2A2-J15 超ロバスト性HFD電動アクチュエータの開発 : 試作アクチュエータ(UMRS2009搭載)の原理と構造(アクチュエータの機構と制御)

The rescuing robot can help the workers a lot in searching and rescuing survivors. The design of a tendon-sheath and pneumatic system driven rescue robot is proposed in this dissertation. The robot is designed to solve the insert problem into the ruins and provide some necessary help for the survivor fined by the rescue robot. The introduction of the robot in this paper is divided into two parts: the introduction of mechanical structure and the control system. The robot consists of a searching head, a flexible slender arm, display terminal and a driving unit. The searching head is the most important part of the whole system which is comprised of two pneumatic actuators and a backbone spring. The driving unit is composed of the tendon-sheath, servos, solenoid valves and an air pump, all of these elements are control by MCU. The whole robot system can be packed into a suit case for better carrying.

Many applications, such as surveillance, inspection or search and rescue operations, can be performed with autonomous robots. Our aim is a control of modular autonomous systems in rescue robotics. One of the basic problems with autonomous robotics is the execution part where the control commands (translation and rotational velocities) are produced for mobile bases. Therefore we have focused on this area because there is only a small amount of available path following software for skid-steered mobile robots. Our goal was to develop a velocity controller that could be used for multiple skid-steered mobile bases. We considered differential drive mobile bases such as tracked skid-steering mobile bases. Our approach is based on an arc fitting algorithm, which takes into account the robot constraints and kinematical model. It produces a continuous trajectory where fitting to the given path is adapted based on given parameters. Moreover, we have included orientation angle compensation while the mobile robot is moving and ground inclination compensation. Our rescue robot is described, together with the simulation setup and algorithm implementation. We compared our algorithm to the Hector-based software and curvature velocity approach. The results for the proposed algorithm are shown for the simulation results and the experiment.

Rescue robotics has been suggested by a recent DARPA/NSF study as an application domain for the research in human-robot integration (HRI). This paper provides a short tutorial on how robots are currently used in urban search and rescue (USAR) and discusses the HRI issues encountered over the past eight years. A domain theory of the search activity is formulated. The domain theory consists of two parts: 1) a workflow model identifying the major tasks, actions, and roles in robot-assisted search (e.g., a workflow model) and 2) a general information flow model of how data from the robot is fused by various team members into information and knowledge. The information flow model also captures the types of situation awareness needed by each agent in the rescue robot system. The article presents a synopsis of the major HRI issues in reducing the number of humans it takes to control a robot, maintaining performance with geographically distributed teams with intermittent communications, and encouraging acceptance within the existing social structure.

In order to improve the performance of searching and rescuing robots, a Tendon-Sheath-Driven rescue robot system was designed and its posture and position's 3D reconstruction has been realized. Robot body, pushing mechanism, pulling mechanism, monitoring terminal, and Human-Robot interface (PC) was included in the system. Then a new and novel algorithm of 3D robot shape reconstruction was introduced in this paper. And the result can be shown in the Human-Robot Interface (HRI).The experimental results show that this reconstruction method has enough accuracy.

Pneumatic muscle actuator is a type of muscle-like actuator that mimics human skeletal muscle action through an airtight elastic tube. This unique type of actuator is able to generate a large output force with a very lightweight structure, and thus has been used in various robotic systems. In this paper, the authors further expand the performance and functionality of pneumatic actuator by introducing a unique modification to the actuator structure. Specifically, a telescoping insert is integrated to the center of the actuator. This insert serves dual purposes. First, by eliminating the central space in the pneumatic muscle, this structural change increases the force output and reduces the energy consumption of the actuator. Second, the insert incorporates an additional pneumatic chamber at the center of the actuator, which enables the actuator to generate an extension force and become a double-acting actuator. Comparative experimental results demonstrated the advantages of the new actuator over the traditional pneumatic muscle with respect to the actuation force over the entire range of motion. Furthermore, a design example, knee actuation mechanism in a powered leg prosthesis, is presented to illustrate the application of the new actuator. To provide the desired performance, a double-acting sleeve muscle drives the knee joint through an inverted crank-slider mechanism. A graphic comparison shows that the actuation system is able to provide sufficient torque to support a 75 kg user’s level walking and stair climbing.

Nonlinear dynamics and chaos in robots have been extensively studied in the fields of service robots, humanoids and biologically inspired systems such as swarms, mobile sensor networks and bio-robots. This chapter surveys chaos in robots while introducing novel approaches to overcome the uncertainty in robotic systems stemming from chaotic dynamics and environments. The chapter begins with chaotic motions in feedback controlled two-and three-degree-of-freedom robots and continues in expending into higher degrees of freedom spanning the fields of biologically inspired robotics. Chaos arising through bifurcations under parametric changes in robotic devices is overviewed including detailed phase plane analyses. This chapter also provides the detailed overview of our works in the relevant topic of chaotic analyses of robotic systems dealing with the identification of the chaotic boundaries in nonlinear robotic systems, using cell mapping equipped with measures of fractal dimension and rough sets. Moreover, fractal structures that motivated roboticists to generate scale invariant modular robots are explained throughout the chapter. Lastly, percolation guided prioritized exploration technique for a search and rescue robot in chaotic environment is presented.

Launcher guidance and control (G&C) design is a very demanding process, most notably because mission requirements are known to compete against each other and strong couplings between different disciplines exist. These effects become even more impactful when it comes to reusable launch vehicles, many of which are currently under development. The main task of the G&C system is to generate and follow a trajectory to fulfil mission objectives. This is achieved using various actuator types, which typically include the main engine(s), thrust vector control (TVC), aerodynamic control surfaces and cold-gas thrusters of a reaction control system‎(RCS). The motion of these actuators introduces excitations of flexible modes and perturbations through the launchers’ structure which cannot be easily modelled since the mechanical properties are highly time-varying due to the propellant being burnt to generate thrust. External perturbations from aerodynamics or wind reinforce these effects. Furthermore, actuators and other subsystems are subject to faults and failures having multiple potential origins. All of these perturbations must be handled by the G&C system. In the current industrial approach, these multi-physics effects are tackled by separate teams using their own tools while G&C design is usually based on low-fidelity models that simplify the interactions between disciplines. The adoption of multi-physics acausal modelling approaches such as MODELICA and MATLAB Simscape is believed to enable a more efficient and accurate modelling of the multi-disciplinary interactions. This motivates the development of a dedicated multi-physics simulator for multi-actuated vertical take-off vertical landing (VTVL) vehicles based on MathWorks’ Simulink/Simscape. Setting up simulators is a crucial and time-consuming activity in GNC design. The openly distributable Rapid Reusable Launcher Simulation via Multi-physics Modeling (R2M2) tool is a multi-physics simulator framework that aims at reducing this modeling effort and enabling users to quickly and easily set up simulations of VTVL vehicles by only defining the required model parameters. This helps users to save time and resources and enables them to focus their research and development efforts on the GNC system. On the other hand, R2M2 provides the simulation environment to rapidly evaluate GNC approaches. In addition to simplifying the setup process, the R2M2 tool is also highly adaptable and able to simulate a wide range of VTVL mission scenarios, including different vehicle and actuator configurations and environmental conditions. Automated Monte Carlo routines are also provided to facilitate the investigation of the effects of wind disturbances and uncertain parameters. The tool is capable of modeling external influences such as gravitational and aerodynamic effects, as well as internal dynamics from time-varying and moving masses. Modeling of variable-mass dynamics is an essential component for launch vehicle simulations. Mass properties of launch vehicles are changing mainly due to the propulsion causing the ejection of combustion products through the engines’ nozzles. The varying mass influences not only the vehicle’s properties such as the center of mass and moments of inertia but also generates additional forces and moments for instance due to Coriolis effects [R1] [R2]. In addition, the tool can consider common actuator failure cases including the jamming of TVC actuators and aerodynamic control surfaces and degraded engine performance. Future implementations may extend the tool to being capable to consider sloshing effects and structural flexibility. This paper describes the design of the R2M2 tool and provides an overview of its functionalities and applications. The implementation within MathWorks’ physical simulation environments Simscape and Simscape Multibody is shown for all relevant subsystems and physical effects. Challenges and drawbacks using Simscape for flight mechanics modeling are addressed. These main challenges arise from limited Simscape functionalities and its closed-source nature when the interaction of variable mass dynamics and physical effects specific to aerospace applications, such as aerodynamic forces and moments, have to be modeled. Possible solutions and work-arounds, as implemented in the tool, are shown. A benchmark scenario of a two staged launch vehicle ascent is implemented to verify the desired functionality of the R2M2 tool. To enable trajectory tracking the benchmark vehicle is configured with an engine cluster of five throtteable main engines, thrust vector control (TVC), aerodynamic control surfaces (fins) and a reaction control system‎(RCS). A preliminary controller and control allocation design is shown which enables stable flight on the vehicle’s ascent trajectory. The benchmark implementation offers the potential for synthesis and assessment of more sophisticated RLV guidance and control algorithms to improve the overall system performance and robustness. [R1] F. O. Eke; Dynamics of Variable Mass Systems. Technical Report CR-1998-208246, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); 1999 [R2] B. Gäßler, L.E. Briese, P. Acquatella, P. Simplício, S. Bennani, M. Casasco; Variable-Mass Dynamics Implementation in Multi-Physics Environment for Reusable Launcher Simulations; 9th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE FOR AERONAUTICS AND AEROSPACE SCIENCES (EUCASS), 2022, Lille

In this paper, a novel continuum robot for search and rescue is presented. A forward kinematic model is derived by product of exponentials formula, compare with conventional D-H method, this method is concise and simplicity. Finally, based on the differential kinematics using the chain rule, the overall Jacobian of the robot is established. This approach can be generally applied to various continuum robots, regardless of the specific actuation system used.

The deployment of robots for emergency response tasks such as search and rescue is a promising application of robotics with growing importance. Given the perilous nature of these tasks, autonomous robot operation is highly desirable in order to reduce the risk imposed on the human rescue team. While much work has been done on creating robotic systems that can be deployed for search and rescue, limited work has been devoted to devise efficient real-time automated planning algorithms for these tasks. In this work, we present REDHI, an efficient algorithm for solving probabilistic models of complex problems such as search and rescue. We evaluate our algorithm on the search and rescue problem using both an abstract domain representation and a semi-realistic simulator of an existing robot system. The results show that REDHI can obtain near optimal performance with negligible planning time.

Development of efficient actuators is most important factor to save energy consumption and to improve performance of conventional actuation systems. In this research, we propose rotation type of electric and pneumatic hybrid actuator. We combine the pneumatic vane motor with high power/weight ratio and the electric servo motor with high accuracy and control The prototype of small and powerful hybrid actuator has been developed to apply to the actuation systems such as small robots. It is experimentally investigated to evaluate the performance of fine positioning, quick response and robustness of disturbance.

The tendon-sheath actuated system is applicable to the mechanism where flexibility and long-distance transmission are required, such as surgical hand and rescue robot. Nevertheless, the severe nonlinearity and flexible structure make it hard to control precisely. Moreover, in some applications, where sensors are difficult to install, precise control is even more arduous. In this brief, a noncollocated position control of a tendon-sheath actuated manipulator is studied. First, the tendon-sheath actuated elastic manipulator of a slender rescue robot is introduced. A linear relationship was measured between the driven displacement and desired displacement of the elastic manipulator. Then, the drive system of the manipulator is modeled as a single-tendon-sheath system, and the transmission model is presented. The sheath configuration of the manipulator actuation system can be identified online, using the method called 3-D reconstruction. To control the tip position of the system without collocated feedback, a combined control method which is based on the transmission model and adaptive sliding mode control is put forward. Finally, the improved accuracy in position control is demonstrated by a series of experiments.

The development of the notion of virtual fixture originated the broader concept of robot haptic guidance, meaning a recent technology to support motor learning. It has been applied in many areas, namely on automotive assembly, medical rehabilitation and training of healthy people. The implementation of virtual fixtures depends on the robot mechanical and drive system, namely the type of actuators and transmissions. If non-backdriven transmissions are used the operator controls the robot through the forces he / she exerts on the robot handle (which are measured by a force transducer incorporated at the robot end-effector). These robots usually use motors with large reduction ratios and are admittance controlled. In this paper we implement haptic guidance in an impedance type three degree-of-freedom (dof) heavy robot. An admittance low-level controller is firstly designed based on an IP (Integral, Proportional) velocity controller. Two types of virtual fixtures are implemented and the effectiveness of the proposed approach is illustrated experimentally.KeywordsCollaborative robotic systemvirtual fixturesadmittance control

As the basic system of the rescue robot, the SLAM system largely determines whether the rescue robot can complete the rescue mission. Although the current 2D Lidar-based SLAM algorithm, including its application in indoor rescue environment, has achieved much success, the evaluation of SLAM algorithms combined with path planning for indoor rescue has rarely been studied. This paper studies mapping and path planning for mobile robots in an indoor rescue environment. Combined with path planning algorithm, this paper analyzes the applicability of three SLAM algorithms (GMapping algorithm, Hector-SLAM algorithm, and Cartographer algorithm) in indoor rescue environment. Real-time path planning is studied to test the mapping results. To balance path optimality and obstacle avoidance, A ∗ algorithm is used for global path planning, and DWA algorithm is adopted for local path planning. Experimental results validate the SLAM and path planning algorithms in simulated, emulated, and competition rescue environments, respectively. Finally, the results of this paper may facilitate researchers quickly and clearly selecting appropriate algorithms to build SLAM systems according to their own demands.

In this paper, a new infrared-based face identification system based on an input image decomposition is presented. The proposed image decomposition is a novel approach to transform an infrared image into a multilayer infrared image based on energy levels. Image decomposition is done by firstly applying false-color palette to the input image which will then be decomposed according to each of the false-color layer. The proposed approach is able to identify correct images from manifold poses by using frontal view of the infrared images and its decomposition layers as training images. In this work, the proposed method was verified through the implementation on a face recognition system, which was based on wavelet and neural network classification. The application of this finding is substantial, for security and rescue robots, for example, where a single image is acquired and should be critically identified.

In this paper we present an active video module that consists of a miniature video sensor, a wireless video transmitter and a pan-tilt mechanism driven by micromotors. The video module is part of a miniature mobile robot that is projected to areas of the environment to be surveyed. A single-chip CMOS video sensor and miniature brushless DC gearmotors are used to comply with restrictions imposed by the robotic system in terms of payload weight volume and power consumption. Different types of actuation are analyzed for compatibility with a mesoscale robotic system. Applications of an active video module are discussed.