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

Icy Moon Surface Simulation and Stereo Depth Estimation for Sampling Autonomy

Sampling autonomy for icy moon lander missions requires understanding of topographic and photometric properties of the sampling terrain. Unavailability of high resolution visual datasets (either bird-eye view or point-of-view from a lander) is an obstacle for selection, verification or development of perception systems. We attempt to alleviate this problem by: 1) proposing Graphical Utility for Icy moon Surface Simulations (GUISS) framework, for versatile stereo dataset generation that spans the spectrum of bulk photometric properties, and 2) focusing on a stereo-based visual perception system and evaluating both traditional and deep learning-based algorithms for depth estimation from stereo matching. The surface reflectance properties of icy moon terrains (Enceladus and Europa) are inferred from multispectral datasets of previous missions. With procedural terrain generation and physically valid illumination sources, our framework can fit a wide range of hypotheses with respect to visual representations of icy moon terrains. This is followed by a study over the performance of stereo matching algorithms under different visual hypotheses. Finally, we emphasize the standing challenges to be addressed for simulating perception data assets for icy moons such as Enceladus and Europa. Our code can be found here: https://github.com/nasa-jpl/guiss.Comment: Software: https://github.com/nasa-jpl/guiss. IEEE Aerospace Conference 202

Improving the Flexibility and Robustness of Machine Tending Mobile Robots

While traditional manufacturing production cells consist of a fixed base robot repetitively performing tasks, the Industry 5.0 flexible manufacturing cell (FMC) aims to bring Autonomous Industrial Mobile Manipulators (AIMMs) to the factory floor. Composed of a wheeled base and a robot arm, these collaborative robots (cobots) operate alongside people while autonomously performing tasks at different workstations. AIMMs have been tested in real production systems, but the development of the control algorithms necessary for automating a robot that is a combination of two cobots remains an open challenge before the large scale adoption of this technology occurs in industry. Currently popular docking based methods require a mount point for the docking station and considerable time for the robot to locate and park. These limitations necessitate the consideration and implementation of more modern robot control and path planning techniques. This work proposes and implements a simulation testbed that uses a contemporary whole-body control, OCS2, to perform more flexible pick-and-place tasks. Within this testbed, an Industry 5.0 based pick-and-place framework is deployed, fine-tuned and tested. This system supports the one-shot lead-through based assignment of a prepick position by an operator, thus enabling the cobot to drive to this position and successfully pick up the part agnostic of base orientation and/or position. The proposed system allows robot path planning experimentation and assessment against a variety of cost and constraint values, and is capable of being modified to support various vision based part locating algorithms

Visibility in underwater robotics: Benchmarking and single image dehazing

Dealing with underwater visibility is one of the most important challenges in autonomous underwater robotics. The light transmission in the water medium degrades images making the interpretation of the scene difficult and consequently compromising the whole intervention. This thesis contributes by analysing the impact of the underwater image degradation in commonly used vision algorithms through benchmarking. An online framework for underwater research that makes possible to analyse results under different conditions is presented. Finally, motivated by the results of experimentation with the developed framework, a deep learning solution is proposed capable of dehazing a degraded image in real time restoring the original colors of the image.Una de las dificultades más grandes de la robótica autónoma submarina es lidiar con la falta de visibilidad en imágenes submarinas. La transmisión de la luz en el agua degrada las imágenes dificultando el reconocimiento de objetos y en consecuencia la intervención. Ésta tesis se centra en el análisis del impacto de la degradación de las imágenes submarinas en algoritmos de visión a través de benchmarking, desarrollando un entorno de trabajo en la nube que permite analizar los resultados bajo diferentes condiciones. Teniendo en cuenta los resultados obtenidos con este entorno, se proponen métodos basados en técnicas de aprendizaje profundo para mitigar el impacto de la degradación de las imágenes en tiempo real introduciendo un paso previo que permita recuperar los colores originales

Robot Manipulators

Robot manipulators are developing more in the direction of industrial robots than of human workers. Recently, the applications of robot manipulators are spreading their focus, for example Da Vinci as a medical robot, ASIMO as a humanoid robot and so on. There are many research topics within the field of robot manipulators, e.g. motion planning, cooperation with a human, and fusion with external sensors like vision, haptic and force, etc. Moreover, these include both technical problems in the industry and theoretical problems in the academic fields. This book is a collection of papers presenting the latest research issues from around the world

Proceedings of the ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics 2015

This volume contains the full papers accepted for presentation at the ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics 2015 held in the Barcelona School of Industrial Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, on June 29 - July 2, 2015. The ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics is an international meeting held once every two years in a European country. Continuing the very successful series of past conferences that have been organized in Lisbon (2003), Madrid (2005), Milan (2007), Warsaw (2009), Brussels (2011) and Zagreb (2013); this edition will once again serve as a meeting point for the international researchers, scientists and experts from academia, research laboratories and industry working in the area of multibody dynamics. Applications are related to many fields of contemporary engineering, such as vehicle and railway systems, aeronautical and space vehicles, robotic manipulators, mechatronic and autonomous systems, smart structures, biomechanical systems and nanotechnologies. The topics of the conference include, but are not restricted to: ● Formulations and Numerical Methods ● Efficient Methods and Real-Time Applications ● Flexible Multibody Dynamics ● Contact Dynamics and Constraints ● Multiphysics and Coupled Problems ● Control and Optimization ● Software Development and Computer Technology ● Aerospace and Maritime Applications ● Biomechanics ● Railroad Vehicle Dynamics ● Road Vehicle Dynamics ● Robotics ● Benchmark ProblemsPostprint (published version

Preface

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MUSME 2011 4 th International Symposium on Multibody Systems and Mechatronics

El libro de actas recoge las aportaciones de los autores a través de los correspondientes artículos a la Dinámica de Sistemas Multicuerpo y la Mecatrónica (Musme). Estas disciplinas se han convertido en una importante herramienta para diseñar máquinas, analizar prototipos virtuales y realizar análisis CAD sobre complejos sistemas mecánicos articulados multicuerpo. La dinámica de sistemas multicuerpo comprende un gran número de aspectos que incluyen la mecánica, dinámica estructural, matemáticas aplicadas, métodos de control, ciencia de los ordenadores y mecatrónica. Los artículos recogidos en el libro de actas están relacionados con alguno de los siguientes tópicos del congreso: Análisis y síntesis de mecanismos ; Diseño de algoritmos para sistemas mecatrónicos ; Procedimientos de simulación y resultados ; Prototipos y rendimiento ; Robots y micromáquinas ; Validaciones experimentales ; Teoría de simulación mecatrónica ; Sistemas mecatrónicos ; Control de sistemas mecatrónicosUniversitat Politècnica de València (2011). MUSME 2011 4 th International Symposium on Multibody Systems and Mechatronics. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/13224Archivo delegad

Kinematics and Robot Design IV, KaRD2021

This volume collects the papers published on the special issue “Kinematics and Robot Design IV, KaRD2021” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/robotics/special_issues/KaRD2021), which is the forth edition of the KaRD special-issue series, hosted by the open-access journal “MDPI Robotics”. KaRD series is an open environment where researchers can present their works and discuss all the topics focused on the many aspects that involve kinematics in the design of robotic/automatic systems. Kinematics is so intimately related to the design of robotic/automatic systems that the admitted topics of the KaRD series practically cover all the subjects normally present in well-established international conferences on “mechanisms and robotics”. KaRD2021, after the peer-review process, accepted 12 papers. The accepted papers cover some theoretical and many design/applicative aspects