Human User Impressions of Damping Methods for Singularity Handling in Human-Robot Collaboration

Kinematic singularity is a fundamental and well understood problem of robot manipulators, with many methods having been developed to ensure safe and robust operation in proximity to singularity. However little attention has been given to the scenario where the robot and human are working in physical contact to collaboratively perform a task. In such a scenario the feelings and impressions of the human operator should be considered when developing solutions for handling singularity. This work presents an experimental study comparing three modes of handling kinematic singularities with respect to the impressions of the human operator. Two of the modes are based on traditional Damped-Least-Squares. The third method uses an asymmetric damping behavior proposed as being well suited for applications involving physical human-robot interaction. The three modes are tested and compared by subjects performing a mock industrial task, and feedback from the subjects analyzed to identify the preferred mode. Results indicate that the choice of method used affects the user’s impressions of the interaction, and the asymmetrical damping behavior can produce a preferred interaction experience with human operators during tasks

Advanced Strategies for Robot Manipulators

Amongst the robotic systems, robot manipulators have proven themselves to be of increasing importance and are widely adopted to substitute for human in repetitive and/or hazardous tasks. Modern manipulators are designed complicatedly and need to do more precise, crucial and critical tasks. So, the simple traditional control methods cannot be efficient, and advanced control strategies with considering special constraints are needed to establish. In spite of the fact that groundbreaking researches have been carried out in this realm until now, there are still many novel aspects which have to be explored

Challenges and Solutions for Autonomous Robotic Mobile Manipulation for Outdoor Sample Collection

In refinery, petrochemical, and chemical plants, process technicians collect uncontaminated samples to be analyzed in the quality control laboratory all time and all weather. This traditionally manual operation not only exposes the process technicians to hazardous chemicals, but also imposes an economical burden on the management. The recent development in mobile manipulation provides an opportunity to fully automate the operation of sample collection. This paper reviewed the various challenges in sample collection in terms of navigation of the mobile platform and manipulation of the robotic arm from four aspects, namely mobile robot positioning/attitude using global navigation satellite system (GNSS), vision-based navigation and visual servoing, robotic manipulation, mobile robot path planning and control. This paper further proposed solutions to these challenges and pointed the main direction of development in mobile manipulation