On the learning control of a robot manipulator

This paper derives a learning control law to achieve trajectory following for a robot manipulator. The controller consists of two parts, a computed torque servo for the rigid body terms that can be modelled and a learning law for the unmodelled dynamics. An advantage of this method is that bounds can be assigned to the position and velocity tracking errors.     

光纤式机器人触觉传感器静态特性的实验研究

介绍了一种光纤式机器人触觉传感器，分析了这种传感器的静态特性，并通过理论分析和实验研究提出了一种消除干扰的方法。实验结果证明，传感器的最大绝对误差为０．０５３ｋｇ，相对误差为０．６２％。     

Development and implementation of a NURBS curve motion interpolator

This paper deals with the issues of development and implementation of a real-time NURBS interpolator for a six-axis robot. Using an open-architecture controller system as a testbed, a real-time NURBS curve interpolator was developed, implemented and tested. Sample runs were conducted with the resulting trajectories measured in real-time during robot motion. The resulting trajectories are analyzed, discussed and compared with those from a commonly used point-to-point approximation technique. The real-time NURBS curve interpolator's feasibility, advantages and related issues are also discussed.     

Effects of form and motion on judgments of social robots׳ animacy,likability, trustworthiness and unpleasantness

One of robot designers׳ main goals is to make robots as sociable as possible. Aside from improving robots׳ actual social functions, a great deal of effort is devoted to making them appear lifelike. This is often achieved by endowing the robot with an anthropomorphic body. However, psychological research on the perception of animacy suggests another crucial factor that might also contribute to attributions of animacy: movement characteristics. In the current study, we investigated how the combination of bodily appearance and movement characteristics of a robot can alter people׳s attributions of animacy, likability, trustworthiness, and unpleasantness. Participants played games of Tic-Tac-Toe against a robot which (1) either possessed a human form or did not, and (2) either exhibited smooth, lifelike movement or did not. Naturalistic motion was judged to be more animate than mechanical motion, but only when the robot resembled a human form. Naturalistic motion improved likeability regardless of the robot׳s appearance. Finally, a robot with a human form was rated as more disturbing when it moved naturalistically. Robot designers should be aware that movement characteristics play an important role in promoting robots׳ apparent animacy.     

Control of Robot Manipulators in Terms of Quasi-Velocities

In this paper we present new control algorithms for robots with dynamics described in terms of quasi-velocities (Kozłowski, Identification of articulated body inertias and decoupled control of robots in terms of quasi-coordinates. In: Proc. of the 1996 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 317–322. IEEE, Piscataway, 1996a; Zeitschrift für Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik 76(S3):479–480, 1996c; Robot control algorithms in terms of quasi-coordinates. In: Proc. of the 34 Conference on Decision and Control, pp. 3020–3025, Kobe, 11–13 December 1996, 1996d). The equations of motion are written using spatial quantities such as spatial velocities, accelerations, forces, and articulated body inertia matrices (Kozłowski, Standard and diagonalized Lagrangian dynamics: a comparison. In: Proc. of the 1995 IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, pp. 2823–2828. IEEE, Piscataway, 1995b; Rodriguez and Kreutz, Recursive Mass Matrix Factorization and Inversion, An Operator Approach to Open- and Closed-Chain Multibody Dynamics, pp. 88–11. JPL, Dartmouth, 1998). The forward dynamics algorithms incorporate new control laws in terms of normalized quasi-velocities. Two cases are considered: end point trajectory tracking and trajectory tracking algorithm, in general. It is shown that by properly choosing the Lyapunov function candidate a dynamic system with appropriate feedback can be made asymptotically stable and follows the desired trajectory in the task space. All of the control laws have a new architecture in the sense that they are derived, in the so-called quasi-velocity and quasi-force space, and at any instant of time generalized positions and forces can be recovered from order recursions, where denotes the number of degrees of freedom of the manipulator. This paper also contains the proposition of a sliding mode control, originally introduced by Slotine and Li (Int J Rob Res 6(3):49–59, 1987), which has been extended to the sliding mode control in the quasi-velocity and quasi-force space. Experimental results illustrate behavior of the new control schemes and show the potential of the approach in the quasi-velocity and quasi-force space. Authors are with Chair of Control and Systems Engineering.     

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.

自主发育智能机器人体系结构研究

传统的机器人系统范式分类已经无法将新出现的方法和理论纳入其中。为此,首先从认知的角度重新对机器人的范式进行分类。新的范式分类涵盖了传统的系统范式,明确了自主发育在机器人系统范式中的地位。在此基础上,提出了自主发育智能机器人体系结构。该结构只需利用基本的感知能力和行动能力,分别利用感知发育模块、认知发育模块和行为发育模块实现自主感知分类、时空经验知识以及反应式行为的逐层发育。各发育模块之间互相依赖并可以同时学习,具有实时的自主发育能力。     

Embodied categorisation for vision-guided mobile robots

This paper outlines a philosophical and psycho-physiological basis for embodied perception, and develops a framework for conceptual embodiment of vision-guided robots. We argue that categorisation is important in all stages of robot vision. Further, that classical computer vision is unsuitable for this categorisation, however, through conceptual embodiment, active perception can be effective. We present a methodology for developing vision-guided robots that applies embodiment, explicitly and implicitly, in categorising visual data to facilitate efficient perception and action. Finally, we present systems developed using this methodology, and demonstrate that embodied categorisation can make algorithms more efficient and robust.     

间歇性单足弹跳机器人落地冲击及稳定性分析

弹跳式机器人落地时与地面的撞击会造成机载设备的损坏 ,而且由于足部受力不均导致机构易翻转 ,难以保持正常的姿态继续弹跳。本文首先建立间歇式弹跳机构的双质量弹簧模型 ,对其进行动力学分析 ,并将弹跳动作划分为四阶段 ,分析了除起跳外其他三个阶段中所受外界作用。经过计算分析 ,最终归纳总结出五条减小落地冲击力及保持稳定的改善措施 ,这些措施为实用弹跳机构的设计提供了有益参考     

Local collision avoidance of multiple robots using avoidability measure and relative distance

This paper presents a new method driving multiple robots to their goal position without collision. To consider the movement of the robots in a work area, we adopt the concept of avoidability measure. The avoidability measure figures the degree of how easily a robot can avoid other robots considering the velocity of the robots. To implement the concept to avoid collision among multiple robots, relative distance between the robots is proposed. The relative distance is a virtual distance between robots indicating the threat of collision between the robots. Based on the relative distance, the method calculates repulsive force against a robot from the other robots. Also, attractive force toward the goal position is calculated in terms of the relative distance. These repulsive force and attractive force are added to form the driving force for robot motion. The proposed method is simulated for several cases. The results show that the proposed method steers robots to open space anticipating the approach of other robots. In contrast, since the usual potential field method initiates avoidance motion later than the proposed method, it sometimes fails preventing collision or causes hasty motion to avoid other robots. The proposed method works as a local collision-free motion coordination method in conjunction with higher level of task planning and path planning method for multiple robots to do a collaborative job.