Singularity-free Aerial Deformation by Two-dimensional Multilinked Aerial Robot with 1-DoF Vectorable Propeller

Two-dimensional multilinked structures can benefit aerial robots in both maneuvering and manipulation because of their deformation ability. However, certain types of singular forms must be avoided during deformation. Hence, an additional 1 Degrees-of-Freedom (DoF) vectorable propeller is employed in this work to overcome singular forms by properly changing the thrust direction. In this paper, we first extend modeling and control methods from our previous works for an under-actuated model whose thrust forces are not unidirectional. We then propose a planning method for the vectoring angles to solve the singularity by maximizing the controllability under arbitrary robot forms. Finally, we demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed methods by experiments where a quad-type model is used to perform trajectory tracking under challenging forms, such as a line-shape form, and the deformation passing these challenging forms

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

飛行ロボットにおける人間・ロボットインタラクションの実現に向けて : ユーザー同伴モデルとセンシングインターフェース

学位の種別: 課程博士審査委員会委員 : （主査）東京大学准教授 矢入 健久, 東京大学教授 堀 浩一, 東京大学教授 岩崎 晃, 東京大学教授 土屋 武司, 東京理科大学教授 溝口 博University of Tokyo(東京大学

Parametrized maneuvers for autonomous vehicles

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (p. 197-209).This thesis presents a method for creating continuously parametrized maneuver classes for autonomous vehicles. These classes provide useful tools for motion planners, bundling sets of related vehicle motions based on a low-dimensional parameter vector that describes the fundamental high-level variations within the trajectory set. The method follows from a relaxation of nonlinear parametric programming necessary conditions that discards the objective function, leaving a simple coordinatized feasible space including all dynamically admissible vehicle motions. A trajectory interpolation algorithm uses projection and integration methods to create the classes, starting from arbitrary user-provided maneuver examples, including those obtained from standard nonlinear optimization or motion capture of human-piloted vehicle flights. The interpolation process, which can be employed for real-time trajectory generation, efficiently creates entire maneuver sets satisfying nonlinear equations of motion and nonlinear state and control constraints without resorting to iterative optimization. Experimental application to a three degree-of-freedom rotorcraft testbed and the design of a stable feedforward control framework demonstrates the essential features of the method on actual hardware. Integration of the trajectory classes into an existing hybrid system motion planning framework illustrates the use of parametrized maneuvers for solving vehicle guidance problems. The earlier relaxation of strict optimality conditions makes possible the imposition of affine state transformation constraints, allowing maneuver sets to fit easily into a mixed integer-linear programming path planner.(cont.) The combined scheme generalizes previous planning techniques based on fixed, invariant representations of vehicle equilibrium states and maneuver elements. The method therefore increases the richness of available guidance solutions while maintaining problem tractability associated with hierarchical system models. Application of the framework to one and two-dimensional path planning examples demonstrates its usefulness in practical autonomous vehicle guidance scenarios.by Christopher Walden Dever.Ph.D

Multi-Robot Systems: Challenges, Trends and Applications

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue entitled “Multi-Robot Systems: Challenges, Trends, and Applications” that was published in Applied Sciences. This Special Issue collected seventeen high-quality papers that discuss the main challenges of multi-robot systems, present the trends to address these issues, and report various relevant applications. Some of the topics addressed by these papers are robot swarms, mission planning, robot teaming, machine learning, immersive technologies, search and rescue, and social robotics

UAV or Drones for Remote Sensing Applications in GPS/GNSS Enabled and GPS/GNSS Denied Environments

The design of novel UAV systems and the use of UAV platforms integrated with robotic sensing and imaging techniques, as well as the development of processing workflows and the capacity of ultra-high temporal and spatial resolution data, have enabled a rapid uptake of UAVs and drones across several industries and application domains.This book provides a forum for high-quality peer-reviewed papers that broaden awareness and understanding of single- and multiple-UAV developments for remote sensing applications, and associated developments in sensor technology, data processing and communications, and UAV system design and sensing capabilities in GPS-enabled and, more broadly, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-enabled and GPS/GNSS-denied environments.Contributions include:UAV-based photogrammetry, laser scanning, multispectral imaging, hyperspectral imaging, and thermal imaging;UAV sensor applications; spatial ecology; pest detection; reef; forestry; volcanology; precision agriculture wildlife species tracking; search and rescue; target tracking; atmosphere monitoring; chemical, biological, and natural disaster phenomena; fire prevention, flood prevention; volcanic monitoring; pollution monitoring; microclimates; and land use;Wildlife and target detection and recognition from UAV imagery using deep learning and machine learning techniques;UAV-based change detection

Aerospace medicine and biology, an annotated bibliography. volume xi- 1962-1963 literature

Aerospace medicine and biology - annotated bibliography for 1962 and 196

Body of glass: cybernetic bodies and the mirrored self

This thesis examines the ontology of the cyborg body and the politics inherent to cultural manifestations of that image, and focuses on the links between glass and human-machine integration, while tracing the dangerous political affinities that emerge when such links are exposed. In the first chapter, the cyborg’s persistent construction as a cultural Black Box is uncovered using the theories of Bruno Latour and W. Ross Ashby. It examines why the temptation to explore the cyborg solely through close readings of contemporary incarnations leads only to confusion and misreading. The second chapter builds on the work of the first by placing the cyborg within its proper historical context, and provides a detailed examination of the period in which the cyborg was not only named, but also transformed into a physical possibility with an existent political agenda. It then investigates the phallogocentricity, hyper-masculinity, and inherent racism of the cyborg body, and demonstrates how representations of human-machine integration reinforce the pre-existing racist, hetero-normative, patriarchal hegemony of the Cold War. The discussion then explores the issue of the emergent property in the cyborg body; specifically, the figure’s persistent construction as a ‘body of glass.’ It demonstrates how cyborgs are not only associated with objects like the mirror, but also how that figure is tied to visual motifs such as the double or doppelganger. Accordingly, the theories of Jacques Lacan are employed to elucidate the issues that arise when one of the most pervasive images in Western culture also doubles as a reflector. The final chapter seeks to expand upon the framework provided by Lacan, and examines the cyborg not as a mirror, but as a portal. Subsequently, this section challenges not only the cyborg’s current status as a posthuman figure, but also current theoretical assumptions which frame the cyborg as the point of transition from humanism to posthumanism