International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, Vol 15 (2018)
Subjects
Electronics, TK7800-8360, Electronic computers. Computer science, and QA75.5-76.95
Abstract
Robotic assistive devices are popular in research and medical fields for their potential to automate tasks or to improve the quality of life of disabled users. They may be used for physical therapy, as exoskeletons, teleoperation devices, or to assist users in tasks in their home. Common methods for controlling these devices use both broad and difficult-to-maintain gesturing or peripherals such as mouse pointers or joysticks which are not designed for the task required of them. In addition, these devices are often not adaptive to the user and can only be minimally customized. This article proposes a fusion of infrared camera data for stress detection with Kinect body tracking to develop a customizable control method for a robotic limb. Devices such as the Microsoft Kinect have seen use in physical therapy applications but only some use in teleoperation. In addition, studies have shown potential in using infrared imaging to detect human stress. The objectives of this study are to design and build an interactive interface and adaptive control system and to evaluate its performance. Stress detection using infrared was tested using a Compix 222 and neural networks to categorize emotional states. Kinect v2 accuracy and reliability was tested by comparing joint positions to detected angles and perceived output angles. Our work suggests that infrared imaging and the Kinect v2 show potential to make a real-time adaptive system in which a control program can adapt its output when it detects stress from its user.
Johnny Kwok Wai Wong, Heng Li, Greg Chan, Haoran Wang, Ting Huang, Eric Luo, and Vera Li
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, Vol 11 (2014)
Subjects
Electronics, TK7800-8360, Electronic computers. Computer science, and QA75.5-76.95
Abstract
The need for an efficient means of managing emissions and identifying potential hazard black spots in construction processes effectively and at the lowest cost possible has been highlighted in the construction sector. This study illustrates an integrated 5D model developed for quantifying carbon emissions and simulating the pattern of emissions of construction processes as a whole using virtual prototyping technologies. The predicted construction emissions data for each activity is generated and plotted to visually demonstrate the emission rates alongside the integrated four-dimensional VP framework of the construction project. The model also consists of a pro-active construction management system (PCMS), which assist the project team to detect sources of danger to on-site workers and provide pro-active warnings to them so as to avoid fatal accidents that are often caused by falling from heights and being struck by moving objects. A Hong Kong high-rise housing development project is used to exhibit the application of the carbon emission visualisation and potential accident detection system. This tool aims to encourage construction industry practitioners to become more environmentally conscious and pro-active in carbon mitigation and safety performance.
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, Vol 1, Iss 1, Pp 39-42 (2008)
Subjects
WebotsTM, mobile robot simulation, rapid prototyping, transfer to real robots, commercial software, Electronics, TK7800-8360, Electronic computers. Computer science, and QA75.5-76.95
Abstract
Cyberbotics Ltd. develops WebotsTM, a mobile robotics simulation software that provides you with a rapid prototyping environment for modelling, programming and simulating mobile robots. The provided robot libraries enable you to transfer your control programs to several commercially available real mobile robots. WebotsTM lets you define and modify a complete mobile robotics setup, even several different robots sharing the same environment. For each object, you can define a number of properties, such as shape, color, texture, mass, friction, etc. You can equip each robot with a large number of available sensors and actuators. You can program these robots using your favorite development environment, simulate them and optionally transfer the resulting programs onto your real robots. WebotsTM has been developed in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, thoroughly tested, well documented and continuously maintained for over 7 years. It is now the main commercial product available from Cyberbotics Ltd.
Paul Cohen, Sousso Kelouwani, Raphael Gava, and Vincent Zalzal
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, Vol 6, Iss 1 (2009)
Subjects
robotic framework, robotic middleware architecture, fast prototyping, process triggering., Electronics, TK7800-8360, Electronic computers. Computer science, and QA75.5-76.95
Abstract
Acropolis is an open source middleware robotic framework for fast software prototyping and reuse of program codes. It is made up of a core software and a collection of several extension modules called plugins. Each plugin encapsulates a specific functionality needed for robotic applications. To design a robot behavior, a circuit of the involved plugins is built with a graphical user interface. A high degree of decoupling between components and a graph-based representation allow the user to build complex robot behaviors with minimal need for code writing. In addition, the Acropolis core is hardware platform independent. Well-known design patterns and layered software architecture are its key features. Through the description of three applications, we illustrate some of its usability.
This work addresses the design of an active multi-link micro-catheter actuated by Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) micro actuators. This may be a response to one medical major demand on such devices, which will be useful for surgical explorations and interventions. In this paper, we focus on a training and design simulator dedicated to such catheters. This simulator is based on an original simulation platform (OpenMASK). The catheter is a robotic system, which is evaluated by a dynamical simulation addressing a navigation task in its environment. The design of the prototype and its mechanical model are presented. We develop an interaction model for contact. This model uses a real medical database for which distance cartography is proposed. Then we focus on an autonomous control model based on a multi-agent approach and including the behaviour description of the SMA actuators. Results of mechanical simulations including interaction with the ducts are presented. Furthermore, the interest of such a simulator is presented by applying virtual prototyping techniques for the design optimization. This optimization process is achieved by using genetic algorithms at different stages with respect to the specified task.
This paper presents MARIE, a middleware framework oriented towards developing and integrating new and existing software for robotic systems. By using a generic communication framework, MARIE aims to create a flexible distributed component system that allows robotics developers to share software programs and algorithms, and design prototypes rapidly based on their own integration needs. The use of MARIE is illustrated with the design of a socially interactive autonomous mobile robot platform capable of map building, localization, navigation, tasks scheduling, sound source localization, tracking and separation, speech recognition and generation, visual tracking, message reading and graphical interaction using a touch screen interface.
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, Vol 9 (2012)
Subjects
Electronics, TK7800-8360, Electronic computers. Computer science, and QA75.5-76.95
Abstract
The present paper explores the industrial capabilities of a CAM-ROB system implementation based on a commercial CAD/CAM system (NX™) for an industrial robotic workcell of eight joints, committed to the rapid prototyping of 3D CAD-defined models. The workcell consists of a KUKA™ KR15/2 manipulator assembled on a linear track and synchronized with a rotary table. A redundancy resolution scheme is developed to deal with the redundancies due to the additional joints of the robot, plus the one from the symmetry axis of the milling tool. During the path tracking, the use of these redundancies is optimized by adjusting two performance criterion vectors related to singularity avoidance and maintenance of a preferred reference posture, as secondary tasks to be done. In addition, two suitable fuzzy inference engines adjust the weight of each joint in these tasks. The developed system is validated in a real prototyping of a carving.
Diego Ferigo, Silvio Traversaro, Francesco Romano, and Daniele Pucci
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, Vol 17 (2020)
Subjects
Electronics, TK7800-8360, Electronic computers. Computer science, and QA75.5-76.95
Abstract
The article presents a software architecture to optimize the process of prototyping and deploying robot controllers that are synthesized using model-based design methodologies. The architecture is composed of a framework and a pipeline. Therefore, the contribution of the article is twofold. First, we introduce an open-source actor-oriented framework that abstracts the common robotic uses of middlewares, optimizers, and simulators. Using this framework, we then present a pipeline that implements the model-based design methodology. The components of the proposed framework are generic, and they can be interfaced with any tool supporting model-based design. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach describing the application of the resulting synchronous dataflow architecture to the design of a balancing controller for the YARP-based humanoid robot iCub. This example exploits the interfacing with Simulink® and Simulink® Coder™.
Shuai Wang, Zhen Lu, Xinhui Liu, Yue Cao, and Xuefei Li
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, Vol 15 (2018)
Subjects
Electronics, TK7800-8360, Electronic computers. Computer science, and QA75.5-76.95
Abstract
Wheel loader is off-road vehicle and works on uneven terrain, unexpected banks or steep slopes. In order to improve the ride and stability of the vehicle, this study mainly focuses on how to adjust the parameters of hydropneumatic suspension through the identification of road conditions. Firstly, the multibody model of a wheel loader with hydropneumatic suspension is developed by RecurDyn in a co-simulation with MATLAB/Simulink. Secondly, a method of road level recognition based on learning vector quantization neural network is proposed to accurately identify the level of roads on which the wheel loader travels. Then, the hydropneumatic suspension parameters are optimized by using the particle swarm algorithm. A fuzzy controller is established based on the optimized parameters of the hydropneumatic suspension to realize the active adjustment of the suspension parameters under different road levels and driving speeds. Finally, a virtual prototyping model is used to analyse the influence of the active adjustment of suspension parameters on the vertical vibration under different driving conditions. Results show that the fuzzy controller can reasonably adjust the parameters of hydropneumatic suspension according to the identified road condition and effectively reduce the vertical vibration of the wheel loader.
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, Vol 10 (2013)
Subjects
Electronics, TK7800-8360, Electronic computers. Computer science, and QA75.5-76.95
Abstract
The aim of this research is to examine the different control strategies for the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The control task is formulated as an angular stabilization of the four rotor platform, and also as a tracking problem of chosen state variables. The PID algorithm has been considered in three structures in respect of the optimal control signal applied to the actuators. For better performance of the quadrotor in hover mode the cascade control system has been proposed. The simulation results of attitude control with different PID controller architectures are presented, and confirm the effectiveness of the proposed control structure and theoretical expectations. Moreover, the design and the practical realization of the control architecture on the experimental aerial vehicle are described. The fast prototyping method together with Matlab/Simulink software and DAQ hardware are used for both evolution and validation of control algorithms. The capacity of the attitude stabilization system is important in the development process of more advanced functionality of autonomous flying vehicles; therefore it needs to be highlighted and taken into careful consideration.