840 research outputs found
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
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 Vision-based Scheme for Kinematic Model Construction of Re-configurable Modular Robots
Re-configurable modular robotic (RMR) systems are advantageous for their
reconfigurability and versatility. A new modular robot can be built for a
specific task by using modules as building blocks. However, constructing a
kinematic model for a newly conceived robot requires significant work. Due to
the finite size of module-types, models of all module-types can be built
individually and stored in a database beforehand. With this priori knowledge,
the model construction process can be automated by detecting the modules and
their corresponding interconnections. Previous literature proposed theoretical
frameworks for constructing kinematic models of modular robots, assuming that
such information was known a priori. While well-devised mechanisms and built-in
sensors can be employed to detect these parameters automatically, they
significantly complicate the module design and thus are expensive. In this
paper, we propose a vision-based method to identify kinematic chains and
automatically construct robot models for modular robots. Each module is affixed
with augmented reality (AR) tags that are encoded with unique IDs. An image of
a modular robot is taken and the detected modules are recognized by querying a
database that maintains all module information. The poses of detected modules
are used to compute: (i) the connection between modules and (ii) joint angles
of joint-modules. Finally, the robot serial-link chain is identified and the
kinematic model constructed and visualized. Our experimental results validate
the effectiveness of our approach. While implementation with only our RMR is
shown, our method can be applied to other RMRs where self-identification is not
possible
A unified robotic kinematic simulation interface.
Robotic controller and application programming have evolved along with the application of computer technologies. A PC-based, open architecture controller, off-line programming and simulation system integrated in one-box solution presents the latest advancement in robotics. Open architecture controllers have been proven essential for all aspects of reconfiguration in future manufacturing systems. A Unified Reconfigurable Open Control Architecture (UROCA) research project is under way within the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) Centre at the University of Windsor. Applications are for industrial robotic, CNC, and automotive control systems. The UROCA proposed architecture is a reconfigurable system that takes the advantages of different control structure types, thereby integrating them in a way to enhance the controller architecture design. This research develops a graphical robotic simulation platform by creating an optimized object-oriented design. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2005 .D56. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 44-03, page: 1474. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2005
On adaptive robot systems for manufacturing applications
System adaptability is very important to current manufacturing practices due to frequent
changes in the customer needs. Two basic concepts that can be employed to achieve
system adaptability are flexible systems and modular systems. Flexible systems are fixed
integral systems with some adjustable components. Adjustable components have limited
ranges of parameter changes that can be made, thus restricting the adaptability of systems.
Modular systems are composed of a set of pre-existing modules. Usually, the parameters
of modules in modular systems are fixed, and thus increased system adaptability is
realized only by increasing the number of modules. Increasing the number of modules
could result in higher costs, poor positioning accuracy, and low system stiffness in the
context of manufacturing applications. In this thesis, a new idea was formulated: a
combination of the flexible system and modular system concepts. Systems developed
based on this new idea are called adaptive systems. This thesis is focused on adaptive
robot systems.
An adaptive robot system is such that adaptive components or adjustable parameters are
introduced upon the modular architecture of a robot system. This implies that there are
two levels to achieve system adaptability: the level where a set of modules is
appropriately assembled and the level where adjustable components or parameters are
specified. Four main contributions were developed in this thesis study.
First, a General Architecture of Modular Robots (GAMR) was developed. The starting
point was to define the architecture of adaptive robot systems to have as many
configuration variations as possible. A novel application of the Axiomatic Design
Theory (ADT) was applied to GAMR development. It was found that GAMR was the
one with the most coverage, and with a judicious definition of adjustable parameters.
Second, a system called Automatic Kinematic and Dynamic Analysis (AKDA) was
developed. This system was a foundation for synthesis of adaptive robot configurations.
In comparison with the existing approach, the proposed approach has achieved
systemization, generality, flexibility, and completeness. Third, this thesis research has
developed a finding that in modular system design, simultaneous consideration of both
kinematic and dynamic behaviors is a necessary step, owing to a strong coupling
between design variables and system behaviors. Based on this finding, a method for
simultaneous consideration of type synthesis, number synthesis, and dimension synthesis
was developed. Fourth, an adaptive modular Parallel Kinematic Machine (PKM) was
developed to demonstrate the benefits of adaptive robot systems in parallel kinematic
machines, which have found many applications in machine tool industries. In this
architecture, actuators and limbs were modularized, while the platforms were adjustable
in such a way that both the joint positions and orientations on the platforms can be
changed
Advanced development for space robotics with emphasis on fault tolerance
This paper describes the ongoing work in fault tolerance at the University of Texas at Austin. The paper describes the technical goals the group is striving to achieve and includes a brief description of the individual projects focusing on fault tolerance. The ultimate goal is to develop and test technology applicable to all future missions of NASA (lunar base, Mars exploration, planetary surveillance, space station, etc.)
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
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