A 6-DOF haptic manipulation system to verify assembly procedures on CAD models

During the design phase of products and before going into production, it is necessary to verify the presence of mechanical plays, tolerances, and encumbrances on production mockups. This work introduces a multi-modal system that allows verifying assembly procedures of products in Virtual Reality starting directly from CAD models. Thus leveraging the costs and speeding up the assessment phase in product design. For this purpose, the design of a novel 6-DOF Haptic device is presented. The achieved performance of the system has been validated in a demonstration scenario employing state-of-the-art volumetric rendering of interaction forces together with a stereoscopic visualization setup

Evaluating ITER remote handling middleware concepts

Remote maintenance activities in ITER will be performed by a unique set of hardware systems, supported by an extensive software kit. A layer of middleware will manage and control a complex set of interconnections between teams of operators, hardware devices in various operating theatres, and databases managing tool and task logistics. The middleware is driven by constraints on amounts and timing of data like real-time control loops, camera images, and database access. The Remote Handling Study Centre (RHSC), located at FOM institute DIFFER, has a 4-operator work cell in an ITER relevant RH Control Room setup which connects to a virtual hot cell back-end. The centre is developing and testing flexible integration of the Control Room components, resulting in proof-of-concept tests of this middleware layer. SW components studied include generic human-machine interface software, a prototype of a RH operations management system, and a distributed virtual reality system supporting multi-screen, multi-actor, and multiple independent views. Real-time rigid body dynamics and contact interaction simulation software supports simulation of structural deformation, “augmented reality” operations and operator training. The paper presents generic requirements and conceptual design of middleware components and Operations Management System in the context of a RH Control Room work cell. The simulation software is analyzed for real-time performance and it is argued that it is critical for middleware to have complete control over the physical network to be able to guarantee bandwidth and latency to the components.</p

Towards a Common Software/Hardware Methodology for Future Advanced Driver Assistance Systems

The European research project DESERVE (DEvelopment platform for Safe and Efficient dRiVE, 2012-2015) had the aim of designing and developing a platform tool to cope with the continuously increasing complexity and the simultaneous need to reduce cost for future embedded Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). For this purpose, the DESERVE platform profits from cross-domain software reuse, standardization of automotive software component interfaces, and easy but safety-compliant integration of heterogeneous modules. This enables the development of a new generation of ADAS applications, which challengingly combine different functions, sensors, actuators, hardware platforms, and Human Machine Interfaces (HMI). This book presents the different results of the DESERVE project concerning the ADAS development platform, test case functions, and validation and evaluation of different approaches. The reader is invited to substantiate the content of this book with the deliverables published during the DESERVE project. Technical topics discussed in this book include:Modern ADAS development platforms;Design space exploration;Driving modelling;Video-based and Radar-based ADAS functions;HMI for ADAS;Vehicle-hardware-in-the-loop validation system

ALTERNATIVE AND FLEXIBLE CONTROL METHODS FOR ROBOTIC MANIPULATORS: On the challenge of developing a flexible control architecture that allows for controlling different manipulators

Robotic arms and cranes show some similarities in the way they operate and in the way they are designed. Both have a number of links serially attached to each other by means of joints that can be moved by some type of actuator. In both systems, the end-effector of the manipulator can be moved in space and be placed in any desired location within the system’s workspace and can carry a certain amount of load. However, traditional cranes are usually relatively big, stiff and heavy because they normally need to move heavy loads at low speeds, while industrial robots are ordinarily smaller, they usually move small masses and operate at relatively higher velocities. This is the reason why cranes are commonly actuated by hydraulic valves, while robotic arms are driven by servo motors, pneumatic or servo-pneumatic actuators. Most importantly, the fundamental difference between the two kinds of systems is that cranes are usually controlled by a human operator, joint by joint, using simple joysticks where each axis operates only one specific actuator, while robotic arms are commonly controlled by a central controller that controls and coordinates the actuators according to some specific algorithm. In other words, the controller of a crane is usually a human while the controller of a robotic arm is normally a computer program that is able to determine the joint values that provide a desired position or velocity for the end-effector. If we especially consider maritime cranes, compared with robotic arms, they rely on a much more complex model of the environment with which they interact. These kinds of cranes are in fact widely used to handle and transfer objects from large container ships to smaller lighters or to the quays of the harbours. Therefore, their control is always a challenging task, which involves many problems such as load sway, positioning accuracy, wave motion compensation and collision avoidance. Some of the similarities between robotic arms and cranes can also be extended to robotic hands. Indeed, from a kinematic point of view, a robotic hand consists of one or more kinematic chains fixed on a base. However, robotic hands usually present a higher number of degrees of freedom (DOFs) and consequentially a higher dexterity compared to robotic arms. Nevertheless, several commonalities can be found from a design and control point of views. Particularly, modular robotic hands are studied in this thesis from a design and control point of view. Emphasising these similarities, the general term of robotic manipulator is thereby used to refer to robotic arms, cranes and hands. In this work, efficient design methods for robotic manipulators are initially investigated. Successively, the possibility of developing a flexible control architecture that allows for controlling different manipulators by using a universal input device is outlined. The main challenge of doing this consists of finding a flexible way to map the normally fixed DOFs of the input controller to the variable DOFs of the specific manipulator to be controlled. This process has to be realised regardless of the differences in size, kinematic structure, body morphology, constraints and affordances. Different alternative control algorithms are investigated including effective approaches that do not assume a priori knowledge for the Inverse Kinematic (IK) models. These algorithms derive the kinematic properties from biologically-inspired approaches, machine learning procedures or optimisation methods. In this way, the system is able to automatically learn the kinematic properties of different manipulators. Finally, a methodology for performing experimental activities in the area of maritime cranes and robotic arm control is outlined. By combining the rapid-prototyping approach with the concept of interchangeable interfaces, a simulation and benchmarking framework for advanced control methods of maritime cranes and robotic arms is presented. From a control point of view, the advantages of releasing such a flexible control system rely on the possibility of controlling different manipulators by using the same framework and on the opportunity of testing different control approaches. Moreover, from a design point of view, rapidprototyping methods can be applied to fast develop new manipulators and to analyse different properties before making a physical prototype

Exploring affective design for physical controls

Physical controls such as knobs, sliders, and buttons are experiencing a revival as many computing systems progress from personal computing architectures towards ubiquitous computing architectures. We demonstrate a process for measuring and comparing visceral emotional responses of a physical control to performance results of a target acquisition task. In our user study, participants experienced mechanical and rendered friction, inertia, and detent dynamics as they turned a haptic knob towards graphical targets of two different widths and amplitudes. Together, this process and user study provide novel affect- and performance-based design guidance to developers of physical controls for emerging ubiquitous computing environments. Our work bridges extensive human factors work in mechanical systems that peaked in the 1960’s, to contemporary trends, with a goal of integrating mechatronic controls into emerging ubiquitous computing systems. Author Keywords Haptic display, physical control, design process, affect

Towards a Common Software/Hardware Methodology for Future Advanced Driver Assistance Systems

The European research project DESERVE (DEvelopment platform for Safe and Efficient dRiVE, 2012-2015) had the aim of designing and developing a platform tool to cope with the continuously increasing complexity and the simultaneous need to reduce cost for future embedded Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). For this purpose, the DESERVE platform profits from cross-domain software reuse, standardization of automotive software component interfaces, and easy but safety-compliant integration of heterogeneous modules. This enables the development of a new generation of ADAS applications, which challengingly combine different functions, sensors, actuators, hardware platforms, and Human Machine Interfaces (HMI). This book presents the different results of the DESERVE project concerning the ADAS development platform, test case functions, and validation and evaluation of different approaches. The reader is invited to substantiate the content of this book with the deliverables published during the DESERVE project. Technical topics discussed in this book include:Modern ADAS development platforms;Design space exploration;Driving modelling;Video-based and Radar-based ADAS functions;HMI for ADAS;Vehicle-hardware-in-the-loop validation system