Common Educational Teleoperation Platform for Robotics Utilizing Digital Twins

The erratic modern world introduces challenges to all sectors of societies and potentially introduces additional inequality. One possibility to decrease the educational inequality is to provide remote access to facilities that enable learning and training. A similar approach of remote resource usage can be utilized in resource-poor situations where the required equipment is available at other premises. The concept of Industry 5.0 (i5.0) focuses on a human-centric approach, enabling technologies to concentrate on human–machine interaction and emphasizing the importance of societal values. This paper introduces a novel robotics teleoperation platform supported by the i5.0. The platform reduces inequality and allows usage and learning of robotics remotely independently of time and location. The platform is based on digital twins with bi-directional data transmission between the physical and digital counterparts. The proposed system allows teleoperation, remote programming, and near real-time monitoring of controlled robots, robot time scheduling, and social interaction between users. The system design and implementation are described in detail, followed by experimental results

From Concept to Market: Surgical Robot Development

Surgical robotics and supporting technologies have really become a prime example of modern applied information technology infiltrating our everyday lives. The development of these systems spans across four decades, and only the last few years brought the market value and saw the rising customer base imagined already by the early developers. This chapter guides through the historical development of the most important systems, and provide references and lessons learnt for current engineers facing similar challenges. A special emphasis is put on system validation, assessment and clearance, as the most commonly cited barrier hindering the wider deployment of a system

TESTBED FOR ROBOTIC TEAM-ASSISTED REPAIR: HEXAGONAL DISTRIBUTED MODULAR ROBOT II

Advancements in robotics have increasingly taken robots out of controlled environments to perform in hostile conditions that increase the chance of a system fault. Currently most solutions require human intervention or, in the case of homogenous modular systems, discarding the faulty agents which in return degrade the overall capabilities of the system. There is an emerging need for a reliable system that can perform its duties regardless of the changing mission requirements and effectively alleviate a range of possible fault states. This essay presents the second version of the Hexagonal Distributed Modular Robot (Hex-DMR II) capable of autonomous team-assisted repair to address this issue. The Hex-DMR II system is composed of reconfigurable modular agents that encapsulate distinct capabilities (and thus the related fault states) within modules and can replace these modules to meet the changing needs of the mission as well as to maintain functionality despite a faulty state. The essay introduces the design and capabilities of the system, presents the methods of team-assisted repair and discusses the results of module replacement maneuvers undertaken by the system. Overall Hex-DMR II demonstrates the working principles of robotic team-assisted repair through successful experimental trials

Migration from Teleoperation to Autonomy via Modular Sensor and Mobility Bricks

In this thesis, the teleoperated communications of a Remotec ANDROS robot have been reverse engineered. This research has used the information acquired through the reverse engineering process to enhance the teleoperation and add intelligence to the initially automated robot. The main contribution of this thesis is the implementation of the mobility brick paradigm, which enables autonomous operations, using the commercial teleoperated ANDROS platform. The brick paradigm is a generalized architecture for a modular approach to robotics. This architecture and the contribution of this thesis are a paradigm shift from the proprietary commercial models that exist today. The modular system of sensor bricks integrates the transformed mobility platform and defines it as a mobility brick. In the wall following application implemented in this work, the mobile robotic system acquires intelligence using the range sensor brick. This application illustrates a way to alleviate the burden on the human operator and delegate certain tasks to the robot. Wall following is one among several examples of giving a degree of autonomy to an essentially teleoperated robot through the Sensor Brick System. Indeed once the proprietary robot has been altered into a mobility brick; the possibilities for autonomy are numerous and vary with different sensor bricks. The autonomous system implemented is not a fixed-application robot but rather a non-specific autonomy capable platform. Meanwhile the native controller and the computer-interfaced teleoperation are still available when necessary. Rather than trading off by switching from teleoperation to autonomy, this system provides the flexibility to switch between the two at the operator’s command. The contributions of this thesis reside in the reverse engineering of the original robot, its upgrade to a computer-interfaced teleoperated system, the mobility brick paradigm and the addition of autonomy capabilities. The application of a robot autonomously following a wall is subsequently implemented, tested and analyzed in this work. The analysis provides the programmer with information on controlling the robot and launching the autonomous function. The results are conclusive and open up the possibilities for a variety of autonomous applications for mobility platforms using modular sensor bricks

CIS-lunar space infrastructure lunar technologies: Executive summary

Technologies necessary for the creation of a cis-Lunar infrastructure, namely: (1) automation and robotics; (2) life support systems; (3) fluid management; (4) propulsion; and (5) rotating technologies, are explored. The technological focal point is on the development of automated and robotic systems for the implementation of a Lunar Oasis produced by Automation and Robotics (LOAR). Under direction from the NASA Office of Exploration, automation and robotics were extensively utilized as an initiating stage in the return to the Moon. A pair of autonomous rovers, modular in design and built from interchangeable and specialized components, is proposed. Utilizing a buddy system, these rovers will be able to support each other and to enhance their individual capabilities. One rover primarily explores and maps while the second rover tests the feasibility of various materials-processing techniques. The automated missions emphasize availability and potential uses of Lunar resources, and the deployment and operations of the LOAR program. An experimental bio-volume is put into place as the precursor to a Lunar environmentally controlled life support system. The bio-volume will determine the reproduction, growth and production characteristics of various life forms housed on the Lunar surface. Physicochemical regenerative technologies and stored resources will be used to buffer biological disturbances of the bio-volume environment. The in situ Lunar resources will be both tested and used within this bio-volume. Second phase development on the Lunar surface calls for manned operations. Repairs and re-configuration of the initial framework will ensue. An autonomously-initiated manned Lunar oasis can become an essential component of the United States space program

Conference on Intelligent Robotics in Field, Factory, Service, and Space (CIRFFSS 1994), volume 1

The AIAA/NASA Conference on Intelligent Robotics in Field, Factory, Service, and Space (CIRFFSS '94) was originally proposed because of the strong belief that America's problems of global economic competitiveness and job creation and preservation can partly be solved by the use of intelligent robotics, which are also required for human space exploration missions. Individual sessions addressed nuclear industry, agile manufacturing, security/building monitoring, on-orbit applications, vision and sensing technologies, situated control and low-level control, robotic systems architecture, environmental restoration and waste management, robotic remanufacturing, and healthcare applications

Conformal Additive Manufacturing and Cooperative Robotic Repair and Diagnosis

In the past several years exponential growth has occurred in many industries, including additive manufacturing (AM) and robotics, enabling fascinating new technologies and capabilities. As these technologies mature, the need for higher-level abilities becomes more apparent. For instance, even with current, commercial state-of-the-art technology in AM it is impossible to deposit material onto a nonplanar surface. This limitation prevents the ability to fully encase objects for packaging, to create objects with hollow features or voids, and even to retrofit or repair preexisting items. These limitations can be addressed by the introduction of a conformal AM (CAM) process or more concretely the process in which material is deposited normal to the surface of an object as opposed to solely planar layers. Therefore, one of the main contributions of this work is the development of two novel methods to generate layers from an initial object to a desired object for use in two- and three-dimensional CAM processes. The first method is based on variable offset curves and subject to mild convexity conditions for both the initial and desired object. The second method reparametrizes solutions to Laplace's equation and does not suffer from these limitations. A third method is then presented that alters solutions from the previous methods to incorporate hollow features or voids into the layer generation process. Although these hollow features must obey mild convexity conditions, the location and number of said features is not limited. Examples of all three layering methods are provided in both two- and three-dimensions. Interestingly, these same methods can also be applied to determine the collision-free configuration space in certain robot motion planning applications. However, ultimately, the most compelling application may be in the repair of damaged items. Given an accurate model of a damaged item, these techniques, in conjunction with fused deposition modeling devices embedded on robotic arms, can be leveraged to restore a damaged item to its original condition. In a separate but similar vein, although robotic systems are becoming more capable each day, their designs still lack almost any semblance of a repair mechanism. This issue is increasingly important in situations where robotic systems are deployed to isolated or even hostile environments as human intervention is limited or impossible. The second half of this work focuses on solving this issue by introducing the Hexagonal Distributed Modular Robot (HexDMR) System which is capable of autonomous team repair and diagnosis. In particular, agents of the HexDMR system are composed of heterogeneous modules with different capabilities that may be replaced when damaged. The remainder of this work discusses the design of each of these modules in detail. Additionally, all possible non-isomorphic functional representations of a single agent are enumerated and a case study is provided to compare the performance between two possible iterations. Then, the repair procedures for an agent in the system are outlined and verified through experiments. Finally, a two-step diagnosis procedure based on both qualitative and quantitative measures is introduced. The particle filter based quantitative portion of this procedure is verified through simulation for two separate robot configurations, while the entire procedure is validated through experiments