Illumination Adaptive Identification Algorithm of a Reconfigurable Modular Robot

Reconfigurable modular robots feature high mobility due to their unconstrained connection manners. Inspired by the snake multi-joint crawling principle, a chain-type reconfigurable modular robot (CRMR) is designed, which could reassemble into various configurations through the compound joint motion. Moreover, an illumination adaptive modular robot identification (IAMRI) algorithm is proposed for CRMR. At first, an adaptive threshold is applied to detect oriented FAST features in the robot image. Then, the effective detection of features in non-uniform illumination areas is achieved through an optimized quadtree decomposition method. After matching features, an improved random sample consensus algorithm is employed to eliminate the mismatched features. Finally, the reconfigurable robot module is identified effectively through the perspective transformation. Compared with ORB, MA, Y-ORB, and S-ORB algorithms, the IAMRI algorithm has an improvement of over 11.6% in feature uniformity, and 13.7% in the comprehensive indicator, respectively. The IAMRI algorithm limits the relative error within 2.5 pixels, efficiently completing the CRMR identification under complex environmental changes.     

一种连杆蠕行管道机器人的设计与实现

设计与实现了一种连杆蠕行管道机器人。该机器人不仅能够在各种材质的管道中实现前进、停留、后退等动作,还具有在垂直管道中向上向下行走等功能。该文主要介绍了蠕行管道机器人硬件设计和控制方法。     

基于多传感器的输电线巡检机器人越障伺服控制

巡检机器人沿线行走时必须探测各种障碍,并根据障碍类型规划越障行为。针对220KV架空输电线路的结构特点,设计了基于多传感器伺服控制方案,包括光电传感器模块、接近传感器模块和水平传感器模块。论文阐述了系统的结构和工作原理,通过合理布局的传感器测头及检测传感器的输出,经过特定的逻辑算法,即可完成高压巡检机器人驱动轮与导线“对中”实现空间定位,完成巡线机器人自主越障。运行实验表明：传感器工作可靠,导航方法简单可行,识别精度高,满足实际运行要求。     

架空高压输电线路巡线机器人样机研制

介绍了所研制的220 kV架空高压输电线路巡线机器人。该机器人的特点是：用最少的自由度和小巧紧凑的机械结构以及多传感器与机器视觉混合伺服方法,实现了机器人在一根相线全程线路上的自主行驶运动（滚动、爬行和跨越／避让障碍物）;用电流互感器技术实现了机器人电能消耗的在线自动补给;用可见光摄像机和红外热成像仪实现了线路的巡视与机械电器故障的检测诊断;巡检线路及其信息实现了计算机管理。该机器人已通过了现场带电线路上的运行试验,具有广阔的应用前景。     

Locomotion techniques for robotic colonoscopy.

Colonoscopy has become a routine procedure in many hospitals all over the world for colon cancer diagnosis. This review article discusses the work done by researchers in the quest to automate the colonoscopy procedure. In vitro and in vivo experimentation have been carried out to prove the possibilities of a robot crawling along a patient's colon, treating polyps as they are encountered. Locomotion is an essential part of robotic colonoscopy. The robot must be able to propel itself from the anus right up to the cecum without damaging the colon walls. The challenge is to design a robust locomotion technique that is able to advance through the stretchable, slippery, and mobile colon, which is always in its collapsed stage, in three-dimensional orientation. The authors believe that in the future, conventional colonoscopy will be revolutionized, giving way to robotics to assist doctors in colonoscope manipulation and performing therapeutic procedures and leaving doctors to concentrate on the diagnostic aspect of the procedure, which would encourage mass screening as more patients can be evaluated per session.     

基于机器视觉的爬管机器人 路径信息识别算法

目前管道尤其是高空架设管道的检测主要是通过人工手持设备进行,而且测试条件十分受限,易造成检测效率低和安全风险问题。为了提高管道检测效率,保护检测人员的生命安全,本文提出一种基于机器视觉的管道外爬行机器人路径信息识别算法。首先,对获取的图像进行感兴趣区域(region of interest , ROI)设置和透视变换,并对RGB和HLS色彩空间的二值图像进行融合处理;然后,通过轮廓提取的方法不仅实现对障碍物及破损的提取,并且将管道上的非管道像素进行填充补偿,提高了多项式拟合的稳定性和准确性。最后,对融合后的二值图像使用滑动窗格法提取管道像素,采用多项式拟合出管道中心线。实验表明,该算法能在复杂的环境光下准确识别中心线、障碍物以及破损,抗干扰能力强,满足爬管机器人自主沿管线行进的需要。     

Extending the utility of the RHINO educational robot

Expensive hardware that has been purchased in the past by educational institutions can be re-utilized and modernized to take advantage of newly introduced technologies. Keeping in mind that the introduction of these tools is an educational experience by itself. Robots are defined as flexible, reprogrammable automated machines. This paper addresses the problems with the RHINO educational robot original software interface that limited the RHINO to an almost rigid mechanism. A new software interface, based on a popular high-level structured language, is introduced which will make the RHINO robot a better teaching tool. Since the RHINO robot has been popular in robotics teaching worldwide, it will become helpful in robotics lectures and demonstrations where students can implement various concepts on the RHINO robot. Specifically, the inverse kinematics problem is solved for the robot at hand and used in an experiment to calculate online the needed position and orientation of the end effector. This important capability was not possible with the commercial original interface of the RHINO. Other advantages of the newly introduced interface (such as clock, real numbers, and software library units) open the way for more educational benefits of the RHINO in robotics, digital control, engineering projects and research. The outline of four experiments being conducted in the Robotics course being offered at the American University of Beirut based on the result of this paper is presented. In addition, the same robot has been effectively utilized in final year projects for graduating engineers of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department     

激光导航智能机器人巡检系统在特高压变电站的应用

为适应特高压变电站设备巡检的新要求,在对比了机器人导航模式的基础上,介绍了一种基于激光导航技术的变电站智能机器人巡检系统。讨论了该系统的结构组成、功能定义、任务执行等方面的内容。对机器人在可见光摄影、表计数据读取、红外热像检测方面的效果与传统巡检效果的进行了比较。现场实际应用情况表明,该巡检系统能很好地适应特高压变电站设备众多、结构复杂的环境。巡检系统长时间的续航能力和精准的检测方法,保证了设备巡检的可靠性,为特高压变电站的日常运维管理工作提供了有力支持。最后对机器人系统使用中的问题提出了建议和改进措施。     

管道检测机器人乒乓供电管理系统设计

油气输运管道内部探伤的管道机器人是工业特种机器人研究领域中热点,机器人在管道内作业过程中续航能力取决于机器人能量的如何获取和供电管理系统。本文针对此类问题设计并实现了管道机器人的自主发电,双电池组乒乓储能和供电的的管理机制,在两块电池一供一备的模式中,能够有效解决两块高能量锂离子电池之间充电、供电和电量检测自动切换,实现了双电池组的高效管理模式。     

Control of biped walking robot for human living environment

This paper introduces biped robot adaptation to human living environment from viewpoints of battery operation time extension and environmental recognition. These issues are important when robots actually work at home. First, in order to extend battery operation time, we propose energy-saving bipedal locomotion gait. The problem is formulated as an optimal control problem, which is conventionally hard to solve when a target system is complicated. In this paper, partial derivatives appeared in optimal control problem are implicitly represented by using automatic differentiation technique. This approach enables complicated optimal control problem solvable. In combination with receding horizon control, its computation cost is also reduced. Second, we introduce the biped walk tracking based on the camera image mounted on the walking robot, and the visual servoing by the posture change for the purpose of the target image tracking in the camera frame. We propose a new control law to track the rotated target object using the characteristic of the walking, which considered the interference between translational motion and rotational motion. The decoupling is realized by simulations and experiments. As a result, the walking robot tracked the translated and rotated target object without a practical issue. Copyright © 2009 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

机器人的鲁棒自适应分散跟踪控制

提供了一种鲁棒自适应控制策略,用于不确定性机器人的发迹跟踪,该控制器由一个ＰＤ线性反馈、一个立方项偿和非线性项构成。控制律采用分散形式,通过对二自由度机器人的仿真,证明该方法能使跟踪误差快速趋近于零。     

3D Scan matching for mobile robot localization over rough terrain

In order to enable an autonomous mobile robot to travel over rough terrain, it necessitates the capability to detect self‐position accurately even when the odometry errors are increased in traveling. The conventional method can keep high speed and precise localization using iterative closest point algorithms or feature matching techniques. However, effects of steep changes of a mobile robot position are not considered when it travels over rough terrain. In this article, we propose the method for efficient real‐time 6D pose tracking using a rotating 2D laser scanner in traveling over rough terrain. For adaptation to steep changes of the position, weighted point clouds are generated based on the angular and the linear velocity measured by sensors mounted on the robot. And the position and posture of the robot are sequentially optimized by the scan matching in increments of 10 scans. In indoor experiments, we evaluated accuracy of our method when the robot passes on rugged floor. As a result, our method was performed with less than 0.078 m RMS positional error in real time.     

足球机器人电磁击球机构设计与仿真分析

为了能让足球机器人很好地完成传球和射门动作,提出了小型足球机器人击球机构的一种设计方案。通过电磁场有限元分析软件对电磁铁击球过程进行了仿真分析,并得出机器人击球的最佳时机。机器人能够实现远距离、高速度射门和传球,证明该设计方案的可行性和优越性,对设计和改进足球机器人的击球机构具有指导作用。     

Walking planning based on artificial vector field with prediction simulation for biped robot

This paper proposes a method for gait trajectory generation using an artificial vector field for stable walking for a biped robot. The tip of the robot while walking can often deviate from the desired trajectory as a result of the disturbances forced by unexpected outside factors. In our approach, though no prepared trajectory is specified a priori, the tip follows the artificial vectors designed in the workspace. Moreover, the prediction simulation is performed online. The simulator judges the stability under comparison with the present state and the prediction results, and then the gait parameters are adaptively improved in feedforward for the stable walk. The numerical and physical experimental results show the validity of the proposed method in a continuous walk. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 159(4): 54– 61, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20547     

Uncalibrated Workpiece Positioning Method for Peg-in-hole Assembly Using an Industrial Robot

This paper proposes an uncalibrated workpiece positioning method for peg-in-hole assembly of a device using an industrial robot. Depth images are used to identify and locate the workpieces when a peg-in-hole assembly task is carried out by an industrial robot in a flexible production system. First, the depth image is thresholded according to the depth data of the workpiece surface so as to filter out the background interference. Second, a series of image processing and the feature recognition algorithms are executed to extract the outer contour features and locate the center point position. This image information, fed by the vision system, will drive the robot to achieve the positioning, approximately. Finally, the Hough circle detection algorithm is used to extract the features and the relevant parameters of the circular hole where the assembly would be done, on the color image, for accurate positioning. The experimental result shows that the positioning accuracy of this method is between 0.6-1.2 mm, in the used experimental system. The entire positioning process need not require complicated calibration, and the method is highly flexible. It is suitable for the automatic assembly tasks with multi-specification or in small batches, in a flexible production system.     

输电线路螺栓紧固带电作业机器人的视觉搜索、识别与定位方法

在输电线路采用机器人进行螺栓的全自动带电紧固作业是一项非常有挑战性的工作,螺栓的自动紧固首先必须解决螺栓的自动搜索、识别与定位,由于线路环境复杂,这些工作变得十分困难,为此,提出一种新的螺栓视觉搜索识别定位方法,该方法分为两部分,基于参考物的螺栓追踪,通过设定引流线为参考物,先对引流线进行定位,然后沿着引流线方向来搜索螺栓,从而简化螺栓搜索过程,降低螺栓识别难度;基于改进Hough变换的螺栓识别算法,通过对经典Hough变换的峰值选择策略进行改进来实现螺栓的精确识别,然后利用螺栓头部圆形特征来完成螺栓中心的验证,并通过HOG和SVM技术来实现目标物体的识别分类,消除外界不相关物体对目标图像的影响,进一步提高识别精度。根据该方法,设计了机器人原理样机并进行了模拟测试和现场测试,测试结果表明,该方法能够高效地实现输电线路上螺栓的搜索、识别与定位,极大程度地提高了机器人的带电作业效率。     

多运动方式移动机器人控制系统设计

为了实现适合于多运动方式移动机器人的分布式运动控制系统,在四足机器人控制系统总体设计方案的基础上,采用自下而上的设计思想设计了控制系统各功能模块,即伺服控制模块、协调控制模块和通信接口模块,并在多运动方式四足机器人试验平台上进行了验证。试验结果表明,整个控制系统结构灵活、功能强大、工作稳定可靠,提高了机器人的运动性能。     

挂轨式管道泄漏检测机器人设计

地下管廊中管道的泄漏检测是管廊安全运行的重要保障之一,为了实现管廊的自动化运行,并针对传统检测方法的灵活性不足、信息交互性差的缺点,本文基于STM32F103设计了一种挂轨式管道泄漏检测机器人。机器人搭载MIC声音传感器作为泄漏检测装置,将采集到的信号利用神经网络进行音频特征的识别,监控主机对判断结果做出报警或其他措施。经过管道泄漏检测系统实验平台测试,机器人系统运行稳定,对于管道泄漏的检出率达到93%,满足实际应用需求。     

Position Control of a Wheeled Mobile Robot Including Tire Behavior

Advanced driver assistance systems are increasingly available on road vehicles. These systems require a thorough development procedure, an important part of which consists of hardware-in-the-loop experiments in a controlled environment. To this end, a facility called vehicle hardware-in-the-loop (VeHIL) is operated, aiming at testing the entire road vehicle in an artificial environment. In VeHIL, the test vehicle is placed on a roller bench, whereas other traffic participants, i.e., vehicles in the direct neighborhood of the test vehicle, are simulated using wheeled mobile robots (WMRs). To achieve a high degree of experiment reproducibility, focus is put on the design of an accurate position control system for the robots. Due to the required types of maneuvers, these robots have independently driven and steered wheels. Consequently, the robot is overactuated. Furthermore, since the robot is capable of high-dynamic maneuvers, slip effects caused by the tires can play an important role. A position controller based on feedback linearization is presented, using the so-called multicycle approach, which regards the robot as a set of identical unicycles. As a result, the WMR is position controlled, whereas each unicycle is controlled, taking weight transfer and longitudinal and lateral tire slip into account.     

An instructional robotics and machine vision laboratory

The US Naval Academy has assembled a laboratory consisting of 16 identical stations in support of several robotics and machine vision courses. Each station has an 80386-based microcomputer, a five degree-of-freedom robot arm, a video-rate vision system, and a speech synthesis system. The robot arms are capable of teach-pendant operation or control via the attached computer. Programs written in the robot control language can be downloaded into, stored in, and run from robot RAM. For greater flexibility, move instructions can be generated by the controlling computer (in any desired computer language) and transmitted to the arm for execution via an RS-232 link. Each joint of the robot (plus the gripper) has a dedicated microprocessor for closed-loop servo operation utilizing incremental drive-motor shaft encoders and micro-switches for “home” locations. The vision system includes an RS170-compatible video camera, a PC-compatible frame grabber board, and a video monitor. This configuration permits the utilization of 2D and 3D vision feedback in the robot control process. The laboratory is used in support of undergraduate courses that cover such topics as robot kinematics and task planning, elementary machine vision, and artificial neural networks