Multirobot heterogeneous control considering secondary objectives

Cooperative robotics has considered tasks that are executed frequently, maintaining the shape and orientation of robotic systems when they fulfill a common objective, without taking advantage of the redundancy that the robotic group could present. This paper presents a proposal for controlling a group of terrestrial robots with heterogeneous characteristics, considering primary and secondary tasks thus that the group complies with the following of a path while modifying its shape and orientation at any time. The development of the proposal is achieved through the use of controllers based on linear algebra, propounding a low computational cost and high scalability algorithm. Likewise, the stability of the controller is analyzed to know the required features that have to be met by the control constants, that is, the correct values. Finally, experimental results are shown with di erent configurations and heterogeneous robots, where the graphics corroborate the expected operation of the proposalThis research was funded by Corporación Ecuatoriana para el Desarrollo de la Investigación y Academia–CEDI

SMC framework in motion control systems

Design of a motion control system should take into account both the unconstrained motion performed without interaction with environment or other system, and the constrained motion where system is in contact with environment or has certain functional interaction with another system. In this paper control systems design approach, based on siding mode methods, that allows selection of control for generic tasks as trajectory and/or force tracking as well as for systems that require maintain some functional relation like bilateral or multilateral systems, establisment of virtual relation among mobile robots or control of haptic systems is presented. It is shown that all basic motion control problems - trajectory tracking, force control, hybrid position/force control scheme and the impedance control - can be treated in the same way while avoiding the structural change of the controller and guarantying stable behavior of the system In order to show applicability of the proposed techniques simulation and experimental results for high precision systems in microsystems assembly tasks and bilateral control systems are presente

Time-delayed autosynchronous swarm control

In this paper a general Morse potential model of self-propelling particles is considered in the presence of a time-delayed term and a spring potential. It is shown that the emergent swarm behavior is dependent on the delay term and weights of the time-delayed function which can be set to induce a stationary swarm, a rotating swarm with uniform translation and a rotating swarm with a stationary center-of-mass. An analysis of the mean field equations shows that without a spring potential the motion of the center-of-mass is determined explicitly by a multi-valued function. For a non-zero spring potential the swarm converges to a vortex formation about a stationary center-of-mass, except at discrete bifurcation points where the center-of-mass will periodically trace an ellipse. The analytical results defining the behavior of the center-of-mass are shown to correspond with the numerical swarm simulations

Ground Robotic Hand Applications for the Space Program study (GRASP)

This document reports on a NASA-STDP effort to address research interests of the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) through a study entitled, Ground Robotic-Hand Applications for the Space Program (GRASP). The primary objective of the GRASP study was to identify beneficial applications of specialized end-effectors and robotic hand devices for automating any ground operations which are performed at the Kennedy Space Center. Thus, operations for expendable vehicles, the Space Shuttle and its components, and all payloads were included in the study. Typical benefits of automating operations, or augmenting human operators performing physical tasks, include: reduced costs; enhanced safety and reliability; and reduced processing turnaround time