Design and Development of an Automated Mobile Manipulator for Industrial Applications

This thesis presents the modeling, control and coordination of an automated mobile manipulator. A mobile manipulator in this investigation consists of a robotic manipulator and a mobile platform resulting in a hybrid mechanism that includes a mobile platform for locomotion and a manipulator arm for manipulation. The structural complexity of a mobile manipulator is the main challenging issue because it includes several problems like adapting a manipulator and a redundancy mobile platform at non-holonomic constraints. The objective of the thesis is to fabricate an automated mobile manipulator and develop control algorithms that effectively coordinate the arm manipulation and mobility of mobile platform. The research work starts with deriving the motion equations of mobile manipulators. The derivation introduced here makes use of motion equations of robot manipulators and mobile platforms separately, and then integrated them as one entity. The kinematic analysis is performed in two ways namely forward & inverse kinematics. The motion analysis is performed for various WMPs such as, Omnidirectional WMP, Differential three WMP, Three wheeled omni-steer WMP, Tricycle WMP and Two steer WMP. From the obtained motion analysis results, Differential three WMP is chosen as the mobile platform for the developed mobile manipulator. Later motion analysis is carried out for 4-axis articulated arm. Danvit-Hartenberg representation is implemented to perform forward kinematic analysis. Because of this representation, one can easily understand the kinematic equation for a robotic arm. From the obtained arm equation, Inverse kinematic model for the 4-axis robotic manipulator is developed. Motion planning of an intelligent mobile robot is one of the most vital issues in the field of robotics, which includes the generation of optimal collision free trajectories within its work space and finally reaches its target position. For solving this problem, two evolutionary algorithms namely Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Artificial Immune System (AIS) are introduced to move the mobile platform in intelligent manner. The developed algorithms are effective in avoiding obstacles, trap situations and generating optimal paths within its unknown environments. Once the robot reaches its goal (within the work space of the manipulator), the manipulator will generate its trajectories according to task assigned by the user. Simulation analyses are performed using MATLAB-2010 in order to validate the feasibility of the developed methodologies in various unknown environments. Additionally, experiments are carried out on an automated mobile manipulator. ATmega16 Microcontrollers are used to enable the entire robot system movement in desired trajectories by means of robot interface application program. The control program is developed in robot software (Keil) to control the mobile manipulator servomotors via a serial connection through a personal computer. To support the proposed control algorithms both simulation and experimental results are presented. Moreover, validation of the developed methodologies has been made with the ER-400 mobile platform

Case report- a rare survival of 2,4-D (ethyl ester) ingestions

2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (usually called 2,4-D) is a widely used systemic herbicide. Ingestion of 2,4 D (Ethyl Ester) is rarely reported. Ingestion of this substance leads to neurotoxicity, cardiotoxicity, hematotoxicity and nephrotoxicity. Previously reported cases describe toxicities of this agent with very high fatality, only 2 survived case reports are available. In our case the substance was identified readily and treatment started within hours of ingestion with prompt gastric lavage and forced alkaline diuresis. At the time of admission patient had already lost consciousness (i.e. neurotoxicity), patient had developed muscle fibrillations and fasciculations (i.e. myotoxicity) and during the hospital stay he got acute kidney injury (i.e. nephrotoxicity) but all toxicities recovered with treatment. Previously reported fatal cases had late identification of substance and only symptomatic supportive treatment was given whereas we used aggressive approach with forced diuresis and haemodialysis. We are reporting third survived case of 2,4-D (Ethyl Ester) poisoning and emphasizing key points in the management, early identification of substance, early institution of forced alkaline diuresis and use of renal function tests as prognostic marker with timely hemodialysis.

GRNN-Immune Based Strategy for Estimating and Optimizing the Vibratory Assisted Welding Parameters to Produce Quality Welded Joints

Welding is the process of producing permanent joints with the application of pressure and/or heat energy. During welding operation, weldments may be subjected to uneven thermal stresses. These stresses influence the metallurgical structure of the component. Due to this, the strength of the weld joint is reduced. Therefore, vibratory weld treatment during welding has been proposed in the present work to enhance the flexural and impact strength of weldments. However, it is found that the mechanical properties have shown nonlinear behavior with the chosen input parameters. Hence, an efficient Neural Network (NN) based prediction tool is developed to approximate the mechanical properties of weldments without performing the experiments, output values can be predicted for the given input values. Further, an immune based strategy is integrated to the developed prediction tool in order to obtain desired quality welded joints.Welding is the process of producing permanent joints with the application of pressure and/or heat energy. During welding operation, weldments may be subjected to uneven thermal stresses. These stresses influence the metallurgical structure of the component. Due to this, the strength of the weld joint is reduced. Therefore, vibratory weld treatment during welding has been proposed in the present work to enhance the flexural and impact strength of weldments. However, it is found that the mechanical properties have shown nonlinear behavior with the chosen input parameters. Hence, an efficient Neural Network (NN) based prediction tool is developed to approximate the mechanical properties of weldments without performing the experiments, output values can be predicted for the given input values. Further, an immune based strategy is integrated to the developed prediction tool in order to obtain desired quality welded joints

Processing and Testing of Epoxy Polymer Composites using Tender Palm Shoot Fiber and Aluminium Particles as Hybrid Reinforcements

Every year tons of plant and animal wastes are produced in the world. Some of these waste products may find some potential application in our day-to-day life. Also pure polymers are non-biodegradable and usually don’t possess requisite mechanical strength. For the first time, tender palm shoots are used as fiber reinforcement in the epoxy resin. The main objective is to compare and fabricate natural fiber reinforced hybrid epoxy composites with tender palm shoots, palymra fiber, as natural reinforcements which are generally leftovers and Aluminium powder as conductive filler by hand lay-up process at various weight percentages. Different mechanical properties, water absorption characteristics, flammability and electrical conductivity are evaluated as per ASTM standards. The test results show that these composites can be used as alternative materials for low tensile and high impact applications

Delicate f(R) gravity models with disappearing cosmological constant and observational constraints on the model parameters

We study the $f(R)$ theory of gravity using metric approach. In particular we investigate the recently proposed model by Hu-Sawicki, Appleby $-$ Battye and Starobinsky. In this model, the cosmological constant is zero in flat space time. The model passes both the Solar system and the laboratory tests. But the model parameters need to be fine tuned to avoid the finite time singularity recently pointed in the literature. We check the concordance of this model with the $H(z)$ and baryon acoustic oscillation data. We find that the model resembles the $\Lambda$CDM at high redshift. However, for some parameter values there are variations in the expansion history of the universe at low redshift.Comment: 16 pages and 9 figures, typos corrected, few references and minor clarifications added, revised version to appera in PR

Breakdown of Simple Scaling in Abelian Sandpile Models in One Dimension

We study the abelian sandpile model on decorated one dimensional chains. We determine the structure and the asymptotic form of distribution of avalanche-sizes in these models, and show that these differ qualitatively from the behavior on a simple linear chain. We find that the probability distribution of the total number of topplings $s$ on a finite system of size $L$ is not described by a simple finite size scaling form, but by a linear combination of two simple scaling forms $Prob_L(s) = 1/L f_1(s/L) + 1/L^2 f_2(s/L^2)$, for large $L$, where $f_1$ and $f_2$ are some scaling functions of one argument.Comment: 10 pages, revtex, figures include

An Exactly Solvable Anisotropic Directed Percolation Model in Three Dimensions

We solve exactly a special case of the anisotropic directed bond percolation problem in three dimensions, in which the occupation probability is 1 along two spatial directions, by mapping it to a five-vertex model. We determine the asymptotic shape of the ininite cluster and hence the direction dependent critical probability. The exponents characterising the fluctuations of the boundary of the wetted cluster in d-dimensions are related to those of the (d-2)-dimensional KPZ equation.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex, 4 figures. 1 reference added, minor change

Black Hole Mergers and Unstable Circular Orbits

We describe recent numerical simulations of the merger of a class of equal mass, non-spinning, eccentric binary black hole systems in general relativity. We show that with appropriate fine-tuning of the initial conditions to a region of parameter space we denote the threshold of immediate merger, the binary enters a phase of close interaction in a near-circular orbit, stays there for an amount of time proportional to logarithmic distance from the threshold in parameter space, then either separates or merges to form a single Kerr black hole. To gain a better understanding of this phenomena we study an analogous problem in the evolution of equatorial geodesics about a central Kerr black hole. A similar threshold of capture exists for appropriate classes of initial conditions, and tuning to threshold the geodesics approach one of the unstable circular geodesics of the Kerr spacetime. Remarkably, with a natural mapping of the parameters of the geodesic to that of the equal mass system, the scaling exponent describing the whirl phase of each system turns out to be quite similar. Armed with this lone piece of evidence that an approximate correspondence might exist between near-threshold evolution of geodesics and generic binary mergers, we illustrate how this information can be used to estimate the cross section and energy emitted in the ultra relativistic black hole scattering problem. This could eventually be of use in providing estimates for the related problem of parton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider in extra dimension scenarios where black holes are produced.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures; updated to coincide with journal versio

Neutrino opacity in magnetised hot and dense nuclear matter

We study the neutrino interaction rates in hot matter at high densities in the presence of uniform magnetic field. The neutrino cross-sections involving both the charged current absorption and neutral current scattering reactions on baryons and leptons have been considered. We have in particular considered the interesting case when the magnetic field is strong enough to completely polarise the protons and electrons in supernovae and neutron stars. The opacity in such a situation is considerably modified and the cross-section develops anisotropy. This has implications for phenomenon invoked in the literature to explain the observed pulsar kicks.Comment: 22 latex pages and 7 postscript figure

Feasibility studies of the time-like proton electromagnetic form factor measurements with PANDA at FAIR

The possibility of measuring the proton electromagnetic form factors in the time-like region at FAIR with the \PANDA detector is discussed. Detailed simulations on signal efficiency for the annihilation of $\bar p +p$ into a lepton pair as well as for the most important background channels have been performed. It is shown that precision measurements of the differential cross section of the reaction $\bar p +p \to e^++ e^-$ can be obtained in a wide angular and kinematical range. The individual determination of the moduli of the electric and magnetic proton form factors will be possible up to a value of momentum transfer squared of $q^2\simeq 14$ (GeV/c)$^2$. The total $\bar p +p\to e^++e^-$ cross section will be measured up to $q^2\simeq 28$ (GeV/c)$^2$. The results obtained from simulated events are compared to the existing data. Sensitivity to the two photons exchange mechanism is also investigated.Comment: 12 pages, 4 tables, 8 figures Revised, added details on simulations, 4 tables, 9 figure