To obtain better performance on unstructured environments, such as in agriculture, forestry, and high-altitude operations, more and more researchers and engineers incline to study classes of biologically inspired robots. Since the natural inchworm can move well in various types of terrain, inchworm-like robots can exhibit excellent mobility. This paper describes a novel inchworm-type robot with simple structure developed for the application for climbing on trees or poles with a certain range of diameters. Modularization is adopted in the robot configuration. The robot is a serial mechanism connected by four joint modules and two grippers located at the front and rear end, respectively. Each joint is driven by servos, and each gripper is controlled by a linear motor. The simplified mechanism model is established, and then is used for its kinematic analysis based on screw theory. The dynamics of the robot are also analyzed by using Lagrange equations. The simulation of the robot gait imitating the locomotion of real inchworm is finally presented.

This paper discusses the study of a spherical parallel manipulator (SPM) used as a haptic device for tele-operation applications. The SPM presents poor behavior in singular configurations. Redundancy is used to eliminate the parallel singularity without major changes in the mechanical structure. Comparisons in terms of kinematic and dynamic behavior between the non-redundant and redundant SPM are presented. The results prove the advantage of introducing redundancy in the actuator and sensor to improve the behavior of the SPM. A new control strategy for the redundant SPM is also proposed. The control strategy has been successfully tested and validated on a SimMechanics model.

We propose a distributed algorithm for estimating the 3D pose (position and orientation) of multiple robots with respect to a common frame of reference when Global Positioning System is not available. This algorithm does not rely on the use of any maps, or the ability to recognize landmarks in the environment. Instead, we assume that noisy relative measurements between pairs of robots are intermittently available, which can be any one, or combination, of the following: relative pose, relative orientation, relative position, relative bearing, and relative distance. The additional information about each robot's pose provided by these measurements are used to improve over self-localization estimates. The proposed method is similar to a pose-graph optimization algorithm in spirit: pose estimates are obtained by solving an optimization problem in the underlying Riemannian manifold $(SO(3)\times{\mathcal R}^3)^{n(k)}$. The proposed algorithm is directly applicable to 3D pose estimation, can fuse heterogeneous measurement types, and can handle arbitrary time variation in the neighbor relationships among robots. Simulations show that the errors in the pose estimates obtained using this algorithm are significantly lower than what is achieved when robots estimate their pose without cooperation. Results from experiments with a pair of ground robots with vision-based sensors reinforce these findings. Further, simulations comparing the proposed algorithm with two state-of-the-art existing collaborative localization algorithms identify under what circumstances the proposed algorithm performs better than the existing methods. In addition, the question of trade-offs between cost (of obtaining a certain type of relative measurement) and benefit (improvement in localization accuracy) for various types of relative measurements is considered.

In this study, we analyze the influence of passive joint viscous friction (PJVF) on modal space decoupling for a class of symmetric spatial parallel mechanisms (SSPM). The Jacobian matrix relating the platform movements to each passive joint velocity is first gained by vector analysis and the passive joint damping matrix is then derived by applying the Kane method. Next, an analytic formula index measuring the degree of coupling effects between the damping terms in the modal coordinates is proposed using classical modal analysis of dynamic equations in task space. Based on the index, a new optimal design method is found which establishes the kinematics parameters for minimizing the coupling degree of damping and achieves optimal fault tolerance for modal space decoupling when all struts have identical damping and stiffness coefficients in their axial directions. To illustrate the effectiveness of the theory, the new method was used to redesign two configurations of a specific manipulator.

Using simple running models, researchers have argued that swing-leg retraction can improve running robot performance. In this paper, we investigate whether this holds for a more realistic simulation model validated against a physical running robot. We find that swing-leg retraction can improve stability and disturbance rejection. Alternatively, swing-leg retraction can simultaneously reduce touchdown forces, slipping likelihood, and impact energy losses. Surprisingly, swing-leg retraction barely affected net energetic efficiency. The retraction rates at which these effects are the greatest are strongly model-dependent, suggesting that robot designers cannot always rely on simplified models to accurately predict such complex behaviors.

In this paper, we present a theoretical study on the control of a compass gait walker using energy regulation between steps. We use a return map to relate the mid-stance robot kinetic energy between steps with two control inputs, namely, foot placement and ankle push-off. We show that by regulating robot kinetic energy between steps using the two control inputs, we are able to (1) generate a wide range of walking speeds and stride lengths, including average human walking; (2) cancel the effect of external disturbance fully in a single step (dead-beat control); and (3) switch from one periodic gait to another in a single step. We hope that insights from this control methodology can help develop robust controllers for practical bipedal robots.

A sliding mode controller is designed to compensate for the flexibility uncertainties of a cable robot and improve its tracking performance. Of the most significant sources of these uncertainties are the elasticity of the cables and the flexibility of the joints. A favorable approach to improve the accuracy of the system is first to model the cable and joint flexibilities and then convert the model uncertainties into parametric uncertainties. Parametric uncertainties are the product of imprecise flexibility coefficients and are finally neutralized by a sliding mode controller. The flexibility in cables is modeled by considering the longitudinal vibration of the time-varying length cables. A simulation study is carried out to confirm the presented model and the positive effect of the designed controller. Then the impact of these uncertainties on the dynamic load carrying capacity (DLCC) of the robot is examined and compared for different cases. Finally, experimental tests are conducted on the IUST (Iran University of Science and Technology) cable-suspended robot to validate the presented theories and simulation results.

Autonomous mobile robots need accurate localization techniques to perform assigned task. Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID) has become one of the main means to construct a real-time localization system. Localization techniques in RFID rely on accurate estimation of the read range between the reader and the tags. This paper proposes an auto-localization system for indoor mobile robot using passive RFID. The proposed system reads any three different RFID tags which have a known location. The current location can be estimated using the Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) scheme. In order to improve the system accuracy, the proposed system fuses the TDOA scheme for the three tags. A Kalman filter is used to minimize the estimated error and predict the next location. The simulation results validate the proposed framework.

For reproducing the manipulation of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) remedial massage and meanwhile guaranteeing safety, a 4-degree-of-freedom anthropomorphic robotic arm with integrated elastic joints is developed, and a passivity-based impedance control is used. Due to the series elasticity, integrated joints may minimize large forces that occur during accidental impacts, and, further, may offer more accurate and stable force control and a capacity for energy storage. Human expert's fingertip force curve in the process of massage therapy is acquired in vivo by a dedicated measurement device. Then three massage techniques, pressing, kneading, and plucking, are implemented by the soft arm, respectively, on torso model in vitro and on human body in vivo. Experimental results show that the developed robotic arm can effectively replicate the TCM remedial massage techniques.

This paper investigates the contributions of each joint in perturbed balance by employing multiple balance strategies and exploring gain scheduling. Hybrid controllers are developed for sagittal standing in response to constant pushes, and a hypothesis is then investigated that postural feedback gains in standing balance should change with perturbation size via an optimization approach. Related research indicates the roles of each joint: the ankles apply torque to the ground, the hips and/or arms generate horizontal ground forces, and the knees and hips squat. To investigate it from an optimization point of view, this paper uses a horizontal push of a given size, direction, and location as a perturbation, and optimizes controllers for different push sizes, directions, and locations. It applies to the ankle, hip, squat, and arm swinging strategies in standing balance. By comparing the capability of handling disturbances and investigating the feedback gains of each strategy, this paper quantitatively analyzes the contributions of each joint to perturbed balance. We believe this work is also instructive to study the progressive behavioral changes as the model gets more and more complex.

A new image-based controller is proposed for the robotic system with the joint velocity signals unavailable. The Immersion and Invariance (I&I) observer is applied to estimate the unknown velocity information. Compared with the general velocity observer, the I&I observer can estimate the unknown velocity exponentially. We consider the case that the exact camera parameters are not known. The corresponding adaptive controller is designed for the robot system and the stability is rigorously proven by using Lyapunov theorem. Finally, simulations are performed and the results show the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.

The flexible robotic drilling system has been widely used in the aircraft industry in recent years. There are three ways to attach an end-effector to a robot, which are the pointing configuration, the hanging configuration, and the side configuration. The simulation model of robot and workpiece is constructed by using MATLAB software. According to the three configurations, reachability, manipulability, joint useability, and joint passive torque of a robot are calculated by means of the MATLAB language. Based on the calculation results and various measures, the performance, including reachability, manipulability, joint useability, and deformation, of a robot are analyzed. The analysis results show that the pointing configuration has the best reachability, a long service life, and small energy consumption, and it substantially reduces the fifth axis joint passive torque produced by the clamp force, which will improve positional accuracy of holes; the hanging configuration and the side configuration improve robot's manipulability and are suitable for drilling in the curved surface.

In this paper, an optimization design of a 6 DOF parallel measuring system is analyzed. First, a closed form direct kinematics formulation based on Cayley–Menger determinants is considered in the objective function, in order to measure the manipulator singularities, then an estimation of distribution algorithm is proposed to solve the optimization problem. It is shown that the evolutionary algorithm can find close to optimal solutions for minimum pose error estimation. Additionally, these global optimizers significantly reduce the computational burden in comparison with exhaustive search and other global optimization techniques. The sensitivity of the pose error estimation in the prescribed robots' workspace is analyzed and used to guide a designer in choosing the best structural configuration. Numerical examples are discussed to show the feasibility of the proposed optimization methodology.

In order to resolve the redundancy of a wheeled mobile redundant manipulator comprising a two-wheel-drive mobile platform and a 6-degree-of-freedom manipulator, a physical-limits-constrained (PLC) minimum velocity norm (MVN) coordinating scheme (termed as PLC-MVN-C scheme) is proposed and investigated. Such a scheme can not only coordinate the mobile platform and the manipulator to fulfill the end-effector task and to achieve the desired optimal index (i.e., minimizing the norm of the rotational velocities of the wheels and the joint velocities of the manipulator) but also consider the physical limits of the robot (i.e., the joint-angle limits and joint-velocity limits of the manipulator as well as the rotational velocity limits of the wheels). The scheme is then reformulated as a quadratic program (QP) subject to equality and bound constraints, and is solved by a discrete QP solver, i.e., a numerical algorithm based on piecewise-linear projection equations (PLPE). Simulation results substantiate the efficacy and accuracy of such a PLC-MVN-C scheme and the corresponding discrete PLPE-based QP solver.

It has become a common practice to use simulation to generate large databases of good grasps for grasp planning in robotics research. However, the existence of a generic simulation context that enables the generation of high quality grasps that can be used in several different contexts such as bin-picking or picking objects from a table, has to our knowledge not yet been discussed in the literature.

In this paper, we investigate how well the quality of grasps simulated in a commonly used “generic” context transfers to a specific context, both, in simulation and in the real world.

We generate a large database of grasp hypotheses for several objects and grippers, which we then evaluate in different dynamic simulation contexts e.g., free floating (no gravity, no obstacles), standing on a table and lying on a table.

We present a comparison on the intersection of the grasp outcome space across the different contexts and quantitatively show that to generate reliable grasp databases, it is important to use context specific simulation.

We furthermore evaluate how well a state of the art grasp database transfers from two simulated contexts to a real world context of picking an object from a table and discuss how to evaluate transferability into non-deterministic real world contexts.

In this paper, a new method is presented that allows an intelligent manipulator robotic system to track a human hand from far distance in 3D space and estimate its orientation and position in real time with the goal of ultimately using the algorithm with a robotic spherical wrist system. In this proposed algorithm, several image processing and morphology techniques are used in conjunction with various mathematical formulas to calculate the hand position and orientation. The proposed technique was tested on Remote teleguided virtual Robotic system. Experimental results show that proposed method is a robust technique in terms of the required processing time of estimation of orientation and position of hand.

This paper presents the dynamic modeling of a 3-RPR planar parallel manipulator with three flexible intermediate links in order to investigate the effects of the intermediate links flexibility on the undesired vibrations of the end-effector. For this purpose, the intermediate links are modeled as Euler--Bernoulli beams with two types of fixed-pinned and fixed-free boundary conditions based on the assumed mode method (AMM). The equations of motion of the 3-RPR manipulator are formulated using the augmented Lagrange multipliers method in the form of differential algebraic equations (DAEs) by incorporating the elastic and rigid coordinates in the set of generalized coordinates. After defining the initial conditions and imposing external forces to the manipulator, the equations are then solved numerically using the Modified Extended Backward-Differentiation Formula Implicit (MEBDFI) approach. Comparison of the simulation results for two different boundary conditions shows clearly the effects of flexibility of the intermediate links on the vibration of the end-effector trajectory. Results of this work can be used for the dynamic modeling of other manipulators or to design a controller for reducing the undesired vibrations.

In this paper, we present the design of two serial spherical mechanisms to substitute for a single spherical joint that is usually used to connect the platform with the base in three degrees of freedom parallel mechanisms. According to the principle derived from the conceptual design, through using the two serial spherical mechanisms as the constraint limb, several redundantly actuated parallel mechanisms are proposed for ankle rehabilitation. The proposed parallel mechanisms all can perform the rotational movements of the ankle in three directions while at the same time the mechanism center of rotations can match the ankle axes of rotations compared with other multi-degree-of-freedom devices, due to the structural characteristics of the special constraint limb and platform. Two special parallel mechanisms are selected to analyze their kinematical performances, such as workspace, dexterity, singularity, and stiffness, based on the computed Jacobian. The results show that the proposed scheme of actuator redundancy can guarantee that the redundantly actuated parallel mechanisms have no singularity, better dexterity, and stiffness within the prescribed workspace in comparison with the corresponding non-redundant parallel mechanisms. In addition, the proposed mechanisms possess certain reconfigurable capacity based on control strategies or rehabilitation modes to obtain sound performance for completing ankle rehabilitation exercise.

The safety analysis of human–robot collisions has recently drawn significant attention, as robots are increasingly used in human environments. In order to understand the potential injury a robot could cause in case of an impact, such incidents should be evaluated before designing a robot arm based on biomechanical safety criteria. In recent literature, such incidents have been investigated mostly by experimental crash-testing. However, experimental methods are expensive, and the design parameters of the robot arm are difficult to change instantly. In order to solve this issue, we propose a novel robot-human collision model consisting of a 6-degree-of-freedom mass-spring-damper system for impact analysis. Since the proposed robot-human consists of a head, neck, chest, and torso, the relative motion among these body parts can be analyzed. In this study, collision analysis of impacts to the head, neck, and chest at various collision speeds are conducted using the proposed collision model. Then, the degree of injury is estimated by using various biomechanical severity indices. The reliability of the proposed collision model is verified by comparing the obtained simulation results with experimental results from literature. Furthermore, the basic requirements for the design of safer robots are determined.

A crucial problem is the risk that a manipulator arm would be damaged by twisting or bending during and after contacting a target satellite. This paper presents a solution to minimize the risk of damage to the arm and thereby enhance contact performance. First, a hand-eye servo controller is proposed as a method for accurately tracking and capturing a target satellite. Next, a motion planning strategy is employed to obtain the best-fit contacting moments. Also, an impedance control law is implemented to increase protection during operation and to ensure more accurate compliance. Finally, to overcome the challenge of verifying algorithms for a space manipulator while on the ground, a novel experimental system with a 6-DOF (degree of freedom) manipulator on a chaser field robot is presented and implemented to capture a target field robot; the proposed methods are then validated using the experimental platform.