Comparison of Cam and Servomotor Solutions to a Motion Problem

The manufacturing lines of the sponsoring company utilize cam129]follower systems where complex motion is required. Insight into the suitability of servomotor mechanisms as replacements for cam129]follower systems was desired. To that end, design and manufacture of a Cam129]Servo Test Machine actuated by either cam-follower or servomechanism was undertaken by the project129fs participants. The machine design employed a timing belt speed reduction in its drive train, which had an unintended deleterious impact on system stiffness. A revised design was developed and analyzed in its stead. The project team concluded that a larger servomotor, directly mounted, can be a suitable replacement for a cam129]follower system at a cost that is several orders of magnitude greater

Study of robotics systems applications to the space station program

Applications of robotics systems to potential uses of the Space Station as an assembly facility, and secondarily as a servicing facility, are considered. A typical robotics system mission is described along with the pertinent application guidelines and Space Station environmental assumptions utilized in developing the robotic task scenarios. A functional description of a supervised dual-robot space structure construction system is given, and four key areas of robotic technology are defined, described, and assessed. Alternate technologies for implementing the more routine space technology support subsystems that will be required to support the Space Station robotic systems in assembly and servicing tasks are briefly discussed. The environmental conditions impacting on the robotic configuration design and operation are reviewed

Kinematics and Robot Design IV, KaRD2021

This volume collects the papers published on the special issue “Kinematics and Robot Design IV, KaRD2021” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/robotics/special_issues/KaRD2021), which is the forth edition of the KaRD special-issue series, hosted by the open-access journal “MDPI Robotics”. KaRD series is an open environment where researchers can present their works and discuss all the topics focused on the many aspects that involve kinematics in the design of robotic/automatic systems. Kinematics is so intimately related to the design of robotic/automatic systems that the admitted topics of the KaRD series practically cover all the subjects normally present in well-established international conferences on “mechanisms and robotics”. KaRD2021, after the peer-review process, accepted 12 papers. The accepted papers cover some theoretical and many design/applicative aspects

Proceedings of the NASA Conference on Space Telerobotics, volume 4

Papers presented at the NASA Conference on Space Telerobotics are compiled. The theme of the conference was man-machine collaboration in space. The conference provided a forum for researchers and engineers to exchange ideas on the research and development required for the application of telerobotic technology to the space systems planned for the 1990's and beyond. Volume 4 contains papers related to the following subject areas: manipulator control; telemanipulation; flight experiments (systems and simulators); sensor-based planning; robot kinematics, dynamics, and control; robot task planning and assembly; and research activities at the NASA Langley Research Center

Activities of the Center for Space Construction

The Center for Space Construction (CSC) at the University of Colorado at Boulder is one of eight University Space Engineering Research Centers established by NASA in 1988. The mission of the center is to conduct research into space technology and to directly contribute to space engineering education. The center reports to the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences and resides in the College of Engineering and Applied Science. The college has a long and successful track record of cultivating multi-disciplinary research and education programs. The Center for Space Construction is prominent evidence of this record. At the inception of CSC, the center was primarily founded on the need for research on in-space construction of large space systems like space stations and interplanetary space vehicles. The scope of CSC's research has now evolved to include the design and construction of all spacecraft, large and small. Within this broadened scope, our research projects seek to impact the underlying technological basis for such spacecraft as remote sensing satellites, communication satellites, and other special purpose spacecraft, as well as the technological basis for large space platforms. The center's research focuses on three areas: spacecraft structures, spacecraft operations and control, and regolith and surface systems. In the area of spacecraft structures, our current emphasis is on concepts and modeling of deployable structures, analysis of inflatable structures, structural damage detection algorithms, and composite materials for lightweight structures. In the area of spacecraft operations and control, we are continuing our previous efforts in process control of in-orbit structural assembly. In addition, we have begun two new efforts in formal approach to spacecraft flight software systems design and adaptive attitude control systems. In the area of regolith and surface systems, we are continuing the work of characterizing the physical properties of lunar regolith, and we are at work on a project on path planning for planetary surface rovers

Intelligent gripper design and application for automated part recognition and gripping

Intelligent gripping may be achieved through gripper design, automated part recognition, intelligent algorithm for control of the gripper, and on-line decision-making based on sensory data. A generic framework which integrates sensory data, part recognition, decision-making and gripper control to achieve intelligent gripping based on ABB industrial robot is constructed. The three-fingered gripper actuated by a linear servo actuator designed and developed in this project for precise speed and position control is capable of handling a large variety of objects. Generic algorithms for intelligent part recognition are developed. Edge vector representation is discussed. Object geometric features are extracted. Fuzzy logic is successfully utilized to enhance the intelligence of the system. The generic fuzzy logic algorithm, which may also find application in other fields, is presented. Model-based gripping planning algorithm which is capable of extracting object grasp features from its geometric features and reasoning out grasp model for objects with different geometry is proposed. Manipulator trajectory planning solves the problem of generating robot programs automatically. Object-oriented programming technique based on Visual C++ MFC is used to constitute the system software so as to ensure the compatibility, expandability and modular programming design. Hierarchical architecture for intelligent gripping is discussed, which partitions the robot’s functionalities into high-level (modeling, recognizing, planning and perception) layers, and low-level (sensing, interfacing and execute) layers. Individual system modules are integrated seamlessly to constitute the intelligent gripping system

Development of Alternative Methods for Robot Kinematics

The problem of finding mathematical tools to represent rigid body motions in space has long been on the agenda of physicists and mathematicians and is considered to be a well-researched and well-understood problem. Robotics, computer vision, graphics, and other engineering disciplines require concise and efficient means of representing and applying generalized coordinate transformations in three dimensions. Robotics requires systematic ways to represent the relative position or orientation of a manipulator rigid links and objects. However, with the advent of high-speed computers and their application to the generation of animated graphical images and control of robot manipulators, new interest arose in identifying compact and computationally efficient representations of spatial transformations. The traditional methods for representing forward kinematics of manipulators have been the homogeneous matrix in line with the D-H algorithm. In robotics, this matrix is used to describe one coordinate system with respect to another one. However for online operation and manipulation of the robotic manipulator in a flexible manner the computational time plays an important role. Although this method is used extensively in kinematic analysis but it is relatively neglected in practical robotic systems due to some complications in dealing with the problem of orientation representation. On the other hand, such matrices are highly redundant to represent six independent degrees of freedom. This redundancy can introduce numerical problems in calculations, wastes storage, and often increases the computational cost of algorithms. Keeping these drawbacks in mind, alternative methods are being sought by various researchers for representing the same and reducing the computational time to make the system fast responsive in a flexible environment. Researchers in robot kinematics tried alternative methods in order to represent rigid body transformations based on concepts introduced by mathematicians and physicists such as Euler angle or Epsilon algebra. In the present work alternative representations, using quaternion algebra and lie algebra are proposed, tried and compared

A unified robotic kinematic simulation interface.

Robotic controller and application programming have evolved along with the application of computer technologies. A PC-based, open architecture controller, off-line programming and simulation system integrated in one-box solution presents the latest advancement in robotics. Open architecture controllers have been proven essential for all aspects of reconfiguration in future manufacturing systems. A Unified Reconfigurable Open Control Architecture (UROCA) research project is under way within the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) Centre at the University of Windsor. Applications are for industrial robotic, CNC, and automotive control systems. The UROCA proposed architecture is a reconfigurable system that takes the advantages of different control structure types, thereby integrating them in a way to enhance the controller architecture design. This research develops a graphical robotic simulation platform by creating an optimized object-oriented design. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2005 .D56. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 44-03, page: 1474. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2005