Miniaturized modular manipulator design for high precision assembly and manipulation tasks

In this paper, design and control issues for the development of miniaturized manipulators which are aimed to be used in high precision assembly and manipulation tasks are presented. The developed manipulators are size adapted devices, miniaturized versions of conventional robots based on well-known kinematic structures. 3 degrees of freedom (DOF) delta robot and a 2 DOF pantograph mechanism enhanced with a rotational axis at the tip and a Z axis actuating the whole mechanism are given as examples of study. These parallel mechanisms are designed and developed to be used in modular assembly systems for the realization of high precision assembly and manipulation tasks. In that sense, modularity is addressed as an important design consideration. The design procedures are given in details in order to provide solutions for miniaturization and experimental results are given to show the achieved performances

Design and control of laser micromachining workstation

The production process of miniature devices and microsystems requires the utilization of non-conventional micromachining techniques. In the past few decades laser micromachining has became micro-manufacturing technique of choice for many industrial and research applications. This paper discusses the design of motion control system for a laser micromachining workstation with particulars about automatic focusing and control of work platform used in the workstation. The automatic focusing is solved in a sliding mode optimization framework and preview controller is used to control the motion platform. Experimental results of both motion control and actual laser micromachining are presented

Design and Validation of a Portable Wireless Data Acquisition System for Measuring Human Joint Angles in Medical Applications

A prototype sensor system to capture and measure human joint movements in medical applications was developed. An algorithm that uses measurements from two IMU sensors to estimate the angle of one human joint was developed. Custom-made hardware and software were developed. Validation results showed 0.67° maximum error in static condition, 1.56° maximum RMSE for dynamic measurements and 2.5° average error during fast movements’ tests. The prototype has been successfully used by medical teams

Novel Locomotion Methods in Magnetic Actuation and Pipe Inspection

There is much room for improvement in tube network inspections of jet aircraft. Often, these inspections are incomplete and inconsistent. In this paper, we develop a Modular Robotic Inspection System (MoRIS) for jet aircraft tube networks and a corresponding kinematic model. MoRIS consists of a Base Station for user control and communication, and robotic Vertebrae for accessing and inspecting the network. The presented and tested design of MoRIS can travel up to 9 feet in a tube network. The Vertebrae can navigate in all orientations, including smooth vertical tubes. The design is optimized for nominal 1.5 outside diameter tubes. We developed a model of the Locomotion Vertebra in a tube. We defined the model\u27s coordinate system and its generalized coordinates. We studied the configuration space of the robot, which includes all possible orientations of the Locomotion Vertebra. We derived the expression for the elastic potential energy of the Vertebra\u27s suspensions and minimized it to find the natural settling orientation of the robot. We further explore the effect of the tractive wheel\u27s velocity constraint on locomotion dynamics. Finally, we develop a general model for aircraft tube networks and for a taut tether. Stabilizing bipedal walkers is a engineering target throughout the research community. In this paper, we develop an impulsively actuated walking robot. Through the use of magnetic actuation, for the first time, pure impulsive actuation has been achieved in bipedal walkers. In studying this locomotion technique, we built the world\u27s smallest walker: Big Foot. A dynamical model was developed for Big Foot. A Heel Strike and a Constant Pulse Wave Actuation Schemes were selected for testing. The schemes were validated through simulations and experiments. We showed that there exists two regimes for impulsive actuation. There is a regime for impact-like actuation and a regime for longer duration impulsive actuation

Pulsars as celestial beacons to detect the motion of the Earth

In order to show the principle viability of a recently proposed relativistic positioning method based on the use of pulsed signals from sources at infinity, we present an application example reconstructing the world-line of an idealized Earth in the reference frame of distant pulsars. The method considers the null four-vectors built from the period of the pulses and the direction cosines of the propagation from each source. Starting from a simplified problem (a receiver at rest) we have been able to calibrate our procedure, evidencing the influence of the uncertainty on the arrival times of the pulses as measured by the receiver, and of the numerical treatment of the data. The most relevant parameter turns out to be the accuracy of the clock used by the receiver. Actually the uncertainty used in the simulations combines both the accuracy of the clock and the fluctuations in the sources. As an evocative example the method has then been applied to the case of an ideal observer moving as a point on the surface of the Earth. The input have been the simulated arrival times of the signals from four pulsars at the location of the Parkes radiotelescope in Australia. Some substantial simplifications have been made both excluding the problems of visibility due to the actual size of the planet, and the behaviour of the sources. A rough application of the method to a three days run gives a correct result with a poor accuracy. The accuracy is then enhanced to the order of a few hundred meters if a continuous set of data is assumed. The method could actually be used for navigation across the solar system and be based on artificial sources, rather than pulsars. The viability of the method, whose additional value is in the self-sufficiency, i.e. independence from any control from other operators, has been confirmed.Comment: 11 pages, 3 eps figures; revised to match the version accepted for publication in IJMP

Visual Servoing

The goal of this book is to introduce the visional application by excellent researchers in the world currently and offer the knowledge that can also be applied to another field widely. This book collects the main studies about machine vision currently in the world, and has a powerful persuasion in the applications employed in the machine vision. The contents, which demonstrate that the machine vision theory, are realized in different field. For the beginner, it is easy to understand the development in the vision servoing. For engineer, professor and researcher, they can study and learn the chapters, and then employ another application method