82,509 research outputs found
Exploring Graphs with Time Constraints by Unreliable Collections of Mobile Robots
A graph environment must be explored by a collection of mobile robots. Some
of the robots, a priori unknown, may turn out to be unreliable. The graph is
weighted and each node is assigned a deadline. The exploration is successful if
each node of the graph is visited before its deadline by a reliable robot. The
edge weight corresponds to the time needed by a robot to traverse the edge.
Given the number of robots which may crash, is it possible to design an
algorithm, which will always guarantee the exploration, independently of the
choice of the subset of unreliable robots by the adversary? We find the optimal
time, during which the graph may be explored. Our approach permits to find the
maximal number of robots, which may turn out to be unreliable, and the graph is
still guaranteed to be explored.
We concentrate on line graphs and rings, for which we give positive results.
We start with the case of the collections involving only reliable robots. We
give algorithms finding optimal times needed for exploration when the robots
are assigned to fixed initial positions as well as when such starting positions
may be determined by the algorithm. We extend our consideration to the case
when some number of robots may be unreliable. Our most surprising result is
that solving the line exploration problem with robots at given positions, which
may involve crash-faulty ones, is NP-hard. The same problem has polynomial
solutions for a ring and for the case when the initial robots' positions on the
line are arbitrary.
The exploration problem is shown to be NP-hard for star graphs, even when the
team consists of only two reliable robots
Multi-objective Optimisation of Multi-robot Task Allocation with Precedence Constraints
Efficacy of the multi-robot systems depends on proper sequencing and optimal allocation of robots to the tasks. Focuses on deciding the optimal allocation of set-of-robots to a set-of-tasks with precedence constraints considering multiple objectives. Taguchi’s design of experiments based parameter tuned genetic algorithm (GA) is developed for generalised task allocation of single-task robots to multi-robot tasks. The developed methodology is tested for 16 scenarios by varying the number of robots and number of tasks. The scenarios were tested in a simulated environment with a maximum of 20 robots and 40 multi-robot foraging tasks. The tradeoff between performance measures for the allocations obtained through GA for different task levels was used to decide the optimal number of robots. It is evident that the tradeoffs occur at 20 per cent of performance measures and the optimal number of robot varies between 10 and 15 for almost all the task levels. This method shows good convergence and found that the precedence constraints affect the optimal number of robots required for a particular task level
On the optimal design of parallel robots taking into account their deformations and natural frequencies
This paper discusses the utility of using simple stiffness and vibrations
models, based on the Jacobian matrix of a manipulator and only the rigidity of
the actuators, whenever its geometry is optimised. In many works, these
simplified models are used to propose optimal design of robots. However, the
elasticity of the drive system is often negligible in comparison with the
elasticity of the elements, especially in applications where high dynamic
performances are needed. Therefore, the use of such a simplified model may lead
to the creation of robots with long legs, which will be submitted to large
bending and twisting deformations. This paper presents an example of
manipulator for which it is preferable to use a complete stiffness or vibration
model to obtain the most suitable design and shows that the use of simplified
models can lead to mechanisms with poorer rigidity
Kinematic design and motion planning of fault tolerant robots with locked joint failures
2019 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.The problem of kinematic design and motion planning of fault tolerant robots with locked joint failure is studied in this work. In kinematic design, the problem of designing optimally fault tolerant robots for equal joint failure probabilities is first explored. A measure of local fault tolerance for equal joint failure probabilities has previously been defined based on the properties of the singular values of the Jacobian matrix. Based on this measure, one can determine a Jacobian that is optimal. Because these measures are solely based on the singular values of the Jacobian, permutation of the columns does not affect the optimality. Therefore, when one generates a kinematic robot design from this optimal Jacobian, there will be 7! robot designs with the same locally optimal fault tolerant property. This work shows how to analyze and organize the kinematic structure of these 7! designs in terms of their Denavit and Hartenberg (DH) parameters. Furthermore, global fault tolerant measures are defined in order to evaluate the different designs. It is shown that robot designs that are very similar in terms of DH parameters, e.g., robots generated from Jacobians where the columns are in reverse order, can have very different global properties. Finally, a computationally efficient approach to calculate the global pre- and post-failure dexterity measures is presented and used to identify two Pareto optimal robot designs. The workspaces for these optimal designs are also shown. Then, the problem of designing optimally fault tolerant robots for different joint failure probabilities is considered. A measure of fault tolerance for different joint failure probabilities is defined based on the properties of the singular values of the Jacobian after failures. Using this measure, methods to design optimally fault tolerant robots for an arbitrary set of joint failure probabilities and multiple cases of joint failure probabilities are introduced separately. Given an arbitrary set of joint failure probabilities, the optimal null space that optimizes the fault tolerant measure is derived, and the associated isotropic Jacobians are constructed. The kinematic parameters of the optimally fault tolerant robots are then generated from these Jacobians. One special case, i.e., how to construct the optimal Jacobian of spatial 7R robots for both positioning and orienting is further discussed. For multiple cases of joint failure probabilities, the optimal robot is designed through optimizing the sum of the fault tolerant measures for all the possible joint failure probabilities. This technique is illustrated on planar 3R robots, and it is shown that there exists a family of optimal robots. After the optimally fault tolerant robots are designed, the problem of planning the optimal trajectory with minimum probability of task failure for a set of point-to-point tasks, after experiencing locked joint failures, is studied. The proposed approach first develops a method to calculate the probability of task failure for an arbitrary trajectory, where the trajectory is divided into small segments, and the probability of task failure of each segment is calculated based on its failure scenarios. Then, a motion planning algorithm is proposed to find the optimal trajectory with minimum probability of task failure. There are two cases. The trajectory in the first case is the optimal trajectory from the start configuration to the intersection of the bounding boxes of all the task points. In the other case, all the configurations along the self-motion manifold of task point 1 need to be checked, and the optimal trajectory is the trajectory with minimum probability of task failure among them. The proposed approach is demonstrated on planar 2R redundant robots, illustrating the effectiveness of the algorithm
Safety experiments for small robots investigating the potential of soft materials in mitigating the harm to the head due to impacts
There is a growing interest in social robots to be considered in the therapy
of children with autism due to their effectiveness in improving the outcomes.
However, children on the spectrum exhibit challenging behaviors that need to be
considered when designing robots for them. A child could involuntarily throw a
small social robot during meltdown and that could hit another person's head and
cause harm (e.g. concussion). In this paper, the application of soft materials
is investigated for its potential in attenuating head's linear acceleration
upon impact. The thickness and storage modulus of three different soft
materials were considered as the control factors while the noise factor was the
impact velocity. The design of experiments was based on Taguchi method. A total
of 27 experiments were conducted on a developed dummy head setup that reports
the linear acceleration of the head. ANOVA tests were performed to analyze the
data. The findings showed that the control factors are not statistically
significant in attenuating the response. The optimal values of the control
factors were identified using the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio optimization
technique. Confirmation runs at the optimal parameters (i.e. thickness of 3 mm
and 5 mm) showed a better response as compared to other conditions. Designers
of social robots should consider the application of soft materials to their
designs as it help in reducing the potential harm to the head
Implications of Motion Planning: Optimality and k-survivability
We study motion planning problems, finding trajectories that connect two configurations of a system, from two different perspectives: optimality and survivability. For the problem of finding optimal trajectories, we provide a model in which the existence of optimal trajectories is guaranteed, and design an algorithm to find approximately optimal trajectories for a kinematic planar robot within this model. We also design an algorithm to build data structures to represent the configuration space, supporting optimal trajectory queries for any given pair of configurations in an obstructed environment. We are also interested in planning paths for expendable robots moving in a threat environment. Since robots are expendable, our goal is to ensure a certain number of robots reaching the goal. We consider a new motion planning problem, maximum k-survivability: given two points in a stochastic threat environment, find n paths connecting two given points while maximizing the probability that at least k paths reach the goal. Intuitively, a good solution should be diverse to avoid several paths being blocked simultaneously, and paths should be short so that robots can quickly pass through dangerous areas. Finding sets of paths with maximum k-survivability is NP-hard. We design two algorithms: an algorithm that is guaranteed to find an optimal list of paths, and a set of heuristic methods that finds paths with high k-survivability
Symmetry-Aware Robot Design with Structured Subgroups
Robot design aims at learning to create robots that can be easily controlled
and perform tasks efficiently. Previous works on robot design have proven its
ability to generate robots for various tasks. However, these works searched the
robots directly from the vast design space and ignored common structures,
resulting in abnormal robots and poor performance. To tackle this problem, we
propose a Symmetry-Aware Robot Design (SARD) framework that exploits the
structure of the design space by incorporating symmetry searching into the
robot design process. Specifically, we represent symmetries with the subgroups
of the dihedral group and search for the optimal symmetry in structured
subgroups. Then robots are designed under the searched symmetry. In this way,
SARD can design efficient symmetric robots while covering the original design
space, which is theoretically analyzed. We further empirically evaluate SARD on
various tasks, and the results show its superior efficiency and
generalizability.Comment: The Fortieth International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML 2023
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