Mechanical assessment of time optimal robot motion

The use of time optimal path planning can speed up robots on assembly lines and allow them to run faster, increasing their productivity. This paper seeks to develop a more complete understanding of the nature of time-optimal point-to-point trajectories for polar coordinate robots and intends to show how effective direct numerical methods are in computing optimal control solutions, including the resolution of complicated motor switching structures. In time optimal robot point-to-point motion there is generically one robot axis that has the hardest time reaching its endpoint. And then, to whatever extent other axes have extra freedom, it must be used to help the axis with the hardest task, whenever possible. Such assistance makes use of different mechanical interaction forces and effects. In this paper we examine one basis type of robot, the polar coordinate robot, and analyze all types of forces during optimal motions, in order to develop an understanding of optimal maneuvers.Formerly Researcher at the Institute for Scientific Computing, University of Heidelberg Germany     

A new artificial life body: biologically inspired dynamic bipedal humanoid robots

Recently, a biologically inspired, bipedal, dynamic, humanoid robot was developed at the Artificial Life and Robotics Laboratory of Oita University. This bipedal humanoid robot is able to walk dynamically and to go up and down stairs. The central pattern generator developed produces various types of walking pattern. This robot has a pair of small CMOS color CCD cameras, a speaker, and a microphone in the head part, and will have a GPS, a portable telephone, and other sensors in the body part, so that the integration of locomotion and behavior to achieve specific demonstrations will be realized. This project develops dynamic mobility and the ability for autonomous recognition and navigation using the biological central nervous system, the brain system, and the real-time control system. Also, the design principles that demonstrate the dynamic interaction between neural and mechanical controls will be clarified. In Phase I, the platform of a small, bipedal, humanoid robot is used to develop autonomous locomotion and autonomous sensing and navigation. In Phase II of the project, an iteration on the platform design for human-size, bipedal, humanoid robots will be performed for operational testing. The development of bipedal humanoid robots that capture biological systems with unique principles and practices could dramatically increase their performance in tasks for national security needs.This work was presented in part at the 8th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 24–26, 2003     

Upper Limb Robot Mediated Stroke Therapy—GENTLE/s Approach

Stroke is a leading cause of disability in particular affecting older people. Although the causes of stroke are well known and it is possible to reduce these risks, there is still a need to improve rehabilitation techniques. Early studies in the literature suggest that early intensive therapies can enhance a patient's recovery. According to physiotherapy literature, attention and motivation are key factors for motor relearning following stroke. Machine mediated therapy offers the potential to improve the outcome of stroke patients engaged on rehabilitation for upper limb motor impairment. Haptic interfaces are a particular group of robots that are attractive due to their ability to safely interact with humans. They can enhance traditional therapy tools, provide therapy on demand and can present accurate objective measurements of a patient's progression. Our recent studies suggest the use of tele-presence and VR-based systems can potentially motivate patients to exercise for longer periods of time. The creation of human-like trajectories is essential for retraining upper limb movements of people that have lost manipulation functions following stroke. By coupling models for human arm movement with haptic interfaces and VR technology it is possible to create a new class of robot mediated neuro rehabilitation tools. This paper provides an overview on different approaches to robot mediated therapy and describes a system based on haptics and virtual reality visualisation techniques, where particular emphasis is given to different control strategies for interaction derived from minimum jerk theory and the aid of virtual and mixed reality based exercises.     

An Advanced Telereflexive Tactical Response Robot

ROBART III is intended as an advanced demonstration platform for non-lethal tactical response, extending the concepts of reflexive teleoperation into the realm of coordinated weapons control (i.e., sensor-aided control of mobility, camera, and weapon functions) in law enforcement and urban warfare scenarios. A rich mix of ultrasonic and optical proximity and range sensors facilitates remote operation in unstructured and unexplored buildings with minimal operator oversight. Supervised autonomous navigation and mapping of interior spaces is significantly enhanced by an innovative algorithm which exploits the fact that the majority of man-made structures are characterized by (but not limited to) parallel and orthogonal walls. This paper presents a brief overview of the advanced telereflexive man-machine interface and its associated human-centered mapping strategy.     

The CAM-Brain Machine (CBM): An FPGA Based Tool for Evolving a 75 Million Neuron Artificial Brain to Control a Lifesized Kitten Robot

This article introduces the CAM-Brain Machine (CBM), an FPGA based piece of hardware which implements a genetic algorithm (GA) to evolve a cellular automata (CA) based neural network circuit module, of approximately 1,000 neurons, in about a second, i.e., a complete run of a GA, with 10,000s of circuit growths and performance evaluations. Up to 65,000 of these modules, each of which is evolved with a humanly specified function, can be downloaded into a large RAM space, and interconnected according to humanly specified artificial brain architectures. This RAM, containing an artificial brain with up to 75 million neurons, is then updated by the CBM at a rate of 130 billion CA cells per second. Such speeds should enable real time control of robots and hopefully the birth of a new research field that we call brain building. The first such artificial brain, to be built in 2000 and beyond, will be used to control the behaviors of a life sized robotkitten called Robokitty.     

能玩“石头、剪子、布”游戏的机器人

本文介绍一个能够与人类玩“石头、剪子、布”游戏的游戏机器人。该机器人配备一只五自由度的五指灵巧手,每个手指可以独立运动,因此它可以象真人的手一样地做出“石头、剪子、布”的手形。系统中应用人工智慧的推理法则和概率统计方法实现游戏的智能玩法,从而使得机械手具有拟人的思维特征。灵巧手的手指由步进电机带动。所有的控制和检测均有电脑及其上的输入输出卡完成。     

足球机器人决策系统专用程序设计语言

介绍了足球机器人决策系统的结构,详细介绍了RS语言系统的组成和翻译器的工作原理,该语言是以功能部件库为依托,在C 语言子集中引入“RS描述语句”和“装配语句”而形成的,使得程序员可以方便的利用功能部件库中的部件来开发软件,减轻编程难度,提高编程效率。     

仿人灵巧手关节的位置/力矩控制

为了使仿人灵巧手完成各种精细作业,提出了一种新的关节位置／力矩控制方法。在自由空间和约束空间中分别采用滑模位置控制和具有前馈的PD力矩控制,在过渡过程中使用系统观测器切换控制模式。这种方法可以使关节在自由空间和约束空间中分别实现良好的轨迹跟踪和力矩跟踪,在过渡过程中实现控制模式的可靠切换和系统的稳定过渡。实验证明了该方法的有效性。     

"穿地龙"机器人总体方案分析与研究

通过对国内外地下管线非开挖技术发展的分析,设计了应用于中、小管线铺设的“穿地龙”机器人,根据总体方案的要求,确定由气动二冲击机构、转向机构测试部件组成的本体方案,分析锥形钻头的旋转空间,针对机器人在土中的实际运行,确定机器人位置姿态、温度及压力等物理量的测量方案,最后,采用微机操作实现自动控制。     

Visual recognition of pointing gestures for human–robot interaction

In this paper, we present an approach for recognizing pointing gestures in the context of human–robot interaction. In order to obtain input features for gesture recognition, we perform visual tracking of head, hands and head orientation. Given the images provided by a calibrated stereo camera, color and disparity information are integrated into a multi-hypothesis tracking framework in order to find the 3D-positions of the respective body parts. Based on the hands’ motion, an HMM-based classifier is trained to detect pointing gestures. We show experimentally that the gesture recognition performance can be improved significantly by using information about head orientation as an additional feature. Our system aims at applications in the field of human–robot interaction, where it is important to do run-on recognition in real-time, to allow for robot egomotion and not to rely on manual initialization.