Development of tethered autonomous mobile robot systems for field works

This paper describes the implementation details, advantages and potential applications of autonomous tethered mobile robot systems using the 'hyper-tether' concept. Hyper-tether is a new research area on tethered connections, which provide tethering among different mobile robot types, such as a robot with the environment and a robot with humans and animals. Its basic function is to actively control the tether's tension and/or length, but it also considers tether launching, anchoring, power delivery, data communication cabling and built-in trajectory command generation capabilities. Many of these features can be efficiently applied to build a tethered mobile robot system which remotely manipulates a working tool that can be useful for land-mine detection and removal, trimming of gardens and grass cutting of wide areas (e.g. golf courses, soccer and baseball fields), spraying of agricultural chemicals, forestry and construction works, etc. In this paper, a simple prototype of hypertether's winch-tether pair and a working tool equipped with a grass cutter was constructed, and basic experiments were performed to demonstrate the validity of the proposed system.     

Dual‐tracked mobile robot for motion in challenging terrains

In this paper we present a novel design for a dual‐tracked mobile robot. The robot is designed for safe, stable, and reliable motion in challenging terrains, tunnels, and confined spaces. It consists of two tracked platforms connected with a semipassive mechanism. Sensors attached to the connecting mechanism provide redundant localization data that improve the vehicle's autonomous dead reckoning. Each tracked platform mechanically backs up the other platform, resulting in a more robust and reliable operation. The load share between the platforms enables a high payload‐to‐weight ratio even on soft and slippery terrains. The robot's configurations make it suitable for motion in confined spaces such as underground tunnels, collapsed structures, pipes, and caves. The paper presents the mechanical design of the robot, its kinematic model, stability analysis, and a motion planner. Experimental results conducted on prototype models in various types of environments verify the robot capabilities to operate successfully on challenging terrains. The dual‐tracked robot is capable of climbing slopes 50% steeper than a single robot can. Moreover, the improved odometry system shows high accuracy with 2% error of the total travel distance. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

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.     

RESCUER: Development of a Modular Chemical,Biological, Radiological,and Nuclear Robot for Intervention,Sampling, and Situation Awareness*

This paper describes the development of a robot prototype for intervention, sampling, and situation awareness in CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear) missions. It outlines the mission requirements, design specifications, the solutions that were developed and integrated, and the final tests done. The solution addresses one of the most important mission requirements in CBRN scenarios: the capability to decontaminate the robot once it has been used in real missions. As microdoses of CBRN contaminants are sufficient to cause significant damage to human beings, prevention of robot contamination is always of top priority. If there is a potential danger of real contamination, it can only be removed by effective decontamination. The way to deal with this problem imposes significant design conditions; the proposed design allows an easy and fast decontamination of the robot. The work presents a new way to approach this kind of robot, based on modular component architecture over a robot operating system that permits the attachment and detachment of robot components via unique electromechanical interfaces. The resulting modular robot introduces an innovative kinematic solution that can be dynamically configured for the different mission requirements.     

Concurrent design of a three-link manipulator prototype

This paper presents an affordable and comprehensive robotic model of critical aid to any engineering school involved in teaching robotics. We present the stages of designing a three-link robot manipulator prototype that was built as part of a research project for establishing a prototyping environment for robot manipulators. Building this robot helped to determine the required subsystems and interfaces for building the prototyping environment, and provided hands-on experience for real problems and difficulties that are addressed and solved using this environment. The robot is now successfully used as an educational tool in robotics and control classes.     

一种小型仿人机器人的设计、制作与舞蹈功能的实现

小型仿人双足机器人是一种机电一体化装置,完成其结构设计、样机制作以及动作编排需要进行系统探索。依托机器人基础知识和专业技术,对该机器人进行了详尽分析,根据仿生学目标进行了机器人自由度分配,且依据研发任务选择了机器人驱动元件,进而使用solidworks软件进行了机器人结构造型设计,并完成了实验样机的结构组装和系统调试。设计了一个机器人“舞蹈”程序,该程序采用分层软件架构方法,设计了驱动层、应用层和执行层,使机器人软件系统的各个部分分工明确,且使机器人在跳舞过程中能够保持各部位的协同运动,同时保证机器人重心稳定,不会摔倒,实现了机器人的“舞蹈”动作。该项工作表明,小型仿人双足机器人的设计方案具有一定的合理性与可行性,对促进青少年掌握机器人技术极有帮助。     

Whole-finger manipulation with a two-fingered robot hand

This paper describes a method for whole-finger rolling manipulation using a two-fingered robot hand. 'Whole-finger' refers to the use of the complete phalangeal surface during the manipulation. An example of whole-finger manipulation by the human hand is the rolling of a pen between two fingers. The proposed method is based on a two-dimensional model for modelling an object manipulation and is derived from a study of the movement of the contact line between both fingers. Also, the method uses tactile sensor information to estimate the contact point position together with the local curvature of the object. This whole-finger dexterous manipulation is demonstrated on a prototype two-fingered hand. This 5 d.o.f. hand consists of a tendon driven index and thumb, and is equipped with force and tactile sensors. The dimensions and performance of this device are 'human-sized'. A hybrid force-position control scheme is used. The hierarchical control structure is implemented on a dual transputer system. This paper first describes the kinematic model used for whole-finger manipulation. In the second part, the main emphasis is put on the mechanical design and on the transputer-based control system.     

Sensors and actuators for 'humanoid' robots

Though much research is still necessary before a personal robot with anthropomorphic features becomes a full reality, accessible and appealing to the general user, present technology is able to offer many solutions to the different problems arising in the development of sensors and actuators, which are a key factor in the achievement of the final goal. However, the challenge of obtaining a humanoid robot combining adequate technical performance with a 'behavior' appealing for a real 'companion' to the human user requires a truly interdisciplinary effort involving not only technical disciplines, but also the contribution of human sciences. This paper presents the motivations for the development of sensors and actuators for humanoid robots, with particular emphasis on service robotics and on the concept of a personal robot. A brief survey of existing technologies is reported and a few examples of present implementations are described. We also present the main features of a real personal robot whose technical and aesthetical characteristics are purposively designed to match those desirable for a 'humanoid' robot.     

Hybrid power supply for mobile robots

Service robots are frequently fitted with end-effecters, which require high energy, to achieve a specific task. Robots require high-power energy sources that can meet several goals simultaneously. Given the technology of today, a battery-driven robot cannot work for long on a single charge. Todevelop a new powerful battery technology may take many years of exhaustive research. In this paper, we present a dual-energized scheme called HYbrid POwer Supply (HYPOS) that integrates the function of batteries and a household electric system to supply a robot. This technique can be realized by existing technology and is applicable to a variety of indoor applications. The challenge of implementing the HYPOS system is to develop the outlet-connection procedures and to handle the electric cord to reduce movement disturbance. We report on the prototype robot and the experiments that illustrate the effectiveness and practicality of this proposed system. The result has shown that the HYPOS system can supply a robot consecutively for almost 2 h and its efficiency is 73.6%, while the efficiency of a lead-acid battery is only 38.5%.     

Design and Developmental Metrics of a ‘Skin-Like’ Multi-Input Quasi-Compliant Robotic Gripper Sensor Using Tactile Matrix

Slip-resistant robust grasping of objects during remote manipulation remains one of the major open issues in robotics. Finer measurement of tangential force and slippage need to be considered for the task planning and control of robotic gripper in operation. Design and development of such a multi-sensory tactile array is reported in this paper, which is aimed for direct use in an instrumented jaw intelligent robot gripper for potentially hazardous radioactive environments. A new design has been reported in the paper, wherein sensing members of the prototype follow a combination of beam (bending) and truss-type (axial deformation) behavior under external loadings. Various characteristics of the sensor, viz. condition number, static and dynamic stiffness, sensitivity and repeatability have been evaluated, based on the results from field trials of the prototype. Besides the comparatively larger prototype, a miniaturized version of the sensor has also been developed and tested for object grasping in real-time.     

Using naïve physics for odor localization in a cluttered indoor environment

This paper describes current progress of a project, which uses naïve physics to enable a robot to perform efficient odor localization. Odor localization is the problem of finding the source of an odor or other volatile chemical. Most localization methods require the robot to follow the odor plume along its entire length, which is time consuming and may be especially difficult in a cluttered environment. These drawbacks are significant in light of potential applications such as search and rescue operations in damaged buildings. In this project a map of the robot’s environment was used, together with a naïve physics model of airflow, to predict the pattern of air movement. The robot then used the airflow pattern to reason about the probable location of the odor source. This approach, based on naïve physics, has successfully located odor sources in a simplified environment. This demonstrates that naïve physics can be used to assist odor localization operations and indicates that similar techniques have great potential for allowing a robot operating in an unstructured environment to reason about its surroundings. This paper presents details of the naïve physical model of airflow, the reasoning system, the experimental equipment, and results of practical odor source localization experiments.     

Development of a robotic fish using electrostatic film motors: the Seidengyo II robot

We previously built a fish-like robot named Seidengyo I (based on the Japanese words for electrostatic (seiden) and fish (gyo)), which is a light and flexible robot actuated by a novel electrostatic film motor. This paper describes the design features that underlie the operation of Seidengyo II, which is an evolutional prototype of Seidengyo I. These features include an elaborate three-layer electrostatic film motor, a unique power transmission system and a compact robot controller. The power transmission system permits reciprocating power from the three-layer electrostatic actuator to be converted to periodic oscillations of a caudal fin. The robot controller is capable of easily generating high-frequency and high-voltage driving signals. As a result, we can control the oscillations of the caudal fin of Seidengyo II via synchronous operation to achieve open-loop swimming. We present the experimental results regarding the performance of the constructed controller and verify the validity of the design of the Seidengyo II robot by these experimental results.     

Development of an Intelligent Wheelchair Using Computer Graphics Animation and Simulation

A new robot simulator JC-1 is used as a control software development tool in a project in progress where an intelligent wheelchair for a blind user is being developed. The intelligent wheelchair is planned to be able to fulfill simple symbolic commands like "follow wall" or "follow object" and using the JC-1 simulator an evaluation team which includes e.g. the user, a rehabilitation engineer and a software engineer, can check control algorithms and user interface routines before constructing a real wheelchair prototype. The JC-1 simulator models the environment using simplified boundary- representation where objects, robot sensors and actuators are presented as symbolic objects in the graphics data-base of the simulator. In the JC-1 simulator a robot controller under development controls the motion of the graphical model of the robot while simulator commands or other robot controllers can be used to control the movement of disturbing obstacles. Computer graphics animation and simulation help to find fundamental design errors at an early design stage and as this paper suggests, enable the user of the final product to take part in to the designing process of the robot controller. Benefits and difficulties of using computer graphics simulation in the wheelchair development process are discussed.     

Development of a search and rescue robot system for the underground building environment

The underground building environment plays an increasingly important role in the construction of modern cities. To deal with possible fires, collapses, and so on, in underground building space, it is a general trend to use rescue robots to replace humans. This paper proposes a dual-robot system solution for search and rescue in an underground building environment. To speed up rescue and search, the two robots focus on different tasks. However, the environmental perception information and location of them are shared. The primary robot is used to quickly explore the environment in a wide range, identify objects, cross difficult obstacles, and so on. The secondary robot is responsible for grabbing, carrying items, clearing obstacles, and so on. In response to the difficulty of rescue caused by unknown scenes, the Lidar, inertial measurement unit and multiview cameras are integrated for large-scale 3D environment mapping. The depth camera detects the objects to be rescued and locate them on the map. A six-degree-of-freedom manipulator with a two-finger gripper is equipped to open doors and clear roadblocks during the rescue. To solve the problem of severe signal attenuation caused by reinforced concrete walls, corners and long-distance transmission, a wireless multinode networking solution is adopted. In the case of a weak wireless signal, the primary robot uses autonomous exploration for environmental perception. Experimental results show the robots' system has high reliability in over-the-horizon maneuvering, teleoperation of the door opening and grasping, object searching, and environmental perception, and can be well applied to underground search and rescue.     

Design and experiments on a personal robotic assistant

The design and development of the 'personal robot, i.e. a robot capable of living together with and assisting human beings, is perhaps the main challenge for robotics research and technology in the third Millennium. One of the most intriguing issues in the design of such robot is the definition and implementation of adequate schemes for human-robot interaction. In fact, achieving this goal requires multidisciplinary efforts, and the integration of engineering analysis with psychological, anthropological, ethological and product design considerations. In this paper, the basic concepts to be followed in the design of human-robot interaction are discussed. with reference to a concrete example: the MOVAID personal robot for assistance to disabled and elderly people at home. The MOVAID system was designed taking into careful account as a primary design goal the need for interaction with the human user. A prototype of the MOVAID system has been developed and then successfully validated with disabled end-users. The results of these tests indicate that a personal robot is technically feasible, and is acceptable to users in terms of helpfulness, easiness of use and pleasure of interaction.     

Design and analysis of a wall-climbing robot for water wall inspection of thermal power plants

Boiler water wall in thermal power plants is characterized by high-altitude detection requirements. Moreover, the existing water wall-climbing robots are characterized by low obstacle-crossing performance, deviations, and a lack of autonomous crossing pipeline function. In view of this feature, a wall-climbing robot with permanent magnet and electromagnetic hybrid adsorption wheels is proposed. The robot has the function of independent traverse according to its own structural characteristics. Furthermore, transverse movement is proposed by comparing different adsorption modes, moving and driving modes. Robot statics in upward, downward, and transverse crawling are carried out, and nonsliding mechanical and nonoverturning mechanical models are obtained. Robot's dynamics are analyzed by considering the wall movement. The finite element simulation analysis of its main stressed parts is carried out by employing ANSYS, and an optimal structural model is obtained. The gap adsorption permanent magnet model is constructed, and its parametric simulation analysis is carried out using the Ansoft Maxwell module. The influence curve of the gap on the magnetic force is then obtained. Finally, the prototype is developed according to the design model and calculation analysis, and the experimental test is carried out. The experimental results show that the robot meets the expected functions and indexes, providing a basis for the intelligent development of thermal power plants.     

An efficient algorithm for one-step planar compliant motion planning with uncertainty

Uncertainty in the execution of robot motion plans must be accounted for in the geometric computations from which plans are obtained, especially in the case where position sensing is inaccurate. We give anO(n ² logn) algorithm to find a single commanded motion direction that will guarantee a successful motion in the plane from a specified start to a specified goal whenever such a one-step motion is possible. The plans account for uncertainty in the start position and in robot control, and anticipate that the robot may stick on or slide along obstacle surfaces with which it comes in contact. This bound improves on the best previous bound by a quadratic factor, and is achieved in part by a new analysis of the geometric complexity of the backprojection of the goal as a function of commanded motion direction.A preliminary version of this paper appeared in theProceedings of the ACM Symposium on Computational Geometry, Saarbrücken, June 1989. This paper describes research done in the Computer Science Robotics Laboratory at Cornell University. Support for our robotics research is provided in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant IRI-8802390 and by a Presidential Young Investigator award, and in part by the Mathematical Sciences Institute.     

Optimizing Code_Saturne computations on Petascale systems

This paper describes recent developments made to the open source general purpose CFD code Code_Saturne that attempt to address challenges associated with computing at the Petascale. These new features include parallel improved linear solver techniques, parallel I/O methodologies and partitioning tools. The impact of these new features on parallel performance has been analysed for a range of prototype Petascale computing systems as part of the PRACE pan-European initiative.     

KAL: kernel‐assisted non‐invasive memory leak tolerance with a general‐purpose memory allocator

Memory leaks are a continuing problem in the software developed with programming languages, such as C and C++. A recent approach adopted by some researchers is to tolerate leaks in the software application and to reclaim the leaked memory by use of specially constructed memory allocation routines. However, such routines replace the usual general‐purpose memory allocator and tend to be less efficient in speed and in memory utilization. We propose a new scheme which coexists with the existing memory allocation routines and which reclaims memory leaks. Our scheme identifies and reclaims leaked memory at the kernel level. There are some major advantages to our approach: (1) the application software does not need to be modified; (2) the application does not need to be suspended while leaked memory is reclaimed; (3) a remote host can be used to identify the leaked memory, thus minimizing impact on the application program's performance; and (4) our scheme does not degrade the service availability of the application while detecting and reclaiming memory leaks. We have implemented a prototype that works with the GNU C library and with the Linux kernel. Our prototype has been tested and evaluated with various real‐world applications. Our results show that the computational overhead of our approach is around 2% of that incurred by the conventional memory allocator in terms of throughput and average response time. We also verified that the prototype successfully suppressed address space expansion caused by memory leaks when the applications are run on synthetic workloads. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

工业机器人虚拟样机系统的研究

该文提出将虚拟样机技术应用于工业机器人仿真研究过程，研究与开发工业机器人虚拟样机系统，首先说明虚拟样机技术并分析其关键技术，然后说明了工业机器人虚拟样机系统的构成与样机系统在机器人仿具研究中的研究内容，总结该项技术主要解决以下两方面的问题，即机器人仿真研究中的系统集成及为以机器人为主体的生产线虚拟设计，验证环境提供底层的数字化环境。