边界对齐的平滑三维对称标架场

为了把广泛应用于网格四边形化和纹理合成的二维表面标架场拓展到三维,提出一种生成三维对称标架场的方法.不同于表面对称标架场(四对称方向场),二维标架场的对称性能用一个切平面的旋转角度来表示,而三维对称标架场的对称性却不能这样简单地表示.为了解决这个问题,利用球面函数来获得一个对称性表述,该表述对于绕任意一个轴的π/2旋转以及它们的复合是不变的.基于球面函数的表示可以获得一个有效的标架场光顺程度的度量,并以球面调和分析进行加速计算;基于一组边界约束,可以通过极小化这个度量函数来获得一个光顺的标架场,该标架场在表面上能很好地对齐法线.最后通过表面投影、流线追踪和奇异点来可视化这个标架场,并将这个光顺的标架场用于六面体网格生成,且讨论了它在生成高质量纯六面体网格方面的潜力,其与表面标架场在生成四边形网格方面的潜力是一致的.     

Robust pole assignment for incomplete nonlinear decoupling applied to robots

A robustness analysis and synthesis for incomplete nonlinear decoupling for a class of nonlinear systems is discussed. Rigid and elastic-joint robot models belong to this class. For the elastic case, a transformation facilitates the robustness analysis under a weak assumption. Charts with H ₁- and H - norms of closed-loop disturbance transfer functions of the nonlinear-decoupled system are presented for a robust pole assignment.     

Introducing autonomous aerial robots in industrial manufacturing

Although ground robots have been successfully used for many years in manufacturing, the capability of aerial robots to agilely navigate in the often sparse and static upper part of factories makes them suitable for performing tasks of interest in many industrial sectors. This paper presents the design, development, and validation of a fully autonomous aerial robotic system for manufacturing industries. It includes modules for accurate pose estimation without using a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), autonomous navigation, radio-based localization, and obstacle avoidance, among others, providing a fully onboard solution capable of autonomously performing complex tasks in dynamic indoor environments in which all necessary sensors, electronics, and processing are on the robot. It was developed to fulfill two use cases relevant in many industries: light object logistics and missing tool search. The presented robotic system, functionalities, and use cases have been extensively validated with Technology Readiness Level 7 (TRL-7) in the Centro Bahía de Cádiz (CBC) Airbus D&S factory in fully working conditions.     

Safe and intuitive manual guidance of a robot manipulator using adaptive admittance control towards robot agility

Key areas of robot agility include methods that increase capability and flexibility of industrial robots and facilitate robot re-tasking. Manual guidance can achieve robot agility effectively, provided that a safe and smooth interaction is guaranteed when the user exerts an external force on the end effector. We approach this by designing an adaptive admittance law that can adjust its parameters to modify the robot compliance in critical areas of the workspace, such as near and on configuration singularities, joint limits, and workspace limits, for a smooth and safe operation. Experimental validation was done with two tests: a constraint activation test and a 3D shape tracing task. In the first one, we validate the proper response to constraints and in the second one, we compare the proposed approach with different admittance parameter tuning strategies using a drawing task where the user is asked to guide the robot to trace a 3D profile with an accuracy or speed directive and evaluate performance considering path length error and execution time as metrics, and a questionnaire for user perception. Results show that appropriate response to individual and simultaneous activation of the aforementioned constraints for a safe and intuitive manual guidance interaction is achieved and that the proposed parameter tuning strategy has better performance in terms of accuracy, execution time, and subjective evaluation of users.     

以ARM为核心的嵌入式体感遥控器设计

介绍一种以ARM为核心的嵌入式服务机器人体感遥控器的设计。硬件上,本遥控器采用具有ARM Cortex—M3内核的STM32F103C8T6作为核心处理器,选用ST公司的iNEMO惯性导航模块进行手部姿态的识别,同时还具有LCD显示模块、无线收发模块和电源模块;软件上,采用嵌入式操作系统μC／OS—Ⅱ实现多任务的调度和外围设备的管理。经实验验证,本遥控器具有高稳定性、高实时性、高可靠性、低误码率等优点。     

Systematic robustness analysis of least squares mobile robot velocity estimation using a regular polygonal optical mouse array

This paper presents the robust velocity estimation of an omnidirectional mobile robot using a regular polygonal array of optical mice that are installed at the bottom of a mobile robot. First, the velocity kinematics from a mobile robot to an array of optical mice is derived, from which the least squares estimation of the mobile robot velocity is obtained as the simple average of the optical mouse velocity readings. Second, it is shown that a redundant number of optical mice contributes to the robustness of the least squares mobile robot velocity estimation against both measurement noises and partial malfunction of optical mice. Third, the sensitivity analysis of the least squares mobile robot velocity estimation to imprecise installation of optical mice is made, from which a practical method of optical mouse position calibration is devised. Finally, some experimental results using commercial optical mice are given to demonstrate the validity and performance of the proposed mobile robot velocity estimation. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

未知环境下基于约束点的移动机器人路径规划

针对未知环境中障碍物种类多样性和位置不确定性的特点,提出了基于约束点的路径规划方法。首先对机器人在未知环境中检测到的局部障碍物信息进行分类和几何特征属性描述,得其约束点信息,然后引入改进后的A*算法,将其搜索范围局限于约束点上,计算约束点的评价函数值后得到子目标点,机器人到达子目标点后,若陷入死区,则采取回溯路径策略,重新选择子目标点,否则根据该点所属的障碍物种类采取跨越或绕行避障策略,最后移动机器人在未知环境中顺利到达目标点。仿真研究说明本文提出的路径规划方法具有可行性和有效性。     

多关节机器人通用体系结构的研究

结合一个五自由度教学工业两用型机器人应用实例，构造出多关节机器人通用体系结构，包括总体原型、机械结构、关节传动链、伺服驱动元件、电气控制系统、关节坐标系及其运动学方程、通信协议和软件设计思路等。通过实际使用表明，本文提出的通用体系结构是实用的、合理的。     

Utility of stereoscopic displays for indirect-vision driving and robot teleoperation

The effectiveness of an active shutter-glasses stereoscopic display (SD) and a passive polarised SD was evaluated in a live robot-teleoperation task and a simulated indirect-vision driving task in various terrains. Overall, participants completed their tasks significantly faster with the SDs in three-dimensional (3D) mode than with the SDs in the baseline 2D mode. They also navigated more accurately with the SDs in 3D mode. When the effectiveness of the two types of SDs was examined separately, results showed that the active shutter-glasses SD resulted in faster responses and task completion times than the passive polarised SD, though most of the differences failed to reach statistical significance. Perceived workload when interacting with the two SD systems did not differ significantly between the active versus passive display types or between the 3D and 2D modes of operation; however, participants reported more severe discomfort after interacting with the passive polarised SD.     

A binary approximating method for graspable region determination of biped climbing robots

For a biped pole-climbing robot (BiPCR) with grippers, it is an essential demand to determine the target grasp configuration for climbing and transiting between poles, with the graspable region as a priori knowledge. The graspable region on the target pole is critically important for climbing path planning and motion control. To efficiently compute the graspable region for a BiPCR, we propose a novel binary approximating method in this paper. This method may also be applied to generate the three-dimensional (3-D) workspace of a manipulator with constant orientation. The grasping problem and the concept of graspable region for a BiPCR are first introduced. The binary approximating method and the corresponding algorithms are then presented to generate the graspable region. Additional constraints on a biped climbing robot with five degrees of freedom (DoFs) are presented as a supplement to the algorithm. A series of comprehensive simulations are conducted with the five-DoF and six-DoF climbing robots to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Finally, the dexterity of biped climbing robots with different DoFs is discussed.