4,335 research outputs found
On the simulation of space based manipulators with contact
An efficient method of simulating the motion of space based manipulators is presented. Since the manipulators will come into contact with different objects in their environment while carrying out different tasks, an important part of the simulation is the modeling of those contacts. An inverse dynamics controller is used to control a two armed manipulator whose task is to grasp an object floating in space. Simulation results are presented and an evaluation is made of the performance of the controller
Adaptive control of space based robot manipulators
For space based robots in which the base is free to move, motion planning and control is complicated by uncertainties in the inertial properties of the manipulator and its load. A new adaptive control method is presented for space based robots which achieves globally stable trajectory tracking in the presence of uncertainties in the inertial parameters of the system. A partition is made of the fifteen degree of freedom system dynamics into two parts: a nine degree of freedom invertible portion and a six degree of freedom noninvertible portion. The controller is then designed to achieve trajectory tracking of the invertible portion of the system. This portion consist of the manipulator joint positions and the orientation of the base. The motion of the noninvertible portion is bounded, but unpredictable. This portion consist of the position of the robot's base and the position of the reaction wheel
Tele-autonomous systems: New methods for projecting and coordinating intelligent action at a distance
There is a growing need for humans to perform complex remote operations and to extend the intelligence and experience of experts to distant applications. It is asserted that a blending of human intelligence, modern information technology, remote control, and intelligent autonomous systems is required, and have coined the term tele-autonomous technology, or tele-automation, for methods producing intelligent action at a distance. Tele-automation goes beyond autonomous control by blending in human intelligence. It goes beyond tele-operation by incorporating as much autonomy as possible and/or reasonable. A new approach is discussed for solving one of the fundamental problems facing tele-autonomous systems: The need to overcome time delays due to telemetry and signal propagation. New concepts are introduced called time and position clutches, that allow the time and position frames between the local user control and the remote device being controlled, to be desynchronized respectively. The design and implementation of these mechanisms are described in detail. It is demonstrated that these mechanisms lead to substantial telemanipulation performance improvements, including the result of improvements even in the absence of time delays. The new controls also yield a simple protocol for control handoffs of manipulation tasks between local operators and remote systems
The application of NASREM to remote robot control
The implementation of a remote robot controller, wherein the distance to the remote robot causes significant communication time delays is described. The NASREM telrobot control architecture is used as a basis for the implementation of the system. Levels 1 through 4 of the hierarchy were implemented. The solution to the problems encounterd during the implementation and those which are unique to remote robot control are described
Tele-Autonomous control involving contact
Object localization and its application in tele-autonomous systems are studied. Two object localization algorithms are presented together with the methods of extracting several important types of object features. The first algorithm is based on line-segment to line-segment matching. Line range sensors are used to extract line-segment features from an object. The extracted features are matched to corresponding model features to compute the location of the object. The inputs of the second algorithm are not limited only to the line features. Featured points (point to point matching) and featured unit direction vectors (vector to vector matching) can also be used as the inputs of the algorithm, and there is no upper limit on the number of the features inputed. The algorithm will allow the use of redundant features to find a better solution. The algorithm uses dual number quaternions to represent the position and orientation of an object and uses the least squares optimization method to find an optimal solution for the object's location. The advantage of using this representation is that the method solves for the location estimation by minimizing a single cost function associated with the sum of the orientation and position errors and thus has a better performance on the estimation, both in accuracy and speed, than that of other similar algorithms. The difficulties when the operator is controlling a remote robot to perform manipulation tasks are also discussed. The main problems facing the operator are time delays on the signal transmission and the uncertainties of the remote environment. How object localization techniques can be used together with other techniques such as predictor display and time desynchronization to help to overcome these difficulties are then discussed
Integer Maxima in Power Envelopes of Golay Codewords
This paper examines the distribution of integer peaks amoung Golay cosets in Ζ4. It will prove that the envelope power of at least one element of every Golay coset of Ζ4 of length 2m (for m-even) will have a maximum at exactly 2m+1. Similarly it will be proven that one element of every Golay coset of Ζ4 of length 2m (for m-odd) will have a maximum at exactly 2m+1. Observations and partial arguments will be made about why Golay cosets of Ζ4 of length 2m (for m-even) contain no elements with such a peak
Clean Kinematic Samples in Dwarf Spheroidals: An Algorithm for Evaluating Membership and Estimating Distribution Parameters When Contamination is Present
(abridged) We develop an algorithm for estimating parameters of a
distribution sampled with contamination, employing a statistical technique
known as ``expectation maximization'' (EM). Given models for both member and
contaminant populations, the EM algorithm iteratively evaluates the membership
probability of each discrete data point, then uses those probabilities to
update parameter estimates for member and contaminant distributions. The EM
approach has wide applicability to the analysis of astronomical data. Here we
tailor an EM algorithm to operate on spectroscopic samples obtained with the
Michigan-MIKE Fiber System (MMFS) as part of our Magellan survey of stellar
radial velocities in nearby dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies. These samples are
presented in a companion paper and contain discrete measurements of
line-of-sight velocity, projected position, and Mg index for ~1000 - 2500 stars
per dSph, including some fraction of contamination by foreground Milky Way
stars. The EM algorithm quantifies both dSph and contaminant distributions,
returning maximum-likelihood estimates of the means and variances, as well as
the probability that each star is a dSph member. Applied to our MMFS data, the
EM algorithm identifies more than 5000 probable dSph members. We test the
performance of the EM algorithm on simulated data sets that represent a range
of sample size, level of contamination, and amount of overlap between dSph and
contaminant velocity distributions. The simulations establish that for samples
ranging from large (N ~3000) to small (N~30), the EM algorithm distinguishes
members from contaminants and returns accurate parameter estimates much more
reliably than conventional methods of contaminant removal (e.g., sigma
clipping).Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal. Download pdf
with full-resolution figures from
http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~walker/dsph_em.pd
New concepts in tele-autonomous systems
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76226/1/AIAA-1987-1686-200.pd
Exploring the Chemical Composition and Double Horizontal Branch of the Bulge Globular Cluster NGC 6569
Photometric and spectroscopic analyses have shown that the Galactic bulge
cluster Terzan 5 hosts several populations with different metallicities and
ages that manifest as a double red horizontal branch (HB). A recent
investigation of the massive bulge cluster NGC 6569 revealed a similar, though
less extended, HB luminosity split, but little is known about the cluster's
detailed chemical composition. Therefore, we have used high-resolution spectra
from the Magellan-M2FS and VLT-FLAMES spectrographs to investigate the chemical
compositions and radial velocity distributions of red giant branch and HB stars
in NGC 6569. We found the cluster to have a mean heliocentric radial velocity
of -48.8 km/s (sigma = 5.3 km/s; 148 stars) and a mean [Fe/H] =-0.87 dex (19
stars), but the cluster's 0.05 dex [Fe/H] dispersion precludes a significant
metallicity spread. NGC 6569 exhibits light- and heavy-element distributions
that are common among old bulge/inner Galaxy globular clusters, including clear
(anti)correlations between [O/Fe], [Na/Fe], and [Al/Fe]. The light-element data
suggest that NGC 6569 may be composed of at least two distinct populations, and
the cluster's low mean [La/Eu] = -0.11 dex indicates significant pollution with
r-process material. We confirm that both HBs contain cluster members, but
metallicity and light-element variations are largely ruled out as sources for
the luminosity difference. However, He mass fraction differences as small as
delta Y ~ 0.02 cannot be ruled out and may be sufficient to reproduce the
double HB.Comment: 72 pages, 14 figures, 8 tables; published in The Astronomical
Journal; electronic versions of all tables are available in the published
versio
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