Neural Control of Bimanual Robots With Guaranteed Global Stability and Motion Precision

Robots with coordinated dual arms are able to perform more complicated tasks that a single manipulator could hardly achieve. However, more rigorous motion precision is required to guarantee effective cooperation between the dual arms, especially when they grasp a common object. In this case, the internal forces applied on the object must also be considered in addition to the external forces. Therefore, a prescribed tracking performance at both transient and steady states is first specified, and then, a controller is synthesized to rigorously guarantee the specified motion performance. In the presence of unknown dynamics of both the robot arms and the manipulated object, the neural network approximation technique is employed to compensate for uncertainties. In order to extend the semiglobal stability achieved by conventional neural control to global stability, a switching mechanism is integrated into the control design. Effectiveness of the proposed control design has been shown through experiments carried out on the Baxter Robot

Variable structure robot control systems: The RAPP approach

International audienceThis paper presents a method of designing variable structure control systems for robots. As the on-board robot computational resources are limited, but in some cases the demands imposed on the robot by the user are virtually limitless, the solution is to produce a variable structure system. The task dependent part has to be exchanged, however the task governs the activities of the robot. Thus not only exchange of some task-dependent modules is required, but also supervisory responsibilities have to be switched. Such control systems are necessary in the case of robot companions, where the owner of the robot may demand from it to provide many services.

Global Feed-Forward Adaptive Fuzzy Control of Uncertain MIMO Nonlinear Systems

This study proposes a novel adaptive control approach using a feedforward Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy approximator for a class of highly unknown multi-input multi-output (MIMO) nonlinear plants. First of all, the design concept, namely, feedforward fuzzy approximator (FFA) based control, is introduced to compensate the unknown feedforward terms required during steady state via a forward TS fuzzy system which takes the desired commands as the input variables. Different from the traditional fuzzy approximation approaches, this scheme allows easier implementation and drops the boundedness assumption on fuzzy universal approximation errors. Furthermore, the controller is synthesized to assure either the disturbance attenuation or the attenuation of both disturbances and estimated fuzzy parameter errors or globally asymptotic stable tracking. In addition, all the stability is guaranteed from a feasible gain solution of the derived linear matrix inequality (LMI). Meanwhile, the highly uncertain holonomic constrained systems are taken as applications with either guaranteed robust tracking performances or asymptotic stability in a global sense. It is demonstrated that the proposed adaptive control is easily and straightforwardly extended to the robust TS FFA-based motion/force tracking controller. Finally, two planar robots transporting a common object is taken as an application example to show the expected performance. The comparison between the proposed and traditional adaptive fuzzy control schemes is also performed in numerical simulations. Keywords: Adaptive control; Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy system; holonomic systems; motion/force control

Proceedings of the NASA Conference on Space Telerobotics, volume 3

The theme of the Conference was man-machine collaboration in space. The Conference provided a forum for researchers and engineers to exchange ideas on the research and development required for application of telerobotics technology to the space systems planned for the 1990s and beyond. The Conference: (1) provided a view of current NASA telerobotic research and development; (2) stimulated technical exchange on man-machine systems, manipulator control, machine sensing, machine intelligence, concurrent computation, and system architectures; and (3) identified important unsolved problems of current interest which can be dealt with by future research

Hydraulisen puomin voimatakaisinkytketty etäohjaus

Teleoperation has been under study from the mid 1940s, when the first mechanical master-slave manipulators were built to allow safe handling of nuclear material within a hot cell. Since then, need to operate within dangerous, out of reach, uncomfortable, or hazardous environments has then motivated researchers to study teleoperation further. In this thesis, teleoperation of a hydraulic manipulator with electrically driven master manipulator was studied. The workspace of the hydraulic slave manipulator is 5 m in height and it can reach 3 m. The master manipulator has a workspace approximating full arm movement pivoting at the shoulder. Further, the slave manipulator is capable of lifting over 1000 kg, while the master manipulator can lift only 2 kg. Objective of this thesis is to implement virtual decomposition control (VDC) type controller to the master manipulator and create communication channel for the two manipulators. The VDC approach is a subsystem model based feedforward controller. Similar controller for the slave manipulator has been implemented previously. Performance of the developed teleoperation system will be evaluated with experimental implementation measuring the free space motion tracking in two degrees of freedom motion. Results from the experimental implementation indicate accurate motion tracking between the two manipulators. Experimental results indicate less than 15 mm position error between the two manipulators, which considering the size of the HIAB can be considered promising

The 2nd Conference on Remotely Manned Systems (RMS): Technology and Applications

Control theory and the design of manipulators, teleoperators, and robots are considered. Applications of remotely manned vehicles to space maintenance and orbital assembly, industry and productivity, undersea operations, and rehabilitation systems are emphasized

Robot Learning for Manipulation of Deformable Linear Objects

Deformable Object Manipulation (DOM) is a challenging problem in robotics. Until recently there has been limited research on the subject, with most robotic manipulation methods being developed for rigid objects. Part of the challenge in DOM is that non-rigid objects require solutions capable of generalizing to changes in shape and mechanical properties. Recently, Machine Learning (ML) has been proven successful in other fields where generalization is important such as computer vision, thus encouraging the application of ML to robotics as well. Notably, Reinforcement Learning (RL) has shown promise in finding control policies for manipulation of rigid objects. However, RL requires large amounts of data that are better satisfied in simulation while deformable objects are inherently more difficult to model and simulate. This thesis presents ReForm, a simulation sandbox for robotic manipulation of Deformable Linear Objects (DLOs) such as cables, ropes, and wires. DLO manipulation is an interesting problem for a variety of applications throughout manufacturing, agriculture, and medicine. Currently, this sandbox includes six shape control tasks, which are classified as explicit when a precise shape is to be achieved, or implicit when the deformation is just a consequence of a more abstract goal, e.g. wrapping a DLO around another object. The proposed simulation environments aim to facilitate comparison and reproducibility of robot learning research. To that end, an RL algorithm is tested on each simulated task providing initial benchmarking results. ReForm is one of three concurrent frameworks to first support DOM problems. This thesis also addresses the problem of DLO state representation for an explicit shape control problem. Moreover, the effects of elastoplastic properties on the RL reward definition are investigated. From a control perspective, DLOs with these properties are particularly challenging to manipulate due to their nonlinear behavior, acting elastic up to a yield point after which they become permanently deformed. A low-dimensional representation from discrete differential geometry is proposed, offering more descriptive shape information than a simple point-cloud while avoiding the need for curve fitting. Empirical results show that this representation leads to a better goal description in the presence of elastoplasticity, preventing the RL algorithm from converging to local minima which correspond to incorrect shapes of the DLO

Proceedings of the NASA Conference on Space Telerobotics, volume 5

Papers presented at the NASA Conference on Space Telerobotics are compiled. The theme of the conference was man-machine collaboration in space. The conference provided a forum for researchers and engineers to exchange ideas on the research and development required for the application of telerobotics technology to the space systems planned for the 1990's and beyond. Volume 5 contains papers related to the following subject areas: robot arm modeling and control, special topics in telerobotics, telerobotic space operations, manipulator control, flight experiment concepts, manipulator coordination, issues in artificial intelligence systems, and research activities at the Johnson Space Center

Novel estimation and control techniques in micromanipulation using vision and force feedback

With the recent advances in the fields of micro and nanotechnology, there has been growing interest for complex micromanipulation and microassembly strategies. Despite the fact that many commercially available micro devices such as the key components in automobile airbags, ink-jet printers and projection display systems are currently produced in a batch technique with little assembly, many other products such as read/write heads for hard disks and fiber optics assemblies require flexible precision assemblies. Furthermore, many biological micromanipulations such as invitro-fertilization, cell characterization and treatment rely on the ability of human operators. Requirement of high-precision, repeatable and financially viable operations in these tasks has given rise to the elimination of direct human involvement, and autonomy in micromanipulation and microassembly. In this thesis, a fully automated dexterous micromanipulation strategy based on vision and force feedback is developed. More specifically, a robust vision based control architecture is proposed and implemented to compensate errors due to the uncertainties about the position, behavior and shape of the microobjects to be manipulated. Moreover, novel estimators are designed to identify the system and to characterize the mechanical properties of the biological structures through a synthesis of concepts from the computer vision, estimation and control theory. Estimated mechanical parameters are utilized to reconstruct the imposed force on a biomembrane and to provide the adequate information to control the position, velocity and acceleration of the probe without damaging the cell/tissue during an injection task