Permanent Magnet-Assisted Omnidirectional Ball Drive

We present an omnidirectional ball wheel drive design that utilizes a permanent magnet as the drive roller to generate the contact force. Particularly interesting for novel human-mobile robot interaction scenarios where the users are expected to physically interact with many palm-sized robots, our design combines simplicity, low cost and compactness. We first detail our design and explain its key parameters. Then, we present our implementation and compare it with an omniwheel drive built with identical conditions and similar cost. Finally, we elaborate on the main advantages and drawbacks of our design

Haptic-Enabled Handheld Mobile Robots: Design and Analysis

The Cellulo robots are small tangible robots that are designed to represent virtual interactive point-like objects that reside on a plane within carefully designed learning activities. In the context of these activities, our robots not only display autonomous motion and act as tangible interfaces, but are also usable as haptic devices in order to exploit, for instance, kinesthetic learning. In this article, we present the design and analysis of the haptic interaction module of the Cellulo robots. We first detail our hardware and controller design that is low-cost and versatile. Then, we describe the task-based experimental procedure to evaluate the robot's haptic abilities. We show that our robot is usable in most of the tested tasks and extract perceptive and manipulative guidelines for the design of haptic elements to be integrated in future learning activities. We conclude with limitations of the system and future work

Control and implementation of a single wheel holonomic vehicle

This paper proposes a robot balanced on a ball. In contrast to an inverted pendulum with two wheels, such as the Segway. The robot proposed in this paper is equipped with three omnidirectional wheels with DC motors that drive the ball and two sets of rate gyroscopes and accelerometers as measurement sensors. The robot has a simple design. Inverted pendulum control is applied in two axes for stabilization, and commanded motions are converted into velocity commands for the three wheels. The mechanism, control method, and experimental results described in this paper.Magíster en Ingeniería ElectrónicaMaestrí

Розробка та дослідження системи керування колісним роботом

Магістерська робота вміщує 115 сторінок, 4 основні частин, 63 рисунків, 19 таблиць, 63 джерел використаної літератури та 6 листів графічної частини на форматі А1. Метою даної роботи є розробка високо-формалізованої математичної моделі, триколісного мобільного робота з двома ведучими колесами, які приводяться до руху синхронними реактивними двигунами та використання цієї моделі для синтезу багатоканальної системи керування рухом робота. Для дослідження проведено аналітичний огляд колісних мобільних роботів, основних складових, конструктивних конфігурацій та особливостей, розглянуто використання електроприводів та систем керування. Наведено детальний алгоритм вибору приводного двигуна та силової частини. Побудовано та досліджено модель синхронного реактивного двигуна. Створено систему керування переміщенням колісного робота. На основі розробленого алгоритму, сконструйовано модель системи керування в режимах позиціювання у задану точку простору та відпрацювання бажаної траєкторії. Cтворена система керування є асимптотично стійкою, та дозволяє відпрацьовувати бажане переміщення.The Master Thesis consist of 115 pages and 63 figures, 19 tables and 63 references and the graphical part on 6 pages A1. The purpose of this work is to develop a highly formalized mathematical model of a three-wheeled mobile robot with two driving wheels driven by synchronous jet engines and to use this model for the synthesis of a multi-channel robot motion control system. For the research, an analytical review of wheeled mobile robots, main components, structural configurations and features was carried out, the use of electric drives and control systems was considered. A detailed algorithm for choosing a drive motor and a power unit is given. A model of a synchronous reluctance motor was built and studied. A system for controlling the movement of a wheeled robot has been created. Based on the developed algorithm, a model of the control system was constructed in the modes of positioning at a given point in space and working out the desired trajectory. The created control system is asymptotically stable and allows you to work out the desired movement

A practical implementation of a continuous isotropic spherical omnidirectional drive

This paper presents a continuous isotropic spherical omnidirectional drive mechanism that is efficient in its mechanical simplicity and use of volume. Spherical omnidirectional mechanisms allow isotropic motion, although many are limited from achieving true isotropic motion by practical mechanical design considerations. The mechanism presented in this paper uses a single motor to drive a point on the great circle of the sphere parallel to the ground plane, and does not require a gearbox. Three mechanisms located 120 degrees apart provide a stable drive platform for a mobile robot. Results show the omnidirectional ability of the robot and demonstrate the performance of the spherical mechanism compared to a popular commercial omnidirectional wheel over edges of varying heights and gaps of varying widths

Cellulo: Tangible Haptic Swarm Robots for Learning

Robots are steadily becoming one of the significant 21st century learning technologies that aim to improve education within both formal and informal environments. Such robots, called Robots for Learning, have so far been utilized as constructionist tools or social agents that aided learning from distinct perspectives. This thesis presents a novel approach to Robots for Learning that aims to explore new added values by means of investigating uses for robots in educational scenarios beyond those that are commonly tackled: We develop a platform from scratch to be "as versatile as pen and paper", namely as composed of easy to use objects that feel like they belong in the learning ecosystem while being seamlessly usable across many activities that help teach a variety of subjects. Following this analogy, we design our platform as many low-cost, palm-sized tangible robots that operate on printed paper sheets, controlled by readily available mobile computers such as smartphones or tablets. From the learners' perspective, our robots are thus physical and manipulable points of hands-on interaction with learning activities where they play the role of both abstract and concrete objects that are otherwise not easily represented. We realize our novel platform in four incremental phases, each of which consists of a development stage and multiple subsequent validation stages. First, we develop accurately positioned tangibles, characterize their localization performance and test the learners' interaction with our tangibles in a playful activity. Second, we integrate mobility into our tangibles and make them full-blown robots, characterize their locomotion performance and test the emerging notion of moving vs. being moved in a learning activity. Third, we enable haptic feedback capability on our robots, measure their range of usability and test them within a complete lesson that highlights this newly developed affordance. Fourth, we develop the means of building swarms with our haptic-enabled tangible robots and test the final form of our platform in a lesson co-designed with a teacher. Our effort thus contains the participation of more than 370 child learners over the span of these phases, which leads to the initial insights into this novel Robots for Learning avenue. Besides its main contributions to education, this thesis further contributes to a range of research fields related to our technological developments, such as positioning systems, robotic mechanism design, haptic interfaces and swarm robotics