55 research outputs found
Geometric Phases and Robotic Locomotion
Robotic locomotion is based in a variety of instances upon cyclic changes in the shape of a robot mechanism. Certain variations in shape exploit the constrained nature of a robot's interaction with its environment to generate net motion. This is true for legged robots, snakelike robots, and wheeled mobile robots undertaking maneuvers such as parallel parking. In this paper we explore the use of tools from differential geometry to model and analyze this class of locomotion mechanisms in a unified way. In particular, we describe locomotion in terms of the geometric phase associated with a connection on a principal bundle, and address issues such as controllability and choice of gait. We also provide an introduction to the basic mathematical concepts which we require and apply the theory to numerous example systems
A Discrete Geometric Optimal Control Framework for Systems with Symmetries
This paper studies the optimal motion control of
mechanical systems through a discrete geometric approach. At
the core of our formulation is a discrete Lagrange-d’Alembert-
Pontryagin variational principle, from which are derived discrete
equations of motion that serve as constraints in our optimization
framework. We apply this discrete mechanical approach to
holonomic systems with symmetries and, as a result, geometric
structure and motion invariants are preserved. We illustrate our
method by computing optimal trajectories for a simple model of
an air vehicle flying through a digital terrain elevation map, and
point out some of the numerical benefits that ensue
Experiments in carangiform robotic fish locomotion
This paper studies a form of robotic fish movement that is analogous to the carangiform style of swimming seen in nature. We propose a simple quasi-steady fluid flow model for predicting the thrust generated by the flapping tail. We then describe an experimental system, consisting of a three-link robot, that has been constructed in order to study carangiform-like swimming. Experimental results obtained with this system suggest that the simplified propulsion model is reasonably accurate. The input parameters that realize optimum thrust are experimentally determined. Finally, we consider some issues in maneuvering
Symmetry Reduction of Optimal Control Systems and Principal Connections
This paper explores the role of symmetries and reduction in nonlinear control
and optimal control systems. The focus of the paper is to give a geometric
framework of symmetry reduction of optimal control systems as well as to show
how to obtain explicit expressions of the reduced system by exploiting the
geometry. In particular, we show how to obtain a principal connection to be
used in the reduction for various choices of symmetry groups, as opposed to
assuming such a principal connection is given or choosing a particular symmetry
group to simplify the setting. Our result synthesizes some previous works on
symmetry reduction of nonlinear control and optimal control systems. Affine and
kinematic optimal control systems are of particular interest: We explicitly
work out the details for such systems and also show a few examples of symmetry
reduction of kinematic optimal control problems.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figure
- …