Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 344)

This bibliography lists 125 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during January, 1989. Subject coverage includes: aerospace medicine and psychology, life support systems and controlled environments, safety equipment, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, and flight crew behavior and performance

An intelligent, free-flying robot

The ground based demonstration of the extensive extravehicular activity (EVA) Retriever, a voice-supervised, intelligent, free flying robot, is designed to evaluate the capability to retrieve objects (astronauts, equipment, and tools) which have accidentally separated from the Space Station. The major objective of the EVA Retriever Project is to design, develop, and evaluate an integrated robotic hardware and on-board software system which autonomously: (1) performs system activation and check-out; (2) searches for and acquires the target; (3) plans and executes a rendezvous while continuously tracking the target; (4) avoids stationary and moving obstacles; (5) reaches for and grapples the target; (6) returns to transfer the object; and (7) returns to base

Human-robot collaboration for safe object transportation using force feedback

[EN] This work presents an approach based on multi-task, non-conventional sliding mode control and admittance control for human-robot collaboration aimed at handling applications using force feedback. The proposed robot controller is based on three tasks with different priority levels in order to cooperatively perform the safe transportation of an object with a human operator. In particular, a high-priority task is developed using non-conventional sliding mode control to guarantee safe reference parameters imposed by the task, e.g., keeping a load at a desired orientation (to prevent spill out in the case of liquids, or to reduce undue stresses that may compromise fragile items). Moreover, a second task based on a hybrid admittance control algorithm is used for the human operator to guide the robot by means of a force sensor located at the robot tool. Finally, a third low-priority task is considered for redundant robots in order to use the remaining degrees of freedom of the robot to achieve a pre-set secondary goal (e.g., singularity avoidance, remaining close to a homing configuration for increased safety, etc.) by means of the gradient projection method. The main advantages of the proposed method are robustness and low computational cost. The applicability and effectiveness of the proposed approach are substantiated by experimental results using a redundant 7R manipulator: the Sawyer collaborative robot. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Government under Project DPI2017-87656-C2-1-R, and the Generalitat Valenciana under Grants VALi+d APOSTD/2016/044 and BEST/2017/029.Solanes Galbis, JE.; Gracia Calandin, LI.; Muñoz-Benavent, P.; Valls Miro, J.; Carmichael, MG.; Tornero Montserrat, J. (2018). Human-robot collaboration for safe object transportation using force feedback. Robotics and Autonomous Systems. 107:196-208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2018.06.003S19620810

Proceedings of the NASA Conference on Space Telerobotics, volume 2

These proceedings contain papers presented at the NASA Conference on Space Telerobotics held in Pasadena, January 31 to February 2, 1989. 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 application of telerobotics technology to the space systems planned for the 1990s and beyond. The Conference: (1) provided a view of current NASA telerobotic research and development; (2) stimulated technical exchange on man-machine systems, manipulator control, machine sensing, machine intelligence, concurrent computation, and system architectures; and (3) identified important unsolved problems of current interest which can be dealt with by future research

Modular robotics overview of the `state of the art`

The design of a robotic arm processing modular components and reconfigurable links is the general goal of a modular robotics development program. The impetus behind the pursuit of modular design is the remote engineering paradigm of improved reliability and availability provided by the ability to remotely maintain and repair a manipulator operating in a hazardous environment by removing and replacing worn or failed modules. Failed components can service off- line and away from hazardous conditions. The desire to reconfigure an arm to perform different tasks is also an important driver for the development of a modular robotic manipulator. In order to bring to fruition a truly modular manipulator, an array of technical challenges must be overcome. These range from basic mechanical and electrical design considerations such as desired kinematics, actuator types, and signal and transmission types and routings, through controls issues such as the need for control algorithms capable of stable free space and contact control, to computer and sensor design issues like consideration of the use of embedded processors and redundant sensors. This report presents a brief overview of the state of the art of technical issues relevant of modular robotic arm design. The focus is on breadth of coverage, rather than depth, in order to provide a reference frame for future development

Proceedings of the NASA Conference on Space Telerobotics, volume 1

The theme of the Conference was man-machine collaboration in space. Topics addressed include: redundant manipulators; man-machine systems; telerobot architecture; remote sensing and planning; navigation; neural networks; fundamental AI research; and reasoning under uncertainty

Industrial Robotics

This book covers a wide range of topics relating to advanced industrial robotics, sensors and automation technologies. Although being highly technical and complex in nature, the papers presented in this book represent some of the latest cutting edge technologies and advancements in industrial robotics technology. This book covers topics such as networking, properties of manipulators, forward and inverse robot arm kinematics, motion path-planning, machine vision and many other practical topics too numerous to list here. The authors and editor of this book wish to inspire people, especially young ones, to get involved with robotic and mechatronic engineering technology and to develop new and exciting practical applications, perhaps using the ideas and concepts presented herein

Safety Awareness for Rigid and Elastic Joint Robots: An Impact Dynamics and Control Framework

This thesis aims at making robots with rigid and elastic joints aware of human collision safety. A framework is proposed that captures human injury occurrence and robot inherent safety properties in a unified manner. It allows to quantitatively compare and optimize the safety characteristics of different robot designs and is applied to stationary and mobile manipulators. On the same basis, novel motion control schemes are developed and experimentally validated

Real time sensor based motion planning

Master'sMASTER OF ENGINEERIN