1,086 research outputs found

    Robust Control Synthesis and Verification for Wire-Borne Underactuated Brachiating Robots Using Sum-of-Squares Optimization

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    Control of wire-borne underactuated brachiating robots requires a robust feedback control design that can deal with dynamic uncertainties, actuator constraints and unmeasurable states. In this paper, we develop a robust feedback control for brachiating on flexible cables, building on previous work on optimal trajectory generation and time-varying LQR controller design. We propose a novel simplified model for approximation of the flexible cable dynamics, which enables inclusion of parametric model uncertainties in the system. We then use semidefinite programming (SDP) and sum-of-squares (SOS) optimization to synthesize a time-varying feedback control with formal robustness guarantees to account for model uncertainties and unmeasurable states in the system. Through simulation, hardware experiments and comparison with a time-varying LQR controller, it is shown that the proposed robust controller results in relatively large robust backward reachable sets and is able to reliably track a pre-generated optimal trajectory and achieve the desired brachiating motion in the presence of parametric model uncertainties, actuator limits, and unobservable states.Comment: 8 pages, 12 figures, 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS

    Comprehensive review on controller for leader-follower robotic system

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    985-1007This paper presents a comprehensive review of the leader-follower robotics system. The aim of this paper is to find and elaborate on the current trends in the swarm robotic system, leader-follower, and multi-agent system. Another part of this review will focus on finding the trend of controller utilized by previous researchers in the leader-follower system. The controller that is commonly applied by the researchers is mostly adaptive and non-linear controllers. The paper also explores the subject of study or system used during the research which normally employs multi-robot, multi-agent, space flying, reconfigurable system, multi-legs system or unmanned system. Another aspect of this paper concentrates on the topology employed by the researchers when they conducted simulation or experimental studies

    Innovative robot hand designs of reduced complexity for dexterous manipulation

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    This thesis investigates the mechanical design of robot hands to sensibly reduce the system complexity in terms of the number of actuators and sensors, and control needs for performing grasping and in-hand manipulations of unknown objects. Human hands are known to be the most complex, versatile, dexterous manipulators in nature, from being able to operate sophisticated surgery to carry out a wide variety of daily activity tasks (e.g. preparing food, changing cloths, playing instruments, to name some). However, the understanding of why human hands can perform such fascinating tasks still eludes complete comprehension. Since at least the end of the sixteenth century, scientists and engineers have tried to match the sensory and motor functions of the human hand. As a result, many contemporary humanoid and anthropomorphic robot hands have been developed to closely replicate the appearance and dexterity of human hands, in many cases using sophisticated designs that integrate multiple sensors and actuators---which make them prone to error and difficult to operate and control, particularly under uncertainty. In recent years, several simplification approaches and solutions have been proposed to develop more effective and reliable dexterous robot hands. These techniques, which have been based on using underactuated mechanical designs, kinematic synergies, or compliant materials, to name some, have opened up new ways to integrate hardware enhancements to facilitate grasping and dexterous manipulation control and improve reliability and robustness. Following this line of thought, this thesis studies four robot hand hardware aspects for enhancing grasping and manipulation, with a particular focus on dexterous in-hand manipulation. Namely: i) the use of passive soft fingertips; ii) the use of rigid and soft active surfaces in robot fingers; iii) the use of robot hand topologies to create particular in-hand manipulation trajectories; and iv) the decoupling of grasping and in-hand manipulation by introducing a reconfigurable palm. In summary, the findings from this thesis provide important notions for understanding the significance of mechanical and hardware elements in the performance and control of human manipulation. These findings show great potential in developing robust, easily programmable, and economically viable robot hands capable of performing dexterous manipulations under uncertainty, while exhibiting a valuable subset of functions of the human hand.Open Acces

    Systematic object-invariant in-hand manipulation via reconfigurable underactuatuation: introducing the RUTH gripper

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    We introduce a reconfigurable underactuated robot hand able to perform systematic prehensile in-hand manipulations regardless of object size or shape. The hand utilises a two-degree-of-freedom five-bar linkage as the palm of the gripper, with three three-phalanx underactuated fingers—jointly controlled by a single actuator—connected to the mobile revolute joints of the palm. Three actuators are used in the robot hand system in total, one for controlling the force exerted on objects by the fingers through an underactuated tendon system, and two for changing the configuration of the palm and thus the positioning of the fingers. This novel layout allows decoupling grasping and manipulation, facilitating the planning and execution of in-hand manipulation operations. The reconfigurable palm provides the hand with a large grasping versatility, and allows easy computation of a map between task space and joint space for manipulation based on distance-based linkage kinematics. The motion of objects of different sizes and shapes from one pose to another is then straightforward and systematic, provided the objects are kept grasped.This is guaranteed independently and passively by the underactuated fingers using a custom tendon routing method, which allows no tendon length variation when the relative finger base positions change with palm reconfigurations. We analyse the theoretical grasping workspace and grasping and manipulation capability of the hand, present algorithms forcomputing the manipulation map and in-hand manipulation planning, and evaluate all these experimentally. Numericaland empirical results of several manipulation trajectories with objects of different size and shape clearly demonstrate the viability of the proposed concept

    The RUTH Gripper: systematic object-invariant prehensile in-hand manipulation via reconfigurable underactuation

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    We introduce a reconfigurable underactuated robothand able to perform systematic prehensile in-hand manipu-lations regardless of object size or shape. The hand utilisesa two-degree-of-freedom five-bar linkage as the palm of thegripper, with three three-phalanx underactuated fingers—jointlycontrolled by a single actuator—connected to the mobile revolutejoints of the palm. Three actuators are used in the robot handsystem, one for controlling the force exerted on objects by thefingers and two for changing the configuration of the palm.This novel layout allows decoupling grasping and manipulation,facilitating the planning and execution of in-hand manipulationoperations. The reconfigurable palm provides the hand withlarge grasping versatility, and allows easy computation of amap between task space and joint space for manipulation basedon distance-based linkage kinematics. The motion of objects ofdifferent sizes and shapes from one pose to another is thenstraightforward and systematic, provided the objects are keptgrasped. This is guaranteed independently and passively by theunderactuated fingers using a custom tendon routing method,which allows no tendon length variation when the relative fingerbase position changes with palm reconfigurations. We analysethe theoretical grasping workspace and manipulation capabilityof the hand, present algorithms for computing the manipulationmap and in-hand manipulation planning, and evaluate all theseexperimentally. Numerical and empirical results of several ma-nipulation trajectories with objects of different size and shapeclearly demonstrate the viability of the proposed concept
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