443 research outputs found
Segmented capacitance tomography electrodes: a design and experimental verifications
A segmented capacitance tomography system for real-time imaging of multiphase flows is developed and pre-sented in this work. The earlier research shows that the electrical tomography (ECT) system is applicable in flow visualization (image reconstruction). The acquired concentration profile ob-tained from capacitance measurements able to imaged liquid and gas mixture in pipelines meanwhile the system development is designed to attach on a vessel. The electrode plates which act as the sensor previously has been assembled and fixed on the pipeline, thus it causes obscurity for the production to have any new process installation in the future. Therefore, a segmented electrode sensor offers a new design and idea on ECT system which is portable to be assembled in different diameter sizes of pipeline, and it is flexible to apply in any number due to different size of pipeline without the need of redesigning the sensing module. The new ap-proach of this sensing module contains the integration intelligent electrode sensing circuit on every each of electrode sensors. A microcontroller unit and data acquisition (DAQ) system has been integrated on the electrode sensing circuit and USB technology was applied into the data acquisition system making the sensor able to work independently. Other than that the driven guard that usually placed between adjacent measuring electrodes and earth screen has been embedded on the segmented electrode sensor plates. This eliminates the cable noise and the electrode, so the signal conditioning board can be expanded according to pipe diameter
Tele-operated high speed anthropomorphic dextrous hands with object shape and texture identification
This paper reports on the development of two number of robotic hands have been developed which focus on tele-operated high speed anthropomorphic dextrous robotic hands. The aim of developing these hands was to achieve a system that seamlessly interfaced between humans and robots. To provide sensory feedback, to a remote operator tactile sensors were developed to be mounted on the robotic hands. Two systems were developed, the first, being a skin sensor capable of shape reconstruction placed on the palm of the hand to feed back the shape of objects grasped and the second is a highly sensitive tactile array for surface texture identification
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Haptic object recognition using a multi-fingered dextrous hand
The use of a dextrous, multifingered hand for high-level object recognition tasks is considered. The paradigm is model-based recognition in which the objects are modeled and recovered as superquadratics, which are shown to have a number of important attributes that make them well suited for such a task. Experiments have been performed to recover the shape of objects using sparse contacts point data from the hand with promising results. The authors also propose an approach to using tactile data in conjunction with the dextrous hand to build a library of grasping and exploration primitives that can be used in recognizing and grasping more complex multipart objects
Planning dextrous robot hand grasps from range data, using preshapes and digit trajectories
Dextrous robot hands have many degrees of freedom. This enables the manipulation of
objects between the digits of the dextrous hand but makes grasp planning substantially
more complex than for parallel jaw grippers. Much of the work that addresses grasp
planning for dextrous hands concentrates on the selection of contact sites to optimise
stability criteria and ignores the kinematics of the hand. In more complete systems,
the paradigm of preshaping has emerged as dominant. However, the criteria for the
formation and placement of the preshapes have not been adequately examined, and
the usefulness of the systems is therefore limited to grasping simple objects for which
preshapes can be formed using coarse heuristics.In this thesis a grasp metric based on stability and kinematic feasibility is introduced.
The preshaping paradigm is extended to include consideration of the trajectories that
the digits take during closure from preshape to final grasp. The resulting grasp family
is dependent upon task requirements and is designed for a set of "ideal" object-hand
configurations. The grasp family couples the degrees of freedom of the dextrous hand
in an anthropomorphic manner; the resulting reduction in freedom makes the grasp
planning less complex. Grasp families are fitted to real objects by optimisation of the
grasp metric; this corresponds to fitting the real object-hand configuration as close to
the ideal as possible. First, the preshape aperture, which defines the positions of the
fingertips in the preshape, is found by optimisation of an approximation to the grasp
metric (which makes simplifying assumptions about the digit trajectories and hand
kinematics). Second, the full preshape kinematics and digit closure trajectories are
calculated to optimise the full grasp metric.Grasps are planned on object models built from laser striper range data from two
viewpoints. A surface description of the object is used to prune the space of possible
contact sites and to allow the accurate estimation of normals, which is required by the
grasp metric to estimate the amount of friction required. A voxel description, built by
ray-casting, is used to check for collisions between the object and the robot hand using
an approximation to the Euclidean distance transform.Results are shown in simulation for a 3-digit hand model, designed to be like a simplified
human hand in terms of its size and functionality. There are clear extensions of the
method to any dextrous hand with a single thumb opposing multiple fingers and several
different hand models that could be used are described. Grasps are planned on a wide
variety of curved and polyhedral object
Dynamics, control and sensor issues pertinent to robotic hands for the EVA retriever system
Basic dynamics, sensor, control, and related artificial intelligence issues pertinent to smart robotic hands for the Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) Retriever system are summarized and discussed. These smart hands are to be used as end effectors on arms attached to manned maneuvering units (MMU). The Retriever robotic systems comprised of MMU, arm and smart hands, are being developed to aid crewmen in the performance of routine EVA tasks including tool and object retrieval. The ultimate goal is to enhance the effectiveness of EVA crewmen
Multi-Modal Human-Machine Communication for Instructing Robot Grasping Tasks
A major challenge for the realization of intelligent robots is to supply them
with cognitive abilities in order to allow ordinary users to program them
easily and intuitively. One way of such programming is teaching work tasks by
interactive demonstration. To make this effective and convenient for the user,
the machine must be capable to establish a common focus of attention and be
able to use and integrate spoken instructions, visual perceptions, and
non-verbal clues like gestural commands. We report progress in building a
hybrid architecture that combines statistical methods, neural networks, and
finite state machines into an integrated system for instructing grasping tasks
by man-machine interaction. The system combines the GRAVIS-robot for visual
attention and gestural instruction with an intelligent interface for speech
recognition and linguistic interpretation, and an modality fusion module to
allow multi-modal task-oriented man-machine communication with respect to
dextrous robot manipulation of objects.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure
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A system for programming and controlling a multisensor robotic hand
A system for programming and controlling a multisensor robotic hand (Utah-MIT Hand) is described. Using this system, a number of autonomous tasks that are easily programmed and include combinations of hand-arm actuation with force, position, and tactile sensing have been implemented. The system is controlled at the software level by a programming language DIAL that provides an easy method for expressing the parallel operation of robotic devices. It also provides a convenient way to implement task-level scripts that can then be bound to particular sensors, actuators, and methods for accomplishing a generic grasping or manipulation task. Experiments using the system to pick up and pour from a pitcher, unscrew a lightbulb, and explore planar surfaces are presented
A survey of dextrous manipulation
technical reportThe development of mechanical end effectors capable of dextrous manipulation is a rapidly growing and quite successful field of research. It has in some sense put the focus on control issues, in particular, how to control these remarkably humanlike manipulators to perform the deft movement that we take for granted in the human hand. The kinematic and control issues surrounding manipulation research are clouded by more basic concerns such as: what is the goal of a manipulation system, is the anthropomorphic or functional design methodology appropriate, and to what degree does the control of the manipulator depend on other sensory systems. This paper examines the potential of creating a general purpose, anthropomorphically motivated, dextrous manipulation system. The discussion will focus on features of the human hand that permit its general usefulness as a manipulator. A survey of machinery designed to emulate these capabilities is presented. Finally, the tasks of grasping and manipulation are examined from the control standpoint to suggest a control paradigm which is descriptive, yet flexible and computationally efficient1
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