Modeling and verification of distributed control scheme for mobile robots

Journal ArticleIn this report we present a sensor-based distributed control scheme for mobile robots. This scheme combines centralized and decentralized control strategies. Each group of sensors is considered to be a process that performs sensing and carries out local control tasks as well. Besides these processes, there is a central controller that carries out global goals utilizing sensor readings on a need to know bases. In this scheme, the sensors communicate with the central controller, and also may communicate with each other. Communication protocols has been defined and an abstract model for the proposed control scheme was built. Formal verification techniques were used to verify the correctness of these protocols as well as some desired properties of the proposed scheme. The advantages of this scheme over the centralized scheme is that it increases system modularity and flexibility and provides graceful degradation in case of failure of some of the sensors. The results of verifying and simulating this model are presented with a brief discussion and conclusion on these results

A dynamic recursive structure for intelligent inspection

technical reportWe suggest a new approach for inspection and reverse engineering applications. In particular we investigate the use of discrete event dynamic systems DEDS to guide and control the active exploration and sensing of mechanical parts for industrial inspection and reverse engineering?? We introduce dynamic recursive nite state machines DRFSM as a new DEDS tool for utilizing the recursive nature of the mechanical parts under consideration?? The proposed framework uses DRFSM DEDS for constructing an observer for exploration and inspection purposes?? ?

Robotic prototyping environment (Progress report)

Journal ArticlePrototyping is an important activity in engineering. Prototype development is a good test for checking the viability of a proposed system. Prototypes can also help in determining system parameters, ranges, or in designing better systems. The interaction between several modules (e.g., S/W, VLSI, CAD, CAM, Robotics, and Control) illustrates an interdisciplinary prototyping environment that includes radically different types of information, combined in a coordinated way. Developing an environment that enables optimal and flexible design of robot manipulators using reconfigurable links, joints, actuators, and sensors is an essential step for efficient robot design and prototyping. Such an environment should have the right "mix" of software and hardware components for designing the physical parts and the controllers, and for the algorithmic control of the robot modules (kinematics, inverse kinematics, dynamics, trajectory planning, analog control and digital computer control). Specifying object-based communications and catalog mechanisms between the software modules, controllers, physical parts, CAD designs, and actuator and sensor components is a necessary step in the prototyping activities. We propose a flexible prototyping environment for robot manipulators with the required sub-systems and interfaces between the different components of this environment

UPE: Utah prototyping environment for robot manipulators

Journal ArticleDeveloping an environment that enables optimal and flexible design of robot manipulators using reconfigurable links, joints, actuators, and sensors is an essential step for efficient robot design and prototyping. Such an environment should have the right "mix" of software and hardware components for designing the physical parts and the controllers, and for the algorithmic control of the robot modules (kinematics, inverse kinematics, dynamics, trajectory planning, analog control and digital computer control). Specifying object-based communications and catalog mechanisms between the software modules, controllers, physical parts, CAD designs, and actuator and sensor components is a necessary step in the prototyping activities. In this paper, we propose a flexible prototyping environment for robot manipulators with the required subsystems and interfaces between the different components of this environment

A dynamic recursive structure for intelligent exploration

technical reportWe suggest a new approach for inspection and reverse engineering applications. In particular, we investigate the use of discrete event dynamic systems (DEDS) to guide and control the active exploration and sensing of mechanical parts for industrial inspection and reverse engineering. We introduce dynamic recursive finite state machines (DRFSM) as a new DEDS tool for utilizing the recursive nature of the mechanical parts under consideration. The proposed framework uses DRFSM DFJ)S. for constructing an observer for exploration and inspection purposes

Discrete event control for inspection and reverse engineering

Journal ArticleWe address the problem of intelligent sensing in this work. In particular, we use discrete event dynamic systems (DEDS) to guide the sensing of mechanical parts for industrial inspection and reverse engineering

Sensor-based distributed control scheme for mobile robots

Journal ArticleIn this paper we present a sensor-based distributed control scheme for mobile robots. This scheme combines centralized and decentralized control strategies. A server-client model is used to implement this scheme where the server is a process that caries out the commands to be executed, and each client is a process with a certain task. The clients are running in parallel issuing commands to the server which selects the command to be executed based on a predefined priority scheme. In this scheme, a collision avoidance client is running all the time with the highest priority. This improves the performance of the other clients since it removes the burden of avoiding obstacles and allows each client to concentrate on performing its task. The logical sensor approach is used to model the sensory system which provides different levels of data representation with tolerance measures and analysis. The simulation results of this model are presented with a brief discussion and conclusion on these results

Prototyping environment for robot manipulators

Journal ArticlePrototyping is an important activity in engineering. Prototype development is a good test for checking the viability of a proposed system. Prototypes can also help in determining system parameters, ranges, or in designing better systems. We are proposing a prototyping environment for electro-mechanical systems, and we chosen a 3-link robot manipulator as an example. In Designing a robot manipulator, the interaction between several modules (S/W, VLSI, CAD, CAM, Robotics, and Control) illustrates an interdisciplinary prototyping environment that includes different types of information that are radically different but combined in a coordinated way. This environment will enable optimal and flexible design using reconfigurable links, joints, actuators, and sensors. Such an environment should have the right "mix" of software and hardware components for designing the physical parts and the controllers, and for the algorithmic control for the robot modules (kinematics, inverse kinematics, dynamics, trajectory planning, analog control and computer (digital) control). Specifying object-based communications and catalog mechanisms between the software modules, controllers, physical parts, CAD designs, and actuator and sensor components is a necessary step in the prototyping activities. In this report a framework for flexible prototyping environment for robot manipulators is proposed along with the required sub-systems and interfaces between the different components of this environment

URK: Utah robot kit - A 3-link robot manipulator prototype

Journal ArticleIn designing robot manipulators, the interaction between several modules (S/W, VLSI, CAD, CAM, Robotics, and Control) illustrates an interdisciplinary prototyping environment that includes different types of information that are radically different but combined in a coordinated way. This paper describes the analysis and design of a 3-link robot manipulator prototype as part of a research project for building a prototyping environment for electro-mechanical systems. This prototype robot will be used as an educational tool in robotics and control classes

Sensor-based distributed control scheme for mobile robots

technical reportIn this paper we present a sensor-based distributed control scheme for mobile robots. This scheme combines centralized and decentralized control strategies. A server-client model is used to implement this scheme where the server is a process that caries out the commands to be executed, and each client is a process with a certain task. The clients are running in parallel issuing commands to the server which selects the command to be executed based on a predefined priority scheme. In this scheme, a collision avoidance client is running all the time with the highest priority. This improves the performance of the other clients since it removes the burden of avoiding obstacles and allows each client to concentrate on performing its task. Some aspects of tolerance analysis are investigated and incorporated in the proposed scheme. The logical sensor approach is used to model the sensory system which provides different levels of data representation with tolerance measures and analysis. The simulation results of this model are presented with a brief discussion and conclusion on these results