Physical Interaction and Control of Robotic Systems Using Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation

Robotic systems used in industries and other complex applications need huge investment, and testing of them under robust conditions are highly challenging. Controlling and testing of such systems can be done with ease with the support of hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation technique and it saves lot of time and resources. The chapter deals on the various interaction methods of robotic systems with physical environments using tactile, force, and vision sensors. It also discusses about the usage of hardware-in-the-loop technique for testing of grasp and task control algorithms in the model of robotic systems. The chapter also elaborates on usage of hardware and software platforms for implementing the control algorithms for performing physical interaction. Finally, the chapter summarizes with the case study of HIL implementation of the control algorithms in Texas Instruments (TI) C2000 microcontroller, interacting with model of Kuka’s youBot Mobile Manipulator. The mathematical model is developed using MATLAB software and the virtual animation setup of the robot is developed using the Virtual Robot Experimentation Platform (V-REP) robot simulator. By actuating the Kuka’s youBot mobile manipulator in the V-REP tool, it is observed to produce a tracking accuracy of 92% for physical interaction and object handling tasks

Desarrollo de un sistema distribuido bajo la norma IEC-61499 para control de robot Kuka Modelo Youbot.

El presente trabajo investigativo tuvo como finalidad el empleo del estándar IEC-61499 para el desarrollo de un sistema de control distribuido para el control de un robot Kuka modelo YouBot. Este estándar consiste en una arquitectura de referencia para el desarrollo de aplicaciones de control con lógica descentralizada. Está basada en bloques funcionales (FBs) que se definen como la unidad estructural básica de los modelos, tiene un alto nivel de versatilidad para el diseño de sistemas, ya que permite combinar software independiente del hardware utilizado. Para modelar el sistema se utilizó el software 4DIAC-IDE y se crearon bloques funcionales (FBs) para el control de la plataforma omnidireccional, el brazo robótico y el gripper de agarre que en conjunto conforman el robot; posteriormente con la ayuda del programa PuTTy se implementó de manera remota el runtime FORTE el cual fue ejecutado en una PC que se encuentra a bordo del robot Kuka YouBot. Se evidenció en los resultados que la programación mediante FBs ha hecho que estos sean vistos como una herramienta efectiva para la automatización de sistemas flexibles y reconfigurables, obteniendo una efectividad del 98,89% de aciertos en las pruebas estipuladas. Se concluye que el estándar permite controlar el algoritmo mediante eventos, ya que tiene una conexión entre la ejecución del flujo de eventos y flujo de datos, de esta manera se puede establecer prioridades en el orden de ejecución de los bloques funcionales, con lo cual se probó el funcionamiento y las prestaciones que ofrecen este nuevo método de programación y las últimas versiones de software basadas en él disponibles actualmente.The present research work has as a purpose the use of the IEC-61499 standard for the development of a distributed control system for the control of a Kuka model Youbot robot. This standard consists of a reference architecture for the development of control applications with decentralized logic. It is based on functional blocks (FBs) that are defined as the basic structural unit of these models, they have a high level of versatility for the design of systems, since it allows to combine software independent of the hardware used. To model the system, the software was used 4DIAC-IDE and functional blocks (FBs) were created for the control of the omnidirectional platform, the robotic arm and the gripping gripper that together make up the robot, later with the help of the PuttY program the FORTE runtime was remotely implemented. Which was executed on a PC that is on board the robot Kuka YouBot. It was evidenced in the results that the programming by means of FBs has made that these are seen as an effective tool for the automation of flexible and reconfigurable systems, obtaining an effectiveness of 98.89% of correctness in the stipulated tests. It is concluded that the standard allows to control the algorithm through events, since it has a connection between the execution of the flow of events and data flow, in this way you can establish priorities in the order of execution of the functional blocks, which proved the operation and the features that offer This new programming method and the latest software versions based on the currently available

Desarrollo de un sistema distribuido bajo la norma IEC-61499 para control de robot Kuka Modelo Youbot.

El presente trabajo investigativo tuvo como finalidad el empleo del estándar IEC-61499 para el desarrollo de un sistema de control distribuido para el control de un robot Kuka modelo YouBot. Este estándar consiste en una arquitectura de referencia para el desarrollo de aplicaciones de control con lógica descentralizada. Está basada en bloques funcionales (FBs) que se definen como la unidad estructural básica de los modelos, tiene un alto nivel de versatilidad para el diseño de sistemas, ya que permite combinar software independiente del hardware utilizado. Para modelar el sistema se utilizó el software 4DIAC-IDE y se crearon bloques funcionales (FBs) para el control de la plataforma omnidireccional, el brazo robótico y el gripper de agarre que en conjunto conforman el robot; posteriormente con la ayuda del programa PuTTy se implementó de manera remota el runtime FORTE el cual fue ejecutado en una PC que se encuentra a bordo del robot Kuka YouBot. Se evidenció en los resultados que la programación mediante FBs ha hecho que estos sean vistos como una herramienta efectiva para la automatización de sistemas flexibles y reconfigurables, obteniendo una efectividad del 98,89% de aciertos en las pruebas estipuladas. Se concluye que el estándar permite controlar el algoritmo mediante eventos, ya que tiene una conexión entre la ejecución del flujo de eventos y flujo de datos, de esta manera se puede establecer prioridades en el orden de ejecución de los bloques funcionales, con lo cual se probó el funcionamiento y las prestaciones que ofrecen este nuevo método de programación y las últimas versiones de software basadas en él disponibles actualmente.The present research work has as a purpose the use of the IEC-61499 standard for the development of a distributed control system for the control of a Kuka model Youbot robot. This standard consists of a reference architecture for the development of control applications with decentralized logic. It is based on functional blocks (FBs) that are defined as the basic structural unit of these models, they have a high level of versatility for the design of systems, since it allows to combine software independent of the hardware used. To model the system, the software was used 4DIAC-IDE and functional blocks (FBs) were created for the control of the omnidirectional platform, the robotic arm and the gripping gripper that together make up the robot, later with the help of the PuttY program the FORTE runtime was remotely implemented. Which was executed on a PC that is on board the robot Kuka YouBot. It was evidenced in the results that the programming by means of FBs has made that these are seen as an effective tool for the automation of flexible and reconfigurable systems, obtaining an effectiveness of 98.89% of correctness in the stipulated tests. It is concluded that the standard allows to control the algorithm through events, since it has a connection between the execution of the flow of events and data flow, in this way you can establish priorities in the order of execution of the functional blocks, which proved the operation and the features that offer This new programming method and the latest software versions based on the currently available

Becoming Human with Humanoid

Nowadays, our expectations of robots have been significantly increases. The robot, which was initially only doing simple jobs, is now expected to be smarter and more dynamic. People want a robot that resembles a human (humanoid) has and has emotional intelligence that can perform action-reaction interactions. This book consists of two sections. The first section focuses on emotional intelligence, while the second section discusses the control of robotics. The contents of the book reveal the outcomes of research conducted by scholars in robotics fields to accommodate needs of society and industry

A novel control strategy for youBot arm

Nowadays robotics educational platforms play an important role in the development and testing of new robotic technologies. These systems offer at low cost the possibility to access and experiment basic robot functionalities. In this paper, we examined the KUKA youBot: an omnidirectional mobile platform equipped with a five DOFs (Degrees of Freedom) robotic arm. The current internal design of the control loops limits severely its performances. This paper aims to assess the existing controller limitations in order to re-design, develop and test a new controller for the youBot arm. This paper presents the architecture of the existing software, and identifies the bottlenecks of the control loops. After proposing a new interoperable architecture, we present a new hybrid motion/force decentralized control, which accounts for the system's dynamics. The new controller is evaluated by means of simulations and on the real youBot arm. The new controller solves the major limitations examined, enabling new control applications. Results show a better performance of the new controller, in particular the step response rise time of the joint position control is now 33% faster than using the old controller