Multimodal sensing and active continuous closed‐loop feedback for achieving reliable manipulation in the outdoor physical world

The use of field robots can greatly decrease the amount of time, effort, and associated risk compared to if human workers were to carryout certain tasks such as disaster response. However, transportability and reliability remain two main issues for most current robot systems. To address the issue of transportability, we have developed a lightweight modularizable platform named AeroArm. To address the issue of reliability, we utilize a multimodal sensing approach, combining the use of multiple sensors and sensor types, and the use of different detection algorithms, as well as active continuous closed‐loop feedback to accurately estimate the state of the robot with respect to the environment. We used Challenge 2 of the 2017 Mohammed Bin Zayed International Robotics Competition as an example outdoor manipulation task, demonstrating the capabilities of our robot system and approach in achieving reliable performance in the fields, and ranked fifth place internationally in the competition.     

Estimating and eliminating redundant data transfers over the web: a fragment based approach

Redundant data transfers over the Web, can be mainly attributed to the repeated transfers of unchanged data. Web caches and Web proxies are some of the solutions that have been proposed, to deal with the issue of redundant data transfers. In this paper we focus on the efficient estimation and reduction of redundant data transfers over the Web. We first prove that a vast amount of redundant data is transferred in Web pages that are considered to carry fresh data. We show this by following an approach based on Web page fragmentation and manipulation. Web pages are broken down to fragments, based on specific criteria. We then deal with these fragments as independent constructors of the Web page and study their change patterns independently and in the context of the whole Web page. After the fragmentation process, we propose solutions for dealing with redundant data transfers. This paper has been based on our previous work on ‘Web Components’ but also on related work by other researchers. It utilises a proxy based, client/server architecture, and imposes changes to the algorithms executed on the Proxy server and on clients. We show that our proposed solution can considerably reduce the amount of redundant data transferred on the Web. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

柔性冗余度机器人残余振动主动控制

研究柔性冗余度机器人的残余振动主动控制问题，设计了具有压电作动器与应变传感器的机敏杆件，建立了受控系统的状态空间表达式，采用独立模态空间控制理论设计LQR状态反馈控制器，并基于对偶原理设计了具有指定收敛特性的Luenberger全维状态观测器，最后，以平面3R柔性冗余度机器人为例进行了计算机仿真，结果表明，采用这种主动控制方法可以显著改善柔性冗余度机器人的动力学品质。     

提高油田集输系统可靠性的研究

应用现代可靠性理论,从设计、工艺、技术等方面对油田集输系统进行了可靠性探讨,提出了增强系统可靠性的措施。     

RAID技术综述

通过对各种RAID级别的实现原理进行描述，综合分析了各种模式的性能、优缺点以及应用范围。     

Accurate estimation of environment parameters from ultrasonic data

This paper describes a robust and accurate ultrasonic sensing system for a mobile robot. The system continuously updates a local map of the environment in which obstacles are represented by straight lines or points in a robot centered coordinate frame. The presented algorithms use a Kalman filter for the reduction of the noise in the ultrasonic data and use a systematical error correction (‘bundle correction’) to reduce the uncertainty in obstacle direction. Experiments are carried out in simulation and with a real mobile robot system. Results show that the accuracy with which line parameters can be estimated is in the order of 1 degree for the orientation and about 2 cm for the position. The effect of the bundle correction is significant and maximal when the robot approaches walls under a small angle.     

Cleanbot-Ⅰ擦窗机器人的智能化技术

本文简述了擦窗机器人智能化的主要概念．介绍了Ｃｌｅａｎｂｏｔ－Ｉ擦窗机器人系统的结构特点、主要组成部分、工作原理，操作方式，未知局部环境的模型建立，各类内、外传感器的结构、原理和信息融合技术，以及路径规划的方法．     

Real-time accurate hand path tracking and joint trajectory planning for industrial robots (I)

Previously, researchers raised the accuracy for a robot’s hand to track a specified path in Cartesian space mainly through increasing the number of knots on the path and the number of the path’s segments, which results in the heavier online computational burden for the robot controller. Aiming at overcoming this drawback, the authors propose a new kind of real-time accurate hand path tracking and joint trajectory planning method. Through selecting some extra knots on the specified hand path by a certain rule and introducing a sinusoidal function to the joint displacement equation of each segment, this method can greatly raise the path tracking accuracy of robot’s hand and does not change the number of the path’s segments. It also does not increase markedly the computational burden of robot controller. The result of simulation indicates that this method is very effective, and has important value in increasing the application of industrial robots. Foundation item: Foundation of the Robotics Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. RL200002) Biography of the first author: TAN Guan-zheng, Dr., professor, born in Oct. 1962, majoring in artificial intelligence, robotics and automation.     

Planetary exploration by robotic aerovehicles

Planetary aerobots are a new type of telerobotic science platform that can fly and navigate in a dynamic 3-dimensional atmospheric environment, thus enabling the global in situ exploration of planetary atmospheres and surfaces. Aerobots are enabled by a new concept in planetary balloon altitude control, developed at JPL, which employs reversible-fluid changes to permit repeated excursions in altitude. The essential physics and thermodynamics ofreversible-fluid altitude control have been demonstrated in a series of altitude-control experiments conducted in the Earth's atmosphere, which are described. Aerobot altitude-control technology will be important in the exploration of seven planets and satellites in our solar system. Three of these objects—Venus, Mars, and the Saturnian satellite Titan—have accessible solid surfaces and atmospheres dominated by the dense gases nitrogen or carbon dioxide. They will be explored with aerobots using helium or hydrogen as their primary means of buoyancy. The other four planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—have deep atmospheres that are predominantly hydrogen. It may be possible to explore these atmospheres with aerobots inflated with atmospheric gas that is then radiatively heated from the hotter gaseous depths below. To fulfill their potential, aerobots to explore the planets will need autonomous state estimators to guide their observations and provide information to the altitude-control systems. The techniques of acquiring these data remotely are outlined. Aerobots will also use on board altitude control and navigation systems to execute complex flight paths including descent to the surface and exploiting differential wind velocities to access different latitude belts. Approaches to control of these systems are examined. The application of aerobots to Venus exploration is explored in some detail: The most ambitious mission described, the Venus Flyer Robot (VFR), would have the capability to make repeated short excursions to the high-temperature surface environment of Venus to acquire data and then return to the Earth-like upper atmosphere to communicate and recool its electronic systems. Finally a Planetary Aerobot Testbed is discussed which will conduct Earth atmospheric flights to validate autonomous-state-estimator techniques and flight-path-control techniques needed for future planetary missions.     

可编程序控制器在催化联锁系统的应用

随着工厂自动化程度的提高，对可编程控制器系统的可靠性要求越来越高，特别是炼油厂、化工厂、电站、钢铁厂以及环保项目中，停车将会给工厂带来的昂贵的代价。在这种情况下,冗余控制器能显著降低生产停滞的风险。简单介绍了可编程序控制器的冗余系统，并结合具体实例说明了冗余系统在其应用过程中的安全可靠性。