roboterfabrik : A Pilot to Link and Unify German Robotics Education to Match Industrial and Societal Demands

In this paper we introduce a novel robotics education concept entitled roboterfabrik. This approach is already implemented as a pilot project in the German educational system. Overall, we promote establishing the first generation of robotic natives. For this we need to provide both practical and theoretical experience in robotics to young people and give them access to state-of-the art, high performance yet affordable industrial robotic technology. Specifically, our approach systematically connects different existing school types, universities as well as companies. It comprises specialized lectures at the university, certified workshops and Robothons which are derived from the hackathon concept, and modified to the demand of roboticists

First analysis and experiments in aerial manipulation using fully actuated redundant robot arm

Abstract-In this paper we describe a system for aerial manipulation composed of a helicopter platform and a fully actuated seven Degree of Freedom (DoF) redundant industrial robotic arm. We present the first analysis of such kind of systems and show that the dynamic coupling between helicopter and arm can generate diverging oscillations with very slow frequency which we called phase circles. Based on the presented analysis, we propose a control approach for the whole system. The partial decoupling between helicopter and arm -which eliminates the phase circles -is achieved by means of special movement of robotic arm utilizing its redundant DoF. For the underlying arm control a specially designed impedance controller was proposed. In different flight experiments we showcase that the proposed kind of system type might be used in the future for practically relevant tasks. In an integrated experiment we demonstrate a basic manipulation task -impedance based grasping of an object from the environment underlaying a visual object tracking control loop

Modular state-based behavior control for safe human-robot interaction: A lightweight control architecture for a lightweight robot

In this paper we present a novel control architecture for realizing human-friendly behaviors and intuitive state based programming. The design implements strategies that take advantage of sophisticated soft-robotics features for providing reactive, robust, and safe robot actions in dynamic environments. Quick access to the various functionalities of the robot enables the user to develop flexible hybrid state automata for programming robot behaviors. The real-time robot control takes care of all safety critical aspects and provides reactive reflexes that directly respond to external stimuli

Playing billard with an anthropomorphic robot arm

The intention of this work is to investigate the possibility of playing billiard with the DLR Light Weight Robot III (DLR-LWR III). Playing billiard with such a robot is due to the necessity to combine strategic planning capabilities, precise vision, and accurate robot control a challenging task to be performed. In contrast to existing approaches, where an active cue acceleration device is used to achieve the velocity for striking a ball, we directly generate this with the robot. For this purpose an experimental billiard table was set up. Furthermore, a set of randomly placed billiard balls are localized and identified with a computer vision system. In order to properly plan shots according to the particular situation, an artificial intelligence was developed, which is capable of analyzing a given table state and choose an appropriate shot. In order to accomplish this task, a custom made cue end effector was constructed. To show the systems abilities, experiments are performed, verifying the accuracy and success rate of the vision system and simulation results for performing the entire loop are presented

Safe Acting and Manipulation in Human Environments: A Key Concept for Robots in our Society

In this paper we review our work on safe acting and manipulation in human environments. In order for a robot to be able to safely interact with its environment it is primary to be able to react to unforeseen events in real-time on basically all levels of abstraction. Having this goal in mind, our contributions reach from fundamental understanding of human injury due to robot-human collisions as the underlying metric for “safe” behavior, various interaction control schemes that ground on the basic components impedance control and collision behavior, to real-time motion planning and behavior based control as an interface level for task planning. A significant amount of this work has found found its way into international standardization committees, products, and was applied in numerous real-world applications

Exploiting potential energy storage for cyclic manipulation: A Human-Centered Approach to Robot Gesture Based Communication within Collaborative Working Processes

The increasing ability of industrial robots to perform complex tasks in collaboration with humans requires more capable ways of communication and interaction. Traditional systems use separate interfaces such as touchscreens or control panels in order to operate the robot, or to communicate its state and prospective actions to the user. Transferring human communication, such as gestures to technical non-humanoid robots, creates various opportunities for more intuitive humanrobot- interaction. Interaction shall no longer require a separate interface such as a control panel. Instead, it should take place directly between human and robot. To explore intuitive interaction, we identified gestures that are relevant for co-working tasks from human observations. Based on a decomposition approach we transferred them to robotic systems of increasing abstraction and experimentally evaluated how well these gestures are recognized by humans. We created a humanrobot interaction use-case in order to perform the task of handling dangerous liquid. Results indicate that several gestures are well perceived when displayed with context information regarding the task

Experimental Safety Study on Soft-tissue Injury in Robotics

This paper presents a novel human-like learning controller to interact with unknown environments. Strictly derived from the minimization of instability, motion error, and effort, the controller compensates for the disturbance in the environment in interaction tasks by adapting feedforward force and impedance. In contrast with conventional learning controllers, the new controller can deal with unstable situations that are typical of tool use and gradually acquire a desired stabilitymargin. Simulations showthat this controller is a good model of humanmotor adaptation.Robotic implementations further demonstrate its capabilities to optimally adapt interaction with dynamic environments and humans in joint torque controlled robots and variable impedance actuators, without requiring interaction force sensing

Human-Like Adaptation of Force and Impedance in Stable and Unstable Interactions

Abstract— This paper presents a novel human-like learning controller to interact with unknown environments. Strictly derived from the minimization of instability, motion error, and effort, the controller compensates for the disturbance in the environment in interaction tasks by adapting feedforward force and impedance. In contrast with conventional learning controllers, the new controller can deal with unstable situations that are typical of tool use and gradually acquire a desired stability margin. Simulations show that this controller is a good model of human motor adaptation. Robotic implementations further demonstrate its capabilities to optimally adapt interaction with dynamic environments and humans in joint torque controlled robots and variable impedance actuators, without requiring interaction force sensin