Cooperative manipulation of a floating object by some space robots with joint velocity controllers: application of a tracking control method using the transpose of the generalized Jacobian matrix

We have studied the cooperative manipulation of floating object by several space robots. For these cooperative motions, we have reported that a tracking control method using the transpose of the generalized Jacobian matrix (GJM) can be utilized for robots with joint torque controllers. For cooperative motions by some robots with joint velocity controllers, we proposed a tracking control method using the transpose of the GJM. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed control method.     

Realization of Dynamic Stair Climbing for Biped Humanoid Robot Using Force/Torque Sensors

This paper proposes a control algorithm for the dynamic stair climbing of a human-sized biped humanoid robot. Dynamic stair climbing can cause more instability than dynamic biped walking on the ground because stair climbing requires an additional vertical motions and a large step length. We assume that stair configuration is already known and only use force/torque sensors at ankle joint to achieve a control algorithm for a stable dynamic stair climbing. We describe a stair climbing pattern generation and stair climbing stages, and then propose a real-time balance control algorithm which is composed of several online controllers. Each online controller is addressed in detail with experimental results. Finally, the effectiveness and performance of the proposed control algorithm are verified through a dynamic stair climbing experiment of KHR-2.     

Walking and steering control for a 3D biped robot considering ground contact and stability

This paper presents a stable walking control method for a 3D bipedal robot with 14 joint actuators. The overall control law consists of a ZMP (zero moment point) controller, a swing ankle rotation controller and a partial joint angles controller. The ZMP controller guarantees that the stance foot remains in flat contact with the ground. The swing ankle rotation controller ensures a flat foot impact at the end of the swinging phase. Each of these controllers creates 2 constraints on joint accelerations. As a consequence, the partial joint angles controller is implemented to track only 10 independent outputs. These outputs are defined as a linear combination of the 14 joint angles. The most important question addressed in this paper is how this linear combination can be defined in order to ensure walking stability. The stability of the walking gait under closed loop control is evaluated with the linearization of the restricted Poincare map of the hybrid zero dynamics. As a result, the robot can achieve an asymptotically stable and periodic walking along a straight line. Finally, another feedback controller is supplemented to adjust the walking direction of the robot and some examples of the robot steered to walk along different paths with mild curvature are given.     

Swing-up control of a 3-DOF acrobot using an evolutionary approach

We present a control method for a 3-DOF acrobot which is a model of a gymnast on a horizontal bar with three links, two active joints, and a passive joint. This robot is a nonholonomic and underactuated system. We propose two control methods for the 3-DOF acrobot. First, swing-up control is performed by genetic programming (GP), and stabilizing control is handled by a linear quadratic regulator (LQR). GP can search widely for the optimum input torques for swing-up so that the acrobot is able to reach a near balancing point. The LQR is then switched on to stabilize the system. In the simulation results, the 3-DOF acrobot could swing up to the desired position, and the proposed method could control the acrobot effectively.     

Torque Optimizing Control with Singularity-Robustness for Kinematically Redundant Robots

A new control method for kinematically redundant manipulators having the properties of torque-optimality and singularity-robustness is developed. A dynamic control equation, an equation of joint torques that should be satisfied to get the desired dynamic behavior of the end-effector, is formulated using the feedback linearization theory. The optimal control law is determined by locally optimizing an appropriate norm of joint torques using the weighted generalized inverses of the manipulator Jacobian-inertia product. In addition, the optimal control law is augmented with fictitious joint damping forces to stabilize the uncontrolled dynamics acting in the null-space of the Jacobian-inertia product. This paper also presents a new method for the robust handling of robot kinematic singularities in the context of joint torque optimization. Control of the end-effector motions in the neighborhood of a singular configuration is based on the use of the damped least-squares inverse of the Jacobian-inertia product. A damping factor as a function of the generalized dynamic manipulability measure is introduced to reduce the end-effector acceleration error caused by the damping. The proposed control method is applied to the numerical model of SNU-ERC 3-DOF planar direct-drive manipulator.     

Stability analysis and time-varying walking control for an under-actuated planar biped robot

This paper presents two walking controllers for a planar biped robot with unactuated point feet. The control is based on the tracking of reference motions expressed as a function of time. First, the reference motions are adapted at each step in order to create a hybrid zero dynamic (HZD) system. Next, the stability of the walking gait under closed-loop control is evaluated with the linearization of the restricted Poincaré map of the HZD. When the controlled outputs are selected to be the actuated coordinates, most periodic walking gaits for this robot are unstable, that is, the eigenvalues of the linearized Poincaré map (ELPM) is larger than one. Therefore, two control strategies are explored to produce stable walking. The first strategy uses an event-based feedback controller to modify the ELPM and the second one is based on the choice of controlled outputs. The stability analysis show that, for the same robot and for the same reference trajectory, the stability of the walking (or ELPM) can be modified by some pertinent choices of controlled outputs. Moreover, by studying some walking characteristics of many stable cases, a necessary condition for stable walking is proposed. It is that the height of swing foot is nearly zero at the desired moment of impact. Based on this condition, the duration of the step is almost constant in presence of initial error, so a method for choosing controlled outputs for the second controller is given. By using this method, two stable domains for the controlled outputs selection are obtained.     

双足机器人动态步行实时步态生成

针对双足机器人动态步行生成关节运动轨迹复杂问题,提出了一种简单直观的实时步态生成方案。建立了平面五杆双足机器人动力学模型,通过模仿人类步行主要运动特征并根据双足机器人动态步行双腿姿态变化的要求,将动态步行复杂任务分解为顺序执行的四个过程,在关节空间相对坐标系下设计了躯干运动模式、摆动腿和支撑腿动作及步行速度调整模式,结合当前步行控制结果反馈实时产生稳定的关节运动轨迹。仿真实验验证了该方法的有效性,简单易实现。     

Optimal redundancy resolution of a kinematically redundant manipulator for a cyclic task

This article proposes a method for the global optimization of redundancy over the whole task period in a kinematically redundant manipulator. The necessary conditions based on the calculus of variations for integral-type criteria result in a second-order differential equation. For a cyclic task, the boundary conditions for conservative joint motions are discussed. Then, we reformulate a two-point boundary value problem to an initial value adjustment problem and suggest a numerical search method based on the iterative optimization for providing a globally optimal solution using the gradient projection method. Since the initial joint velocity is parameterized with the number of redundancy, we only search parameter values in the parameterized space using the configuration error between the initial and final time. We show through numerical examples that multiple nonhomotopic extremal solutions satisfying periodic boundary conditions exist according to initial joint velocities for the same initial configuration. Finally, we discuss an algorithm for topological liftings of the paths and demonstrate the generality of the proposed method by considering the dynamics of a manipulator.     

Motion control of wearable-type walking support system based on the spring-mass model

Many systems and control methods have been proposed as mobility supports for the physically disabled and elderly individuals. In this research, we focus on a wearable-type system that supports the elderly with their walking. Different from typical control methods of wearable-type walking support systems, we propose a simple control method based on the spring–mass model. As a walking aid that does not require additional motions, such as sit-to-stand, this simple system is beneficial for two reasons. First, it reduces the calculation cost of deriving the support joint torque of the user; second, the wearable device hardware can be simply constructed from low-power actuators and springs rather than high-power actuators. In stance phase support mode, our motion control method compensates for a part of the force applied to the upper body as a leg muscle support. During the swing phase, walking is supported by a trajectory-following method using the impedance control as well as the spring–mass model. The proposed methods are applied to a prototype of a wearable-type walking support system, and evaluated in a series of experiments on human subjects.     

Ranking systems for evaluation of joint and joint motion stressfulness based on perceived discomforts

This study aims to develop ranking systems for evaluation of the stressfulness of joints and joint motions based on perceived discomforts measured through an experiment. Twenty healthy male subjects participated in the experiment, where discomforts for varying joint motions in the sitting and standing postures were measured using the magnitude estimation. The results showed that the perceived discomforts were affected by the type of joint motions, size of joint motions, and joints. The joints and joint motions were classified into several distinct classes according to perceived stresses. Three ranking systems based on the perceived discomforts were developed, including classification by the joint motions and joints, by types of joint motions, and by the joints only. The ranking systems revealed that while hip and back motions exhibited higher discomfort ratings than any other joint motion, elbow motions were the least stressful of all joint motions. The ranking systems can be used as a valuable design guideline when ergonomically designing or evaluating workplaces, or as a helpful tool for understanding adverse effects of poor working postures.     

Natural motion animation through constraining and deconstraining at will

This paper presents a computational technique for creating whole-body motions of human and animal characters without reference motion. Our work enables animators to generate a natural motion by dragging a link to an arbitrary position with any number of links pinned in the global frame, as well as other constraints such as desired joint angles and joint motion ranges. The method leads to an intuitive pin-and-drag interface where the user can generate whole-body motions by simply switching on or off or strengthening or weakening the constraints. This work is based on a new interactive inverse kinematics technique that allows more flexible attachment of pins and various types of constraints. Editing or retargeting captured motion requires only a small modification to the original method, although it can also create natural motions from scratch. We demonstrate the usefulness and advantage of our method with a number of example motion clips.     

直升机大球铰摆动和滑动磨损试验机测控系统设计

直升机大球铰摆动、滑动磨损试验机可以真实地模拟大球铰在直升机上的运转和受载荷状态.试验机测控系统主要解决运动模式和力加载的协调运动,设计关键算法解决了任意更换滑动行程、滑动频率和摆动角、摆动频率的4个参数对运动曲线的拟合问题,生成3个缸的位置时域序列,解决了任意方向力加载的难点,模拟大球铰受力情况,实现了大球铰在不同飞行状态下运动和受载荷的自动运行.通过合理的硬件设计和软件开发,其自动化程序高、界面友好、运行稳定,为直升机大球铰疲劳磨损试验数据的准确性和可靠性提供了保证.     

Simple timing generation along workspace paths for nonredundant robotic limbs

This article focuses on the relation between workspace path geometry and the timing along the path, obtained via simple timing generators yielding constant end-link speed motion, natural motion, and two types of globally optimized joint velocity motions. The generators are designed within the Singularity-Consistent framework developed originally to tackle motion control in the vicinity of kinematic singularities. A comparative study highlights how performance expressed in terms of various kinematic and dynamic criteria of local (peak joint velocity and torque) and global (joint velocity/torque uniformity and total mechanical power) nature is influenced by the curvature of the path image in configuration space and by the vicinity of singular configurations. Results from simulations with a simple planar 2R limb and a spatial 3R positioning limb following linear and circular paths are presented.     

Static calibration of industrial manipulators: Design of an optical instrumentation and application to SCARA robots

This article presents a method for the static calibration of industrial robots based on optical measurements using a laser. Measured pose errors are used to estimate the geometric errors in the links. This allows the prediction of the pose error for every robot configuration, permitting the improvement of accuracy by means of slight variations of the joint motions. After a theoretical introduction on the methodology, it is applied to a SCARA robot analyzing the design of the set-up and the final precision that could be achieved. Preliminary experimental results are also presented. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Identification of a golf swing robot using soft computing approach

Golf swing robots have been recently developed in an attempt to simulate the ultra high-speed swing motions of golfers. Accurate identification of a golf swing robot is an important and challenging research topic, which has been regarded as a fundamental basis in the motion analysis and control of the robots. But there have been few studies conducted on the golf swing robot identification, and comparative analyses using different kinds of soft computing methodologies have not been found in the literature. This paper investigates the identification of a golf swing robot based on four kinds of soft computing methods, including feedforward neural networks (FFNN), dynamic recurrent neural networks (DRNN), fuzzy neural networks (FNN) and dynamic recurrent fuzzy neural networks (DRFNN). The performance comparison is evaluated based on three sets of swing trajectory data with different boundary conditions. The sensitivity of the results to the changes in system structure and learning rate is also investigated. The results suggest that both FNN and DRFNN can be used as a soft computing method to identify a golf robot more accurately than FFNN and DRNN, which can be used in the motion control of the robot.     

模板化的人体运动合成

为解决现有运动合成方法中控制方式过于复杂的问题,提出一种模板化的运动合成模型,旨在降低运动合成技术的应用门槛.利用稀疏主成分分析(Sparse principal component analysis, SPCA)、Group lasso和Exclusive group lasso对人体运动进行建模,使其对应的每一个低维参数只依赖于少数几个人体关节,构成人体运动的一个内在自由度(Degree of freedom, DOF),并具有直观语义;同时,每个关节被尽量少的低维参数所控制,以减少低维参数对彼此所控制的自由度的交叉影响.实验表明,通过直观地修改低维参数,就能够实时地控制每个参数对应的摆臂幅度、踢腿高度、跳跃距离等运动属性.这种模板学习、模板定制的两步方法,有效地降低了运动合成控制的复杂度,即便非专业人员也可以用其进行艺术创作.     

基于L-系统和Perlin噪声函数的风吹树动模拟

分析风中树木运动与其受力关系,提出采用在自然现象中观察到的Perlin噪声来模拟风场变化,利用L系统实现对三维树木的建模,应用材料力学知识分析树枝的运动细节,并得出影响树枝运动幅度大小的公式,编程实现结果表明,该方法模拟的树木运动逼真,可应用于游戏娱乐业和教育业中定型的树木运动模拟。     

基于导纳控制的膝关节外骨骼摆动控制研究

针对膝关节外骨骼机械腿运动过程中对操作者的运动跟随问题,提出了一种基于导纳原理的等效惯量补偿控制方法.设计导纳控制器将外骨骼与操作者间的交互力矩转化为期望的运动轨迹;通过低通滤波加速度与惯量增益的乘积形成的闭环反馈实现等效惯量补偿;结合腿部肌肉表面肌电信号进行人体摆腿运动换向的预判,实施膝关节外骨骼机械腿的摆动控制,实验结果表明,膝关节外骨骼与受试者之间的关节角度相对误差为±12%,膝关节外骨骼机械腿对受试者的摆腿运动能实现较好的运动跟随.     

Dexterous motion recognition for myoelectric control of multifunctional transradial prostheses

Attributed to its superior dexterity, the human’s thumb plays a significant role in the activities of daily living (ADLs). In order to promote the operational capability of the prosthetic hand, state-of-the-art designs tend to integrate multiple degrees of freedom (DOFs) in thumb’s trapeziometacarpal (TM) joint for achieving versatile movements. However, without proper control methods, this fine dexterity of multi-DOF prosthetic hand is hard to be demonstrated. This problem becomes more serious when the control signals, electromyography (EMG), are highly limited on the residual stump of the amputee. Through experiments, the paper examines the feasibility of recognizing 4 thumb motions (flexion/extension and abduction/adduction) together with the other 12 finger- and wrist-related motions under a general surface EMG configuration. After surveying the classification accuracy of several selective motion groups (thumb motions, thumb-involved finger motions, thumb-involved wrist motions, etc.), we report here the current limitations of the prevalent pattern recognition-based EMG control schemes. Considering the severely impaired neuromuscular systems of the amputees, controlling those thumb motions for achieving dexterous operations still faces many challenges. We finally discuss several alternative strategies, including switching, extended physiological proprioception (EPP) and postural synergy, for dealing with this problem.     

Adaptive control of redundant multiple robots in cooperative motion

A redundant robot has more degrees of freedom than what is needed to uniquely position the robot end-effector. In practical applications the extra degrees of freedom increase the orientation and reach of the robot. Also the load carrying capacity of a single robot can be increased by cooperative manipulation of the load by two or more robots. In this paper, we develop an adaptive control scheme for kinematically redundant multiple robots in cooperative motion.In a usual robotic task, only the end-effector position trajectory is specified. The joint position trajectory will therefore be unknown for a redundant multi-robot system and it must be selected from a self-motion manifold for a specified end-effector or load motion. In this paper, it is shown that the adaptive control of cooperative multiple redundant robots can be addressed as a reference velocity tracking problem in the joint space. A stable adaptive velocity control law is derived. This controller ensures the bounded estimation of the unknown dynamic parameters of the robots and the load, the exponential convergence to zero of the velocity tracking errors, and the boundedness of the internal forces. The individual robot joint motions are shown to be stable by decomposing the joint coordinates into two variables, one which is homeomorphic to the load coordinates, the other to the coordinates of the self-motion manifold. The dynamics on the self-motion manifold are directly shown to be related to the concept of zero-dynamics. It is shown that if the reference joint trajectory is selected to optimize a certain type of objective functions, then stable dynamics on the self-motion manifold result. The overall stability of the joint positions is established from the stability of two cascaded dynamic systems involving the two decomposed coordinates.