Model-Based Environmental Visual Perception for Humanoid Robots

The visual perception of a robot should answer two fundamental questions: What? and Where? In order to properly and efficiently reply to these questions, it is essential to establish a bidirectional coupling between the external stimuli and the internal representations. This coupling links the physical world with the inner abstraction models by sensor transformation, recognition, matching and optimization algorithms. The objective of this PhD is to establish this sensor-model coupling

Solving the nearest rotation matrix problem in three and four dimensions with applications in robotics

Aplicat embargament des de la data de defensa fins ei 31/5/2022Since the map from quaternions to rotation matrices is a 2-to-1 covering map, this map cannot be smoothly inverted. As a consequence, it is sometimes erroneously assumed that all inversions should necessarily contain singularities that arise in the form of quotients where the divisor can be arbitrarily small. This misconception was clarified when we found a new division-free conversion method. This result triggered the research work presented in this thesis. At first glance, the matrix to quaternion conversion does not seem to be a relevant problem. Actually, most researchers consider it as a well-solved problem whose revision is not likely to provide any new insight in any area of practical interest. Nevertheless, we show in this thesis how solving the nearest rotation matrix problem in Frobenius norm can be reduced to a matrix to quaternion conversion. Many problems, such as hand-eye calibration, camera pose estimation, location recognition, image stitching etc. require finding the nearest proper orthogonal matrix to a given matrix. Thus, the matrix to quaternion conversion becomes of paramount importance. While a rotation in 3D can be represented using a quaternion, a rotation in 4D can be represented using a double quaternion. As a consequence, the computation of the nearest rotation matrix in 4D, using our approach, essentially follow the same steps as in the 3D case. Although the 4D case might seem of theoretical interest only, we show in this thesis its practical relevance thanks to a little known mapping between 3D displacements and 4D rotations. In this thesis we focus our attention in obtaining closed-form solutions, in particular those that only require the four basic arithmetic operations because they can easily be implemented on microcomputers with limited computational resources. Moreover, closed-form methods are preferable for at least two reasons: they provide the most meaningful answer because they permit analyzing the influence of each variable on the result; and their computational cost, in terms of arithmetic operations, is fixed and assessable beforehand. We have actually derived closed-form methods specifically tailored for solving the hand-eye calibration and the pointcloud registration problems which outperform all previous approaches.Dado que la función que aplica a cada cuaternión su matrix de rotación correspondiente es 2 a 1, la inversa de esta función no es diferenciable en todo su dominio. Por consiguiente, a veces se asume erróneamente que todas las inversiones deben contener necesariamente singularidades que surgen en forma de cocientes donde el divisor puede ser arbitrariamente pequeño. Esta idea errónea se aclaró cuando encontramos un nuevo método de conversión sin división. Este resultado desencadenó el trabajo de investigación presentado en esta tesis. A primera vista, la conversión de matriz a cuaternión no parece un problema relevante. En realidad, la mayoría de los investigadores lo consideran un problema bien resuelto cuya revisión no es probable que proporcione nuevos resultados en ningún área de interés práctico. Sin embargo, mostramos en esta tesis cómo la resolución del problema de la matriz de rotación más cercana según la norma de Frobenius se puede reducir a una conversión de matriz a cuaternión. Muchos problemas, como el de la calibración mano-cámara, el de la estimación de la pose de una cámara, el de la identificación de una ubicación, el del solapamiento de imágenes, etc. requieren encontrar la matriz de rotación más cercana a una matriz dada. Por lo tanto, la conversión de matriz a cuaternión se vuelve de suma importancia. Mientras que una rotación en 3D se puede representar mediante un cuaternión, una rotación en 4D se puede representar mediante un cuaternión doble. Como consecuencia, el cálculo de la matriz de rotación más cercana en 4D, utilizando nuestro enfoque, sigue esencialmente los mismos pasos que en el caso 3D. Aunque el caso 4D pueda parecer de interés teórico únicamente, mostramos en esta tesis su relevancia práctica gracias a una función poco conocida que relaciona desplazamientos en 3D con rotaciones en 4D. En esta tesis nos centramos en la obtención de soluciones de forma cerrada, en particular aquellas que solo requieren las cuatro operaciones aritméticas básicas porque se pueden implementar fácilmente en microcomputadores con recursos computacionales limitados. Además, los métodos de forma cerrada son preferibles por al menos dos razones: proporcionan la respuesta más significativa porque permiten analizar la influencia de cada variable en el resultado; y su costo computacional, en términos de operaciones aritméticas, es fijo y evaluable de antemano. De hecho, hemos derivado nuevos métodos de forma cerrada diseñados específicamente para resolver el problema de la calibración mano-cámara y el del registro de nubes de puntos cuya eficiencia supera la de todos los métodos anteriores.Postprint (published version

Advanced Strategies for Robot Manipulators

Amongst the robotic systems, robot manipulators have proven themselves to be of increasing importance and are widely adopted to substitute for human in repetitive and/or hazardous tasks. Modern manipulators are designed complicatedly and need to do more precise, crucial and critical tasks. So, the simple traditional control methods cannot be efficient, and advanced control strategies with considering special constraints are needed to establish. In spite of the fact that groundbreaking researches have been carried out in this realm until now, there are still many novel aspects which have to be explored

High-Speed Vision and Force Feedback for Motion-Controlled Industrial Manipulators

Over the last decades, both force sensors and cameras have emerged as useful sensors for different applications in robotics. This thesis considers a number of dynamic visual tracking and control problems, as well as the integration of these techniques with contact force control. Different topics ranging from basic theory to system implementation and applications are treated. A new interface developed for external sensor control is presented, designed by making non-intrusive extensions to a standard industrial robot control system. The structure of these extensions are presented, the system properties are modeled and experimentally verified, and results from force-controlled stub grinding and deburring experiments are presented. A novel system for force-controlled drilling using a standard industrial robot is also demonstrated. The solution is based on the use of force feedback to control the contact forces and the sliding motions of the pressure foot, which would otherwise occur during the drilling phase. Basic methods for feature-based tracking and servoing are presented, together with an extension for constrained motion estimation based on a dual quaternion pose parametrization. A method for multi-camera real-time rigid body tracking with time constraints is also presented, based on an optimal selection of the measured features. The developed tracking methods are used as the basis for two different approaches to vision/force control, which are illustrated in experiments. Intensity-based techniques for tracking and vision-based control are also developed. A dynamic visual tracking technique based directly on the image intensity measurements is presented, together with new stability-based methods suitable for dynamic tracking and feedback problems. The stability-based methods outperform the previous methods in many situations, as shown in simulations and experiments

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

Aerial Vehicles

This book contains 35 chapters written by experts in developing techniques for making aerial vehicles more intelligent, more reliable, more flexible in use, and safer in operation.It will also serve as an inspiration for further improvement of the design and application of aeral vehicles. The advanced techniques and research described here may also be applicable to other high-tech areas such as robotics, avionics, vetronics, and space

The Sixth Annual Workshop on Space Operations Applications and Research (SOAR 1992)

This document contains papers presented at the Space Operations, Applications, and Research Symposium (SOAR) hosted by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) on 4-6 Aug. 1992 and held at the JSC Gilruth Recreation Center. The symposium was cosponsored by the Air Force Material Command and by NASA/JSC. Key technical areas covered during the symposium were robotic and telepresence, automation and intelligent systems, human factors, life sciences, and space maintenance and servicing. The SOAR differed from most other conferences in that it was concerned with Government-sponsored research and development relevant to aerospace operations. The symposium's proceedings include papers covering various disciplines presented by experts from NASA, the USAF, universities, and industry

Sensor Path Planning for Emitter Localization

The localization of a radio frequency (RF) emitter is relevant in many military and civilian applications. The recent decade has seen a rapid progress in the development of small and mobile unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which offer a way to perform emitter localization autonomously. The path a UAV travels influences the localization significantly, making path planning an important part of a mobile emitter localization system. The topic of this thesis is path planning for a UAV that uses bearing measurements to localize a stationary emitter. Using a directional antenna, the direction towards the target can be determined by the UAV rotating around its own vertical axis. During this rotation the UAV is required to remain at the same position, which induces a trade-off between movement and measurement that influences the optimal trajectories. This thesis derives a novel path planning algorithm for localizing an emitter with a UAV. It improves the current state of the art by providing a localization with defined accuracy in a shorter amount of time compared to other algorithms in simulations. The algorithm uses the policy rollout principle to perform a nonmyopic planning and to incorporate the uncertainty of the estimation process into its decision. The concept of an action selection algorithm for policy rollout is introduced, which allows the use of existing optimization algorithms to effectively search the action space. Multiple action selection algorithms are compared to optimize the speed of the path planning algorithm. Similarly, to reduce computational demand, an adaptive grid-based localizer has been developed. To evaluate the algorithm an experimental system has been built and the algorithm was tested on this system. Based on initial experiments, the path planning algorithm has been modified, including a minimal distance to the emitter and an outlier detection step. The resulting algorithm shows promising results in experimental flights

Proceedings of the ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics 2015

This volume contains the full papers accepted for presentation at the ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics 2015 held in the Barcelona School of Industrial Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, on June 29 - July 2, 2015. The ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics is an international meeting held once every two years in a European country. Continuing the very successful series of past conferences that have been organized in Lisbon (2003), Madrid (2005), Milan (2007), Warsaw (2009), Brussels (2011) and Zagreb (2013); this edition will once again serve as a meeting point for the international researchers, scientists and experts from academia, research laboratories and industry working in the area of multibody dynamics. Applications are related to many fields of contemporary engineering, such as vehicle and railway systems, aeronautical and space vehicles, robotic manipulators, mechatronic and autonomous systems, smart structures, biomechanical systems and nanotechnologies. The topics of the conference include, but are not restricted to: ● Formulations and Numerical Methods ● Efficient Methods and Real-Time Applications ● Flexible Multibody Dynamics ● Contact Dynamics and Constraints ● Multiphysics and Coupled Problems ● Control and Optimization ● Software Development and Computer Technology ● Aerospace and Maritime Applications ● Biomechanics ● Railroad Vehicle Dynamics ● Road Vehicle Dynamics ● Robotics ● Benchmark ProblemsPostprint (published version

Advances in Robot Kinematics : Proceedings of the 15th international conference on Advances in Robot Kinematics

International audienceThe motion of mechanisms, kinematics, is one of the most fundamental aspect of robot design, analysis and control but is also relevant to other scientific domains such as biome- chanics, molecular biology, . . . . The series of books on Advances in Robot Kinematics (ARK) report the latest achievement in this field. ARK has a long history as the first book was published in 1991 and since then new issues have been published every 2 years. Each book is the follow-up of a single-track symposium in which the participants exchange their results and opinions in a meeting that bring together the best of world’s researchers and scientists together with young students. Since 1992 the ARK symposia have come under the patronage of the International Federation for the Promotion of Machine Science-IFToMM.This book is the 13th in the series and is the result of peer-review process intended to select the newest and most original achievements in this field. For the first time the articles of this symposium will be published in a green open-access archive to favor free dissemination of the results. However the book will also be o↵ered as a on-demand printed book.The papers proposed in this book show that robot kinematics is an exciting domain with an immense number of research challenges that go well beyond the field of robotics.The last symposium related with this book was organized by the French National Re- search Institute in Computer Science and Control Theory (INRIA) in Grasse, France