Self-adaptive rolling motion for snake robots in unstructured environments based on torque control

Snake robots have great potential for exploring and operating in challenging unstructured environments,such as rubble,caves,and narrow pipelines.However,due to the complexity and unpredictability of unstructured environments,designing a controller that can achieve adaptive motion is crucial.This paper proposes a self-adaptive torque-based rolling controller for snake robots,enabling compliant motion in unstructured environments.First,a controller is designed to modify the torque of each motor by focusing on the different motion states of the rolling gait.Second,an experimental platform is established for snake robots to verify the effectiveness of the controller.Finally,a series of rolling experiments are conducted using the torque-based rolling controller.In conclusion,the self-adaptive torque-based rolling controller enhances snake robot adaptability and mobility.

ANALYSIS OF TIPOVER STABILITY FOR NOVEL SHAPE SHIFTING MODULAR ROBOT

A novel three-module robot has been introduced. It can change its configuration to adapt to the uneven terrain and to improve its tipover stability. This three-module tracked robot has three kinds of symmetry configuration. They are line type, triangle type, and row type. After the factors and the countermeasures of mobile robot＇s tipover problem are analyzed, stability pyramid and tipover stabil-ity index are proposed to globally determinate the mobile robot＇s static stability and dynamic stability. The shape shifting robot is tested by this technique under the combined disturbance of pitch, roll and yaw in simulation. The simulation result shows that this technique is effective for the analysis of mobile robot＇s tipover stability, especially for the reconfigurable or shape shifting modular robot. Experiments on three symmetry configurations are made under unstructured environments. The environment experiment shows the same result as that of the simulation that the triangle type configuration has the best stability. Both simulation and experiment provide a valid reference for the reconfigurable robot＇s potential application.

Fuzzy Logic Supervised Teleoperation Control for Mobile Robot

Abstract： The supervised teleoperation control is presented for a mobile robot to implement the tasks by using fuzzy logic. The teleoperation control system includes joystick based user interaction mechanism, the high level instruction set and fuzzy logic behaviors integrated in a supervised autonomy teleoperation control system for indoor navigation. These behaviors include left wall following, right wall following, turn left, turn right, left obstacle avoidance, right obstacle avoidance and corridor following based on ultrasonic range finders data. The robot compares the instructive high level command from the operator and relays back a suggestive signal back to the operator in case of mismatch between environment and instructive command. This strategy relieves the operator＇s cognitive burden, handle unforeseen situations and uncertainties of environment autonomously. The effectiveness of the proposed method for navigation in an unstructured environment is verified by experiments conducted on a mobile robot equipped with only ultrasonic range finders for environment sensing.

Dynamic task scheduling modeling in unstructured heterogeneous multiprocessor systems

An algorithm is proposed for scheduling dependent tasks in time-varying heterogeneous multiprocessor systems, in which computational power and links between processors are allowed to change over time. Link contention is considered in the multiprocessor scheduling problem. A linear switching-state space-modeling paradigm is introduced to enable theoretical analysis from a system engineering perspective. Theoretical analysis of this model shows its robustness against changes in processing power and link failure. The proposed algorithm uses a fuzzy decision-making procedure to handle changes in the multiprocessor system. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is illustrated by several random experiments and comparison against a recent benchmark approach. The results show up to 18% average improvement in makespan, especially for larger scale systems.

Dynamic Obstacle Avoidance for Application of Human-Robot Cooperative Dispensing Medicines

For safety reasons,in the automated dispensing medicines process,robots and humans cooperate to accomplish the task of drug sorting and distribution.In this dynamic unstructured environment,such as a humanrobot collaboration scenario,the safety of human,robot,and equipment in the environment is paramount.In this work,a practical and effective robot motion planning method is proposed for dynamic unstructured environments.To figure out the problems of blind zones of single depth sensor and dynamic obstacle avoidance,we first propose a method for establishing offline mapping and online fusion of multi-sensor depth images and 3D grids of the robot workspace,which is used to determine the occupation states of the 3D grids occluded by robots and obstacles and to conduct real-time estimation of the minimum distance between the robot and obstacles.Then,based on the reactive control method,the attractive and repulsive forces are calculated and transformed into robot joint velocities to avoid obstacles in real time.Finally,the robot’s dynamic obstacle avoidance ability is evaluated on an experimental platform with a UR5 robot and two KinectV2 RGB-D sensors,and the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified.