Contemporary Robotics

This book book is a collection of 18 chapters written by internationally recognized experts and well-known professionals of the field. Chapters contribute to diverse facets of contemporary robotics and autonomous systems. The volume is organized in four thematic parts according to the main subjects, regarding the recent advances in the contemporary robotics. The first thematic topics of the book are devoted to the theoretical issues. This includes development of algorithms for automatic trajectory generation using redudancy resolution scheme, intelligent algorithms for robotic grasping, modelling approach for reactive mode handling of flexible manufacturing and design of an advanced controller for robot manipulators. The second part of the book deals with different aspects of robot calibration and sensing. This includes a geometric and treshold calibration of a multiple robotic line-vision system, robot-based inline 2D/3D quality monitoring using picture-giving and laser triangulation, and a study on prospective polymer composite materials for flexible tactile sensors. The third part addresses issues of mobile robots and multi-agent systems, including SLAM of mobile robots based on fusion of odometry and visual data, configuration of a localization system by a team of mobile robots, development of generic real-time motion controller for differential mobile robots, control of fuel cells of mobile robots, modelling of omni-directional wheeled-based robots, building of hunter- hybrid tracking environment, as well as design of a cooperative control in distributed population-based multi-agent approach. The fourth part presents recent approaches and results in humanoid and bioinspirative robotics. It deals with design of adaptive control of anthropomorphic biped gait, building of dynamic-based simulation for humanoid robot walking, building controller for perceptual motor control dynamics of humans and biomimetic approach to control mechatronic structure using smart materials

Stabilizing Highly Dynamic Locomotion in Planar Bipedal Robots with Dimension Reducing Control.

In the field of robotic locomotion, the method of hybrid zero dynamics (HZD) proposed by Westervelt, Grizzle, and Koditschek provided a new solution to the canonical problem of stabilizing walking in planar bipeds. Original walking experiments on the French biped RABBIT were very successful, with gaits that were robust to external disturbances and to parameter mismatch. Initial running experiments on RABBIT were cut short before a stable gait could be achieved, but helped to identify performance limiting aspects of both the physical hardware of RABBIT and the method of hybrid zero dynamics. To improve upon RABBIT, a new robot called MABEL was designed and constructed in collaboration between the University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon University. In light of experiments on RABBIT and in preparation for experiments on MABEL, this thesis provides a theoretical foundation that extends the method of hybrid zero dynamics to address walking in a class of robots with series compliance. Extensive new design tools address two main performance limiting aspects of previous HZD controllers: the dependence on non-Lipschitz finite time convergence and the lack of a constructive procedure for achieving impact invariance when outputs have relative degree greater than two. An analytically rigorous set of solutions - an arbitrarily smooth stabilizing controller and a constructive parameter update scheme - is derived using the method of Poincare sections. Additional contributions of this thesis include the development of sample-based virtual constraints, analysis of walking on a slope, and identification of dynamic singularities that can arise from poorly chosen virtual constraints.Ph.D.Electrical Engineering: SystemsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/58477/1/morrisbj_1.pd

Robot Manipulators

Robot manipulators are developing more in the direction of industrial robots than of human workers. Recently, the applications of robot manipulators are spreading their focus, for example Da Vinci as a medical robot, ASIMO as a humanoid robot and so on. There are many research topics within the field of robot manipulators, e.g. motion planning, cooperation with a human, and fusion with external sensors like vision, haptic and force, etc. Moreover, these include both technical problems in the industry and theoretical problems in the academic fields. This book is a collection of papers presenting the latest research issues from around the world

From Bayesian principles to Bayesian processes

This thesis considers the free energy principle (FEP) and its corollary, active inference, which form an explanatory framework that prescribes a Bayesian interpretation of self-organizing systems. The FEP originated in the domain of neuroscience, where it underwrote a unified theory that described perception, action and learning as emerging from minimizing a single objective function - variational free energy. However, since its conception, the FEP has transcended into physics and pure mathematics. Here, it presents itself as a set of mathematical arguments culminating in an inferential interpretation of a specific class of systems. The result has fundamentally changed the epistemological status of the FEP, moving it from the world of empirical hypotheses to the unfalsifiable territory of mathematical equivalences and tautological constructions. While the FEP may present a historical development that further unravels the symmetries that govern the laws of (our own) physics, its growth has left a range of epistemological confusion. In the current thesis, we evaluate how to maneuver from the principles of the FEP to the processes it purportedly explains. We identify four key areas in which the FEP can inform empirical science: 1) The FEP can aid us in designing intelligent agents by providing novel functionals that respect inherent uncertainty in the environment. We demonstrate equivalences between active inference and reinforcement learning, offer a novel implementation of active inference that utilizes amortized inference, and show that the proposed algorithm enables efficient exploration while offering improved sample efficiency compared to modern reinforcement learning algorithms. 2) We describe how the FEP can help us understand the nature of representation in living systems. Specifically, we show how the normative aspects of the FEP promote learning representations oriented towards action rather than veridical reconstructions of the environment. 3) We show how the FEP provides a framework for modeling perception, action, and learning in systems that can be empirically measured. An eye-tracking study demonstrates that an active inference model best explains human information-seeking, offering insights into the underlying mechanisms of perception and action. 4) In the final section, we ask whether active inference can inform the development of novel process theories in computational neuroscience. A biologically-plausible learning algorithm is developed and verified on various computer vision and reinforcement learning tasks. The resulting model explains a range of empirical phenomena and offers a new perspective on the role of bottom-up information in perception. This thesis affirms the role of the FEP and active inference as a generative framework for developing testable scientific theories

Actor & Avatar: A Scientific and Artistic Catalog

What kind of relationship do we have with artificial beings (avatars, puppets, robots, etc.)? What does it mean to mirror ourselves in them, to perform them or to play trial identity games with them? Actor & Avatar addresses these questions from artistic and scholarly angles. Contributions on the making of "technical others" and philosophical reflections on artificial alterity are flanked by neuroscientific studies on different ways of perceiving living persons and artificial counterparts. The contributors have achieved a successful artistic-scientific collaboration with extensive visual material

A procedure to find equivalences among dynamic models of planar biped robots

International audienceIn this paper, a method to find equivalences among dynamic models is presented. The models are given in different generalized coordinates for the same mechanical system. This novel method is valid for planar biped robots, i.e., those whose motions are executed only in a plane. R1C1 R2C1 We show that no matter which generalized coordinates are used to get the dynamic models, there is always an equivalence among them by using a particular input matrix. Without loss of generality, we exhibit some advantages of getting the dynamic model using absolute coordinates instead of relative coordinates, and we show how to calculate the input matrix for getting the equivalence between these models. Because of its simplicity, a compass-like biped robot model is used as example to explain in detail the novel procedure. In order to appreciate the benefits of the proposed procedure in biped robots of high degrees of freedom, we also present the equivalence between two dynamic models for the single support phase of a 5 degrees of freedom biped robot using absolute coordinates and relative ones

A complex systems approach to education in Switzerland

The insights gained from the study of complex systems in biological, social, and engineered systems enables us not only to observe and understand, but also to actively design systems which will be capable of successfully coping with complex and dynamically changing situations. The methods and mindset required for this approach have been applied to educational systems with their diverse levels of scale and complexity. Based on the general case made by Yaneer Bar-Yam, this paper applies the complex systems approach to the educational system in Switzerland. It confirms that the complex systems approach is valid. Indeed, many recommendations made for the general case have already been implemented in the Swiss education system. To address existing problems and difficulties, further steps are recommended. This paper contributes to the further establishment complex systems approach by shedding light on an area which concerns us all, which is a frequent topic of discussion and dispute among politicians and the public, where billions of dollars have been spent without achieving the desired results, and where it is difficult to directly derive consequences from actions taken. The analysis of the education system's different levels, their complexity and scale will clarify how such a dynamic system should be approached, and how it can be guided towards the desired performance