Safe and efficient motion planning of multiple mobile robots based on artificial potential for human behavior and robot congestion

In order for robots to exist together with humans, safety for the humans has to be strictly ensured. On the other hand, safety might decrease working efficiency of robots. Namely, this is a trade-off problem between human safety and robot efficiency in a field of human–robot interaction. For this problem, we propose a novel motion planning technique of multiple mobile robots. Two artificial potentials are presented for generating repulsive force. The first potential is provided for humans. The von Mises distribution is used to consider the behavioral property of humans. The second potential is provided for the robots. The Kernel density estimation is used to consider the global robot congestion. Through simulation experiments, the effectiveness of the behavior and congestion potentials of the motion planning technique for human safety and robot efficiency is discussed. Moreover, a sensing system for humans in a real environment is developed. From experimental results, the significance of the behavior potential based on the actual humans is discussed. For the coexistence of humans and robots, it is important to evaluate a mutual influence between them. For this purpose, a virtual space is built using projection mapping. Finally, the effectiveness of the motion planning technique for the human–robot interaction is discussed from the point of view of not only robots but also humans.     

Independent traction control for uneven terrain using stick-slip phenomenon: application to a stair climbing robot

Mobile robots are being developed for building inspection and security, military reconnaissance, and planetary exploration. In such applications, the robot is expected to encounter rough terrain. In rough terrain, it is important for mobile robots to maintain adequate traction as excessive wheel slip causes the robot to lose mobility or even be trapped. This paper proposes a traction control algorithm that can be independently implemented to each wheel without requiring extra sensors and devices compared with standard velocity control methods. The algorithm estimates the stick-slip of the wheels based on estimation of angular acceleration. Thus, the traction force induced by torque of wheel converses between the maximum static friction and kinetic friction. Simulations and experiments are performed to validate the algorithm. The proposed traction control algorithm yielded a 40.5% reduction of total slip distance and 25.6% reduction of power consumption compared with the standard velocity control method. Furthermore, the algorithm does not require a complex wheel-soil interaction model or optimization of robot kinematics.     

Shadow robot for teaching motion

Human-friendly robots have begun to spread in society. In the future such robots and intelligent machines should be autonomous in open situations. To give dexterity to a robot, teaching motion is a good candidate. However, there are some problems from the operational point of view due to gravity and friction effects.In this paper, a shadow robot is proposed for teaching motion instead of force sensors. The shadow robot is a novel disturbance compensation method that consists of a twin robot system. Two of the same type of robot are required and they are controlled with the same position, velocity, and acceleration by bilateral acceleration control based on a disturbance observer. One robot is in the teaching motion controlled by a human and the other is unconstrained. Thus the purity of the human force is extracted by subtracting the disturbance torque in the unconstrained robot from the constrained one. As a result, the shadow robot observes the human force with gravity and friction compensation. Since it is possible to apply this concept to a multi-degree-of-freedom system, the human operationality in teaching motion are improved.The experimental results show the viability of the proposed method.     

基于多关节机器人的能量最小消耗控制策略*

为了能够在有限的能量供给的情况下延长机器人运行时间,针对此类机器人在运动中的耗能问题,提出一种通过改进梯形升降速算法来实现多关节机器人能量最小消耗的控制方法。首先对多关节机器人的协调控制及能耗问题进行了研究,利用梯形升降速算法的速度函数与伺服电机耗能之间的关系推导出该算法的能量函数;然后通过求解能量函数最小值,得出梯形速度曲线基于能量最优的时间参数,利用该时间参数来设定伺服电机各运动阶段的时间,使机器人耗能最小。最后通过实验计算及分析,验证了所述控制策略在解决机器人耗能最小化问题上的有效性。     

Cooperative Control of a 3D Dual-Flexible-Arm Robot

This paper discusses cooperative control of a dual-flexible-arm robot to handle a rigid object in three-dimensional space. The proposed control scheme integrates hybrid position/force control and vibration suppression control. To derive the control scheme, kinematics and dynamics of the robot when it forms a closed kinematic chain is discussed. Kinematics is described using workspace force, velocity and position vectors, and hybrid position/force control is extended from that on dual-rigid-arm robots. Dynamics is derived from constraint conditions and the lumped-mass-spring model of the flexible robots and an object. The vibration suppression control is calculated from the deflections of the flexible links and the dynamics. Experiments on cooperative control are performed. The absolute positions/orientations and internal forces/moments are controlled using the robot, each arm of which has two flexible links, seven joints and a force/torque sensor. The results illustrate that the robot handled the rigid object damping links' vibration successfully in three-dimensional space.     

Global Output Tracking Control of Flexible Joint Robots via Factorization of the Manipulator Mass Matrix

This paper investigates the problem of global output feedback tracking control of flexible joint robots. Despite the fact that only link position and actuator position are available from measurements, the proposed controller ensures that the link position globally tracks the desired trajectory while keeping all the remaining signals bounded. The controller development uses a partial state-feedback linearization technique combined with the integrator backstepping control design method whereas a filter and an observer are utilized to remove the requirement of link and actuator velocity measurements. Partial state-feedback linearization of robot dynamics is performed by factoring the manipulator mass matrix into a quadratic form involving an integrable root matrix. The applicability of the proposed general design methodology is illustrated by an example of flexible joint planar robots. Numerical results for a two-link flexible joint planar robot are also provided.      

基于运动图式的多机器人合作追捕

为实现多个机器人合作追捕目标机器人,以基于运动图式的反应式控制结构为基础,设计追捕机器人的4种基本行为：奔向目标,避开障碍物,避让队友以及收缩包围,为避免机器人陷入死锁状态,引入随机漫游行为。通过基本行为的矢量合成和机器人之间的局部交互作用,实现多机器人的协作行为。仿真试验验证了该方法的有效性。     

An adaptive locomotion controller for a hexapod robot: CPG,kinematics and force feedback

Insects can perform versatile locomotion behaviors such as multiple gaits, adapting to different terrains, fast escaping, etc. However, most of the existing bio-inspired legged robots do not possess such walking ability, especially when they walk on irregular terrains. To tackle this challenge, a central pattern generator （CPG）-based locomotion control methodology is proposed, integrated with a contact force feedback function. In this approach, multiple gaits are produced by the CFG module. After passing through a post-processing circuit and a delay-line, the control signal is fed into six trajectory generators to generate predefined feet trajectories for the six legs. Then, force feedback is employed to adjust these trajectories so as to adapt the robot to rough terrains. Finally the regulated trajectories are sent to inverse kinematics modules such that the position control instructions are generated to control the actuators. In both simulations and real robot experiments, we consistently show that the robot can perform sophisticated walking patterns. What is more, the robot can use the force feedback mechanism to deal with the irregularity in rough terrain. With this mechanism, the stability and adaptability of the robot are enhanced. In conclusion, the CPG-base control is an effective approach for legged robots and the force feedback approach is able to improve walking ability of the robots, especially when they walk on irregular terrains.     

Force-guided motions of a 6-d.o.f. industrial robot with a joint space approach

This article deals with the interaction between humans and industrial robots, more specifically with the new design and implementation of an algorithm for force-guided motions of a 6-d.o.f. robot. It may be used to comfortably teach positions without using any teaching pendant or for some assistance tasks. For this purpose, from readings of the force/torque sensor mounted in the robot wrist, the gravity forces and torques first have to be eliminated. To control the robot in joint space, it is then convenient to transform the external force and torque values from Cartesian space into joint space using the manipulator transposed Jacobian. This is why with the present approach the Jacobian matrix of the robot used was calculated. Now, from the computed joint torques, suitable position commands of the robot arm can be generated to obtain the desired behavior. A suggestion for this desired behavior is also included in this article. It is based on the impedance control approach in joint space. The proposed algorithm was implemented with the standard Stäubli RX90B industrial robot.     

Balancing of humanoid robot using contact force/moment control by task-oriented whole body control framework

Balancing control of humanoid robots is of great importance since it is a necessary functionality not only for maintaining a certain position without falling, but also for walking and running. For position controlled robots, the for-ce/torque sensors at each foot are utilized to measure the contact forces and moments, and these values are used to compute the joint angles to be commanded for balancing. The proposed approach in this paper is to maintain balance of torque-controlled robots by controlling contact force and moment using whole-body control framework with hierarchical structure. The control of contact force and moment is achieved by exploiting the full dynamics of the robot and the null-space motion in this control framework. This control approach enables compliant balancing behavior. In addition, in the case of double support phase, required contact force and moment are controlled using the redundancy in the contact force and moment space. These algorithms are implemented on a humanoid legged robot and the experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of them.     

Sensor Fusion for Joint Kinematic Estimation in Serial Robots Using Encoder,Accelerometer and Gyroscope

Open-chain manipulator robots play an important role in the industry, since they are utilized in applications requiring precise motion. High-performance motion of a robot system mainly relies on adequate trajectory planning and the controller that coordinates the movement. The controller performance depends of both, the employed control law and the sensor feedback. Optical encoder feedback is the most used sensor for angular position estimation of each joint in the robot, since they feature accurate and low noise angular position measurements. However, it cannot detect mechanical imperfections and deformations common in open chain robots. Moreover, velocity and acceleration cannot be extracted from the encoder data without adding phase delays. Sensor fusion techniques are found to be a good solution for solving this problem. However, few works has been carried out in serial robots for kinematic estimation of angular position, velocity and acceleration, since the delays induced by the filtering techniques avoids its use as controller feedback. This work proposes a novel sensor-fusion-based feedback system capable of providing complete kinematic information from each joint in 4-degrees of freedom serial robot, with the contribution of a proposed methodology based on Kalman filtering for fusing the information from optical encoder, gyroscope and accelerometer appended to the robot. Calibration and experimentation are carried out for validating the proposal. The results are compared with another kinematic estimation technique finding that this proposal provides more information about the robot movement without adding state delays, which is important for being used as controller feedback.     

Full-Body Compliant Human–Humanoid Interaction: Balancing in the Presence of Unknown External Forces

This paper proposes an effective framework of human-humanoid robot physical interaction. Its key component is a new control technique for full-body balancing in the presence of external forces, which is presented and then validated empirically. We have adopted an integrated system approach to develop humanoid robots. Herein, we describe the importance of replicating human-like capabilities and responses during human-robot interaction in this context. Our balancing controller provides gravity compensation, making the robot passive and thereby facilitating safe physical interactions. The method operates by setting an appropriate ground reaction force and transforming these forces into full-body joint torques. It handles an arbitrary number of force interaction points on the robot. It does not require force measurement at interested contact points. It requires neither inverse kinematics nor inverse dynamics. It can adapt to uneven ground surfaces. It operates as a force control process, and can therefore, accommodate simultaneous control processes using force-, velocity-, or position-based control. Forces are distributed over supporting contact points in an optimal manner. Joint redundancy is resolved by damping injection in the context of passivity. We present various force interaction experiments using our full-sized bipedal humanoid platform, including compliant balance, even when affected by unknown external forces, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the method.     

Physics-based simulation for manual robot guidance—An eRobotics approach

Manual robot guidance is an intuitive approach to teach robots with human's skills in the loop. It is particularly useful to manufacturers because of its high flexibility and low programming effort. However, manual robot guidance requires compliance control that is generally not available in position-controlled industrial robots. We address this issue from a simulation-driven approach. We systematically capture the interactive dynamic behavior of intelligent robot manipulators within physics-based virtual testbeds, regardless of the type of application. On this basis, we develop structures to equip and employ simulated robots with motion control capabilities that include soft physical interaction control driven in real-time with real external guidance forces. We then transfer the virtual compliant behavior of the simulated robots to their physical counterparts to enable manual guidance. The simulator provides assistance to operators through timely and insightful robot monitoring, as well as meaningful performance indexes. The testbed allows us to swiftly assess guidance within numerous interaction scenarios. Experimental case studies illustrate the practical usefulness of the symbiotic transition between 3D simulation and reality, as pursued by the eRobotics framework to address challenging issues in industrial automation.     

多路径段平滑过渡的自适应前瞻位姿插补算法

任务空间多路径段平滑过渡可提高工业机器人的运动速度.在非对称S曲线加减速控制的路径长度约束下,以给定速度不为零的路径衔接点和半径调节参数为基准,根据路径段的长度变化,自适应前瞻规划出路径段间最优衔接速度,并在相邻路径段间采用圆弧进行平滑过渡,路径段全程采用非对称S曲线加减速控制.为提高算法的通用性,根据S曲线加减速区段函数的特点,对加速和减速区段函数进行优化.在6自由度工业机器人实时控制系统平台上进行实验验证,结果表明,与传统加减速控制算法相比,该前瞻算法的作业执行效率可提高22.03%以上,并可实现多路径段间速度的平滑过渡和轨迹的修形.     

Pre-collision safety strategies for human-robot interaction

Safe planning and control is essential to bringing human-robot interaction into common experience. This paper presents an integrated human−robot interaction strategy that ensures the safety of the human participant through a coordinated suite of safety strategies that are selected and implemented to anticipate and respond to varying time horizons for potential hazards and varying expected levels of interaction with the user. The proposed planning and control strategies are based on explicit measures of danger during interaction. The level of danger is estimated based on factors influencing the impact force during a human-robot collision, such as the effective robot inertia, the relative velocity and the distance between the robot and the human. A second key requirement for improving safety is the ability of the robot to perceive its environment, and more specifically, human behavior and reaction to robot movements. This paper also proposes and demonstrates the use of human monitoring information based on vision and physiological sensors to further improve the safety of the human robot interaction. A methodology for integrating sensor-based information about the user's position and physiological reaction to the robot into medium and short-term safety strategies is presented. This methodology is verified through a series of experimental test cases where a human and an articulated robot respond to each other based on the human's physical and physiological behavior.

Adaptive control of a constrained robot - ensuring zero trackingand zero force errors

A constrained robot is a mathematical model that describes the interaction between a robot and the environment as the robot moves along a prescribed trajectory. The main difficulty in the control of constrained robots is to ensure zero error for the constraint force in addition to accurate trajectory tracking. This study extends the result of Slotine and Li (1991) to design a simple adaptive controller for constrained robots. The proposed controller achieves both control objectives in the presence of dynamic parameter uncertainty. The overall system is proven to be globally stable in the Lyapunov sense. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method     

Motion control algorithms and simulation of the dynamics of multilink robots moving based on the principles of a traveling wave

Multilink robots that simulate the motion of snakes and worms are considered. The motion is a result of the interaction with a supporting surface when the configuration of the robot is changed. Supervisor control algorithms are proposed for which a user (an operator) controls the motion velocity and direction, while the robot configuration that implements the desired motion is changed automatically. Controlled motions of the considered robots were simulated based on their dynamic models. The motions that simulated movements of snakes and worms are compared. Robots of this type can be used as mobile robots.     

Evaluating the Robot Personality and Verbal Behavior of Domestic Robots Using Video-Based Studies

Robots are increasingly being used in domestic environments and should be able to interact with inexperienced users. Human–human interaction and human–computer interaction research findings are relevant, but often limited because robots are different from both humans and computers. Therefore, new human–robot interaction (HRI) research methods can inform the design of robots suitable for inexperienced users. A video-based HRI (VHRI) methodology was here used to carry out a multi-national HRI user study for the prototype domestic robot BIRON (BIelefeld RObot companioN). Previously, the VHRI methodology was used in constrained HRI situations, while in this study HRIs involved a series of events as part of a 'hometour' scenario. Thus, the present work is the first study of this methodology in extended HRI contexts with a multi-national approach. Participants watched videos of the robot interacting with a human actor and rated two robot behaviors (Extrovert and Introvert). Participants' perceptions and ratings of the robot's behaviors differed with regard to both verbal interactions and person following by the robot. The study also confirms that the VHRI methodology provides a valuable means to obtain early user feedback, even before fully working prototypes are available. This can usefully guide the future design work on robots, and associated verbal and non-verbal behaviors.     

Redundant robot control using task based performance measures

The joint velocities required to move the end-effector of a redundant robot with a desired linear and angular velocity depend on its configuration. Similarly, the joint torques produced due to the force and moment at the end-effector also depend on its configuration. When the robot is near a singular configuration, the joint velocities required to attain the end-effector velocity in certain directions are extremely high. Similarly, in some configurations the joint torque produced at certain joints may be high for a relatively small magnitude of external force. An infinite number of trajectories in the joint space can be used to achieve a desired end-effector trajectory for redundant robots. However, a joint trajectory resulting in robot configurations requiring lower joint velocities or joint torques is desired. This may be achieved through a proper utilization of redundancy. Local performance measures for redundant robots are defined in this article as indicators of their ability to follow a desired end-effector trajectory and their ability to apply desired forces at the end-effector. Thus, these performance measures depend on the task to be performed. Control algorithms which can be efficiently applied to redundant robots to improve these performance measures are presented. These control algorithms are based on the gradient projection method. Gradients of the performance measures used in the control schemes result in simple symbolic expressions for “real world” robots'. Feasibility and effectiveness of these control schemes is demonstrated through the simulation of a seven-degree-of-freedom redundant robot derived from the PUMA geometry.     

The DLR-KUKA success story: robotics research improves industrial robots

This paper discusses the joint venture between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics and the German robot manufacturer, KUKA Robotics GmbH, for the successful transfer of the knowledge in robot dynamics and control, human robot interaction, and sensory feedback as originally developed for the remote control of space robots to industrial robotics. This technology transfer venture aims to promote more industrial sensory feedback applications with particular focus on the fusion of vision and force, while merging service and industrial robots into the future. As such, the aim is to transfer new robonaut technologies and ultra-lightweight, torque-controlled, kinematically redundant arms with multifingered articulated hands into the terrestrial robot industry.