An Overview of Kinematic and Calibration Models Using Internal/External Sensors or Constraints to Improve the Behavior of Spatial Parallel Mechanisms

This paper presents an overview of the literature on kinematic and calibration models of parallel mechanisms, the influence of sensors in the mechanism accuracy and parallel mechanisms used as sensors. The most relevant classifications to obtain and solve kinematic models and to identify geometric and non-geometric parameters in the calibration of parallel robots are discussed, examining the advantages and disadvantages of each method, presenting new trends and identifying unsolved problems. This overview tries to answer and show the solutions developed by the most up-to-date research to some of the most frequent questions that appear in the modelling of a parallel mechanism, such as how to measure, the number of sensors and necessary configurations, the type and influence of errors or the number of necessary parameters

Sliding Mode Control of Cable-Driven Redundancy Parallel Robot with 6 DOF Based on Cable-Length Sensor Feedback

The sliding mode control of the cable-driven redundancy parallel robot with six degrees of freedom is studied based on the cable-length sensor feedback. Under the control scheme of task space coordinates, the cable length obtained by the cable-length sensor is used to solve the forward kinematics of the cable-driven redundancy parallel robot in real-time, which is treated as the feedback for the control system. First, the method of forward kinematics of the cable-driven redundancy parallel robot is proposed based on the tetrahedron method and Levenberg-Marquardt method. Then, an iterative initial value estimation method for the Levenberg-Marquardt method is proposed. Second, the sliding mode control method based on the exponential approach law is used to control the effector of the robot, and the influence of the sliding mode parameters on control performance is simulated. Finally, a six-degree-of-freedom position tracking experiment is carried out on the principle prototype of the cable-driven redundancy parallel robot. The experimental results show that the robot can accurately track the desired position in six directions, which indicates that the control method based on the cable-length sensor feedback for the cable-driven redundancy parallel robot is effective and feasible

Survey of Visual and Force/Tactile Control of Robots for Physical Interaction in Spain

Sensors provide robotic systems with the information required to perceive the changes that happen in unstructured environments and modify their actions accordingly. The robotic controllers which process and analyze this sensory information are usually based on three types of sensors (visual, force/torque and tactile) which identify the most widespread robotic control strategies: visual servoing control, force control and tactile control. This paper presents a detailed review on the sensor architectures, algorithmic techniques and applications which have been developed by Spanish researchers in order to implement these mono-sensor and multi-sensor controllers which combine several sensors

Sabertooth: A High Mobility Quadrupedal Robot Platform

Team Sabertooth aimed to design and realize an innovative high mobility, quadrupedal robot capable of delivering a payload over terrain impassable by wheeled vehicles at a speed of 5fps. The robot is designed to ascend and descend stairs. The robot uses a spring system in each of its legs for energy efficient locomotion. The 4\u27x3\u27x3\u27 freestanding four legged robot weighs approximately 300lbs with an additional payload capacity of 30lbs. The passive two degree of freedom body joint allows flexibility in terms of robot motion for going around tight corners and ascending stairs. The system integrates sensors for staircase recognition, obstacle avoidance, and distance calculation. A distributed control and software architecture is used for world mapping, path planning and motion control

Improving cable length measurements for large CDPR using the Vernier principle

International audienceCable lengths is an important input for determining the state of a CDPR. Using drum with helical guide may be appropriate for small or medium-sized CDPR but are problematic for large one. Another issue is the initialization of the cable length as measurements based on drum rotation are incremental. We propose to address automatic initialization and improvement of cable length measurements by using regularly spaced color marks on the cable combined with color sensors in the mast of the CDPR. We show that this disposition allows one to automate the initialization issue and then how it allows to get regularly accurate estimation of the cable length by using the Vernier principle

Teleoperation of MRI-Compatible Robots with Hybrid Actuation and Haptic Feedback

Image guided surgery (IGS), which has been developing fast recently, benefits significantly from the superior accuracy of robots and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which is a great soft tissue imaging modality. Teleoperation is especially desired in the MRI because of the highly constrained space inside the closed-bore MRI and the lack of haptic feedback with the fully autonomous robotic systems. It also very well maintains the human in the loop that significantly enhances safety. This dissertation describes the development of teleoperation approaches and implementation on an example system for MRI with details of different key components. The dissertation firstly describes the general teleoperation architecture with modular software and hardware components. The MRI-compatible robot controller, driving technology as well as the robot navigation and control software are introduced. As a crucial step to determine the robot location inside the MRI, two methods of registration and tracking are discussed. The first method utilizes the existing Z shaped fiducial frame design but with a newly developed multi-image registration method which has higher accuracy with a smaller fiducial frame. The second method is a new fiducial design with a cylindrical shaped frame which is especially suitable for registration and tracking for needles. Alongside, a single-image based algorithm is developed to not only reach higher accuracy but also run faster. In addition, performance enhanced fiducial frame is also studied by integrating self-resonant coils. A surgical master-slave teleoperation system for the application of percutaneous interventional procedures under continuous MRI guidance is presented. The slave robot is a piezoelectric-actuated needle insertion robot with fiber optic force sensor integrated. The master robot is a pneumatic-driven haptic device which not only controls the position of the slave robot, but also renders the force associated with needle placement interventions to the surgeon. Both of master and slave robots mechanical design, kinematics, force sensing and feedback technologies are discussed. Force and position tracking results of the master-slave robot are demonstrated to validate the tracking performance of the integrated system. MRI compatibility is evaluated extensively. Teleoperated needle steering is also demonstrated under live MR imaging. A control system of a clinical grade MRI-compatible parallel 4-DOF surgical manipulator for minimally invasive in-bore prostate percutaneous interventions through the patient’s perineum is discussed in the end. The proposed manipulator takes advantage of four sliders actuated by piezoelectric motors and incremental rotary encoders, which are compatible with the MRI environment. Two generations of optical limit switches are designed to provide better safety features for real clinical use. The performance of both generations of the limit switch is tested. MRI guided accuracy and MRI-compatibility of whole robotic system is also evaluated. Two clinical prostate biopsy cases have been conducted with this assistive robot

Research and development of a rescue robot end-effector

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.This report details the research, design, development and testing of an end-effector system for use on an Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) robot which is in development in the Robotics and Agents Research Laboratory (RARL) at the University of Cape Town (UCT). This is the 5th generation Mobile Robot Platform (MRP) that UCT has developed ... codenamed ‘Ratel’. USAR robots used to be mainly of the observation type, but new robots (including UCT’s Ratel MRP) are being developed to deal with inherently dynamic, complex and unpredictable disaster response situations, particularly related to object manipulation and gripping. In order to actively interact with the environment, a flexible and robust gripping system is vital. [an] end-effector solution ... was developed for the Ratel manipulator arm to fulfil these functions

Computing wrench-feasible paths for cable-driven hexapods

Motion paths of cable-driven hexapods must carefully be planned to ensure that the lengths and tensions of all cables remain within acceptable limits, for a given wrench applied to the platform. The cables cannot go slack -to keep the control of the robot- nor excessively tight -to prevent cable breakage- even in the presence of bounded perturbations of the wrench. This paper proposes a path planning method that accommodates such constraints simultaneously. Given two configurations of the robot, the method attempts to connect them through a path that, at any point, allows the cables to counteract any wrench lying in a predefined uncertainty region. The feasible C-space is placed in correspondence with a smooth manifold, which facilitates the definition of a continuation strategy to search this space systematically from one configuration, until the second configuration is found, or path non-existence is proved at the resolution of the search. The force Jacobian is full rank everywhere on the C-space, which implies that the computed paths will naturally avoid crossing the forward singularity locus of the robot. The adjustment of tension limits, moreover, allows to maintain a meaningful clearance relative to such locus. The approach is applicable to compute paths subject to geometric constraints on the platform pose, or to synthesize free-flying motions in the full six-dimensional C-space. Experiments are included that illustrate the performance of the method in a real prototype.Postprint (published version