Optimal Kinematic Design of a Robotic Lizard using Four-Bar and Five-Bar Mechanisms

Designing a mechanism to mimic the motion of a common house gecko is the objective of this work. The body of the robot is designed using four five-bar mechanisms (2-RRRRR and 2-RRPRR) and the leg is designed using four four-bar mechanisms. The 2-RRRRR five-bar mechanisms form the head and tail of the robotic lizard. The 2-RRPRR five-bar mechanisms form the left and right sides of the body in the robotic lizard. The four five-bar mechanisms are actuated by only four rotary actuators. Of these, two actuators control the head movements and the other two control the tail movements. The RRPRR five-bar mechanism is controlled by one actuator from the head five-bar mechanism and the other by the tail five-bar mechanism. A tension spring connects each active link to a link in the four bar mechanism. When the robot is actuated, the head, tail and the body moves, and simultaneously each leg moves accordingly. This kind of actuation where the motion transfer occurs from body of the robot to the leg is the novelty in our design. The dimensional synthesis of the robotic lizard is done and presented. Then the forward and inverse kinematics of the mechanism, and configuration space singularities identification for the robot are presented. The gait exhibited by the gecko is studied and then simulated. A computer aided design of the robotic lizard is created and a prototype is made by 3D printing the parts. The prototype is controlled using Arduino UNO as a micro-controller. The experimental results are finally presented based on the gait analysis that was done earlier. The forward walking, and turning motion are done and snapshots are presented.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures, Submitted for iNaCoMM 2023 conferenc

Design and Motion Planning of a Wheeled Type Pipeline Inspection Robot

The most popular method for transporting fluids, and gases is through pipelines. For them to work correctly, regular inspection is necessary. Humans must enter potentially dangerous environments to inspect pipelines. As a result, pipeline robots came into existence. These robots aid in pipeline inspection, protecting numerous people from harm. Despite numerous improvements, pipeline robots still have several limitations. This paper presents the design and motion planning of a wheeled type pipeline inspection robot that can inspect pipelines having an inner diameter between 250 mm to 350 mm. The traditional wheeled robot design has three wheels fixed symmetrically at a 120° angle apart from each other. When maneuvering through a curved pipeline, this robot encounters motion singularity. The proposed robot fixes the wheels at different angles to address this issue, allowing the robot to stay in constant contact with the pipe's surface. Motion analysis is done for the proposed and existing robot design to study their behavior inside the pipeline. The result shows that the proposed robot avoids motion singularity and improves mobility inside pipelines. 3d printing technology aids in the development of the proposed robot. The experimental tests on the developed robot inside a 300 mm-diameter straight and curved pipeline show that the robot avoids motion singularity

Evaluation of Robotic Ankle-Foot Orthosis with Different Actuators Using Simscape Multibody for Foot-Drop Patients

Gait cycle plays a major role in human locomotion. Patients with neuromuscular problems are unable to walk normally. Foot drop causes difficulty in lifting the front part of the foot and affects the dorsiflexion (DF) and plantar flexion (PF) motion of the foot. Patient with foot drop must use ankle braces to achieve a normal gait. The existing ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) has its own limitations, as it does not produce adequate PF motion. To overcome this scenario, a study was conducted to analyse the two-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) motion of a robotic ankle foot orthosis (RAFO) with a spring-based series elastic actuator (SEA) and scissor actuator. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the two DOF of RAFO with two different actuators using simscape multibody. The RAFO with actuators were designed using Solidworks, and simulation was carried out using simscape multibody, to analyse the 2-DOF motion. The dynamic motion analysis was carried out using block libraries, bodies, joints, constraints, revolute joints, sensors and a proportional integral (PI) controller. From the simulation results, the total range of motion (ROM) 40° (PF angle of –25° and DF angle of 15°) is achieved by the proposed RAFO with different actuators. Further, based on the results, the input power consumption of spring-based SEA was found to be less than the scissor actuator. Similarly, torque and output power generation of the scissor actuator was found to be greater than spring-based SEA to achieve the normal human ROM. Hence, the designer can choose a hybrid actuator for foot-drop-disorder applications

Towards Sustainable Transport In Bangkok

High road congestion in developing countries leads to inefficient energy consumption and pollution, and dealing with such issues in cities like Bangkok is complex as per the underdeveloped transport infrastructure and typically poor and fragmented prior urban planning. In reviewing the literature, these problems are evidenced and discussed and have led to fewer passengers travelling through the public transport system in cities like Bangkok in Thailand as compared to those favoring private cars, which is a sub-optimal and unsustainable transport mode when compared to say, London in the UK. Developing country scenarios such as such requires a low-cost investment strategy. Thus, steps towards integrated passenger and goods transport services to improve public transport and logistics are presented in this paper. The strategy proposed aims to utilize the existing and emerging resources and technology synergy with improving transport system ICT frameworks to promote more innovative and sustainable transport. Research indicates that the factors that promote integrated passengers and goods transport schemes can be categorized as those which: 1) Require organizational cooperation efforts such as the cooperation between the public and private organizations (electric train and ride-hailing services), 2) Technology that could enable information sharing and technological solutions to tackle sustainability issues and synergy with the improvement of current transport systems, and 3) Infrastructure and resource sharing to utilize current resources such as electric trains and stations are assumed to act as a consolidation and distribution centers with the synergy of technology. Investigation of data in this research found that integrated passengers and goods transportation to public transport scheme will be best to apply during off-peak hours to promote resource utilization, as there is spare capacity for electric trains during that time. GPS taxi probe data records also indicate that commuters would seem to be adopting ride-hailing services in conjunction with electric trains for travel from the outer area of Bangkok, which lacks public transport accessibility, and that the density of demand is less than in the center of Bangkok. However, the usefulness of integrated passenger and goods transport services to public transport schemes will increase if travel and parcel delivery services can be integrated with services from both ride-hailing applications and the electric train system. We conclude with observations and future work, for example, that ride-hailing services may be overlooked because transport fares are currently too high when using ride-hailing together with electric trains, and ICT intervention to increase the efficiency of the former and journey management to reduce on-peak pressure of the latter may be beneficial.</p

A Novel Approach for Disaster Victim Detection Under Debris Environments Using Decision Tree Algorithms With Deep Learning Features

Search and Rescue operations for victim identification in an unstructured collapsed building are high-risk and time-consuming. The possibility of saving a victim is high only during the first 48 hours, and then the prospect tends to zero. The faster the response and identification, the sooner the victim can be taken to medical assistance. Combining mobile robots with practical Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven Human Victim Detection (HVD) systems managed by professional teams can considerably reduce this problem. In this paper, we have developed a Transfer Learning-based Deep Learning approach to identify human victims under collapsed building environments by integrating machine learning classification algorithms. A custom-made human victim dataset was created with five class labels: head, hand, leg, upper body, and without the body. First, we extracted the class-wise features of the dataset using fine-tuning-based transfer learning on ResNet-50 deep learning model. The learned features of the model were then extracted, and then a feature selection was performed using J48 to study the impact of feature reduction in classification. Several decision tree algorithms, including decision stump, hoeffiding tree, J48, Linear Model Tree (LMT), Random Forest, Random Tree, Representative (REP) Tree, J48 graft, and other famous algorithms like LibSVM, Logistic regression, Multilayer perceptron, BayesNet, Naive Bayes are then used to perform the classification. The classification accuracy of the abovementioned algorithms is compared to recommend the optimal approach for real-time use. The random tree approach outperformed all other tree-based algorithms with a maximum classification accuracy of 99.53&#x0025; and a computation time of 0.02 seconds

A comprehensive review of wearable assistive robotic devices used for head and neck rehabilitation

Numerous risk factors for musculoskeletal pain have been identified in the survey, including physical risk factors such as high-intensity exercises, trauma, ageing, dizziness, accidents and damages owing to wear and tear of daily activities. These physical risk factors effect cervical spine, cause dysfunction, reduce the range of motion and coordination ability, and also affect their activities of daily living (ADL). The present scenario for treating individuals suffering from neck pain is through the use of static braces which helps keeping the patient head steady from dropping. However, the use of static braces can help stopping the head drop but the head is immobilized and restricted to a single configuration, which inevitably leads to the muscle strain. This motivated researchers and engineers to develop mechatronics based wearable assistive devices at low and affordable cost to effectively aid, mimic and restore the natural active range of motions. Research on dynamic neck braces for restoration of head/neck movements for individuals suffering with neck muscle weakness is limited, due to minimal space availability to incorporate a mechanism between head and shoulder. The main objective of this study is to carry out an extensive and detailed survey on the existing conventional and wearable assistive devices that aid the individuals to assist in achieving their head/neck motions, recent trends in assistive devices, incorporation of various sensors, actuators, and control techniques for achieving optimal head/neck range of motion