Locomation strategies for amphibious robots-a review

In the past two decades, unmanned amphibious robots have proven the most promising and efficient systems ranging from scientific, military, and commercial applications. The applications like monitoring, surveillance, reconnaissance, and military combat operations require platforms to maneuver on challenging, complex, rugged terrains and diverse environments. The recent technological advancements and development in aquatic robotics and mobile robotics have facilitated a more agile, robust, and efficient amphibious robots maneuvering in multiple environments and various terrain profiles. Amphibious robot locomotion inspired by nature, such as amphibians, offers augmented flexibility, improved adaptability, and higher mobility over terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial mediums. In this review, amphibious robots' locomotion mechanism designed and developed previously are consolidated, systematically The review also analyzes the literature on amphibious robot highlighting the limitations, open research areas, recent key development in this research field. Further development and contributions to amphibious robot locomotion, actuation, and control can be utilized to perform specific missions in sophisticated environments, where tasks are unsafe or hardly feasible for the divers or traditional aquatic and terrestrial robots

Hybrid Inspection Robot for Indoor and Outdoor Surveys

In this paper, simulation and experimental tests are reported for a hybrid robot being used for indoor and outdoor inspections. Automatic or tele-operated surveys can be performed by mobile robots, which represent the most efficient solution in terms of power consumption, control, robustness, and overall costs. In the context of structures and infrastructure inspection, robots must be able to move on horizontal or sloped surfaces and overpass obstacles. In this paper, the mechatronic design, simulations, and experimental activity are proposed for a hybrid robot being used for indoor and outdoor inspections, when the environmental conditions do not allow autonomous navigation. In particular, the hybrid robot is equipped with external and internal sensors to acquire information on the main structural elements, avoiding the need for experienced personnel being directly inside the inspection site, taking information from the environment and aiding the pilot to understand the best maneuvers/decisions to take. Given the current state of research and shortcomings worldwide, this paper discusses inspection robots taking into account the main issues in their use, functionality and standard systems, and how internal sensors can be set in order to improve inspection robots’ performances. On this basis, an illustrative study case is proposed

Enabling All-Access Mobility for Planetary Exploration Vehicles via Transformative Reconfiguration

Effective large-scale exploration of planetary surfaces requires robotic vehicles capable of mobility across chaotic terrain. Characterized by a combination of ridges, cracks and valleys, the demands of this environment can cause spacecraft to experience significant reductions in operating footprint, performance, or even result in total system loss. Significantly increasing the scientific return of an interplanetary mission is facilitated by architectures capable of real-time configuration changes that go beyond that of active suspensions while concurrently meeting system, mass, power, and cost constraints. This Phase 1 report systematically explores how in-service architecture changes can expand system capabilities and mission opportunities. A foundation for concept generation is supplied by four Martian mission profiles spanning chasms, ice fields, craters and rocky terrain. A fifth mission profile centered on Near Earth Object exploration is also introduced. Concept generation is directed using four transformation principles - a taxonomy developed by the engineering design community to explain the cause of an architecture change and existing brainstorming techniques. This allowed early conceptual sketches of architecture changes to be organized by the principle driving the greatest increase in mission performance capability

Generic Project Plan for a Mobile Robotics System

This thesis discussed the mobile land robots for the robotic competitions. The topics discussed in this thesis are robotic systems, mobile land robots, robot competitions, and example of robot designs. Question-answer sections are added to help understand the requirements to build the robot. Examples include three different teams who participated in different robotic competitions to provide a context for robotic competitions. The thesis was divided into the five chapters. The first and second chapters explained the different kind of robotics systems, and opportunities. The focus of the information was the mobile land robots, which was explained under the third chapter, mobile land robots. The aim of the thesis was to guide those who want to design, build, and compete in the mobile robot competition. As a result, the information from various resources been gathered and has been given a form of thesis to help individuals or group of individuals to guide them through the robotic competitions

Nonlinear Modeling and Control of Driving Interfaces and Continuum Robots for System Performance Gains

With the rise of (semi)autonomous vehicles and continuum robotics technology and applications, there has been an increasing interest in controller and haptic interface designs. The presence of nonlinearities in the vehicle dynamics is the main challenge in the selection of control algorithms for real-time regulation and tracking of (semi)autonomous vehicles. Moreover, control of continuum structures with infinite dimensions proves to be difficult due to their complex dynamics plus the soft and flexible nature of the manipulator body. The trajectory tracking and control of automobile and robotic systems requires control algorithms that can effectively deal with the nonlinearities of the system without the need for approximation, modeling uncertainties, and input disturbances. Control strategies based on a linearized model are often inadequate in meeting precise performance requirements. To cope with these challenges, one must consider nonlinear techniques. Nonlinear control systems provide tools and methodologies for enabling the design and realization of (semi)autonomous vehicle and continuum robots with extended specifications based on the operational mission profiles. This dissertation provides an insight into various nonlinear controllers developed for (semi)autonomous vehicles and continuum robots as a guideline for future applications in the automobile and soft robotics field. A comprehensive assessment of the approaches and control strategies, as well as insight into the future areas of research in this field, are presented.First, two vehicle haptic interfaces, including a robotic grip and a joystick, both of which are accompanied by nonlinear sliding mode control, have been developed and studied on a steer-by-wire platform integrated with a virtual reality driving environment. An operator-in-the-loop evaluation that included 30 human test subjects was used to investigate these haptic steering interfaces over a prescribed series of driving maneuvers through real time data logging and post-test questionnaires. A conventional steering wheel with a robust sliding mode controller was used for all the driving events for comparison. Test subjects operated these interfaces for a given track comprised of a double lane-change maneuver and a country road driving event. Subjective and objective results demonstrate that the driver’s experience can be enhanced up to 75.3% with a robotic steering input when compared to the traditional steering wheel during extreme maneuvers such as high-speed driving and sharp turn (e.g., hairpin turn) passing. Second, a cellphone-inspired portable human-machine-interface (HMI) that incorporated the directional control of the vehicle as well as the brake and throttle functionality into a single holistic device will be presented. A nonlinear adaptive control technique and an optimal control approach based on driver intent were also proposed to accompany the mechatronic system for combined longitudinal and lateral vehicle guidance. Assisting the disabled drivers by excluding extensive arm and leg movements ergonomically, the device has been tested in a driving simulator platform. Human test subjects evaluated the mechatronic system with various control configurations through obstacle avoidance and city road driving test, and a conventional set of steering wheel and pedals were also utilized for comparison. Subjective and objective results from the tests demonstrate that the mobile driving interface with the proposed control scheme can enhance the driver’s performance by up to 55.8% when compared to the traditional driving system during aggressive maneuvers. The system’s superior performance during certain vehicle maneuvers and approval received from the participants demonstrated its potential as an alternative driving adaptation for disabled drivers. Third, a novel strategy is designed for trajectory control of a multi-section continuum robot in three-dimensional space to achieve accurate orientation, curvature, and section length tracking. The formulation connects the continuum manipulator dynamic behavior to a virtual discrete-jointed robot whose degrees of freedom are directly mapped to those of a continuum robot section under the hypothesis of constant curvature. Based on this connection, a computed torque control architecture is developed for the virtual robot, for which inverse kinematics and dynamic equations are constructed and exploited, with appropriate transformations developed for implementation on the continuum robot. The control algorithm is validated in a realistic simulation and implemented on a six degree-of-freedom two-section OctArm continuum manipulator. Both simulation and experimental results show that the proposed method could manage simultaneous extension/contraction, bending, and torsion actions on multi-section continuum robots with decent tracking performance (e.g. steady state arc length and curvature tracking error of 3.3mm and 130mm-1, respectively). Last, semi-autonomous vehicles equipped with assistive control systems may experience degraded lateral behaviors when aggressive driver steering commands compete with high levels of autonomy. This challenge can be mitigated with effective operator intent recognition, which can configure automated systems in context-specific situations where the driver intends to perform a steering maneuver. In this article, an ensemble learning-based driver intent recognition strategy has been developed. A nonlinear model predictive control algorithm has been designed and implemented to generate haptic feedback for lateral vehicle guidance, assisting the drivers in accomplishing their intended action. To validate the framework, operator-in-the-loop testing with 30 human subjects was conducted on a steer-by-wire platform with a virtual reality driving environment. The roadway scenarios included lane change, obstacle avoidance, intersection turns, and highway exit. The automated system with learning-based driver intent recognition was compared to both the automated system with a finite state machine-based driver intent estimator and the automated system without any driver intent prediction for all driving events. Test results demonstrate that semi-autonomous vehicle performance can be enhanced by up to 74.1% with a learning-based intent predictor. The proposed holistic framework that integrates human intelligence, machine learning algorithms, and vehicle control can help solve the driver-system conflict problem leading to safer vehicle operations

Intelligent Control and Path Planning of Multiple Mobile Robots Using Hybrid Ai Techniques

This work reports the problem of intelligent control and path planning of multiple mobile robots. Soft computing methods, based on three main approaches i.e. 1) Bacterial Foraging Optimization Algorithm, 2) Radial Basis Function Network and 3) Bees Algorithm are presented. Initially, Bacterial foraging Optimization Algorithm (BFOA) with constant step size is analyzed for the navigation of mobile robots. Then the step size has been made adaptive to develop an Adaptive Bacterial Foraging Optimization (ABFO) controller. Further, another controller using radial basis function neural network has been developed for the mobile robot navigation. Number of training patterns are intended to train the RBFN controller for different conditions arises during the navigation. Moreover, Bees Algorithm has been used for the path planning of the mobile robots in unknown environments. A new fitness function has been used to perform the essential navigational tasks effectively and efficiently. In addition to the selected standalone approaches, hybrid models are also proposed to improve the ability of independent navigation. Five hybrid models have been presented and analyzed for navigation of one, two and four mobile robots in various scenarios. Comparisons have been made for the distance travelled and time taken by the robots in simulation and real time. Further, all the proposed approaches are found capable of solving the basic issues of path planning for mobile robots while doing navigation. The controllers have been designed, developed and analyzed for various situations analogous to possible applications of the robots in indoor environments. Computer simulations are presented for all cases with single and multiple mobile robots in different environments to show the effectiveness of the proposed controllers. Furthermore, various exercises have been performed, analyzed and compared in physical environments to exhibit the effectiveness of the developed controllers

Advanced Mobile Robotics: Volume 3

Mobile robotics is a challenging field with great potential. It covers disciplines including electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, cognitive science, and social science. It is essential to the design of automated robots, in combination with artificial intelligence, vision, and sensor technologies. Mobile robots are widely used for surveillance, guidance, transportation and entertainment tasks, as well as medical applications. This Special Issue intends to concentrate on recent developments concerning mobile robots and the research surrounding them to enhance studies on the fundamental problems observed in the robots. Various multidisciplinary approaches and integrative contributions including navigation, learning and adaptation, networked system, biologically inspired robots and cognitive methods are welcome contributions to this Special Issue, both from a research and an application perspective

HydroDog: A Quadruped Robot Actuated by Soft, Fluidic Muscles

This report presents the very first effort aimed to develop a legged terrestrial robot actuated by Hydro Muscles, which are elastic tubes actuated by fluid, constrained by fabric that extend and contract emulating life-like performance of biological muscles. The team designed and manufactured a 30-pound quadruped “dog” using versatile aluminum extrusions and minimally machined components. The team tested and observed a variety of bounding gaits that resulted from different skeletal/muscular geometries and actuation times. These tests yielded varying jump heights and robot forward velocities. Future projects should extensively research optimal leg kinematics to maximize the mechanical power the muscles apply on the robot