自由飘浮空间机器人系统基座姿态调整

规划机械臂的运动以调整作为其基座的卫星的姿态，既节约姿控燃料，又可作为常规姿控系统的备份手段．首先，建立自由飘浮空间机器人系统的状态方程，其状态变量为关节角和卫星姿态角，输入变量为关节角速度．基于系统能控性理论，规划连接系统初始状态和期望状态的路径，实现了仅通过机械臂关节的运动同时控制基座姿态和机械臂关节角的目的．从理论上分析了机械臂的能量消耗，给出了使能量指标最小的近似最优算法．仿真结果表明了该方法的有效性．     

Calculation of repeatable control strategies for kinematically redundant manipulators

A kinematically redundant manipulator is a robotic system that has more than the minimum number of degrees of freedom that are required for a specified task. Due to this additional freedom, control strategies may yield solutions which are not repeatable in the sense that the manipulator may not return to its initial joint configuration for closed end-effector paths. This paper compares two methods for choosing repeatable control strategies which minimize their distance from a nonrepeatable inverse with desirable properties. The first method minimizes the integral norm of the difference of the desired inverse and a repeatable inverse while the second method minimizes the distance of the null vectors associated with the desired and the repeatable inverses. It is then shown how the two techniques can be combined in order to obtain the advantages of both methods. As an illustrative example the pseudoinverse is approximated in a region of the joint space for a seven-degree-of-freedom manipulator.     

冗余机器人的双向自运动路径规划

冗余机器人的自运动路径规划是在保持手端任务向量不变的情况下,在关节空间内寻找一条连接机器人初始关节构形和期望关节构型的几何路径.本文给出一种双向自运动路径规划算法,其基本思想是使位于初始关节构形的真实机器人和位于期望关节构形的虚拟机器人在自运动流形上运动并收敛到同一关节构形,从而得到一条连接初始和期望关节构形的自运动几何路径.该算法克服了以往算法容易陷入局部极小构形的缺陷.仿真结果证实了算法的有效性.     

Time-scaling control of an underactuated manipulator

Position control of an underactuated manipulator that has one passive joint is investigated. The dynamic constraint caused by the passive joint is second-order nonholonomic. Time scaling of the active joint trajectory and bidirectional motion planning from the initial and the desired configurations provide an exact solution of the positioning trajectory. The active and passive joints can be positioned to the desired angles simultaneously by swinging the active joints only twice. Feedback control constrains the manipulator along the planned path in the configuration space. Simulation and experimental results show the validity of the proposed methods. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Theoretical Investigation of Time Suboptimal Control of Industrial Manipulators Along Specified Paths

A method for the time suboptimal control of an industrial manipulator from an initial position and orientation to a final position and orientation as it moves along a specified path is proposed. Nonlinear system equations that describe the manipulator motion are linearized at each time step along the path. A method which gives the control inputs (joint angular velocities) for time suboptimal control of the manipulator is developed. In the formulation, joint angular velocity and acceleration limitations are also taken into consideration. A six degree of freedom elbow type manipulator is used in numerical examples to verify the method developed.     

基于解析法和遗传算法的机械手运动学逆解

研究优化机械手轨迹规划问题,机械手运动时要具有稳定性避障性能。针对平面3自由度冗余机械手优化控制问题,建立机械手的结构模型。提出用解析法和遗传算法相结合满足具有计算量小和适应性强的特点。在给定机械手末端执行器的运动轨迹,按着机械手冗余自由度,运动轨迹上每个点对应的关节角有无穷多个解。而通过算法可以找到一组最优的关节角,可得到优化机械手运动过程中柔顺性和避障点。仿真结果表明,该算法可以快速收敛到全局最优解,可用于计算冗余机械手运动学逆解,并可实现机器人的轨迹规划和避障优化控制。     

GA-pattern matching-based manipulator control system for real-time visual servoing

_—In robotic applications, tasks of picking and placing are the most fundamental ones. Also, for a robot manipulator, the recognition of its working environment is one of the most important issues to do intelligent tasks, since this aptitude enables it to work in a variable environment. This paper presents a new control strategy for robot manipulators, which utilizes visual information to direct the manipulator in its working space, to pick up an object of known shape, but with arbitrary position and orientation. During the search for an object to be picked up, vision-based control by closed-loop feedback, referred to as visual servoing, is performed to obtain the motion control of the manipulator hand. The system employs a genetic algorithm (GA) and a pattern matching technique to explore the search space and exploit the best solutions by this search technique. The control strategy utilizes the found results of GA-pattern matching in every step of GA evolution to direct the manipulator towards the target object. We named this control strategy step-GA-evnlution. This control method can be applied for manipulator real-time visual servoing and solve its path planning problem in real-time, i.e. in order for the manipulator to adapt the execution of the task by visual information during the process execution. Simulations have been performed, using a two-link planar manipulator and three image models, in order to find which one is the best for real-time visual servoing and the results show the effectiveness of the control method.     

基于轨迹规划的平面三连杆欠驱动机械臂位置控制

针对中间关节为欠驱动的二阶非完整平面三连杆机械臂,提出一种基于轨迹规划的末端点位置控制策略.首先,建立系统的动力学模型,并根据几何关系利用差分进化算法求取所有连杆与目标位置相对应的目标角度;然后,根据驱动关节与欠驱动关节的耦合关系,采用时间缩放法和双向法分别规划两根驱动连杆的两条轨迹,并利用遗传算法优化合适的第1连杆中间位置,将两条轨迹拼接成一条完整可达轨迹;最后,设计滑模变结构控制器以跟踪完整可达轨迹,实现系统从初始位置到目标位置的控制目标.数值仿真结果表明了所提出控制策略的有效性.     

A feedforward decoupling concept for the control of elastic robots

A reference-oriented procedure for controlling elastic robots is presented. This affords, in a first step, an optimal path planning method generating the reference trajectory. It will be realized by a classical feedforward decoupling scheme. The elastic deviations from this reference are corrected within the feedforward loop by calculation of the joint correction angles putting back the endpoint to its nominal position. In a final step, elastic vibrations of the arms are damped by an additional joint output control system, which uses as an input joint kinematics and strain gauge measurements of the elastic curvatures. The concept has been realized for a laboratory manipulator. Theory and experiments agree very well.     

Chaos-PSO-based Motion Planning and Accurate Tracking for Position-posture Control of a Planar Underactuated Manipulator with Disturbance

Unlike a fully-actuated manipulator, the position-posture control of a planar underactuated manipulator (PUM) is more difficult, but the research on it is significant due to the wide practical applications. The existing control methods consider no external disturbance and are involved in the staged control idea, bringing the problems of nonsmooth control torque and time-consuming. A novel one-stage control approach is proposed in this paper for the position-posture control of a three-link PUM with the first free joint under the external disturbance. By analyzing the coupling relationship between its active joints and free joint, the position-posture control is transformed into the trajectory tracking control. Unlike the general trajectory planning, the trajectories of the active joints are planned to include several parameters. Meanwhile, the parameters are solved using a chaos particle swarm optimization algorithm to guarantee that all joint angles can reach to their desired angles. Then, to obtain the high trajectory tracking accuracy at every moment under the external disturbance, the nonlinear disturbance observer is constructed and a nonlinear fast terminal sliding mode tracking controller is designed. Finally, the feasibility and superiority of this strategy are verified via two simulations.

     

A Novel High-Speed and High-Accuracy Manipulator of Planar Five-Link Structure: Modeling and Calibration

This paper describes a novel manipulator of planar five-link structure, which is designed to be characterized as high speed and high accuracy. The manipulator's mathematic models are built for purposes of analysis and control. Due to the lack of high-accuracy angular measurement equipment during manufacturing, the exact initial joint positions of the manipulator are unknown. An extended Kalman filter-based calibration algorithm is proposed to estimate those initial angles and a laser interferometer is adopted as the measurement equipment. To satisfy the high-speed requirement, a new Cartesian trajectory which combines the trapezoidal and S-shape trajectories is proposed. The testing results show that the requirements with respect to velocity, acceleration and accuracy are successfully achieved. Finally, an application example is given to demonstrate its potential uses.     

Cartesian path generation of robot manipulators using continuous genetic algorithms

In this paper, the authors describe a novel technique based on continuous genetic algorithms (CGAs) to solve the path generation problem for robot manipulators. We consider the following scenario: given the desired Cartesian path of the end-effector of the manipulator in a free-of-obstacles workspace, off-line smooth geometric paths in the joint space of the manipulator are obtained. The inverse kinematics problem is formulated as an optimization problem based on the concept of the minimization of the accumulative path deviation and is then solved using CGAs where smooth curves are used for representing the required geometric paths in the joint space through out the evolution process. In general, CGA uses smooth operators and avoids sharp jumps in the parameter values. This novel approach possesses several distinct advantages: first, it can be applied to any general serial manipulator with positional degrees of freedom that might not have any derived closed-form solution for its inverse kinematics. Second, to the authors’ knowledge, it is the first singularity-free path generation algorithm that can be applied at the path update rate of the manipulator. Third, extremely high accuracy can be achieved along the generated path almost similar to analytical solutions, if available. Fourth, the proposed approach can be adopted to any general serial manipulator including both nonredundant and redundant systems. Fifth, when applied on parallel computers, the real time implementation is possible due to the implicit parallel nature of genetic algorithms. The generality and efficiency of the proposed algorithm are demonstrated through simulations that include 2R and 3R planar manipulators, PUMA manipulator, and a general 6R serial manipulator.     

Singularity-robust decoupled control of dual-elbow manipulators

The ability of a robot manipulator to move inside its workspace is inhibited by the presence of joint limits and obstacles and by the existence of singular positions in the configuration space of the manipulator. Several kinematic control strategies have been proposed to ameliorate these problems and to control the motion of the manipulator inside its workspace. The common base of these strategies is the manipulability measure which has been used to: (i) avoid singularities at the task-planning level; and (ii) to develop a singularity-robust inverse Jacobian matrix for continuous kinematic control. In this paper, a singularity-robust resolved-rate control strategy is presented for decoupled robot geometries and implemented for the dual-elbow manipulator. The proposed approach exploits the decoupled geometry of the dual-elbow manipulator to control independently the shoulder and the arm subsystems, for any desired end-effector motion, thus incurring a significantly lower computational cost compared to existing schemes.     

基于改进双树RRT*算法的冗余机械臂末端路径规划

针对冗余机械臂的冗余特性与相关RRT*算法在规划机械臂末端路径的应用中存在的搜索效率较低、收敛性不稳定以及没有充分考虑到机械臂末端几何构型与自身运动特性对路径规划影响的问题,提出一种改进策略。首先,引入一种基于根尾节点连线夹角的采样点选择方式,并设置目标逼近区域。根据连续采样成功次数动态选择改进采样与随机采样。接着,将双树扩展策略与上述方法相结合。最后,将初始可行路径进行二次重连得到最终的优化路径。通过验证,改进双树RRT*方法能够有效地提升搜索效率、收敛性以及路径的优越性。虚拟碰撞体与胶囊碰撞体的引入也能较好地应对机械臂末端结构与运动特性带来的影响。使用Mujoco物理仿真引擎进行机械臂运动验证,证明该策略可以为冗余机械臂末端规划出一条较优的可行路径。     

An efficient local approach for the path generation of robot manipulators

In this article an efficient local approach for the path generation of robot manipulators is presented. The approach is based on formulating a simple nonlinear programming problem. This problem is considered as a minimization of energy with given robot kinematics and subject to the robot requirements and a singularities avoidance constraint. From this formulation a closed form solution is derived which has the properties that allows to pursue both singularities and obstacle avoidance simultaneously; and that it can incorporate global information. These properties enable the accomplishment of the important task that while a specified trajectory in the operational space can be closely followed, also a desired joint configuration can be attained accurately at a given time. Although the proposed approach is primarily developed for redundant manipulators, its application to nonredundant manipulators is examplified by considering a particular commercial manipulator.     

基于PS-RRT算法的机械臂避障路径规划

针对应用快速搜索随机树（RRT）算法进行机械臂路径规划时,存在采样区域大、有效区域小、路径冗余节点多、剪枝时间长等问题,提出一种基于分区动态采样策略和重复区域节点拒绝机制的高效RRT路径规划算法PS-RRT（partitioned sampling RRT）。首先,通过PS-RRT快速规划机械臂末端初始路径;其次,分段检测机械臂跟随该路径时的连杆碰撞情况,对碰撞路段进行带臂形约束的第二次规划;最后,将初始路径和第二次规划的路径拼接后进行路径裁剪。将所提方法在多种场景中进行仿真验证,结果表明：基于PS-RRT算法的机械臂避障路径规划策略使得无效节点数大幅减少,可高效规划出机械臂的无碰路径,验证了算法的可行性。     

Dynamic Modeling and Tracking Control of a Nonholonomic Wheeled Mobile Manipulator with Dual Arms

This paper presents methodologies for dynamic modeling and trajectory tracking of a nonholonomic wheeled mobile manipulator (WMM) with dual arms. The complete dynamic model of such a manipulator is easily established using the Lagrange’s equation and MATHEMATICA. The structural properties of the overall system along with its subsystems are also well investigated and then exploited in further controller synthesis. The derived model is shown valid by reducing it to agree well with the mobile platform model. In order to solve the path tracking control problem of the wheeled mobile manipulator, a novel kinematic control scheme is proposed to deal with the nonholonomic constraints. With the backstepping technique and the filtered-error method, the nonlinear tracking control laws for the mobile manipulator system are constructed based on the Lyapunov stability theory. The proposed control scheme not only achieves simultaneous trajectory and velocity tracking, but also compensates for the dynamic interactions caused by the motions of the mobile platform and the two onboard manipulators. Simulation results are performed to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed control strategy.     

The superposition strategy for arm trajectory modification inrobotic manipulators

This work deals with the problem of end-effector trajectory modification for a robot manipulator when it must respond to unexpected changes in target location. Trajectory modification and corrections are particularly important in dealing with dynamic tasks. In this paper, we present and discuss the superposition strategy derived from the study of arm trajectory modification in human subjects. According to this strategy, the motion toward the initial target location continues unmodified as planned from its beginning to its end even after the target location has unexpectedly changed. However, a trajectory leading from the first target to the final one is added vectorially to the initial one to yield the combined modified motion. A method for choosing the temporal parameters of this trajectory modification scheme is suggested so as to minimize the total travelling time under existing kinematic constraints (including both joint and hand space constraints). Then, a variant of this strategy is presented, dealing with trajectory modification in the case that the targets (both the initial and final ones) specify the desired end-point orientation rather than position.     

Constrained motion planning for robot manipulators using local geometric information

This paper proposes a new motion planning algorithm for robot manipulator systems with path constraints. The constraint function of a manipulator determines the subspace of its joint space, and a proposed sampling-based algorithm can find a path that connects valid samples in the subspace. These valid samples can be obtained by projecting the samples onto the subspace defined by the constraint function. However, these iteratively generated samples easily fall into local optima, which degrades the search performance. The proposed algorithm uses the local geometric information and expands the search tree adaptively to avoid the local convergence problem. It increases the greediness of the search tree when it expands toward an unexplored area, which produces the benefit of reducing computational time. In order to demonstrate the performance of the algorithm, it is applied to two example problems: a maze problem using PUMA 560 under predefined constraints and a closed-chain problem using two Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arms. The results are compared with those obtained with an existing algorithm to show the improvement in performance.     

Saturated proportional derivative control of flexible-joint manipulators

In this paper, the control of flexible-joint robotic manipulators while avoiding actuator saturation is investigated. Several proportional derivative controllers are developed, all of which disallow actuator saturation by guaranteeing that the applied torque is less than a specified maximum value. In particular, a Gibbs parameterization of the joint angles is included in the control laws, which allows for an increased control torque as compared to an Euler angle parameterization. An equilibrium point of the closed-loop system is proven to be asymptotically stable using the Lyapunov stability analysis. Moreover, the proposed control laws do not require any knowledge of the manipulator?s mass, stiffness, or dissipation properties, and as such, are robust to modelling errors. The proposed controllers are tested on a single-link flexible-joint manipulator experimentally and on a two-link flexible-joint manipulator in simulation, and are compared to the performance of controllers found in the literature.