In this paper a new concept, named the Extended Operational Space (EXOS), has been proposed for the effective analysis and the real-time control of the robot manipulators with kinematic redundancy. The EXOS consists of the operational space (OS) and the optimal null space (NS): the operational space is used to describe manipulator end-effector motion; whereas the optimal null space, described by the minimum number of NS vectors, is used to express the self motion.

Based upon the EXOS formulation, the kinematics, statics, and dynamics of redundant manipulators have been analyzed, and control laws based on the dynamics have been proposed. The inclusion of only the minimum number of NS vectors has changed the resulting dynamic equations into a very compact form, yet comprehensive enough to describe: not only the dynamic behavior or the end effector, but also that of the self motion; and at the same time the interaction of these two motions. The comprehensiveness is highlighted by the demonstration of the dynamic couplings between OS dynamics and NS dynamics, which are quite elusive in other approaches.

Using the proposed dynamic controls, one can optimize a performance measure while tracking a desired end-effector trajectory with a better computational efficiency than the conventional methods. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been demonstrated by simulations and experiments.

The gait of a multi-segment inchworm robot is a series of actuator actions that will change the shape of the robot to generate a net motion. In this paper, we model the multi-segment inchworm robot as a finite state automaton. Gait generation is posed as a search problem on the graph described by the automaton with prescribed state transitions. The state transitions are defined based on the kinematics of robot locomotion. The auxiliary actuator concept is introduced. Single-stride and multi-stride gait generations are discussed. Single-stride gaits exhibit fault-tolerant and real-time computation features that are necessary in actual applications. Both computer simulation and experimental hardware platform are developed for various aspects of gait generation and planning.

When a parallel manipulator reaches a singular configuration (singularity), the end effect (platform) pose cannot be controlled any longer, and infinite active forces must be applied in the actuated joints to balance the loads exerted on the platform. Therefore, these singularities must be avoided during motion. The first step to avoid them is to locate all the platform poses (singularity locus) making the manipulator singular. Hence, the availability of a singularity locus equation, explicitly relating the manipulator geometric parameters to the singular platform poses, greatly facilitates the design process of the manipulator. The problem of determining the platform poses, that make the 6-3 fully-parallel manipulator (6-3 FPM) singular, will be addressed. A simple singularity condition will be written. This singularity condition consists in equating to zero the mixed product of three vectors, that are easy to be identified on the manipulator, and it is geometrically interpretable. The presented singularity condition will be transformed into an equation (singularity locus equation) explicitly containing the geometric parameters of the manipulator and the platform pose parameters making the 6-3 FPM singular. Eventually, the singularity locus equation will be reduced to a polynomial equation by using the Rodrigues parameters to parameterize the platform orientation. This polynomial equation is cubic in the platform position parameters and one of sixth degree in the Rodrigues parameters.

Inaccurate positioning of the robot end effector causes joint deformation as well as geometric errors when an industrial robot has a payload at its end effector. We propose a new approach of calibration which deals with joint angle dependent errors to compensate for these phenomena. To implement this method, we divided the robot workspace into several local regions, and built a calibration equation by generating the constraint conditions of the end effector's motion in each local region using a three-dimensional position measurement system. The parameter errors obtained this way were interpolated using the Radial Basis Function Network (RBFN) so as to estimate calibration errors in the regions that we did not measure. We used this technique to improve the performance of a six DOF industrial robot used for arc welding.

This paper presents the development of a model which can adequately simulate the dynamic stability of manipulators mounted on moveable platforms. The model takes into account the dynamics of the base that can potentially rock back-and-forth. Particularly, the model predicts the changes in the velocities of the manipulator links and the base due to impact with the ground. The application of the study is directed at industrial machines that carry human-operated hydraulic manipulators. The model is therefore used to simulate for the first time, planar movements of'a Caterpillar 215B excavator-based log-loader. The results clearly show the effect of the manipulator movement on turning the base over. The results also show that by proper manipulation of the arms, one can achieve a stable condition and even reverse the ‘tipover' situation in such machines.

In this paper, the kinematic workspace characteristics of a crab-like legged vehicle are investigated using a 2-D model. The alternative kinematic configurations and their corresponding workspace constraints are discussed, and the vehicle configuration of most interest identified. It is shown that, for constant vehicle body attitude, only two parameters affect the kinematic workspace, foot overlap and thigh length. Analytical methods for calculating the workspace characteristics are presented and, using these methods, the effects of the design geometry on the kinematic workspace are investigated.

This paper addresses the problem of identifying the uncertainties present in a robotic contact situation. These uncertainties are errors and misalignments of an object with respect to its ideal position. The paper describes how to solve for the errors caused during grasping and errors present when coming into contact with the environment. A force sensor is used together with Kalman Filters to solve for all the uncertainties. The straightforward use of a force sensor and the Kalman Filters is found to be effective in finding only some of the uncertainties in robotic contact. The other uncertainties form dependencies that cannot be estimated in this manner. This dependency brings about the problem of observability. To make the unobservable uncertainties observable a sequence of contacts are used. The error covariance matrix of the Kalman Filter (KF) is used to obtain new contacts that are required to solve for all the uncertainties completely. There is complete freedom in choosing which unobservable quantity to be excited in forming the next contact. The paper describes how these new contacts can be randomly executed. A two dimensional contact situation will be used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. Experimental data are also presented to prove the validity of the procedure. Due to the non-linear relationship between the uncertainties and the forces, an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) has been used.

This paper presents a collision-free path planner for mobile robot navigation in an unknown environment subject to nonholonomic constraints. This planner is well adapted for use with embarked sensors, because it uses only the distance information between the robot and the obstacles. The collision-free path-planning is based on a new representation of the obstacles in the velocity space. The obstacles in the influence zone are mapped as linear constraints into the velocity space of the robot, forming a convex subset that represents the velocities that the robot can use without collision with the objects. The planner is composed by two modules, termed “reaching the goal” and “boundary following”. The major advantages of this method are the very short calculation time and a continuous stable behavior of the velocities. The results presented demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed method for solving the collision-free path-planning problem.

The objective of this study is to obtain optimal cyclic gaits for a biped robot without actuated ankles. Two types of motion are studied: walking and running. For walking, the gait is composed uniquely of successive single support phases and instantaneous double support phases that are modelled by passive impact equations. The legs swap their roles from one single support phase to the next one. For running, the gait is composed of stance phases and flight phases. A passive impact with the ground exists at the end of flight. During each phase the evolution of m joints variables is assumed to be polynomial functions, m is the number of actuators. The evolution of the other variables is deduced from the dynamic model of the biped. The coefficients of the polynomial functions are chosen to optimise criteria and to insure cyclic motion of the biped. The chosen criteria are: maximal advance velocity, minimal torque, and minimal energy. Furthermore, the optimal gait is defined with respect to given performances of actuators: The torques and velocities at the output of the gear box are bounded. For this study, the physical parameters of a prototype, which is under construction, are used. Optimal walking and running are defined. The running is more efficient for high velocities than the walking with respect to the studied criteria.

This study presents a fast inverse kinematics algorithm for a class of robots, including PUMA and SCARA. It decomposes a robot Jacobian into a product of sub-matrices to locate singularities. Singular value decomposition (SVD) is applied to each singular sub-matrix to find a local least-squares inverse. Perfect inverses are derived for all non-singular sub-matrices. The proposed algorithm is extremely fast. A total inverse requires 54 flops for PUMA and 43 for SCARA. Simulation and experiment are conducted to test the accuracy and real-time speed of the algorithm.

This paper illustrates basic concepts of real-time control systems through the application of a real-time single-processor computing environment for the control of a robotic arm. The paper describes elements for the selection of the real-time architecture, the control algorithm and the graphical user interface. The system provides an opportunity for users to verify the robot performance by changing on-line the controller parameters and the shape of the desired motion.

Traditional expert systems for fault diagnosis have a bottleneck in knowledge acquisition, and have limitations in knowledge representation and reasoning. A new expert system shell for fault diagnosis is presented in this paper to develop multiple knowledge models (object model, rules, neural network, case-base and diagnose models) hierarchically based on multiple knowledge. The structure of the expert system shell and the knowledge representation of multiple models are described. Diagnostic algorithms are presented for automatic modeling and hierarchical reasoning. It will be shown that the expert system shell is very effective in building diagnostic expert systems.

This paper presents a computational method for obtaining an optimal control trajectory for point-to-point motion of a cooperating robot carrying a flexible object. To increase the overall productivity and its efficiency, it is required to move the object as fast as possible using the maximum capacity of actuators of robots. If the carrying object is very sensitive to vibration, the robots should be operated so as not to cause excessive vibration of that object. This work deals with optimal input design for cooperative robots to reduce vibration of flexible objects that are handled at speed, under firm constraints on control torques.

This paper describes an on-going project to develop robotic systems for locating chemical sources in constrained environments. There is increasing interest in applying chemical sensing to mobile robots. Locating the source of a chemical plume is seen as an important use for a chemical sensing robot. Current research tends to concentrate on source location in open and relatively obstacle free environments. Many of the applications for this technology will be areas where airflow is constrained and deflected by obstacles such as inside buildings, mines and subway tunnels. It is this kind of situation that this project aims to address.

The estimation of the 2D relative motion of an indoor robot using monocular vision is presented. The camera calibration is known, and its motion is limited to be planar. These constraints are included in the robust regression of epipolar geometry from point matches. Motion is derived from the epipolar geometry. A sequence of 54 real images is used to test the algorithm. Accurate motion, both in rotation and translation angles of 0.4 and 1.7 deg, is successfully derived.

The aim of this paper is to propose a bipedal structure able to follow high acceleration movements. The vertical jump of a human has been chosen as input (coming from experiments) to validate the controller design as it is one of the most complex motion. The study concerns the low level of the biped control that is to say the control design of one leg made of three rigid bodies, each of them moved by a pneumatic actuator. An analogy between a pneumatic actuator and a physiological muscle is first proposed. A dynamic model of the leg is then presented decoupling the dynamic effects of the skeletal (as interactions between segments) from the dynamic effects of the muscles involved. The controller is based on the nonlinear theory (taking into account the actuator and the mechanical models), it ensures a dynamic tracking of position and force. Its originality lays in the consideration of impedance behaviour at each joint during free and constrained tasks. It leads to asymptotically stable (Popov criteria) control laws which are continuous between contact and non-contact phases enabling real-time computations. The simulation results clearly show the tracking of position and forces during the whole jump cycle.

Despite the numerous technical improvements, robot programming is still today a very tedious activity requiring considerable efforts for fine tuning programs written off-line. Moreover, such programs are usually not particularly portable from one robot to another, sometimes even when the robots are from the same maker.

The issue addressed in the work reported here is how to overcome these shortcomings. In this respect, the argument is to develop programs within the behaviour-based assembly paradigm which views tasks in terms of goal-achieving entities (behaviours). The focus on the description of a task more than its implementation is the key to generality and portability. As shown with the aid of two similar, but not identical, assembly benchmarks, behavioural programs are independent of any specificity of each assembly kit and can, indeed, be constructed using the very same code.

This paper presents theoretical and experimental investigations into the dynamic modelling and characterisation of a flexible manipulator system. A constrained planar single-link flexible manipulator is considered. A dynamic model of the system is developed based on finite element methods. The flexural and rigid dynamics of the system as well as inertia effects and structural damping are accounted in the model. Performance of the algorithm in describing the dynamic behaviour of the system is assessed in comparison to an experimental test-rig. Experimental results are presented for validation of the developed finite element model in the time and frequency domains.

A wheeled mobile manipulator system is modeled using Kane's dynamic equations. Kane's equations are constructed with minimum effort, are control oriented and provide both physical insight and fast simulations. The powerful tools of Kane's approach for incorporating nonholonomic motion constraints and bringing noncontributing forces into evidence are exploited. Both nonholonomic constraints associated with slipping and skidding as well as conditions for avoiding tipping over are included. The resulting equations, along with the set of constraint equations provide a safe and complete framework for developing control strategies for mobile manipulator systems.