Design and control of a planar bipedal robot ERNIE with parallel knee compliance

This paper presents the development of the planar bipedal robot ERNIE as well as numerical and experimental studies of the influence of parallel knee joint compliance on the energetic efficiency of walking in ERNIE. ERNIE has 5 links—a torso, two femurs and two tibias—and is configured to walk on a treadmill so that it can walk indefinitely in a confined space. Springs can be attached across the knee joints in parallel with the knee actuators. The hybrid zero dynamics framework serves as the basis for control of ERNIE’s walking. In the investigation of the effects of compliance on the energetic efficiency of walking, four cases were studied: one without springs and three with springs of different stiffnesses and preloads. It was found that for low-speed walking, the addition of soft springs may be used to increase energetic efficiency, while stiffer springs decrease the energetic efficiency. For high-speed walking, the addition of either soft or stiff springs increases the energetic efficiency of walking, while stiffer springs improve the energetic efficiency more than do softer springs. Electronic Supplementary Material  The online version of this article () contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

A bacterial colony growth algorithm for mobile robot localization

Achieving robot autonomy is a fundamental objective in Mobile Robotics. However in order to realize this goal, a robot must be aware of its location within an environment. Therefore, the localization problem (i.e.,the problem of determining robot pose relative to a map of its environment) must be addressed. This paper proposes a new biology-inspired approach to this problem. It takes advantage of models of species reproduction to provide a suitable framework for maintaining the multi-hypothesis. In addition, various strategies to track robot pose are proposed and investigated through statistical comparisons. The Bacterial Colony Growth Algorithm (BCGA) provides two different levels of modeling: a background level that carries on the multi-hypothesis and a foreground level that identifies the best hypotheses according to an exchangeable strategy. Experiments, carried out on the robot ATRV-Jr manufactured by iRobot, show the effectiveness of the proposed BCGA.

An autonomous educational mobile robot mediator

So far, most of the applications of robotic technology to education have mainly focused on supporting the teaching of subjects that are closely related to the Robotics field, such as robot programming, robot construction, or mechatronics. Moreover, most of the applications have used the robot as an end or a passive tool of the learning activity, where the robot has been constructed or programmed. In this paper, we present a novel application of robotic technologies to education, where we use the real world situatedness of a robot to teach non-robotic related subjects, such as math and physics. Furthermore, we also provide the robot with a suitable degree of autonomy to actively guide and mediate in the development of the educational activity. We present our approach as an educational framework based on a collaborative and constructivist learning environment, where the robot is able to act as an interaction mediator capable of managing the interactions occurring among the working students. We illustrate the use of this framework by a 4-step methodology that is used to implement two educational activities. These activities were tested at local schools with encouraging results. Accordingly, the main contributions of this work are: i) A novel use of a mobile robot to illustrate and teach relevant concepts and properties of the real world; ii) A novel use of robots as mediators that autonomously guide an educational activity using a collaborative and constructivist learning approach; iii) The implementation and testing of these ideas in a real scenario, working with students at local schools.

一种有腿机器人步态轨迹生成算法

目前存在一类有腿机器人,由于其底层动力学控制参数难于获取,行走设计无法使用已有的控制方法,现有的基于建模的步态存在缺乏完善规划,固定规划步态与实际步态相差较大的问题,针对这个问题,提出一种使用曲线拟合生成步态轨迹的想法,通过引入遗传算法,让机器人能自主的搜索良好的行走步态轨迹,在四足步行机器人平台上取得了良好的实验结果.     

基于主动视觉和超声的机器人目标跟踪系统

运动目标跟踪技术是未知环境下移动机器人研究领域的一个重要研究方向。该文提出了一种基于主动视觉和超声信息的移动机器人运动目标跟踪设计方法,利用一台SONY EV-D31彩色摄像机、自主研制的摄像机控制模块、图像采集与处理单元等构建了主动视觉系统。移动机器人采用了基于行为的分布式控制体系结构,利用主动视觉锁定运动目标,通过超声系统感知外部环境信息,能在未知的、动态的、非结构化复杂环境中可靠地跟踪运动目标。实验表明机器人具有较高的鲁棒性,运动目标跟踪系统运行可靠。     

教务门户网自动问答系统的设计与实现

教务门户信息的查询等操作存在交互性差的问题,利用搜索引擎又不能有效解决这个问题,基于聊天机器人的自动问答系统(Automatic Question Answering System,QA)在人机交互上的优势及其自主性的问答机制有助于解决用户在教务门户网站交互性差的问题。通过对教务门户网的用户需求分析和信息操作分类,构建底层数据结构以文档形式储存;对自动问答系统核心的三个模块:问题分析、信息检索和答案抽取作了深入的分析和设计,给出了实现的方法,最后通过实际测试验证了系统的可行性和互操作性。     

基于网页内容和链接价值的相关度方法的实现

专业搜索引擎提供特定主题的信息检索服务,是新一代搜索引擎的发展方向之一,而网页主题相关度分析是专业搜索引擎的核心技术,它指导着robot进行有价值的搜索,专门搜索与主题相关的页面;提出_种综合的网页主题相关度分析方法,方法同时对网页内容价值和链接价值进行了考察,从而保证了robot搜索的网页与主题有着较高的相关度;在网页内容价值评价时,对传统的方法进行了改进,新的方法能高好的实现.该方法也用于服装行业的搜索引擎,效果明显.     

基于激光测距的环境地图动态创建技术研究

本文主要研究完全未知结构化环境下的移动机器人二维地图构建与标图技术。本文以激光测距仪为环境探测传感器,采用几何特征法创建地图。对局部地图创建中的区域分割方法进行了改进,提出了基于线性阈值法的区域分割方法;给出了基于相关线段和线段缓冲区的全局地图创建方法。实验结果表明：本方法实现了基于实时的激光测距数据的局部地图动态创建和全局地图的实时更新,算法有效且可行。     

草坪灌溉机器人定位技术的研究

草坪灌溉机器人最基本功能之一是在草坪规划的喷洒栅格中能够自动定位,继而启动喷灌系统完成该栅格的灌溉任务。鉴于草坪景观的要求,不宜在草坪设置各种标杆辅助定位。本研究通过分析两轮独立驱动机器人在行走过程中输入控制量和输出位姿的关系,建立了机器人定位模型,使其能够在草坪上划分的栅格中定位;试验表明该模型对机器人在草坪中的定位与控制是有效的,本系统研究的定位与控制模型对机械构造要求低,成本低,有利农业机器人的推广使用。     

一种移动机器人在三维动态环境下的路径规划方法

提出一种基于遗传算法的三维动态环境下的路径规划方法,通过对机器人的运动行为进行编码,将各种约束条件融入到遗传算法当中,规划出可实际应用的避障路径,仿真研究表明该方法是简单有效的.