bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Approximate Solution for the Electrohydrodynamic Flow in a Circular Cylindrical Conduit
Authors: Khan Najeeb Alam , Jamil Muhammad , Mahmood Amir , Ara Asmat
Published: March 2012

This paper considers the nonlinear boundary value problem (BVP) for the electrohydrodynamic flow of a fluid in an ion drag configuration in a circular cylindrical conduit. The velocity field was solved using the new homotopy perturbation method (NHPM), considering the electrical field and strength of the nonlinearity. The approximate analytical procedure depends only on two components and polynomial initial condition. The analytical solution is obtained and the numerical results presented graphically. The effects of the Hartmann electric number ℋa and the strength of nonlinearity α are discussed and presented graphically. We also compare this method with numerical solution (N.S) and show that the present approach is less computational and is applicable for solving nonlinear boundary value problem (BVP).
Development of Four Unit Processes for Biobased PLA Manufacturing
Authors: Hong Chae Hwan , Kim Si Hwan , Seo Ji-Yeon , Han Do Suck
Published: March 2012

Polylactide (PLA), which is one of the most important biocompatible polyesters that are derived from annually renewable biomass such as corn and sugar beets, has attracted much attention for automotive parts application. The manufacturing method of PLA is the ring-opening polymerization of the dimeric cyclic ester of lactic acid, lactide. For the stereocomplex PLA, we developed the four unit processes, fermentation, separation, lactide conversion, and polymerization. Fermentation of sugars to D-lactic acid is little studied, and its microbial productivity is not well known. Therefore, we investigated D-lactic acid fermentation with a view to obtaining the strains capable of producing D-lactic acid, and we got a maximum lactic acid production 60 g/L. Lactide is prepared by a two-step process: first, the lactic acid is converted into oligo(lactic acid) by a polycondensation reaction; second, the oligo(lactic acid) is thermally depolymerized to form the cyclic lactide via an unzipping mechanism. Through catalyst screening test for polycondensation and depolymerization reactions, we got a new method which shortens the whole reaction time 50% the level of the conventional method. Poly(L-lactide) was obtained from the ring-opening polymerization of L-lactide. We investigated various catalysts and polymerization conditions. Finally, we got the best catalyst system and the scale-up technology.
EARLY HISTORY OF GEOMETRIC PROBABILITY AND STEREOLOGY
Authors: Hykšová Magdalena , Kalousová Anna , Saxl †Ivan
Published: March 2012

The paper provides an account of the history of geometric probability and stereology from the time of Newton to the early 20th century. It depicts the development of two parallel ways: on one hand, the theory of geometric probability was formed with minor attention paid to other applications than those concerning spatial chance games. On the other hand, practical rules of the estimation of area or volume fraction and other characteristics, easily deducible from geometric probability theory, were proposed without the knowledge of this branch. A special attention is paid to the paper of J.-É. Barbier published in 1860, which contained the fundamental stereological formulas, but remained almost unnoticed both by mathematicians and practicians.
A STOCHASTIC SHAPE AND ORIENTATION MODEL FOR FIBRES WITH AN APPLICATION TO CARBON NANOTUBES
Authors: Kärkkäinen Salme , Miettinen Arttu , Turpeinen Tuomas , Nyblom Jukka , Pötschke Petra , Timonen Jussi
Published: March 2012

Methods are introduced for analysing the shape and orientation of planar fibres from greyscale images of fibrous systems. The sequence of image processing techniques needed for segmentation of fibres is described. The identified fibres were interpreted as deformed line segments for which two shape and two orientation parameters are estimated by the maximum likelihood method. The methods introduced are shown to perform quite well for simulated systems of deformed line segments with known properties. They were applied to TEM images of carbon nanotubes embedded in polycarbonate.
NETWORKS OF NANOPARTICLES IN ORGANIC – INORGANIC COMPOSITES: ALGORITHMIC EXTRACTION AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Authors: Thiedmann Ralf , Spettl Aaron , Stenzel Ole , Zeibig Thomas , Hindson James C. , Saghi Zineb , Greenham Neil C. , Midgley Paul A. , Schmidt Volker
Published: March 2012

The rising global demand in energy and the limited resources in fossil fuels require new technologies in renewable energies like solar cells. Silicon solar cells offer a good efficiency but suffer from high production costs. A promising alternative are polymer solar cells, due to potentially low production costs and high flexibility of the panels. In this paper, the nanostructure of organic–inorganic composites is investigated, which can be used as photoactive layers in hybrid–polymer solar cells. These materials consist of a polymeric (OC1C10-PPV) phase with CdSe nanoparticles embedded therein. On the basis of 3D image data with high spatial resolution, gained by electron tomography, an algorithm is developed to automatically extract the CdSe nanoparticles from grayscale images, where we assume them as spheres. The algorithm is based on a modified version of the Hough transform, where a watershed algorithm is used to separate the image data into basins such that each basin contains exactly one nanoparticle. After their extraction, neighboring nanoparticles are connected to form a 3D network that is related to the transport of electrons in polymer solar cells. A detailed statistical analysis of the CdSe network morphology is accomplished, which allows deeper insight into the hopping percolation pathways of electrons.
MULTI-FEATURE MUTUAL INFORMATION IMAGE REGISTRATION
Authors: Tomaževič Dejan , Likar Boštjan , Pernuš Franjo
Published: March 2012

Nowadays, information-theoretic similarity measures, especially the mutual information and its derivatives, are one of the most frequently used measures of global intensity feature correspondence in image registration. Because the traditional mutual information similarity measure ignores the dependency of intensity values of neighboring image elements, registration based on mutual information is not robust in cases of low global intensity correspondence. Robustness can be improved by adding spatial information in the form of local intensity changes to the global intensity correspondence. This paper presents a novel method, by which intensities, together with spatial information, i.e., relations between neighboring image elements in the form of intensity gradients, are included in information-theoretic similarity measures. In contrast to a number of heuristic methods that include additional features into the generic mutual information measure, the proposed method strictly follows information theory under certain assumptions on feature probability distribution. The novel approach solves the problem of efficient estimation of multifeature mutual information from sparse high-dimensional feature space. The proposed measure was tested on magnetic resonance (MR) and computed tomography (CT) images. In addition, the measure was tested on positron emission tomography (PET) and MR images from the widely used Retrospective Image Registration Evaluation project image database. The results indicate that multi-feature mutual information, which combines image intensities and intensity gradients, is more robust than the standard single-feature intensity based mutual information, especially in cases of low global intensity correspondences, such as in PET/MR images or significant intensity inhomogeneity.
Linking a Land-Use Cellular Automata with a Water Allocation Model to Simulate Land Development Constrained by Water Availability in the Elbow River Watershed in Southern Alberta
Authors: Straatman Bas , Hasbani Jean-Gabriel , Tang Tom , Berg Kent , Moreno Niandry , Marceau Danielle
Published: March 2012

The availability of water resources in southern Alberta is under pressure, now and most likely even more so in the remainder of the 21st century if forecasts on climate change, economic development and associated population growth come true. Alberta Environment is mandated by the provincial Water Act to regulate most use of water through a system of water licenses. This department is currently using a water resource management model (WRMM) to support its planning, but wishes to expand the reach of its decision support tools by including additional factors such as the land-use dynamics.

This paper presents the coupling of the WRMM and a land-use cellular automata (CA) model to constrain land development based on water availability in the Elbow River watershed in southern Alberta. Simulations were run with a calibrated CA model using a land-use map of 2006 as the starting year up to the year 2031, at a five-year interval and at a spatial resolution of 60 m. Two scenarios were tested: the business as usual scenario, which is a simple extrapolation of observed historical land development, expressed as the number of built-up cells, and a second scenario in which land development is constrained based on the WRMM water availability output. Results indicate that land development varies in terms of growth and spatial distribution when comparing the two scenarios. The potential benefits and limitations of the two models are discussed and further improvement needed to increase their usefulness in guiding water resource management is highlighted.
Design of the Dual Offset Active Caster Wheel for Holonomic Omni-Directional Mobile Robots
Authors: Chung Woojin , Moon Chang-bae , Jung Changbae , Jin Jiyong
Published: March 2012

It is shown how a holonomic and omni-directional mobile robot is designed towards indoor public services. Dual offset steerable wheels with orthogonal velocity components are proposed. The proposed wheel provides precise positioning and reliable navigation performance as well as durability. A fabricated prototype is introduced, then, an experiment is carried out.
A Mobile Self-Reconfigurable Microrobot with Power and Communication Relays
Authors: Zhang Dawei , Li Zhenbo , Ling Mao , Chen Jiapin
Published: March 2012

A modular mobile self-reconfigurable microrobot is developed to enlarge the whole surveillance range of mobile microrobot. The microrobot is designed as differential driven vehicle equipped with a passive universal connector with autonomic engagement/disengagement function, and actuated by MEMS-based electromagnetic micromotors. To realize that the microrobot is autonomous, its electrical system is designed in modularity and integrated. A simple autonomous docking approach based on infrared sensors is presented. Experimental results verify high efficiency and reliability of the proposed docking method, and demonstrate the improved ability of performing large-range vision-based surveillance by power and communication relays.
System Dynamics and Adaptive Control for MEMS Gyroscope Sensor
Authors: Fei Juntao , Ding Hongfei
Published: March 2012

This paper presents an adaptive control approach for Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) z-axis gyroscope sensor. The dynamical model of MEMS gyroscope sensor is derived and adaptive state tracking control for MEMS gyroscope is developed. The proposed adaptive control approaches can estimate the angular velocity and the damping and stiffness coefficients including the coupling terms due to the fabrication imperfection. The stability of the closed-loop systems is established with the proposed adaptive control strategy. Numerical simulation is investigated to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.
Observation Likelihood Model Design and Failure Recovery Scheme Toward Reliable Localization of Mobile Robots
Authors: Moon Chang-bae , Chung Woojin , Doh Nakju Lett
Published: March 2012

Although there have been many researches on mobile robot localization, it is still difficult to obtain reliable localization performance in a human co-existing real environment. Reliability of localization is highly dependent upon developer's experiences because uncertainty is caused by a variety of reasons. We have developed a range sensor based integrated localization scheme for various indoor service robots. Through the experience, we found out that there are several significant experimental issues. In this paper, we provide useful solutions for following questions which are frequently faced with in practical applications: 1) How to design an observation likelihood model? 2) How to detect the localization failure? 3) How to recover from the localization failure? We present design guidelines of observation likelihood model. Localization failure detection and recovery schemes are presented by focusing on abrupt wheel slippage. Experiments were carried out in a typical office building environment. The proposed scheme to identify the localizer status is useful in practical environments. Moreover, the semi-global localization is a computationally efficient recovery scheme from localization failure. The results of experiments and analysis clearly present the usefulness of proposed solutions.
Autonomous Inspection Robot for Power Transmission Lines Maintenance While Operating on the Overhead Ground Wires
Authors: Li Zheng , Ruan Yi
Published: March 2012

This paper describes the development of a mobile robot capable of clearing such obstacles as counterweights, anchor clamps, and torsion tower. The mobile robot walks on overhead ground wires in 500KV power tower. Its ultimate purpose is to automate to inspect the defect of power transmission line. The robot with 13 motors is composed of two arms, two wheels, two claws, two wrists, etc. Each arm has 4 degree of freedom. Claws are also mounted on the arms. An embedded computer based on PC/104 is chosen as the core of control system. Visible light and thermal infrared cameras are installed to obtain the video and temperature information, and the communication system is based on wireless LAN TCP/IP protocol. A prototype robot was developed with careful considerations of mobility. The new sensor configuration is used for the claw to grasp the overhead ground wires. The bridge is installed in the torsion tower for the robot easy to cross obstacles. The new posture plan is proposed for obstacles cleaning in the torsion tower. Results of experiments demonstrate that the robot can be applied to execute the navigation and inspection tasks.
Design, Modeling and Control of a Biped Line-Walking Robot
Authors: Wang Ludan , Liu Fei , Xu Shaoqiang , Wang Zhen , Cheng Sheng , Zhang Jianwei
Published: March 2012

The subject of this paper is the design and analysis of a biped line walking robot for inspection of power transmission lines. With a novel mechanism the centroid of the robot can be concentrated on the axis of hip joint to minimize the drive torque of the hip joint. The mechanical structure of the robot is discussed, as well as forward kinematics. Dynamic model is established in this paper to analyze the inverse kinematics for motion planning. The line-walking cycle of the line-walking robot is composed of a single-support phase and a double-support phase. Locomotion of the line-walking robot is discussed in details and the obstacle-navigation process is planed according to the structure of power transmission line. To fulfill the demands of line-walking, a control system and trajectories generation method are designed for the prototype of the line-walking robot. The feasibility of this concept is then confirmed by performing experiments with a simulated line environment.
Two IPMC Fingers Based Micro Gripper for Handling
Authors: Jain R K , Datta S , Majumder S , Dutta A
Published: March 2012

This paper presents the behavior of two finger based micro gripper which is made of Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC), an Electro Active Polymer (EAP). An IPMC shows great potential as high-displacement and light weight actuator. Low mass force generation capability is utilized for micro gripping in micro assembly. IPMC responds to low voltage in the range of 0-3V. The material contains an electrolyte which transport ions in response to an external electric field. IPMC actuation for micro gripping is produced by deflecting material according to bending moment theory. An external electric field generated by suitable RC circuit causes this deflection. It is found that an IPMC actuates from 1–5 seconds. The maximum jaw opening and closing position of micro gripper are found to be 5 mm and 0.5 mm respectively. The effect of tempearture, as observed, shows that the acceptable limit varies from 23.1°C to 30.4°C while an IPMC is in operation. An experimental proto type is developed for evaluation of performance.
Path Planning of Mobile Elastic Robotic Arms by Indirect Approach of Optimal Control
Authors: Korayem Moharam Habibnejad , Nohooji Hamed Rahimi , Nikoobin Amin
Published: March 2012

Finding optimal trajectory is critical in several applications of robot manipulators. This paper is applied the open-loop optimal control approach for generating the optimal trajectory of the flexible mobile manipulators in point-to-point motion. This method is based on the Pontryagin's minimum principle that by providing a two-point boundary value problem is solved the problem. This problem is known to be complex in particular when combined motion of the base and manipulator, nonholonomic constraint of the base and highly non-linear and complicated dynamic equations as a result of flexible nature of links are taken into account. The study emphasizes on modeling of the complete optimal control problem by remaining all nonlinear state and costate variables as well as control constraints. In this method, designer can compromise between different objectives by considering the proper penalty matrices and it yields to choose the proper trajectory among the various paths. The effectiveness and capability of the proposed approach are demonstrated through simulation studies. Finally, to verify the proposed method, the simulation results obtained from the model are compared with the results of those available in the literature.
An Improved Technique for Robot Global Localization in Indoor Environments
Authors: Zhu Jihua , Zheng Nanning , Yuan Zejian
Published: March 2012

Global localization problem is one of the classical and important problems in mobile robot. In this paper, we present an approach to solve robot global localization in indoor environments with grid map. It combines Hough Scan Matching (HSM) and grid localization method to get the initial knowledge of robot's pose quickly. For pose tracking, a scan matching technique called Iterative Closest Point (ICP) is used to amend the robot motion model, this can drastically decreases the uncertainty about the robot's pose in prediction step. Then accurate proposal distribution taking into account recent observation is introduced into particle filters to recover the best estimate of robot trajectories, which seriously reduces number of particles for pose tracking. The proposed approach can globally localize mobile robot fast and accurately. Experiment results carried out with robot data in indoor environments demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Life Extending Minimum-Time Path Planning for Hexapod Robot
Authors: Wu Xin , Li Yaoyu , Zhou Chao , Gao Qingfeng , Teng Wei
Published: March 2012

This paper presents a minimum-time path planning scheme for life-extending operation of legged robots, illustrated with a six-legged walking robot (hexapod). The focus of this study is on extending the bearing fatigue life for leg joints. As a typical treatment, the minimum-time path planning is performed through a bisecting-plane (BP) algorithm with the constraints of maximum joint angular velocity and acceleration. Based on bearing fatigue life theory, its fatigue life increases while the dynamic radial force on the bearing decreases. By imposing more rigorous constraint on the dynamic radial force, the minimum-time path planning algorithm is thus revised by reinforcing the constraint of maximum radial force based on the expectation of life extension. A symmetric hexapod with 18 degree-of-freedom (DOF) is adopted as the illustrative example for simulation study. The simulation results validate the effectiveness of possible life extending with moderate compromise in transient performance.
A Path Planning Algorithm Using Generalized Potential Model for Hyper-Redundant Robots with 2-DOF Joints
Authors: Lin Chien-Chou , Chuang Jen-Hui , Hsieh Cheng-Tieng
Published: March 2012

This paper proposes a potential-based path planning algorithm of articulated robots with 2-DOF joints. The algorithm is an extension of a previous algorithm developed for 3-DOF joints. While 3-DOF joints result in a more straightforward potential minimization algorithm, 2-DOF joints are obviously more practical for active operations. The proposed approach computes repulsive force and torque between charged objects by using generalized potential model. A collision-free path can be obtained by locally adjusting the robot configuration to search for minimum potential configurations using these force and torque. The optimization of path safeness, through the innovative potential minimization algorithm, makes the proposed approach unique. In order to speedup the computation, a sequential planning strategy is adopted. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm works well compared with 3-DOF-joint algorithm, in terms of collision avoidance and computation efficiency.
Dynamic Task Allocation in Cooperative Robot Teams
Authors: Tsalatsanis Athanasios , Yalcin Ali , Valavanis Kimon. P.
Published: March 2012

In this paper a dynamic task allocation and controller design methodology for cooperative robot teams is presented. Fuzzy logic based utility functions are derived to quantify each robot's ability to perform a task. These utility functions are used to allocate tasks in real-time through a limited lookahead control methodology partially based on the basic principles of discrete event supervisory control theory. The proposed controller design methodology accommodates flexibility in task assignments, robot coordination, and tolerance to robot failures and repairs. Implementation details of the proposed methodology are demonstrated through a warehouse patrolling case study.
A Method for Active Global Localization in Multi-robot System
Authors: Ronghua Luo , Huaqing Min , Maohai Li , Qingcheng Huang
Published: March 2012

In multi-robot system the ability to exchange information can reduce the uncertainty in the estimated location when robots can see each other. In this paper, a kind of dynamically evolving coordination architecture is proposed for cooperative localization according to the relative positions between robots. And to further improve the efficiency of cooperative localization, a decision theory based mechanism is proposed to make the robots cooperate actively during the localization process. Since stably tracking the multi-hypothesis of the robots' own position and their partners' position is of great importance for making a good decision of where to go in active localization, the co-evolution based adaptive Monte Carlo localization method in which samples are clustered into species to represents a hypothesis of robot's pose in a higher level than a single sample is adopted. Experiments are designed and carried out to prove the efficiency and stability of the proposed method.
A cable-tunnel inspecting robot for dangerous environment
Authors: Zhuang Fu , Zupan Chen , Chao Zheng , Yanzheng Zhao
Published: March 2012

This paper presents a kind of mobile robot used for inspecting the cable tunnel online in the dangerous environment. Usually, the calble tunnel is full of poisonous gases after fire, such as CO, CH4, CO2 and so on. Then, the mobile robot is able to tell us whether the tunnel environment is safe or not. In this paper the architecture of the robot is designed at first to meet the motion requirement in the tunnel. These characteristics distinguish the mobile robot from others like compact structure, small size, little weight and easily being carried. Next, the moving mechanism and its kinematics are described. And thus, the operating procedure and experiments are introuduced to validate its reliablity.
Robot Learning from Demonstration: A Task-level Planning Approach
Authors: Ekvall Staffan , Kragic Danica
Published: March 2012

In this paper, we deal with the problem of learning by demonstration, task level learning and planning for robotic applications that involve object manipulation. Preprogramming robots for execution of complex domestic tasks such as setting a dinner table is of little use, since the same order of subtasks may not be conceivable in the run time due to the changed state of the world. In our approach, we aim to learn the goal of the task and use a task planner to reach the goal given different initial states of the world. For some tasks, there are underlying constraints that must be fulfille, and knowing just the final goal is not sufficient. We propose two techniques for constraint identification. In the first case, the teacher can directly instruct the system about the underlying constraints. In the second case, the constraints are identified by the robot itself based on multiple observations. The constraints are then considered in the planning phase, allowing the task to be executed without violating any of them. We evaluate our work on a real robot performing pick-and-place tasks.
Dynamic simulation of task constrained of a rigid-flexible manipulator
Authors: Ata Atef A. , Johar Habib
Published: March 2012

A rigid-flexible manipulator may be assigned tasks in a moving environment where the winds or vibrations affect the position and/or orientation of surface of operation. Consequently, losses of the contact and perhaps degradation of the performance may occur as references are changed. When the environment is moving, knowledge of the angle α between the contact surface and the horizontal is required at every instant. In this paper, different profiles for the time varying angle α are proposed to investigate the effect of this change into the contact force and the joint torques of a rigid-flexible manipulator. The coefficients of the equation of the proposed rotating surface are changing with time to determine the new X and Y coordinates of the moving surface as the surface rotates.
How to achieve various gait patterns from single nominal
Authors: Vukobratović Miomir , Andrić Dejan , Borovac Branislav
Published: March 2012

In this paper is presented an approach to achieving on-line modification of nominal biped gait without recomputing entire dynamics when steady motion is performed. Straight, dynamically balanced walk was used as a nominal gait, and applied modifications were speed-up and slow-down walk and turning left and right. It is shown that the disturbances caused by these modifications jeopardize dynamic stability, but they can be simply compensated to enable walk continuation.
An adaptive fuzzy logic controller for robot-manipulator
Authors: Loc Ho Dac , Ha Tran Thu , Cuong Ngo Cao
Published: March 2012

In this paper, an adaptive fuzzy controller is designed for the robot-manipulator. The synthesized controller ensures that 1) the close-loop system is globally stable and 2) the tracking error converges to zero asymptotically and a cost function is minimized. The fuzzy controller is synthesized from a collection of IF-THEN rules. The parameters of the membership functions characterizing the linguistic terms change according to some adaptive law for the purpose of controlling a plant to track a reference trajectory. The proposed control scheme is demonstrated in a typical nonlinear plant two link manipulator. The computer simulation of control is done by the language MATLAB. The results of simulation show that the adaptive controller well operates and provides good qualities of the control system. The presented results are analyzed.
Design and Development of a Comprehensive Omni directional Soccer Player Robot
Authors: Samani Hooman Aghaebrahimi , Abdollahi Amir , Ostadi Hossein , Rad Saeed Ziaee
Published: March 2012

Omni directional mobile robots have been popularly employed in several applications especially in soccer player robots considered in Robocup competitions. However, omni directional navigation system, omni-vision system and omni-kick mechanism in such soccer player robots have not ever been combined. This situation brings the idea of a robot with no head direction into existence, i.e. a comprehensive omni directional soccer player robot. Such a robot can respond more quickly and it would be capable for more sophisticated behaviors such as ball passing or goal keeping. This paper has tried to focus on description of areas such as omni directional mechanisms, mechanical structure, control, optimized odometry system, omni-vision sensor for self localization and other subjects related to soccer player robot's software.
A Low-Cost Easy-Operation Hexapod Walking Machine
Authors: Carbone Giuseppe , Ceccarelli Marco
Published: March 2012

This paper presents the mechanical design of an hybrid hexapod walking machine that has been designed and built at LARM: Laboratory of Robotics and Mechatronics in Cassino. Basic characteristics are investigated in order to design a leg system with suitable low-cost modular components. Moreover, special care has been addressed in proposing an architecture that can be easily operated by a PLC with on-off logic. Experimental tests are reported in order to show feasibility and operational capability of proposed design.
Wheels Optimization and Vision Control of Omni-directional Mobile Microrobot
Authors: Li Jianghao , Li Zhenbo , Chen Jiapin
Published: March 2012

This paper presents a millimeters scale omni-directional mobile microrobot with special dual-wheel structure. The microrobot was actuated by three electromagnetic micromotors of 2mm diameter. Dynamic analysis of translational and steering movements presented the relationship between the sizes of the dual-wheel structure and the output torque of the micromotor. Genetic algorithm (GA) was employed to optimize the dual-wheel's sizes for reducing the unnecessary torque consumption and improving the driving ability of the microrobot. A computer vision system contained two sets of feedback control is devised for the microrobot. Torque self-balance and current-limiting control approach are presented to ensure the accuracy of step movement. Experiment results demonstrate the feasibility of these concepts.
Evolving Connectionist System Based Role Allocation for Robotic Soccer
Authors: Huang L. , Song Q. , Kasabov N.
Published: March 2012

Robotic soccer is an intelligent system where a group of mobile robots are controlled to perform soccer play ( http://www.fira.net ). The allocation of a suitable role for each robot in a team is a key for the success of the play. The paper treats this issue as one of pattern classification, and solves it with an Evolving classification function (ECF), a special evolving connectionist system (ECOS). A robot's role is determined by and evolves with the states of system (robots and target) in real time. The software and hardware platforms are set up for data collection and learning. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified by the experimental studies.
Development of a Wearable Robot for Assisting Carpentry Workers
Authors: Naito Junpei , Obinata Goro , Nakayama Atsushi , Hase Kazunori
Published: March 2012

The work of fitting ceiling boards is one of the hardest in carpentry, as it requires large muscular power. Hence there is a need to develop assisting apparatus for such work. In order to use this apparatus anywhere a wearable robot is the most suitable. As the robot must be autonomous and lightweight, a design requiring low power is proposed. A semi-active control method has been developed using springs, which requires low energy but satisfies the requirements of compliance and assistive force. In this paper several aspects of design, control and experiments of the developed prototype is explained. The experimental results prove that the robot reduces the muscular fatigue of carpentry worker by providing suitable assistive force.
Using AC Motors in Robotics
Authors: Marzi Hosein
Published: March 2012

It has been proven that fuzzy controllers are capable of controlling non-linear systems where it is cumbersome to develop conventional controllers based on mathematical modeling. This paper describes designing fuzzy controllers for an AC motor run mechanism. It also compares performance of two controllers designed based on Mamdani and Takagi-Sugeno with the conventional control scheme in a short track length, following a high disturbance. Fine and rapid control of AC motors have been a challenge and the main obstacle in gaining popularity in use of AC motors in robots actuators. This chapter reviews how use of intelligent control scheme can help to solve this problem.
Cooperative Exploration by Multi-Robots without Global Localization
Authors: Chao-xia Shi , Bing-rong Hong , Yan-qing Wang
Published: March 2012

Efficient exploration of unknown environments is a fundamental problem in mobile robotics. We propose a novel topological map whose nodes are represented with the range finder's free beams together with the visual scale-invariant features. The topological map enables teams of robots to efficiently explore environments from different, unknown locations without knowing their initial poses, relative poses and global poses in a certain world reference frame. The experiments of map merging and coordinated exploration demonstrate the proposed map is not only easy for merging, but also convenient for robust and efficient explorations in unknown environments.
Study on State Transition Method Applied to Motion Planning for a Humanoid Robot
Authors: Wang Xuyang , Lu Tiansheng , Zhang Peiyan
Published: March 2012

This paper presents an approach of motion planning for a humanoid robot using a state transition method. In this method, motion planning is simplified by introducing a state-space to describe the whole motion series. And each state in the state-space corresponds to a contact state specified during the motion. The continuous motion is represented by a sequence of discrete states. The concept of the transition between two neighboring states, that is the state transition, can be realized by using some traditional path planning methods. Considering the dynamical stability of the robot, a state transition method based on search strategy is proposed. Different sets of trajectories are generated by using a variable 5th-order polynomial interpolation method. After quantifying the stabilities of these trajectories, the trajectories with the largest stability margin are selected as the final state transition trajectories. Rising motion process is exemplified to validate the method and the simulation results show the proposed method to be feasible and effective.
Research on Semi-Automatic Bomb Fetching for an EOD Robot
Authors: Jian-Jun Zeng , Ru-Qing Yang , Wei-Jun Zhang , Xin-Hua Weng , Jun Qian
Published: March 2012

An EOD robot system, SUPER-PLUS, which has a novel semi-automatic bomb fetching function is presented in this paper. With limited support of human, SUPER-PLUS scans the cluttered environment with a wrist-mounted laser distance sensor and plans the manipulator a collision free path to fetch the bomb. The model construction of manipulator, bomb and environment, C-space map, path planning and the operation procedure are introduced in detail. The semi-automatic bomb fetching function has greatly improved the operation performance of EOD robot.
Network Distributed Monitoring System Based on Robot Technology Middleware
Authors: Jia Songmin , Takase Kunikatsu
Published: March 2012

In this paper, a network distributed monitoring system for human assistance robot system was developed to improve the interaction among the users and local service robotic system and enable a remote user to get a better understanding of what is going on in the local environment. Home integration robot system and network monitoring system using QuickCam Orbit cameras were developed and demonstrated from June 9 to June 19 at the 2005 World Exposition, Aichi, Japan. Improvements of network distributed monitoring system using IEEE1394 cameras with high performance and high resolution have been done in order to extend the application of system. Robot Technology Middleware (RTM) was used in the developed system. By using RTM, we can develop cameras functional elements as “RT software components” that can be implemented by different programming languages, run in different operating system, or connected in different networks to inter-operate. It is also easy to create comprehensive robot system application by re-using existing modules thus facilitating network-distributed software sharing and improving the cost of writing and maintaining software.
3D Vision Based Landing Control of a Small Scale Autonomous Helicopter
Authors: Yu Zhenyu , Nonami Kenzo , Shin Jinok , Celestino Demian
Published: March 2012

Autonomous landing is a challenging but important task for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to achieve high level of autonomy. The fundamental requirement for landing is the knowledge of the height above the ground, and a properly designed controller to govern the process. This paper presents our research results in the study of landing an autonomous helicopter. The above-the-ground height sensing is based on a 3D vision system. We have designed a simple plane-fitting method for estimating the height over the ground. The method enables vibration free measurement with the camera rigidly attached on the helicopter without using complicated gimbal or active vision mechanism. The estimated height is used by the landing control loop. Considering the ground effect during landing, we have proposed a two-stage landing procedure. Two controllers are designed for the two landing stages respectively. The sensing approach and control strategy has been verified in field flight test and has demonstrated satisfactory performance.
Combined Intelligent Control (CIC) an Intelligent Decision Making Algorithm
Authors: Shirzi Moteaal Asadi , Yazdi M. R. Hairi , Lucas Caro
Published: March 2012

The focus of this research is to introduce the concept of combined intelligent control (CIC) as an effective architecture for decision-making and control of intelligent agents and multi-robot sets. Basically, the CIC is a combination of various architectures and methods from fields such as artificial intelligence, Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI), control and biological computing. Although any intelligent architecture may be very effective for some specific applications, it could be less for others. Therefore, CIC combines and arranges them in a way that the strengths of any approach cover the weaknesses of others. In this paper first, we introduce some intelligent architectures from a new aspect. Afterward, we offer the CIC by combining them. CIC has been executed in a multi-agent set. In this set, robots must cooperate to perform some various tasks in a complex and nondeterministic environment with a low sensory feedback and relationship. In order to investigate, improve, and correct the combined intelligent control method, simulation software has been designed which will be presented and considered. To show the ability of the CIC algorithm as a distributed architecture, a central algorithm is designed and compared with the CIC.
A Novel Robot of Manufacturing Space Solar Cell Arrays
Authors: Yuexin Wu , Zhuang Fu , Yanzheng Zhao , Hui Zhao
Published: March 2012

This paper presents a novel robot employed to manufacture space solar cell arrays. First of all including the mechanical configuration and control system, the architecture of the robot is described. Then the flow velocity field of adhesive in the dispensing needles is acquired based on hydrodynamics. The accurate section form model of adhesive dispensed on the solar cells is obtained, which is essential for the robot to control the uniformity of dispensing adhesive. Finally the experiment validates the feasibility and reliability of the robot system. The application of robots instead of manual work in manufacturing space solar cell arrays will enhance the development of space industry.
Operator Engagement Detection for Robot Behavior Adaptation
Authors: Rani Pramila , Sarkar Nilanjan
Published: March 2012

It has been shown that in human-robot interaction, the effectiveness of a robot varies inversely with the operator engagement in the task. Given the importance of maintaining optimal task engagement when working with a robot, it would be immensely useful to have a robotic system that can detect the level of operator engagement and modify its behavior if required. This paper presents a framework for human-robot interaction that allows inference of operator's engagement level through the analysis of his/her physiological signals, and adaptation of robot behavior as a function of the operator's engagement level. Peripheral physiological signals were measured through wearable biofeedback sensors and a control architecture inspired by Riley's original information-flow model was developed to implement such human-robot interaction. The results from affect-elicitation tasks for human participants showed that it was possible to detect engagement through physiological sensing in real-time. An open-loop teleoperation-based robotic experiment was also conducted where the recorded physiological signals were transmitted to the robot in real-time speed to demonstrate that the presented control architecture allowed the robot to adapt its behavior based on operator engagement level.
A Novel Reconfigurable Robot for Urban Search and Rescue
Authors: Zhang Houxiang , Wang Wei , Deng Zhicheng , Zong Guanghua , Zhang Jianwei
Published: March 2012

This paper presents a novel mobile robot for urban search and rescue based on reconfiguration. The system consists of three identical modules; actually each module is an entire robotic system that can perform distributed activities. To achieve highly adaptive locomotion capabilities, the robot's serial and parallel mechanisms form an active joint, enabling it to change its shape in three dimensions. A docking mechanism enables adjacent modules to connect or disconnect flexibly and automatically. This mechanical structure and the control system are introduced in detail, followed by a description of the locomotion capabilities. In the end, the successful on-site tests confirm the principles described above and the robot's ability.
Tolerance Towards Sensor Faults: An Application to a Flexible Arm Manipulator
Authors: Tan Chee Pin , Habib Maki K.
Published: March 2012

As more engineering operations become automatic, the need for robustness towards faults increases. Hence, a fault tolerant control (FTC) scheme is a valuable asset. This paper presents a robust sensor fault FTC scheme implemented on a flexible arm manipulator, which has many applications in automation. Sensor faults affect the system's performance in the closed loop when the faulty sensor readings are used to generate the control input. In this paper, the non-faulty sensors are used to reconstruct the faults on the potentially faulty sensors. The reconstruction is subtracted from the faulty sensors to form a compensated ‘virtual sensor’ and this signal (instead of the normally used faulty sensor output) is then used to generate the control input. A design method is also presented in which the FTC scheme is made insensitive to any system uncertainties. Two fault conditions are tested; total failure and incipient faults. Then the scheme robustness is tested by implementing the flexible joint's FTC scheme on a flexible link, which has different parameters. Excellent results have been obtained for both cases (joint and link); the FTC scheme caused the system performance is almost identical to the fault-free scenario, whilst providing an indication that a fault is present, even for simultaneous faults.
Natural Heat-Sinking Control Method for High-Speed Actuation of the SMA
Authors: Loh Chee Siong , Yokoi Hiroshi , Arai Tamio
Published: March 2012

This paper describes two methodologies for increasing the actuation speed of the shape memory alloy (SMA) actuator in ambient environment. The first method involves the implementation of a simple, light-weight heat sink, which consists only of a combination of an outer metal tube with the silicone grease, but able to cool the heated alloy effectively. The second method describes a high current pulse actuation that actuates the alloy fastly using pulses in the milliseconds order. We hypothesize that a fast actuation of the SMA results in small increase in temperature, due to energy transformation from heat energy to the kinetic energy in the SMA. This new heating method revolutionizes the actuation of the alloy for a significantly faster response.
Logic-Dynamic Approach to Fault Diagnosis in Mechatronic Systems
Authors: Filaretov V. F. , Zhirabok A. N.
Published: March 2012

This paper presents a problem of fault detection and isolation (FDI) in mechatronic systems described by nonlinear dynamic models with such types of no differentiable nonlinearities as saturation, Coulomb friction, backlash, and hysteresis. To solve this problem, so-called logic-dynamic approach is suggested. This approach consists of three main steps: replacing the initial nonlinear system by certain linear logic-dynamic system, obtaining the bank of linear logic-dynamic observers, and transforming these observes into the nonlinear ones. Logic-dynamic approach allows one to use the linear FDI methods for diagnosis in nonlinear mechatronic systems.
Effective Pneumatic Scheme and Control Strategy of a Climbing Robot for Class Wall Cleaning on High-rise Buildings
Authors: Zhang Houxiang , Zhang Jianwei , Zong Guanghua
Published: March 2012

A new kind of pneumatic climbing robot is presented to meet the requirements of glass-wall cleaning for high-rise buildings, which is totally actuated by pneumatic cylinders and attached to the glass wall with vacuum suckers. Using the pneumatic actuators the climbing robot can be made lightweight and dexterous. At the same time the movement driven by pneumatic actuators has the characteristic of passive compliance. In order to solve the problems of high speed movement for the Y cylinder and precise position control of the X cylinder, the applied pneumatic schemes of X and Y cylinders are employed to drive the high-speed on-off solenoid valves and an ordinary valve to adjust the air-flow and pressure to the cylinders. Furthermore a method of segment and variable bang-bang controller is proposed to implement the accurate control of the position servo system for the X cylinder during the sideways movement. Testing results show that the novel approach can effectively improve the control quality. This cleaning robot can meet the requirements of realization.
Stability Enhancement of Mobile Manipulators via Soft Computing
Authors: Ghaffari Ali , Meghdari Ali , Naderi Davood , Eslami Sohrab
Published: March 2012

Nowadays the size and dimension of mobile manipulators have been decreased for being usable in various regions. This leads several problems such as danger of instability. Therefore, many researches have been done to overcome the problem of overturning of a mobile manipulator. In this paper, an algorithm for increasing the stability of a mobile manipulator is presented based on the optimization of a performance index. The path of vehicle and the desired task of the end-effector are predefined. In order to apply the optimal stability criterion, it is more convenient that the manipulator be of a redundant. Considering the interaction between the vehicle and the manipulator and using the genetic algorithm to minimize the stability criterion cooperating with a neural network, the proposed method is a swift algorithm to determine the optimum configuration of the manipulator for real time overturning control of the vehicle. An example for illustrating the significance of the proposed method is presented in a two dimensional configuration.