Mechatronic Systems

Mechatronics, the synergistic blend of mechanics, electronics, and computer science, has evolved over the past twenty five years, leading to a novel stage of engineering design. By integrating the best design practices with the most advanced technologies, mechatronics aims at realizing high-quality products, guaranteeing at the same time a substantial reduction of time and costs of manufacturing. Mechatronic systems are manifold and range from machine components, motion generators, and power producing machines to more complex devices, such as robotic systems and transportation vehicles. With its twenty chapters, which collect contributions from many researchers worldwide, this book provides an excellent survey of recent work in the field of mechatronics with applications in various fields, like robotics, medical and assistive technology, human-machine interaction, unmanned vehicles, manufacturing, and education. We would like to thank all the authors who have invested a great deal of time to write such interesting chapters, which we are sure will be valuable to the readers. Chapters 1 to 6 deal with applications of mechatronics for the development of robotic systems. Medical and assistive technologies and human-machine interaction systems are the topic of chapters 7 to 13.Chapters 14 and 15 concern mechatronic systems for autonomous vehicles. Chapters 16-19 deal with mechatronics in manufacturing contexts. Chapter 20 concludes the book, describing a method for the installation of mechatronics education in schools

Robotic Minimally Invasive Tools for Restricted Access Confined Spaces

A study has been performed in the design and fabrication of deployable borehole robots into confined spaces. Three robot systems have been developed to perform a visual survey of a subterranean space where for any reason humans could not enter. A 12mm diameter snake arm was designed with a focus on the cable tensions and the failure modes for the components that make the snake arm. An iterative solver was developed to model the snake arm and algorithmically calculate the snake arms optimal length with consideration of the failure modes. A robot was developed to extend the range capabilities of borehole robots using reconfigurable borehole robots based around established actuation and manufacturing techniques. The expected distance and weight requirements of the robot are calculated alongside the forces the robot is required to generate in order to achieve them. The whegged design incorporated into the tracks is also analysed to measure the capability of the robot over rough terrain. Finally, the experiments to find the actual driving forces of the tracks are performed and used to calculate the actual range of the robot in comparison to the target range. The potential of reconfigurable mobile robots for deployment through boreholes is limited by the requirement for conventional gears, motors, and joints. This chapter explores the use of smart materials and innovative manufacturing techniques to form a novel concept of a self-folding robotic joint for a self-assembling robotic system. The design uses shape memory alloys fabricated in laminate structures with heaters to create folding structures

Direct laser scribed MoO2-based materials and their applications in bioelectronics and soft robotics

Overcoming the disadvantages of rigid traditional electronic materials, flexible epidermal electronics with soft, elastic and mechanically conformable characteristics are capturing wide attention. In order to meet the requirements of high conductivity of current path and base electrode and good biocompatibility, high sensitivity and stability of monitoring sensor for skin wearable devices, we developed direct laser scribing MoO2 (DLS-MoO2) high conductive trace on breathable, flexible and chemical stability porous SEBS substrate. And by following electrode modifications and functionalization, we fabricated multifunctional flexible sensors including electrophysiological sensors, temperature sensor, UV sensor, humidity sensor, alcohol sensor, and NH3 sensor. Furthermore, photo-actuating soft robotics based on the photothermal transformation of MoO2 have also been developed.Includes bibliographical references

Development and field test of the articulated mobile robot T2 Snake-4 for plant disaster prevention

In this work, we develop an articulated mobile robot that can move in narrow spaces, climb stairs, gather information, and operate valves for plant disaster prevention. The robot can adopt a tall position using a folding arm and gather information using sensors mounted on the arm. In addition, this paper presents a stair climbing method using a single backward wave. This method enables the robot to climb stairs that have a short tread. The developed robot system is tested in a field test at the World Robot Summit 2018, and the lessons learned in the field test are discussed

Bio-Inspired Robotics

Modern robotic technologies have enabled robots to operate in a variety of unstructured and dynamically-changing environments, in addition to traditional structured environments. Robots have, thus, become an important element in our everyday lives. One key approach to develop such intelligent and autonomous robots is to draw inspiration from biological systems. Biological structure, mechanisms, and underlying principles have the potential to provide new ideas to support the improvement of conventional robotic designs and control. Such biological principles usually originate from animal or even plant models, for robots, which can sense, think, walk, swim, crawl, jump or even fly. Thus, it is believed that these bio-inspired methods are becoming increasingly important in the face of complex applications. Bio-inspired robotics is leading to the study of innovative structures and computing with sensory–motor coordination and learning to achieve intelligence, flexibility, stability, and adaptation for emergent robotic applications, such as manipulation, learning, and control. This Special Issue invites original papers of innovative ideas and concepts, new discoveries and improvements, and novel applications and business models relevant to the selected topics of ``Bio-Inspired Robotics''. Bio-Inspired Robotics is a broad topic and an ongoing expanding field. This Special Issue collates 30 papers that address some of the important challenges and opportunities in this broad and expanding field

Robotics 2010

Without a doubt, robotics has made an incredible progress over the last decades. The vision of developing, designing and creating technical systems that help humans to achieve hard and complex tasks, has intelligently led to an incredible variety of solutions. There are barely technical fields that could exhibit more interdisciplinary interconnections like robotics. This fact is generated by highly complex challenges imposed by robotic systems, especially the requirement on intelligent and autonomous operation. This book tries to give an insight into the evolutionary process that takes place in robotics. It provides articles covering a wide range of this exciting area. The progress of technical challenges and concepts may illuminate the relationship between developments that seem to be completely different at first sight. The robotics remains an exciting scientific and engineering field. The community looks optimistically ahead and also looks forward for the future challenges and new development

The Mechanics and Control of Undulatory Robotic Locomotion

In this dissertation, we examine a formulation of problems of undulatory robotic locomotion within the context of mechanical systems with nonholonomic constraints and symmetries. Using tools from geometric mechanics, we study the underlying structure found in general problems of locomotion. In doing so, we decompose locomotion into two basic components: internal shape changes and net changes in position and orientation. This decomposition has a natural mathematical interpretation in which the relationship between shape changes and locomotion can be described using a connection on a trivial principal fiber bundle. We begin by reviewing the processes of Lagrangian reduction and reconstruction for unconstrained mechanical systems with Lie group symmetries, and present new formulations of this process which are easily adapted to accommodate external constraints. Additionally, important physical quantities such as the mechanical connection and reduced mass-inertia matrix can be trivially determined using this formulation. The presence of symmetries then allows us to reduce the necessary calculations to simple matrix manipulations. The addition of constraints significantly complicates the reduction process; however, we show that for invariant constraints, a meaningful connection can be synthesized by defining a generalized momentum representing the momentum of the system in directions allowed by the constraints. We then prove that the generalized momentum and its governing equation possess certain invariances which allows for a reduction process similar to that found in the unconstrained case. The form of the reduced equations highlights the synthesized connection and the matrix quantities used to calculate these equations. The use of connections naturally leads to methods for testing controllability and aids in developing intuition regarding the generation of various locomotive gaits. We present accessibility and controllability tests based on taking derivatives of the connection, and relate these tests to taking Lie brackets of the input vector fields. The theory is illustrated using several examples, in particular the examples of the snakeboard and Hirose snake robot. We interpret each of these examples in light of the theory developed in this thesis, and examine the generation of locomotive gaits using sinusoidal inputs and their relationship to the controllability tests based on Lie brackets

Thermal and Thermomechanical Behavior of Multi-Material Molded Modules with Embedded Electronic Components for Biologically-Inspired and Multi-Functional Structures

Recently, there has been considerable interest in creating biologically-inspired structures, such as robots, and multi-functional structures, such as morphing aircraft fins, for use in environments that are considered hazardous for electronic systems. Cases in point are serpentine robots for use in search and rescue reconnaissance missions, and morphing chevrons for jet engines. These biologically-inspired and multi-functional structures require embedding sensitive electronic components in order to provide multi-functionality, such as actuation and sensing, while providing the thermal and mechanical protection these components need during operation in extreme environments. To this end, a multi-stage molding process has been implemented to affordably mass-produce multi-material modules with embedded electronic components for biologically-inspired and multi-functional structures. However, in designing and manufacturing modules using this process, it is necessary to consider two issues: (a) the heat generated during operation the electronic components can be appropriately managed to prevent thermal failure of the components, and (b) the thermomechanical response of the module to the multi-material molding process and the operation of the embedded electronic components will not lead to mechanical failure of the module. To gain insight into the thermal and thermomechanical behavior of these modules, experiments were designed and conducted to determine three critical design characteristics of the modules: (a) the steady-state thermal conductivity across the multi-material interface in a module, (b) the transient thermal response at the core of the multi-material module at elevated temperatures, and (c) the thermomechanical strains that develop around the embedded electronic components in the multi-material module during in-mold processing and operation of the components. Based on these experiments, analytical and numerical models are developed for predicting the thermal and thermomechanical behavior of multi-material modules with embedded components that provide a foundation for designing these modules for biologically-inspired and multi-functional structures. A prototype serpentine robot designed with multi-functional modular structures is presented, and complementary thermal and mechanical testing of a new prototype multi-material module with an embedded component for this biologically-inspired structure designed for thermal and impact resistance is also presented