Adaptive Swimming of Underwater Snake-like Robot in Different Underwater Environment

Hydrodynamic force is an important factor that affects the performance of underwater vehicle.Adapting to the current underwater environment by changing its shape is an important feature of underwater snake-like robots(USLR).An experiment was implemented to verify the swimming along the straight line of USLR.A simulation platform is also established for the analysis of the swimming of USLR.To figure out adaptive swimming of USLR to different underwater environments,the relationships between CPG parameters and maximum swimming speed have been discussed,and the switching between different swimming modes has been implemented.

Environmental Adaptive Control of a Snake-like Robot With Variable Stiffness Actuators

This work investigates adaptive stiffness control and motion optimization of a snake-like robot with variable stiffness actuators. The robot can vary its stiffness by controlling magnetorheological fluid(MRF) around actuators. In order to improve the robot's physical stability in complex environments, this work proposes an adaptive stiffness control strategy. This strategy is also useful for the robot to avoid disturbing caused by emergency situations such as collisions. In addition, to obtain optimal stiffness and reduce energy consumption, both torques of actuators and stiffness of the MRF braker are considered and optimized by using an evolutionary optimization algorithm. Simulations and experiments are conducted to verify the proposed adaptive stiffness control and optimization methods for a variable stiffness snake-like robots.

Modeling and Control of Head of the Underwater Snake-like Robot Swimming

In order to solve oscillation of head of the underwater snake-like robot,the Central Pattern Generator( CPG)-based control scheme with head-controller was presented. The Kane dynamic model was constructed to be processed with a commercial package MotionGenesis Kane 5. 3,to which the proposed control scheme was applied. The relation between CPG parameters and orientation offset of head was investigated. The target orientation of head-controller was calculated through a convenient method. The advantage of this control scheme is that the head of the underwater snake-like robot remains in the forward direction during swimming. To prove the feasibility of the proposed methodology,two basic motion patterns,swimming along the straight line and swimming along the curved path,had been implemented in our simulation platform. The results showed that the simulation platform can imitate the swimming of the underwater snake-like robot and the head of the underwater snake-like robot remains in a fixed orientation directed towards the target. The oscillation of head's orientation is inhibited effectively.

Kinematic Research on Hinged Synchronous Universal Joint Applied for Snake-like Manipulator

The structure and motion principle of a hinged synchronous universal joint (HSUJ) is introduced, also whose kinematics is theoretically analyzed. As a result, a few kinematic characters of the HSUJ are obtained,which establish the foundation of its application for snake-like manipulator. Making use of the HSUJ ss actuating mechauism, the developed snake-like manipulator has the merits of small curve radius, fewer actuator, and small volume etc.

Knowledge presentation by the MNSM-based controller for swimming motion of a snake-like robot

A MNSM( mirror neuron system mechanism)-based controller is developed to present the swimming rhythm of a snake-like robot in Cartesian space. From engineering viewpoint,the proposed controller is composed of a neuron for rhythm angle and two neurons for motion knowledge in XY plane. The given knowledge is a rhythm curve for swimming motion of a snake-like robot. Experimental results show that the proposed controller can present the knowledge of swimming rhythm,which represents the corresponding control law to drive the snake-like robot to swim with different speeds and turning motion. This work provides a novel method to present the knowledge for swimming motion of snake-like robots.

Head Orientation Stability of Underwater Snake-Like Robot Swimming

In prior research,the orientation of head of the snake-like robot is changed according to the sinusoidal wave. To solve this problem,we propose Central Pattern Generator( CPG)-based control scheme with head-controller to stabilize the head of the underwater snake-like robot. The advantage of the CPG-based control scheme with head-controller is that the head of the underwater snake-like robot is direct to the target orientation during swimming. The relation between CPG parameters and orientation stability of head is discussed.The adaptation of the proposed method to environment changes is tested. The influences of CPG parameters and hydrodynamic forces on the orientation offset of head are investigated. The target orientation( the input of headcontroller) with an experimental optimization is calculated through a convenient method. To prove the feasibility of the proposed methodology,the different swimming modes have been implemented in our simulation platform.The results show that the oscillation of head's orientation is inhibited effectively,and the proposed method has strong adaptation to environment and CPG parameters changes.

Driving Torque Reduction in Linkage Mechanisms Using Joint Compliance for Robot Head

The conventional linkage mechanisms with compliant joint have been widely studied and implemented for increasing the adaptability of the mechanism to external contacts. However, the analysis of how compliant joints in linkage mechanism can reduce the energy consumption isn＇t still studied deeply. In a mobile service robot head, the actions of blinking the eyes and moving the eyeballs are realized by the planar linkage mechanism respectively. Therefore, minimizing the driving torques through motion trajectories for the linkage mechanism, which will be beneficial to extend the working time for mobile service robots. The dynamic modeling of the linkage mechanism with springs-loaded compliant joint is established. An optimization procedure for obtaining the optimal parameters of springs is proposed for minimizing the max value of driving torques within a range of desired operating conditions. The Simulations prove that the linkage mechanism with compliant joints can effectively reduce the driving torques, and reduce the energy consumption consequently. The framework can also be applied in other similar applications to reduce the driving torque and save energy. Compared with previous efforts, this is the first attempt that the linkage mechanism with complaint joint is applied in the robot head for reducing the driving torque.

Design of Robust Controller for Flexible Joint Robot with Nonlinear Friction Characteristics

A robust controller method for flexible joint robot considering the effect caused by nonlinear friction was presented.The nonlinear friction was denoted as inverse additive output uncertainty relative to the nominal model in our work,based on which the describing function was analyzed in frequency domain,and the weighting function of nonlinear friction was further calculated as well. By combining the friction uncertainty,the mixed sensitivity H∞optimization was proposed as the benchmark for controller design, which also leaded to good performance of robustness. Furthermore,unstructured perturbation to the system was analyzed so that the stability was guaranteed. Simulation results show that the proposed controller can provide excellent tracking and regulation performance.

Dynamic surface control-backstepping based impedance control for 5-DOF flexible joint robots

A new impedance controller based on the dynamic surface control-backstepping technique to actualize the anticipant dynamic relationship between the motion of end-effector and the external torques was presented.Comparing with the traditional backstepping method that has "explosion of terms" problem,the new proposed control system is a combination of the dynamic surface control technique and the backstepping.The dynamic surface control(DSC) technique can resolve the "explosion of terms" problem that is caused by differential coefficient calculation in the model,and the problem can bring a complexity that will cause the backstepping method hardly to be applied to the practical application,especially to the multi-joint robot.Finally,the validity of the method was proved in the laboratory environment that was set up on the 5-DOF(degree of freedom) flexible joint robot.Tracking errors of DSC-backstepping impedance control that were 2.0 and 1.5 mm are better than those of backstepping impedance control which were 3.5 and 2.5 mm in directions X,Y in free space,respectively.And the anticipant Cartesian impedance behavior and compliant behavior were achieved successfully as depicted theoretically.

Real-time accurate hand path tracking and joint trajectory planning for industrial robots(Ⅰ)

Previously, researchers raised the accuracy for a robot′s hand to track a specified path in Car-tesian space mainly through increasing the number of knots on the path and the number of the path′s segments, which results in the heavier online computational burden for the robot controller. Aiming at overcoming this drawback, the authors propose a new kind of real-time accurate hand path tracking and joint trajectory planning method. Through selecting some extra knots on the specified hand path by a certain rule and introducing a sinusoidal function to the joint displacement equation of each segment, this method can greatly raise the path tracking accuracy of robot′s hand and does not change the number of the path′s segments. It also does not increase markedly the computational burden of robot controller. The result of simulation indicates that this method is very effective, and has important value in increasing the application of industrial robots.

Analysis of Robot Accuracy Assessed via its Joint Clearance by Virtual Prototyping Method

This paper discusses how joint clearance influences robot end effectorpositioning accuracy and a robot accuracy analysis approach based on a virtual prototype isproposed. First, a 5-DOF(Degree of freedom) neurosurgery robot was introduced. Then we built itsvirtual prototype, made movement planning and measured the manipulator tip accuracy, through whichthis robot accuracy portrait was obtained. Finally, in order to validate the robot accuracyanalysis approach which is based on a virtual prototype, the result was compared with that from amodel built by robot forward kinematics and robot differential kinematics. The robot accuracyanalysis approach presented in this paper gives a new way to enhance robot design quality , and helpto optimize the control and programming of the robot.

Joint space compliance control for a hydraulic quadruped robot based on force feedback

In the realm of quadruped robot locomotion,compliance control is imperative to handle impacts when negotiating unstructured terrains.At the same time,kinematic tracking accuracy should be guaranteed during locomotion.To meet both demands,ajoint space compliance controller is designed,so that compliance can be achieved in stance phase while position tracking performance can be guaranteed in swing phase.Unlike operational space compliance control,the joint space compliance control method is easy to implement and does not depend on robot dynamics.As for each joint actuator,high performance force control is of great importance for compliance design.Therefore,a nonlinear PI controller based on feedback linearization is proposed for the hydraulic actuator force control.Besides,an outer position loop（compliance loop）is closed for each joint.Experiments are carried out to verify the force controller and compliance of the hydraulic actuator.The robot leg compliance is assessed by a virtual prototyping simulation.

Design and analysis of shift robot with passive joint

In order to improve the efficiency of gear shifter testing,a kind of shift robot with a special pas-sive joint is proposed to complete the human-like shifting operation automatically.The shift robot is mainly composed of two prismatic pairs,a cylindrical pair and a passive joint.The two prismatic pairs act as actuators of the mechanism to complete a part of the shifting operation,and then the shift lever can be pulled into the accurate gear position by the shift torque of the gear shifter.However,the shifting lever may skip the target gear position into the next gear position.In order to solve the gear-skip phenomenon,a limit block is applied to the passive joint.Then,the shifting processes are simulated through the dynamic model of the shift robot.The optimal position of the limit block is de-termined based on its dynamic characteristics.

Anti-Windup Control Strategy of Drive System for Humanoid Robot Arm Joint

To address the problems of torque limit and controller saturation in the control of robot arm joint,an anti-windup control strategy is proposed for a humanoid robot arm,which is based on the integral state prediction under the direct torque control system of brushless DC motor. First,the arm joint of the humanoid robot is modelled. Then the speed controller model and the influence of the initial value of the integral element on the system are analyzed. On the basis of the traditional antiwindup controller,an integral state estimator is set up. Under the condition of different load torques and the given speed,the integral steady-state value is estimated. Therefore the accumulation of the speed error terminates when the integrator reaches saturation. Then the predicted integral steady-state value is used as the initial value of the regulator to enter the linear region to make the system achieve the purpose of anti-windup. The simulation results demonstrate that the control strategy for the humanoid robot arm joint based on integral state prediction can play the role of anti-windup and suppress the overshoot of the system effectively. The system has a good dynamic performance.

The Design of Control System for Multi Joint Robot based on PC+DSP

A multi joint robot control system was designed based on the universal processor PC+DSP in order to overcome the short- comings of the control system in terms of flexibility, cost performance, and software transplantation, which use Industrial Personal Computer for the upper monitor and MAC Motion control card for the lower computer. The design of multi joint robot control system is accomplished through hardware circuit design, VC++ programming and so on. Finally, six joint robot platform is used to test the control performance,The results show that the designed control system has the advantages of flexible fimction,easy expansion and easy porting of software.

Analysis and Design of Control Dynamics of Manipulator Robot’s Joint Drive

A system of automatic control(SAC)of the electric drive of rotary link of manipulator robot(MR)is considered.The variables of mechanical load of drive,depending of changes of a spatial configuration of MR in the course of motion,mass and dimensions of the moved payloads,etc.,are received from the motion equation of rotary link of MR.Changes of mechanical load can be unknown and cause the essential deterioration in dynamical properties(speed,damping,etc.)of the SAC of drive.With the aim to stabilize the desired dynamical properties of SAC the algorithm of drive control is proposed which is adaptive to changes of mechanical load.The unknown parameters of drive load,necessary to form the adaptive control algorithm,are identified via observing device(OD).The work algorithm of OD to identify the unknown parameters of drive load is proposed.For the proposed control and work of OD algorithms the block diagram of drive control is construction.The simulation results on computer proved that in considered SAC of drive the stabilization of desired dynamical properties ensured.

Real-time accurate hand path tracking and joint trajectory planning for industrial robots(Ⅱ)

Previously, researchers raised the accuracy for a robot′s hand to track a specified path in Cartesian space mainly through increasing the number of knots on the path and the segments of the path. But, this method resulted in the heavier on line computational burden for the robot controller. In this paper, aiming at this drawback, the authors propose a new kind of real time accurate hand path tracking and joint trajectory planning method for robots. Through selecting some extra knots on the specified hand path by a certain rule, which enables the number of knots on each segment to increase from two to four, and through introducing a sinusoidal function and a cosinoidal function to the joint displacement equation of each segment, this method can raise the path tracking accuracy of robot′s hand greatly but does not increase the computational burden of robot controller markedly.

Research on Precision Assembly Robot's Joint Torque Control Based on Current Measurement

A set of new current sensing device is used to realize joint torque control based on current measurement in a precision assembly robot's third joint. The output torque's model of the joint's brnshless DC motor is founded. Disturbance factors and the compensated effect of the torque's closed loop based on current measurement are analyzed. Related simulations and experiments show that the system has good current tracking and anti-disturbances performance, which improve the force control performance of the robot in assembly.

Interval Type-2 Fuzzy PD Tracking Control of Flexible-Joint Robots

This paper develops a novel interval type-2 fuzzy Proportional-Derivative (PD) control scheme for electrically driven flexible-joint robots using the direct method of Lyapunov. The controller has a simple design in a decentralized structure. Compared to the previous controllers reported for the flexible-joint robots which use two control loops, it has a simpler structure using only one control loop. It guarantees stability and provides a good tracking performance. The controller considers the whole robotic system including the manipulator and motors by applying the voltage control strategy. Stability analysis is presented and the effectiveness of the proposed control approach is demonstrated by simulations using a three link flexible-joint robot driven by permanent magnet DC motors. Simulation results show that the interval type-2 fuzzy PD controller can handle external disturbance better than the type-1 fuzzy PD controller. In addition, it spends less control effort than the type-1 in order to deal with disturbance.

基于Solidworks的重载机器人肩部的建模与静态分析

为了提高机器人的肩部有效控制能力,设计了一个165 kg重载6自由度机器人肩关节.通过设计一个谐波减速器和一对直齿齿轮以降低转速和提升转矩,利用齿轮与轴的配合完成肩关节在平面内的旋转.选择110AEA12020-SH3交流伺服电机、SHG-45-100谐波减速器以及6011和6016深沟球轴承进行肩部旋转关节旋转方案的设计,并利用有限元法对传动系统主要部件的静力学强度进行分析.结果表明,该肩部旋转关节旋转方案设计合理,轴承与齿轮的静力学性能满足实际应用需求.