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Ozel, Selim. "Utilizing Compliance To Address Modern Challenges in Robotics." Digital WPI, 2018. https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/etd-dissertations/494.
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Mechanical compliance will be an essential component for agile robots as they begin to leave the laboratory settings and join our world. The most crucial finding of this dissertation is showing how lessons learned from soft robotics can be adapted into traditional robotics to introduce compliance. Therefore, it presents practical knowledge on how to build soft bodied sensor and actuation modules: first example being soft-bodied curvature sensors. These sensors contain both standard electronic components soldered on flexible PCBs and hyperelastic materials that cover the electronics. They are built by curing multi-material composites inside hyper elastic materials. Then it shows, via precise sensing by using magnets and Hall-effect sensors, how closed-loop control of soft actuation modules can be achieved via proprioceptive feedback.
Once curvature sensing idea is verified, the dissertation describes how the same sensing methodology, along with the same multi-material manufacturing technique can be utilized to construct soft bodied tri-axial force sensors. It shows experimentally that these sensors can be used by traditional robotic grippers to increase grasping quality.
At this point, I observe that compliance is an important property that robots may utilize for different types of motions. One example being Raibert's 2D hopper mechanism. It uses its leg-spring to store energy while on the ground and release this energy before jumping. I observe that via soft material design, it would be possible to embed compliance directly into the linkage design itself. So I go over the design details of an extremely lightweight compliant five-bar mechanism design that can store energy when compressed via soft ligaments embedded in its joints. I experimentally show that the compliant leg design offers increased efficiency compared to a rigid counterpart. I also utilize the previously mentioned soft bodied force sensors for rapid contact detection (~5-10 Hz) in the hopper test platform.
In the end, this thesis connects soft robotics with the traditional body of robotic knowledge in two aspects: a) I show that manufacturing techniques we use for soft bodied sensor/actuator designs can be utilized for creating soft ligaments that add strength and compliance to robot joints; and b) I demonstrate that soft bodied force sensing techniques can be used reliably for robotic contact detection.
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Chen, Mingwu. "Motion planning and control of mobile manipulators using soft computing techniques." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.266128.
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Rone, Jr William Stanley. "Hyperredundant Dynamic Robotic Tails for Stabilizing and Maneuvering Control of Legged Robots." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/82350.
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High-performing legged robots require complex spatial leg designs and controllers to simultaneously implement propulsion, maneuvering and stabilization behaviors. Looking to nature, tails assist a variety of animals with these functionalities separate from the animals' legs. However, prior research into robotic tails primarily focuses on single-mass pendulums driven in a single plane of motion and designed to perform a specific task. In order to justify including a robotic tail on-board a legged robot, the tail should be capable of performing multiple functionalities in the robot's yaw, pitch and roll directions. The aim of this research is to study bioinspired articulated spatial robotic tails capable of implementing maneuvering and stabilization behaviors in quadrupedal and bipedal legged robots. To this end, two novel serpentine tails designs are presented and integrated into prototypes to test their maneuvering and stabilizing capabilities. Dynamic models for these two tail designs are formulated, along with the dynamic model of a previously considered continuum robot, to predict the tails' motion and the loading they will apply on their legged robots. To implement the desired behaviors, outer- and inner-loop controllers are formulated for the serpentine tails: the outer-loop controllers generate the desired tail trajectory to maneuver or stabilize the legged robot, and the inner-loop controllers calculate control inputs for the tail that implement the desired tail trajectory using feedback linearization. Maneuvering and stabilizing case studies are generated to demonstrate the tails' ability to: (1) generate yaw angle turning in both a quadruped and a biped, (2) improve the quadruped's ability to reject an externally applied roll moment disturbance that would otherwise destabilize it, and (3) counteract the biped's roll angle instability when it lifts one of its legs (for example, during its gait cycle). Tail simulations and experimental results are used to implement these case studies in conjunction with multi-body dynamic simulations of the quadrupedal and bipedal legged platforms. Results successfully demonstrate the tails' ability to maneuver and stabilize legged robots, and provide a firm foundation for future work implementing a tailed-legged robot.Ph. D.
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Rone, William Stanley Jr. "Hyperredundant Dynamic Robotic Tails for Stabilizing and Maneuvering Control of Legged Robots." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/82350.
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High-performing legged robots require complex spatial leg designs and controllers to simultaneously implement propulsion, maneuvering and stabilization behaviors. Looking to nature, tails assist a variety of animals with these functionalities separate from the animals' legs. However, prior research into robotic tails primarily focuses on single-mass pendulums driven in a single plane of motion and designed to perform a specific task. In order to justify including a robotic tail on-board a legged robot, the tail should be capable of performing multiple functionalities in the robot's yaw, pitch and roll directions. The aim of this research is to study bioinspired articulated spatial robotic tails capable of implementing maneuvering and stabilization behaviors in quadrupedal and bipedal legged robots. To this end, two novel serpentine tails designs are presented and integrated into prototypes to test their maneuvering and stabilizing capabilities. Dynamic models for these two tail designs are formulated, along with the dynamic model of a previously considered continuum robot, to predict the tails' motion and the loading they will apply on their legged robots. To implement the desired behaviors, outer- and inner-loop controllers are formulated for the serpentine tails: the outer-loop controllers generate the desired tail trajectory to maneuver or stabilize the legged robot, and the inner-loop controllers calculate control inputs for the tail that implement the desired tail trajectory using feedback linearization. Maneuvering and stabilizing case studies are generated to demonstrate the tails' ability to: (1) generate yaw angle turning in both a quadruped and a biped, (2) improve the quadruped's ability to reject an externally applied roll moment disturbance that would otherwise destabilize it, and (3) counteract the biped's roll angle instability when it lifts one of its legs (for example, during its gait cycle). Tail simulations and experimental results are used to implement these case studies in conjunction with multi-body dynamic simulations of the quadrupedal and bipedal legged platforms. Results successfully demonstrate the tails' ability to maneuver and stabilize legged robots, and provide a firm foundation for future work implementing a tailed-legged robot.Ph. D.
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Eaton, Caitrin Elizabeth. "Reducing the Control Burden of Legged Robotic Locomotion through Biomimetic Consonance in Mechanical Design and Control." Scholar Commons, 2015. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/5680.
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Terrestrial robots must be capable of negotiating rough terrain if they are to become autonomous outside of the lab. Although the control mechanism offered by wheels is attractive in its simplicity, any wheeled system is confined to relatively flat terrain. Wheels will also only ever be useful for rolling, while limbs observed in nature are highly multimodal. The robust locomotive utility of legs is evidenced by the many animals that walk, run, jump, swim, and climb in a world full of challenging terrain.
On the other hand, legs with multiple degrees of freedom (DoF) require much more complex control and precise sensing than wheels. Legged robotic systems are easily hampered by sensor noise and bulky control loops that prohibit the high-speed adaptation to external perturbations necessary for dynamic stability in real time. Low sensor bandwidth can limit the system’s reaction time to external perturbations. It is also often necessary to filter sensor data, which introduces significant delays in the control loop. In addition, state estimation is often relied upon in order to compute active stabilizing responses. State estimation requires accurate sensor data, often involving filtering, and can involve additional nontrivial computation such as the pseudo-inversion of fullbody Jacobians. This perception portion of the control burden is all incurred before a response can be planned and executed. These delays can prevent a system from executing a corrective response before instability leads to failure. The present work presents an approach to legged system design and control that reduces both the perception and planning aspects of the online control burden.
A commonly accepted design goal in robotics is to accomplish a task with the fewest possible DoF in order to tighten the control loop and avoid the curse of dimensionality. However, animals control many DoF in a manner that adapts to external perturbations faster than can be explained by efferent neural control. The passive mechanics of segmented animal limbs are capable of rejecting unexpected disturbances without the supervision of an active controller. By simulating biomimetic limbs, we can learn more about this preflexive response, how the properties of segmented biological limbs foster self-stable passive mechanics, and how the control burden can be mitigated in robotic legged systems.
The contribution of this body of work is to reduce the control burden of legged locomotion for robots by drawing on self-stabilizing mechanical design and control principles observed in animal locomotion. To that end, minimal templates such as Sensory-Coupled Action Switching
Modules (SCASM), Central Pattern Generators (CPGs), and the Spring-Loaded Inverted Pendulum (SLIP) model are used to learn more about the essential components of legged locomotion. The motivation behind this work lies largely in the study of how internal, predictive models and the intrinsic mechanical properties of biological limbs help animals self-stabilize in real time. Robotic systems have already begun to demonstrate the benefits of these biological design primitives in an engineering context, such as reduced cost of transportation and an immediate mechanical response that does not need to wait for sensor feedback or planning.
The original research presented here explores the extent to which these principles can be utilized in order to encourage stable legged locomotion over uneven terrain with as little sensory information as possible. A method for generating feedforward, terrain-adaptive control primitives based on a compliant limb architecture is developed. Offline analysis of system dynamics is used to develop clock-driven patterns of leg stiffness and attack angle control during late swing with which passive stance phase dynamics will produce the desired apex height and stride period to within 0.1 mm and 50 μs, respectively. A feedforward method of energy modulation is incorporated that regulates velocity to within 10−5 m/s. Preservation of a constant stride period eliminates the need for detection of the apex event. Precise predictive controls based on thorough offline dynamic modeling reduce the system’s reliance on state and environmental data, even in rough terrain. These offline models of system dynamics are used to generate a controller that predicts the dynamics of running over uneven terrain using an internal clock signal.
Real-time state estimation is a non-trivial bottleneck in the control of mobile systems, legged and wheeled alike. The present work significantly reduces this burden by generating predictive models that eliminate the need for state estimation within the control loop, even in the presence of damping. The resulting system achieves not only self-stable legged running, but direct control of height, speed, and stride period without inertial sensing or force feedback. Through this work, the controller dependency on accurate and rapid sensing of the body height and velocity, apex event, and ground variation was eliminated. This was done by harnessing physics-based models of leg dynamics, used to generate predictive controls that exploit the passive mechanics of the compliant limb to their full potential. While no real world system is entirely deterministic, such a predictive model may serve as the base layer for a lightweight control architecture capable of stable robotic limb control, as in animal locomotion.
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Lewinger, William Anthony. "Neurobiologically-based Control System for an Adaptively Walking Hexapod." Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1295655329.
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Boxerbaum, Alexander Steele. "Continuous Wave Peristaltic Motion in a Robot." Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1333649965.
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Luo, Ming. "Pressure-Operated Soft Robotic Snake Modeling, Control, and Motion Planning." Digital WPI, 2017. https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/etd-dissertations/551.
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Search and rescue mobile robots have shown great promise and have been under development by the robotics researchers for many years. They are many locomotion methods for different robotic platforms, including legged, wheeled, flying and hybrid. In general, the environment that these robots would operate in is very hazardous and complicated, where wheeled robots will have difficulty physically traversing and where legged robots would need to spend too much time planning their foot placement. Drawing inspiration from biology, we have noticed that the snake is an animal well-suited to complicated, rubble filled environments. A snake’s body has a very simple structure that nevertheless allows the snake to traverse very complex environments smoothly and flexibly using different locomotion modes. Many researchers have developed different kinds of snake robots, but there is still a big discrepancy between the capabilities of current snake robots and natural snakes. Two aspects of this discrepancy are the rigidity of current snake robots, which limit their physical flexibility, and the current techniques for control and motion planning, which are too complicated to apply to these snake robots without a tremendous amount of computation time and expensive hardware. In order to bridge the gap in flexibility, pneumatic soft robotics is a potential good solution. A soft body can absorb the impact forces during the collisions with obstacles, making soft snake robots suitable for unpredictable environments. However, the incorporation of autonomous control in soft mobile robotics has not been achieved yet. One reason for this is the lack of the embeddable flexible soft body sensor technology and portable power sources that would allow soft robotic systems to meet the essential hardware prerequisites of autonomous systems. The infinite degree of freedom and fluid-dynamic effects inherent of soft pneumatics make these systems difficult in terms of modeling, control, and motion planning: techniques generally required for autonomous systems. This dissertation addresses fundamental challenges of soft robotics modeling, control, and motion planning, as well as the challenge of making an effective soft pneumatic snake platform. In my 5 years of PhD work, I have developed four generations of pressure operated WPI soft robotics snakes (SRS), the fastest of which can travel about 220 mm/s, which is around one body per second. In order to make these soft robots autonomous, I first proposed a mathematical dynamical model for the WPI SRS and verified its accuracy through experimentation. Then I designed and fabricated a curvature sensor to be embedded inside each soft actuator to measure their bending angles. The latest WPI SRS is a modularized system which can be scaled up or down depending on the requirements of the task. I also developed and implemented an algorithm which allows this version of the WPI SRS to correct its own locomotion using iterative learning control. Finally, I developed and tested a motion planning and trajectory following algorithm, which allowed the latest WPI SRS to traverse an obstacle filled environment. Future research will focus on motion planning and control of the WPI SRS in outdoor environments utilizing the camera instead of the tracking system. In addition, it is important to investigate optimal control and motion planning strategies for mobile manipulation tasks where the SRS needs to move and manipulate its environment.. Finally, the future work will include the design, control, and motion planning for a soft snake robot where each segment has two degrees-of-freedom, allowing it to lift itself off the ground and traverse complex-real-world environments.
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Bhatti, Jawaad. "Foot placement for running robots." Thesis, University of Bath, 2016. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.678855.
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Rubble-strewn corridors, stairs and steep natural terrain all present a challenge for wheels and tracks. Legs are a solution in these cases because foot placement allows the traversal of discontinuous terrain. Legged robots, however, currently lack the performance needed for practical applications. This work seeks to address an aspect of the problem, foot placement while running. A novel hopping height controller for a spring-loaded legged robot is presented. It is simple and performs well enough to allow control of the ballistic trajectory of hops and therefore foot placement. Additionally, it can adapt to different ground properties using the result from previous hops to update control gains. A control strategy of extending the leg at a fixed rate during the stance phase and modulating the rate of extension on each hop was used to control the hopping height. The extension rate was then determined by a feed-forward + proportional control loop. This performed sufficiently well allowing the ballistic trajectory of hops to be controlled. In simulation, the spring-loaded inverted pendulum (SLIP) model was extended to include actuation and losses due to friction. The control strategy was developed using this model then, in a planar simulation, the controller was run to perform foot placement while running over a series of platforms which vary in their horizontal and vertical spacing. To experimentally validate and further develop the control strategy, a one-legged hopping robot, constrained to move vertically, was used. The leg had 2 links, hydraulically actuated hip and knee joints and a spring-loaded foot. Results showed that the controller developed could be used to perform hops of randomly varying size on grounds with different properties and while running on a treadmill at different speeds. As an aside, the dynamics of hydraulic actuators presented a problem for foot repositioning during flight using a simple PID controller. This was solved through the novel implementation, in hydraulics, of a `zero-vibration' (ZV) filter in a closed-loop. Simulation and experimental results demonstrating this are presented.
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Szczecinski, Nicholas S. "MASSIVELY DISTRIBUTED NEUROMORPHIC CONTROL FOR LEGGED ROBOTS MODELED AFTER INSECT STEPPING." Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1354648661.
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Saab, Wael. "Design and Implementation of Articulated Robotic Tails to Augment the Performance of Reduced Degree-of-Freedom Legged Robots." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/82908.
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This dissertation explores the design, and implementation of articulated robotic tail mechanisms onboard reduced degree-of-freedom (DOF) legged robots to augment performance in terms of stability and maneuverability. Fundamentally, this research is motivated by the question of how to improve the stability and maneuverability of legged robots. The conventional approach to address these challenges is to utilize leg mechanisms that are composed of three or more active DOFs that are controlled simultaneously to provide propulsion, maneuvering, and stabilization. However, animals such as lizards and cheetahs have been observed to utilize their tails to aid in these functionalities. It is hypothesized that by using an articulated tail mechanism to aid in these functionalities onboard a legged robot, the burden on the robot's legs to simultaneously maneuver and stabilize the robot may be reduced. This could allow for simplification of the leg's design and control algorithms.
In recent years, significant progress has been accomplished in the field of robotic tail implementation onboard mobile robots. However, the main limitation of this work stems from the proposed tail designs, the majority of which are composed of rigid single-body pendulums that provide a constrained workspace for center-of-mass positioning, an important characteristics for inertial adjustment applications.
Inspired by lizards and cheetahs that adjust their body orientation using flexible tail motions, two novel articulated, cable driven, serpentine-like tail mechanisms are proposed. The first is the Roll-Revolute-Revolute Tail which is a 3-DOF mechanism, designed for implementation onboard a quadruped robot, that is capable of forming two mechanically decoupled tail curvatures via an s-shaped cable routing scheme and gear train system. The second is a the Discrete Modular Serpentine Tail, designed for implementation onboard a biped robot, which is a modular two-DOF mechanism that distributes motion amongst links via a multi-diameter pulley. Both tail designs utilize a cable transmission system where cables are routed about circular contoured links that maintain equal antagonistic cable displacements that can produce controlled articulated tail curvatures using a single active-DOF. Furthermore, analysis and experimental results have been presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of an articulated tail's ability to: 1) increase the manifold for center-of-mass positioning, and 2) generate enhanced inertial loading relative to conventionally implemented pendulum-like tails.
In order to test the tails ability to augment the performance of legged robots, a novel Robotic Modular Leg (RML) is proposed to construct both a reduced-DOF quadrupedal and bipedal experimental platform. The RML is a modular two-DOF leg mechanism composed of two serially connected four-bar mechanisms that utilizes kinematic constraints to maintain a parallel orientation between it's flat foot and body without the use of an actuated ankle. A passive suspension system integrated into the foot enables the dissipation of impact energy and maintains a stable four point-of-contact support polygon on both flat and uneven terrain.
Modeling of the combined legged robotic systems and attached articulated tails has led to the derivation of dynamic formulations that were analyzed to scale articulated tails onboard legged robots to maximize inertial adjustment capabilities resulting from tail motions and design a control scheme for tail-aided maneuvering.
The tail prototypes, in conjunction with virtual simulations of the quadruped and biped robot, were used in experiments and simulations to implement and analyze the methods for maneuvering and stabilizing the proposed legged robots. Results successfully demonstrate the tails' ability to augment the performance of reduced-DOF legged robots by enabling comparable walking criteria with respect to conventional legged robots. This research provides a firm foundation for future work involving design and implementation of articulated tails onboard legged robots for enhanced inertial adjustment applications.Ph. D.
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Moffat, Shannon Marija. "Biologically Inspired Legs and Novel Flow Control Valve Toward a New Approach for Accessible Wearable Robotics." Digital WPI, 2019. https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/etd-theses/1279.
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The Humanoid Walking Robot (HWR) is a research platform for the study of legged and wearable robots actuated with Hydro Muscles. The fluid operated HWR is representative of a class of biologically inspired, and in some aspects highly biomimetic robotic musculoskeletal appendages showing certain advantages in comparison to more conventional artificial limbs and braces for physical therapy/rehabilitation, assistance of daily living, and augmentation. The HWR closely mimics the human body structure and function, including the skeleton, ligaments, tendons, and muscles. The HWR can emulate close to human-like movements even when subjected to simplified control laws. One of the main drawbacks of this approach is the inaccessibility of an appropriate fluid flow management support system, in the form of affordable, lightweight, compact, and good quality valves suitable for robotics applications. To resolve this shortcoming, the Compact Robotic Flow Control Valve (CRFC Valve) is introduced and successfully proof-of-concept tested. The HWR added with the CRFC Valve has potential to be a highly energy efficient, lightweight, controllable, affordable, and customizable solution that can resolve single muscle action.
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Chero, Arana Brian Alberto. "Diseño de un sistema de prótesis de muñeca de tres grados de libertad con actuadores de soft robotics." Bachelor's thesis, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12404/16989.
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Siendo nuestras manos la mejor forma que se tiene para interactuar con el mundo que nos rodea, la pérdida de una de ellas o incluso ambas, puede resultar bastante limitante para una persona en sus actividades del día a día. Actualmente existen varios modelos de prótesis de mano comerciales con una gran cantidad de funciones, pero acompañadas de un fuerte precio, algo que algunos usuarios no estarán en condiciones de pagar. Por otro lado, existe un nuevo campo en la robótica conocido como soft robotics, el cual abarca todo lo referente al uso de materiales suaves y deformables en conjunto con componentes electrónicos para lograr morfologías no convencionales y ha ido ganando importancia en los últimos años. Aplicando estos elementos, se propone diseñar un sistema para prótesis de muñeca de 3 grados de libertad y de menor costo que el de las prótesis comerciales actuales. Habiendo previamente identificado los movimientos de una muñeca a emular y mediante una búsqueda del estado del arte referente a prótesis de antebrazo, se recopilaron algunos mecanismos que podrían permitir el giro buscado en la muñeca, así como formas de controlar los movimientos de la prótesis, principalmente con señales mioeléctricas. Teniendo en cuenta esta información, se desarrollaron tres conceptos de solución integrando elementos de soft robotics para generar movimientos en la muñeca y controlados mediante señales generadas por el cuerpo (mioeléctricas y electroencefalográficas). Producto de esta investigación se obtuvo el modelo óptimo de solución para el objetivo planteado y se determinó la importancia de la fuente de energía neumática para el desempeño final del sistema.Trabajo de investigación
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Papastathis, Ioannis. "Intention Detection and Arm Kinematic Control in Soft Robotic Medical Assistive Device." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för teknik och hälsa (STH), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-173499.
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Aging in humans is often associated with reduced muscle strength and difficulty in elevating the arm and sustaining it at a certain position. The aim of this master thesis is to propose a number of technical solutions integrated into a complete electronic system which can be used to support the user's muscle capacity and partially resist gravitational load. An electronic system consisting of sensors, a control unit and an actuator has been developed. The system is able to detect the user's motion intention based on an angle detection algorithm and perform kinematic control over the user's arm by adjusting the level of support at different degrees of elevation. A force control algorithm has been developed for controlling the actuating mechanism, providing the user with a natural and intuitive support during arm elevation. The implemented system is a first step towards the development of a medical assistive device for the elderly or patients with reduced muscle strength allowing them to independently perform a number of personal activities of daily life where active participation of the upper limb is required.
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Calderon, Chavez Juan Manuel. "Impact Force Reduction Using Variable Stiffness with an Optimal Approach for Jumping Robots." Scholar Commons, 2017. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6615.
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Running, jumping and walking are physical activities that are performed by humans in a simple and efficient way. However, these types of movements are difficult to perform by humanoid robots. Humans perform these activities without difficulty thanks to their ability to absorb the ground impact force. The absorption of the impact force is based on the human ability to vary muscles stiffness.
The principal objective of this dissertation is to study vertical jumps in order to reduce the impact force in the landing phase of the jump motion of humanoid robots. Additionally, the impact force reduction is applied to an arm-oriented movement with the objective of preserving the integrity of falling humanoid robot.
This dissertation focuses on researching vertical jump motions by designing, implementing and testing variable stiffness control strategies based on Computed-Torque Control while tracking desired trajectories calculated using the Zero Moment Point (ZMP) and the Center of Mass (CoM) conditions. Variable stiffness method is used to reduce the impact force during the landing phase. The variable stiffness approach was previously presented by Pratt et al. in [1], where they proposed that full stiffness is not always required. In this dissertation, the variable stiffness capability is implemented without the integration of any springs or dampers. All the actuators in the robot are DC Motors and the lower stiffness is achieved by the design and implementation of PID gain values in the PID controller for each motor. The current research proposes two different approaches to generate variable stiffness. The first approach is based on an optimal control theory where the linear quadratic regulator is used to calculate the gain values of the PID controller. The second approach is based on Fuzzy logic theory and it calculates the proportional gain (KP) of the PID controller. Both approaches are based on the idea of computing the PID gains to allow for the displacement of the DC motor positions with respect to the target positions during the landing phase. While a DC motor moves from the target position, the robot CoM changes towards a lower position reducing the impact force. The Fuzzy approach uses an estimation of the impact velocity and a specified desired soft landing level at the moment of impact in order to calculate the P gain of the PID controller. The optimal approach uses the mathematical model of the motor and the factor, which affects the Q matrix of the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR), in order to calculate the new PID values.
A One-legged robot is used to perform the jump motion verification in this research. In addition, repeatability experiments were also successfully performed with both the optimal control and the Fuzzy logic methods. The results are evaluated and compared according to the impact force reduction and the robot balance during the landing phase. The impact force calculation is based on the displacement of the CoM during the landing phase. The impact force reduction is accomplished by both methods; however, the robot balance shows a considerable improvement with the optimal control approach in comparison to the Fuzzy logic method. In addition, the Optimal Variable Stiffness method was successfully implemented and tested in Falling Robots. The robot integrity is accomplished by applying the Optimal Variable Stiffness control method to reduce the impact force on the arm joints, shoulders and elbows.
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Gillespie, Morgan Thomas. "Comparing Efficacy of Different Dynamic Models for Control of Underdamped, Antagonistic, Pneumatically Actuated Soft Robots." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2016. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5996.
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Research in soft robot hardware has led to the development of platforms that allow for safer performance when working in uncertain or dynamic environments. The potential of these platforms is limited by the lack of proper dynamic models to describe or controllers to operate them. A common difficulty associated with these soft robots is a representation for torque, the common electromechanical relation seen in motors does not apply. In this thesis, several different torque models are presented and used to construct linear state-space models. The control limitations on soft robots are induced by natural compliance inherent to the hardware. This inherent compliance results in soft robots that are commonly underdamped and present significant oscillations when accelerated quickly. These oscillations can be mitigated through model-based controllers which can anticipate these oscillations. In this thesis, multiple model predictive controllers are implemented with the torque models produced and results are presented for an inflatable single-DoF pneumatically actuated soft robot. Larger, multi-DoF, soft robots present additional issues with control, where flexibility in one joint impacts control in others. In this thesis a preliminary method and results for controlling multiple joints on an inflatable multi-DoF pneumatically actuated soft robot are presented. While model predictive controllers are capable, their control commands are defined by solving an optimization constrained by model dynamics. This optimization relies on minimizing the cost of a user-defined objective function. This objective function contains a series of weights, which allow the user to tune the importance of each component in the objective function. As there are no calculations that can be performed to tune model predictive controllers to achieve superior control performance, they often need to be tuned tediously by a skilled operator. In this thesis, a method for automated discrete performance identification and model predictive controller weight tuning is presented. This thesis constructs multiple state-space models for single- and multi-DoF underdamped, antagonistic, pneumatically actuated soft robots and shows that these models can be used with model predictive control, tuned for performance, to achieve accurate joint position control.
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Kandhari, Akhil. "Control and Analysis of Soft Body Locomotion on a Robotic Platform." Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1579793861351961.
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Hester, Matthew S. "Stable Control of Jumping in a Planar Biped Robot." The Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1242843285.
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Lopes, da Frota Moreira Pedro. "Model based force control for soft tissue interaction and applications in physiological motion compensation." Thesis, Montpellier 2, 2012. http://www.theses.fr/2012MON20179/document.
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L'introduction de systèmes robotisés dans les salles opératoires a fait évoluer la chirurgie moderne, ouvrant aux chirurgiens de nouvelles possibilités. La présence de tels systèmes en salle opératoire croît chaque année. Les progrès des robots médicaux sont étroitement liés au développement de nouvelles techniques permettant de mieux contrôler les interactions entre la machine et les tissus biologiques. L'objectif principal de cette thèse est de proposer une commande en force basée sur un modèle, conçue pour améliorer la stabilité et la robustesse du contrôle en vue d'applications médicales. Une étude sur la modélisation des tissus mous ainsi que le choix d'un modèle compatible temps-réel sont présentés. Après cette analyse, le modèle de Kelvin Boltzmann a été choisi et implémenté dans le schéma de contrôle en force proposé, basé sur des observateurs actifs. La stabilité et la robustesse de la commande sont analysées en théorie et au travers d'expérimentations. Les performances de la commande en force sont également mesurées, en tenant compte des perturbations dues aux mouvements physiologiques. Finalement, afin d'améliorer la qualité du rejet des perturbations, une boucle de commande supplémentaire est ajoutée au moyen d'une estimation des perturbations basée sur le modèle de Kelvin Boltzmann et des séries de FourierThe introduction of robotic systems inside the operating room has changed the modern surgery, opening new possibilities to surgeons. The number of robotic systems inside the operation room is increasing every year. The progress of medical robots are associated to the development of new techniques to better control the interaction between the robot and living soft tissues. This thesis focus on the development of a model based force control designed to improve stability and robustness of force control addressed to medical applications. A study of soft tissue modeling is presented and a suitable model to be used in a real-time control is selected. After the analysis, the Kelvin Boltzmann model was chosen to be inserted in the proposed force control scheme based on Active Observers. Stability and robustness are theoretically and experimentally analyzed. The performance of the proposed force control is also investigated under physiological motion disturbances. At the end, to improve the disturbance rejection capability, an extra control loop is added using a disturbance estimation based on the Kelvin Boltzmann model and a Fourier series
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Horchler, Andrew de Salle. "Design of Stochastic Neural-inspired Dynamical Architectures: Coordination and Control of Hyper-redundant Robots." Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1459442036.
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Ankarali, Mustafa Mert. "Control Of Hexapedal Pronking Through A Dynamically Embedded Spring Loaded Inverted Pendulum Template." Master's thesis, METU, 2010. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12611542/index.pdf.
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Pronking is a legged locomotory gait in which all legs are used in synchrony, usually resulting in slow speeds but long flight phases and large jumping heights that may potentially be useful for mobile robots locomoting in cluttered natural environments. Instantiations of this gait for robotic systems suffer from severe pitch instability either due to underactuated leg designs, or the open-loop nature of proposed controllers. Nevertheless, both the kinematic simplicity of this gait and its dynamic nature suggest that the Spring-Loaded Inverted Pendulum Model (SLIP), a very successful predictive model for both natural and robotic runners, would be a good basis for more robust and maneuverable robotic pronking. In the scope of thesis, we describe a novel controller to achieve stable and controllable pronking for a planar, underactuated hexapod model, based on the idea of &ldquotemplate-based control&rdquo
, a controller structure based on the embedding of a simple dynamical template within a more complex anchor system. In this context, high-level control of the gait is regulated through speed and height commands to the SLIP template, while the embedding controller based on approximate inverse-dynamics and carefully designed passive robot morphology ensures the stability of the remaining degrees of freedom. We show through extensive simulation experiments that unlike existing open-loop alternatives, the resulting control structure provides stability, explicit maneuverability and significant robustness against sensor noise.
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Rubiano, Fonseca Astrid. "Smart control of a soft robotic hand prosthesis." Thesis, Paris 10, 2016. http://www.theses.fr/2016PA100189/document.
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Le sujet principal de cette thèse est le développement d’un contrôle commande intelligentpour une prothèse de main robotique avec des parties souples qui comporte: (i) uneinterface homme–machine permettant de contrôler notre prothèse, (ii) et des stratégiesde contrôle améliorant les performances de la main robotique. Notre approche tientcompte : 1. du développement d’une interaction intuitive entre l'homme et la prothèse facilitantl'utilisation de la main, d'un système d’interaction entre l’utilisateur et la mainreposant sur l'acquisition de signaux ElectroMyoGrammes superficiels (sEMG) aumoyen d'un dispositif placé sur l'avant-bras du patient. Les signaux obtenus sontensuite traités avec un algorithme basé sur l'intelligence artificielle, en vued'identifier automatiquement les mouvements désirés par le patient.2. du contrôle de la main robotique grâce à la détection du contact avec l’objet et de lathéorie du contrôle hybride.Ainsi, nous concentrons notre étude sur : (i) l’établissement d’une relation entre lemouvement du membre supérieur et les signaux sEMG, (ii) les séparateurs à vaste margepour classer les patterns obtenues à partir des signaux sEMG correspondant auxmouvements de préhension, (iii) le développement d'un système de reconnaissance depréhension à partir d'un dispositif portable MyoArmbandTM, (iv) et des stratégieshybrides de contrôle commande de force-position de notre main robotique soupleThe target of this thesis disertation is to develop a new Smart control of a soft robotic hand prosthesis for the soft robotic hand prosthesis called ProMain Hand, which is characterized by:(i) flexible interaction with grasped object, (ii) and friendly-intuitive interaction between human and robot hand. Flexible interaction results from the synergies between rigid bodies and soft bodies, and actuation mechanism. The ProMain hand has three fingers, each one is equipped with three phalanges: proximal, medial and distal. The proximal and medial are built with rigid bodies,and the distal is fabricated using a deformable material. The soft distal phalange has a new smart force sensor, which was created with the aim to detect contact and force in the fingertip, facilitating the control of the hand. The friendly intuitive human-hand interaction is developed to facilitate the hand utilization. The human-hand interaction is driven by a controller that uses the superficial electromyographic signals measured in the forearm employing a wearable device. The wearable device called MyoArmband is placed around the forearm near the elbow joint. Based on the signals transmitted by the wearable device, the beginning of the movement is automatically detected, analyzing entropy behavior of the EMG signals through artificial intelligence. Then, three selected grasping gesture are recognized with the following methodology: (i) learning patients entropy patterns from electromyographic signals captured during the execution of selected grasping gesture, (ii) performing a support vector machine classifier, using raw entropy data extracted in real time from electromyographic signals
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Guerriero, Brian A. "Haptic control and operator-guided gait coordination of a pneumatic hexapedal rescue robot." Thesis, Atlanta, Ga. : Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/24626.
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Liu, Yiping. "Fuzzy Control of Hopping in a Biped Robot." The Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1269567749.
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Chikhaoui, Mohamed Taha. "Nouveaux concepts de robots à tubes concentriques à micro-actionneurs à base de polymères électro-actifs." Thesis, Besançon, 2016. http://www.theses.fr/2016BESA2035/document.
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L’utilisation de systèmes robotiques pour la navigation dans des zones confinées pose des défis intéressants sur les thèmes de conception, de modélisation et de commande, particulièrement complexes pour les applications médicales. Dans ce contexte, nous introduisons un nouveau concept de robots continus, fortement prometteurs pour des applications biomédicales, dont la forme complexe, la dextérité et la capacité de miniaturisation constituent des avantages majeurs pour la navigation intra corporelle. Parmi cette classe, les robots à tubes concentriques (RTC), qui constituent notre point de départ, sont améliorés grâce à un actionnement embarqué innovant. Nos travaux s’articulent autour de deux thématiques aux frontières de l’état de l’art. D’une part, nous avons proposé une modélisation générique et conduit une analyse cinématique approfondie de robots continus basés sur l’architecture des RTC standards et ceux avec changement de courbure de leurs tubes dans deux variantes : courbures unidirectionnelle et bidirectionnelle. D’autre part, leur commande cartésienne en pose complète est introduite avec une validation expérimentale sur un prototype développé de RTC standard, ainsi que les simulations numériques d’une loi de commande comprenant la gestion de la redondance des RTC à changement de courbure. D’autre part, nous avons effectué la synthèse, la caractérisation et la mise en œuvre de micro-actionneurs souples basés sur les polymères électro-actifs (PEA), intégrés pour la première fois dans un robot continu.Ainsi, l’asservissement visuel d’un prototype de robot télescopique souple est proposé avec des précisions atteignant 0.21 mm sur différentes trajectoiresMajor challenges need to be risen in order to perform navigation in confined spaces with robotic systems in terms of design, modeling, and control, particularly for biomedical applications. Indeed,the complex shape, dexterity, and miniaturization ability of continuum robots can help solving intracorporeal navigation problems. Within this class, we introduce a novel concept in order to augment the concentric tube robots (CTR) with embedded actuation. Our works hinge on two majorcutting-edge thematics. On the one hand, we address modeling and kinematics analysis of standard CTR as well as variable curvature CTR with their two varieties : single and double bending directions.Furthermore, we perform the experimental validation of Cartesian control of a CTR prototype, anda task hierarchy based control law for redundancy resolution of CTR with variable curvatures. Onthe other hand, we develop the synthesis, the characterization, and the integration of soft microactuatorsbased on electro-active polymers (EAP) for the first time in a continuum robot. Thus, thevisual servoing of a telescopic soft robot is performed with precisions down to 0.21 mm following different trajectories
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Handford, Matthew Lawrence. "Simulating human-prosthesis interaction and informing robotic prosthesis design using metabolic optimization." The Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1539707296618987.
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Alvarez-Palacio, Juan Miguel. "Contrôle commande d'un robot ultra léger gonflable à actionneurs pneumatiques textiles." Thesis, Paris, HESAM, 2020. http://www.theses.fr/2020HESAE007.
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Ce travail de thèse concerne la modélisation et commande d’un bras ultra léger gonflable, actionné par des vérins pneumatiques textiles. Depuis quelques années, le Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Renouvelables (CEA), en partenariat avec l’entreprise Warein SAS, développent un concept innovant de bras robotisé gonflable pour l’inspection en milieu contraint, dont tous les composants de la structure, y compris les actionneurs, sont fait en tissu. La contrainte de légèreté impose des nouveaux défis qui ont des conséquences sur le contrôle commande : les actionneurs utilisés n’ont jamais été étudiés ni caractérisés, les capteurs articulaires utilisés traditionnellement en robotique ne sont pas adaptés à ce type de structure, les capteurs de pression sont éloignés des actionneurs, et le caractère non linéaire des circuits pneumatiques ainsi que les flexibilités de la structure complexifient la commande de la position de l’organe terminale du robot. La première contribution de cette thèse est liée à la modélisation et la caractérisation des actionneurs utilisés, en confrontant une approche analytique et numérique basée sur des simulations par éléments finis, avec des résultats expérimentaux. La deuxième contribution concerne la proposition d’un capteur articulaire, basée sur l’utilisation d’un réseau de centrales inertielles placées sur chaque segment du bras. Dans ce cadre, une méthode d’estimation d’orientation relative entre deux repères a été proposée en utilisant le formalisme des quaternions. Finalement, la commande d’une des articulations du robot est réalisée avec l’implémentation d’une commande par modes glissants. Ces résultats ouvrent des nouvelles perspectives dans l’instrumentation et le contrôle de robots intrinsèquement sûrs, qui pourront avoir un grand impact non seulement dans la robotique d’inspection mais aussi dans l’interaction avec l’humainThis thesis work concerns the modeling and control of an ultra-light inflatable arm, powered by pneumatictextile cylinders. In recent years, the French Atomic Energy and Renewable Energy Commission (CEA), inpartnership with Warein SAS, has been developing an innovative concept of inflatable robotic arms forinspection in a restricted environment, with all the components of the structure, including the actuators, madeof fabric. The constraint of lightness imposes new challenges that have consequences on the control strategy:the actuators have never been studied nor characterized, the joint sensors traditionally used in robotics are notadapted to this type of structure, the pressure sensors are far from the actuators, and the non-linear nature ofthe pneumatic circuits, as well as the flexibility of the structure, make it more complex to control the positionof the robot's end-effector. The first contribution of this thesis is related to the modeling and characterizationof the actuators, by comparing an analytical model and numerical approach based on finite elementssimulations with experimental results. The second contribution concerns the proposal of a joint sensor, basedon the use of a network of Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) placed on each segment of the arm. In thiscontext, a method for estimating the relative orientation between two bodies was proposed using the quaternionformalism. Finally, the control of one of the robot joints is carried out with the implementation of a slidingmode control. These results open new perspectives in the instrumentation and control of intrinsically saferobots, which will have a significant impact not only on inspection robotics but also on close interaction withhumans
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Thieffry, Maxime. "Commande dynamique de robots déformables basée sur un modèle numérique." Thesis, Valenciennes, Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France, 2019. http://www.theses.fr/2019VALE0040/document.
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Cette thèse s’intéresse à la modélisation et à la commande de robots déformables, c’est à dire de robots dont le mouvement se fait par déformation. Nous nous intéressons à la conception de lois de contrôle en boucle fermée répondant aux besoins spécifiques du contrôle dynamique de robots déformables, sans restrictions fortes sur leur géométrie. La résolution de ce défi soulève des questions théoriques qui nous amènent au deuxième objectif de cette thèse: développer de nouvelles stratégies pour étudier les systèmes de grandes dimensions. Ce manuscrit couvre l’ensemble du développement des lois de commandes, de l’étape de modélisation à la validation expérimentale. Outre les études théoriques, différentes plateformes expérimentales sont utilisées pour valider les résultats. Des robots déformables actionnés par câble et par pression sont utilisés pour tester les algorithmes de contrôle. A travers ces différentes plateformes, nous montrons que la méthode peut gérer différents types d’actionnement, différentes géométries et propriétés mécaniques. Cela souligne l’un des intérêts de la méthode, sa généricité. D’un point de vue théorique, les systèmes dynamiques à grande dimensions ainsi que les algorithmes de réduction de modèle sont étudiés. En effet, modéliser des structures déformables implique de résoudre des équations issues de la mécanique des milieux continus, qui sont résolues à l’aide de la méthode des éléments finis (FEM). Ceci fournit un modèle précis des robots mais nécessite de discrétiser la structure en un maillage composé de milliers d’éléments, donnant lieu à des systèmes dynamiques de grandes dimensions. Cela conduit à travailler avec des modèles de grandes dimensions, qui ne conviennent pas à la conception d’algorithmes de contrôle. Une première partie est consacrée à l’étude du modèle dynamique à grande dimension et de son contrôle, sans recourir à la réduction de modèle. Nous présentons un moyen de contrôler le système à grande dimension en utilisant la connaissance d’une fonction de Lyapunov en boucle ouverte. Ensuite, nous présentons des algorithmes de réduction de modèle afin de concevoir des contrôleurs de dimension réduite et des observateurs capables de piloter ces robots déformables. Les lois de contrôle validées sont basées sur des modèles linéaires, il s’agit d’une limitation connue de ce travail car elle contraint l’espace de travail du robot. Ce manuscrit se termine par une discussion qui offre un moyen d’étendre les résultats aux modèles non linéaires. L’idée est de linéariser le modèle non linéaire à grande échelle autour de plusieurs points de fonctionnement et d’interpoler ces points pour couvrir un espace de travail plus largeThis thesis focuses on the design of closed-loop control laws for the specific needs of dynamic control of soft robots, without being too restrictive regarding the robots geometry. It covers the entire development of the controller, from the modeling step to the practical experimental validation. In addition to the theoretical studies, different experimental setups are used to illustrate the results. A cable-driven soft robot and a pressurized soft arm are used to test the control algorithms. Through these different setups, we show that the method can handle different types of actuation, different geometries and mechanical properties. This emphasizes one of the interests of the method, its genericity. From a theoretical point a view, large-scale dynamical systems along with model reduction algorithms are studied. Indeed, modeling soft structures implies solving equations coming from continuum mechanics using the Finite Element Method (FEM). This provides an accurate model of the robots but it requires to discretize the structure into a mesh composed of thousands of elements, yielding to large-scale dynamical systems. This leads to work with models of large dimensions, that are not suitable to design control algorithms. A first part is dedicated to the study of the large-scale dynamic model and its control, without using model reduction. We present a way to control the large-scale system using the knowledge of an open-loop Lyapunov function. Then, this work investigates model reduction algorithms to design low order controllers and observers to drive soft robots. The validated control laws are based on linear models. This is a known limitation of this work as it constrains the guaranteed domain of the controller. This manuscript ends with a discussion that offers a way to extend the results towards nonlinear models. The idea is to linearize the large-scale nonlinear model around several operating points and interpolate between these points to cover a wider workspace
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"User Intent Detection and Control of a Soft Poly-Limb." Master's thesis, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.49247.
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abstract: This work presents the integration of user intent detection and control in the development of the fluid-driven, wearable, and continuum, Soft Poly-Limb (SPL). The SPL utilizes the numerous traits of soft robotics to enable a novel approach to provide safe and compliant mobile manipulation assistance to healthy and impaired users. This wearable system equips the user with an additional limb made of soft materials that can be controlled to produce complex three-dimensional motion in space, like its biological counterparts with hydrostatic muscles. Similar to the elephant trunk, the SPL is able to manipulate objects using various end effectors, such as suction adhesion or a soft grasper, and can also wrap its entire length around objects for manipulation. User control of the limb is demonstrated using multiple user intent detection modalities. Further, the performance of the SPL studied by testing its capability to interact safely and closely around a user through a spatial mobility test. Finally, the limb’s ability to assist the user is explored through multitasking scenarios and pick and place tests with varying mounting locations of the arm around the user’s body. The results of these assessments demonstrate the SPL’s ability to safely interact with the user while exhibiting promising performance in assisting the user with a wide variety of tasks, in both work and general living scenarios.Dissertation/Thesis
Masters Thesis Biomedical Engineering 2018
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Raibert, Marc H., H. Benjamin Jr Brown, Michael Chepponis, Jeff Koechling, Jessica K. Hodgins, Diane Dustman, W. Kevin Brennan, et al. "Dynamically Stable Legged Locomotion (September 1985-Septembers1989)." 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/6820.
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This report documents our work in exploring active balance for dynamic legged systems for the period from September 1985 through September 1989. The purpose of this research is to build a foundation of knowledge that can lead both to the construction of useful legged vehicles and to a better understanding of animal locomotion. In this report we focus on the control of biped locomotion, the use of terrain footholds, running at high speed, biped gymnastics, symmetry in running, and the mechanical design of articulated legs.
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(8647860), Aniket Pal. "Design and Fabrication of Soft Biosensors and Actuators." Thesis, 2020.
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Soft materials have gained increasing prominence in science and technology over the last few decades. This shift from traditional rigid materials to soft, compliant materials have led to the emergence of a new class of devices which can interact with humans safely, as well as reduce the disparity in mechanical compliance at the interface of soft human tissue and rigid devices.One of the largest application of soft materials has been in the field of flexible electronics, especially in wearable sensors. While wearable sensors for physical attributes such as strain, temperature, etc. have been popular, they lack applications and significance from a healthcare perspective. Point-of-care (POC) devices, on the other hand, provide exceptional healthcare value, bringing useful diagnostic tests to the bedside of the patient. POC devices, however, have been developed for only a limited number of health attributes. In this dissertation I propose and demonstrate wireless, wearable POC devices to measure and communicate the level of various analytes in and the properties of multiple biofluids: blood, urine, wound exudate, and sweat.
Along with sensors, another prominent area of soft materials application has been in actuators and robots which mimic biological systems not only in their action but also in their soft structure and actuation mechanisms. In this dissertation I develop design strategies to improve upon current soft robots by programming the storage of elastic strain energy. This strategy enables us to fabricate soft actuators capable of programmable and low energy consuming, yet high speed motion. Collectively, this dissertation demonstrates the use of soft compliant materials as the foundation for developing new sensors and actuators for human use and interaction.