A reference control architecture for teleoperated service robots

[SPA] Las unidades de control de robots son sistemas intensivos en software, por lo que el diseño del mismo es esencial para el desarrollo y evolución del sistema global. El hardware es también un elemento primordial en estos sistemas, no sólo por su papel como plataforma de ejecución del software de control, sino porque es habitual encontrar componentes COTS o diseñados especialmente para la aplicación, que realizan parte de la funcionalidad del sistema. Por ello, hardware y software se deben poder integrar adecuadamente y combinar de distintas formas de acuerdo con el diseño del sistema. Para manejar la complejidad intrínseca de estos sistemas, se hace necesario plantear modelos de desarrollo rigurosos y arquitecturas bien definidas que se puedan reutilizar en otros productos. Disponer de tales arquitecturas facilita enormemente el desarrollo de nuevas aplicaciones fiables y de calidad, pues permite, por un lado la reutilización de modelos y componentes y por otro, ofrece un marco para el desarrollo de los mismos. De este modo se pueden reducir costes dado que se reduce el tiempo de desarrollo y se reutilizan componentes ya probados. En esta tesis se propone ACROSET como una arquitectura de referencia para el dominio de las unidades de control de robots de servicio teleoperados que define los principales subsistemas que deben o pueden aparecer en cualquier arquitectura concreta, sus responsabilidades y relaciones. En ACROSET se propone un modelo de componentes conceptual en el que se definen los componentes que pueden aparecer en cualquier sistema del dominio considerado y los patrones de interacción entre componentes al mismo nivel que éstos, gracias al uso de puertos y conectores. Una de las principales características de ACROSET es su flexibilidad tanto para la definición de arquitecturas de sistemas concretos como para la evolución de las mismas. Precisamente el éxito de la arquitectura residirá en su habilidad para adaptarse a la variabilidad entre los sistemas del dominio para el que ha sido definida. Para el nivel de abstracción que exige el manejo de tal variabilidad, las metodologías de desarrollo dirigidas por casos de uso no son apropiadas, por lo que se adopta una metodología orientada específicamente hacia el diseño de arquitecturas como el ABD (Architecture Based Design Method), que parte de requisitos funcionales y de calidad lo suficientemente amplios y abstractos como para abarcar todo el dominio. Dicha metodología se completa con el modelo de 4 vistas propuesto por Hofmeister con el fin de expresar el modelo conceptual en UML y tratar a componentes y conectores como entidades de primera clase. Se ha validado ACROSET con su instanciación para las unidades de control de diversos robots de limpieza de cascos de buques. En concreto, en esta tesis se presenta su instanciación para el prototipo GOYA y la familia de robots del proyecto EFTCoR. También se ha utilizado un robot didáctico 4U4 para probar diferentes combinaciones hardware/software a partir de ACROSET.[ENG] Robots control units are software intensive systems, so that the design of that software is essential for the development and evolution of the overall system. Hardware is also a primordial element in these systems, not only for its role as an execution platform for the control software, but because it is habitual to find COTS components or especially designed components that carry out part of the functionality of the system. For that reason, hardware and software should can be appropriately integrated and combined in different ways according to the design of the system. To deal with the intrinsic complexity of these systems is necessary to use rigorous development methods and architectural frameworks and tools that embody well defined concepts to enable effective realization of systems to meet high level goals. Such methods and architectural frameworks allow rapid development of systems and reuse of a large variety of components, with oncomitant savings in time and money. In this thesis ACROSET is proposed as reference architecture for the domain of control units for teleoperated service robots. This architecture defines the main subsystems that should or could appear in any concrete architecture, their responsibilities and relationships. ACROSET proposes a conceptual framework to define the components and their interaction patterns that could appear in any system of the considered domain. This architectural framework relies on the abstract concepts of component,port and connector. One of the main characteristics of ACROSET is its flexibility as much for the definition of architectures for concrete systems as for the evolution of the same ones. The success of the architecture depends on its ability to deal with the variability among the systems of the considered domain. Furthermore, at the level of abstraction required to manage the variability of the systems, the development methodologies directed by use cases are not appropriate. For this reason, an architecture oriented approach is adopted: the ABD (Architecture Based Design Method), which starts from functional and quality requirements wide and abstract enough to include the entire domain. Such method is completed with the 4 views proposed by Hofmeister to express the conceptual view of the architecture with UML and to treat components and connectors as first class entities. ACROSET has been validated with different instantiations for the control units of various ship hull cleaning robots. Specifically, in this thesis the instantiation of ACROSET for the GOYA prototype and the family of robots in the EFTCoR project is presented. A didactic robot (4U4) has also been used to test different hardware/software combinations.Universidad Politécnica de CartagenaPrograma de doctorado en Tecnología electrónic

GOYA: a teleoperated system for blasting applied to ships maintenance

This paper presents the GOYA Project, a teleoperated system for blasting applied to hull cleaning in ship maintenance. The objective of the project is to develop a reliable and cost effective technology regarding hull grit blasting, obtaining a high quality surface preparation together with a dramatic reduction of waste and zero emissions to environment. Present technology for hull cleaning and the problematic in shipbuilding industry are analysed. Selection of blasting technologies and materials is also approached in this paper, showing the different tests carried out to achieve a hull surface cleanliness of SA 2 ½. The desing of the robot is also presented, showing aspects of mechanical, control unit, teleoperation system and blasting head design. It also shows the consecution of a smooth hull surface and the reduction of operation costs atmospheric contamination. It also eliminates the hard working conditions of the operators in the present manual operation. This work is supported by the Spanish government and the European Union (CICYT-FEDER) and is tested in BAZAN Co.The authors want to acknowledge the Spanish government and European Communities for CICYT-FEDER support (1FD97-0823). Additional funds support from BAZAN and Spanish Ministry of Industry (ATYCA)

An implemetation of a teleoperated robot control architecture on a PLC and field-bus based plarform

Teleoperated robots are used to perform hazardous tasks that human operators cannot carry out. The purpose of this paper is to present a new architecture (ACROSET) for the development of these systems that takes into account the current advances in robotic architectures while adopting the component-oriented approach. ACROSET provides a common framework for developing this kind of robotized systems and for integrating intelligent components. The architecture is currently being used, tested and improved in the development of a family of robots, teleoperated cranes and vehicles which perform environmentally friendly cleaning of ship-hull surfaces (the EFTCoR project). This paper summarises the features of this project and describes the implementation of ACROSET on a hardware platform based on a PLC (Programmed Logic Controller) SIEMENS SIMATIC S7-300 and the Field-Bus PROFIBUS DP

A path-level exact parallelization strategy for sequential simulation

Sequential Simulation is a well known method in geostatistical modelling. Following the Bayesian approach for simulation of conditionally dependent random events, Sequential Indicator Simulation (SIS) method draws simulated values for K categories (categorical case) or classes defined by K different thresholds (continuous case). Similarly, Sequential Gaussian Simulation (SGS) method draws simulated values from a multivariate Gaussian field. In this work, a path-level approach to parallelize SIS and SGS methods is presented. A first stage of re-arrangement of the simulation path is performed, followed by a second stage of parallel simulation for non-conflicting nodes. A key advantage of the proposed parallelization method is to generate identical realizations as with the original non-parallelized methods. Case studies are presented using two sequential simulation codes from GSLIB: SISIM and SGSIM. Execution time and speedup results are shown for large-scale domains, with many categories and maximum kriging neighbours in each case, achieving high speedup results in the best scenarios using 16 threads of execution in a single machine.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

A collaborative learning experience in modeling the requirements of teleoperated system for ship hull maintenance

This paper presents a join experience in modelling the requirements of the product line of teleoperated systems for ship hull maintenance, which are basically robotic systems used for ship maintenance operations, such as cleaning or painting the ship hull. It is proposed to specify the product line requirements through a feature model, a conceptual model, and a use case model, which together allow domain understanding, derivation of reusable product line requirements, and efficient decision-making in the specification of new systems developed in the product line. Action Research, a qualitative research method in software engineering, has been applied to define the collaborative research process

A reference control architecture for service robots implemented on a climbing vehicle

Teleoperated robots are used to perform hazardous tasks that human operators cannot carry out. The purpose of this paper is to present a new architecture (ACROSET) for the development of these systems that takes into account the current advances in robotic architectures while adopting the component-oriented approach. The architecture is currently being used, tested and improved in the development of an heterogeneous family of robots in the context of the EFTCoR project. It is also presented the Ada’95 implementation of ACROSET for a climbing robot.This work has been partially supported by European Union (GROWTH G3RD-CT- 00794) and the Spanish Government programs CICYT (TIC2003-07804-C05-02) and Seneca (PB/5/FS/02)

Service robot for hull-blasting

Present grit blasting technology for hull cleaning is very pollutant, environmentally unaffordable, and it is progressively forbidden in the most environmental countries (mainly north of Europe). At the time being, the above methodology has been partially substituted by ultra highpressure water blasting, however they do not show as good performance as the grit blasting systems. This paper describes a service robot for hull blasting. The technology we developed consists of the cleaning head, the robot body, the remote control unit and the teleoperation platform. This solution allows a reliable and cost effective operation regarding hull grit blasting, obtaining a high quality surface preparation (SA 2 ½) together with a dramatic reduction of waste and zero emissions to environment. A prototype of the robot has been developed and tested in IZAR shipyards. We presents the functional requirements, system concept and architecture of this robot. This work was supported by the Spanish government, the European Union (CICYT-FEDER)The authors want to acknowledge the Spanish government and European Communities for CICYT-FEDER support (1FD97-0823). Additional funds support from IZAR and Spanish Ministry of Industry (ATYCA)

Service robot for hull-blasting

Present grit blasting technology for hull cleaning is very pollutant, environmentally unaffordable, and it is progressively forbidden in the most environmental countries (mainly north of Europe). At the time being, the above methodology has been partially substituted by ultra highpressure water blasting, however they do not show as good performance as the grit blasting systems. This paper describes a service robot for hull blasting. The technology we developed consists of the cleaning head, the robot body, the remote control unit and the teleoperation platform. This solution allows a reliable and cost effective operation regarding hull grit blasting, obtaining a high quality surface preparation (SA 2 ½) together with a dramatic reduction of waste and zero emissions to environment. A prototype of the robot has been developed and tested in IZAR shipyards. We presents the functional requirements, system concept and architecture of this robot. This work was supported by the Spanish government, the European Union (CICYT-FEDER)The authors want to acknowledge the Spanish government and European Communities for CICYT-FEDER support (1FD97-0823). Additional funds support from IZAR and Spanish Ministry of Industry (ATYCA)

An Architectural Framework for Modeling Teleoperated service robots

Teleoperated robots are used to perform tasks that human operators cannot carry out because of the nature of the tasks themselves or the hostile nature of the working environment. Though many control architectures have been defined for developing these kinds of systems reusing common components, none has attained all its objectives because of the high variability of system behaviors. This paper presents a new architectural approach that takes into account the latest advances in robotic architectures while adopting a component-oriented approach. This approach provides a common framework for developing robotized systems with very different behaviors and for integrating intelligent components. The architecture is currently being used, tested and improved in the development of a family of teleoperated robots which perform cleaning of ship-hull surfaces.Este trabajo está parcialmente financiado por CICYT ref. TIC2003-07804-C05-02 y la Comunidad Autónoma de Murcia (Séneca PB/5/FS/02

A case study in performance evaluation of real-time teleoparation software architecture using UML-MAST

Reference architectures for specific domains can provide significant benefits in productivity and quality for real-time systems development. These systems require an exact characterization based on quantitative evaluation of architectural features refered to timing properties, such as performance, reliability, etc. In this work, an UML-based tool has been used to obtain a measure of performance between two alternative architectures. These architectures share the same functional components with different interaction patterns. The used technique is illustrated with an industrial and real case study in a well-known real-time domain: teleoperation systems. The obtained results show clear differences in performance between two architectures, giving a clear indication of which one is better from this point of viewFinanciado parcialmente por FEDER (TAP-1FD97-0823) y GROWTH (GRD2-2001-50004