Autonomous stair-climbing with miniature jumping robots.

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.     

Pneumatic-driven jumping robot with anthropomorphic muscular skeleton structure

Human muscular skeleton structure plays an important role for adaptive locomotion. Understanding of its mechanism is expected to be used for realizing adaptive locomotion of a humanoid robot as well. In this paper, a jumping robot driven by pneumatic artificial muscles is designed to duplicate human leg structure and function. It has three joints and nine muscles, three of them are biarticular muscles. For controlling such a redundant robot, we take biomechanical findings into account: biarticular muscles mainly contribute to joint coordination whereas monoarticular muscles contribute to provide power. Through experiments, we find (1) the biarticular muscles realize coordinated movement of joints when knee and/or hip is extended, (2) the extension of the ankle does not lead to coordinated movement, and (3) we can superpose extension of the knee with that of the hip without losing the joint coordination. The obtained knowledge can be used not only for robots, but may also contribute to understanding of adaptive human mechanism.     

微小气动机器人系统的模糊自适应PID控制

基于尺蠖的移动机理,研制了一种具有柔性移动机构的微小气动机器人内窥镜诊疗系统。描述了微机器人系统的本体结构和运动机理,并通过分析机器人系统的驱动力学特性和机器人的移动控制特性,给出了基于模糊自适应PID的气压-位置伺服控制方法,计算机仿真实验结果表明基于模糊自适应PID算法可实现机器人系统的有效控制。     

Piezoelectric-driven miniature wheeled robot based on flexible transmission mechanisms

Microsystem Technologies - A 935 mg weight coin-size piezoelectric-driven wheeled robot with a flexible body-actuator-transmission integrated structure is presented in this paper. The...     

Distributed BIT diagnostic network Microsystems for miniature mobile robot

A perfect detecting method is a key factor for robotic systems, and the Built-in-Test (BIT) is the most important technological approach to improve the testability and diagnostic capability of robotic systems. The Miniature Wheel-Track-Legged Mobile Robot is studied, a distributed diagnostic network is presented based on Microsystems, BP network is applied and integrated with D-S evidence theory organically to deal with uncertain information. The robot can work in harsh environment, and has multimode moving methods, finally, an illustrative example of robot faults diagnosis proves that the BIT detecting system can obtain more status message through good structure, hiberarchy and module designing. Furthermore the system can get the information exactly and locate the faults properly, then isolate them. The self-diagnostic capability of robot can meet the need of the increasing reliability.     

基于弹簧负载倒立摆模型的仿袋鼠机器人稳定跳跃控制

仿生跳跃机器人具备很强的越障和环境适应能力,但是由于机器人运动过程中较短的可控时间以及腾空阶段运动的不确定性,运动的稳定性对于仿生跳跃机器人至关重要.本文对仿袋鼠机器人跳跃运动过程中的稳定跳跃控制问题进行了研究.首先采用双质量弹簧负载倒立摆模型(spring-loaded inverted pendulum,SLIP)模型对袋鼠机器人的结构进行简化,建立了机器人系统的动力学模型,并对机器人的运动过程以及着地相与腾空相的切换条件进行了分析.然后采用解耦控制的思想,将SLIP模型的运动控制分解为水平速度控制和跳跃高度控制两个方面,分别通过控制着地角度实现对水平运动速度的控制,通过能量补偿实现对跳跃高度的控制.最后在ADAMS仿真环境中建立机器人模型并进行了机器人运动仿真实验.实验结果表明,本文提出的方法可以实现仿袋鼠机器人稳定的周期性跳跃运动.     

Generation of jumping motion pattern for a hopping robot using genetic algorithm

This paper describes an application of genetic algorithm to generate a jumping motion pattern for a hopping robot. A central pattern generator is used to generate the motion pattern. The tuning parameters of the central pattern generator are regarded as genes and adjusted by the genetic algorithm, so that the hopping robot can jump continuously to the reference height with the minimum force. To realize online tuning of the parameters, new genetic operations such as few individuals, quick estimation, instant selection, and intentional mutation are introduced. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. This work was presented, in part, at the Fourth International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 19–22, 1999     

足式机器人SLIP模型向上跳跃台阶的运动控制

由于存在地势起伏,台阶对足式机器人运动稳定性会带来较大挑战.弹簧负载倒立摆模型(SLIP)作为研究足式机器人的优良模板,能否完成向上跳跃台阶的动作与其腿部摆角,起跳位置和跳跃高度都有密切的关系.由于调整模型腿部摆角规律容易引发运动失效,故本文在算法中引入虚拟弹簧腿,根据虚拟弹簧腿的运行规律确定合理起跳位置,根据起跳位置来控制系统跳跃高度进而完成跳跃台阶的动作.最后利用仿真软件进行多组仿真,结果表明本文算法对起跳区间划分合理,对起跳高度控制精准,能够实现SLIP模型跳跃台阶前后的稳定运动.     

A study of a jumping one-leg robot with two degrees of freedom

This study aims to improve human jumping capabilities from an engineering perspective by proposing a supportive device, as in a robot suit. The robot expresses a time-oriented optimal torque pattern, which is the most efficient jumping motion and timing, of each joint that can jump the highest using a motor. Then humans learn the most efficient jumping motion. To actualize the most efficient jumping motion, we observe human jumping motions and analytically calculate the most efficient torque patterns based on them. This work was presented in part at the 13th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 31–February 2, 2008     

Design of an shape memory alloy-actuated biomimetic mobile robot with the jumping gait

This paper reports the design, simulation, analysis, and experiments of mesoscale fourlegged robots that can locomote by a jumping gait using only shape memory alloy (SMA) wires as actuators. Through studies of the structure and function of leg muscle groups in vertebrates’ lower musculoskeletal system, three types of muscles are selected for robot leg design, and each muscle is then replaced by an SMA wire in the robot model. Two types of robot models are proposed and analyzed using three sets of computer simulation. It can be concluded from the simulation that the sequence of SMA muscle activation, activation arrangement of the rear and the front legs, and the foot length are primary factors determining the jumping performance. It is observed that when the robot has three degrees of freedom for each leg and a foot length of 40 mm, the maximum jumping height is approximately 120% of the robot’s height and the maximum distance per jump is about 35% of its length. In addition, two robot prototypes are presented based on the design models and experimental results. The simulation and experimental results are found to show good agreement. The overall results show that the proposed robot design and SMA actuation method are feasible for all SMA-driven jumping robots.     

Simulation of motion of a multilink jumping robot and investigation of its characteristics

The design of a four-link robot jumping on a rough surface is described. Phases of the robot jump are considered. A mathematical model of the robot motion and simulation results are presented.     

Oscillatory motion-based miniature magnetic walking robot actuated by a rotating magnetic field

Magnetic micro-robots have been proposed for use in biomedical applications. These studies focus on locomotion control using a gradient, alternating, and rotating magnetic fields at the sub-micro scale. However, this study focuses on a basic mechanism of active locomotion for diagnostic robots. Furthermore, the digestive intestine in the human body has a complex path in which locomotion methods can become either swimming or walking according to the inner condition. Therefore, we propose a new simple mechanism for amphibious locomotion within a rotating magnetic field using the three-axis Helmholtz coil system. The proposed magnetic robot consists of NdFeB permanent spherical magnets, flexible silicone tubes, and legs. Successive changes of actuation of yaw and roll motions cause alternating and walking motions. Direction of movement is decided by rotating the direction of the magnetic field (clockwise or counter-clockwise). In addition, turning directions are decided by the plane of the rotating magnetic field. A magnetic torque between the rotating magnetic field and the magnetic moments produce a constant walking pattern similar to a trotting gait. In addition, an oscillatory motion of the flexible robot body can generate a thrust force in the liquid. Finally, through the various experiments, we evaluate the capability of the locomotion.     

Dynamic modelling & simulation of a four legged jumping robot with compliant legs

Legged locomotion is used by most animals and human beings on Earth. Legged locomotion is preferred over the wheeled locomotion as it can be used for both flat and rough terrains. In this paper, an attempt has been made for the dynamic modelling and simulation of four legged jumping robots with compliant legs. Sagittal plane and bounding gait has been considered for the simulation. For energy saving, passive dynamics has been used with the help of compliant legs (linear spring). Different state variables have been obtained for analysis. Control strategies have been implemented on dynamic modelling for forward velocity control.     

Steerable pyramid-based face hallucination

In this paper we propose a robust learning-based face hallucination algorithm, which predicts a high-resolution face image from an input low-resolution image. It can be utilized for many computer vision tasks, such as face recognition and face tracking. With the help of a database of other high-resolution face images, we use a steerable pyramid to extract multi-orientation and multi-scale information of local low-level facial features both from the input low-resolution face image and other high-resolution ones, and use a pyramid-like parent structure and local best match approach to estimate the best prior; then, this prior is incorporated into a Bayesian maximum a posterior (MAP) framework, and finally the high-resolution version is optimized by a steepest decent algorithm. The experimental results show that we can enhance a 24×32 face image into a 96×128 one while the visual effect is relatively good.     

控向金字塔颜色传递

提出了一个基于控向金字塔的颜色传递算法,其基本思想是在目标图像和源图像对应的子带信息中分别实现统计信息的传递．统计信息包含各子带信息的均值、方差、偏度系数和峰度系数．为了避免通道交叉,目标图像和源图像的RGB像素信息首先被变换至与分量无关的laβ颜色空间．然后对变换后的各分量分别进行控向金字塔分解,并在倒塌金字塔时实现统计信息的传递．作为灵活的图像变换结构,控向金字塔允许对需传递的子带进行选择,从而可以获得多种不同的结果。     

Canonical Decomposition of Steerable Functions

This paper describes a general mathematical formulation for the problem of constructing steerable functions. The formulation is based on Lie group theory and is thus applicable to transformations which are Lie groups, such as, rotation, translation, scaling, and affine transformation. For one-parameter and Abelian multi-parameter Lie transformation groups, a canonical decomposition of all possible steerable functions, derived using the Jordan decomposition of matrices, is developed. It is shown that any steerable function under Lie transformation groups can be described using this decomposition. Finally, a catalog of steerable functions for several common multi-parameter image transformation groups is also provided.     

Dynamic model and performance analysis of rigid-flexible coupling four-bar leg mechanism for small scale bio-inspired jumping robot

Microsystem Technologies - Bio-inspired jumping robot can imitate the jumping process of creatures, and can move in environment with large obstacles. This type of robot can be applied to complex...     

一种可操纵金字塔的相干斑去噪方法

可操纵金字塔的小波系数比一般小波金字塔具有更强的层间和层内相关性,更有利于区分信号与噪声的小波系数,本文提出一种可操纵金字塔的相干斑去噪算法.此算法使用可操纵金字塔对图像进行多尺度分解,并通过建立小波系数的几何先验模型.对每个小波系数进行自适应的贝叶斯估计,达到去除相干斑的目的.实验结果表明,与传统的相干斑去噪算法相比.本算法能更有效地抑制斑点噪声,又保留有用信号及边缘信息.     

基于易操纵金字塔的多传感器图像融合

针对目前传统方法在图像未完全配准时融合效果差的问题,提出了一种基于易操纵金字塔的多传感器图像融合方法。首先,对多光谱图像进行易操纵金字塔分解;然后,恰当地合并分解得到子带图像系列来构造融合图像对应的易操纵金字塔,并通过逆变换重构融合后图像。最后利用熵和空间频率对该方法的融合性能进行了评估分析,并与基于拉普拉斯变换和小波变换的图像融合方法进行了比较。实验结果表明,该方法综合性能优于基于拉普拉斯变换和基于小波变换等传统图像融合方法,图像未完全配准情况下也能获得好的融合效果。     

基于可调滤波器金字塔算法的人脸特征提取

特征提取是人脸识别中最重要的一个环节,我们在HMAX模型的基础上,提出了一种改进的视觉信息处理模型,它利用可调滤波器金字塔算法对图像进行多尺度、多方向分析,并结合一系列分层处理,得到了具有尺度、平移、旋转不变性的特征向量,解决了人脸识别中的一个重要难题。在ORL人脸数据库中的实验结果证明了该算法的有效性。