7,924 research outputs found
Design and Implement Towards Enhanced Physical Interactive Performance Robot Bodies
In this thesis, it will introduce the design principle and implement details towards enhanced physical interactive performance robot bodies, which are more specically
focused on under actuated principle robotic hands and articulated leg robots. Since they both signicantly function as the physical interactive robot bodies against external environment, while their current performance can hardly satisfy the requirement of undertaking missions in real application.
Regarding to the enhanced physical interactive performances, my work will emphasis on the three following specific functionalities, high energy efficiency, high
strength and physical sturdiness in both robotics actuation and mechanism. For achieving the aforementioned targets, multiple design methods have been applied,
rstly the elastic energy storage elements and compliant actuation have been adopted in legged robots as Asymmetrical Compliant Actuation (ACA), implemented for not
only single joint but also multiple joints as mono and biarticulation congurations in order to achieve higher energy effciency motion. Secondly the under actuated
principle and modular nger design concept have been utilized on the development of robotic hands for enhancing the grasping strength and physical sturdiness meanwhile maintaining the manipulation dexterity. Lastly, a novel high payload active tuning Parallel Elastic Actuation (PEA) and Series Elastic Actuation (SEA) have been
adopted on legged robots for augmenting energy eciency and physical sturdiness.
My thesis contribution relies on the novel design and implement of robotics bodies for enhancing physical interactive performance and we experimentally veried the
design effectiveness in specic designed scenario and practical applications
An extendible reconfigurable robot based on hot melt adhesives
The ability to physically enlarge one’s own body structures plays an important role in robustness and adaptability of biological systems. It is, however, a significant challenge for robotic systems to autonomously extend their bodies. To address this challenge, this paper presents an approach using Hot Melt Adhesives (HMAs) to assemble and integrate extensions into the robotic body. HMAs are thermoplastics with temperature dependent adhesiveness and bonding strength. We exploit this property of HMAs to connect passive external objects to the robot’s own body structures, and investigate the characteristics of the approach. In a set of elementary configurations, we analyze to which extent a robot can self-reconfigure using the proposed method. We found that the extension limit depends on the mechanical properties of the extension, and the reconfiguration algorithm. A five-axis robot manipulator equipped with specialized HMA handling devices is employed to demonstrate these findings in four experiments. It is shown that the robot can construct and integrate extensions into its own body, which allow it to solve tasks that it could not achieve in its initial configuration.This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation Professorship Grant No. PP00P2123387/1, and the ETH Zurich Research Grant ETH-23-10-3.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10514-015-9428-
A study of concept options for the evolution of Space Station Freedom
Two conceptual evolution configurations for Space Station Freedom, a research and development configuration, and a transportation node configuration are described and analyzed. Results of pertinent analyses of mass properties, attitude control, microgravity, orbit lifetime, and reboost requirements are provided along with a description of these analyses. Also provided are brief descriptions of the elements and systems that comprise these conceptual configurations
DEVELOPMENT OF A SOFT PNEUMATIC ACTUATOR FOR MODULAR ROBOTIC MECHANISMS
Soft robotics is a widely and rapidly growing field of research today. Soft
pneumatic actuators, as a fundamental element in soft robotics, have gained
huge popularity and are being employed for the development of soft robots.
During the last decade, a variety of hyper-elastic robotic systems have been
realized. As the name suggests, such robots are made up of soft materials,
and do not have any underlying rigid mechanical structure. These robots are
actuated employing various methods like pneumatic, electroactive, jamming
etc. Generally, in order to achieve a desired mechanical response to produce
required actuation or manipulation, two or more materials having different
stiffness are utilized to develop a soft robot. However, this method introduces
complications in the fabrication process as well as in further design
flexibility and modifications. The current work presents a design scheme of
a soft robotic actuator adapting an easier fabrication approach, which is economical
and environment friendly as well.
The purpose is the realization of a soft pneumatic actuator having functional
ability to produce effective actuation, and which is further employable
to develop modular and scalable mechanisms. That infers to scrutinize the
profile and orientation of the internal actuation cavity and the outer shape of
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the actuator. Utilization of a single material for this actuator has been considered
to make this design scheme convenient. A commercial silicone rubber
was selected which served for an economical process both in terms of the
cost as well as its accommodating fabrication process through molding. In
order to obtain the material behavior, \u2018Ansys Workbench 17.1 R
\u2019 has been
used. Cubic outline for the actuator aided towards the realization of a body
shape which can easily be engaged for the development of modular mechanisms
employing multiple units. This outer body shape further facilitates
to achieve the stability and portability of the actuator. The soft actuator has
been named \u2018Soft Cubic Module\u2019 based on its external cubic shape. For the
internal actuation cavity design, various shapes, such as spherical, elliptical
and cylindrical, were examined considering their different sizes and orientations
within the cubic module. These internal cavities were simulated in order
to achieve single degree of freedom actuation. That means, only one face
of the cube is principally required to produce effective deformation. \u2018Creo
Perametric 3.0 M 130\u2019 has been used to design the model and to evaluate the
performance of actuation cavities in terms of effective deformation and the
resulting von-mises stress. Out of the simulated profiles, cylindrical cavity
with desired outcomes has been further considered to design the soft actuator.
\u2018Ansys Workbench 17.1 R
\u2019 environment was further used to assess the
performance of cylindrical actuation cavity. Evaluation in two different simulation
environments helped to validate the initially achieved results. The
developed soft cubic actuator was then employed to develop different mechanisms
in a single unit configuration as well as multi-unit robotic system
developments.
This design scheme is considered as the first tool to investigate its capacity
to perform certain given tasks in various configurations. Alongside
its application as a single unit gripper and a two unit bio-mimetic crawling
mechanism, this soft actuator has been employed to realize a four degree
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of freedom robotic mechanism. The formation of this primitive soft robotic
four axis mechanism is being further considered to develop an equivalent
mechanism similar to the well known Stewart platform, with advantages of
compactness, simpler kinematics design, easier control, and lesser cost.
Overall, the accomplished results indicate that the design scheme of Soft
Cubic Module is helpful in realizing a simple and cost-effective soft pneumatic
actuator which is modular and scalable. Another favourable point of
this scheme is the use of a single material with convenient fabrication and
handling
Ground Robotic Hand Applications for the Space Program study (GRASP)
This document reports on a NASA-STDP effort to address research interests of the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) through a study entitled, Ground Robotic-Hand Applications for the Space Program (GRASP). The primary objective of the GRASP study was to identify beneficial applications of specialized end-effectors and robotic hand devices for automating any ground operations which are performed at the Kennedy Space Center. Thus, operations for expendable vehicles, the Space Shuttle and its components, and all payloads were included in the study. Typical benefits of automating operations, or augmenting human operators performing physical tasks, include: reduced costs; enhanced safety and reliability; and reduced processing turnaround time
Human-friendly robotic manipulators: safety and performance issues in controller design
Recent advances in robotics have spurred its adoption into new application areas such as medical, rescue, transportation, logistics, personal care and entertainment. In the personal care domain, robots are expected to operate in human-present environments and provide non-critical assistance. Successful and flourishing deployment of such robots present different opportunities as well as challenges. Under a national research project, Bobbie, this dissertation analyzes challenges associated with these robots and proposes solutions for identified problems. The thesis begins by highlighting the important safety concern and presenting a comprehensive overview of safety issues in a typical domestic robot system. By using functional safety concept, the overall safety of the complex robotic system was analyzed through subsystem level safety issues. Safety regions in the world model of the perception subsystem, dependable understanding of the unstructured environment via fusion of sensory subsystems, lightweight and compliant design of mechanical components, passivity based control system and quantitative metrics used to assert safety are some important points discussed in the safety review. The main research focus of this work is on controller design of robotic manipulators against two conflicting requirements: motion performance and safety. Human-friendly manipulators used on domestic robots exhibit a lightweight design and demand a stable operation with a compliant behavior injected via a passivity based impedance controller. Effective motion based manipulation using such a controller requires a highly stiff behavior while important safety requirements are achieved with compliant behaviors. On the basis of this intuitive observation, this research identifies suitable metrics to identify the appropriate impedance for a given performance and safety requirement. This thesis also introduces a domestic robot design that adopts a modular design approach to minimize complexity, cost and development time. On the basis of functional modularity concept where each module has a unique functional contribution in the system, the robot “Bobbie-UT‿ is built as an interconnection of interchangeable mobile platform, torso, robotic arm and humanoid head components. Implementation of necessary functional and safety requirements, design of interfaces and development of suitable software architecture are also discussed with the design
Practicing the Work of a Sustainable Digital Fashion Designer/Maker 4.0: Design of an Organic and Modular Clothing System Based on the Industry 4.0 Approach
Industry 4.0 in the Fashion Industries is having its momentum through the application of digital fabrication technologies encompassing 3D modeling or computing-aided design (CAD), additive manufacturing (i.e. 3D printing), and subtractive manufacturing (i.e. laser cutting, cutting through plotter, and CNC machining) technologies in changing the fashion system in all aspects, from the business models to the creative fashion designer professional skills and activities. In the wave of Industry 4.0 (I4.0), a new design paradigm has been emerging based on the cooperation between digital production and manual expertise: new digital artisans/ fashion designers 4.0 emerged as being able to work on scouting old crafting techniques and updating them through the use of digital fabrication technologies to boost their creative abilities, explore aesthetical possibilities, and start-up new economical businesses. This paper aims to present the status of the art of the digital fashion designer/artisans practices through a preliminary literature review as a baseline to present a case study of hybrid digital fashion craftsmanship focusing on the design and implementation of an organic modular garment system based on the I4.0 approach. The case study will serve to describe the impacts, opportunities, and limitations that digitalization and additive manufacturing techniques could have on fashion design in terms of creativity, design and manufacturing processes, new skills and practices, and sustainability
A continuum robotic platform for endoscopic non-contact laser surgery: design, control, and preclinical evaluation
The application of laser technologies in surgical interventions has been accepted in the clinical
domain due to their atraumatic properties. In addition to manual application of fibre-guided
lasers with tissue contact, non-contact transoral laser microsurgery (TLM) of laryngeal tumours
has been prevailed in ENT surgery. However, TLM requires many years of surgical training
for tumour resection in order to preserve the function of adjacent organs and thus preserve the
patient’s quality of life. The positioning of the microscopic laser applicator outside the patient
can also impede a direct line-of-sight to the target area due to anatomical variability and limit
the working space. Further clinical challenges include positioning the laser focus on the tissue
surface, imaging, planning and performing laser ablation, and motion of the target area during
surgery. This dissertation aims to address the limitations of TLM through robotic approaches and
intraoperative assistance. Although a trend towards minimally invasive surgery is apparent, no
highly integrated platform for endoscopic delivery of focused laser radiation is available to date.
Likewise, there are no known devices that incorporate scene information from endoscopic imaging
into ablation planning and execution. For focusing of the laser beam close to the target tissue, this
work first presents miniaturised focusing optics that can be integrated into endoscopic systems.
Experimental trials characterise the optical properties and the ablation performance. A robotic
platform is realised for manipulation of the focusing optics. This is based on a variable-length
continuum manipulator. The latter enables movements of the endoscopic end effector in five
degrees of freedom with a mechatronic actuation unit. The kinematic modelling and control of the
robot are integrated into a modular framework that is evaluated experimentally. The manipulation
of focused laser radiation also requires precise adjustment of the focal position on the tissue. For
this purpose, visual, haptic and visual-haptic assistance functions are presented. These support
the operator during teleoperation to set an optimal working distance. Advantages of visual-haptic
assistance are demonstrated in a user study. The system performance and usability of the overall
robotic system are assessed in an additional user study. Analogous to a clinical scenario, the
subjects follow predefined target patterns with a laser spot. The mean positioning accuracy of the
spot is 0.5 mm. Finally, methods of image-guided robot control are introduced to automate laser
ablation. Experiments confirm a positive effect of proposed automation concepts on non-contact
laser surgery.Die Anwendung von Lasertechnologien in chirurgischen Interventionen hat sich aufgrund der atraumatischen Eigenschaften in der Klinik etabliert. Neben manueller Applikation von fasergefĂĽhrten
Lasern mit Gewebekontakt hat sich die kontaktfreie transorale Lasermikrochirurgie (TLM) von
Tumoren des Larynx in der HNO-Chirurgie durchgesetzt. Die TLM erfordert zur Tumorresektion
jedoch ein langjähriges chirurgisches Training, um die Funktion der angrenzenden Organe zu
sichern und damit die Lebensqualität der Patienten zu erhalten. Die Positionierung des mikroskopis chen Laserapplikators außerhalb des Patienten kann zudem die direkte Sicht auf das Zielgebiet
durch anatomische Variabilität erschweren und den Arbeitsraum einschränken. Weitere klinische
Herausforderungen betreffen die Positionierung des Laserfokus auf der Gewebeoberfläche, die
Bildgebung, die Planung und AusfĂĽhrung der Laserablation sowie intraoperative Bewegungen
des Zielgebietes. Die vorliegende Dissertation zielt darauf ab, die Limitierungen der TLM durch
robotische Ansätze und intraoperative Assistenz zu adressieren. Obwohl ein Trend zur minimal
invasiven Chirurgie besteht, sind bislang keine hochintegrierten Plattformen fĂĽr die endoskopische
Applikation fokussierter Laserstrahlung verfĂĽgbar. Ebenfalls sind keine Systeme bekannt, die
Szeneninformationen aus der endoskopischen Bildgebung in die Ablationsplanung und -ausfĂĽhrung
einbeziehen. Für eine situsnahe Fokussierung des Laserstrahls wird in dieser Arbeit zunächst
eine miniaturisierte Fokussieroptik zur Integration in endoskopische Systeme vorgestellt. Experimentelle Versuche charakterisieren die optischen Eigenschaften und das Ablationsverhalten. Zur
Manipulation der Fokussieroptik wird eine robotische Plattform realisiert. Diese basiert auf einem
längenveränderlichen Kontinuumsmanipulator. Letzterer ermöglicht in Kombination mit einer
mechatronischen Aktuierungseinheit Bewegungen des Endoskopkopfes in fĂĽnf Freiheitsgraden.
Die kinematische Modellierung und Regelung des Systems werden in ein modulares Framework
eingebunden und evaluiert. Die Manipulation fokussierter Laserstrahlung erfordert zudem eine
präzise Anpassung der Fokuslage auf das Gewebe. Dafür werden visuelle, haptische und visuell haptische Assistenzfunktionen eingeführt. Diese unterstützen den Anwender bei Teleoperation
zur Einstellung eines optimalen Arbeitsabstandes. In einer Anwenderstudie werden Vorteile der
visuell-haptischen Assistenz nachgewiesen. Die Systemperformanz und Gebrauchstauglichkeit
des robotischen Gesamtsystems werden in einer weiteren Anwenderstudie untersucht. Analog zu
einem klinischen Einsatz verfolgen die Probanden mit einem Laserspot vorgegebene Sollpfade. Die
mittlere Positioniergenauigkeit des Spots beträgt dabei 0,5 mm. Zur Automatisierung der Ablation
werden abschließend Methoden der bildgestützten Regelung vorgestellt. Experimente bestätigen
einen positiven Effekt der Automationskonzepte fĂĽr die kontaktfreie Laserchirurgie
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