60 research outputs found
Differential-Flatness and Control of Quadrotor(s) with a Payload Suspended through Flexible Cable(s)
We present the coordinate-free dynamics of three different quadrotor systems
: (a) single quadrotor with a point-mass payload suspended through a flexible
cable; (b) multiple quadrotors with a shared point-mass payload suspended
through flexible cables; and (c) multiple quadrotors with a shared rigid-body
payload suspended through flexible cables. We model the flexible cable(s) as a
finite series of links with spherical joints with mass concentrated at the end
of each link. The resulting systems are thus high-dimensional with high
degree-of-underactuation. For each of these systems, we show that the dynamics
are differentially-flat, enabling planning of dynamically feasible
trajectories. For the single quadrotor with a point-mass payload suspended
through a flexible cable with five links (16 degrees-of-freedom and 12
degrees-of-underactuation), we use the coordinate-free dynamics to develop a
geometric variation-based linearized equations of motion about a desired
trajectory. We show that a finite-horizon linear quadratic regulator can be
used to track a desired trajectory with a relatively large region of
attraction
Feedback Control of a Bipedal Walker and Runner with Compliance.
This dissertation contributes to the theoretical foundations of robotic bipedal locomotion and advances the experimental state of the art as well. On the theoretical side, a mathematical formalism for designing provably stable, walking and running gaits in bipedal robots with compliance is presented. A key contribution is a novel method of force control in robots with compliance. The theoretical work is validated experimentally on MABEL, a planar bipedal testbed that contains springs in its drivetrain for the purpose of enhancing both energy efficiency and agility of dynamic locomotion. While the potential energetic benefits of springs are well documented in the literature, feedback control designs that effectively realize this potential are lacking. The methods of virtual constraints and hybrid zero dynamics, originally developed for rigid robots with a single degree of underactuation, are extended and applied to MABEL, which has a novel compliant transmission and multiple degrees of underactuation. A time-invariant feedback controller is designed such that the closed-loop system respects the natural compliance of the open-loop system and realizes exponentially stable walking gaits. A second time-invariant feedback controller is designed such that the closed-loop system not only respects the natural compliance of the open-loop system, but also enables active force control within the compliant hybrid zero dynamics and results in exponentially stable running gaits.
Several experiments are presented that highlight different aspects of MABEL and the feedback design method, ranging from basic elements such as stable walking, robustness under perturbations, energy efficient walking to a bipedal robot walking speed record of 1.5 m/s (3.4 mph), stable running with passive feet and with point feet. On MABEL, the full hybrid zero dynamics controller is implemented and was instrumental in achieving rapid walking and running, leading upto a kneed bipedal running speed record of 3.06 m/s (6.8 mph).Ph.D.Electrical Engineering: SystemsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89801/1/koushils_1.pd
Nonsmooth Control Barrier Functions for Obstacle Avoidance between Convex Regions
In this paper, we focus on non-conservative obstacle avoidance between robots
with control affine dynamics with strictly convex and polytopic shapes. The
core challenge for this obstacle avoidance problem is that the minimum distance
between strictly convex regions or polytopes is generally implicit and
non-smooth, such that distance constraints cannot be enforced directly in the
optimization problem. To handle this challenge, we employ non-smooth control
barrier functions to reformulate the avoidance problem in the dual space, with
the positivity of the minimum distance between robots equivalently expressed
using a quadratic program. Our approach is proven to guarantee system safety.
We theoretically analyze the smoothness properties of the minimum distance
quadratic program and its KKT conditions. We validate our approach by
demonstrating computationally-efficient obstacle avoidance for multi-agent
robotic systems with strictly convex and polytopic shapes. To our best
knowledge, this is the first time a real-time QP problem can be formulated for
general non-conservative avoidance between strictly convex shapes and
polytopes.Comment: 17 page
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