Control of an exoskeleton robot arm with sliding mode exponential reaching law

Robots are now working not only in human environments but also interacting with humans, e.g., service robots or assistive robots. A 7DoFs robotic exoskeleton MARSE-7 (motion assistive robotic-exoskeleton for superior extremity) was developed as an assistive robot to provide movement assistance and/or ease daily upper-limb motion. In this paper, we highlight the nonlinear control of MARSE-7 using the modified sliding mode exponential reaching law (mSMERL). Conventional sliding control produces chattering which is undesired for this kind of robotic application as it causes damage to the mechanical structure. Compared to conventional sliding control, our approach significantly reduces chattering and delivers a high dynamic tracking performance. The control architecture was implemented on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) in conjunction with a RT-PC. In experiments, trajectory tracking that corresponds to typical passive arm movement exercises for single and multi joint movements were performed to evaluate the performance of the developed robot and the controller. Experimental results demonstrate that the MARSE-7 can effectively track the desired trajectories.     

Wearable Robots for Human Underwater Movement Ability Enhancement: A Survey

Underwater robot technology has shown impressive results in applications such as underwater resource detection. For underwater applications that require extremely high flexibility, robots cannot replace skills that require human dexterity yet, and thus humans are often required to directly perform most underwater operations. Wearable robots (exoskeletons) have shown outstanding results in enhancing human movement on land. They are expected to have great potential to enhance human underwater movement. The purpose of this survey is to analyze the state-of-the-art of underwater exoskeletons for human enhancement, and the applications focused on movement assistance while excluding underwater robotic devices that help to keep the temperature and pressure in the range that people can withstand. This work discusses the challenges of existing exoskeletons for human underwater movement assistance, which mainly includes human underwater motion intention perception, underwater exoskeleton modeling and human-cooperative control. Future research should focus on developing novel wearable robotic structures for underwater motion assistance, exploiting advanced sensors and fusion algorithms for human underwater motion intention perception, building up a dynamic model of underwater exoskeletons and exploring human-in-the-loop control for them.      

Detection of robustly collision-free trajectories in unpredictable environments in real-time

One of the ultimate goals in robotics is to make robots of high degrees of freedom (DOF) work autonomously in real world environments. However, real world environments are unpredictable, i.e., how the objects move are usually not known beforehand. Thus, whether a robot trajectory is collision-free or not has to be checked on-line based on sensing as the robot moves. Moreover, in order to guarantee safe motion, the motion uncertainty of the robot has to be taken into account. This paper introduces a general approach to detect if a high-DOF robot trajectory is continuously collision-free even in the presence of robot motion uncertainty in an unpredictable environment in real time. Our method is based on the novel concept of dynamic envelope, which takes advantage of progressive sensing over time without predicting motions of objects in an environment or assuming specific object motion patterns. The introduced approach can be used by general real-time motion planners to check if a candidate robot trajectory is continuously and robustly collision-free (i.e., in spite of uncertainty in the robot motion).     

仿人机器人的头眼协调运动控制研究

针对机器人注视静态目标的任务,提出一种头眼协调运动的控制策略.通过使双目聚焦在同一个注视点,得到注视点的空间坐标和头眼的期望运动转角;研究了机器人头部转动时双目的补偿运动模型及相应的控制算法.实验表明,该控制策略能实现精确的3D头眼协调运动控制.     

Robust omnidirectional mobile robot topological navigation system using omnidirectional vision

Robust topological navigation strategy for omnidirectional mobile robot using an omnidirectional camera is described. The navigation system is composed of on-line and off-line stages. During the off-line learning stage, the robot performs paths based on motion model about omnidirectional motion structure and records a set of ordered key images from omnidirectional camera. From this sequence a topological map is built based on the probabilistic technique and the loop closure detection algorithm, which can deal with the perceptual aliasing problem in mapping process. Each topological node provides a set of omnidirectional images characterized by geometrical affine and scale invariant keypoints combined with GPU implementation. Given a topological node as a target, the robot navigation mission is a concatenation of topological node subsets. In the on-line navigation stage, the robot hierarchical localizes itself to the most likely node through the robust probability distribution global localization algorithm, and estimates the relative robot pose in topological node with an effective solution to the classical five-point relative pose estimation algorithm. Then the robot is controlled by a vision based control law adapted to omnidirectional cameras to follow the visual path. Experiment results carried out with a real robot in an indoor environment show the performance of the proposed method.     

Time-space Viewpoint Planning for Guard Robot with Chance Constraint

This paper presents a novel movement planning algorithm for a guard robot in an indoor environment, imitating the job of human security. A movement planner is employed by the guard robot to continuously observe a certain person. This problem can be distinguished from the person following problem which continuously follows the object. Instead, the movement planner aims to reduce the movement and the energy while keeping the target person under its visibility. The proposed algorithm exploits the topological features of the environment to obtain a set of viewpoint candidates, and it is then optimized by a cost-based set covering problem. Both the robot and the target person are modeled using geodesic motion model which considers the environment shape. Subsequently, a particle model-based planner is employed, considering the chance constraints over the robot visibility, to choose an optimal action for the robot. Simulation results using 3D simulator and experiments on a real environment are provided to show the feasibility and effectiveness of our algorithm.

     

一种新的康复与代步外骨骼机器人研究

针对老年人及下肢障碍者康复训练与代步问题,本文提出一种新的康复与代步外骨骼机器人.本文首先详细介绍了机器人各部分组成及机构设计方案,通过下肢外骨骼与轮椅的有机结合,有效保持或恢复老年人、脑卒中患者下肢运动能力的同时,为患者提供一种方便的代步工具;运用脚蹬车运动制订康复训练策略,可保持下肢康复训练轨迹固定,保证患者安全;提出主从式操作方法及多模态康复训练控制流程提高使用者参与感.最后通过仿真与实验验证了所提康复系统的可行性与设计的正确性.     

Acquiring Mobile Robot Behaviors by Learning Trajectory Velocities

The development of robots that learn from experience is a relentless challenge confronting artificial intelligence today. This paper describes a robot learning method which enables a mobile robot to simultaneously acquire the ability to avoid objects, follow walls, seek goals and control its velocity as a result of interacting with the environment without human assistance. The robot acquires these behaviors by learning how fast it should move along predefined trajectories with respect to the current state of the input vector. This enables the robot to perform object avoidance, wall following and goal seeking behaviors by choosing to follow fast trajectories near: the forward direction, the closest object or the goal location respectively. Learning trajectory velocities can be done relatively quickly because the required knowledge can be obtained from the robot's interactions with the environment without incurring the credit assignment problem. We provide experimental results to verify our robot learning method by using a mobile robot to simultaneously acquire all three behaviors.     

6-DOF并联机器人并行控制算法与优化

为了实现对6-DOF并联机器人实时在线控制,并能取得良好的控制效果,对其运动控制算法的结构进行了深入剖析与研究,尤其对上平台中心的运动速度和角速度的计算及液压缸各杆的伸长速度计算矩阵进行了细致的研究,提出了并行算法及CPU的优化分配策略,大大提高了并联机器人的实时控制质量.     

双足机器人跨越动态障碍物在线控制系统设计

在双足机器人跨越动态障碍物的在线控制问题中,脚步规划和步态控制的学习时间是关键问题;提出了一种将机器人的步态控制和脚步规划分别独立设计的控制策略;步态控制目的是产生关节点轨迹并控制对理想轨迹的跟踪,考虑到双足机器人关节点轨迹的不连续性,应用小脑模型连接控制CMAC记忆特征步态的关节点轨迹;脚步规划的控制目标是通过对环境的视觉感知预测机器人的运动路径,算法是基于无需对动态环境精确建模的模糊Q学习算法;仿真结果表明该控制策略的可行性,并且可以有效缩短在线学习时间。     

基于混合视线-脑机接口与共享控制的人-机器人交互系统

设计了一种基于混合视线-脑机接口与共享控制的人-机器人交互系统,以使得用户可通过视线和意念对机器人末端在2维空间进行连续的运动控制,并在避障和趋近目标的任务中获得机器智能的辅助.首先,按照用户运动意念的强度对机器人末端的运动速度大小进行等比例连续调节,以提高用户对机器人的控制感以及完成任务的参与性.然后,提出了机器人末端运动方向的一种共享控制策略,动态地融合基于视线追踪技术所得到的用户方向控制指令以及由机器人避障和趋近目标的行为设定所得到的机器人系统方向控制指令,自适应地调整机器人系统对用户的辅助力度,以减轻用户脑力负荷,提高任务完成成功率.最后,针对搭建的基于混合视线-脑机接口和共享控制的人-机器人交互平台,通过实验验证了所提系统的有效性.     

3D path planning for a biomass processing robot via motion simulation

Six motion strategies for a Cartesian 4-degrees-of-freedom (4-DOF) biomass processing robot were developed. Each of the corresponding trajectories consists of more than 1300 three-dimensional coordinate points. The motion strategies were evaluated due to their efficiency to select the most promising one for being embedded into the control system of the robot. For evaluation, an algorithm was developed calculating different evaluation parameters such as total cycle time, covered distance and no-load time. The best strategy was able to perform the task within 23 h. The total covered distance within this time period amounts to 33 km. The efficiency of the motion strategy in terms of load- and no-load time phases was ε=57% and has to be enhanced during further research. By doubling maximum velocity to 60 m min⁻¹ in longitudinal direction (x) and to 20 m min⁻¹ in transverse direction (y) the total cycle time would be reduced additionally by maximum 20%.     

Development of a configuration space motion planner for robot in dynamic environment

In this paper, the on-line motion planning of articulated robots in dynamic environment is investigated. We propose a practical on-line robot motion planning approach that is based upon pre-computing the global configuration space (C-space) connectivity with respect to all possible obstacle positions. The proposed motion planner consists of an off-line stage and an on-line stage. In the off-line stage, the obstacles in the C-space (C-obstacle) with respect to the obstacle positions in the workspace are computed, which are then stored using a hierarchical data structure with non-uniform 2^m trees. In the on-line stage, the real obstacle cells in the workspace are identified and the corresponding 2^m trees from the pre-computed database are superposed to construct the real-time C-space. The collision-free path is then searched in this C-space by using the A* algorithm under a multi-resolution strategy which has excellent computational efficiency. In this approach, the most time-consuming operation is performed in the off-line stage, while the on-line computing only need to deal with the real-time obstacles occurring in the dynamic environment. The minimized on-line computational cost makes it feasible for real-time on-line motion planning. The validity and efficiency of this approach is demonstrated using manipulator prototypes with 5 and 7 degree-of-freedom.     

Human-robot collaboration while sharing production activities in dynamic environment: SPADER system

Interactive robot doing collaborative work in hybrid work cell need adaptive trajectory planning strategy. Indeed, systems must be able to generate their own trajectories without colliding with dynamic obstacles like humans and assembly components moving inside the robot workspace. The aim of this paper is to improve collision-free motion planning in dynamic environment in order to insure human safety during collaborative tasks such as sharing production activities between human and robot. Our system proposes a trajectory generating method for an industrial manipulator in a shared workspace. A neural network using a supervised learning is applied to create the waypoints required for dynamic obstacles avoidance. These points are linked with a quintic polynomial function for smooth motion which is optimized using least-square to compute an optimal trajectory. Moreover, the evaluation of human motion forms has been taken into consideration in the proposed strategy. According to the results, the proposed approach is an effective solution for trajectories generation in a dynamic environment like a hybrid workspace.     

一种基于DTW-GMM的机器人多机械臂多任务协同策略

为了控制机器人完成复杂的多臂协作任务, 提出了一种基于动态时间规整−高斯混合模型(Dynamic time warping-Gaussian mixture model, DTW-GMM)的机器人多机械臂多任务协同策略. 首先, 针对机器人示教时轨迹时间长短往往存在较大差异的问题, 采用动态时间规整方法来统一时间的变化; 其次, 基于动态时间规整的多机械臂示教轨迹, 采用高斯混合模型对轨迹的特征进行提取, 并以某一机械臂的位置空间矢量作为查询向量, 基于高斯混合回归泛化输出其余机械臂的执行轨迹; 最后, 在Pepper仿人机器人平台上验证了所提出的多机械臂协同策略, 基于DTW-GMM算法控制机器人完成了双臂协作搬运任务和汉字轨迹的书写任务. 提出的基于DTW-GMM算法的多任务协同策略简单有效, 可以利用反馈信息实时协调各机械臂的任务, 在线生成平滑的协同轨迹, 控制机器人完成复杂的协作操作.     

Robust robot manipulator control with autonomous consideration algorithm of torque saturation

As each joint actuator of a robot manipulator has a limit value of torque, the motion control system should consider the torque saturation. Conventional motion control based on robust acceleration controller cannot consider the torque saturation and it often causes an oscillated or wrong response. This paper proposes a new autonomous consideration method of joint torque saturation for robust manipulator motion control. The proposed method consists of three on-line autonomous algorithms. These algorithms are the torque limitation algorithm in joint space, the adjustment algorithm of motion control in Cartesian space, and the adjustment algorithm of motion reference in Cartesian space. The robot motion control using the proposed algorithms realizes smooth and robust robot motion response.     

Reinforcement learning-based shared control for walking-aid robot and its experimental verification

A walking-aid robot is an assistive device for enabling safe, stable and efficient locomotion in elderly or disabled individuals. In this paper, we propose a reinforcement learning-based shared control (RLSC) algorithm for intelligent walking-aid robot to address existing control problems in cooperative walking-aid robot system. Firstly, the intelligent walking-aid robot and the human walking intention estimation algorithm are introduced. Due to the limited physical and cognitive capabilities of elderly and disabled people, robot control input assistance is provided to maintain tactile comfort and a sense of stability. Then, considering the robot’s ability to autonomously adapt to different user operation habits and motor abilities, the RLSC algorithm is proposed. By dynamically adjusting user control weight according to different user control efficiencies and walking environments, the robot can improve the user’s degree of comfort when using the device and automatically adapting to user’s behaviour. Finally, the effectiveness of our algorithm is verified by experiments in a specified environment.     

Skill acquisition system for the intelligent assisting system_IAS

^_In this paper we propose a new forthcoming research topic, the Intelligent Assisting System^_ IAS. Using this system, we are approaching the identification and analysis of human manipulation skills to be used for intelligent human operator assistance. A manipulation skill database enables the IAS to perform complex manipulations at the motion control level. Through repeated interaction with the operator for unknown environment states, the manipulation skills in the database can be increased on-line. A model for manipulation skill based on the grip transformation matrix is proposed, which describes the transformation between the object trajectory and the contact conditions. The dynamic behaviour of the grip transform is regarded as the essence of the performed manipulation skill. We describe the experimental system set-up of a skill acquisition and transfer system as a first approach to the IAS. A simple example of manipulation shows the feasibility of the proposed manipulation skill model. Furthermore, this paper derives a control algorithm that realizes object task trajectories, and its feasibility is shown by simulation.     

Localization of a wheeled mobile robot by sensor data fusion based on a fuzzy logic adapted Kalman filter

Accurate estimates of mobile robot location, if available, can be used to improve the performance of a vehicle dynamics control system. To this purpose, the data provided by odometric and sonar sensors are here fused together by means of an extended Kalman filter, providing robot position and orientation estimates at each sampling instant. To cope with the tracking of long trajectories, the performance of the filter is improved by introducing an on-line fuzzy-rule-based adaptation scheme.     

Control System Design for an Upper-Limb Rehabilitation Robot

Control system implementation is one of the major difficulties in rehabilitation robot design. The purpose of our study is to present newly developed control strategies for an upper-limb rehabilitation robot. The Barrett WAM Arm manipulator is used as the main hardware platform for the functional recovery training of the past-stroke patient. Passive and active recovery training have been implemented on the WAM Arm. A fuzzy-based PD position control strategy is proposed for the passive recovery exercise to control the WAM Arm stably and smoothly to stretch the impaired limb to move along predefined trajectories. An adaptive impedance force controller is employed in the active motion mode in which a fuzzy logic regulator is used to adjust the desired impedance between the robot and impaired limb to generate adaptive force in agreement with the change of the impaired limb's muscle strength. In order to evaluate the change of the impaired limb's muscle power, the impaired limb's mechanical impedance parameters as an objective evaluation index is estimated online by using a recursive least-squares algorithm with an adaptive forgetting factor. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and potential of the proposed control strategies.