Airborne chemical sensing with mobile robots

Airborne chemical sensing with mobile robots has been an active research areasince the beginning of the 1990s. This article presents a review of research work in this field,including gas distribution mapping, trail guidance, and the different subtasks of gas sourcelocalisation. Due to the difficulty of modelling gas distribution in a real world environmentwith currently available simulation techniques, we focus largely on experimental work and donot consider publications that are purely based on simulations

Don't break a leg: Running birds from quail to ostrich prioritise leg safety and economy in uneven terrain

Cursorial ground birds are paragons of bipedal running that span a 500-fold mass range from quail to ostrich. Here we investigate the task-level control priorities of cursorial birds by analysing how they negotiate single-step obstacles that create a conflict between body stability (attenuating deviations in body motion) and consistent leg force–length dynamics (for economy and leg safety). We also test the hypothesis that control priorities shift between body stability and leg safety with increasing body size, reflecting use of active control to overcome size-related challenges. Weight-support demands lead to a shift towards straighter legs and stiffer steady gait with increasing body size, but it remains unknown whether non-steady locomotor priorities diverge with size. We found that all measured species used a consistent obstacle negotiation strategy, involving unsteady body dynamics to minimise fluctuations in leg posture and loading across multiple steps, not directly prioritising body stability. Peak leg forces remained remarkably consistent across obstacle terrain, within 0.35 body weights of level running for obstacle heights from 0.1 to 0.5 times leg length. All species used similar stance leg actuation patterns, involving asymmetric force–length trajectories and posture-dependent actuation to add or remove energy depending on landing conditions. We present a simple stance leg model that explains key features of avian bipedal locomotion, and suggests economy as a key priority on both level and uneven terrain. We suggest that running ground birds target the closely coupled priorities of economy and leg safety as the direct imperatives of control, with adequate stability achieved through appropriately tuned intrinsic dynamics

Don't break a leg: Running birds from quail to ostrich prioritise leg safety and economy in uneven terrain

Cursorial ground birds are paragons of bipedal running that span a 500-fold mass range from quail to ostrich. Here we investigate the task-level control priorities of cursorial birds by analysing how they negotiate single-step obstacles that create a conflict between body stability (attenuating deviations in body motion) and consistent leg force–length dynamics (for economy and leg safety). We also test the hypothesis that control priorities shift between body stability and leg safety with increasing body size, reflecting use of active control to overcome size-related challenges. Weight-support demands lead to a shift towards straighter legs and stiffer steady gait with increasing body size, but it remains unknown whether non-steady locomotor priorities diverge with size. We found that all measured species used a consistent obstacle negotiation strategy, involving unsteady body dynamics to minimise fluctuations in leg posture and loading across multiple steps, not directly prioritising body stability. Peak leg forces remained remarkably consistent across obstacle terrain, within 0.35 body weights of level running for obstacle heights from 0.1 to 0.5 times leg length. All species used similar stance leg actuation patterns, involving asymmetric force–length trajectories and posture-dependent actuation to add or remove energy depending on landing conditions. We present a simple stance leg model that explains key features of avian bipedal locomotion, and suggests economy as a key priority on both level and uneven terrain. We suggest that running ground birds target the closely coupled priorities of economy and leg safety as the direct imperatives of control, with adequate stability achieved through appropriately tuned intrinsic dynamics

Walking dynamics are symmetric (enough)

Many biological phenomena such as locomotion, circadian cycles, and breathing are rhythmic in nature and can be modeled as rhythmic dynamical systems. Dynamical systems modeling often involves neglecting certain characteristics of a physical system as a modeling convenience. For example, human locomotion is frequently treated as symmetric about the sagittal plane. In this work, we test this assumption by examining human walking dynamics around the steady-state (limit-cycle). Here we adapt statistical cross validation in order to examine whether there are statistically significant asymmetries, and even if so, test the consequences of assuming bilateral symmetry anyway. Indeed, we identify significant asymmetries in the dynamics of human walking, but nevertheless show that ignoring these asymmetries results in a more consistent and predictive model. In general, neglecting evident characteristics of a system can be more than a modeling convenience---it can produce a better model.Comment: Draft submitted to Journal of the Royal Society Interfac

Kinematic Modeling and Analysis of a Walking Machine (Robot) Leg Mechanism on a Rough Terrain

Many manmade machines and mechanisms including robots function based on the concept of nature-inspired design so that they can perform their intended duties by mimicking the working mechanisms of animals and insects. Accordingly, walking machines (robots) use wheels and tracks to cross rough terrain efficiently and in a stable way than more conventional robots. Legged walking robots in particular get a discontinuous contact with the ground that provides them the capability to select tractions such that obstacles or holes are escaped. This article reports a study conducted on kinematic modelling and analysis of a walking machine (robot) leg mechanism that can operate on rough terrain. Its kinematic mechanisms is analyzed using the Denavit-Hartenberg (DH) convention approach. Symbolic computations are also implemented to parametrically optimize the motion parameters of the robot leg mechanism. The equation of motion is derived from the dynamic analysis using the Euler-Lagrange method which involves kinetic and potential energy expressions. In order to validate the performance of the robot leg mechanism and motion behaviors, kinematic motion analysis in SolidWorks and MATLAB are used. The leg mechanism used is effective for rough terrain areas because it is capable of walking on terrain with different amplitudes due to surface toughness and aerodynamics.publishedVersio

Bio-inspired Dynamic Control Systems with Time Delays

The world around us exhibits a rich and ever changing environment of startling, bewildering and fascinating complexity. Almost everything is never as simple as it seems, but through the chaos we may catch fleeting glimpses of the mechanisms within. Throughout the history of human endeavour we have mimicked nature to harness it for our own ends. Our attempts to develop truly autonomous and intelligent machines have however struggled with the limitations of our human ability. This has encouraged some to shirk this responsibility and instead model biological processes and systems to do it for us. This Thesis explores the introduction of continuous time delays into biologically inspired dynamic control systems. We seek to exploit rich temporal dynamics found in physical and biological systems for modelling complex or adaptive behaviour through the artificial evolution of networks to control robots. Throughout, arguments have been presented for the modelling of delays not only to better represent key facets of physical and biological systems, but to increase the computational potential of such systems for the synthesis of control. The thorough investigation of the dynamics of small delayed networks with a wide range of time delays has been undertaken, with a detailed mathematical description of the fixed points of the system and possible oscillatory modes developed to fully describe the behaviour of a single node. Exploration of the behaviour for even small delayed networks illustrates the range of complex behaviour possible and guides the development of interesting solutions. To further exploit the potential of the rich dynamics in such systems, a novel approach to the 3D simulation of locomotory robots has been developed focussing on minimising the computational cost. To verify this simulation tool a simple quadruped robot was developed and the motion of the robot when undergoing a manually designed gait evaluated. The results displayed a high degree of agreement between the simulation and laser tracker data, verifying the accuracy of the model developed. A new model of a dynamic system which includes continuous time delays has been introduced, and its utility demonstrated in the evolution of networks for the solution of simple learning behaviours. A range of methods has been developed for determining the time delays, including the novel concept of representing the time delays as related to the distance between nodes in a spatial representation of the network. The application of these tools to a range of examples has been explored, from Gene Regulatory Networks (GRNs) to robot control and neural networks. The performance of these systems has been compared and contrasted with the efficacy of evolutionary runs for the same task over the whole range of network and delay types. It has been shown that delayed dynamic neural systems are at least as capable as traditional Continuous Time Recurrent Neural Networks (CTRNNs) and show significant performance improvements in the control of robot gaits. Experiments in adaptive behaviour, where there is not such a direct link between the enhanced system dynamics and performance, showed no such discernible improvement. Whilst we hypothesise that the ability of such delayed networks to generate switched pattern generating nodes may be useful in Evolutionary Robotics (ER) this was not borne out here. The spatial representation of delays was shown to be more efficient for larger networks, however these techniques restricted the search to lower complexity solutions or led to a significant falloff as the network structure becomes more complex. This would suggest that for anything other than a simple genotype, the direct method for encoding delays is likely most appropriate. With proven benefits for robot locomotion and the open potential for adaptive behaviour delayed dynamic systems for evolved control remain an interesting and promising field in complex systems research

Distance-based formulations for the position analysis of kinematic chains

This thesis addresses the kinematic analysis of mechanisms, in particular, the position analysis of kinematic chains, or linkages, that is, mechanisms with rigid bodies (links) interconnected by kinematic pairs (joints). This problem, of completely geometrical nature, consists in finding the feasible assembly modes that a kinematic chain can adopt. An assembly mode is a possible relative transformation between the links of a kinematic chain. When an assignment of positions and orientations is made for all links with respect to a given reference frame, an assembly mode is called a configuration. The methods reported in the literature for solving the position analysis of kinematic chains can be classified as graphical, analytical, or numerical. The graphical approaches are mostly geometrical and designed to solve particular problems. The analytical and numerical methods deal, in general, with kinematic chains of any topology and translate the original geometric problem into a system of kinematic analysis of all the Assur kinematic chains resulting from replacing some of its revolute joints by slider joints. Thus, it is concluded that the polynomials of all fully-parallel planar robots can be derived directly from that of the widely known 3-RPR robot. In addition to these results, this thesis also presents an efficient procedure, based on distance and oriented area constraints, and geometrical arguments, to trace coupler curves of pin-jointed Gr¨ubler kinematic chains. All these techniques and results together are contributions to theoretical kinematics of mechanisms, robot kinematics, and distance plane geometry. equations that defines the location of each link based, mainly, on independent loop equations. In the analytical approaches, the system of kinematic equations is reduced to a polynomial, known as the characteristic polynomial of the linkage, using different elimination methods —e.g., Gr¨obner bases or resultant techniques. In the numerical approaches, the system of kinematic equations is solved using, for instance, polynomial continuation or interval-based procedures. In any case, the use of independent loop equations to solve the position analysis of kinematic chains, almost a standard in kinematics of mechanisms, has seldom been questioned despite the resulting system of kinematic equations becomes quite involved even for simple linkages. Moreover, stating the position analysis of kinematic chains directly in terms of poses, with or without using independent loop equations, introduces two major disadvantages: arbitrary reference frames has to be included, and all formulas involve translations and rotations simultaneously. This thesis departs from this standard approach by, instead of directly computing Cartesian locations, expressing the original position problem as a system of distance-based constraints that are then solved using analytical and numerical procedures adapted to their particularities. In favor of developing the basics and theory of the proposed approach, this thesis focuses on the study of the most fundamental planar kinematic chains, namely, Baranov trusses, Assur kinematic chains, and pin-jointed Gr¨ubler kinematic chains. The results obtained have shown that the novel developed techniques are promising tools for the position analysis of kinematic chains and related problems. For example, using these techniques, the characteristic polynomials of most of the cataloged Baranov trusses can be obtained without relying on variable eliminations or trigonometric substitutions and using no other tools than elementary algebra. An outcome in clear contrast with the complex variable eliminations require when independent loop equations are used to tackle the problem. The impact of the above result is actually greater because it is shown that the characteristic polynomial of a Baranov truss, derived using the proposed distance-based techniques, contains all the necessary and sufficient information for solving the positionEsta tesis aborda el problema de análisis de posición de cadenas cinemáticas, mecanismos con cuerpos rígidos (enlaces) interconectados por pares cinemáticos (articulaciones). Este problema, de naturaleza geométrica, consiste en encontrar los modos de ensamblaje factibles que una cadena cinemática puede adoptar. Un modo de ensamblaje es una transformación relativa posible entre los enlaces de una cadena cinemática. Los métodos reportados en la literatura para la solución del análisis de posición de cadenas cinemáticas se pueden clasificar como gráficos, analíticos o numéricos. Los enfoques gráficos son geométricos y se diseñan para resolver problemas particulares. Los métodos analíticos y numéricos tratan con cadenas cinemáticas de cualquier topología y traducen el problema geométrico original en un sistema de ecuaciones cinemáticas que define la ubicación de cada enlace, basado generalmente en ecuaciones de bucle independientes. En los enfoques analíticos, el sistema de ecuaciones cinemáticas se reduce a un polinomio, conocido como el polinomio característico de la cadena cinemática, utilizando diferentes métodos de eliminación. En los métodos numéricos, el sistema se resuelve utilizando, por ejemplo, la continuación polinomial o procedimientos basados en intervalos. En cualquier caso, el uso de ecuaciones de bucle independientes, un estándar en cinemática de mecanismos, rara vez ha sido cuestionado a pesar de que el sistema resultante de ecuaciones es bastante complicado, incluso para cadenas simples. Por otra parte, establecer el análisis de la posición de cadenas cinemáticas directamente en términos de poses, con o sin el uso de ecuaciones de bucle independientes, presenta dos inconvenientes: sistemas de referencia arbitrarios deben ser introducidos, y todas las fórmulas implican traslaciones y rotaciones de forma simultánea. Esta tesis se aparta de este enfoque estándar expresando el problema de posición original como un sistema de restricciones basadas en distancias, en lugar de directamente calcular posiciones cartesianas. Estas restricciones son posteriormente resueltas con procedimientos analíticos y numéricos adaptados a sus particularidades. Con el propósito de desarrollar los conceptos básicos y la teoría del enfoque propuesto, esta tesis se centra en el estudio de las cadenas cinemáticas planas más fundamentales, a saber, estructuras de Baranov, cadenas cinemáticas de Assur, y cadenas cinemáticas de Grübler. Los resultados obtenidos han demostrado que las técnicas desarrolladas son herramientas prometedoras para el análisis de posición de cadenas cinemáticas y problemas relacionados. Por ejemplo, usando dichas técnicas, los polinomios característicos de la mayoría de las estructuras de Baranov catalogadas se puede obtener sin realizar eliminaciones de variables o sustituciones trigonométricas, y utilizando solo álgebra elemental. Un resultado en claro contraste con las complejas eliminaciones de variables que se requieren cuando se utilizan ecuaciones de bucle independientes. El impacto del resultado anterior es mayor porque se demuestra que el polinomio característico de una estructura de Baranov, derivado con las técnicas propuestas, contiene toda la información necesaria y suficiente para resolver el análisis de posición de las cadenas cinemáticas de Assur que resultan de la sustitución de algunas de sus articulaciones de revolución por articulaciones prismáticas. De esta forma, se concluye que los polinomios de todos los robots planares totalmente paralelos se pueden derivar directamente del polinomio característico del conocido robot 3-RPR. Adicionalmente, se presenta un procedimiento eficaz, basado en restricciones de distancias y áreas orientadas, y argumentos geométricos, para trazar curvas de acoplador de cadenas cinemáticas de Grübler. En conjunto, todas estas técnicas y resultados constituyen contribuciones a la cinemática teórica de mecanismos, la cinemática de robots, y la geometría plana de distancias. Barcelona 13

Accurate 3D localization of legged robots using NanoVDB and High-speed 3D laser scanning system

In the field of mobile robotics, legged robots are distinguished by their capability to traverse challenging terrain and ascend stairs. The Boston Dynamics' Spot robot exemplifies this category. Its navigation is based on its "auto-walk" feature, which allows it to replicate manually pre-recorded routes. However, for truly autonomous operation not restricted to predefined routes, 3D map-based localization is essential. Therefore, this research proposes a pipeline to perform 3D map-based localization with the Spot robot. Initially, to identify the most effective means of localization, the performance of multiple scan matching techniques and libraries were compared in terms of accuracy and registration time. The evaluation concluded that the ICP method implemented through the Libpointmatcher library, registered the most precise point cloud registration results. In contrast, the NDT method executed with FastGICP appeared as the most time-efficient. Processing further, a localization pipeline was built with the map of the environment obtained with a high-speed 3D LiDAR, TrimbleX7. The study proved the efficiency of a ray tracing technique, developed using the NanoVDB library, in extracting a local point cloud from the map. When combined with scan matching techniques, this approach significantly improves the localization accuracy. In its optimal configuration, utilizing the NDT scan matching method from the FastGICP library, the method achieved a localization precision of 0.148 meters

Design and Prototyping of a Transformable Quadruped Robot

Quadruped robotic mechanism is a legged robotic structure using four legs to move. In many legged robotic structures, quadruped is the ideal one for mobility performance and efficiency. Quadruped robots features more stable and more smooth movement than wheeled robots on rough and complex terrains. Wheeled robots featuring moving on wheels is another structure different than legged robotic structure. It can move faster on flat and less rough terrains than the quadrupeds. For quadruped and wheeled structures, either one can fail to move properly once the terrains are inappropriate. Correspondingly, to have a robotic structure performing well under whatever terrain conditions is highly demanded. To solve the demand, the transformation mechanism is a solution. This research designs and prototypes a transformable quadruped robot with its transformation mechanism, so it can transform between the quadruped type and the wheeled type freely depending on the terrain conditions. The research requires the knowledge and the techniques of dynamics, kinematics, materials, and machining. Due to the time limit, the project ends up at the 1st complete prototype of one identical leg with a transformation mechanism. Actuator test is complete, and more tests and future work are in the plan.National Science FoundationNo embargoAcademic Major: Mechanical Engineerin

Exploring the effects of robotic design on learning and neural control

The ongoing deep learning revolution has allowed computers to outclass humans in various games and perceive features imperceptible to humans during classification tasks. Current machine learning techniques have clearly distinguished themselves in specialized tasks. However, we have yet to see robots capable of performing multiple tasks at an expert level. Most work in this field is focused on the development of more sophisticated learning algorithms for a robot's controller given a largely static and presupposed robotic design. By focusing on the development of robotic bodies, rather than neural controllers, I have discovered that robots can be designed such that they overcome many of the current pitfalls encountered by neural controllers in multitask settings. Through this discovery, I also present novel metrics to explicitly measure the learning ability of a robotic design and its resistance to common problems such as catastrophic interference. Traditionally, the physical robot design requires human engineers to plan every aspect of the system, which is expensive and often relies on human intuition. In contrast, within the field of evolutionary robotics, evolutionary algorithms are used to automatically create optimized designs, however, such designs are often still limited in their ability to perform in a multitask setting. The metrics created and presented here give a novel path to automated design that allow evolved robots to synergize with their controller to improve the computational efficiency of their learning while overcoming catastrophic interference. Overall, this dissertation intimates the ability to automatically design robots that are more general purpose than current robots and that can perform various tasks while requiring less computation.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2008.0639