USING ROBOT OPERATING SYSTEM FOR AUTONOMOUS CONTROL OF ROBOTS IN EUROBOT, ERC AND ROBOTOUR COMPETITIONS

This paper presents application of the Navigation Stack available in Robot Operating System as a basis for the autonomous control of the mobile robots developed for a few different robot competitions. We present three case studies

Evaluation of Simple Microphone-based Mechanomyography (MMG) Probe Sets for Hand Stiffness Classification

We describe simple to build mechanomyography sensors, with one or two channels, based on electret microphones. We evaluate their application as a source of information about the operator’s hand stiffness, which can be used for changing a robot’s gripper stiffness during teleoperation. We explain a data acquisition procedure for further employment of a machine-learning. Finally, we present the results of three experiments and various machine learning algorithms. support vector classification, random forests, and neural-network architectures (fullyconnected articial neural networks, recurrent, convolutional) were compared in two experiments. In first and second, two probes were used with a single participant, with probes displaced during learning and testing to evaluate the influence of probe placement on classifcation. In the third experiment, a dataset was collected using two probes and seven participants. As a result of the singleprobe tests, we achieved a (binary) classification accuracy of 94 % during the multi-probe tests, large crossparticipant differences in classifcation accuracy were noted, even when normalizing per-participant

The OmniTread serpentine robot with pneumatic joint actuation *

Abstract- This paper describes the design of a pneumatic joint actuation system for the OmniTread serpentine robot, developed at the University of Michigan. Serpentine robots are a new class of mobile robots with one unique characteristic: they have a very large ratio of length to diameter. To implement this unique shape, serpentine robots usually have multiple segments connected by joints. Some serpentine robots provide legged, wheeled, or tracked propulsion, and, in addition, actuation for the joints. In this paper we present a detailed analysis of pneumatic Integrated Joint Actuators (IJA) invented and built especially for serpentine robots. The IJA combines advantages of pneumatic bellows-like actuators with our proportional position and stiffness (PPS) control algorithm. Controllable stiffness is of crucial importance in serpentine robots, which require stiff joints to cross gaps and compliant joints to conform to rough terrain for effective propulsion. The paper also includes results of tests performed at the Southwest Research Institute. Index Terms – Serpentine robot, pneumatic, joint, actuator