Design and Steering Control of a Center-Articulated Mobile Robot Module

This paper discusses the design and steering control for an autonomous modular mobile robot. The module is designed with a center-articulated steering joint to minimize the number of actuators used in the chain. We propose a feedback control law which allows steering between configurations in the plane and show its application as a parking control to dock modules together. The control law is designed by Lyapunov techniques and relies on the equations of the robot in polar coordinates. A set of experiments have been carried out to show the performance of the proposed approach. The design is intended to endow individual wheeled modules with the capability to merge and make a single snake-like robot to take advantage of the benefits of modular robotics

Guaranteed Performance of Nonlinear Pose Filter on SE(3)

This paper presents a novel nonlinear pose filter evolved directly on the Special Euclidean Group SE(3) with guaranteed characteristics of transient and steady-state performance. The above-mention characteristics can be achieved by trapping the position error and the error of the normalized Euclidean distance of the attitude in a given large set and guiding them to converge systematically to a small given set. The error vector is proven to approach the origin asymptotically from almost any initial condition. The proposed filter is able to provide a reliable pose estimate with remarkable convergence properties such that it can be fitted with measurements obtained from low-cost measurement units. Simulation results demonstrate high convergence capabilities and robustness considering large error in initialization and high level of uncertainties in measurements. Keywords: Pose, estimator, observer, attitude, position, estimate, special orthogonal group, special Euclidean group, prescribed performance, steady-state, transient response, homogeneous transformation matrix, complimentary filter, mapping, Parameterization, Representation, Robust, stability, uncertain, Gaussian, noise, vectorial measurement, vector measurement, translational velocity, angular velocity, singular value decomposition, rotational matrix, identity, deterministic, comparison, inertial frame, rigid body, three dimensional, 3D, space, Lie group, projection, landmark, feature, gyroscope, micro electromechanical systems, Inertial measurement units, sensor, IMUs, Fixed, moving, orientation, Roll, Pitch, Yaw, SVD, UAVs, QUAV, unmanned, underwater vehicle, robot, robotic System, spacecraft, quadrotor, quadcopter, overview, autonomous, xyz, axis, SO(3), SE(3).Comment: 2019 American Control Conference (ACC

Guaranteed Performance of Nonlinear Pose Filter on SE(3)

This paper presents a novel nonlinear pose filter evolved directly on the Special Euclidean Group SE(3) with guaranteed characteristics of transient and steady-state performance. The above-mention characteristics can be achieved by trapping the position error and the error of the normalized Euclidean distance of the attitude in a given large set and guiding them to converge systematically to a small given set. The error vector is proven to approach the origin asymptotically from almost any initial condition. The proposed filter is able to provide a reliable pose estimate with remarkable convergence properties such that it can be fitted with measurements obtained from low-cost measurement units. Simulation results demonstrate high convergence capabilities and robustness considering large error in initialization and high level of uncertainties in measurements. Keywords: Pose, estimator, observer, attitude, position, estimate, special orthogonal group, special Euclidean group, prescribed performance, steady-state, transient response, homogeneous transformation matrix, complimentary filter, mapping, Parameterization, Representation, Robust, stability, uncertain, Gaussian, noise, vectorial measurement, vector measurement, translational velocity, angular velocity, singular value decomposition, rotational matrix, identity, deterministic, comparison, inertial frame, rigid body, three dimensional, 3D, space, Lie group, projection, landmark, feature, gyroscope, micro electromechanical systems, Inertial measurement units, sensor, IMUs, Fixed, moving, orientation, Roll, Pitch, Yaw, SVD, UAVs, QUAV, unmanned, underwater vehicle, robot, robotic System, spacecraft, quadrotor, quadcopter, overview, autonomous, xyz, axis, SO(3), SE(3).Comment: 2019 American Control Conference (ACC

Machine Learning Groups Patients by Early Functional Improvement Likelihood Based on Wearable Sensor Instrumented Preoperative Timed-Up-and-Go Tests

© 2019 The Author(s) Background: Wearable sensors permit efficient data collection and unobtrusive systems can be used for instrumenting knee patients for objective assessment. Machine learning can be leveraged to parse the abundant information these systems provide and segment patients into relevant groups without specifying group membership criteria. The objective of this study is to examine functional parameters influencing favorable recovery outcomes by separating patients into functional groups and tracking them through clinical follow-ups. Methods: Patients undergoing primary unilateral total knee arthroplasty (n = 68) completed instrumented timed-up-and-go tests preoperatively and at their 2-, 6-, and 12-week follow-up appointments. A custom wearable system extracted 55 metrics for analysis and a K-means algorithm separated patients into functionally distinguished groups based on the derived features. These groups were analyzed to determine which metrics differentiated most and how each cluster improved during early recovery. Results: Patients separated into 2 clusters (n = 46 and n = 22) with significantly different test completion times (12.6 s vs 21.6 s, P \u3c .001). Tracking the recovery of both groups to their 12-week follow-ups revealed 64% of one group improved their function while 63% of the other maintained preoperative function. The higher improvement group shortened their test times by 4.94 s, (P = .005) showing faster recovery while the other group did not improve above a minimally important clinical difference (0.87 s, P = .07). Features with the largest effect size between groups were distinguished as important functional parameters. Conclusion: This work supports using wearable sensors to instrument functional tests during clinical visits and using machine learning to parse complex patterns to reveal clinically relevant parameters