北京2022年冬奥会和冬残奥会火炬传递机器人

面向北京冬奥会对机器人跨域火炬传递的需求,研发水陆两栖机器人、水下变结构机器人、空中飞行机器人、地面机器人、冰雪面六足机器人和助力外骨骼机器人等6型面向火炬接力的系列机器人,利用这些机器人可在地面、空中和水下完成火炬传递。最终,根据北京2022年冬奥会火炬接力路线方案的调整,将水陆两栖机器人、水下变结构机器人和水下特种火炬应用于北京2022年冬奥会火炬传递活动中,实现了奥运史上首次机器人与机器人之间的水下火炬传递;助力外骨骼机器人应用于北京2022年冬残奥会火炬传递活动中,残疾人代表使用下肢助力外骨骼进行了火种汇集,两位残疾人火炬手分别借助上肢和下肢助力外骨骼机器人一起进行了火炬传递,传递出“科技改变生活”的理念,体现出“技术温暖人心”的精神。     

Robots in Japan: present and future

The would-wide slackening of business activities appears to have also slowed the pace of the industrial robot business. It is often said that we are now entering an epoch where the industrial robot is to be succeeded by the "service robot". The designation "service robot," however still remains to be clearly defined. As yet, the image evoked by this term varies very widely from person to person, in both the external appearance and the technological elements that constitute such a robot. The author considers the term service robot to be a generic term covering all robots that are not for industrial use. The author looks at the development of service robots in Japan     

竞争型网络机器人系统的研究

随着机器人技术的不断发展,网络机器人已经成为当前机器人研究的一个新的热点课题.在网络机器人技术的研究中,大多数学者都关注于多机器人间协作的机器人系统,而另一类网络机器人系统--竞争型网络机器人直到近一两年才被研究者关注.该文讲述了网络机器人的发展历程和竞争型网络机器人概念的产生和基本定义,并分析了对竞争型网络机器人进行研究的意义,希望能够为网络机器人领域的研究者提供有价值的参考意见.     

Adaptation technique for integrating genetic programming and reinforcement learning for real robots

We propose an integrated technique of genetic programming (GP) and reinforcement learning (RL) to enable a real robot to adapt its actions to a real environment. Our technique does not require a precise simulator because learning is achieved through the real robot. In addition, our technique makes it possible for real robots to learn effective actions. Based on this proposed technique, we acquire common programs, using GP, which are applicable to various types of robots. Through this acquired program, we execute RL in a real robot. With our method, the robot can adapt to its own operational characteristics and learn effective actions. In this paper, we show experimental results from two different robots: a four-legged robot "AIBO" and a humanoid robot "HOAP-1." We present results showing that both effectively solved the box-moving task; the end result demonstrates that our proposed technique performs better than the traditional Q-learning method.     

Balance recovery control for biped robot based on reaction null space method

A biped walking robot should be able to keep balance even in the presence of disturbing forces.This paper presents a step strategy concept of biped walking robot that is stabilized by using reaction null space method.The called "step strategy" can be modeled by means of the reaction null space method that introduced earlier to tackle dynamic interaction problems of free-floating robots,or moving base robots in general.6-DOF biped robot model simulations are used to confirm the validity.     

Balance recovery control for biped robot based on reaction null space method

A biped walking robot should be able to keep balance even in the presence of disturbing forces. This paper presents a step strategy concept of biped walking robot that is stabilized by using reaction null space method. The called ＂step strategy＂ can be modeled by means of the reaction null space method that introduced earlier to tackle dynamic interaction problems of free-floating robots, or moving base robots in general. 6-DOF biped robot model simulations are used to confirm the validity.     

Decentralized Motion Planning for Multiple Mobile Robots: The Cocktail Party Model

This paper presents an approach for decentralized real-time motion planning for multiple mobile robots operating in a common 2-dimensional environment with unknown stationary obstacles. In our model, a robot can see (sense) the surrounding objects. It knows its current and its target's position, is able to distinguish a robot from an obstacle, and can assess the instantaneous motion of another robot. Other than this, a robot has no knowledge about the scene or of the paths and objectives of other robots. There is no mutual communication among the robots; no constraints are imposed on the paths or shapes of robots and obstacles. Each robot plans its path toward its target dynamically, based on its current position and the sensory feedback; only the translation component is considered for the planning purposes. With this model, it is clear that no provable motion planning strategy can be designed (a simple example with a dead-lock is discussed); this naturally points to heuristic algorithms. The suggested strategy is based on maze-searching techniques. Computer simulation results are provided that demonstrate good performance and a remarkable robustness of the algorithm (meaning by this a virtual impossibility to create a dead-lock in a random scene).     

高精度激光测距下的机器人自主避障控制

在机器人自主避障过程中,由于传感器数据的误差会降低机器人感知和决策的准确性,从而影响机器人自主避障能力。为此,提出高精度激光测距下的机器人自主避障控制方法。通过设计机器人体系结构,建立机器人运动学模型,为机器人避障控制提供依据。采用高精度激光测距技术,构建机器人移动场地地形。通过自适应阈值方法,完成机器人的自主避障控制。实验结果表明,所提方法的机器人自主避障控制效果好,且障碍物位置测试值与实际位置值的误差保持在0.5m以内,具有较高的避障控制精确度。     

Towards cooperation of heterogeneous,autonomous robots: A case study of humanoid and wheeled robots

In this paper a case study of the cooperation of a strongly heterogeneous autonomous robot team, composed of a highly articulated humanoid robot and a wheeled robot with largely complementing and some redundant abilities is presented. By combining strongly heterogeneous robots the diversity of achievable tasks increases as the variety of sensing and motion abilities of the robot system is extended, compared to a usually considered team of homogeneous robots. A number of methodologies and technologies required in order to achieve the long-term goal of cooperation of heterogeneous autonomous robots are discussed, including modeling tasks and robot abilities, task assignment and redistribution, robot behavior modeling and programming, robot middleware and robot simulation. Example solutions and their application to the cooperation of autonomous wheeled and humanoid robots are presented in this case study. The scenario describes a tightly coupled cooperative task, where the humanoid robot and the wheeled robot track a moving ball, which is to be approached and kicked by the humanoid robot into a goal. The task can be fulfilled successfully by combining the abilities of both robots.     

工业机器人的总体设计方法

本文介绍了工业机器人的总体设计思想及其研制,开发的顺序,并通过多关节全电动连续 路径控制机器人的设计实例,分别讨论了机器人动作机能、机械结构、控制方式、操作方法及计 算机控制系统方案的决定方法,最后提出了在研制工业机器人中应该强调"技术平衡"的问题.     

Simulation and control of distributed robot search teams

This article describes the simulation of distributed autonomous robots for search and rescue operations. The simulation system is utilized to perform experiments with various control strategies for the robot team and team organizations, evaluating the comparative performance of the strategies and organizations. The objective of the robot team is to, once deployed in an environment (floor-plan) with multiple rooms, cover as many rooms as possible. The simulated robots are capable of navigation through the environment, and can communicate using simple messages. The simulator maintains the world, provides each robot with sensory information, and carries out the actions of the robots. The simulator keeps track of the rooms visited by robots and the elapsed time, in order to evaluate the performance of the robot teams. The robot teams are composed of homogenous robots, i.e., identical control strategies are used to generate the behavior of each robot in the team. The ability to deploy autonomous robots, as opposed to humans, in hazardous search and rescue missions could provide immeasurable benefits.     

Design and motion analysis of vibration-driven small robot Rizeh

Vibration mechanism is good candidates to be used as actuation system in small robots. However, mini fabrication of small electrical and mechanical drives is a challenging issue. Moreover, no analytical model for motion analysis of vibration driven robots is devised. In this paper, a small robot is developed. To setup a low-cost robot, cell phone vibrators are employed as actuation mechanism. Motion principle of the robot is analytically obtained and appropriate mechanical and electronic derives are designed. Some technical tips are employed to reduce the size of the robot. The obtained model was evaluated by simulations in MSC.ADAMS as well as some standard experiments on a real robot named Rizeh. Moreover, the robot is tested in a line following task, as a typical task for mobile robots.     

The Freeze-Tag Problem: How to Wake Up a Swarm of Robots

An optimization problem that naturally arises in the study of swarm robotics is the Freeze-Tag Problem (FTP) of how to awaken a set of "asleep" robots, by having an awakened robot move to their locations. Once a robot is awake, it can assist in awakening other slumbering robots. The objective is to have all robots awake as early as possible. While the FTP bears some resemblance to problems from areas in combinatorial optimization such as routing, broadcasting, scheduling, and covering, its algorithmic characteristics are surprisingly different. We consider both scenarios on graphs and in geometric environments. In graphs, robots sleep at vertices and there is a length function on the edges. Awake robots travel along edges, with time depending on edge length. For most scenarios, we consider the offline version of the problem, in which each awake robot knows the position of all other robots. We prove that the problem is NP-hard, even for the special case of star graphs. We also establish hardness of approximation, showing that it is NP-hard to obtain an approximation factor better than 5/3, even for graphs of bounded degree. These lower bounds are complemented with several positive algorithmic results, including: · We show that the natural greedy strategy on star graphs has a tight worst-case performance of 7/3 and give a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) for star graphs. · We give a simple O(log δ)-competitive online algorithm for graphs with maximum degree δ and locally bounded edge weights. · We give a PTAS, running in nearly linear time, for geometrically embedded instances.     

Design of the “army-ant” cooperative lifting robot

This paper describes the design and development of a new class of mobile robot. These small robots are intended to be simple and inexpensive, and will all be physically identical, thus constituting a homogeneous team of robots. They derive their usefulness from their group actions, performing physical tasks and making cooperative decisions as a coordinated team. All mechanical and electrical design aspects are decided with the group-dynamical behavior in mind. Because of their behavioral resemblance to their insect counterparts, they have been named "army ant" robots     

Abstraction and control for Groups of robots

This paper addresses the general problem of controlling a large number of robots required to move as a group. We propose an abstraction based on the definition of a map from the configuration space Q of the robots to a lower dimensional manifold A, whose dimension is independent of the number of robots. In this paper, we focus on planar fully actuated robots. We require that the manifold A has a product structure A=G/spl times/S, where G is a Lie group, which captures the position and orientation of the ensemble in the chosen world coordinate frame, and S is a shape manifold, which is an intrinsic characterization of the team describing the "shape" as the area spanned by the robots. We design decoupled controllers for the group and shape variables. We derive controllers for individual robots that guarantee the desired behavior on A. These controllers can be realized by feedback that depends only on the current state of the robot and the state of the manifold A. This has the practical advantage of reducing the communication and sensing that is required and limiting the complexity of individual robot controllers, even for large numbers of robots.     

Present and future robot control development—An industrial perspective

Robot control is a key competence for robot manufacturers and a lot of development is made to increase robot performance, reduce robot cost and introduce new functionalities. Examples of development areas that get big attention today are multi robot control, safe control, force control, 3D vision, remote robot supervision and wireless communication. The application benefits from these developments are discussed as well as the technical challenges that the robot manufacturers meet. Model-based control is now a key technology for the control of industrial robots and models and control schemes are continuously refined to meet the requirements on higher performance even when the cost pressure leads to the design of robot mechanics that is more difficult to control. Driving forces for the future development of robots can be found in, for example, new robot applications in the automotive industry, especially for the final assembly, in small and medium size enterprises, in foundries, in food industry and in the processing and assembly of large structures. Some scenarios on future robot control development are proposed. One scenario is that light-weight robot concepts could have an impact on future car manufacturing and on future automation of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). Such a development could result in modular robots and in control schemes using sensors in the robot arm structure, sensors that could also be used for the implementation of redundant safe control. Introducing highly modular robots will increase the need of robot installation support, making Plug and Play functionality even more important. One possibility to obtain a highly modular robot program could be to use a recently developed new type of parallel kinematic robot structure with large work space in relation to the robot foot print. For further efficient use of robots, the scenario of adaptive robot performance is introduced. This means that the robot control is optimised with respect to the thermal and fatigue load on the robot for the specific program that the robot performs. The main conclusion of the presentation is that industrial robot development is far away from its limits and that a lot of research and development is needed to obtain a more widely use of robot automation in industry.     

Theoretical and experimental analysis of heuristics for the "freeze-tag" robot awakening problem

In the "freeze-tag" problem, we are given a swarm of n sleeping (frozen or inactive) robots and a single awake (active) robot. The goal is to awaken all robots in the shortest possible time. A robot is awakened when an active robot "touches" it. The goal is to compute an optimal awakening schedule such that all robots are awake by time t/sup */, for the smallest possible value of t/sup */. We devise and test a variety of heuristic strategies on geometric and network datasets. Our experiments show that all of the strategies perform acceptably well, with the simple greedy strategy performing particularly well. A theoretical analysis of the greedy strategy gives a tight approximation bound of /spl Theta/(/spl radic/logn) for points in the plane. We show more generally a tight performance bound of /spl Theta/((logn)/sup 1-1/d/) in d dimensions. The geometric case contrasts with the case of general metric spaces, where greedy is known to have a /spl Theta/(logn) approximation factor, and no method is known to achieve an approximation factor of o(logn).     

Concurrent localization of multiple robots

A concurrent localization method for multiple robots using ultrasonic beacons is proposed. This method provides a high-accuracy solution using only low-price sensors. To measure the distance of a mobile robot from a beacon at a known position, the mobile robot alerts one beacon to send out an ultrasonic signal to measure the traveling time from the beacon to the mobile robot. When multiple robots requiring localization are moving in the same block, it is necessary to have a schedule to choose the measuring sequence in order to overcome constant ultrasonic signal interference among robots. However, the increased time delay needed to estimate the positions of multiple robots degrades the localization accuracy. To solve this problem, we propose an efficient localization algorithm for multiple robots, where the robots are in groups of one master robot and several slave robots. In this method, when a master robot calls a beacon, all the group robots simultaneously receive an identical ultrasonic signal to estimate their positions. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm has been verified through experiments.     

Climbing Robots’ Mobility for Inspection and Maintenance of 3D Complex Environments

For complex climbing robots, which work in difficult 3D outdoor environments, the gravity force has an important influence with respect the robots changes during its motion. This type of climbing robots is self-supported in the complex 3D structures (bridges, skeleton of the buildings, etc.) which require periodic, manually performed inspections and maintenance. The use of non-conventional climbing robots for this type of operation is highly appropriate. Their locomotion system commonly comprises arms/legs that permit the robots 3D mobility (gait). These mechanisms also enable the robot to support itself and guarantee its stability. This paper presents the main features of non-conventional climbing robots mobility on complex 3D environments: power supply, number of DOFs, lightweight structure, gait, speed, secure grasp, etc. It also covers the general theory underlying the design of climbing robots, their kinematics, with its specific, unconventional mobility. The paper not only describes the climbing robot mobility theory but also provides several examples taken from the ROMA and MATS robots families. The developed robots have high degree of autonomy with totally on-board control system. These autonomous robots demonstrate in the course of real experimentation that the criteria for design, control strategy and path planning are accurate. Finally, the paper examines trends in climbing robot technology.Carlos Balaguer received his Ph.D. in Automation from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), Spain in 1983. From 1983–1994 he was with the Department of Systems Engineering and Automation of the UPM as Associated Professor. Since 1994, he has been a Full Professor of the Robotics Lab at the University Carlos III of Madrid. Prof. Balaguers research has included robot design and development, robot control, path & task planning, force-torque control, assistive and service robots, climbing robots, legged and humanoid robots, and human-robot interaction. He has published more than 120 papers in journals and conference proceedings, and several books in the field of robotics. He is a member of IEEE and IFAC, and former President of IAARC.Antonio Gimenez studied Electrical Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Madrid and received his PhD from the University Carlos III of Madrid in 2000. Currently he is Associated Professor at the Robotics Lab atthe University Carlos III of Madrid. He participated in numerous national and international R&D projects in robotics and automation. His research interest includes design and robot development, rehabilitation robots, climbing robots, and automation in construction. Recently he is very active in the field of computer-aided mechatronics design. He has published numerous refereed publications in international journals, and conference proceedings.Alberto Jardón Huete is currently finishing his Ph.D. degree in Automation Engineering. He received his B.Sc. in electronics engineering (1998) and is graduated in Electrical Engineering (2002) at University Carlos III of Madrid. He is an active member of the Robotics Lab since 1997, and has collaborated in the development of the climbing robots ROMA I, ROMA II, and other research projects of relevance. Currently he is focused in the design and development of light weight service robots. His interests include assistive robotic design, mechatronics, robotic research, the development of tools to perform this research and the transfer of robotics technology to industry.     

Guiding robots’ behaviors using pheromone communication

This paper describes an ongoing project to investigate the uses of pheromones as a means of communication in robotics. The particular example of pheromone communication considered here was inspired by queen bee pheromones that have a number of crucial functions in a bee colony, such as keeping together and stabilizing the colony. In the context of a robotic system, one of the proposed applications for robot pheromones is to allow a group of robots to be guided by a robot leader. The robot leader could release different chemicals to elicit a range of behaviors from other members of the group. A change of the operating temperature of tin oxide gas sensors has been implemented in order to differentiate different chemicals. This paper provides details of the robots used in the project and their behaviors. The sensors, especially the method of using the tin oxide gas sensors, the robot control algorithms and experimental results are presented. In this project, pheromones were used to trigger congregating behavior and light seeking in a group of robots.