Locomotion training of legged robots using hybrid machine learning techniques

In this study artificial neural networks and fuzzy logic are used to control the jumping behavior of a three-link uniped robot. The biped locomotion control problem is an increment of the uniped locomotion control. Study of legged locomotion dynamics indicates that a hierarchical controller is required to control the behavior of a legged robot. A structured control strategy is suggested which includes navigator, motion planner, biped coordinator and uniped controllers. A three-link uniped robot simulation is developed to be used as the plant. Neurocontrollers were trained both online and offline. In the case of on-line training, a reinforcement learning technique was used to train the neurocontroller to make the robot jump to a specified height. After several hundred iterations of training, the plant output achieved an accuracy of 7.4%. However, when jump distance and body angular momentum were also included in the control objectives, training time became impractically long. In the case of off-line training, a three-layered backpropagation (BP) network was first used with three inputs, three outputs and 15 to 40 hidden nodes. Pre-generated data were presented to the network with a learning rate as low as 0.003 in order to reach convergence. The low learning rate required for convergence resulted in a very slow training process which took weeks to learn 460 examples. After training, performance of the neurocontroller was rather poor. Consequently, the BP network was replaced by a Cerebeller Model Articulation Controller (CMAC) network. Subsequent experiments described in this document show that the CMAC network is more suitable to the solution of uniped locomotion control problems in terms of both learning efficiency and performance. A new approach is introduced in this report, viz., a self-organizing multiagent cerebeller model for fuzzy-neural control of uniped locomotion is suggested to improve training efficiency. This is currently being evaluated for a possible patent by NASA, Johnson Space Center. An alternative modular approach is also developed which uses separate controllers for each stage of the running stride. A self-organizing fuzzy-neural controller controls the height, distance and angular momentum of the stride. A CMAC-based controller controls the movement of the leg from the time the foot leaves the ground to the time of landing. Because the leg joints are controlled at each time step during flight, movement is smooth and obstacles can be avoided. Initial results indicate that this approach can yield fast, accurate results

Evolutionary robotics in high altitude wind energy applications

Recent years have seen the development of wind energy conversion systems that can exploit the superior wind resource that exists at altitudes above current wind turbine technology. One class of these systems incorporates a flying wing tethered to the ground which drives a winch at ground level. The wings often resemble sports kites, being composed of a combination of fabric and stiffening elements. Such wings are subject to load dependent deformation which makes them particularly difficult to model and control. Here we apply the techniques of evolutionary robotics i.e. evolution of neural network controllers using genetic algorithms, to the task of controlling a steerable kite. We introduce a multibody kite simulation that is used in an evolutionary process in which the kite is subject to deformation. We demonstrate how discrete time recurrent neural networks that are evolved to maximise line tension fly the kite in repeated looping trajectories similar to those seen using other methods. We show that these controllers are robust to limited environmental variation but show poor generalisation and occasional failure even after extended evolution. We show that continuous time recurrent neural networks (CTRNNs) can be evolved that are capable of flying appropriate repeated trajectories even when the length of the flying lines are changing. We also show that CTRNNs can be evolved that stabilise kites with a wide range of physical attributes at a given position in the sky, and systematically add noise to the simulated task in order to maximise the transferability of the behaviour to a real world system. We demonstrate how the difficulty of the task must be increased during the evolutionary process to deal with this extreme variability in small increments. We describe the development of a real world testing platform on which the evolved neurocontrollers can be tested

Solutions of linear equations and a class of nonlinear equations using recurrent neural networks

Artificial neural networks are computational paradigms which are inspired by biological neural networks (the human brain). Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) are characterized by neuron connections which include feedback paths. This dissertation uses the dynamics of RNN architectures for solving linear and certain nonlinear equations. Neural network with linear dynamics (variants of the well-known Hopfield network) are used to solve systems of linear equations, where the network structure is adapted to match properties of the linear system in question. Nonlinear equations inturn are solved using the dynamics of nonlinear RNNs, which are based on feedforward multilayer perceptrons. Neural networks are well-suited for implementation on special parallel hardware, due to their intrinsic parallelism. The RNNs developed here are implemented on a neural network processor (NNP) designed specifically for fast neural type processing, and are applied to the inverse kinematics problem in robotics, demonstrating their superior performance over alternative approaches

Systematic Design of Type-2 Fuzzy Logic Systems for Modeling and Control with Applications to Modular and Reconfigurable Robots

Fuzzy logic systems (FLSs) are well known in the literature for their ability to model linguistics and system uncertainties. Due to this ability, FLSs have been successfully used in modeling and control applications such as medicine, finance, communications, and operations research. Moreover, the ability of higher order fuzzy systems to handle system uncertainty has become an interesting topic of research in the field. In particular, type-2 FLSs (T2 FLSs), systems consisting of fuzzy sets with fuzzy grades of membership, a feature that type-1 (T1) does not offer, are most well-known for this capability. The structure of T2 FLSs allows for the incorporation of uncertainty in the input membership grades, a common situation in reasoning with physical systems. General T2 FLSs have a complex structure, thus making them difficult to adopt on a large scale. As a result, interval T2 FLSs (IT2 FLSs), a special class of T2 FLSs, have recently shown great potential in various applications with input-output (I/O) system uncertainties. Due to the sophisticated mathematical structure of IT2 FLSs, little to no systematic analysis has been reported in the literature to use such systems in control design. Moreover, to date, designers have distanced themselves from adopting such systems on a wide scale because of their design complexity. Furthermore, the very few existing control methods utilizing IT2 fuzzy logic control systems (IT2 FLCSs) do not guarantee the stability of their system. Therefore, this thesis presents a systematic method for designing stable IT2 Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (IT2 TSK) fuzzy systems when antecedents are T2 fuzzy sets and consequents are crisp numbers (A2-C0). Five new inference mechanisms are proposed that have closed-form I/O mappings, making them more feasible for FLCS stability analysis. The thesis focuses on control applications for when (a) both plant and controller use A2-C0 TSK models, and (b) the plant uses T1 Takagi-Sugeno (T1 TS) and the controller uses IT2 TS models. In both cases, sufficient stability conditions for the stability of the closed-loop system are derived. Furthermore, novel linear matrix inequality-based algorithms are developed for satisfying the stability conditions. Numerical analyses are included to validate the effectiveness of the new inference methods. Case studies reveal that a well-tuned IT2 TS FLCS using the proposed inference engine can potentially outperform its T1 TSK counterpart, a result of IT2 having greater structural flexibility than T1. Moreover, due to the simple nature of the proposed inference engine, it is easy to implement in real-time control systems. In addition, a novel design methodology is proposed for IT2 TSK FLC for modular and reconfigurable robot (MRR) manipulators with uncertain dynamic parameters. A mathematical framework for the design of IT2 TSK FLCs is developed for tracking purposes that can be effectively used in real-time applications. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed controller, experiments are performed on an MRR with two degrees of freedom which exhibits dynamic coupling behavior. Results show that the developed controller can outperform some well-known linear and nonlinear controllers for different configurations. Therefore, the proposed structure can be adopted for the position control of MRRs with unknown dynamic parameters in trajectory-tracking applications. Finally, a rigorous mathematical analysis of the robustness of FLSs (both T1 and IT2) is presented in the thesis and entails a formulation of the robustness of FLSs as a constraint multi-objective optimization problem. Consequently, a procedure is proposed for the design of robust IT2 FLSs. Several examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodologies. It was concluded that both T1 and IT2 FLSs can be designed to achieve robust behavior in various applications. IT2 FLSs, having a more flexible structure than T1 FLSs, exhibited relatively small approximation errors in the several examples investigated. The rigorous methodologies presented in this thesis lay the mathematical foundations for analyzing the stability and facilitating the design of stabilizing IT2 FLCSs. In addition, the proposed control technique for tracking purposes of MRRs will provide control engineers with tools to control dynamic systems with uncertainty and changing parameters. Finally, the systematic approach developed for the analysis and design of robust T1 and IT2 FLSs is of great practical value in various modeling and control applications

The 1995 Goddard Conference on Space Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Information Technologies

This publication comprises the papers presented at the 1995 Goddard Conference on Space Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Information Technologies held at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, on May 9-11, 1995. The purpose of this annual conference is to provide a forum in which current research and development directed at space applications of artificial intelligence can be presented and discussed

Intelligent Control Architecture For Motion Learning in Robotics Applications

Abstract: The investigation of this Thesis was focused on how motion abilities can be learned by a robot. The main goal was to design and test a control architecture capable of learning how to properly move different simulated robots, through the use of Arti�cial Intelligence (AI) methods. With this purpose, a simulation environment and a set of simulated robots were created in order to test the control architecture. The robots were constructed with a simple geometry using links and joints. A fuzzy controller was designed to control the motors position. The control architecture design was based on subsumption and some AI methods that allowed the simulated robot to find and learn a set of motions based on targets. These methods were a genetic algorithm (GA) and a set of artificial neural networks (ANN). The GA was used to find the adequate robot movements for an specific target, while the ANNs were used to learn and perform such movements eficiently. The advantage of this approach was that, no knowledge of the environment or robot model is needed. The robot learns how to move its own body in order to achieve a determined task. In addition, the learned motions can be used to achieve complex movement execution in a further research. A set of experiments were performed in the simulator in order to show the performance of the control architecture in every one of its stages. The results showed that the proposed architecture was able to learn and perform basic movements of a robot independently of the environment or the robot defined structure.En esta Tesis, se investiga cómo las habilidades de movimiento en un robot, pueden ser aprendidas de forma automática. El objetivo principal fue dise~nar y probar una arquitectura de control capaz de aprender a mover adecuadamente diferentes robots simulados, mediante el uso de métodos de Inteligencia Artificial (IA). Con este propósito, se dise~no un entorno de simulación y un conjunto de robots simulados con el fin de probar la arquitectura de control. Los robots fueron construidos con una geometría muy simple utilizando enlaces y uniones (actuadores), y un controlador difuso fue dise~nado para controlar la posición de los actuadores. El dise~no de la arquitectura de control se basa en el concepto de subsunción (subsumption) y algunos métodos de IA que permiten al robot simulado determinar y aprender una serie de movimientos basados en objetivos. Los métodos usados son un algoritmo genético (GA) y un conjunto de redes neuronales artificiales (ANN). El GA se utiliza para encontrar los movimientos adecuados que el robot debe realizar para alcanzar un objetico específico, mientras que las redes neuronales se utilizan para aprender y realizar estos movimientos de forma eficiente. La ventaja de este enfoque es que, no es necesario conocer el entorno o tener un modelo del robot, sino que el robot aprende cómo mover su propio cuerpo en un ambiente definido con el fin de lograr una tarea determinada. Además, en una posterior investigación, es posible utilizar los movimientos aprendidos para realizar movimientos o tareas más complejas con los robots. Un conjunto de experimentos se llevaron a cabo en el simulador para mostrar el desempe~no de la arquitectura de control en cada una de sus etapas. Los resultados muestran que la arquitectura propuesta es capaz de aprender y realizar los movimientos del robot independientemente del medio ambiente o la estructura definida del robot.Maestrí

Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes, supplement 187

This supplement to Aerospace Medicine and Biology lists 247 reports, articles and other documents announced during November 1978 in Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports (STAR) or in International Aerospace Abstracts (IAA). In its subject coverage, Aerospace Medicine and Biology concentrates on the biological, physiological, psychological, and environmental effects to which man is subjected during and following simulated or actual flight in the earth's atmosphere or in interplanetary space. References describing similar effects of biological organisms of lower order are also included. Emphasis is placed on applied research, but reference to fundamental studies and theoretical principles related to experimental development also qualify for inclusion. Each entry in the bibliography consists of a bibliographic citation accompanied in most cases by an abstract

A Flexible, Low-Power, Programmable Unsupervised Neural Network Based on Microcontrollers for Medical Applications

We present an implementation and laboratory tests of a winner takes all (WTA) artificial neural network (NN) on two microcontrollers (μC) with the ARM Cortex M3 and the AVR cores. The prospective application of this device is in wireless body sensor network (WBSN) in an on-line analysis of electrocardiograph (ECG) and electromyograph (EMG) biomedical signals. The proposed device will be used as a base station in the WBSN, acquiring and analysing the signals from the sensors placed on the human body. The proposed system is equiped with an analog-todigital converter (ADC), and allows for multi-channel acquisition of analog signals, preprocessing (filtering) and further analysis

NASA Tech Briefs, May 1993

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