human face focus of attention technique and a facial expressions classifier (a Dynamic Bayesian Network) to incorporate in an autonomous mobile agent whose hardware is composed by a robotic platform and a robotic head. The focus of attention technique is based on the symmetry presented by human faces. By using the output of this module the autonomous agent keeps always targeting the human face frontally. In order to accomplish this, the robot platform performs an arc centered at the human; thus the robotic head, when necessary, moves synchronized. In the proposed probabilistic classifier the information is propagated, from the previous instant, in a lower level of the network, to the current instant. Moreover, to recognize facial expressions are used not only positive evidences but also negative.

Mobile robots exploration through cnn-based reinforcement learning.

PubMed

Tai, Lei; Liu, Ming

2016-01-01

Exploration in an unknown environment is an elemental application for mobile robots. In this paper, we outlined a reinforcement learning method aiming for solving the exploration problem in a corridor environment. The learning model took the depth image from an RGB-D sensor as the only input. The feature representation of the depth image was extracted through a pre-trained convolutional-neural-networks model. Based on the recent success of deep Q-network on artificial intelligence, the robot controller achieved the exploration and obstacle avoidance abilities in several different simulated environments. It is the first time that the reinforcement learning is used to build an exploration strategy for mobile robots through raw sensor information.

Toward controlling perturbations in robotic sensor networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Banerjee, Ashis G.; Majumder, Saikat R.

2014-06-01

Robotic sensor networks (RSNs), which consist of networks of sensors placed on mobile robots, are being increasingly used for environment monitoring applications. In particular, a lot of work has been done on simultaneous localization and mapping of the robots, and optimal sensor placement for environment state estimation1. The deployment of RSNs, however, remains challenging in harsh environments where the RSNs have to deal with significant perturbations in the forms of wind gusts, turbulent water flows, sand storms, or blizzards that disrupt inter-robot communication and individual robot stability. Hence, there is a need to be able to control such perturbations and bring the networks to desirable states with stable nodes (robots) and minimal operational performance (environment sensing). Recent work has demonstrated the feasibility of controlling the non-linear dynamics in other communication networks like emergency management systems and power grids by introducing compensatory perturbations to restore network stability and operation2. In this paper, we develop a computational framework to investigate the usefulness of this approach for RSNs in marine environments. Preliminary analysis shows promising performance and identifies bounds on the original perturbations within which it is possible to control the networks.

Coordinated Control of Slip Ratio for Wheeled Mobile Robots Climbing Loose Sloped Terrain

PubMed Central

Li, Zhengcai; Wang, Yang

2014-01-01

A challenging problem faced by wheeled mobile robots (WMRs) such as planetary rovers traversing loose sloped terrain is the inevitable longitudinal slip suffered by the wheels, which often leads to their deviation from the predetermined trajectory, reduced drive efficiency, and possible failures. This study investigates this problem using terramechanics analysis of the wheel-soil interaction. First, a slope-based wheel-soil interaction terramechanics model is built, and an online slip coordinated algorithm is designed based on the goal of optimal drive efficiency. An equation of state is established using the coordinated slip as the desired input and the actual slip as a state variable. To improve the robustness and adaptability of the control system, an adaptive neural network is designed. Analytical results and those of a simulation using Vortex demonstrate the significantly improved mobile performance of the WMR using the proposed control system. PMID:25276849

Coordinated control of slip ratio for wheeled mobile robots climbing loose sloped terrain.

PubMed

Li, Zhengcai; Wang, Yang

2014-01-01

A challenging problem faced by wheeled mobile robots (WMRs) such as planetary rovers traversing loose sloped terrain is the inevitable longitudinal slip suffered by the wheels, which often leads to their deviation from the predetermined trajectory, reduced drive efficiency, and possible failures. This study investigates this problem using terramechanics analysis of the wheel-soil interaction. First, a slope-based wheel-soil interaction terramechanics model is built, and an online slip coordinated algorithm is designed based on the goal of optimal drive efficiency. An equation of state is established using the coordinated slip as the desired input and the actual slip as a state variable. To improve the robustness and adaptability of the control system, an adaptive neural network is designed. Analytical results and those of a simulation using Vortex demonstrate the significantly improved mobile performance of the WMR using the proposed control system.

ARK: Autonomous mobile robot in an industrial environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nickerson, S. B.; Jasiobedzki, P.; Jenkin, M.; Jepson, A.; Milios, E.; Down, B.; Service, J. R. R.; Terzopoulos, D.; Tsotsos, J.; Wilkes, D.

1994-01-01

This paper describes research on the ARK (Autonomous Mobile Robot in a Known Environment) project. The technical objective of the project is to build a robot that can navigate in a complex industrial environment using maps with permanent structures. The environment is not altered in any way by adding easily identifiable beacons and the robot relies on naturally occurring objects to use as visual landmarks for navigation. The robot is equipped with various sensors that can detect unmapped obstacles, landmarks and objects. In this paper we describe the robot's industrial environment, it's architecture, a novel combined range and vision sensor and our recent results in controlling the robot in the real-time detection of objects using their color and in the processing of the robot's range and vision sensor data for navigation.

Intelligent mobility research for robotic locomotion in complex terrain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trentini, Michael; Beckman, Blake; Digney, Bruce; Vincent, Isabelle; Ricard, Benoit

2006-05-01

The objective of the Autonomous Intelligent Systems Section of Defence R&D Canada - Suffield is best described by its mission statement, which is "to augment soldiers and combat systems by developing and demonstrating practical, cost effective, autonomous intelligent systems capable of completing military missions in complex operating environments." The mobility requirement for ground-based mobile systems operating in urban settings must increase significantly if robotic technology is to augment human efforts in these roles and environments. The intelligence required for autonomous systems to operate in complex environments demands advances in many fields of robotics. This has resulted in large bodies of research in areas of perception, world representation, and navigation, but the problem of locomotion in complex terrain has largely been ignored. In order to achieve its objective, the Autonomous Intelligent Systems Section is pursuing research that explores the use of intelligent mobility algorithms designed to improve robot mobility. Intelligent mobility uses sensing, control, and learning algorithms to extract measured variables from the world, control vehicle dynamics, and learn by experience. These algorithms seek to exploit available world representations of the environment and the inherent dexterity of the robot to allow the vehicle to interact with its surroundings and produce locomotion in complex terrain. The primary focus of the paper is to present the intelligent mobility research within the framework of the research methodology, plan and direction defined at Defence R&D Canada - Suffield. It discusses the progress and future direction of intelligent mobility research and presents the research tools, topics, and plans to address this critical research gap. This research will create effective intelligence to improve the mobility of ground-based mobile systems operating in urban settings to assist the Canadian Forces in their future urban operations.

Laboratory systems integration: robotics and automation.

PubMed

Felder, R A

1991-01-01

Robotic technology is going to have a profound impact on the clinical laboratory of the future. Faced with increased pressure to reduce health care spending yet increase services to patients, many laboratories are looking for alternatives to the inflexible or "fixed" automation found in many clinical analyzers. Robots are being examined by many clinical pathologists as an attractive technology which can adapt to the constant changes in laboratory testing. Already, laboratory designs are being altered to accommodate robotics and automated specimen processors. However, the use of robotics and computer intelligence in the clinical laboratory is still in its infancy. Successful examples of robotic automation exist in several laboratories. Investigators have used robots to automate endocrine testing, high performance liquid chromatography, and specimen transportation. Large commercial laboratories are investigating the use of specimen processors which combine the use of fixed automation and robotics. Robotics have also reduced the exposure of medical technologists to specimens infected with viral pathogens. The successful examples of clinical robotics applications were a result of the cooperation of clinical chemists, engineers, and medical technologists. At the University of Virginia we have designed and implemented a robotic critical care laboratory. Initial clinical experience suggests that robotic performance is reliable, however, staff acceptance and utilization requires continuing education. We are also developing a robotic cyclosporine which promises to greatly reduce the labor costs of this analysis. The future will bring lab wide automation that will fully integrate computer artificial intelligence and robotics. Specimens will be transported by mobile robots. Specimen processing, aliquotting, and scheduling will be automated.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Speed control for a mobile robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolli, Kaylan C.; Mallikarjun, Sreeram; Kola, Krishnamohan; Hall, Ernest L.

1997-09-01

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) have many potential applications in manufacturing, medicine, space and defense. The purpose of this paper is to describe exploratory research on the design of a speed control for a modular autonomous mobile robot controller. The speed control of the traction motor is essential for safe operation of a mobile robot. The challenges of autonomous operation of a vehicle require safe, runaway and collision free operation. A mobile robot test-bed has been constructed using a golf cart base. The computer controlled speed control has been implemented and works with guidance provided by vision system and obstacle avoidance using ultrasonic sensors systems. A 486 computer through a 3- axis motion controller supervises the speed control. The traction motor is controlled via the computer by an EV-1 speed control. Testing of the system was done both in the lab and on an outside course with positive results. This design is a prototype and suggestions for improvements are also given. The autonomous speed controller is applicable for any computer controlled electric drive mobile vehicle.

A development of intelligent entertainment robot for home life

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Cheoltaek; Lee, Ju-Jang

2005-12-01

The purpose of this paper was to present the study and design idea for entertainment robot with educational purpose (IRFEE). The robot has been designed for home life considering dependability and interaction. The developed robot has three objectives - 1. Develop autonomous robot, 2. Design robot considering mobility and robustness, 3. Develop robot interface and software considering entertainment and education functionalities. The autonomous navigation was implemented by active vision based SLAM and modified EPF algorithm. The two differential wheels, the pan-tilt were designed mobility and robustness and the exterior was designed considering esthetic element and minimizing interference. The speech and tracking algorithm provided the good interface with human. The image transfer and Internet site connection is needed for service of remote connection and educational purpose.

Video Guidance Sensor for Surface Mobility Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fernandez, Kenneth R.; Fischer, Richard; Bryan, Thomas; Howell, Joe; Howard, Ricky; Peters, Bruce

2008-01-01

Robotic systems and surface mobility will play an increased role in future exploration missions. Unlike the LRV during Apollo era which was an astronaut piloted vehicle future systems will include teleoperated and semi-autonomous operations. The tasks given to these vehicles will run the range from infrastructure maintenance, ISRU, and construction to name a few. A common task that may be performed would be the retrieval and deployment of trailer mounted equipment. Operational scenarios may require these operations to be performed remotely via a teleoperated mode,or semi-autonomously. This presentation describes the on-going project to adapt the Automated Rendezvous and Capture (AR&C) sensor developed at the Marshall Space Flight Center for use in an automated trailer pick-up and deployment operation. The sensor which has been successfully demonstrated on-orbit has been mounted on an iRobot/John Deere RGATOR autonomous vehicle for this demonstration which will be completed in the March 2008 time-frame.

Tele-assistance for semi-autonomous robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rogers, Erika; Murphy, Robin R.

1994-01-01

This paper describes a new approach in semi-autonomous mobile robots. In this approach the robot has sufficient computerized intelligence to function autonomously under a certain set of conditions, while the local system is a cooperative decision making unit that combines human and machine intelligence. Communication is then allowed to take place in a common mode and in a common language. A number of exception-handling scenarios that were constructed as a result of experiments with actual sensor data collected from two mobile robots were presented.

Development of a Mobile Robot with Wavy Movement by Rotating Bars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kitagawa, Ato; Zhang, Liang; Eguchi, Takashi; Tsukagoshi, Hideyuki

A mobile robot with a new type of movement called wavy movement is proposed in this paper. Wavy movement can be readily realized by many bars or crosses which are rotating at equivalent speeds, and the robot with simple structure and easy control method is able to ascend and descend stairs by covering the corners of stairs within separate wave shapes between touching points. The principle of wavy movement, the mechanism, and the experimental result of the proposed robot are discussed.

Symbolic dynamic filtering and language measure for behavior identification of mobile robots.

PubMed

Mallapragada, Goutham; Ray, Asok; Jin, Xin

2012-06-01

This paper presents a procedure for behavior identification of mobile robots, which requires limited or no domain knowledge of the underlying process. While the features of robot behavior are extracted by symbolic dynamic filtering of the observed time series, the behavior patterns are classified based on language measure theory. The behavior identification procedure has been experimentally validated on a networked robotic test bed by comparison with commonly used tools, namely, principal component analysis for feature extraction and Bayesian risk analysis for pattern classification.

Multicriteria adaptation principle on example of groups of mobile robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nelyubin, A. P.; Misyurin, S. Yu

2017-12-01

The article presents a multicriteria approach to the adaptation of groups of search, explore or research robots to unknown and volatile environment conditions. The basis of this approach is the application of multicriteria analysis both at the design stage of a group of mobile robots and at the stage of its adaptation in real-time conditions. It is proposed to maintain a variety of robots by properties and by optimality criteria in order to take into account the preferred mode of operation.

Study of the Navigation Method for a Snake Robot Based on the Kinematics Model with MEMS IMU

PubMed Central

Dou, Lihua; Su, Zhong; Liu, Ning

2018-01-01

A snake robot is a type of highly redundant mobile robot that significantly differs from a tracked robot, wheeled robot and legged robot. To address the issue of a snake robot performing self-localization in the application environment without assistant orientation, an autonomous navigation method is proposed based on the snake robot’s motion characteristic constraints. The method realized the autonomous navigation of the snake robot with non-nodes and an external assistant using its own Micro-Electromechanical-Systems (MEMS) Inertial-Measurement-Unit (IMU). First, it studies the snake robot’s motion characteristics, builds the kinematics model, and then analyses the motion constraint characteristics and motion error propagation properties. Second, it explores the snake robot’s navigation layout, proposes a constraint criterion and the fixed relationship, and makes zero-state constraints based on the motion features and control modes of a snake robot. Finally, it realizes autonomous navigation positioning based on the Extended-Kalman-Filter (EKF) position estimation method under the constraints of its motion characteristics. With the self-developed snake robot, the test verifies the proposed method, and the position error is less than 5% of Total-Traveled-Distance (TDD). In a short-distance environment, this method is able to meet the requirements of a snake robot in order to perform autonomous navigation and positioning in traditional applications and can be extended to other familiar multi-link robots. PMID:29547515

Distributed Finite-Time Cooperative Control of Multiple High-Order Nonholonomic Mobile Robots.

PubMed

Du, Haibo; Wen, Guanghui; Cheng, Yingying; He, Yigang; Jia, Ruting

2017-12-01

The consensus problem of multiple nonholonomic mobile robots in the form of high-order chained structure is considered in this paper. Based on the model features and the finite-time control technique, a finite-time cooperative controller is explicitly constructed which guarantees that the states consensus is achieved in a finite time. As an application of the proposed results, finite-time formation control of multiple wheeled mobile robots is studied and a finite-time formation control algorithm is proposed. To show effectiveness of the proposed approach, a simulation example is given.

Large-scale deep learning for robotically gathered imagery for science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Skinner, K.; Johnson-Roberson, M.; Li, J.; Iscar, E.

2016-12-01

With the explosion of computing power, the intelligence and capability of mobile robotics has dramatically increased over the last two decades. Today, we can deploy autonomous robots to achieve observations in a variety of environments ripe for scientific exploration. These platforms are capable of gathering a volume of data previously unimaginable. Additionally, optical cameras, driven by mobile phones and consumer photography, have rapidly improved in size, power consumption, and quality making their deployment cheaper and easier. Finally, in parallel we have seen the rise of large-scale machine learning approaches, particularly deep neural networks (DNNs), increasing the quality of the semantic understanding that can be automatically extracted from optical imagery. In concert this enables new science using a combination of machine learning and robotics. This work will discuss the application of new low-cost high-performance computing approaches and the associated software frameworks to enable scientists to rapidly extract useful science data from millions of robotically gathered images. The automated analysis of imagery on this scale opens up new avenues of inquiry unavailable using more traditional manual or semi-automated approaches. We will use a large archive of millions of benthic images gathered with an autonomous underwater vehicle to demonstrate how these tools enable new scientific questions to be posed.

Mobile autonomous robotic apparatus for radiologic characterization

DOEpatents

Dudar, Aed M.; Ward, Clyde R.; Jones, Joel D.; Mallet, William R.; Harpring, Larry J.; Collins, Montenius X.; Anderson, Erin K.

1999-01-01

A mobile robotic system that conducts radiological surveys to map alpha, beta, and gamma radiation on surfaces in relatively level open areas or areas containing obstacles such as stored containers or hallways, equipment, walls and support columns. The invention incorporates improved radiation monitoring methods using multiple scintillation detectors, the use of laser scanners for maneuvering in open areas, ultrasound pulse generators and receptors for collision avoidance in limited space areas or hallways, methods to trigger visible alarms when radiation is detected, and methods to transmit location data for real-time reporting and mapping of radiation locations on computer monitors at a host station. A multitude of high performance scintillation detectors detect radiation while the on-board system controls the direction and speed of the robot due to pre-programmed paths. The operators may revise the preselected movements of the robotic system by ethernet communications to remonitor areas of radiation or to avoid walls, columns, equipment, or containers. The robotic system is capable of floor survey speeds of from 1/2-inch per second up to about 30 inches per second, while the on-board processor collects, stores, and transmits information for real-time mapping of radiation intensity and the locations of the radiation for real-time display on computer monitors at a central command console.

Mobile autonomous robotic apparatus for radiologic characterization

DOEpatents

Dudar, A.M.; Ward, C.R.; Jones, J.D.; Mallet, W.R.; Harpring, L.J.; Collins, M.X.; Anderson, E.K.

1999-08-10

A mobile robotic system is described that conducts radiological surveys to map alpha, beta, and gamma radiation on surfaces in relatively level open areas or areas containing obstacles such as stored containers or hallways, equipment, walls and support columns. The invention incorporates improved radiation monitoring methods using multiple scintillation detectors, the use of laser scanners for maneuvering in open areas, ultrasound pulse generators and receptors for collision avoidance in limited space areas or hallways, methods to trigger visible alarms when radiation is detected, and methods to transmit location data for real-time reporting and mapping of radiation locations on computer monitors at a host station. A multitude of high performance scintillation detectors detect radiation while the on-board system controls the direction and speed of the robot due to pre-programmed paths. The operators may revise the preselected movements of the robotic system by ethernet communications to remonitor areas of radiation or to avoid walls, columns, equipment, or containers. The robotic system is capable of floor survey speeds of from 1/2-inch per second up to about 30 inches per second, while the on-board processor collects, stores, and transmits information for real-time mapping of radiation intensity and the locations of the radiation for real-time display on computer monitors at a central command console. 4 figs.

Collective Behaviors of Mobile Robots Beyond the Nearest Neighbor Rules With Switching Topology.

PubMed

Ning, Boda; Han, Qing-Long; Zuo, Zongyu; Jin, Jiong; Zheng, Jinchuan

2018-05-01

This paper is concerned with the collective behaviors of robots beyond the nearest neighbor rules, i.e., dispersion and flocking, when robots interact with others by applying an acute angle test (AAT)-based interaction rule. Different from a conventional nearest neighbor rule or its variations, the AAT-based interaction rule allows interactions with some far-neighbors and excludes unnecessary nearest neighbors. The resulting dispersion and flocking hold the advantages of scalability, connectivity, robustness, and effective area coverage. For the dispersion, a spring-like controller is proposed to achieve collision-free coordination. With switching topology, a new fixed-time consensus-based energy function is developed to guarantee the system stability. An upper bound of settling time for energy consensus is obtained, and a uniform time interval is accordingly set so that energy distribution is conducted in a fair manner. For the flocking, based on a class of generalized potential functions taking nonsmooth switching into account, a new controller is proposed to ensure that the same velocity for all robots is eventually reached. A co-optimizing problem is further investigated to accomplish additional tasks, such as enhancing communication performance, while maintaining the collective behaviors of mobile robots. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the theoretical results.

Hazardous-Materials Robot

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stone, Henry W.; Edmonds, Gary O.

1995-01-01

Remotely controlled mobile robot used to locate, characterize, identify, and eventually mitigate incidents involving hazardous-materials spills/releases. Possesses number of innovative features, allowing it to perform mission-critical functions such as opening and unlocking doors and sensing for hazardous materials. Provides safe means for locating and identifying spills and eliminates risks of injury associated with use of manned entry teams. Current version of vehicle, called HAZBOT III, also features unique mechanical and electrical design enabling vehicle to operate safely within combustible atmosphere.

Enhanced control & sensing for the REMOTEC ANDROS Mk VI robot. Final report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Spelt, P.F.; Harvey, H.W.

1997-08-01

This Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between Lockheed Marietta Energy Systems, Inc., and REMOTEC, Inc., explored methods of providing operator feedback for various work actions of the ANDROS Mk VI teleoperated robot. In a hazardous environment, an extremely heavy workload seriously degrades the productivity of teleoperated robot operators. This CRADA involved the addition of computer power to the robot along with a variety of sensors and encoders to provide information about the robot`s performance in and relationship to its environment. Software was developed to integrate the sensor and encoder information and provide control input to the robot. ANDROS Mkmore » VI robots are presently used by numerous electric utilities to perform tasks in reactors where substantial exposure to radiation exists, as well as in a variety of other hazardous environments. Further, this platform has potential for use in a number of environmental restoration tasks, such as site survey and detection of hazardous waste materials. The addition of sensors and encoders serves to make the robot easier to manage and permits tasks to be done more safely and inexpensively (due to time saved in the completion of complex remote tasks). Prior research on the automation of mobile platforms with manipulators at Oak Ridge National Laboratory`s Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR, B&R code KC0401030) Laboratory, a BES-supported facility, indicated that this type of enhancement is effective. This CRADA provided such enhancements to a successful working teleoperated robot for the first time. Performance of this CRADA used the CESAR laboratory facilities and expertise developed under BES funding.« less

Stairs and Doors Recognition as Natural Landmarks Based on Clouds of 3D Edge-Points from RGB-D Sensors for Mobile Robot Localization.

PubMed

Souto, Leonardo A V; Castro, André; Gonçalves, Luiz Marcos Garcia; Nascimento, Tiago P

2017-08-08

Natural landmarks are the main features in the next step of the research in localization of mobile robot platforms. The identification and recognition of these landmarks are crucial to better localize a robot. To help solving this problem, this work proposes an approach for the identification and recognition of natural marks included in the environment using images from RGB-D (Red, Green, Blue, Depth) sensors. In the identification step, a structural analysis of the natural landmarks that are present in the environment is performed. The extraction of edge points of these landmarks is done using the 3D point cloud obtained from the RGB-D sensor. These edge points are smoothed through the S l 0 algorithm, which minimizes the standard deviation of the normals at each point. Then, the second step of the proposed algorithm begins, which is the proper recognition of the natural landmarks. This recognition step is done as a real-time algorithm that extracts the points referring to the filtered edges and determines to which structure they belong to in the current scenario: stairs or doors. Finally, the geometrical characteristics that are intrinsic to the doors and stairs are identified. The approach proposed here has been validated with real robot experiments. The performed tests verify the efficacy of our proposed approach.

Stairs and Doors Recognition as Natural Landmarks Based on Clouds of 3D Edge-Points from RGB-D Sensors for Mobile Robot Localization†

PubMed Central

Castro, André; Nascimento, Tiago P.

2017-01-01

Natural landmarks are the main features in the next step of the research in localization of mobile robot platforms. The identification and recognition of these landmarks are crucial to better localize a robot. To help solving this problem, this work proposes an approach for the identification and recognition of natural marks included in the environment using images from RGB-D (Red, Green, Blue, Depth) sensors. In the identification step, a structural analysis of the natural landmarks that are present in the environment is performed. The extraction of edge points of these landmarks is done using the 3D point cloud obtained from the RGB-D sensor. These edge points are smoothed through the Sl0 algorithm, which minimizes the standard deviation of the normals at each point. Then, the second step of the proposed algorithm begins, which is the proper recognition of the natural landmarks. This recognition step is done as a real-time algorithm that extracts the points referring to the filtered edges and determines to which structure they belong to in the current scenario: stairs or doors. Finally, the geometrical characteristics that are intrinsic to the doors and stairs are identified. The approach proposed here has been validated with real robot experiments. The performed tests verify the efficacy of our proposed approach. PMID:28786925

TRC research products: Components for service robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lob, W. Stuart

1994-01-01

Transitions Research Corporation has developed a variety of technologies to accomplish its central mission: the creation of commercially viable robots for the service industry. Collectively, these technologies comprise the TRC 'robot tool kit.' The company started by developing a robot base that serves as a foundation for mobile robot research and development, both within TRC and at customer sites around the world. A diverse collection of sensing techniques evolved more recently, many of which have been made available to the international mobile robot research community as commercial products. These 'tool-kit' research products are described in this paper. The largest component of TRC's commercial operation is a product called HelpMate for material transport and delivery in health care institutions.

Object Transportation by Two Mobile Robots with Hand Carts

PubMed Central

Hara, Tatsunori

2014-01-01

This paper proposes a methodology by which two small mobile robots can grasp, lift, and transport large objects using hand carts. The specific problems involve generating robot actions and determining the hand cart positions to achieve the stable loading of objects onto the carts. These problems are solved using nonlinear optimization, and we propose an algorithm for generating robot actions. The proposed method was verified through simulations and experiments using actual devices in a real environment. The proposed method could reduce the number of robots required to transport large objects with 50–60%. In addition, we demonstrated the efficacy of this task in real environments where errors occur in robot sensing and movement. PMID:27433499

Object Transportation by Two Mobile Robots with Hand Carts.

PubMed

Sakuyama, Takuya; Figueroa Heredia, Jorge David; Ogata, Taiki; Hara, Tatsunori; Ota, Jun

2014-01-01

This paper proposes a methodology by which two small mobile robots can grasp, lift, and transport large objects using hand carts. The specific problems involve generating robot actions and determining the hand cart positions to achieve the stable loading of objects onto the carts. These problems are solved using nonlinear optimization, and we propose an algorithm for generating robot actions. The proposed method was verified through simulations and experiments using actual devices in a real environment. The proposed method could reduce the number of robots required to transport large objects with 50-60%. In addition, we demonstrated the efficacy of this task in real environments where errors occur in robot sensing and movement.

Optimization design of wireless charging system for autonomous robots based on magnetic resonance coupling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Junhua; Hu, Meilin; Cai, Changsong; Lin, Zhongzheng; Li, Liang; Fang, Zhijian

2018-05-01

Wireless charging is the key technology to realize real autonomy of mobile robots. As the core part of wireless power transfer system, coupling mechanism including coupling coils and compensation topology is analyzed and optimized through simulations, to achieve stable and practical wireless charging suitable for ordinary robots. Multi-layer coil structure, especially double-layer coil is explored and selected to greatly enhance coupling performance, while shape of ferrite shielding goes through distributed optimization to guarantee coil fault tolerance and cost effectiveness. On the basis of optimized coils, primary compensation topology is analyzed to adopt composite LCL compensation, to stabilize operations of the primary side under variations of mutual inductance. Experimental results show the optimized system does make sense for wireless charging application for robots based on magnetic resonance coupling, to realize long-term autonomy of robots.

Location-Driven Image Retrieval for Images Collected by a Mobile Robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tanaka, Kanji; Hirayama, Mitsuru; Okada, Nobuhiro; Kondo, Eiji

Mobile robot teleoperation is a method for a human user to interact with a mobile robot over time and distance. Successful teleoperation depends on how well images taken by the mobile robot are visualized to the user. To enhance the efficiency and flexibility of the visualization, an image retrieval system on such a robot’s image database would be very useful. The main difference of the robot’s image database from standard image databases is that various relevant images exist due to variety of viewing conditions. The main contribution of this paper is to propose an efficient retrieval approach, named location-driven approach, utilizing correlation between visual features and real world locations of images. Combining the location-driven approach with the conventional feature-driven approach, our goal can be viewed as finding an optimal classifier between relevant and irrelevant feature-location pairs. An active learning technique based on support vector machine is extended for this aim.

Intelligent mobility for robotic vehicles in the army after next

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gerhart, Grant R.; Goetz, Richard C.; Gorsich, David J.

1999-07-01

The TARDEC Intelligent Mobility program addresses several essential technologies necessary to support the army after next (AAN) concept. Ground forces in the AAN time frame will deploy robotic unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) in high-risk missions to avoid exposing soldiers to both friendly and unfriendly fire. Prospective robotic systems will include RSTA/scout vehicles, combat engineering/mine clearing vehicles, indirect fire artillery and missile launch platforms. The AAN concept requires high on-road and off-road mobility, survivability, transportability/deployability and low logistics burden. TARDEC is developing a robotic vehicle systems integration laboratory (SIL) to evaluate technologies and their integration into future UGV systems. Example technologies include the following: in-hub electric drive, omni-directional wheel and steering configurations, off-road tires, adaptive tire inflation, articulated vehicles, active suspension, mine blast protection, detection avoidance and evasive maneuver. This paper will describe current developments in these areas relative to the TARDEC intelligent mobility program.

Improving mobile robot localization: grid-based approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yan, Junchi

2012-02-01

Autonomous mobile robots have been widely studied not only as advanced facilities for industrial and daily life automation, but also as a testbed in robotics competitions for extending the frontier of current artificial intelligence. In many of such contests, the robot is supposed to navigate on the ground with a grid layout. Based on this observation, we present a localization error correction method by exploring the geometric feature of the tile patterns. On top of the classical inertia-based positioning, our approach employs three fiber-optic sensors that are assembled under the bottom of the robot, presenting an equilateral triangle layout. The sensor apparatus, together with the proposed supporting algorithm, are designed to detect a line's direction (vertical or horizontal) by monitoring the grid crossing events. As a result, the line coordinate information can be fused to rectify the cumulative localization deviation from inertia positioning. The proposed method is analyzed theoretically in terms of its error bound and also has been implemented and tested on a customary developed two-wheel autonomous mobile robot.

A qualitative study of in-home robotic telepresence for home care of community-living elderly subjects.

PubMed

Boissy, Patrick; Corriveau, Hélène; Michaud, François; Labonté, Daniel; Royer, Marie-Pier

2007-01-01

We examined the requirements for robots in home telecare using two focus groups. The first comprised six healthcare professionals involved in geriatric care and the second comprised six elderly people with disabilities living in the community. The concept of an in-home telepresence robot was illustrated using a photograph of a mobile robot, and participants were then asked to suggest potential health care applications. Interview data derived from the transcript of each group discussion were analyzed using qualitative induction based on content analysis. The analyses yielded statements that were categorized under three themes: potential applications, usability issues and user requirements. Teleoperated mobile robotic systems in the home were thought to be useful in assisting multidisciplinary patient care through improved communication between patients and healthcare professionals, and offering respite and support to caregivers under certain conditions. The shift from a traditional hospital-centred model of care in geriatrics to a home-based model creates opportunities for using telepresence with mobile robotic systems in home telecare.

Robot Tracking of Human Subjects in Field Environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Graham, Jeffrey; Shillcutt, Kimberly

2003-01-01

Future planetary exploration will involve both humans and robots. Understanding and improving their interaction is a main focus of research in the Intelligent Systems Branch at NASA's Johnson Space Center. By teaming intelligent robots with astronauts on surface extra-vehicular activities (EVAs), safety and productivity can be improved. The EVA Robotic Assistant (ERA) project was established to study the issues of human-robot teams, to develop a testbed robot to assist space-suited humans in exploration tasks, and to experimentally determine the effectiveness of an EVA assistant robot. A companion paper discusses the ERA project in general, its history starting with ASRO (Astronaut-Rover project), and the results of recent field tests in Arizona. This paper focuses on one aspect of the research, robot tracking, in greater detail: the software architecture and algorithms. The ERA robot is capable of moving towards and/or continuously following mobile or stationary targets or sequences of targets. The contributions made by this research include how the low-level pose data is assembled, normalized and communicated, how the tracking algorithm was generalized and implemented, and qualitative performance reports from recent field tests.

Live video monitoring robot controlled by web over internet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lokanath, M.; Akhil Sai, Guruju

2017-11-01

Future is all about robots, robot can perform tasks where humans cannot, Robots have huge applications in military and industrial area for lifting heavy weights, for accurate placements, for repeating the same task number of times, where human are not efficient. Generally robot is a mix of electronic, electrical and mechanical engineering and can do the tasks automatically on its own or under the supervision of humans. The camera is the eye for robot, call as robovision helps in monitoring security system and also can reach into the places where the human eye cannot reach. This paper presents about developing a live video streaming robot controlled from the website. We designed the web, controlling for the robot to move left, right, front and back while streaming video. As we move to the smart environment or IoT (Internet of Things) by smart devices the system we developed here connects over the internet and can be operated with smart mobile phone using a web browser. The Raspberry Pi model B chip acts as heart for this system robot, the sufficient motors, surveillance camera R pi 2 are connected to Raspberry pi.

Localization of Mobile Robots Using an Extended Kalman Filter in a LEGO NXT

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pinto, M.; Moreira, A. P.; Matos, A.

2012-01-01

The inspiration for this paper comes from a successful experiment conducted with students in the "Mobile Robots" course in the fifth year of the integrated Master's program in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (FEUP), Porto, Portugal. One of the topics in this Mobile Robots…

An Analysis of Navigation Algorithms for Smartphones Using J2ME

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santos, André C.; Tarrataca, Luís; Cardoso, João M. P.

Embedded systems are considered one of the most potential areas for future innovations. Two embedded fields that will most certainly take a primary role in future innovations are mobile robotics and mobile computing. Mobile robots and smartphones are growing in number and functionalities, becoming a presence in our daily life. In this paper, we study the current feasibility of a smartphone to execute navigation algorithms. As a test case, we use a smartphone to control an autonomous mobile robot. We tested three navigation problems: Mapping, Localization and Path Planning. For each of these problems, an algorithm has been chosen, developed in J2ME, and tested on the field. Results show the current mobile Java capacity for executing computationally demanding algorithms and reveal the real possibility of using smartphones for autonomous navigation.

Robotics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waddell, Steve; Doty, Keith L.

1999-01-01

"Why Teach Robotics?" (Waddell) suggests that the United States lags behind Europe and Japan in use of robotics in industry and teaching. "Creating a Course in Mobile Robotics" (Doty) outlines course elements of the Intelligent Machines Design Lab. (SK)

Robotic Telesurgery Research

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-03-01

piece of tissue. Full Mobility Manipulator Robot The primary challenge with the design of a full mobility robot is meeting the competing design...streamed through an embedded plug-in for VLC player using asf/wmv encoding with 200ms buffering. A benchtop test of the remote user interface was...encountered in ensuring quality video is being made available to the surgeon. A significant challenge has been to consistently provide high quality video

Maintaining Limited-Range Connectivity Among Second-Order Agents

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-07-07

we consider ad-hoc networks of robotic agents with double integrator dynamics. For such networks, the connectivity maintenance problems are: (i) do...hoc networks of mobile autonomous agents. This loose ter- minology refers to groups of robotic agents with limited mobility and communica- tion...connectivity can be preserved. 3.1. Networks of robotic agents with second-order dynamics and the connectivity maintenance problem. We begin by

Multi-Sensor Person Following in Low-Visibility Scenarios

PubMed Central

Sales, Jorge; Marín, Raúl; Cervera, Enric; Rodríguez, Sergio; Pérez, Javier

2010-01-01

Person following with mobile robots has traditionally been an important research topic. It has been solved, in most cases, by the use of machine vision or laser rangefinders. In some special circumstances, such as a smoky environment, the use of optical sensors is not a good solution. This paper proposes and compares alternative sensors and methods to perform a person following in low visibility conditions, such as smoky environments in firefighting scenarios. The use of laser rangefinder and sonar sensors is proposed in combination with a vision system that can determine the amount of smoke in the environment. The smoke detection algorithm provides the robot with the ability to use a different combination of sensors to perform robot navigation and person following depending on the visibility in the environment. PMID:22163506

Multi-sensor person following in low-visibility scenarios.

PubMed

Sales, Jorge; Marín, Raúl; Cervera, Enric; Rodríguez, Sergio; Pérez, Javier

2010-01-01

Person following with mobile robots has traditionally been an important research topic. It has been solved, in most cases, by the use of machine vision or laser rangefinders. In some special circumstances, such as a smoky environment, the use of optical sensors is not a good solution. This paper proposes and compares alternative sensors and methods to perform a person following in low visibility conditions, such as smoky environments in firefighting scenarios. The use of laser rangefinder and sonar sensors is proposed in combination with a vision system that can determine the amount of smoke in the environment. The smoke detection algorithm provides the robot with the ability to use a different combination of sensors to perform robot navigation and person following depending on the visibility in the environment.

Automated site characterization for robotic sample acquisition systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scholl, Marija S.; Eberlein, Susan J.

1993-04-01

A mobile, semiautonomous vehicle with multiple sensors and on-board intelligence is proposed for performing preliminary scientific investigations on extraterrestrial bodies prior to human exploration. Two technologies, a hybrid optical-digital computer system based on optical correlator technology and an image and instrument data analysis system, provide complementary capabilities that might be part of an instrument package for an intelligent robotic vehicle. The hybrid digital-optical vision system could perform real-time image classification tasks using an optical correlator with programmable matched filters under control of a digital microcomputer. The data analysis system would analyze visible and multiband imagery to extract mineral composition and textural information for geologic characterization. Together these technologies would support the site characterization needs of a robotic vehicle for both navigational and scientific purposes.

Optimal motion planning for collision avoidance of mobile robots in non-stationary environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kyriakopoulos, K. J.; Saridis, G. N.

1992-01-01

An optimal control formulation of the problem of collision avoidance of mobile robots moving in general terrains containing moving obstacles is presented. A dynamic model of the mobile robot and the dynamic constraints are derived. Collision avoidance is guaranteed if the minimum distance between the robot and the object is nonzero. A nominal trajectory is assumed to be known from off-line planning. The main idea is to change the velocity along the nominal trajectory so that collisions are avoided. Time consistency with the nominal plan is desirable. A numerical solution of the optimization problem is obtained. A perturbation control type of approach is used to update the optimal plan. Simulation results verify the value of the proposed strategy.

Behavior generation strategy of artificial behavioral system by self-learning paradigm for autonomous robot tasks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dağlarli, Evren; Temeltaş, Hakan

2008-04-01

In this study, behavior generation and self-learning paradigms are investigated for the real-time applications of multi-goal mobile robot tasks. The method is capable to generate new behaviors and it combines them in order to achieve multi goal tasks. The proposed method is composed from three layers: Behavior Generating Module, Coordination Level and Emotion -Motivation Level. Last two levels use Hidden Markov models to manage dynamical structure of behaviors. The kinematics and dynamic model of the mobile robot with non-holonomic constraints are considered in the behavior based control architecture. The proposed method is tested on a four-wheel driven and four-wheel steered mobile robot with constraints in simulation environment and results are obtained successfully.

Distributed cooperating processes in a mobile robot control system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Skillman, Thomas L., Jr.

1988-01-01

A mobile inspection robot has been proposed for the NASA Space Station. It will be a free flying autonomous vehicle that will leave a berthing unit to accomplish a variety of inspection tasks around the Space Station, and then return to its berth to recharge, refuel, and transfer information. The Flying Eye robot will receive voice communication to change its attitude, move at a constant velocity, and move to a predefined location along a self generated path. This mobile robot control system requires integration of traditional command and control techniques with a number of AI technologies. Speech recognition, natural language understanding, task and path planning, sensory abstraction and pattern recognition are all required for successful implementation. The interface between the traditional numeric control techniques and the symbolic processing to the AI technologies must be developed, and a distributed computing approach will be needed to meet the real time computing requirements. To study the integration of the elements of this project, a novel mobile robot control architecture and simulation based on the blackboard architecture was developed. The control system operation and structure is discussed.

Soft computing-based terrain visual sensing and data fusion for unmanned ground robotic systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shirkhodaie, Amir

2006-05-01

In this paper, we have primarily discussed technical challenges and navigational skill requirements of mobile robots for traversability path planning in natural terrain environments similar to Mars surface terrains. We have described different methods for detection of salient terrain features based on imaging texture analysis techniques. We have also presented three competing techniques for terrain traversability assessment of mobile robots navigating in unstructured natural terrain environments. These three techniques include: a rule-based terrain classifier, a neural network-based terrain classifier, and a fuzzy-logic terrain classifier. Each proposed terrain classifier divides a region of natural terrain into finite sub-terrain regions and classifies terrain condition exclusively within each sub-terrain region based on terrain visual clues. The Kalman Filtering technique is applied for aggregative fusion of sub-terrain assessment results. The last two terrain classifiers are shown to have remarkable capability for terrain traversability assessment of natural terrains. We have conducted a comparative performance evaluation of all three terrain classifiers and presented the results in this paper.

A wearable robotic orthosis with a spring-assist actuator.

PubMed

Seungmin Jung; Chankyu Kim; Jisu Park; Dongyoub Yu; Jaehwan Park; Junho Choi

2016-08-01

This paper introduces a wearable robotic orthosis with spring-assist actuators, which is designed to assist people who have difficulty in walking. The spring-assist actuator consists of an electrical motor and a spring, which are attached to a rotational axis in parallel to each other. The spring-assist actuator is developed based on the analysis on the stiffness of the knee and hip joints during walking. "COWALK-Mobile," which is a wearable robotic orthosis, is developed using the spring-assist actuators to reduce the required motor torque during walking. The COWALK-Mobile has active hip and knee joints and passive ankle joints to provide assistive torque to the wearer. The required joint torque is generated by the spring as well as the electrical motor, which results in a decrease of maximum required torque for the motor. In order to evaluate the performance of the spring-assist actuator, experiments are carried out. The experiments show that the spring-assist actuators reduced the required motor torque during walking.

A novel robotic right colectomy for colon cancer via the suprapubic approach using the da Vinci Xi system: initial clinical experience

PubMed Central

Lee, Hee Jae; Park, Jun Seok; Park, Soo Yeun; Kim, Hye Jin; Woo, In Teak; Park, In Kyu

2018-01-01

Purpose We developed a technique of totally-robotic right colectomy with D3 lymphadenectomy and intracorporeal anastomosis via a suprapubic transverse linear port. This article aimed to introduce our novel robotic surgical technique and assess the short-term outcomes in a series of five patients. Methods All colectomies were performed using the da Vinci Xi system. Four robot trocars were placed transversely in the supra pubic area. Totally-robotic right colectomy was performed, including colonic mobilization, D3 lymphadenectomy, and intra corporeal stapled functional anastomosis. The 2 middle suprapubic trocar incisions were then extended to retrieve the specimen. Results Five robotic right colectomies via the suprapubic approach were performed between August 2015 and February 2016. The mean operation time was 183 ± 29.37 minutes, and the mean estimated blood loss was 27 ± 9.75 mL. The time to clear liquid intake was 3 days in all patients, and the mean length of stay after surgery was 6.2 ± 0.55 days. No patient required conversion to conventional laparoscopic surgery. There were no perioperative complications. According to the pathology report, the mean number of harvested lymph nodes was 36.6 ± 4.45. Four patients were stage III, and 1 patient was stage II according to the 7th edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer system. Conclusion Totally-robotic right colectomy via the suprapubic approach can be performed successfully in selected patients. Further comparative studies are required to verify the clinical advantages of our technique over conventional robotic surgery. PMID:29441337

Employing Omnidirectional Visual Control for Mobile Robotics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, J. R., Jr.; Jung, S.; Steplight, S.; Wright, J. R., Sr.; Das, A.

2000-01-01

Describes projects using conventional technologies--incorporation of relatively inexpensive visual control with mobile robots using a simple remote control vehicle platform, a camera, a mirror, and a computer. Explains how technology teachers can apply them in the classroom. (JOW)

[Informatics, robotics and medicine].

PubMed

Carpentier, A

1999-01-01

Information technology is becoming common use in Medicine. Among the numerous applications are data processing, image analysis, 3D reconstruction, telemedicine, to mention only few of them. The interest of computers in surgical research and development is lesser known. Two examples are given: computer aided conception and simulation of physiologic systems. Robotics has been introduced more recently. There are three types of robotics corresponding to three types of use: targetting used by neural surgeons to localize tumors or anatomical structures, visualization used by general surgeons to hold and mobilize laparoscopes, instrumentation introduced more recently by cardiac surgeons to perform totally endoscopic cardiac operations. All these techniques open new ways for tomorrow "Instrumental Medicine".

Mobile robot knowledge base

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heath Pastore, Tracy; Barnes, Mitchell; Hallman, Rory

2005-05-01

Robot technology is developing at a rapid rate for both commercial and Department of Defense (DOD) applications. As a result, the task of managing both technology and experience information is growing. In the not-to-distant past, tracking development efforts of robot platforms, subsystems and components was not too difficult, expensive, or time consuming. To do the same today is a significant undertaking. The Mobile Robot Knowledge Base (MRKB) provides the robotics community with a web-accessible, centralized resource for sharing information, experience, and technology to more efficiently and effectively meet the needs of the robot system user. The resource includes searchable information on robot components, subsystems, mission payloads, platforms, and DOD robotics programs. In addition, the MRKB website provides a forum for technology and information transfer within the DOD robotics community and an interface for the Robotic Systems Pool (RSP). The RSP manages a collection of small teleoperated and semi-autonomous robotic platforms, available for loan to DOD and other qualified entities. The objective is to put robots in the hands of users and use the test data and fielding experience to improve robot systems.

Co-op Essay - Tour 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Porter, Derrick

2014-01-01

The Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) is responsible for the training, planning and performance of all U.S. manned operations in space. Within this directorate all responsibilities are divided up into divisions. The EVA, Robotics & Crew Systems Operations Division performs ground operations and trains astronauts to carry out some of the more "high action" procedures in space. For example they orchestrate procedures like EVAs, or ExtraVehicular Activities (spacewalks), and robotics operations external to the International Space Station (ISS). The robotics branch of this division is responsible for the use of the Mobile Servicing System (MSS). This system is a combination of two robotic mechanisms and a series of equipment used to transport them on the ISS. The MSS is used to capture and position visiting vehicles, transport astronauts during EVAs, and perform external maintenance tasks on the ISS. This branch consists of two groups which are responsible for crew training and flight controlling, respectively. My first co-op tour took place Fall 2013. During this time I was given the opportunity to work in the robotics operations branch of the Mission Operations Directorate at NASA's Johnson Space Center. I was given a variety of tasks that encompassed, at a base level, all the aspects of the branch.

Neural networks for satellite remote sensing and robotic sensor interpretation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martens, Siegfried

Remote sensing of forests and robotic sensor fusion can be viewed, in part, as supervised learning problems, mapping from sensory input to perceptual output. This dissertation develops ARTMAP neural networks for real-time category learning, pattern recognition, and prediction tailored to remote sensing and robotics applications. Three studies are presented. The first two use ARTMAP to create maps from remotely sensed data, while the third uses an ARTMAP system for sensor fusion on a mobile robot. The first study uses ARTMAP to predict vegetation mixtures in the Plumas National Forest based on spectral data from the Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite. While most previous ARTMAP systems have predicted discrete output classes, this project develops new capabilities for multi-valued prediction. On the mixture prediction task, the new network is shown to perform better than maximum likelihood and linear mixture models. The second remote sensing study uses an ARTMAP classification system to evaluate the relative importance of spectral and terrain data for map-making. This project has produced a large-scale map of remotely sensed vegetation in the Sierra National Forest. Network predictions are validated with ground truth data, and maps produced using the ARTMAP system are compared to a map produced by human experts. The ARTMAP Sierra map was generated in an afternoon, while the labor intensive expert method required nearly a year to perform the same task. The robotics research uses an ARTMAP system to integrate visual information and ultrasonic sensory information on a B14 mobile robot. The goal is to produce a more accurate measure of distance than is provided by the raw sensors. ARTMAP effectively combines sensory sources both within and between modalities. The improved distance percept is used to produce occupancy grid visualizations of the robot's environment. The maps produced point to specific problems of raw sensory information processing and demonstrate the benefits of using a neural network system for sensor fusion.

Self mobile space manipulator project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, H. Ben; Friedman, Mark; Xu, Yangsheng; Kanade, Takeo

1992-01-01

A relatively simple, modular, low mass, low cost robot is being developed for space EVA that is large enough to be independently mobile on a space station or platform exterior, yet versatile enough to accomplish many vital tasks. The robot comprises two long flexible links connected by a rotary joint, with 2-DOF 'wrist' joints and grippers at each end. It walks by gripping pre-positioned attachment points, such as trusswork nodes, and alternately shifting its base of support from one foot (gripper) to the other. The robot can perform useful tasks such as visual inspection, material transport, and light assembly by manipulating objects with one gripper, while stabilizing itself with the other. At SOAR '90, we reported development of 1/3 scale robot hardware, modular trusswork to serve as a locomotion substrate, and a gravity compensation system to allow laboratory tests of locomotion strategies on the horizontal face of the trusswork. In this paper, we report on project progress including the development of: (1) adaptive control for automatic adjustment to loads; (2) enhanced manipulation capabilities; (3) machine vision, including the use of neural nets, to guide autonomous locomotion; (4) locomotion between orthogonal trusswork faces; and (5) improved facilities for gravity compensation and telerobotic control.

Evaluation of linearly solvable Markov decision process with dynamic model learning in a mobile robot navigation task.

PubMed

Kinjo, Ken; Uchibe, Eiji; Doya, Kenji

2013-01-01

Linearly solvable Markov Decision Process (LMDP) is a class of optimal control problem in which the Bellman's equation can be converted into a linear equation by an exponential transformation of the state value function (Todorov, 2009b). In an LMDP, the optimal value function and the corresponding control policy are obtained by solving an eigenvalue problem in a discrete state space or an eigenfunction problem in a continuous state using the knowledge of the system dynamics and the action, state, and terminal cost functions. In this study, we evaluate the effectiveness of the LMDP framework in real robot control, in which the dynamics of the body and the environment have to be learned from experience. We first perform a simulation study of a pole swing-up task to evaluate the effect of the accuracy of the learned dynamics model on the derived the action policy. The result shows that a crude linear approximation of the non-linear dynamics can still allow solution of the task, despite with a higher total cost. We then perform real robot experiments of a battery-catching task using our Spring Dog mobile robot platform. The state is given by the position and the size of a battery in its camera view and two neck joint angles. The action is the velocities of two wheels, while the neck joints were controlled by a visual servo controller. We test linear and bilinear dynamic models in tasks with quadratic and Guassian state cost functions. In the quadratic cost task, the LMDP controller derived from a learned linear dynamics model performed equivalently with the optimal linear quadratic regulator (LQR). In the non-quadratic task, the LMDP controller with a linear dynamics model showed the best performance. The results demonstrate the usefulness of the LMDP framework in real robot control even when simple linear models are used for dynamics learning.

Remote-controlled vision-guided mobile robot system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ande, Raymond; Samu, Tayib; Hall, Ernest L.

1997-09-01

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) have many potential applications in manufacturing, medicine, space and defense. The purpose of this paper is to describe exploratory research on the design of the remote controlled emergency stop and vision systems for an autonomous mobile robot. The remote control provides human supervision and emergency stop capabilities for the autonomous vehicle. The vision guidance provides automatic operation. A mobile robot test-bed has been constructed using a golf cart base. The mobile robot (Bearcat) was built for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems (AUVS) 1997 competition. The mobile robot has full speed control with guidance provided by a vision system and an obstacle avoidance system using ultrasonic sensors systems. Vision guidance is accomplished using two CCD cameras with zoom lenses. The vision data is processed by a high speed tracking device, communicating with the computer the X, Y coordinates of blobs along the lane markers. The system also has three emergency stop switches and a remote controlled emergency stop switch that can disable the traction motor and set the brake. Testing of these systems has been done in the lab as well as on an outside test track with positive results that show that at five mph the vehicle can follow a line and at the same time avoid obstacles.

Model Predictive Control considering Reachable Range of Wheels for Leg / Wheel Mobile Robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suzuki, Naito; Nonaka, Kenichiro; Sekiguchi, Kazuma

2016-09-01

Obstacle avoidance is one of the important tasks for mobile robots. In this paper, we study obstacle avoidance control for mobile robots equipped with four legs comprised of three DoF SCARA leg/wheel mechanism, which enables the robot to change its shape adapting to environments. Our previous method achieves obstacle avoidance by model predictive control (MPC) considering obstacle size and lateral wheel positions. However, this method does not ensure existence of joint angles which achieves reference wheel positions calculated by MPC. In this study, we propose a model predictive control considering reachable mobile ranges of wheels positions by combining multiple linear constraints, where each reachable mobile range is approximated as a convex trapezoid. Thus, we achieve to formulate a MPC as a quadratic problem with linear constraints for nonlinear problem of longitudinal and lateral wheel position control. By optimization of MPC, the reference wheel positions are calculated, while each joint angle is determined by inverse kinematics. Considering reachable mobile ranges explicitly, the optimal joint angles are calculated, which enables wheels to reach the reference wheel positions. We verify its advantages by comparing the proposed method with the previous method through numerical simulations.

Dynamics and control for Constrained Multibody Systems modeled with Maggi's equation: Application to Differential Mobile Robots Partll

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amengonu, Yawo H.; Kakad, Yogendra P.

2014-07-01

Quasivelocity techniques were applied to derive the dynamics of a Differential Wheeled Mobile Robot (DWMR) in the companion paper. The present paper formulates a control system design for trajectory tracking of this class of robots. The method develops a feedback linearization technique for the nonlinear system using dynamic extension algorithm. The effectiveness of the nonlinear controller is illustrated with simulation example.

Wheeled hopping robot

DOEpatents

Fischer, Gary J [Albuquerque, NM

2010-08-17

The present invention provides robotic vehicles having wheeled and hopping mobilities that are capable of traversing (e.g. by hopping over) obstacles that are large in size relative to the robot and, are capable of operation in unpredictable terrain over long range. The present invention further provides combustion powered linear actuators, which can include latching mechanisms to facilitate pressurized fueling of the actuators, as can be used to provide wheeled vehicles with a hopping mobility.

Object Detection Techniques Applied on Mobile Robot Semantic Navigation

PubMed Central

Astua, Carlos; Barber, Ramon; Crespo, Jonathan; Jardon, Alberto

2014-01-01

The future of robotics predicts that robots will integrate themselves more every day with human beings and their environments. To achieve this integration, robots need to acquire information about the environment and its objects. There is a big need for algorithms to provide robots with these sort of skills, from the location where objects are needed to accomplish a task up to where these objects are considered as information about the environment. This paper presents a way to provide mobile robots with the ability-skill to detect objets for semantic navigation. This paper aims to use current trends in robotics and at the same time, that can be exported to other platforms. Two methods to detect objects are proposed, contour detection and a descriptor based technique, and both of them are combined to overcome their respective limitations. Finally, the code is tested on a real robot, to prove its accuracy and efficiency. PMID:24732101

Functionalization of Tactile Sensation for Robot Based on Haptograph and Modal Decomposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yokokura, Yuki; Katsura, Seiichiro; Ohishi, Kiyoshi

In the real world, robots should be able to recognize the environment in order to be of help to humans. A video camera and a laser range finder are devices that can help robots recognize the environment. However, these devices cannot obtain tactile information from environments. Future human-assisting-robots should have the ability to recognize haptic signals, and a disturbance observer can possibly be used to provide the robot with this ability. In this study, a disturbance observer is employed in a mobile robot to functionalize the tactile sensation. This paper proposes a method that involves the use of haptograph and modal decomposition for the haptic recognition of road environments. The haptograph presents a graphic view of the tactile information. It is possible to classify road conditions intuitively. The robot controller is designed by considering the decoupled modal coordinate system, which consists of translational and rotational modes. Modal decomposition is performed by using a quarry matrix. Once the robot is provided with the ability to recognize tactile sensations, its usefulness to humans will increase.

Some foundational aspects of quantum computers and quantum robots.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Benioff, P.; Physics

1998-01-01

This paper addresses foundational issues related to quantum computing. The need for a universally valid theory such as quantum mechanics to describe to some extent its own validation is noted. This includes quantum mechanical descriptions of systems that do theoretical calculations (i.e. quantum computers) and systems that perform experiments. Quantum robots interacting with an environment are a small first step in this direction. Quantum robots are described here as mobile quantum systems with on-board quantum computers that interact with environments. Included are discussions on the carrying out of tasks and the division of tasks into computation and action phases. Specificmore » models based on quantum Turing machines are described. Differences and similarities between quantum robots plus environments and quantum computers are discussed.« less

Path-following control of wheeled planetary exploration robots moving on deformable rough terrain.

PubMed

Ding, Liang; Gao, Hai-bo; Deng, Zong-quan; Li, Zhijun; Xia, Ke-rui; Duan, Guang-ren

2014-01-01

The control of planetary rovers, which are high performance mobile robots that move on deformable rough terrain, is a challenging problem. Taking lateral skid into account, this paper presents a rough terrain model and nonholonomic kinematics model for planetary rovers. An approach is proposed in which the reference path is generated according to the planned path by combining look-ahead distance and path updating distance on the basis of the carrot following method. A path-following strategy for wheeled planetary exploration robots incorporating slip compensation is designed. Simulation results of a four-wheeled robot on deformable rough terrain verify that it can be controlled to follow a planned path with good precision, despite the fact that the wheels will obviously skid and slip.

Path-Following Control of Wheeled Planetary Exploration Robots Moving on Deformable Rough Terrain

PubMed Central

Ding, Liang; Gao, Hai-bo; Deng, Zong-quan; Li, Zhijun; Xia, Ke-rui; Duan, Guang-ren

2014-01-01

The control of planetary rovers, which are high performance mobile robots that move on deformable rough terrain, is a challenging problem. Taking lateral skid into account, this paper presents a rough terrain model and nonholonomic kinematics model for planetary rovers. An approach is proposed in which the reference path is generated according to the planned path by combining look-ahead distance and path updating distance on the basis of the carrot following method. A path-following strategy for wheeled planetary exploration robots incorporating slip compensation is designed. Simulation results of a four-wheeled robot on deformable rough terrain verify that it can be controlled to follow a planned path with good precision, despite the fact that the wheels will obviously skid and slip. PMID:24790582

Material handling robot system for flow-through storage applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dill, James F.; Candiloro, Brian; Downer, James; Wiesman, Richard; Fallin, Larry; Smith, Ron

1999-01-01

This paper describes the design, development and planned implementation of a system of mobile robots for use in flow through storage applications. The robots are being designed with on-board embedded controls so that they can perform their tasks as semi-autonomous workers distributed within a centrally controlled network. On the storage input side, boxes will be identified by bar-codes and placed into preassigned flow through bins. On the shipping side, orders will be forwarded to the robots from a central order processing station and boxes will be picked from designated storage bins following proper sequencing to permit direct loading into trucks for shipping. Because of the need to maintain high system availability, a distributed control strategy has been selected. When completed, the system will permit robots to be dynamically reassigned responsibilities if an individual unit fails. On-board health diagnostics and condition monitoring will be used to maintain high reliability of the units.

Urban search mobile platform modeling in hindered access conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barankova, I. I.; Mikhailova, U. V.; Kalugina, O. B.; Barankov, V. V.

2018-05-01

The article explores the control system simulation and the design of the experimental model of the rescue robot mobile platform. The functional interface, a structural functional diagram of the mobile platform control unit, and a functional control scheme for the mobile platform of secure robot were modeled. The task of design a mobile platform for urban searching in hindered access conditions is realized through the use of a mechanical basis with a chassis and crawler drive, a warning device, human heat sensors and a microcontroller based on Arduino platforms.

Robust and efficient vision system for group of cooperating mobile robots with application to soccer robots.

PubMed

Klancar, Gregor; Kristan, Matej; Kovacic, Stanislav; Orqueda, Omar

2004-07-01

In this paper a global vision scheme for estimation of positions and orientations of mobile robots is presented. It is applied to robot soccer application which is a fast dynamic game and therefore needs an efficient and robust vision system implemented. General applicability of the vision system can be found in other robot applications such as mobile transport robots in production, warehouses, attendant robots, fast vision tracking of targets of interest and entertainment robotics. Basic operation of the vision system is divided into two steps. In the first, the incoming image is scanned and pixels are classified into a finite number of classes. At the same time, a segmentation algorithm is used to find corresponding regions belonging to one of the classes. In the second step, all the regions are examined. Selection of the ones that are a part of the observed object is made by means of simple logic procedures. The novelty is focused on optimization of the processing time needed to finish the estimation of possible object positions. Better results of the vision system are achieved by implementing camera calibration and shading correction algorithm. The former corrects camera lens distortion, while the latter increases robustness to irregular illumination conditions.

Optimal accelerometer placement on a robot arm for pose estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wijayasinghe, Indika B.; Sanford, Joseph D.; Abubakar, Shamsudeen; Saadatzi, Mohammad Nasser; Das, Sumit K.; Popa, Dan O.

2017-05-01

The performance of robots to carry out tasks depends in part on the sensor information they can utilize. Usually, robots are fitted with angle joint encoders that are used to estimate the position and orientation (or the pose) of its end-effector. However, there are numerous situations, such as in legged locomotion, mobile manipulation, or prosthetics, where such joint sensors may not be present at every, or any joint. In this paper we study the use of inertial sensors, in particular accelerometers, placed on the robot that can be used to estimate the robot pose. Studying accelerometer placement on a robot involves many parameters that affect the performance of the intended positioning task. Parameters such as the number of accelerometers, their size, geometric placement and Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) are included in our study of their effects for robot pose estimation. Due to the ubiquitous availability of inexpensive accelerometers, we investigated pose estimation gains resulting from using increasingly large numbers of sensors. Monte-Carlo simulations are performed with a two-link robot arm to obtain the expected value of an estimation error metric for different accelerometer configurations, which are then compared for optimization. Results show that, with a fixed SNR model, the pose estimation error decreases with increasing number of accelerometers, whereas for a SNR model that scales inversely to the accelerometer footprint, the pose estimation error increases with the number of accelerometers. It is also shown that the optimal placement of the accelerometers depends on the method used for pose estimation. The findings suggest that an integration-based method favors placement of accelerometers at the extremities of the robot links, whereas a kinematic-constraints-based method favors a more uniformly distributed placement along the robot links.

Enhanced control and sensing for the REMOTEC ANDROS Mk VI robot. CRADA final report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Spelt, P.F.; Harvey, H.W.

1998-08-01

This Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Inc., and REMOTEC, Inc., explored methods of providing operator feedback for various work actions of the ANDROS Mk VI teleoperated robot. In a hazardous environment, an extremely heavy workload seriously degrades the productivity of teleoperated robot operators. This CRADA involved the addition of computer power to the robot along with a variety of sensors and encoders to provide information about the robot`s performance in and relationship to its environment. Software was developed to integrate the sensor and encoder information and provide control input to the robot. ANDROS Mkmore » VI robots are presently used by numerous electric utilities to perform tasks in reactors where substantial exposure to radiation exists, as well as in a variety of other hazardous environments. Further, this platform has potential for use in a number of environmental restoration tasks, such as site survey and detection of hazardous waste materials. The addition of sensors and encoders serves to make the robot easier to manage and permits tasks to be done more safely and inexpensively (due to time saved in the completion of complex remote tasks). Prior research on the automation of mobile platforms with manipulators at Oak Ridge National Laboratory`s Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR, B&R code KC0401030) Laboratory, a BES-supported facility, indicated that this type of enhancement is effective. This CRADA provided such enhancements to a successful working teleoperated robot for the first time. Performance of this CRADA used the CESAR laboratory facilities and expertise developed under BES funding.« less

Introducing Robotics at the Undergraduate Level.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thangiah, Sam R.; Joshi, Sharad W.

1997-01-01

Outlines how a course in robotics can be taught at the undergraduate level with specific experiments that can be used for incremental learning in programming a mobile robot or by simulating the actions of a robot. Contains 14 references. (Author/ASK)

Measurement of Vibrations in Two Tower-Typed Assistant Personal Robot Implementations with and without a Passive Suspension System

PubMed Central

Moreno, Javier; Clotet, Eduard; Tresanchez, Marcel; Martínez, Dani; Casanovas, Jordi; Palacín, Jordi

2017-01-01

This paper presents the vibration pattern measurement of two tower-typed holonomic mobile robot prototypes: one based on a rigid mechanical structure, and the other including a passive suspension system. Specific to the tower-typed mobile robots is that the vibrations that originate in the lower part of the structure are transmitted and amplified to the higher areas of the tower, causing an unpleasant visual effect and mechanical stress. This paper assesses the use of a suspension system aimed at minimizing the generation and propagation of vibrations in the upper part of the tower-typed holonomic robots. The two robots analyzed were equipped with onboard accelerometers to register the acceleration over the X, Y, and Z axes in different locations and at different velocities. In all the experiments, the amplitude of the vibrations showed a typical Gaussian pattern which has been modeled with the value of the standard deviation. The results have shown that the measured vibrations in the head of the mobile robots, including a passive suspension system, were reduced by a factor of 16. PMID:28505108

Optimizing a mobile robot control system using GPU acceleration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tuck, Nat; McGuinness, Michael; Martin, Fred

2012-01-01

This paper describes our attempt to optimize a robot control program for the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) by running computationally intensive portions of the system on a commodity graphics processing unit (GPU). The IGVC Autonomous Challenge requires a control program that performs a number of different computationally intensive tasks ranging from computer vision to path planning. For the 2011 competition our Robot Operating System (ROS) based control system would not run comfortably on the multicore CPU on our custom robot platform. The process of profiling the ROS control program and selecting appropriate modules for porting to run on a GPU is described. A GPU-targeting compiler, Bacon, is used to speed up development and help optimize the ported modules. The impact of the ported modules on overall performance is discussed. We conclude that GPU optimization can free a significant amount of CPU resources with minimal effort for expensive user-written code, but that replacing heavily-optimized library functions is more difficult, and a much less efficient use of time.

Solar Thermal Utility-Scale Joint Venture Program (USJVP) Final Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

MANCINI,THOMAS R.

2001-04-01

Several years ago Sandia National Laboratories developed a prototype interior robot [1] that could navigate autonomously inside a large complex building to aid and test interior intrusion detection systems. Recently the Department of Energy Office of Safeguards and Security has supported the development of a vehicle that will perform limited security functions autonomously in a structured exterior environment. The goal of the first phase of this project was to demonstrate the feasibility of an exterior robotic vehicle for security applications by using converted interior robot technology, if applicable. An existing teleoperational test bed vehicle with remote driving controls was modifiedmore » and integrated with a newly developed command driving station and navigation system hardware and software to form the Robotic Security Vehicle (RSV) system. The RSV, also called the Sandia Mobile Autonomous Navigator (SANDMAN), has been successfully used to demonstrate that teleoperated security vehicles which can perform limited autonomous functions are viable and have the potential to decrease security manpower requirements and improve system capabilities.« less

An overview on real-time control schemes for wheeled mobile robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Radzak, M. S. A.; Ali, M. A. H.; Sha’amri, S.; Azwan, A. R.

2018-04-01

The purpose of this paper is to review real-time control motion algorithms for wheeled mobile robot (WMR) when navigating in environment such as road. Its need a good controller to avoid collision with any disturbance and maintain a track error at zero level. The controllers are used with other aiding sensors to measure the WMR’s velocities, posture, and interference to estimate the required torque to be applied on the wheels of mobile robot. Four main categories for wheeled mobile robot control systems have been found in literature which are namely: Kinematic based controller, Dynamic based controllers, artificial intelligence based control system, and Active Force control. A MATLAB/Simulink software is the main software to simulate and implement the control system. The real-time toolbox in MATLAB/SIMULINK are used to receive/send data from sensors/to actuator with presence of disturbances, however others software such C, C++ and visual basic are rare to be used.

Lunar surface exploration using mobile robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nishida, Shin-Ichiro; Wakabayashi, Sachiko

2012-06-01

A lunar exploration architecture study is being carried out by space agencies. JAXA is carrying out research and development of a mobile robot (rover) to be deployed on the lunar surface for exploration and outpost construction. The main target areas for outpost construction and lunar exploration are mountainous zones. The moon's surface is covered by regolith. Achieving a steady traversal of such irregular terrain constitutes the major technical problem for rovers. A newly developed lightweight crawler mechanism can effectively traverse such irregular terrain because of its low contact force with the ground. This fact was determined on the basis of the mass and expected payload of the rover. This paper describes a plan for Japanese lunar surface exploration using mobile robots, and presents the results of testing and analysis needed in their development. This paper also gives an overview of the lunar exploration robot to be deployed in the SELENE follow-on mission, and the composition of its mobility, navigation, and control systems.

Vision Guided Intelligent Robot Design And Experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slutzky, G. D.; Hall, E. L.

1988-02-01

The concept of an intelligent robot is an important topic combining sensors, manipulators, and artificial intelligence to design a useful machine. Vision systems, tactile sensors, proximity switches and other sensors provide the elements necessary for simple game playing as well as industrial applications. These sensors permit adaption to a changing environment. The AI techniques permit advanced forms of decision making, adaptive responses, and learning while the manipulator provides the ability to perform various tasks. Computer languages such as LISP and OPS5, have been utilized to achieve expert systems approaches in solving real world problems. The purpose of this paper is to describe several examples of visually guided intelligent robots including both stationary and mobile robots. Demonstrations will be presented of a system for constructing and solving a popular peg game, a robot lawn mower, and a box stacking robot. The experience gained from these and other systems provide insight into what may be realistically expected from the next generation of intelligent machines.

Neural network-based landmark detection for mobile robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sekiguchi, Minoru; Okada, Hiroyuki; Watanabe, Nobuo

1996-03-01

The mobile robot can essentially have only the relative position data for the real world. However, there are many cases that the robot has to know where it is located. In those cases, the useful method is to detect landmarks in the real world and adjust its position using detected landmarks. In this point of view, it is essential to develop a mobile robot that can accomplish the path plan successfully using natural or artificial landmarks. However, artificial landmarks are often difficult to construct and natural landmarks are very complicated to detect. In this paper, the method of acquiring landmarks by using the sensor data from the mobile robot necessary for planning the path is described. The landmark we discuss here is the natural one and is composed of the compression of sensor data from the robot. The sensor data is compressed and memorized by using five layered neural network that is called a sand glass model. The input and output data that neural network should learn is the sensor data of the robot that are exactly the same. Using the intermediate output data of the network, a compressed data is obtained, which expresses a landmark data. If the sensor data is ambiguous or enormous, it is easy to detect the landmark because the data is compressed and classified by the neural network. Using the backward three layers, the compressed landmark data is expanded to original data at some level. The studied neural network categorizes the detected sensor data to the known landmark.

Humanoid Mobile Manipulation Using Controller Refinement

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Platt, Robert; Burridge, Robert; Diftler, Myron; Graf, Jodi; Goza, Mike; Huber, Eric; Brock, Oliver

2006-01-01

An important class of mobile manipulation problems are move-to-grasp problems where a mobile robot must navigate to and pick up an object. One of the distinguishing features of this class of tasks is its coarse-to-fine structure. Near the beginning of the task, the robot can only sense the target object coarsely or indirectly and make gross motion toward the object. However, after the robot has located and approached the object, the robot must finely control its grasping contacts using precise visual and haptic feedback. This paper proposes that move-to-grasp problems are naturally solved by a sequence of controllers that iteratively refines what ultimately becomes the final solution. This paper introduces the notion of a refining sequence of controllers and characterizes this type of solution. The approach is demonstrated in a move-to-grasp task where Robonaut, the NASA/JSC dexterous humanoid, is mounted on a mobile base and navigates to and picks up a geological sample box. In a series of tests, it is shown that a refining sequence of controllers decreases variance in robot configuration relative to the sample box until a successful grasp has been achieved.

Humanoid Mobile Manipulation Using Controller Refinement

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Platt, Robert; Burridge, Robert; Diftler, Myron; Graf, Jodi; Goza, Mike; Huber, Eric

2006-01-01

An important class of mobile manipulation problems are move-to-grasp problems where a mobile robot must navigate to and pick up an object. One of the distinguishing features of this class of tasks is its coarse-to-fine structure. Near the beginning of the task, the robot can only sense the target object coarsely or indirectly and make gross motion toward the object. However, after the robot has located and approached the object, the robot must finely control its grasping contacts using precise visual and haptic feedback. In this paper, it is proposed that move-to-grasp problems are naturally solved by a sequence of controllers that iteratively refines what ultimately becomes the final solution. This paper introduces the notion of a refining sequence of controllers and characterizes this type of solution. The approach is demonstrated in a move-to-grasp task where Robonaut, the NASA/JSC dexterous humanoid, is mounted on a mobile base and navigates to and picks up a geological sample box. In a series of tests, it is shown that a refining sequence of controllers decreases variance in robot configuration relative to the sample box until a successful grasp has been achieved.

Intelligent navigation and accurate positioning of an assist robot in indoor environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hua, Bin; Rama, Endri; Capi, Genci; Jindai, Mitsuru; Tsuri, Yosuke

2017-12-01

Intact robot's navigation and accurate positioning in indoor environments are still challenging tasks. Especially in robot applications, assisting disabled and/or elderly people in museums/art gallery environments. In this paper, we present a human-like navigation method, where the neural networks control the wheelchair robot to reach the goal location safely, by imitating the supervisor's motions, and positioning in the intended location. In a museum similar environment, the mobile robot starts navigation from various positions, and uses a low-cost camera to track the target picture, and a laser range finder to make a safe navigation. Results show that the neural controller with the Conjugate Gradient Backpropagation training algorithm gives a robust response to guide the mobile robot accurately to the goal position.

Event-Based Control Strategy for Mobile Robots in Wireless Environments.

PubMed

Socas, Rafael; Dormido, Sebastián; Dormido, Raquel; Fabregas, Ernesto

2015-12-02

In this paper, a new event-based control strategy for mobile robots is presented. It has been designed to work in wireless environments where a centralized controller has to interchange information with the robots over an RF (radio frequency) interface. The event-based architectures have been developed for differential wheeled robots, although they can be applied to other kinds of robots in a simple way. The solution has been checked over classical navigation algorithms, like wall following and obstacle avoidance, using scenarios with a unique or multiple robots. A comparison between the proposed architectures and the classical discrete-time strategy is also carried out. The experimental results shows that the proposed solution has a higher efficiency in communication resource usage than the classical discrete-time strategy with the same accuracy.

Efficient Control Law Simulation for Multiple Mobile Robots

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Driessen, B.J.; Feddema, J.T.; Kotulski, J.D.

1998-10-06

In this paper we consider the problem of simulating simple control laws involving large numbers of mobile robots. Such simulation can be computationally prohibitive if the number of robots is large enough, say 1 million, due to the 0(N2 ) cost of each time step. This work therefore uses hierarchical tree-based methods for calculating the control law. These tree-based approaches have O(NlogN) cost per time step, thus allowing for efficient simulation involving a large number of robots. For concreteness, a decentralized control law which involves only the distance and bearing to the closest neighbor robot will be considered. The timemore » to calculate the control law for each robot at each time step is demonstrated to be O(logN).« less

Event-Based Control Strategy for Mobile Robots in Wireless Environments

PubMed Central

Socas, Rafael; Dormido, Sebastián; Dormido, Raquel; Fabregas, Ernesto

2015-01-01

In this paper, a new event-based control strategy for mobile robots is presented. It has been designed to work in wireless environments where a centralized controller has to interchange information with the robots over an RF (radio frequency) interface. The event-based architectures have been developed for differential wheeled robots, although they can be applied to other kinds of robots in a simple way. The solution has been checked over classical navigation algorithms, like wall following and obstacle avoidance, using scenarios with a unique or multiple robots. A comparison between the proposed architectures and the classical discrete-time strategy is also carried out. The experimental results shows that the proposed solution has a higher efficiency in communication resource usage than the classical discrete-time strategy with the same accuracy. PMID:26633412

Driving a Semiautonomous Mobile Robotic Car Controlled by an SSVEP-Based BCI.

PubMed

Stawicki, Piotr; Gembler, Felix; Volosyak, Ivan

2016-01-01

Brain-computer interfaces represent a range of acknowledged technologies that translate brain activity into computer commands. The aim of our research is to develop and evaluate a BCI control application for certain assistive technologies that can be used for remote telepresence or remote driving. The communication channel to the target device is based on the steady-state visual evoked potentials. In order to test the control application, a mobile robotic car (MRC) was introduced and a four-class BCI graphical user interface (with live video feedback and stimulation boxes on the same screen) for piloting the MRC was designed. For the purpose of evaluating a potential real-life scenario for such assistive technology, we present a study where 61 subjects steered the MRC through a predetermined route. All 61 subjects were able to control the MRC and finish the experiment (mean time 207.08 s, SD 50.25) with a mean (SD) accuracy and ITR of 93.03% (5.73) and 14.07 bits/min (4.44), respectively. The results show that our proposed SSVEP-based BCI control application is suitable for mobile robots with a shared-control approach. We also did not observe any negative influence of the simultaneous live video feedback and SSVEP stimulation on the performance of the BCI system.

An Integrated Testbed for Cooperative Perception with Heterogeneous Mobile and Static Sensors

PubMed Central

Jiménez-González, Adrián; Martínez-De Dios, José Ramiro; Ollero, Aníbal

2011-01-01

Cooperation among devices with different sensing, computing and communication capabilities provides interesting possibilities in a growing number of problems and applications including domotics (domestic robotics), environmental monitoring or intelligent cities, among others. Despite the increasing interest in academic and industrial communities, experimental tools for evaluation and comparison of cooperative algorithms for such heterogeneous technologies are still very scarce. This paper presents a remote testbed with mobile robots and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) equipped with a set of low-cost off-the-shelf sensors, commonly used in cooperative perception research and applications, that present high degree of heterogeneity in their technology, sensed magnitudes, features, output bandwidth, interfaces and power consumption, among others. Its open and modular architecture allows tight integration and interoperability between mobile robots and WSN through a bidirectional protocol that enables full interaction. Moreover, the integration of standard tools and interfaces increases usability, allowing an easy extension to new hardware and software components and the reuse of code. Different levels of decentralization are considered, supporting from totally distributed to centralized approaches. Developed for the EU-funded Cooperating Objects Network of Excellence (CONET) and currently available at the School of Engineering of Seville (Spain), the testbed provides full remote control through the Internet. Numerous experiments have been performed, some of which are described in the paper. PMID:22247679

Driving a Semiautonomous Mobile Robotic Car Controlled by an SSVEP-Based BCI

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Brain-computer interfaces represent a range of acknowledged technologies that translate brain activity into computer commands. The aim of our research is to develop and evaluate a BCI control application for certain assistive technologies that can be used for remote telepresence or remote driving. The communication channel to the target device is based on the steady-state visual evoked potentials. In order to test the control application, a mobile robotic car (MRC) was introduced and a four-class BCI graphical user interface (with live video feedback and stimulation boxes on the same screen) for piloting the MRC was designed. For the purpose of evaluating a potential real-life scenario for such assistive technology, we present a study where 61 subjects steered the MRC through a predetermined route. All 61 subjects were able to control the MRC and finish the experiment (mean time 207.08 s, SD 50.25) with a mean (SD) accuracy and ITR of 93.03% (5.73) and 14.07 bits/min (4.44), respectively. The results show that our proposed SSVEP-based BCI control application is suitable for mobile robots with a shared-control approach. We also did not observe any negative influence of the simultaneous live video feedback and SSVEP stimulation on the performance of the BCI system. PMID:27528864

An integrated testbed for cooperative perception with heterogeneous mobile and static sensors.

PubMed

Jiménez-González, Adrián; Martínez-De Dios, José Ramiro; Ollero, Aníbal

2011-01-01

Cooperation among devices with different sensing, computing and communication capabilities provides interesting possibilities in a growing number of problems and applications including domotics (domestic robotics), environmental monitoring or intelligent cities, among others. Despite the increasing interest in academic and industrial communities, experimental tools for evaluation and comparison of cooperative algorithms for such heterogeneous technologies are still very scarce. This paper presents a remote testbed with mobile robots and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) equipped with a set of low-cost off-the-shelf sensors, commonly used in cooperative perception research and applications, that present high degree of heterogeneity in their technology, sensed magnitudes, features, output bandwidth, interfaces and power consumption, among others. Its open and modular architecture allows tight integration and interoperability between mobile robots and WSN through a bidirectional protocol that enables full interaction. Moreover, the integration of standard tools and interfaces increases usability, allowing an easy extension to new hardware and software components and the reuse of code. Different levels of decentralization are considered, supporting from totally distributed to centralized approaches. Developed for the EU-funded Cooperating Objects Network of Excellence (CONET) and currently available at the School of Engineering of Seville (Spain), the testbed provides full remote control through the Internet. Numerous experiments have been performed, some of which are described in the paper.

Health Care Robotics: A Progress Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fiorini, Paolo; Ali, Khaled; Seraji, Homayoun

1997-01-01

This paper describes the approach followed in the design of a service robot for health care applications. Under the auspices of the NASA Technology Transfer program, a partnership was established between JPL and RWI, a manufacturer of mobile robots, to design and evaluate a mobile robot for health care assistance to the elderly and the handicapped. The main emphasis of the first phase of the project is on the development on a multi-modal operator interface and its evaluation by health care professionals and users. This paper describes the architecture of the system, the evaluation method used, and some preliminary results of the user evaluation.

A 2.5D Map-Based Mobile Robot Localization via Cooperation of Aerial and Ground Robots

PubMed Central

Nam, Tae Hyeon; Shim, Jae Hong; Cho, Young Im

2017-01-01

Recently, there has been increasing interest in studying the task coordination of aerial and ground robots. When a robot begins navigation in an unknown area, it has no information about the surrounding environment. Accordingly, for robots to perform tasks based on location information, they need a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) process that uses sensor information to draw a map of the environment, while simultaneously estimating the current location of the robot on the map. This paper aims to present a localization method based in cooperation between aerial and ground robots in an indoor environment. The proposed method allows a ground robot to reach accurate destination by using a 2.5D elevation map built by a low-cost RGB-D (Red Green and Blue-Depth) sensor and 2D Laser sensor attached onto an aerial robot. A 2.5D elevation map is formed by projecting height information of an obstacle using depth information obtained by the RGB-D sensor onto a grid map, which is generated by using the 2D Laser sensor and scan matching. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for its accuracy in location recognition and computing speed. PMID:29186843

Jump stabilization and landing control by wing-spreading of a locust-inspired jumper.

PubMed

Beck, Avishai; Zaitsev, Valentin; Hanan, Uri Ben; Kosa, Gabor; Ayali, Amir; Weiss, Avi

2017-10-16

Bio-inspired robotics is a promising design strategy for mobile robots. Jumping is an energy efficient locomotion gait for traversing difficult terrain. Inspired by the jumping and flying behavior of the desert locust, we have recently developed a miniature jumping robot that can jump over 3.5 m high. However, much like the non-adult locust, it rotates while in the air and lands uncontrollably. Inspired by the winged adult locust, we have added spreading wings and a tail to the jumper. After the robot leaps, at the apex of the trajectory, the wings unfold and it glides to the ground. The advantages of this maneuver are the stabilization of the robot when airborne, the reduction of velocity at landing, the control of the landing angle and the potential to change the robot's orientation and control its flight trajectory. The new upgraded robot is capable of jumping to a still impressive height of 1.7 m eliminating airborne rotation and reducing landing velocity. Here, we analyze the dynamic and aerodynamic models of the robot, discuss the robot's design, and validate its ability to perform a jump-glide in a stable trajectory, land safely and change its orientation while in the air.

A 2.5D Map-Based Mobile Robot Localization via Cooperation of Aerial and Ground Robots.

PubMed

Nam, Tae Hyeon; Shim, Jae Hong; Cho, Young Im

2017-11-25

Recently, there has been increasing interest in studying the task coordination of aerial and ground robots. When a robot begins navigation in an unknown area, it has no information about the surrounding environment. Accordingly, for robots to perform tasks based on location information, they need a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) process that uses sensor information to draw a map of the environment, while simultaneously estimating the current location of the robot on the map. This paper aims to present a localization method based in cooperation between aerial and ground robots in an indoor environment. The proposed method allows a ground robot to reach accurate destination by using a 2.5D elevation map built by a low-cost RGB-D (Red Green and Blue-Depth) sensor and 2D Laser sensor attached onto an aerial robot. A 2.5D elevation map is formed by projecting height information of an obstacle using depth information obtained by the RGB-D sensor onto a grid map, which is generated by using the 2D Laser sensor and scan matching. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for its accuracy in location recognition and computing speed.

Controllability of Complex Dynamic Objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kalach, G. G.; Kazachek, N. A.; Morozov, A. A.

2017-01-01

Quality requirements for mobile robots intended for both specialized and everyday use are increasing in step with the complexity of the technological tasks assigned to the robots. Whether a mobile robot is for ground, aerial, or underwater use, the relevant quality characteristics can be summarized under the common concept of agility. This term denotes the object’s (the robot)’s ability to react quickly to control actions (change speed and direction), turn in a limited area, etc. When using this approach in integrated assessment of the quality characteristics of an object with the control system, it seems more constructive to use the term “degree of control”. This paper assesses the degree of control by an example of a mobile robot with the variable-geometry drive wheel axle. We show changes in the degree of control depending on the robot’s configuration, and results illustrated by calculation data, computer and practical experiments. We describe the prospects of using intelligent technology for efficient control of objects with a high degree of controllability.

Performance evaluation of the Personal Mobility and Manipulation Appliance (PerMMA).

PubMed

Wang, Hongwu; Xu, Jijie; Grindle, Garrett; Vazquez, Juan; Salatin, Ben; Kelleher, Annmarie; Ding, Dan; Collins, Diane M; Cooper, Rory A

2013-11-01

The Personal Mobility and Manipulation Appliance (PerMMA) is a recently developed personal assistance robot created to provide people with severe physical disabilities enhanced assistance in both mobility and manipulation. PerMMA aims to improve functional independence when a personal care attendant is not available on site. PerMMA integrates both a smart powered wheelchair and two dexterous robotic arms to assist its users in completing essential mobility and manipulation tasks during basic and instrumental activities of daily living (ADL). Two user interfaces were developed: a local control interface and a remote operator controller. This paper reports on the evaluation of PerMMA with end users completing basic ADL tasks. Participants with both lower and upper extremity impairments (N=15) were recruited to operate PerMMA and complete up to five ADL tasks in a single session of no more than two hours (to avoid fatigue or frustration of the participants). The performance of PerMMA was evaluated by participants completing ADL tasks with two different control modes: local mode and cooperative control. The users' task completion performance and answers on pre/post-evaluation questionnaires demonstrated not only the ease in learning and usefulness of PerMMA, but also their attitudes toward assistance from advanced technology like PerMMA. As a part of the iterative development process, results of this work will serve as supporting evidence to identify design criteria and other areas for improvement of PerMMA. Copyright © 2013 IPEM. All rights reserved.

Overview and Categorization of Robots Supporting Independent Living of Elderly People: What Activities Do They Support and How Far Have They Developed.

PubMed

Bedaf, Sandra; Gelderblom, Gert Jan; De Witte, Luc

2015-01-01

Over the past decades, many robots for the elderly have been developed, supporting different activities of elderly people. A systematic review in four scientific literature databases and a search in article references and European projects was performed in order to create an overview of robots supporting independent living of elderly people. The robots found were categorized based on their development stage, the activity domains they claim to support, and the type of support provided (i.e., physical, non-physical, and/or non-specified). In total, 107 robots for the elderly were identified. Six robots were still in a concept phase, 95 in a development phase, and six of these robots were commercially available. These robots claimed to provide support related to four activity domains: mobility, self-care, interpersonal interaction & relationships, and other activities. Of the many robots developed, only a small percentage is commercially available. Technical ambitions seem to be guiding robot development. To prolong independent living, the step towards physical support is inevitable and needs to be taken. However, it will be a long time before a robot will be capable of supporting multiple activities in a physical manner in the home of an elderly person in order to enhance their independent living.

How do walkers avoid a mobile robot crossing their way?

PubMed

Vassallo, Christian; Olivier, Anne-Hélène; Souères, Philippe; Crétual, Armel; Stasse, Olivier; Pettré, Julien

2017-01-01

Robots and Humans have to share the same environment more and more often. In the aim of steering robots in a safe and convenient manner among humans it is required to understand how humans interact with them. This work focuses on collision avoidance between a human and a robot during locomotion. Having in mind previous results on human obstacle avoidance, as well as the description of the main principles which guide collision avoidance strategies, we observe how humans adapt a goal-directed locomotion task when they have to interfere with a mobile robot. Our results show differences in the strategy set by humans to avoid a robot in comparison with avoiding another human. Humans prefer to give the way to the robot even when they are likely to pass first at the beginning of the interaction. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Adaptive Gait Control for a Quadruped Robot on 3D Path Planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Igarashi, Hiroshi; Kakikura, Masayoshi

A legged walking robot is able to not only move on irregular terrain but also change its posture. For example, the robot can pass under overhead obstacles by crouching. The purpose of our research is to realize efficient path planning with a quadruped robot. Therefore, the path planning is expected to extended in three dimensions because of the mobility. However, some issues of the quadruped robot, which are instability, workspace limitation, deadlock and slippage, complicate realizing such application. In order to improve these issues and reinforce the mobility, a new static gait pattern for a quadruped robot, called TFG: Trajectory Following Gait, is proposed. The TFG intends to obtain high controllability like a wheel robot. Additionally, the TFG allows to change it posture during the walk. In this paper, some experimental results show that the TFG improves the issues and it is available for efficient locomotion in three dimensional environment.

Structure Assembly by a Heterogeneous Team of Robots Using State Estimation, Generalized Joints, and Mobile Parallel Manipulators

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Komendera, Erik E.; Adhikari, Shaurav; Glassner, Samantha; Kishen, Ashwin; Quartaro, Amy

2017-01-01

Autonomous robotic assembly by mobile field robots has seen significant advances in recent decades, yet practicality remains elusive. Identified challenges include better use of state estimation to and reasoning with uncertainty, spreading out tasks to specialized robots, and implementing representative joining methods. This paper proposes replacing 1) self-correcting mechanical linkages with generalized joints for improved applicability, 2) assembly serial manipulators with parallel manipulators for higher precision and stability, and 3) all-in-one robots with a heterogeneous team of specialized robots for agent simplicity. This paper then describes a general assembly algorithm utilizing state estimation. Finally, these concepts are tested in the context of solar array assembly, requiring a team of robots to assemble, bond, and deploy a set of solar panel mockups to a backbone truss to an accuracy not built into the parts. This paper presents the results of these tests.

Vision-based stabilization of nonholonomic mobile robots by integrating sliding-mode control and adaptive approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, Zhengcai; Yin, Longjie; Fu, Yili

2013-01-01

Vision-based pose stabilization of nonholonomic mobile robots has received extensive attention. At present, most of the solutions of the problem do not take the robot dynamics into account in the controller design, so that these controllers are difficult to realize satisfactory control in practical application. Besides, many of the approaches suffer from the initial speed and torque jump which are not practical in the real world. Considering the kinematics and dynamics, a two-stage visual controller for solving the stabilization problem of a mobile robot is presented, applying the integration of adaptive control, sliding-mode control, and neural dynamics. In the first stage, an adaptive kinematic stabilization controller utilized to generate the command of velocity is developed based on Lyapunov theory. In the second stage, adopting the sliding-mode control approach, a dynamic controller with a variable speed function used to reduce the chattering is designed, which is utilized to generate the command of torque to make the actual velocity of the mobile robot asymptotically reach the desired velocity. Furthermore, to handle the speed and torque jump problems, the neural dynamics model is integrated into the above mentioned controllers. The stability of the proposed control system is analyzed by using Lyapunov theory. Finally, the simulation of the control law is implemented in perturbed case, and the results show that the control scheme can solve the stabilization problem effectively. The proposed control law can solve the speed and torque jump problems, overcome external disturbances, and provide a new solution for the vision-based stabilization of the mobile robot.

Herbert: A Second Generation Mobile Robot.

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-01-01

PROJECT. TASK S Artificial Inteligence Laboratory AREA A WORK UNIT NUMBERS ’ ~ 545 Technology Square Cambridge, MA 02139 11. CONTROLLING OFFICE NAME...AD-AI93 632 WMRT: A SECOND GENERTION MOBILE ROWT(U) / MASSACHUSETTS IMST OF TECH CAMBRIDGE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LAB R BROOKS ET AL .JAN l8 Al-M...MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LABORATORY A. I. Memo 1016 January, 1988 HERBERT: A SECOND GENERATION MOBILE ROBOT Rodney A

ATHLETE as a Mobile ISRU and Regolith Construction Platform

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Howe, A. Scott; Wilcox, Brian; Barmatz, Martin; Voecks, Gerald

2016-01-01

The All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer (ATHLETE) robotic mobility platform can provide precision positioning and mobility for site preparation and regolith construction needs. ATHLETE is a multi-use platform designed to use swap-out tools and implements that can be applied to any number of tasks that need precision limb manipulation or mobility. Major capabilities include off-loading habitats, transporting surface assets, robotically assembling outposts from multiple mission manifests, and supporting science and technology objectives. This paper describes conceptual approaches for supporting NASA regolith construction research, such as additive construction, modular brick and panel factory, and mobile ISRU platform.

Robot Deception and Squirrel Behavior: A Case Study in Bio-inspired Robotics

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-08-01

employed by doctors/ nurses among others. It is important to focus on this aspect when we consider a robot’s deceptive capabilities in human- robot ... Robot Deception and Squirrel Behavior: A Case Study in Bio-inspired Robotics Jaeeun Shim and Ronald C. Arkin Mobile Robot ...Abstract A common behavior in animals and human beings is deception. Deceptive behavior in robotics is potentially beneficial in several domains

A cognitive robotic system based on the Soar cognitive architecture for mobile robot navigation, search, and mapping missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanford, Scott D.

Most unmanned vehicles used for civilian and military applications are remotely operated or are designed for specific applications. As these vehicles are used to perform more difficult missions or a larger number of missions in remote environments, there will be a great need for these vehicles to behave intelligently and autonomously. Cognitive architectures, computer programs that define mechanisms that are important for modeling and generating domain-independent intelligent behavior, have the potential for generating intelligent and autonomous behavior in unmanned vehicles. The research described in this presentation explored the use of the Soar cognitive architecture for cognitive robotics. The Cognitive Robotic System (CRS) has been developed to integrate software systems for motor control and sensor processing with Soar for unmanned vehicle control. The CRS has been tested using two mobile robot missions: outdoor navigation and search in an indoor environment. The use of the CRS for the outdoor navigation mission demonstrated that a Soar agent could autonomously navigate to a specified location while avoiding obstacles, including cul-de-sacs, with only a minimal amount of knowledge about the environment. While most systems use information from maps or long-range perceptual capabilities to avoid cul-de-sacs, a Soar agent in the CRS was able to recognize when a simple approach to avoiding obstacles was unsuccessful and switch to a different strategy for avoiding complex obstacles. During the indoor search mission, the CRS autonomously and intelligently searches a building for an object of interest and common intersection types. While searching the building, the Soar agent builds a topological map of the environment using information about the intersections the CRS detects. The agent uses this topological model (along with Soar's reasoning, planning, and learning mechanisms) to make intelligent decisions about how to effectively search the building. Once the object of interest has been detected, the Soar agent uses the topological map to make decisions about how to efficiently return to the location where the mission began. Additionally, the CRS can send an email containing step-by-step directions using the intersections in the environment as landmarks that describe a direct path from the mission's start location to the object of interest. The CRS has displayed several characteristics of intelligent behavior, including reasoning, planning, learning, and communication of learned knowledge, while autonomously performing two missions. The CRS has also demonstrated how Soar can be integrated with common robotic motor and perceptual systems that complement the strengths of Soar for unmanned vehicles and is one of the few systems that use perceptual systems such as occupancy grid, computer vision, and fuzzy logic algorithms with cognitive architectures for robotics. The use of these perceptual systems to generate symbolic information about the environment during the indoor search mission allowed the CRS to use Soar's planning and learning mechanisms, which have rarely been used by agents to control mobile robots in real environments. Additionally, the system developed for the indoor search mission represents the first known use of a topological map with a cognitive architecture on a mobile robot. The ability to learn both a topological map and production rules allowed the Soar agent used during the indoor search mission to make intelligent decisions and behave more efficiently as it learned about its environment. While the CRS has been applied to two different missions, it has been developed with the intention that it be extended in the future so it can be used as a general system for mobile robot control. The CRS can be expanded through the addition of new sensors and sensor processing algorithms, development of Soar agents with more production rules, and the use of new architectural mechanisms in Soar.

Autonomous stair-climbing with miniature jumping robots.

PubMed

Stoeter, Sascha A; Papanikolopoulos, Nikolaos

2005-04-01

The problem of vision-guided control of miniature mobile robots is investigated. Untethered mobile robots with small physical dimensions of around 10 cm or less do not permit powerful onboard computers because of size and power constraints. These challenges have, in the past, reduced the functionality of such devices to that of a complex remote control vehicle with fancy sensors. With the help of a computationally more powerful entity such as a larger companion robot, the control loop can be closed. Using the miniature robot's video transmission or that of an observer to localize it in the world, control commands can be computed and relayed to the inept robot. The result is a system that exhibits autonomous capabilities. The framework presented here solves the problem of climbing stairs with the miniature Scout robot. The robot's unique locomotion mode, the jump, is employed to hop one step at a time. Methods for externally tracking the Scout are developed. A large number of real-world experiments are conducted and the results discussed.

Development of biomimetic quadruped walking robot with 2-DOF waist joint

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Kyoung-Ho; Park, Se-Hoon; Lee, Yun-Jung

2005-12-01

This paper presented a novel bio-mimetic quadruped walking robot with 2-DOF (Degree Of Freedom) waist joint, which connects the front and the rear parts of the body. The waist-jointed walking robot can guarantee more stable and more animal-like gait than that of a conventional single-rigid-body walking robot. The developed robot, called ELIRO-II (Eating LIzard RObot version 2), can bend its body from side to side by using 1-DOF passive waist joint while the legs is transferred, thereby increasing the stride and speed of the robot. In addition, ELIRO-II has one more active DOF to bend its body up and down, which increases the mobility in irregular terrain such as slope and stairs. We design the mechanical structure of the robot, which is small and light to have high mobility. This research described characteristics of the 2-DOF waists joint and leg mechanism as well as a hardware and software of the controller of ELIRO-II.

Human-Robot Interaction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sandor, Aniko; Cross, E. Vincent, II; Chang, Mai Lee

2015-01-01

Human-robot interaction (HRI) is a discipline investigating the factors affecting the interactions between humans and robots. It is important to evaluate how the design of interfaces affect the human's ability to perform tasks effectively and efficiently when working with a robot. By understanding the effects of interface design on human performance, workload, and situation awareness, interfaces can be developed to appropriately support the human in performing tasks with minimal errors and with appropriate interaction time and effort. Thus, the results of research on human-robot interfaces have direct implications for the design of robotic systems. For efficient and effective remote navigation of a rover, a human operator needs to be aware of the robot's environment. However, during teleoperation, operators may get information about the environment only through a robot's front-mounted camera causing a keyhole effect. The keyhole effect reduces situation awareness which may manifest in navigation issues such as higher number of collisions, missing critical aspects of the environment, or reduced speed. One way to compensate for the keyhole effect and the ambiguities operators experience when they teleoperate a robot is adding multiple cameras and including the robot chassis in the camera view. Augmented reality, such as overlays, can also enhance the way a person sees objects in the environment or in camera views by making them more visible. Scenes can be augmented with integrated telemetry, procedures, or map information. Furthermore, the addition of an exocentric (i.e., third-person) field of view from a camera placed in the robot's environment may provide operators with the additional information needed to gain spatial awareness of the robot. Two research studies investigated possible mitigation approaches to address the keyhole effect: 1) combining the inclusion of the robot chassis in the camera view with augmented reality overlays, and 2) modifying the camera frame of reference. The first study investigated the effects of inclusion and exclusion of the robot chassis along with superimposing a simple arrow overlay onto the video feed of operator task performance during teleoperation of a mobile robot in a driving task. In this study, the front half of the robot chassis was made visible through the use of three cameras, two side-facing and one forward-facing. The purpose of the second study was to compare operator performance when teleoperating a robot from an egocentric-only and combined (egocentric plus exocentric camera) view. Camera view parameters that are found to be beneficial in these laboratory experiments can be implemented on NASA rovers and tested in a real-world driving and navigation scenario on-site at the Johnson Space Center.

Virtual- and real-world operation of mobile robotic manipulators: integrated simulation, visualization, and control environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, ChuXin; Trivedi, Mohan M.

1992-03-01

This research is focused on enhancing the overall productivity of an integrated human-robot system. A simulation, animation, visualization, and interactive control (SAVIC) environment has been developed for the design and operation of an integrated robotic manipulator system. This unique system possesses the abilities for multisensor simulation, kinematics and locomotion animation, dynamic motion and manipulation animation, transformation between real and virtual modes within the same graphics system, ease in exchanging software modules and hardware devices between real and virtual world operations, and interfacing with a real robotic system. This paper describes a working system and illustrates the concepts by presenting the simulation, animation, and control methodologies for a unique mobile robot with articulated tracks, a manipulator, and sensory modules.

Connectivity-Preserving Approach for Distributed Adaptive Synchronized Tracking of Networked Uncertain Nonholonomic Mobile Robots.

PubMed

Yoo, Sung Jin; Park, Bong Seok

2017-09-06

This paper addresses a distributed connectivity-preserving synchronized tracking problem of multiple uncertain nonholonomic mobile robots with limited communication ranges. The information of the time-varying leader robot is assumed to be accessible to only a small fraction of follower robots. The main contribution of this paper is to introduce a new distributed nonlinear error surface for dealing with both the synchronized tracking and the preservation of the initial connectivity patterns among nonholonomic robots. Based on this nonlinear error surface, the recursive design methodology is presented to construct the approximation-based local adaptive tracking scheme at the robot dynamic level. Furthermore, a technical lemma is established to analyze the stability and the connectivity preservation of the total closed-loop control system in the Lyapunov sense. An example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.

Information-Driven Active Audio-Visual Source Localization

PubMed Central

Schult, Niclas; Reineking, Thomas; Kluss, Thorsten; Zetzsche, Christoph

2015-01-01

We present a system for sensorimotor audio-visual source localization on a mobile robot. We utilize a particle filter for the combination of audio-visual information and for the temporal integration of consecutive measurements. Although the system only measures the current direction of the source, the position of the source can be estimated because the robot is able to move and can therefore obtain measurements from different directions. These actions by the robot successively reduce uncertainty about the source’s position. An information gain mechanism is used for selecting the most informative actions in order to minimize the number of actions required to achieve accurate and precise position estimates in azimuth and distance. We show that this mechanism is an efficient solution to the action selection problem for source localization, and that it is able to produce precise position estimates despite simplified unisensory preprocessing. Because of the robot’s mobility, this approach is suitable for use in complex and cluttered environments. We present qualitative and quantitative results of the system’s performance and discuss possible areas of application. PMID:26327619

Secure Mobility Draft Concept Description

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-10-01

S T A T E S A R M Y R E S E A R C H L A B O R A T O R Y Approved for public release: distribution is unlimited RUX06 Experiment • Capstone CAT ...experiment • Evaluate effectiveness of CAT program in improving the performance and/or reducing the workload for a mounted Soldier through the use of...Automation Testbed ( CAT ) • Robotic Follower (RF) • Fire Control Node Engagement Technologies (FC-NET) • Robotics Collaboration (RC) 311/17/05 U N IT E

Autonomous mobile robotic system for supporting counterterrorist and surveillance operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adamczyk, Marek; Bulandra, Kazimierz; Moczulski, Wojciech

2017-10-01

Contemporary research on mobile robots concerns applications to counterterrorist and surveillance operations. The goal is to develop systems that are capable of supporting the police and special forces by carrying out such operations. The paper deals with a dedicated robotic system for surveillance of large objects such as airports, factories, military bases, and many others. The goal is to trace unauthorised persons who try to enter to the guarded area, document the intrusion and report it to the surveillance centre, and then warn the intruder by sound messages and eventually subdue him/her by stunning through acoustic effect of great power. The system consists of several parts. An armoured four-wheeled robot assures required mobility of the system. The robot is equipped with a set of sensors including 3D mapping system, IR and video cameras, and microphones. It communicates with the central control station (CCS) by means of a wideband wireless encrypted system. A control system of the robot can operate autonomously, and under remote control. In the autonomous mode the robot follows the path planned by the CCS. Once an intruder has been detected, the robot can adopt its plan to allow tracking him/her. Furthermore, special procedures of treatment of the intruder are applied including warning about the breach of the border of the protected area, and incapacitation of an appropriately selected very loud sound until a patrol of guards arrives. Once getting stuck the robot can contact the operator who can remotely solve the problem the robot is faced with.

Intelligent Adaptive Systems: Literature Research of Design Guidance for Intelligent Adaptive Automation and Interfaces

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-09-01

behaviour based on past experience of interacting with the operator), and mobile (i.e., can move themselves from one machine to another). Edwards argues that...Sofge, D., Bugajska, M., Adams, W., Perzanowski, D., and Schultz, A. (2003). Agent-based Multimodal Interface for Dynamically Autonomous Mobile Robots...based architecture can provide a natural and scalable approach to implementing a multimodal interface to control mobile robots through dynamic

Use of the robot assisted gait therapy in rehabilitation of patients with stroke and spinal cord injury.

PubMed

Sale, P; Franceschini, M; Waldner, A; Hesse, S

2012-03-01

Difficulty in walking is a major feature of neurological disease, and loss of mobility is the activity of daily living on which patients place the greatest value. The impact on patients is enormous, with negative ramifications on their participation in social, vocational, and recreational activities. In current clinical practice the gait restoration with robotic device is an integral part of rehabilitation program. Robot therapy involves the use of a robot exoskeleton device or end-effector device to help the patient retrain motor coordination by performing well-focused and carefully directed repetitive practice. The exoskeleton, as an assistive device, is also an external structural mechanism with joints and links corresponding to those of the human body. These robots use joint trajectories of the entire gait cycle and offer a uniform (more or less) stiff control along this trajectory. In this field the new powered exoskeleton ReWalk (Argo Medical Technologies Ltd) was developed to have an alternative mobility solution to the wheelchair and rehabilitation treatment for individuals with severe walking impairments, enabling them to stand, walk, ascend/descent stairs and more. The end-effector-based robot is a device with footplates placed on a double crank and rocker gear system. Alternatives to powered exoskeletons are devices that use movable footplates to which the patient's feet are attached. All devices include some form of body weight support. Prominent goals in the field include: developing implementable technologies that can be easily used by patients, therapists, and clinicians; enhancing the efficacy of clinician's therapies and increasing the ease of activities in the daily lives of patients.

The RoboConsultant: telementoring and remote presence in the operating room during minimally invasive urologic surgeries using a novel mobile robotic interface.

PubMed

Agarwal, Rahul; Levinson, Adam W; Allaf, Mohamad; Makarov, Danil; Nason, Alex; Su, Li-Ming

2007-11-01

Remote presence is the ability of an individual to project himself from one location to another to see, hear, roam, talk, and interact just as if that individual were actually there. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and functionality of a novel mobile robotic telementoring system controlled by a portable laptop control station linked via broadband Internet connection. RoboConsultant (RemotePresence-7; InTouch Health, Sunnyvale, CA) was employed for the purpose of intraoperative telementoring and consultation during five laparoscopic and endoscopic urologic procedures. Robot functionality including navigation, zoom capability, examination of external and internal endoscopic camera views, and telestration were evaluated. The robot was controlled by a senior surgeon from various locations ranging from an adjacent operating room to an affiliated hospital 5 miles away. The RoboConsultant performed without connection failure or interruption in each case, allowing the consulting surgeon to immerse himself and navigate within the operating room environment and provide effective communication, mentoring, telestration, and consultation. RoboConsultant provided clear, real-time, and effective telementoring and telestration and allowed the operator to experience remote presence in the operating room environment as a surgical consultant. The portable laptop control station and wireless connectivity allowed the consultant to be mobile and interact with the operating room team from virtually any location. In the future, the remote presence provided by the RoboConsultant may provide useful and effective intraoperative consultation by expert surgeons located in remote sites.

PIR-1 and PIRPL. A Project in Robotics Education. Revised.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schultz, Charles P.

This paper presents the results of a project in robotics education that included: (1) designing a mobile robot--the Personal Instructional Robot-1 (PIR-1); (2) providing a guide to the purchase and assembly of necessary parts; (3) providing a way to interface the robot with common classroom microcomputers; and (4) providing a language by which the…

A neural network-based exploratory learning and motor planning system for co-robots

PubMed Central

Galbraith, Byron V.; Guenther, Frank H.; Versace, Massimiliano

2015-01-01

Collaborative robots, or co-robots, are semi-autonomous robotic agents designed to work alongside humans in shared workspaces. To be effective, co-robots require the ability to respond and adapt to dynamic scenarios encountered in natural environments. One way to achieve this is through exploratory learning, or “learning by doing,” an unsupervised method in which co-robots are able to build an internal model for motor planning and coordination based on real-time sensory inputs. In this paper, we present an adaptive neural network-based system for co-robot control that employs exploratory learning to achieve the coordinated motor planning needed to navigate toward, reach for, and grasp distant objects. To validate this system we used the 11-degrees-of-freedom RoPro Calliope mobile robot. Through motor babbling of its wheels and arm, the Calliope learned how to relate visual and proprioceptive information to achieve hand-eye-body coordination. By continually evaluating sensory inputs and externally provided goal directives, the Calliope was then able to autonomously select the appropriate wheel and joint velocities needed to perform its assigned task, such as following a moving target or retrieving an indicated object. PMID:26257640

A neural network-based exploratory learning and motor planning system for co-robots.

PubMed

Galbraith, Byron V; Guenther, Frank H; Versace, Massimiliano

2015-01-01

Collaborative robots, or co-robots, are semi-autonomous robotic agents designed to work alongside humans in shared workspaces. To be effective, co-robots require the ability to respond and adapt to dynamic scenarios encountered in natural environments. One way to achieve this is through exploratory learning, or "learning by doing," an unsupervised method in which co-robots are able to build an internal model for motor planning and coordination based on real-time sensory inputs. In this paper, we present an adaptive neural network-based system for co-robot control that employs exploratory learning to achieve the coordinated motor planning needed to navigate toward, reach for, and grasp distant objects. To validate this system we used the 11-degrees-of-freedom RoPro Calliope mobile robot. Through motor babbling of its wheels and arm, the Calliope learned how to relate visual and proprioceptive information to achieve hand-eye-body coordination. By continually evaluating sensory inputs and externally provided goal directives, the Calliope was then able to autonomously select the appropriate wheel and joint velocities needed to perform its assigned task, such as following a moving target or retrieving an indicated object.

Case study of a floor-cleaning robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Branch, Allan C.

1998-01-01

Developing the technologies suitable of ra high level robotic application such as cleaning a floor has proved extremely difficult. Developing the robot mobility technology has been a stumbling block and developing and integrating the applications technology to the machine and the mobility technology has also been a difficult stage in this quest, but doing so in a cost effective and realistic manner suitable for the market place and to compete with humans and manually operated machines has been the most difficult of all. This paper describes one of these quests spanning a 14 year period and resulting in what is hoped will be the world's first commercially manufactured household robot vacuum cleaner.