An iconic programming language for sensor-based robots

In this paper we describe an iconic programming language called Onika for sensor-based robotic systems. Onika is both modular and reconfigurable and can be used with any system architecture and real-time operating system. Onika is also a multi-level programming environment wherein tasks are built by connecting a series of icons which, in turn, can be defined in terms of other icons at the lower levels. Expert users are also allowed to use control block form to define servo tasks. The icons in Onika are both shape and color coded, like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, thus providing a form of error control in the development of high level applications

Automatic Modeling for Modular Reconfigurable Robotic Systems: Theory and Practice

A modular reconfigurable robot consists of a collection of individual link and joint components that can be assembled into a number of different robot ge-ometries. Compared to a conventional industrial robot with fixed geometry, such a system can provide flexibility to the user to cope with a wide spectru

A Rapidly Reconfigurable Robotics Workcell and Its Applictions for Tissue Engineering

This article describes the development of a component-based technology robot system that can be rapidly configured to perform a specific manufacturing task. The system is conceived with standard and inter-operable components including actuator modules, rigid link connectors and tools that can be assembled into robots with arbitrary geometry and degrees of freedom. The reconfigurable "plug-and-play" robot kinematic and dynamic modeling algorithms are developed. These algorithms are the basis for the control and simulation of reconfigurable robots. The concept of robot configuration optimization is introduced for the effective use of the rapidly reconfigurable robots. Control and communications of the workcell components are facilitated by a workcell-wide TCP/IP network and device level CAN-bus networks. An object-oriented simulation and visualization software for the reconfigurable robot is developed based on Windows NT. Prototypes of the robot systems configured to perform 3D contour following task and the positioning task are constructed and demonstrated. Applications of such systems for biomedical tissue scaffold fabrication are considered.Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA

Characterization of robotics parallel algorithms and mapping onto a reconfigurable SIMD machine

The kinematics, dynamics, Jacobian, and their corresponding inverse computations are six essential problems in the control of robot manipulators. Efficient parallel algorithms for these computations are discussed and analyzed. Their characteristics are identified and a scheme on the mapping of these algorithms to a reconfigurable parallel architecture is presented. Based on the characteristics including type of parallelism, degree of parallelism, uniformity of the operations, fundamental operations, data dependencies, and communication requirement, it is shown that most of the algorithms for robotic computations possess highly regular properties and some common structures, especially the linear recursive structure. Moreover, they are well-suited to be implemented on a single-instruction-stream multiple-data-stream (SIMD) computer with reconfigurable interconnection network. The model of a reconfigurable dual network SIMD machine with internal direct feedback is introduced. A systematic procedure internal direct feedback is introduced. A systematic procedure to map these computations to the proposed machine is presented. A new scheduling problem for SIMD machines is investigated and a heuristic algorithm, called neighborhood scheduling, that reorders the processing sequence of subtasks to reduce the communication time is described. Mapping results of a benchmark algorithm are illustrated and discussed

Parallel Manipulators

In recent years, parallel kinematics mechanisms have attracted a lot of attention from the academic and industrial communities due to potential applications not only as robot manipulators but also as machine tools. Generally, the criteria used to compare the performance of traditional serial robots and parallel robots are the workspace, the ratio between the payload and the robot mass, accuracy, and dynamic behaviour. In addition to the reduced coupling effect between joints, parallel robots bring the benefits of much higher payload-robot mass ratios, superior accuracy and greater stiffness; qualities which lead to better dynamic performance. The main drawback with parallel robots is the relatively small workspace. A great deal of research on parallel robots has been carried out worldwide, and a large number of parallel mechanism systems have been built for various applications, such as remote handling, machine tools, medical robots, simulators, micro-robots, and humanoid robots. This book opens a window to exceptional research and development work on parallel mechanisms contributed by authors from around the world. Through this window the reader can get a good view of current parallel robot research and applications

A review of parallel processing approaches to robot kinematics and Jacobian

Due to continuously increasing demands in the area of advanced robot control, it became necessary to speed up the computation. One way to reduce the computation time is to distribute the computation onto several processing units. In this survey we present different approaches to parallel computation of robot kinematics and Jacobian. Thereby, we discuss both the forward and the reverse problem. We introduce a classification scheme and classify the references by this scheme

A reconfigurable asymmetric 3-UPU parallel robot

© 20xx IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Parallel robots with three UPU legs have received a lot of attention due to the possibility of assembling these legs so that the robot performs either a pure translational or a pure rotational motion. Nevertheless, some arrangements, despite their theoretical interest, are of doubtful practical utility due to their sensitivity to errors and the presence in their workspaces of mixed-modes that involve both translations and rotations. The introduction of some sort of asymmetry has been revealed of relevance to come up with more robust designs. In this context, we present an asymmetric 3-P robot, that can be reconfigured to work either as a translational or as a rotational robot by simply flipping upside down its moving platform.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Prototyping environment for robot manipulators

Journal ArticlePrototyping is an important activity in engineering. Prototype development is a good test for checking the viability of a proposed system. Prototypes can also help in determining system parameters, ranges, or in designing better systems. We are proposing a prototyping environment for electro-mechanical systems, and we chosen a 3-link robot manipulator as an example. In Designing a robot manipulator, the interaction between several modules (S/W, VLSI, CAD, CAM, Robotics, and Control) illustrates an interdisciplinary prototyping environment that includes different types of information that are radically different but combined in a coordinated way. This environment will enable optimal and flexible design using reconfigurable links, joints, actuators, and sensors. Such an environment should have the right "mix" of software and hardware components for designing the physical parts and the controllers, and for the algorithmic control for the robot modules (kinematics, inverse kinematics, dynamics, trajectory planning, analog control and computer (digital) control). Specifying object-based communications and catalog mechanisms between the software modules, controllers, physical parts, CAD designs, and actuator and sensor components is a necessary step in the prototyping activities. In this report a framework for flexible prototyping environment for robot manipulators is proposed along with the required sub-systems and interfaces between the different components of this environment

OPEN ARCHITECTURE PLATFORMS FOR THE CONTROL OF ROBOTIC SYSTEMS AND A PROPOSED REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE MODEL

This paper presents advantages of using open architecture for the real-time control of robot manipulators, parallel kinematics machine tools and other multi-axis machining systems. In order to increase their competitiveness, companies need to follow the global economy requirements. The constant incorporation of new technologies into existing controllers and reduction in the development time and costs are the main objectives. An open architecture control (OAC) concept appears as a solution to deal with these requirements. This article explains the rationale for the development of OAC systems, presents the major international activities which propose various approaches to OACs and a series of controllers that have been developed using this design philosophy at the Lola Institute