YARP-ROS Inter-Operation in a 2D Navigation Task

This work presents some recent developments in YARP middleware, aimed to improve its integration with ROS. They include a new mechanism able to read/write ROS frame transforms and a new set of standard interfaces to %perform navigation tasks and intercommunicate with ROS navigation stack. A novel set of YARP companion modules, which provide basic navigation functionalities for robots unable to run ROS, is also presented. These modules are optional, independent from each other and provide compatible functionalities to well-known packages available inside ROS framework. The paper also discusses how developers can customize their own hybrid YARP-ROS system in the way it best suits their needs (e.g. the system can be configured to have a YARP application sending navigation commands to a ROS path planner, or vice-versa). A number of available possibilities is presented through a set of chosen test-cases applied to both real and simulated robots. Finally, example applications discussed in this paper are also made available to the community by providing snippets of code and links to source files hosted on github repository \href{https://github.com/robotology}{https://github.com/robotology}

A modular approach for remote operation of humanoid robots in search and rescue scenarios

In the present work we have designed and implemented a modular, robust and user-friendly Pilot Interface meant to control humanoid robots in rescue scenarios during dangerous missions. We follow the common approach where the robot is semi-autonomous and it is remotely controlled by a human operator. In our implementation, YARP is used both as a communication channel for low-level hardware components and as an interconnecting framework between control modules. The interface features the capability to receive the status of these modules continuously and request actions when required. In addition, ROS is used to retrieve data from different types of sensors and to display relevant information of the robot status such as joint positions, velocities and torques, force/torque measurements and inertial data. Furthermore the operator is immersed into a 3D reconstruction of the environment and is enabled to manipulate 3D virtual objects. The Pilot Interface allows the operator to control the robot at three different levels. The high-level control deals with human-like actions which involve the whole robot’s actuation and perception. For instance, we successfully teleoperated IIT’s COmpliant huMANoid (COMAN) platform to execute complex navigation tasks through the composition of elementary walking commands (e.g.[walk_forward, 1m]). The mid-level control generates tasks in cartesian space, based on the position and orientation of objects of interest (i.e. valve, door handle) w.r.t. a reference frame on the robot. The low level control operates in joint space and is meant as a last resort tool to perform fine adjustments (e.g. release a trapped limb). Finally, our Pilot Interface is adaptable to different tasks, strategies and pilot’s needs, thanks to a modular architecture of the system which enables to add/remove single front-end components (e.g. GUI widgets) as well as back-end control modules on the fly

Behavior Flexibility for Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Systems

Autonomous unmanned aerial systems (UAS) could supplement and eventually subsume a substantial portion of the mission set currently executed by remote pilots, making UAS more robust, responsive, and numerous than permitted by teleoperation alone. Unfortunately, the development of robust autonomous systems is difficult, costly, and time-consuming. Furthermore, the resulting systems often make little reuse of proven software components and offer limited adaptability for new tasks. This work presents a development platform for UAS which promotes behavioral flexibility. The platform incorporates the Unified Behavior Framework (a modular, extensible autonomy framework), the Robotic Operating System (a RSF), and PX4 (an open- source flight controller). Simulation of UBF agents identify a combination of reactive robotic control strategies effective for small-scale navigation tasks by a UAS in the presence of obstacles. Finally, flight tests provide a partial validation of the simulated results. The development platform presented in this work offers robust and responsive behavioral flexibility for UAS agents in simulation and reality. This work lays the foundation for further development of a unified autonomous UAS platform supporting advanced planning algorithms and inter-agent communication by providing a behavior-flexible framework in which to implement, execute, extend, and reuse behaviors

Robotics software frameworks for multi-agent robotic systems development

Robotics is an area of research in which the paradigm of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) can prove to be highly useful. Multi-Agent Systems come in the form of cooperative robots in a team, sensor networks based on mobile robots, and robots in Intelligent Environments, to name but a few. However, the development of Multi-Agent Robotic Systems (MARS) still presents major challenges. Over the past decade, a high number of Robotics Software Frameworks (RSFs) have appeared which propose some solutions to the most recurrent problems in robotics. Some of these frameworks, such as ROS, YARP, OROCOS, ORCA, Open-RTM, and Open-RDK, possess certain characteristics and provide the basic infrastructure necessary for the development of MARS. The contribution of this work is the identification of such characteristics as well as the analysis of these frameworks in comparison with the general-purpose Multi-Agent System Frameworks (MASFs), such as JADE and Mobile-C.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TEC2009-10639-C04-02Junta de Andalucía P06-TIC-2298Junta de Andalucía P08-TIC-0386

An analysis on controlling humanoid robot arm using Robot Operating System (ROS)

Humanoid robots are extensively discussed in modern days. The movement task and manipulation of Humanoid Robots is examined based on mobility of platforms and control of the arm. This project describes a robotic arm that is analogous to an arm of a human being. Some important parameters to be considered are reachability, stability and manipulability. This thesis aims at adapting a humanoid robot arm for performing movement operation that can be used for various purposes. The proposed robot arm has 3 motors on the left arm and 3 motors on the right arm thereby constituting a total of 6 motors. This operation can be achieved by the use of sensor like ultrasonic sensor. Here Beaglebone Black, an open source linux based controller board is used. The Beaglebone Black acts as the main controller for the entire system. A research is also being made to implement the robotic arm using Robot Operating System (ROS) platform. ROS is preferred since it is modular, simple and easy to use tools for development, it provides good hardware support, lots of algorithms are implemented together as package, etc

Software architecture for self-driving navigation

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorThis dissertation is based on the development of the navigation software architecture for self-driving vehicles. The goal is very wide in terms of multidisciplinary fields over the different solutions provided, however, functional solutions for the implementation according to the software architecture has been proved and tested in the real research platform iCab (Intelligent Campus Automobile). The problems that the autonomous vehicles have to face are based accordingly as the three questions of navigation that each vehicle has to ask: Where am I, where should I go, and how can I go there. These questions are followed by the corresponding modules to solve that are divided into localization, planning, mapping, perception and control in addition to multitasking allocation, communication and Human-Machine Interaction. One more module is the self-awareness which is an optimal solution for detecting problems in the earliest stage. Throughout this document, the solution provided in form of a complete architecture for navigation describes the modules involved and the importance of software connections between them, generation of trajectories, mapping, localization and low level control. Finally, the results section describes scenarios and vehicle/software performance in terms of CPU for each module involved and the generation of trajectories, maps and control commands needed to move the vehicle from one point to another.Este documento es el resultado de cinco años de trabajo en el campo de los vehículos sin conductor donde, en el, se recoge el desarrollo de una arquitectura software de control para la navegación de este tipo de vehículos. El objetivo es muy ambicioso ya que para su desarrollo ha sido necesario el conocimiento de múltiples disciplinas como ingeniería electrónica, ingeniería informática, ingeniería de control, procesamiento de señales, mecánica y visión por computador. A pesar del vasto conocimiento necesario para lograr un vehículo funcional, se han alcanzado soluciones para cada uno de los problemas en que consiste la navegación autónoma, generando un vehículo autogobernado que toma decisiones por si mismo para evitar obstáculos y alcanzar los puntos de destino deseados. Los problemas principales que los vehículos autónomos tienen que hacer frente, están basados en tres preguntas principales: donde estoy, donde tengo que ir y como voy. Para responder a estas tres preguntas se ha dividido la arquitectura en los módulos siguientes: localización, planificación, mapeado del entorno y control junto con módulos extra para dotar al sistema de mas aptitudes y mejor funcionamiento como por ejemplo la comunicación entre vehículos, peatones e infraestructuras, la interacción humano máquina, la gestión de tareas con múltiples vehículos o la propia consciencia del vehículo en cuanto a su estado de baterías, mantenimiento, sensores conectados o desconectados, etc. A través de este documento, la solución proporcionada a cada uno de los módulos involucrados refleja la importancia de las conexiones de software y la comunicación entre procesos dentro de la arquitectura ya sea para la generación de trayectorias, la creación de los mapas a tiempo, la localización precisa en el entorno, o los comandos generados para gobernar el vehículo. Así mismo, en el apartado de resultados se pone de manifiesto la importancia de cumplir los plazos de compartición de mensajes y optimizar el sistema para no sobrecargar la CPU.Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y AutomáticaPresidente: Felipe Jiménez Alonso.- Secretario: Agapito Ismael Ledezma Espino.- Vocal: Alessio Malizi

Reconversão da plataforma Robuter num AGV com guiamento visual

Mestrado em Engenharia de Automação IndustrialThe industrial automation has made its way in responding to the growing market’s needs. Companies that wish to keep up with the competition have a common goal: improve the product’s quality while reducing manufacturing costs and time. In the last decade, the autonomous guided vehicles (AGV) have gained expression due to the fact that they are capable of responding this the last mentioned necessity. The context of the current dissertation is inserted in the development of this thematic through the recovery of an equipment with industrial scale applications. The main goal is centered in the Robuter II platform’s retrofitting. For that, it is intended to replace the old control part by a modern solution that allows the integration of different modules based on a ROS distributed architecture. A detailed analysis of the existing platform was made in order to redo all the electrical installation, as well as to setup all of the used equipment. In the end, a vehicle capable of navigating, both manual and autonomously, was achieved. The vehicle can be operated manually (via remote control) and as a proof of concept, autonomous navigation was carried out through a simple artificial vision algorithm. It was also verified the versatility of the developed solution by integrating different equipment and designed code in a simple way. This document describes generally the project where all the different steps are identified, as well as all the work developed until the present moment. Furthermore, the guidelines to follow in order to achieve the proposed goals, is presented. Finally, navigation experimental results and the integration of different works on the platform are presented.A automação industrial é uma parte fundamental para responder às crescentes necessidades do mercado. As empresas que desejam estar a par da competição, têm todas uma premissa em comum — melhorar a qualidade do produto, reduzindo custos e tempo de fabrico. Na última década, os veículos autonomamente guiados (AGV) têm ganho expressão devido ao facto de serem capazes de responder a esta última necessidade. O contexto da presente dissertação insere-se no desenvolvimento desta temática através da recuperação de um equipamento com aplicações à escala industrial. O objetivo principal passa por fazer o retrofitting da plataforma Robuter II, que se encontra obsoleta. Para isso, pretende-se substituir toda a parte de controlo por uma solução mais atual que permita a integração de diferentes módulos com base numa arquitetura distribuída baseada em ROS. Foi então necessário proceder a uma análise detalhada da plataforma existente para refazer toda a instalação elétrica da mesma, bem como proceder à instalação de diversos equipamentos. No final, obteve-se um veículo capaz de navegar de forma manual (com controlo remoto) e foi ainda realizada uma prova de conceito de navegação autónoma através da realização de um algoritmo simples de visão artificial. Foi ainda verificada a versatilidade suficiente para integrar diferentes equipamentos e código desenvolvido de forma simples. Neste documento é feita uma descrição geral do projeto onde são identificadas as várias etapas do mesmo e o trabalho desenvolvido até ao momento. Para além disso, é apresentada a forma como se irá proceder para a implementação das metas propostas. Por último, são apresentados resultados experimentais de navegação e integração de outros trabalhos na plataforma

Robotic manipulation for the shoe-packaging process

[EN] This paper presents the integration of a robotic system in a human-centered environment, as it can be found in the shoe manufacturing industry. Fashion footwear is nowadays mainly handcrafted due to the big amount of small production tasks. Therefore, the introduction of intelligent robotic systems in this industry may contribute to automate and improve the manual production steps, such us polishing, cleaning, packaging, and visual inspection. Due to the high complexity of the manual tasks in shoe production, cooperative robotic systems (which can work in collaboration with humans) are required. Thus, the focus of the robot lays on grasping, collision detection, and avoidance, as well as on considering the human intervention to supervise the work being performed. For this research, the robot has been equipped with a Kinect camera and a wrist force/ torque sensor so that it is able to detect human interaction and the dynamic environment in order to modify the robot¿s behavior. To illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach, this work presents the experimental results obtained for two actual platforms, which are located at different research laboratories, that share similarities in their morphology, sensor equipment and actuation system.This work has been partly supported by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of the Spanish Government (Key No.: 0201603139 of Invest in Spain program and Grant No. RTC-2016-5408-6) and by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) of the German Government (Projekt-ID 54368155).Gracia Calandin, LI.; Perez-Vidal, C.; Mronga, D.; Paco, JD.; Azorin, J.; Gea, JD. (2017). Robotic manipulation for the shoe-packaging process. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology. 92(1-4):1053-1067. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-017-0212-6S10531067921-4Pedrocchi N, Villagrossi E, Cenati C, Tosatti LM (2017) Design of fuzzy logic controller of industrial robot for roughing the uppers of fashion shoes. 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