bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Distributed Lazy Q-Learning for Cooperative Mobile Robots
Authors: Touzet Claude F.
Published: March 2012

Compared to single robot learning, cooperative learning adds the challenge of a much larger search space (combined individual search spaces), awareness of other team members, and also the synthesis of the individual behaviors with respect to the task given to the group. Over the years, reinforcement learning has emerged as the main learning approach in autonomous robotics, and lazy learning has become the leading bias, allowing the reduction of the time required by an experiment to the time needed to test the learned behavior performance. These two approaches have been combined together in what is now called lazy Q-learning, a very efficient single robot learning paradigm. We propose a derivation of this learning to team of robots : the «pessimistic» algorithm able to compute for each team member a lower bound of the utility of executing an action in a given situation. We use the cooperative multi-robot observation of multiple moving targets (CMOMMT) application as an illustrative example, and study the efficiency of the Pessimistic Algorithm in its task of inducing learning of cooperation.
Neural Networks in Mobile Robot Motion
Authors: Janglová Danica
Published: March 2012

This paper deals with a path planning and intelligent control of an autonomous robot which should move safely in partially structured environment. This environment may involve any number of obstacles of arbitrary shape and size; some of them are allowed to move. We describe our approach to solving the motion-planning problem in mobile robot control using neural networks-based technique. Our method of the construction of a collision-free path for moving robot among obstacles is based on two neural networks. The first neural network is used to determine the “free” space using ultrasound range finder data. The second neural network “finds” a safe direction for the next robot section of the path in the workspace while avoiding the nearest obstacles. Simulation examples of generated path with proposed techniques will be presented.
Gyroscopically Stabilized Robot: Balance and Tracking
Authors: Ou Yongsheng , Xu Yangsheng
Published: March 2012

The single wheel, gyroscopically stabilized robot - Gyrover, is a dynamically stable but statically unstable, underactuated system. In this paper, based on the dynamic model of the robot, we investigate two classes of nonholonomic constraints associated with the system. Then, based on the backstepping technology, we propose a control law for balance control of Gyrover. Next, through transferring the systems states from Cartesian coordinate to polar coordinate, control laws for point-to-point control and line tracking in Cartesian space are provided.
Dynamic Replanning in Uncertain Environments for a Sewer Inspection Robot
Authors: Adria Oliver , Streich Hermann , Hertzberg Joachim
Published: March 2012

The sewer inspection robot MAKRO is an autonomous multi-segment robot with worm-like shape driven by wheels. It is currently under development in the project MAKRO-PLUS. The robot has to navigate autonomously within sewer systems. Its first tasks will be to take water probes, analyze it onboard, and measure positions of manholes and pipes to detect polluted-loaded sewage and to improve current maps of sewer systems. One of the challenging problems is the controller software, which should enable the robot to navigate in the sewer system and perform the inspection tasks autonomously, not inflicting any self-damage. This paper focuses on the route planning and replanning aspect of the robot. The robot's software has four different levels, of which the planning system is the highest level, and the remaining three are controller levels each with a different degree of abstraction. The planner coordinates the sequence of actions that are to be successively executed by the robot.
Cyberbotics Ltd. Webots™: Professional Mobile Robot Simulation
Authors: Michel Olivier
Published: March 2012

Cyberbotics Ltd. develops Webots™, a mobile robotics simulation software that provides you with a rapid prototyping environment for modelling, programming and simulating mobile robots. The provided robot libraries enable you to transfer your control programs to several commercially available real mobile robots. Webots™ lets you define and modify a complete mobile robotics setup, even several different robots sharing the same environment. For each object, you can define a number of properties, such as shape, color, texture, mass, friction, etc. You can equip each robot with a large number of available sensors and actuators. You can program these robots using your favorite development environment, simulate them and optionally transfer the resulting programs onto your real robots. Webots™ has been developed in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, thoroughly tested, well documented and continuously maintained for over 7 years. It is now the main commercial product available from Cyberbotics Ltd.
Modelling, Specification and Robustness Issues for Robotic Manipulation Tasks
Authors: Kragic Danica
Published: March 2012

In this paper, a system for modeling of service robot tasks is presented. Our work is motivated by the idea that a robotic task may be represented as a set of tractable modules each responsible for a certain part of the task. For general fetch-and-carry robotic applications, there will be varying demands for precision and degrees of freedom involved depending on complexity of the individual module. The particular research problem considered here is the development of a system that supports simple design of complex tasks from a set of basic primitives. The three system levels considered are: i) task graph generation which allows the user to easily design or model a task, ii) task graph execution which executes the task graph, and iii) at the lowest level, the specification and development of primitives required for general fetch-and-carry robotic applications. In terms of robustness, we believe that one way of increasing the robustness of the whole system is by increasing the robustness of individual modules. In particular, we consider a number of different parameters that effect the performance of a model-based tracking system. Parameters such as color channels, feature detection, validation gates, outliers rejection and feature selection are considered here and their affect to the overall system performance is discussed. Experimental evaluation shows how some of these parameters can successfully be evaluated (learned) on-line and consequently improve the performance of the system.
Robotic Applications in Cardiac Surgery
Authors: Kypson Alan P. , Chitwood W. Randolph
Published: March 2012

Traditionally, cardiac surgery has been performed through a median sternotomy, which allows the surgeon generous access to the heart and surrounding great vessels. As a paradigm shift in the size and location of incisions occurs in cardiac surgery, new methods have been developed to allow the surgeon the same amount of dexterity and accessibility to the heart in confined spaces and in a less invasive manner. Initially, long instruments without pivot points were used, however, more recent robotic telemanipulation systems have been applied that allow for improved dexterity, enabling the surgeon to perform cardiac surgery from a distance not previously possible. In this rapidly evolving field, we review the recent history and clinical results of using robotics in cardiac surgery.
Space Robotics
Authors: Ellery Alex
Published: March 2012

In this first of three short papers, I introduce some of the basic concepts of space engineering with an emphasis on some specific challenging areas of research that are peculiar to the application of robotics to space development and exploration. The style of these short papers is pedagogical and this paper stresses the unique constraints that space application imposes. This first paper is thus a general introduction to the nature of spacecraft engineering and its application to robotic spacecraft. I consider the constraints and metrics used by spacecraft engineers in the design of spacecraft and how these constraints impose challenges to the roboticist. The following two papers consider specific robotics issues in more detail.
Artificial Intelligence and Systems Theory: Applied to Cooperative Robots
Authors: Lima Pedro U. , Custodio Luis M. M.
Published: March 2012

This paper describes an approach to the design of a population of cooperative robots based on concepts borrowed from Systems Theory and Artificial Intelligence. The research has been developed under the SocRob project, carried out by the Intelligent Systems Laboratory at the Institute for Systems and Robotics - Instituto Superior Técnico (ISR/IST) in Lisbon. The acronym of the project stands both for “Society of Robots” and “Soccer Robots”, the case study where we are testing our population of robots. Designing soccer robots is a very challenging problem, where the robots must act not only to shoot a ball towards the goal, but also to detect and avoid static (walls, stopped robots) and dynamic (moving robots) obstacles. Furthermore, they must cooperate to defeat an opposing team. Our past and current research in soccer robotics includes cooperative sensor fusion for world modeling, object recognition and tracking, robot navigation, multi-robot distributed task planning and coordination, including cooperative reinforcement learning in cooperative and adversarial environments, and behavior-based architectures for real time task execution of cooperating robot teams.
Dynamic Modelling and Adaptive Traction Control for Mobile Robots
Authors: Albagul A. , Wahyudi
Published: March 2012

Mobile robots have received a great deal of research in recent years. A significant amount of research has been published in many aspects related to mobile robots. Most of the research is devoted to design and develop some control techniques for robot motion and path planning. A large number of researchers have used kinematic models to develop motion control strategy for mobile robots. Their argument and assumption that these models are valid if the robot has low speed, low acceleration and light load. However, dynamic modelling of mobile robots is very important as they are designed to travel at higher speed and perform heavy duty work. This paper presents and discusses a new approach to develop a dynamic model and control strategy for wheeled mobile robot which I modelled as a rigid body that roles on two wheels and a castor. The motion control strategy consists of two levels. The first level is dealing with the dynamic of the system and denoted as ‘Low’ level controller. The second level is developed to take care of path planning and trajectory generation.
Robots Social Embodiment in Autonomous Mobile Robotics
Authors: Duffy Brian
Published: March 2012

This work aims at demonstrating the inherent advantages of embracing a strong notion of social embodiment in designing a real-world robot control architecture with explicit “intelligent” social behaviour between a collective of robots. It develops the current thinking on embodiment beyond the physical by demonstrating the importance of social embodiment. A social framework develops the fundamental social attributes found when more than one robot co-inhabit a physical space. The social metaphors of identity, character, stereotypes and roles are presented and implemented within a real-world social robot paradigm in order to facilitate the realisation of explicit social goals.
A People-Localization Method for Multi-Robot Systems First Approach for Guiding-Tours
Authors: Martinez-Garcia Edgar , Ohya Akihisa , Yuta Shinichi
Published: March 2012

Throughout this article we present a methodology to localize multiple people in a group by a multi-robot system (MRS). The aim of the MRS is to conduct people through hallways in indoors as a guided-tour service task. However, further than guidance process, we detail a method for humans' localization by sharing distributed sensor data arising from the team of robots instrumented with stereo vision. The robustness of the method is presented, and by matching the real environment against the computed results, error in human localization is showed as well. As a first approach of the entire MRS goal, this paper explains from a task approach the way for environment ranging, spatial noise filtering, distributed sensor data fusion and clustering based segmentation. Likewise, through the paper experimental results are shown to verify the feasibility of the method.
Exploring Open-Ended Design Space of Mechatronic Systems
Authors: Fan Zhun , Wang Jiachuan , Goodman Erik
Published: March 2012

To realize design automation of mechatronic systems, there are two major issues to be dealt with: open-topology generation of mechatronic systems and simulation or analysis of those models. For the first issue, we exploit the strong topology exploration capability of genetic programming to create and evolve structures representing mechatronic systems. With the use of ERCs (ephemeral random constants) in genetic programming, we can evolve the sizing of mechatronic system components together with the system structures simultaneously. The second issue, simulation and analysis of those system models, is made more complex when the systems are mixed-energy-domain systems. We take advantage of bond graphs as a tool for multi- or mixed-domain modeling and simulation of mechatronic systems. Because there are many considerations in mechatronic system design that are not completely captured by a bond graph, it is beneficial to generate multiple solutions, allowing the designer more latitude in choosing a model to implement. The approach in this paper is capable of providing a variety of design choices to the designer for further analysis, comparison and trade-off study. The approach is shown to be efficient and effective and is demonstrated in an example of open-ended real-world mechatronic system design application, a typewriter re-design problem.
Navigation Strategy by Contact Sensing Interaction for a Biped Humanoid Robot
Authors: Yussof Hanafiah , Ohka Masahiro , Yamano Mitsuhiro , Nasu Yasuo
Published: March 2012

This report presents a basic contact interaction-based navigation strategy for a biped humanoid robot to support current visual-based navigation. The robot's arms were equipped with force sensors to detect physical contact with objects. We proposed a motion algorithm consisting of searching tasks, self-localization tasks, correction of locomotion direction tasks and obstacle avoidance tasks. Priority was given to right-side direction to navigate the robot locomotion. Analysis of trajectory generation, biped gait pattern, and biped walking characteristics was performed to define an efficient navigation strategy in a biped walking humanoid robot. The proposed algorithm is evaluated in an experiment with a 21-dofs humanoid robot operating in a room with walls and obstacles. The experimental results reveal good robot performance when recognizing objects by touching, grasping, and continuously generating suitable trajectories to correct direction and avoid collisions.
An Implementation of Seamless Human-Robot Interaction for Telerobotics
Authors: Ong Kai Wei , Seet Gerald , Sim Siang Kok
Published: March 2012

Achieving human-robot cooperation in a telerobotics system is the focus of this paper. The implementation of human-robot systems can be extremely challenging when the robot is not directly controlled by the human. The interaction mode, depending on the task context, can be continuous manual, semi-autonomous or autonomous. To address the Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) issues in such a system, a concept of seamless HRI is introduced. Seamless HRI implies flexibility in human control in interacting with a robot in different situations, and the adaptability of the robot autonomy in response to the human control. The main idea is to design a telerobotics system that allows a shift from manual to autonomous operation, dynamically, via different human-robot roles and relationships. These roles are Master-Slave, Supervisor-Subordinate, Partner-Partner, Teacher-Learner and Full Autonomous mode by the robot. This paper presents the theoretical foundations and the requirements for seamless HRI. An implementation of the concept and an experimental evaluation is presented.
The Design and Implementation of a Biomimetic Robot Fish
Authors: Zhou Chao , Tan Min , Gu Nong , Cao Zhiqiang , Wang Shuo , Wang Long
Published: March 2012

In this paper, a novel design of a biomimetic robot fish is presented. Based on the propulsion and maneuvering mechanisms of real fishes, a tail mechanical structure with cams and connecting rods for fitting carangiform fish body wave is designed, which provides the main propulsion. Two pectoral fins are mounted, and each pectoral fin can flap separately and rotate freely. Coordinating the movements of the tail and pectoral fins, the robot fish can simulate the movements of fishes in water. In order to obtain the necessary environmental information, several kinds of sensors (video, infrared, temperature, pressure and PH value sensors) were mounted. Finally, the realization of the robot fish is presented.
Mechatronic Model Based Computed Torque Control of a Parallel Manipulator
Authors: Yang Zhiyong , Wu Jiang , Mei Jiangping , Gao Jian , Huang Tian
Published: March 2012

With high speed and accuracy the parallel manipulators have wide application in the industry, but there still exist many difficulties in the actual control process because of the time-varying and coupling. Unfortunately, the present-day commercial controlles cannot provide satisfying performance for its single axis linear control only. Therefore, aimed at a novel 2-DOF (Degree of Freedom) parallel manipulator called Diamond 600, a motor-mechanism coupling dynamic model based control scheme employing the computed torque control algorithm are presented in this paper. First, the integrated dynamic coupling model is deduced, according to equivalent torques between the mechanical structure and the PM (Permanent Magnetism) servomotor. Second, computed torque controller is described in detail for the above proposed model. At last, a series of numerical simulations and experiments are carried out to test the effectiveness of the system, and the results verify the favourable tracking ability and robustness.
A Virtual Simulation Environment for Lunar Rover: Framework and Key Technologies
Authors: Yang Yan-chun , Bao Jin-song , Jin Ye , Cheng Yun-Iong
Published: March 2012

Lunar rover development involves a large amount of validation works in realistic operational conditions, including its mechanical subsystem and on-board software. Real tests require equipped rover platform and a realistic terrain. It is very time consuming and high cost. To improve the development efficiency, a rover simulation environment called RSVE that affords real time capabilities with high fidelity has been developed. It uses fractional Brown motion (fBm) technique and statistical properties to generate lunar surface. Thus, various terrain models for simulation can be generated through changing several parameters. To simulate lunar rover evolving on natural and unstructured surface with high realism, the whole dynamics of the multi-body systems and complex interactions with soft ground is integrated in this environment. An example for path planning algorithm and controlling algorithm testing in this environment is tested. This simulation environment runs on PC or Silicon Graphics.
Kinematic Design of a Radius-Variable Gripper with 1-D.O.F. Used in High-Voltage Hot-Line Cleaning Robot
Authors: Gu Yi , Weng Xinhua , Yang Ruqing , Song Tao
Published: March 2012

This paper presents the design of a novel radius-variable-gripper (RVG) for use as end-effector of high-voltage hot-line cleaning robot (HVCR). A eight-bar linkage mechanism is proposed to obtain the aim of 1-dof acutuation. According to the shape of insulators, the dimension design and kinematic analysis of RVG have been carried out. The optimization is performed to locate the joint points of arm segments, on which the brushes are mounted, approximately on the position circles in the whole opening-and-closing process of RVG. The prototype has been given finally, and it is showed that RVG is feasible to this special application.
Dynamic Modeling and Inverse Dynamic Analysis of Flexible Parallel Robots
Authors: Zhaocai Du , Yueqing Yu
Published: March 2012

This paper presents a method for the dynamic modeling of parallel robots with flexible links and rigid moving platform based on finite element theory. The relation between elastic displacements of links is investigated, taking into consideration the coupling effects of elastic motion and rigid motion. The kinematic and dynamic constraint conditions of elastic displacements of flexible parallel robots are presented. The Kineto-Elastodynamics theory and Timoshenko beam theory are employed to derive the equations of motion, considering the effects of distributed mass, lumped mass, rotary inertia, shearing deformation, bending deformation, lateral deformations and all the dynamic coupling terms. The dynamic behavior due to flexibility of links is well illustrated through numerical simulation. Compared with the results of SAMCEF software simulation, the numerical simulation results show good coherence and the advantages of the method. The flexibility of links is demonstrated to have significant impact on system performance and stability. A method for the inverse dynamic analysis of flexible parallel robots is presented.
Time Optimal Hybrid Sliding Mode-PI Control for an Autonomous Underwater Robot
Authors: Chatchanayuenyong Theerayuth , Parnichkun Manukid
Published: March 2012

This paper presents an underwater robot control system using combination principle among sliding mode control (SMC), Pontryagin maximum principle and linear PI control. The SMC switches according to the Pontryagin's time optimal control principle, in which the solution is obtained by using neural network approach to yield a time optimal response at its reaching phase. PI control is used in place of the SMC at the switching phase to avoid high undesired control activity. Performance of the proposed controller is compared with various classical SMCs and conventional linear control systems. Such comparisons ensure the implementation success and prove it as a real time-optimal controller. The results show the controller's good abilities to deal with plant nonlinearity and parameter uncertainties. The controller yields a time optimal control response without high control chattering.
Robust Control of Wheeled Mobile Manipulators Using Hybird Joints
Authors: Li Zhijun , Chen Weidong , Liu Hong
Published: March 2012

In this paper, robust force/motion control strategies are presented for mobile manipulators under both holonomic and nonholonomic constraints in the presence of uncertainties and disturbances. The proposed control strategies guarantee that the system motion converges to the desired manifold with prescribed performance, and constraint force control is developed using the passivity of hybrid joint rather than force feedback control. Experiment results validate that not only the states of the system asymptotically converge to the desired trajectory, but also the constraint force asymptotically converges to the desired force.
Ant Intelligence in Robotic Soccer
Authors: Ramani R. Geetha , Viswanath P. , Arjun B.
Published: March 2012

Robotic Soccer is a multi-agent test bed, which requires the designer to address most of the issues of multi-agent research. Social insect behaviors observed in nature when adopted to solve problems they are giving promissing results. The domains like computers, electronics, electrical, mechanical etc., are inspired in adopting these behaviors. This paper addresses the ant intelligence in robotic soccer to evolve the best team of players. The simulation team evolved (PUTeam) was tested with teams of soccerbots in teambots (a simulation tool for Robotic Soccer) and the experimental results clearly shows the performance of the evolved team against the opponent teams are more effective.
A Visibility-Based Algorithm for Multi-Robot Boundary Coverage
Authors: Jiao Linan , Tang Zhenmin
Published: March 2012

Cell decomposition is often used in autonomous area coverage. We propose a visibility-based decomposition algorithm for single robot boundary coverage and a corresponding multi-robot algorithm in unknown environment. A graph data structure is exploited for completeness of coverage and incremental description of partially observed world. Visibility-based decomposition facilitates the construction of graph and algorithms operated on it. In the context of multi-robot, a dynamically selected highest priority robot is in charge of information share and synchrony through communication, polygon set operations provide tools for environmental information mergence, a distributed algorithm for multi-robot boundary coverage is proposed based on those technologies. Finally the experimental results show the relationships between robot number and traversable gate number, some future subjects of researches are introduced.
Fruit Detachment and Classification Method for Strawberry Harvesting Robot
Authors: Feng Guo , Qixin Cao , Masateru Nagata
Published: March 2012

Fruit detachment and on-line classification is important for the development of harvesting robot. With the specific requriements of robot used for harvesting strawberries growing on the ground, a fruit detachment and classification method is introduced in this paper. OHTA color spaces based image segmentation algorithm is utilized to extract strawberry from background; Principal inertia axis of binary strawberry blob is calculated to give the pose information of fruit. Strawberry is picked selectively according to its ripeness and classified according to its shape feature. Histogram matching based method for fruit shape judgment is introduced firstly. Experiment results show that this method can achieve 93% accuracy of strawberry's stem detection, 90% above accuracy of ripeness and shape quality judgment on black and white background. With the improvement of harvesting mechanism design, this method has application potential in the field operation.
On Pose Estimation for Human-Robot Symbiosis
Authors: Bhuiyan Md. Al-Amin , Liu Chang Hong , Ueno Haruki
Published: March 2012

This paper presents a vision based pose estimation system using knowledge based approach for human-robot symbiosis. The system is based on visual information of the face by connected component analysis of the skin color segmentation of images in HSV color model and is commenced with the face recognition and pose classification scheme using subspace PCA based pattern-matching strategies. With the knowledge of the known user's profile, face poses are then classified by multilayer perceptron. Based on the frame-based knowledge representation approach, face poses are being interpreted using the Software Platform for Agent and Knowledge (SPAK) management. On face pose recognition, robot is then instructed to perform some specific tasks by issuing pose commands. Experimental results demonstrate that the subspace method is better than that of the standard PCA method for face pose classification. The system has been demonstrated with the implementation of the algorithm to interact with an entertainment robot named, AIBO for human-robot symbiotic relationship.
Human-Robot Collaboration: A Literature Review and Augmented Reality Approach in Design
Authors: Green Scott A. , Billinghurst Mark , Chen XiaoQi , Chase J. Geoffrey
Published: March 2012

NASA's vision for space exploration stresses the cultivation of human-robotic systems. Similar systems are also envisaged for a variety of hazardous earthbound applications such as urban search and rescue. Recent research has pointed out that to reduce human workload, costs, fatigue driven error and risk, intelligent robotic systems will need to be a significant part of mission design. However, little attention has been paid to joint human-robot teams. Making human-robot collaboration natural and efficient is crucial. In particular, grounding, situational awareness, a common frame of reference and spatial referencing are vital in effective communication and collaboration. Augmented Reality (AR), the overlaying of computer graphics onto the real worldview, can provide the necessary means for a human-robotic system to fulfill these requirements for effective collaboration. This article reviews the field of human-robot interaction and augmented reality, investigates the potential avenues for creating natural human-robot collaboration through spatial dialogue utilizing AR and proposes a holistic architectural design for human-robot collaboration.
Development of a Multi-Arm Mobile Robot for Nuclear Decommissioning Tasks
Authors: Bakari Mohamed J. , Zied Khaled M. , Seward Derek W.
Published: March 2012

This paper concerns the design of a two-arm mobile delivery platform for application within nuclear decommissioning tasks. The adoption of the human arm as a model of manoeuvrability, scale and dexterity is the starting point for operation of two seven-function arms within the context of nuclear decommissioning tasks, the selection of hardware and its integration, and the development of suitable control methods. The forward and inverse kinematics for the manipulators are derived and the proposed software architecture identified to control the movements of the arm joints and the performance of selected decommissioning tasks. We discuss the adoption of a BROKK demolition machine as a mobile platform and the integration with its hydraulic system to operate the two seven-function manipulators separately. The paper examines the modelling and development of a real-time control method using Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) and Proportional-Integral-Plus (PIP) control algorithms in the host computer with National Instruments functions and tools to control the manipulators and obtain feedback through wireless communication. Finally we consider the application of a third party device, such as a personal mobile phone, and its interface with LabVIEW software in order to operate the robot arms remotely.
Set up of an Automated Multi-Colour System for Interior Wall Painting
Authors: Naticchia Berardo , Giretti Alberto , Carbonari Alessandro
Published: March 2012

It is shared that construction projects are getting bigger and more complex, hence also the productivity of the construction industry must be improved, while preserving its labour from hazardous job sites. Such requirements can be accomplished by the adoption of robotized products, which, however, need to be quickly developed and marketed. In this paper, first the issue of a new miniature laboratory for developing lightweight and well-coordinated robotized systems is pursued, then a novel robot device for high quality multi-colour interior wall painting carried by a robot arm is developed and successfully tested. Thanks to the new 1:6 scaled down laboratory and its six degree of freedom robot arm on an hexapod for horizontal moves, we tested the opportunity to introduce also in the building sector miniature robots that can change the ergonomics standardly adopted by construction workers. It is analyzed how and why switching from full size to miniature robots is convenient in construction. In addition, a new system adding further features to robotized painting has been conceived. Our new multi-colour spraying end-tool was developed and fixed on the robot arm, in order to be able to reproduce coloured artworks. Finally, a methodology to reproduce colours from digital format of artworks is presented, showing how accurate and efficient is this new robotized spraying device.
Conceptual Design and Feasibility Analyses of a Robotic System for Automated Exterior Wall Painting
Authors: Kim Young S. , Jung Myung H. , Cho Yong K. , Lee Jeongho , Jung Unsuk
Published: March 2012

There are approximately 6,677,000 apartment housing units in South Korea. Exterior wall painting for such multi-dwelling apartment housings in South Korea represents a typical area to which construction automation technology can be applied for improvement in safety, productivity, quality, and cost over the conventional method. The conventional exterior wall painting is costly and labor-intensive, and it especially exposes workers to significant health and safety risks. The primary objective of this study is to design a conceptual model of an exterior wall painting robot which is applicable to apartment housing construction and maintenance, and to conduct its technical·economical feasibility analyses. In this study, a design concept using a high ladder truck is proposed as the best alternative for automation of the exterior wall painting. Conclusions made in this study show that the proposed exterior wall painting robot is technically and economically feasible, and can greatly enhance safety, productivity, and quality compared to the conventional method. Finally, it is expected that the conceptual model of the exterior wall painting robot would be efficiently used in various applications in exterior wall finishing and maintenance of other architectural and civil structures such as commercial buildings, towers, and high-rise storage tanks.
Control Strategy for Automatic Gantry Crane Systems: A Practical and Intelligent Approach
Authors: Wahyudi  , Jalani Jamaludin , Muhida Riza , Salami Momoh Jimoh Emiyoka
Published: March 2012

The use of gantry crane systems for transporting payload is very common in building constructions. However, moving the payload using the crane is not an easy task especially when strict specifications on the swing angle and on the transfer time need to be satisfied. Various attempts in controlling gantry cranes system based on open- loop and closed-loop control systems were proposed. However, most of the proposed controllers were designed based on the model and parameter of the crane system. In general, modeling and parameter identifications are troublesome and time consuming task. To overcome this problem, in this paper, a practical and intelligent control method for automatic gantry crane is introduced and evaluated experimentally. The results show that the proposed method is not only effective for controlling the crane but also robust to parameter variation.
AUTMOD3: The Integration of Design and Planning Tools for Automatic Modular Construction
Authors: Diez Ramiro , Padrón Victor M. , Abderrahim Mohamed , Balaguer Carlos
Published: March 2012

Europe is facing a fast growing need for affordable, high quality housing, which can not be solved by means of traditional or conventional building technology and its associated methods of construction. One of the solutions to this problem is the application of high quality modular construction, which defines a new building process as the assembly of pre-fabricated modules in the construction site. As part of this philosophy, AUTMOD3 is an automatic modular construction software environment, developed in the frame of the EU project FutureHome. The system seamlessly integrates architectural design, planning and simulation tools in a well-known CAD program commonly used by designers. Architectural design using previously defined 3D and 2D modules or modularisation of the traditional building design are the main objectives of the AUTMOD3 design tool. The production planning and the on-site modular assembly planning are the main task to be performed by the planning tool. The AUTMOD3 assembly planning tool generates the trajectories, which can be applied directly to a robotized crane develop in the project FutureHome.
Motion Coordination for Construction Vehicles using Swarm Intelligence
Authors: Kwok N. M. , Ha Q. P. , Fang G.
Published: March 2012

In a variety of tasks performed in construction sites, coordinated operations of multi-vehicles are foreshadowed to outperform the deployment of a single vehicle in terms of increased capacity and flexibility. This paper presents the application of the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm in deriving drive commands, speed and turning, for the vehicles such that they are steered into and maintained in desirable formations according to an assigned task. The PSO is adopted for its implementation simplicity and relaxing the need for analytical system models. To this end, the coordination of vehicles is posed as an optimization problem minimizing the translational and angular errors between the current vehicle positions and their corresponding targets. Inter-vehicle collisions are mitigated, in this work, by employing a behavioural-based reactive scheme together with a dynamical index rescheduling procedure. Simulation results for coordinated multi-vehicle motions, in benchmark formation patterns, are included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
An Augmented Framework for Practical Development of Construction Robots
Authors: Zied Khaled
Published: March 2012

The use of robotic systems in performing construction tasks has great potential; however the development of such systems remains problematic. This is due to the lack of a suitable feasibility analysis that can help the decision-makers to justify the use of robots and problems in the development process of the system itself. The multidisciplinary and complex nature of construction robotic systems requires a robust development framework for such systems. An augmented framework for the development of construction robots is explained in detail and practically applied to the Starlifter robotic system which is mainly designed to carry heavy tools for construction tasks. The framework consists of two models; the feasibility analysis model and the development process model. The feasibility analysis principles, methodology and tools are explained and discussed in detail. Systems Engineering model is used in the development of the system which allows complete analysis of the system hardware and software components. The purpose of the current project is to develop a general purpose robot that can be employed to perform different jobs to justify its use economically. The presented tools and processes can be utilised in the development of any similar systems.
Using Augmented Reality to Plan Virtual Construction Worksite
Authors: Wang Xiangyu
Published: March 2012

Current construction worksite layout planning heavily relies on 2D paper media where the worksite planners sketch the future layout adjacent to their real environment. This traditional approach turns out to be ineffective and prone to error because only experienced and well-trained planners are able to generate the effective layout design with paper sketch. Augmented Reality (AR), as a new user interface technology, introduces a completely new perspective for construction worksite planning. This paper disucsses the related AR work and issues in construction and describes the concept and prototype of an AR-based construction planning tool, AR Planner with virtual elements sets and tangible interface. The focus of the paper is to identify and integrate worksite planning rules into the AR planner with the purpose of intelligently preventing potential planning errors and process inefficiency, thus maximizing the overall productivity. Future work includes refining and verifying AR Planner in realistic projects.
A New Method of Force Control for Unknown Environments
Authors: Mallapragada Vishnu , Erol Duygun , Sarkar Nilanjan
Published: March 2012

Current robotic systems are expected to interact with unknown environment where controlling the interaction forces becomes an important issue. We propose a new control technique for force control on unknown environments that tunes the force controller based on online estimation of the environment parameters. However, the proposed approach overcomes the need for precise estimation of environment parameters, which are needed in many system identification-based force control approaches. This framework uses an artificial neural network (ANN)-based proportional-integral (PI)-gain scheduling force controller to track the desired force by adjusting control gains such that error in parameter estimation can be accommodated. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed control framework. Finally, the advantages and limitations of the proposed controller are discussed.
Control of two Wheeled Welding Mobile Manipulator
Authors: Ngo M. D. , Phuong N. T. , Duy V. H. , Kim H. K. , Kim S. B.
Published: March 2012

A three-linked manipulator mounted on a two-wheeled mobile platform is used to weld a long curved welding path. A welding torch mounted at the end of a manipulator of the welding mobile manipulator (WMM) must be controlled for tracking a welding path with constant velocity and constant welding angle of torch. In this paper, a decentralized control method is applied to control the WMM considered as two separate subsystems such as a mobile platform and a manipulator. Two decentralized motion controllers are designed to control two subsystems of WMM, respectively. Firstly, based on a tracking error vector of the manipulator and a feedback motion of the mobile platform, a kinematic controller is designed for manipulator. Secondly, based on an another tracking error vector of the mobile platform and a feedback angular velocities of revolution joints of three-link, a sliding mode controller is designed for the mobile platform. These controllers are obtained based on the Lyapunov's function and its stability condition to ensure for the tracking error vectors to be asymptotically stable. Furthermore, simulation and experimental results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Landing Motion Control of Articulated Hopping Robot
Authors: Sung Sanghak , Youm Youngil
Published: March 2012

This paper deals with the landing motion of an articulated legged robot. Humans use a peculiar crouching motion to land safely which can be characterized by body stiffness and damping. A stiffness controller formulation is used to realize this human behavior for the robot. Using this method, the landing motion is achieved with only the desired body stiffness and damping values, without desired COG(Center of Gravity) or joint paths. To achieve soft landing, variable body stiffness and damping values were optimized.

PBOT, which has four links with flexible joints was used for validation of the landing controller. A body stiffness and damping controller was used as an outer landing control loop and a fast subsystem controller for flexible joints was used as an inner force control loop. Simulations and experimental results about the landing motion are presented to show the performance of the body stiffness and damping controller.
Robust Control for High-Speed Visual Servoing Applications
Authors: Ellekilde Lars-Peter , Favrholdt Peter , Paulin Mads , Petersen Henrik Gordon
Published: March 2012

This paper presents a new control scheme for visual servoing applications. The approach employs quadratic optimization, and explicitly handles both joint position, velocity and acceleration limits. Contrary to existing techniques, our method does not rely on large safety margins and slow task execution to avoid joint limits, and is hence able to exploit the full potential of the robot. Furthermore, our control scheme guarantees a well-defined behavior of the robot even when it is in a singular configuration, and thus handles both internal and external singularities robustly. We demonstrate the correctness and efficiency of our approach in a number of visual servoing applications, and compare it to a range of previously proposed techniques.
Design and Implementation of an Assistive Controller for Rehabilitation Robotic Systems
Authors: Erol Duygun , Sarkar Nilanjan
Published: March 2012

The goal of our research is to develop an assistive controller for robotic rehabilitation of the upper extremity after stroke. The controller is used to provide robotic assistance to participants to help them to track a desired motion trajectory required for the rehabilitation task in an accurate and concentrated manner. This rehabilitation task is designed to ensure concentrated repetitive motion that requires cognitive processing. Experimental results on unimpaired participants are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed controller.
Power Tillers for Demining: Blast Test
Authors: Cepolina Emanuela Elisa , Hemapala Manjula Udayanga
Published: March 2012

Power tillers are very simple and versatile machines with large scale diffusion in developing countries, where they are commonly used both for agriculture and for transportation purposes.

A new integrated participatory approach that makes use of and improves local end-users knowledge has been used to design a new robotic system for humanitarian demining applications in Sri Lanka, using power tiller as core module. A demining machine composed by a tractor unit, a ground processing tool and a vegetation cutting tool is here presented together with results obtained from the first blast test on the preliminary version of tractor unit armouring. Different breakable connections between wheels and axle have been designed to cause physical detachment and interrupt the transmission of the shock wave released by the explosion of a mine under one wheel. Effects of explosions on different types of wheels and on the chassis have been recorded and commented.
Rethinking Robot Vision – Combining Shape and Appearance
Authors: Schlemmer Matthias J. , Biegelbauer Georg , Vincze Markus
Published: March 2012

Equipping autonomous robots with vision sensors provides a multitude of advantages by simultaneously bringing up difficulties with regard to different illumination conditions. Furthermore, especially with service robots, the objects to be handled must somehow be learned for a later manipulation. In this paper we summarise work on combining two different vision sensors, namely a laser range scanner and a monocular colour camera, for shape-capturing, detecting and tracking of objects in cluttered scenes without the need of intermediate user interaction. The use of different sensor types provides the advantage of separating the shape and the appearance of the object and therefore overcome the problem with changing illumination conditions. We describe the framework and its components of visual shape-capturing, fast 3D object detection and robust tracking as well as examples that show the feasibility of this approach.
Controlled Metal Detector Mounted on Mine Detection Robot
Authors: Masunaga Seiji , Nonami Kenzo
Published: March 2012

Landmine detection capability of metal detectors is very sensitive to the gap between buried landmines and the sensor heads. Therefore, human deminers manually scan ground surface with the metal detectors in such a manner that the sensor heads follow the ground surface. In case of robots assisted landmine detection, this function can be performed accurately and safely by controlling the gap and attitude of the sensor heads. In this investigation, the effectiveness of the gap and attitude control of the sensor head by some mechanical manipulator on the landmine detection performance has been addressed quantitatively. To this end, the paper describes the development of a Controlled Metal Detector (CMD) for controlling the gap and attitude of the sensor head. The CMD generates trajectories of the sensor head from the depth information of the ground surface acquired with 3-D stereovision camera in order to avoid any obstacles and possible impact with the ground, and then tracks the trajectories with a trajectory-tracking controller. The effectiveness and the impact related to the gap and attitude control on the landmine detection performance of the CMD have been demonstrated by experimental studies.