Micromanipulation-force feedback pushing

In micromanipulation applications, it is often desirable to position and orient polygonal micro-objects lying on a planar surface. Pushing micro-objects using point contact provides more flexibility and less complexity compared to pick and place operation. Due to the fact that in micro-world surface forces are much more dominant than inertial forces and these forces are distributed unevenly, pushing through the center of mass of the micro-object will not yield a pure translational motion. In order to translate a micro-object, the line of pushing should pass through the center of friction. Moreover, due to unexpected nature of the frictional forces between the micro-object and substrate, the maximum force applied to the micro-object needs to be limited to prevent any damage either to the probe or micro-object. In this dissertation, a semi-autonomous manipulation scheme is proposed to push microobjects with human assistance using a custom built tele-micromanipulation setup to achieve pure translational motion. The pushing operation can be divided into two concurrent processes: In one process human operator who acts as an impedance controller to switch between force-position controllers and alters the velocity of the pusher while in contact with the micro-object through scaled bilateral teleoperation with force feedback. In the other process, the desired line of pushing for the micro-object is determined continuously so that it always passes through the varying center of friction. Visual feedback procedures are adopted to align the resultant velocity vector at the contact point to pass through the center of friction in order to achieve pure translational motion of the micro-object. Experimental results are demonstrated to prove the effectiveness of the proposed controller along with nanometer scale position control, nano-Newton range force sensing, scaled bilateral teleoperation with force feedback

Multivariable Loop-Shaping in Bilateral Telemanipulation

Abstract This paper presents an architecture and control methodology for obtaining transparency and stability robustness in a multivariable bilateral teleoperator system. The work presented here extends a previously published single-input, single-output approach to accommodate multivariable systems. The extension entails the use of impedance control techniques, which are introduced to render linear the otherwise nonlinear dynamics of the master and slave manipulators, in addition to a diagonalization multivariable loop shaping technique, used to render tractable the multivariable compensator design. A multivariable measure of transparency is proposed based on the relative singular values of the environment and transmitted impedance matrices. The approach is experimentally demonstrated on a three degree-of-freedom scaled telemanipulator pair with a highly coupled environment. Using direct measurement of the power delivered to the operator to assess the system's stability robustness, along with the proposed measure of multivariable transparency, the loop-shaping compensation is shown to improve the stability robustness by a factor of two and the transparency by more than a factor of five. Fite and Goldfarb Multivariable Loop Shaping … 2 Introduction Bilateral teleoperation systems provide for human interaction with an environment while alleviating the necessity of direct contact between the two. Using a pair of robot manipulators, such a system enables dexterous human manipulation in remote, hazardous, or otherwise inaccessible environments. Bilateral telemanipulators can additionally incorporate power attenuation or amplification between the human operator and environment, allowing for human manipulation of microscopic objects (in the case of macro-micro bilateral telemanipulation) or large-scale objects (in the case of man-amplifiers). The teleoperative performance can be characterized by the transparency, which is a measure of the extent to which the telemanipulation system presents the undistorted dynamics of the environment to the human operator. A common goal in the control of bilateral telemanipulation is to provide transparent teleoperation while ensuring the robust stability of the human-telemanipulator-environment loop. Prior Work Several researchers have investigated aspects of transparency and stability in telemanipulation, primarily through the use of two-port network modeling techniques. Doyle [7], to assess the stability of a macro-micro bilateral telemanipulator interacting with a passive human operator and environment. Though the telemanipulator itself was a singledegree-of-freedom system, the human-teleoperator-environment interaction was formulated in a manner that required multivariable tools in order to assess stability robustness. Colgate did not explicitly treat transparency, but instead utilized impedance shaping to intentionally alter the dynamics as perceived by the human operator through the telemanipulator. Itoh et al. experimentally implemented a six degree-of-freedom telemanipulator using passivity theory to address stability robustness, but instead of providing transparency, the telemanipulator was controlled to exhibit a task-oriented dynamic behavior specified in order to facilitate a particular telemanipulation task. Hashstrudi-Zaad and Salcudean theoretically assessed the performance and stability robustness of a three degree-of-freedom telemanipulator by incorporating a parallel force/position control to linearize and decouple the manipulators, and by assuming the human operator and environment to be decoupled, in which case the analysis reduces to that required for three decoupled single-degree-of-freedom systems. In contrast to the combined hybrid parameter/passivity based approach, the architecture proposed by Fite et al. [8] formulates the teleoperation system as a single feedback loop to which the tools of classical control theory can then be applied to address the performance and stability robustness. In so doing, the stability robustness of the system is addressed in a non-conservative manner, and the transparency is addressed only in the bandwidth of interest. This loop shaping approach was developed in a single input, single output context; since telemanipulation Fite and Goldfarb Multivariable Loop Shaping … 4 applications generally involve systems with coupled multiple degrees of freedom, however, such a method is of limited utility without extension to the multivariable case. As such, the work presented in this paper extends this previously published approach to the multivariable case of telemanipulation. Specifically, the extension entails the use of impedance control techniques to render linear the otherwise nonlinear dynamics of the master and slave manipulators, and employs a diagonalization multivariable loop shaping technique used to render tractable the multivariable loop shaping compensator design. A multivariable measure of transparency is additionally proposed based on the relative singular values of the environment and transmitted impedance matrices. 3 Multivariable Telemanipulation Architecture Fite and Goldfarb Multivariable Loop Shaping … 6 Given the master/human and slave/environment dynamics as previously described, the loop shaping telemanipulation architecture is obtained by combining the master/human and slave/environment subsystems with the position and force scaling matrices, C 1 and C 2 , respectively, as shown in The transparency of the multivariable teleoperation loop is determined by the relative distortion between the transmitted impedance (i.e., the impedance felt by the human operator) and the actual environment impedance. The impedance transmitted to the human operator by the telemanipulation system is given by: For perfect transparency, the transmitted impedance transfer function matrix of Eq. (3) should equal the actual environment impedance, Z e . In practice, these matrices need only be similar within some frequency band of interest. Thus, within this band of interest, perfect transparency requires the singular values of the transmitted impedance transfer function matrix to equal those of the actual environment impedance transfer function matrix. As such, a measure of the desired multivariable performance can be given by the ratio of the respective singular values of the impedance transmitted to the human operator to those of the environment impedance: where n rank = ) ( e t Z , Z and i δ represents distortion in the teleoperative system. A desired bandwidth of transparency can be prescribed by ensuring that the distortion i δ in each singular Fite and Goldfarb Multivariable Loop Shaping … 7 value is less than some allowable amount of distortion ∆ for a desired bandwidth of operation. For ∆= 3 dB, a prescription for good teleoperative performance can be written as: where t Ω is a desired bandwidth of teleoperative transparency. The overall objective of the control architecture is to achieve the desired performance specified by Eq. (5) while ensuring the robust stability of the closed-loop system. With the introduction of a loop shaping compensator in the motion communication channel, th

Bilateral Macro-Micro Teleoperation Using A Magnetic Actuation Mechanism

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the advancement of microrobotic systems in micro-engineering, micro-fabrication, biological research and biomedical applications. Untethered magnetic-based microrobotic systems are one of the most widely developing groups of microrobotic systems that have been extensively explored for biological and biomedical micro-manipulations. These systems show promise in resolving problems related to on-board power supply limitations as well as mechanical contact sealing and lubrication. In this thesis, a high precision magnetic untethered microrobotic system is demonstrated for micro-handling tasks. A key aspect of the proposed platform concerns the integration of magnetic levitation technology and bilateral macro-micro teleoperation for human intervention to avoid imperceptible failures in poorly observed micro-domain environments. The developed platform has three basic subsystems: a magnetic untethered microrobotic system (MUMS), a haptic device, and a scaled bilateral teleoperation system. The MUMS produces and regulates a magnetic field for non-contact propelling of a microrobot. In order to achieve a controlled motion of the magnetically levitated microrobot, a mathematical force model of the magnetic propulsion mechanism is developed and used to design various control systems. In the workspace of 30 × 32 × 32 mm 3, both PID and LQG\LTR controllers perform similarly the position accuracy of 10 µ m in a vertical direction and 2 µ m in a horizontal motion. The MUMS is equipped with an eddy-current damper to enhance its inherent damping factor in the microrobot's horizontal motions. This paper deals with the modeling and analysis of an eddy-current damper that is formed by a conductive plate placed below the levitated microrobot to overcome inherent dynamical vibrations and improve motion precision. The modeling of eddy-current distribution in the conductive plate is investigated by solving the diffusion equation for vector magnetic potential, and an analytical expression for the horizontal damping force is presented and experimentally validated. It is demonstrated that eddy-current damping is a crucial technique for increasing the damping coefficient in a non-contact way and for improving levitation performance. The damping can be widely used in applications of magnetic actuation systems in micro-manipulation and micro-fabrication. To determine the position of the microrobot in a workspace, the MUMS uses high-accuracy laser sensors. However, laser positioning techniques can only be used in highly transparent environments. A novel technique based on real-time magnetic flux measurement has been proposed for the position estimation of the microrobot in case of laser beam blockage, whereby a combination of Hall-effect sensors is employed to find the microrobot's position in free motion by using the produced magnetic flux. In free motion, the microrobot tends to move toward the horizontally zero magnetic field gradient, Bmax location. As another key feature of the magnetic flux measurement, it was realized that the applied force from the environment to the microrobot can be estimated as linearly proportional to the distance of the microrobot from the Bmax location. The developed micro-domain force estimation method is verified experimentally with an accuracy of 1.27 µ N. A bilateral macro-micro teleoperation technique is employed in the MUMS for the telepresence of a human operator in the task environment. A gain-switching position-position teleoperation scheme is employed and a human operator controls the motion of the microrobot via a master manipulator for dexterous micro-manipulation tasks. The operator can sense a strong force during micro-domain tasks if the microrobot encounters a stiff environment, and the effect of hard contact is fed back to the operator's hand. The position-position method works for both free motion and hard contact. However, to enhance the feeling of a micro-domain environment in the human operator, the scaled force must be transferred to a human, thereby realizing a direct-force-reflection bilateral teleoperation. Additionally, a human-assisted virtual reality interface is developed to improve a human operator's skills in using the haptic-enabled platform, before carrying out an actual dexterous task.1 yea

Design and Applications of Coordinate Measuring Machines

Coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) have been conventionally used in industry for 3-dimensional and form-error measurements of macro parts for many years. Ever since the first CMM, developed by Ferranti Co. in the late 1950s, they have been regarded as versatile measuring equipment, yet many CMMs on the market still have inherent systematic errors due to the violation of the Abbe Principle in its design. Current CMMs are only suitable for part tolerance above 10 μm. With the rapid advent of ultraprecision technology, multi-axis machining, and micro/nanotechnology over the past twenty years, new types of ultraprecision and micro/nao-CMMs are urgently needed in all aspects of society. This Special Issue accepted papers revealing novel designs and applications of CMMs, including structures, probes, miniaturization, measuring paths, accuracy enhancement, error compensation, etc. Detailed design principles in sciences, and technological applications in high-tech industries, were required for submission. Topics covered, but were not limited to, the following areas: 1. New types of CMMs, such as Abbe-free, multi-axis, cylindrical, parallel, etc. 2. New types of probes, such as touch-trigger, scanning, hybrid, non-contact, microscopic, etc. 3. New types of Micro/nano-CMMs. 4. New types of measuring path strategy, such as collision avoidance, free-form surface, aspheric surface, etc. 5. New types of error compensation strategy

A survey on uninhabited underwater vehicles (UUV)

ASME Early Career Technical Conference, ASME ECTC, October 2-3, 2009, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USAThis work presents the initiation of our underwater robotics research which will be focused on underwater vehicle-manipulator systems. Our aim is to build an underwater vehicle with a robotic manipulator which has a robust system and also can compensate itself under the influence of the hydrodynamic effects. In this paper, overview of the existing underwater vehicle systems, thruster designs, their dynamic models and control architectures are given. The purpose and results of the existing methods in underwater robotics are investigated

Robotics-Assisted Needle Steering for Percutaneous Interventions: Modeling and Experiments

Needle insertion and guidance plays an important role in medical procedures such as brachytherapy and biopsy. Flexible needles have the potential to facilitate precise targeting and avoid collisions during medical interventions while reducing trauma to the patient and post-puncture issues. Nevertheless, error introduced during guidance degrades the effectiveness of the planned therapy or diagnosis. Although steering using flexible bevel-tip needles provides great mobility and dexterity, a major barrier is the complexity of needle-tissue interaction that does not lend itself to intuitive control. To overcome this problem, a robotic system can be employed to perform trajectory planning and tracking by manipulation of the needle base. This research project focuses on a control-theoretic approach and draws on the rich literature from control and systems theory to model needle-tissue interaction and needle flexion and then design a robotics-based strategy for needle insertion/steering. The resulting solutions will directly benefit a wide range of needle-based interventions. The outcome of this computer-assisted approach will not only enable us to perform efficient preoperative trajectory planning, but will also provide more insight into needle-tissue interaction that will be helpful in developing advanced intraoperative algorithms for needle steering. Experimental validation of the proposed methodologies was carried out on a state of-the-art 5-DOF robotic system designed and constructed in-house primarily for prostate brachytherapy. The system is equipped with a Nano43 6-DOF force/torque sensor (ATI Industrial Automation) to measure forces and torques acting on the needle shaft. In our setup, an Aurora electromagnetic tracker (Northern Digital Inc.) is the sensing device used for measuring needle deflection. A multi-threaded application for control, sensor readings, data logging and communication over the ethernet was developed using Microsoft Visual C 2005, MATLAB 2007 and the QuaRC Toolbox (Quanser Inc.). Various artificial phantoms were developed so as to create a realistic medium in terms of elasticity and insertion force ranges; however, they simulated a uniform environment without exhibiting complexities of organic tissues. Experiments were also conducted on beef liver and fresh chicken breast, beef, and ham, to investigate the behavior of a variety biological tissues

Workshop on "Control issues in the micro / nano - world".

International audienceDuring the last decade, the need of systems with micro/nanometers accuracy and fast dynamics has been growing rapidly. Such systems occur in applications including 1) micromanipulation of biological cells, 2) micrassembly of MEMS/MOEMS, 3) micro/nanosensors for environmental monitoring, 4) nanometer resolution imaging and metrology (AFM and SEM). The scale and requirement of such systems present a number of challenges to the control system design that will be addressed in this workshop. Working in the micro/nano-world involves displacements from nanometers to tens of microns. Because of this precision requirement, environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, vibration, could generate noise and disturbance that are in the same range as the displacements of interest. The so-called smart materials, e.g., piezoceramics, magnetostrictive, shape memory, electroactive polymer, have been used for actuation or sensing in the micro/nano-world. They allow high resolution positioning as compared to hinges based systems. However, these materials exhibit hysteresis nonlinearity, and in the case of piezoelectric materials, drifts (called creep) in response to constant inputs In the case of oscillating micro/nano-structures (cantilever, tube), these nonlinearities and vibrations strongly decrease their performances. Many MEMS and NEMS applications involve gripping, feeding, or sorting, operations, where sensor feedback is necessary for their execution. Sensors that are readily available, e.g., interferometer, triangulation laser, and machine vision, are bulky and expensive. Sensors that are compact in size and convenient for packaging, e.g., strain gage, piezoceramic charge sensor, etc., have limited performance or robustness. To account for these difficulties, new control oriented techniques are emerging, such as[d the combination of two or more ‘packageable' sensors , the use of feedforward control technique which does not require sensors, and the use of robust controllers which account the sensor characteristics. The aim of this workshop is to provide a forum for specialists to present and overview the different approaches of control system design for the micro/nano-world and to initiate collaborations and joint projects