Design of an Anthropomorphic, Compliant, and Lightweight Dual Arm for Aerial Manipulation

This paper presents an anthropomorphic, compliant and lightweight dual arm manipulator designed and developed for aerial manipulation applications with multi-rotor platforms. Each arm provides four degrees of freedom in a human-like kinematic configuration for end effector positioning: shoulder pitch, roll and yaw, and elbow pitch. The dual arm, weighting 1.3 kg in total, employs smart servo actuators and a customized and carefully designed aluminum frame structure manufactured by laser cut. The proposed design reduces the manufacturing cost as no computer numerical control machined part is used. Mechanical joint compliance is provided in all the joints, introducing a compact spring-lever transmission mechanism between the servo shaft and the links, integrating a potentiometer for measuring the deflection of the joints. The servo actuators are partially or fully isolated against impacts and overloads thanks to the ange bearings attached to the frame structure that support the rotation of the links and the deflection of the joints. This simple mechanism increases the robustness of the arms and safety in the physical interactions between the aerial robot and the environment. The developed manipulator has been validated through different experiments in fixed base test-bench and in outdoor flight tests.Unión Europea H2020-ICT-2014- 644271Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad DPI2015-71524-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad DPI2017-89790-

Accuracy Improvement for Stiffness Modeling of Parallel Manipulators

The paper focuses on the accuracy improvement of stiffness models for parallel manipulators, which are employed in high-speed precision machining. It is based on the integrated methodology that combines analytical and numerical techniques and deals with multidimensional lumped-parameter models of the links. The latter replace the link flexibility by localized 6-dof virtual springs describing both translational/rotational compliance and the coupling between them. There is presented detailed accuracy analysis of the stiffness identification procedures employed in the commercial CAD systems (including statistical analysis of round-off errors, evaluating the confidence intervals for stiffness matrices). The efficiency of the developed technique is confirmed by application examples, which deal with stiffness analysis of translational parallel manipulators

Design of Calibration Experiments for Identification of Manipulator Elastostatic Parameters

The paper is devoted to the elastostatic calibration of industrial robots, which is used for precise machining of large-dimensional parts made of composite materials. In this technological process, the interaction between the robot and the workpiece causes essential elastic deflections of the manipulator components that should be compensated by the robot controller using relevant elastostatic model of this mechanism. To estimate parameters of this model, an advanced calibration technique is applied that is based on the non-linear experiment design theory, which is adopted for this particular application. In contrast to previous works, it is proposed a concept of the user-defined test-pose, which is used to evaluate the calibration experiments quality. In the frame of this concept, the related optimization problem is defined and numerical routines are developed, which allow generating optimal set of manipulator configurations and corresponding forces/torques for a given number of the calibration experiments. Some specific kinematic constraints are also taken into account, which insure feasibility of calibration experiments for the obtained configurations and allow avoiding collision between the robotic manipulator and the measurement equipment. The efficiency of the developed technique is illustrated by an application example that deals with elastostatic calibration of the serial manipulator used for robot-based machining.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1211.573

Optimization of measurement configurations for geometrical calibration of industrial robot

The paper is devoted to the geometrical calibration of industrial robots employed in precise manufacturing. To identify geometric parameters, an advanced calibration technique is proposed that is based on the non-linear experiment design theory, which is adopted for this particular application. In contrast to previous works, the calibration experiment quality is evaluated using a concept of the user-defined test-pose. In the frame of this concept, the related optimization problem is formulated and numerical routines are developed, which allow user to generate optimal set of manipulator configurations for a given number of calibration experiments. The efficiency of the developed technique is illustrated by several examples.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1211.610

Kinematic Analysis and Trajectory Planning of the Orthoglide 5-axis

The subject of this paper is about the kinematic analysis and the trajectory planning of the Orthoglide 5-axis. The Orthoglide 5-axis a five degrees of freedom parallel kinematic machine developed at IRCCyN and is made up of a hybrid architecture, namely, a three degrees of freedom translational parallel manip-ulator mounted in series with a two degrees of freedom parallel spherical wrist. The simpler the kinematic modeling of the Or-thoglide 5-axis, the higher the maximum frequency of its control loop. Indeed, the control loop of a parallel kinematic machine should be computed with a high frequency, i.e., higher than 1.5 MHz, in order the manipulator to be able to reach high speed motions with a good accuracy. Accordingly, the direct and inverse kinematic models of the Orthoglide 5-axis, its inverse kine-matic Jacobian matrix and the first derivative of the latter with respect to time are expressed in this paper. It appears that the kinematic model of the manipulator under study can be written in a quadratic form due to the hybrid architecture of the Orthoglide 5-axis. As illustrative examples, the profiles of the actuated joint angles (lengths), velocities and accelerations that are used in the control loop of the robot are traced for two test trajectories.Comment: Appears in International Design Engineering Technical Conferences \& Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, Aug 2015, Boston, United States. 201

The development of the Canadian Mobile Servicing System Kinematic Simulation Facility

Canada will develop a Mobile Servicing System (MSS) as its contribution to the U.S./International Space Station Freedom. Components of the MSS will include a remote manipulator (SSRMS), a Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), and a mobile base (MRS). In order to support requirements analysis and the evaluation of operational concepts related to the use of the MSS, a graphics based kinematic simulation/human-computer interface facility has been created. The facility consists of the following elements: (1) A two-dimensional graphics editor allowing the rapid development of virtual control stations; (2) Kinematic simulations of the space station remote manipulators (SSRMS and SPDM), and mobile base; and (3) A three-dimensional graphics model of the space station, MSS, orbiter, and payloads. These software elements combined with state of the art computer graphics hardware provide the capability to prototype MSS workstations, evaluate MSS operational capabilities, and investigate the human-computer interface in an interactive simulation environment. The graphics technology involved in the development and use of this facility is described

Evaluation of automated decisionmaking methodologies and development of an integrated robotic system simulation

A generic computer simulation for manipulator systems (ROBSIM) was implemented and the specific technologies necessary to increase the role of automation in various missions were developed. The specific items developed are: (1) capability for definition of a manipulator system consisting of multiple arms, load objects, and an environment; (2) capability for kinematic analysis, requirements analysis, and response simulation of manipulator motion; (3) postprocessing options such as graphic replay of simulated motion and manipulator parameter plotting; (4) investigation and simulation of various control methods including manual force/torque and active compliances control; (5) evaluation and implementation of three obstacle avoidance methods; (6) video simulation and edge detection; and (7) software simulation validation