Climbing and Walking Robots

With the advancement of technology, new exciting approaches enable us to render mobile robotic systems more versatile, robust and cost-efficient. Some researchers combine climbing and walking techniques with a modular approach, a reconfigurable approach, or a swarm approach to realize novel prototypes as flexible mobile robotic platforms featuring all necessary locomotion capabilities. The purpose of this book is to provide an overview of the latest wide-range achievements in climbing and walking robotic technology to researchers, scientists, and engineers throughout the world. Different aspects including control simulation, locomotion realization, methodology, and system integration are presented from the scientific and from the technical point of view. This book consists of two main parts, one dealing with walking robots, the second with climbing robots. The content is also grouped by theoretical research and applicative realization. Every chapter offers a considerable amount of interesting and useful information

An Approach Based on Particle Swarm Optimization for Inspection of Spacecraft Hulls by a Swarm of Miniaturized Robots

The remoteness and hazards that are inherent to the operating environments of space infrastructures promote their need for automated robotic inspection. In particular, micrometeoroid and orbital debris impact and structural fatigue are common sources of damage to spacecraft hulls. Vibration sensing has been used to detect structural damage in spacecraft hulls as well as in structural health monitoring practices in industry by deploying static sensors. In this paper, we propose using a swarm of miniaturized vibration-sensing mobile robots realizing a network of mobile sensors. We present a distributed inspection algorithm based on the bio-inspired particle swarm optimization and evolutionary algorithm niching techniques to deliver the task of enumeration and localization of an a priori unknown number of vibration sources on a simplified 2.5D spacecraft surface. Our algorithm is deployed on a swarm of simulated cm-scale wheeled robots. These are guided in their inspection task by sensing vibrations arising from failure points on the surface which are detected by on-board accelerometers. We study three performance metrics: (1) proximity of the localized sources to the ground truth locations, (2) time to localize each source, and (3) time to finish the inspection task given a 75% inspection coverage threshold. We find that our swarm is able to successfully localize the present so

Conference on Intelligent Robotics in Field, Factory, Service, and Space (CIRFFSS 1994), volume 1

The AIAA/NASA Conference on Intelligent Robotics in Field, Factory, Service, and Space (CIRFFSS '94) was originally proposed because of the strong belief that America's problems of global economic competitiveness and job creation and preservation can partly be solved by the use of intelligent robotics, which are also required for human space exploration missions. Individual sessions addressed nuclear industry, agile manufacturing, security/building monitoring, on-orbit applications, vision and sensing technologies, situated control and low-level control, robotic systems architecture, environmental restoration and waste management, robotic remanufacturing, and healthcare applications

Modular soft pneumatic actuator system design for compliance matching

The future of robotics is personal. Never before has technology been as pervasive as it is today, with advanced mobile electronics hardware and multi-level network connectivity pushing âsmartâ devices deeper into our daily lives through home automation systems, virtual assistants, and wearable activity monitoring. As the suite of personal technology around us continues to grow in this way, augmenting and offloading the burden of routine activities of daily living, the notion that this trend will extend to robotics seems inevitable. Transitioning robots from their current principal domain of industrial factory settings to domestic, workplace, or public environments is not simply a matter of relocation or reprogramming, however. The key differences between âtraditionalâ types of robots and those which would best serve personal, proximal, human interactive applications demand a new approach to their design. Chief among these are requirements for safety, adaptability, reliability, reconfigurability, and to a more practical extent, usability. These properties frame the context and objectives of my thesis work, which seeks to provide solutions and answers to not only how these features might be achieved in personal robotic systems, but as well what benefits they can afford. I approach the investigation of these questions from a perspective of compliance matching of hardware systems to their applications, by providing methods to achieve mechanical attributes complimentary to their environment and end-use. These features are fundamental to the burgeoning field of Soft Robotics, wherein flexible, compliant materials are used as the basis for the structure, actuation, sensing, and control of complete robotic systems. Combined with pressurized air as a power source, soft pneumatic actuator (SPA) based systems offers new and novel methods of exploiting the intrinsic compliance of soft material components in robotic systems. While this strategy seems to answer many of the needs for human-safe robotic applications, it also brings new questions and challenges: What are the needs and applications personal robots may best serve? Are soft pneumatic actuators capable of these tasks, or âusefulâ work output and performance? How can SPA based systems be applied to provide complex functionality needed for operation in diverse, real-world environments? What are the theoretical and practical challenges in implementing scalable, multiple degrees of freedom systems, and how can they be overcome? I present solutions to these problems in my thesis work, elucidated through scientific design, testing and evaluation of robotic prototypes which leverage and demonstrate three key features: 1) Intrinsic compliance: provided by passive elastic and flexible component material properties, 2) Extrinsic compliance: rendered through high number of independent, controllable degrees of freedom, and 3) Complementary design: exhibited by modular, plug and play architectures which combine both attributes to achieve compliant systems. Through these core projects and others listed below I have been engaged in soft robotic technology, its application, and solutions to the challenges which are critical to providing a path forward within the soft robotics field, as well as for the future of personal robotics as a whole toward creating a better society

Efficient Representation of Ducts and Cluttered Spaces for Realistic Motion Planning of Hyper-Redundant Robots through Confined Paths

Application of highly articulated hyper-redundant robots to manoeuvre in narrow and confined spaces is gaining popularity due to their obvious advantages. In this paper, we describe an optimization based approach for motion planning of hyper-redundant robots, which results in a natural motion of the links through ducts and confined spaces. It is shown that for a desired motion of the end-effector or the head of the hyper-redundant robot, the motion of the subsequent links attenuate and all the links avoid collision with the walls of the ducts and any other obstacles in the confined spaces. We discuss several ways to represent ducts in 2D and 3D space and also how the proposed algorithm is applied in these representations. It is shown that the complexity of the algorithm, with m constraints is at most O(m(3.5)) and in case where the ducts can be modeled with polyhedra, the complexity can be as low as O(m(1.5)). The proposed approach is also used to determine the largest link length in the hyper-redundant robot which can traverse the confined path. The concepts developed in this paper are demonstrated using simulations conducted on three practical scenarios: 1) hyper-redundant manipulators inspecting an industrial pipeline, 2) motion of an endoscopic robot through gastro-intestinal (Gl) tract and 3) motion of hyper-redundant manipulators in search and rescue operations. Analysis on the computational complexity and the simulations shows that the method is feasible for practical implementation. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Small Business Innovation Research. Program solicitation. Closing date: July 21, 1992

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) invites small businesses to submit Phase 1 proposals in response to its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program Solicitation 92-1. Firms with research or research and development capabilities (R/R&D) in science or engineering in any of the areas listed are encouraged to participate. This, the tenth annual SBIR solicitation by NASA, describes the program, identifies eligibility requirements, describes the proposal evaluation and award selection process, and provides other information to assist those interested in participating in NASA's SBIR program. It also identifies, in Section 8.0, the technical topics and subtopics in which SBIR Phase 1 proposals are solicited in 1992. These topics and subtopics cover a broad range of current NASA interests but do not necessarily include all areas in which NASA plans or currently conducts research. The NASA SBIR program seeks innovative approaches that respond to the needs, technical requirements, and new opportunities described in the subtopics. The focus is on innovation through the use of emerging technologies, novel applications of existing technologies, exploitation of scientific breakthroughs, or new capabilities or major improvements to existing technologies. NASA plans to select about 320 high-quality research or research and development proposals for Phase 1 contract awards on the basis of this Solicitation. Phase 1 contracts are normally six months in duration and funded up to $50,000, including profit. Selections will be based on the competitive merits of the offers and on NASA needs and priorities

Proceedings of the International Micro Air Vehicles Conference and Flight Competition 2017 (IMAV 2017)

The IMAV 2017 conference has been held at ISAE-SUPAERO, Toulouse, France from Sept. 18 to Sept. 21, 2017. More than 250 participants coming from 30 different countries worldwide have presented their latest research activities in the field of drones. 38 papers have been presented during the conference including various topics such as Aerodynamics, Aeroacoustics, Propulsion, Autopilots, Sensors, Communication systems, Mission planning techniques, Artificial Intelligence, Human-machine cooperation as applied to drones