23 research outputs found
A snake robot with mixed gaits capability
Snake robots are mostly designed based on single
mode of locomotion. However, single mode gait most of the
time fails to work effectively when they are required to work in
different cluttered environment with different measures of
complexity. As a solution, mixed mode locomotion is proposed
in this paper by synchronizing serpentine gait for
unconstricted workspace and wriggler gait for narrow space
environment through development of a simple gait transition
algorithm. This study includes the investigation on kinematics
analysis followed by dynamics analysis while considering
related structural constraints for both gaits. This approach
utilized speed of the serpentine gait for open area operation
and exploits narrow space access capability of the wriggler
gait. Hence, this approach in such a way increases motion
flexibility in view of the fact that the snake robot is capable of
changing its mode of locomotion according to the working
environment
Challenges in the Locomotion of Self-Reconfigurable Modular Robots
Self-Reconfigurable Modular Robots (SRMRs) are assemblies of autonomous robotic units, referred to as modules, joined together using active connection mechanisms. By changing the connectivity of these modules, SRMRs are able to deliberately change their own shape in order to adapt to new environmental circumstances. One of the main motivations for the development of SRMRs is that conventional robots are limited in their capabilities by their morphology. The promise of the field of self-reconfigurable modular robotics is to design robots that are robust, self-healing, versatile, multi-purpose, and inexpensive. Despite significant efforts by numerous research groups worldwide, the potential advantages of SRMRs have yet to be realized. A high number of degrees of freedom and connectors make SRMRs more versatile, but also more complex both in terms of mechanical design and control algorithms. Scalability issues affect these robots in terms of hardware, low-level control, and high-level planning. In this thesis we identify and target three major challenges: (i) Hardware design; (ii) Planning and control; and, (iii) Application challenges. To tackle the hardware challenges we redesigned and manufactured the Self-Reconfigurable Modular Robot Roombots to meet desired requirements and characteristics. We explored in detail and improved two major mechanical components of an SRMR: the actuation and the connection mechanisms. We also analyzed the use of compliant extensions to increase locomotion performance in terms of locomotion speed and power consumption. We contributed to the control challenge by developing new methods that allow an arbitrary SRMR structure to learn to locomote in an efficient way. We defined a novel bio-inspired locomotion-learning framework that allows the quick and reliable optimization of new gaits after a morphological change due to self-reconfiguration or human construction. In order to find new suitable application scenarios for SRMRs we envision the use of Roombots modules to create Self-Reconfigurable Robotic Furniture. As a first step towards this vision, we explored the use and control of Plug-n-Play Robotic Elements that can augment existing pieces of furniture and create new functionalities in a household to improve quality of life
Autonomous biomimitic robot based multi-agent system for disaster management and rescue
This paper discusses the scope and feasibility of autonomous biomimitic robot based multi-agent
systems for disaster management and rescue. Search and rescue operations in disastrous situations
like earthquake, landslide, fire hazards, mineshaft breakdown etc. are still handled manually. Manual
operations in these cases often fail due to complicated nature of the catastrophe. Especially in the
case of human entrapment in areas inaccessible to either human or traditional rescue equipment. As
such rescue operation suffers from improper strategy and even leads to unintentional further
destruction due to lack of proper information along the rescue site. It is clear, proper information in
and around the disaster can help successful handling of the catastrophe. Thus information like
location of the survivor, state of the obstructions around him/her, state of injury, level of oxygen and
hazardous gases are of crucial importance. To gather such widespread information from such difficult
terrain, autonomous robots equipped with multiple sensors and capable to move inside difficult to
access areas is a good choice.
Autonomous biomimitic robot like Snake robot is meant to mimic motion of a natural snake, which
does not possess any limb. Natural snakes can undergo wide range of motion and are able to move
over rough terrains without the danger of entanglement. Slender structure of the snake body helps a
snake to go inside narrow holes. Thus a snake robot able to mimic these features of a natural snake
will be of extreme use in handling search and rescue operations. Snake robots equipped with multiple
sensors and controlled under multiagent collaborative protocol are expected to bring about acceptable
solution to disaster management and rescue. The other such biomimitic robots that can be considered
in the autonomous robot team are flapping wing flyers and robot Monkeys. A team consisting of such
robots will help in collecting information, distributing food and medicine in disastrous location
Locomotion capabilities of a modular robot with eight pitch-yaw-connecting modules
This is an electronic version of the paper presented at the International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots, held in 2006 on BrusselsIn this paper, a general classification of the
modular robots is proposed, based on their topology and
the type of connection between the modules. The loco-
motion capabilities of the sub-group of pitch-yaw con-
necting robots are analyzed. Five different gaits have
been implemented and tested on a real robot composed
of eight modules. One of them, rotating, has not been
previously achieved. All gaits are implemented using a
simple and elegant central pattern generator (CPG) ap-
proach that simplify the algorithms of the controlling
system
A simulation environment for bio-inspired heterogeneous chained modular robots
This paper presents a new simulation environment aimed at heterogeneous chained modular robots. This simulator allows testing the feasibility of the design, checking how modules are going to perform in the field and verifying hardware, electronics and communication designs before the prototype is built, saving time and resources. The paper shows how the simulator is built and how it can be set up to adapt to new designs. It also gives some examples of its use showing different heterogeneous modular robots running in different environments
Quantifying the Evolutionary Self Structuring of Embodied Cognitive Networks
We outline a possible theoretical framework for the quantitative modeling of
networked embodied cognitive systems. We notice that: 1) information self
structuring through sensory-motor coordination does not deterministically occur
in Rn vector space, a generic multivariable space, but in SE(3), the group
structure of the possible motions of a body in space; 2) it happens in a
stochastic open ended environment. These observations may simplify, at the
price of a certain abstraction, the modeling and the design of self
organization processes based on the maximization of some informational
measures, such as mutual information. Furthermore, by providing closed form or
computationally lighter algorithms, it may significantly reduce the
computational burden of their implementation. We propose a modeling framework
which aims to give new tools for the design of networks of new artificial self
organizing, embodied and intelligent agents and the reverse engineering of
natural ones. At this point, it represents much a theoretical conjecture and it
has still to be experimentally verified whether this model will be useful in
practice.