Climbing and Walking Robots

Nowadays robotics is one of the most dynamic fields of scientific researches. The shift of robotics researches from manufacturing to services applications is clear. During the last decades interest in studying climbing and walking robots has been increased. This increasing interest has been in many areas that most important ones of them are: mechanics, electronics, medical engineering, cybernetics, controls, and computers. Today’s climbing and walking robots are a combination of manipulative, perceptive, communicative, and cognitive abilities and they are capable of performing many tasks in industrial and non- industrial environments. Surveillance, planetary exploration, emergence rescue operations, reconnaissance, petrochemical applications, construction, entertainment, personal services, intervention in severe environments, transportation, medical and etc are some applications from a very diverse application fields of climbing and walking robots. By great progress in this area of robotics it is anticipated that next generation climbing and walking robots will enhance lives and will change the way the human works, thinks and makes decisions. This book presents the state of the art achievments, recent developments, applications and future challenges of climbing and walking robots. These are presented in 24 chapters by authors throughtot the world The book serves as a reference especially for the researchers who are interested in mobile robots. It also is useful for industrial engineers and graduate students in advanced study

Bio-Inspired Robotics

Modern robotic technologies have enabled robots to operate in a variety of unstructured and dynamically-changing environments, in addition to traditional structured environments. Robots have, thus, become an important element in our everyday lives. One key approach to develop such intelligent and autonomous robots is to draw inspiration from biological systems. Biological structure, mechanisms, and underlying principles have the potential to provide new ideas to support the improvement of conventional robotic designs and control. Such biological principles usually originate from animal or even plant models, for robots, which can sense, think, walk, swim, crawl, jump or even fly. Thus, it is believed that these bio-inspired methods are becoming increasingly important in the face of complex applications. Bio-inspired robotics is leading to the study of innovative structures and computing with sensory–motor coordination and learning to achieve intelligence, flexibility, stability, and adaptation for emergent robotic applications, such as manipulation, learning, and control. This Special Issue invites original papers of innovative ideas and concepts, new discoveries and improvements, and novel applications and business models relevant to the selected topics of ``Bio-Inspired Robotics''. Bio-Inspired Robotics is a broad topic and an ongoing expanding field. This Special Issue collates 30 papers that address some of the important challenges and opportunities in this broad and expanding field

A CONTINOUS ROTARY ACTUATION MECHANISM FOR A POWERED HIP EXOSKELETON

This thesis presents a new mechanical design for an exoskeleton actuator to power the sagittal plane motion in the human hip. The device uses a DC motor to drive a Scotch yoke mechanism and series elasticity to take advantage of the cyclic nature of human gait and to reduce the maximum power and control requirements of the exoskeleton. The Scotch yoke actuator creates a position-dependent transmission that varies between 4:1 and infinity, with the peak transmission ratio aligned to the peak torque periods of the human gait cycle. Simulation results show that both the peak and average motor torque can be reduced using this mechanism, potentially allowing a less powerful motor to be used. Furthermore, the motor never needs to reverse direction even when the hip joint does. Preliminary testing shows the exoskeleton can provide an assistive torque and is capable of accurate position tracking at speeds covering the range of human walking. This thesis provides a detailed analysis of how the dynamic nature of human walking can be leveraged, how the hip actuator was designed, and shows how the exoskeleton performed during preliminary human trials

Index to 1984 NASA Tech Briefs, volume 9, numbers 1-4

Short announcements of new technology derived from the R&D activities of NASA are presented. These briefs emphasize information considered likely to be transferrable across industrial, regional, or disciplinary lines and are issued to encourage commercial application. This index for 1984 Tech B Briefs contains abstracts and four indexes: subject, personal author, originating center, and Tech Brief Number. The following areas are covered: electronic components and circuits, electronic systems, physical sciences, materials, life sciences, mechanics, machinery, fabrication technology, and mathematics and information sciences

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

3D Modelling and design of a bioloid compliant quadruped leg

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia BiomédicaIn the growing fields of rehabilitation robotics, prosthetics, and walking robots, the modeling of a real robot is a complex and passionate challenge. On the crossing point of mechanics, physics and computer-science, the development of a complete model involves multiple tasks ranging from the 3D modeling of the different body parts, the measure of the different physic properties, the understanding of the requirements for an accurate simulation, to the development of a robotic controller. In order to minimize large forces due to shocks, to safely interact with the user or the environment, and knowing the ability of passive elastic elements to store and release energy, compliant mechanisms are increasingly being applied in robots applications. This work aims to the elaboration of an accurate efficient three-dimensional model of the legs of the quadruped Bioloid robot and the development of a world showing the effect on WebotsTM simulation software developed by Cyberbotics Ltd. The goal was to design a segmented pantographic leg with compliant joints, in order to actively retract the collision and the impact of the quadruped legs with the ground during locomotion. Geometrical and mechanical limits have to be evaluated and considered for the modeling setup. Finally a controller based on the use of Central Pattern Generators was improved in order to adapt to the novel model and simple tests were performed in the WebotsTM, rendering a 3D model simulation for the different values of spring-damping coefficients at the legs knee joint. Through the a MATLAB® algorithm, the characterization of the joint angles during simulation was possible to be assessed.A modelação de um robot real é um desafio complexo e fascinante na crescente área da Robótica, que engloba desde robots de reabilitação, próteses a uma diversidade de outros dispositivos locomotores. No cruzamento da mecânica com a física e as ciências computacionais, o desenvolvimento de um modelo completo envolve várias tarefas que vão desde a modelação 3D das diferentes partes do corpo, a medição das propriedades físicos inerentes, a compreensão dos requisitos para uma simulação precisa bem como a aplicação de um controlador robótico. A fim de minimizar grandes forças devido a choques, interagir com segurança com o utilizador ou o ambiente e conhecendo a capacidade de armazenagem de energia por parte de elementos elásticos passivos, um sistema de amortecimento-mola demonstra ser uma aplicação de crescente interesse na Robótica. Este trabalho visa a elaboração de um modelo tridimensional eficiente e preciso das pernas do robô quadrúpede Bioloid a ser reproduzido num mundo no software WebotsTM desenvolvido pela Cyberbotics Ltd. O objectivo foi desenhar uma perna pantográfica segmentada tridimensional a ser aplicada em paralelo com um sistema de amortecimento-mola de forma a retrair activamente a colisão e o impacto das patas do quadrúpede com o solo durante a locomoção. Deste modo para uma configuração do modelo bem sucedida são tidos em conta limites geométricos e mecânicos. Por ultimo, o controlador com base no uso de ‘Central Pattern Generators’ foi melhorado a fim de se adaptar ao novo modelo e por conseguinte foram realizados testes simples usando o simulador WebotsTM. Nesta parte experimental é realizada a simulação do modelo permitindo avaliar o comportamento do modelo 3D para diferentes valores de coeficientes de mola e de amortecimento aplicados a nível do joelho da perna. Através de um algoritmo MATLAB® é possível caracterizar e analisar o comportamento doa ângulos das juntas durante a simulação

Impedance control for legged robots: an insight into the concepts involved

The application of impedance control strategies to modern legged locomotion is analyzed, paying special attention to the concepts behind its implementation which is not straightforward. In order to implement a functional impedance controller for a walking mechanism, the concepts of contact, impact, friction, and impedance have to be merged together. A literature review and a comprehensive analysis are presented compiling all these concepts along with a discussion on position-based versus force-based impedance control approaches, and a theoretical model of a robotic leg in contact with its environment is introduced. A theoretical control scheme for the legs of a general legged robot is also introduced, and some simulations results are presented

Lewis Structures Technology, 1988. Volume 1: Structural Dynamics

The specific purpose of the symposium was to familiarize the engineering structures community with the depth and range of research performed by the Structures Division of the Lewis Research Center and its academic and industrial partners. Sessions covered vibration control, fracture mechanics, ceramic component reliability, parallel computing, nondestructive testing, dynamical systems, fatigue and damage, wind turbines, hot section technology, structural mechanics codes, computational methods for dynamics, structural optimization, and applications of structural dynamics