Academic literature on the topic 'Mechatronics and Robotics'

This thesis presents the results from a modification of a previously existing research project titled the Intelligent Pothole Repair Vehicle (IPRV). The direction of the research in this thesis was changed toward the development of an industrially based mobile robot. The principal goal of this work was the demonstration of the Precision Mechatronics Lab (PML) robot. This robot should be capable of traversing any known distance while maintaining a minimal position error. An optical correction capability has been added with the addition of a webcam and the appropriate image processing software. The primary development goal was the ability to maintain the accuracy and performance of the robot with inexpensive and low-resolution hardware. Combining the two abilities of dead-reckoning and optical correction on a single platform will yield a robot with the ability to accurately travel any distance. As shown in this thesis, the additional capability of off-loading its visual processing tasks to a remote computer allows the PML robot to be developed with less expensive hardware. The majority of the literature research presented in this paper is in the area of visual processing. Various methods used in industry to accomplish robotic mobility, optical processing, image enhancement, and target interception have been presented. This background material is important in understanding the complexity of this field of research and the potential application of the work conducted in this thesis. The methods shown in this research can be extended to other small robotic vehicles, with two separate drive wheels. An empirical method based upon system identification was used to develop the motion controllers. This research demonstrates a successful combination of a dead-reckoning capability, an optical correction method, and a simplified controller methodology capable of accurate path following. Implementation of this procedure could be extended to multiple and inexpensive robots used in a manufacturing setting.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2006.<br>This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.<br>"February 2006."<br>Includes bibliographical references (p. 145-153).<br>Future robotics and mechatronics applications will require systems that are simple, robust, lightweight and inexpensive. A suggested solution for future systems is binary actuation. Binary actuation is the mechanical analogy to digital electronics, where actuators "flip" between two discrete states. Systems can be simple since low-level feedback control, sensors, wiring and electronics are virtually eliminated. However, conventional actuators, such as DC motors and gearbox are not appropriate for binary robotics because they are complex, heavy, and expensive. This thesis proposes a new actuation technology for binary robotics and mechatronics based on dielectric elastomer (DE) technology. DE actuators are a novel class of polymer actuators that have shown promising low-cost performance. These actuators were not well understood and, as a result, faced major reliability problems. Fundamental studies conducted in this thesis reveal that reliable, high performance DE actuation based on highly viscoelastic polymers can be obtained at high deformation rates, when used under fast, intermittent motion.<br>(cont.) Also, analytical models revealed that viscoelasticity and current leakage through the film govern performance. These results are verified by an in-depth experimental characterizion of DE actuation. A new DE actuator concept using multi-layered diamond-shaped films is proposed. Essential design tools such as reliability/performance trade-offs maps, scaling laws, and design optimization metrics are proposed. A unit binary module is created by combining DE actuators with bistable structures to provide intermittent motion in applications requiring long-duration stateholding. An application example of binary robots for medical interventions inside Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) systems illustrates the technology's potential.<br>by Jean-Sébastien Plante.<br>Ph.D.

Because communication has always been difficult for people who are deaf-blind, The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute (SKERI), in conjunction with the California Polytechnic State University Mechanical Engineering department, has commissioned the design, construction, testing, and programming of a robotic hand capable of performing basic fingerspelling to help bridge the communication gap. The hand parts were modeled using SolidWorks and fabricated using an Objet rapid prototyper. Its fingers are actuated by 11 Maxon motors, and its wrist is actuated by 2 Hitec servo motors. The motors are controlled by Texas Instruments L293D motor driver chips, ATtiny2313 slave microcontroller chips programmed to act as motor controllers, and a master ATmega644p microcontroller. The master controller communicates with a computer over a USB cable to receive sentences typed by a sighted user. The master controller then translates each letter into its corresponding hand gesture in the American Manual Alphabet and instructs each motor controller to move each finger joint into the proper position.

Orientador: João Maurício Rosário<br>Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica<br>Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-16T10:12:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Moretti_Mariana_M.pdf: 12180551 bytes, checksum: 7061efe63e86e5ba1b21c21253c1ee35 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010<br>Resumo: Uma nova proposta de modelo dinâmico da Plataforma de Stewart é apresentada neste trabalho. Enquanto a cinemática inversa é usada para posicionar cada um dos seis braços do robô, o vetor de força que atua em seus deslocamentos é dado pelo torque de motores elétricos. A inércia em cada um dos pontos de apoio é aproximada por uma rigidez mecânica associada ao modulo de Young. Ainda, foi implementado um modelo dinâmico que usa a aproximação de Newton-Euler, amplamente aplicada na dinâmica inversa de robôs seriais, para o caso deste robô paralelo. Em ambas as abordagens, as equações foram implementadas em Matlab/SimulinkTM, e os resultados das simulações foram apresentados para validação das aproximações<br>Abstract: A new proposal for a dynamic model of the Stewart platform is presented. While the inverse kinematics is used to position each of the six arms of the robot, the vector of force acting on the displacement is given by the torque of electric motors. The inertia in each of the support points is approximated by a mechanical stiffness associated with the Young modulus. Still, it was implemented a dynamic model that uses the Newton-Euler approach, widely applied in the inverse dynamics of serial robots, for the case of this parallel robot. In both approaches, the equations were implemented in Matlab/SimulinkTM, and the simulation results were presented for validation of the approaches<br>Mestrado<br>Mecanica dos Sólidos e Projeto Mecanico<br>Mestre em Engenharia Mecânica

This thesis explores the field of robotic hand exoskeletons and their applications. These systems have emerged in popularity over the years, due to their potentials to advance the medical field as assistive and rehabilitation devices, and the field of virtual reality as haptic gloves. Although much progress has been made, hand exoskeletons are faced with several design challenges that are hard to overcome without having some tradeoffs. These challenges include: (1) the size and weight of the system, which can affect both the comfort of wearing it and its portability, (2) the ability to impose natural joint angle relationships among the user's fingers and thumb during grasping motions, (3) safety in terms of limiting the range of motions produce by the system to that of the natural human hand and ensuring the mechanical design does not cause harm or injury to the user during usage, (4) designing a device that is user friendly to use, and (5) the ability to effectively perform grasping motions and provide sensory feedback for the system to be applicable in various application fields. In order to address these common issues of today's state-of-the-art hand exoskeleton systems, this thesis proposes a mechanism design for a novel hand exoskeleton and presents the integration of several prototypes. The proposed hand exoskeleton is designed to assist the user with grasping motions while maintaining a natural coupling relationship among the finger and thumb joints to resemble that of a normal human hand. The mechanism offers the advantage of being small-size and lightweight, making it ideal for prolong usage. Several applications are discussed to highlight the proposed hand exoskeleton functionalities in processing sensory information, such as position and interactive forces.<br>MS

A commercial backhoe has been modified for haptic control research at Georgia Tech's Fluid Power and Motion Control Center (FPMC). Electrohydraulic valves and feedback sensors have been retrofitted to the backhoe and interfaced with a haptic joystick through a computerized control system. The resulting system provides force feedback to the hand of the operator as he or she manipulates the bucket with the joystick in Cartesian space. This system has been constructed for use as a platform for ongoing research in the area of haptic controls for the fluid power industry. The work presented herein is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter introduces the haptic backhoe concept and provides some motivation for the project. The second chapter presents the current state of haptics-for-hydraulics research as presented in scientific literature. The third chapter presents kinematic and dynamic modeling of the haptic backhoe components for use both in simulation and control. The fourth chapter presents simulation results from the model derived in the preceeding chapter. The fifth chapter describes the design of the physical system. The sixth chapter presents initial test results of the backhoe moving under closed-loop haptic control. The last chapter describes the current state of the system and suggests several areas for future exploration. It is hoped that the haptic backhoe will continue to serve as a useful research tool for many years into the future.

We are currently in a revolution in robotics where more tasks are being handled by machines than ever before. For this reason, the goal of this project was to build a four-legged robot with an implementation of dynamic stability. The developed robot is a dog style robot with reversed knee joints. The robot is controlled by an Arduino UNO microcontroller, that processes information from a gyroscope to drive it’s servo motors. It is capable of maintaining it’s balance while standing on a varying incline. The motion is based upon an inverse kinematic model of the leg geometry and assumes a planar ground surface.<br>I dagsläget ser vi en snabb expansion i användningen av robotar för att utföra alltmer avancerade uppgifter. På grund av detta var målet med detta projekt att utveckla en fyrbent robot med en enkel implementation av självbalansering. Den framtagna prototypen är en robot av hundstil med bakåtgående knän. Styrenheten är en Arduino UNO mikrokontroller. Med information från ett gyroskop styr denna roboten med hjälp av dess servomorer. Prototypen är kapabel att hålla balansen då den står på lutande underlag. Rörelsen är baserad på en kinematisk modell av bengeometrin och förutsätter en plan markyta.

The use of autonomous robots in industrial applications is growing in popularity and possesses the following advantages: cost effectiveness, job efficiency and safety aspects. Despite the advantages, the major drawback to using autonomous robots is the cost involved to acquire such robots. It is the aim of GMSA to develop a low cost AGV capable of performing material handling in an industrial environment. Collective autonomous robots are often used to perform tasks, that is, more than one working together to achieve a common goal. The intelligent controller, responsible for establishing coordination between the individual robots, plays a key role in managing the tasks of each robot to achieve the common goal. This dissertation addresses the development of an AGV capable of such functionality. Key research areas include: the development of an autonomous coupling system, integration of key safety devices and the development of an intelligent control strategy that can be used to govern the operation of multiple AGVs in an area.

In this thesis, a novel robust estimation strategy for observing the system state variables of robotic manipulators with distributed flexibility is established. Motivation for the derived approach stems from the observation that lightweight, high speed, and large workspace robotic manipulators often suffer performance degradation because of inherent structural compliance. This flexibility often results in persistent residual vibration, which must be damped before useful work can resume. Inherent flexibility in robotic manipulators, then, increases cycle times and shortens the operational lives of the robots. Traditional compensation techniques, those which are commonly used for the control of rigid manipulators, can only approach a fraction of the open-loop system bandwidth without inducing significant excitation of the resonant dynamics. To improve the performance of these systems, the structural flexibility cannot simply be ignored, as it is when the links are significantly stiff and approximate rigid bodies. One thus needs a model to design a suitable compensator for the vibration, but any model developed to correct this problem will contain parametric error. And in the case of very lightly damped systems, like flexible robotic manipulators, this error can lead to instability of the control system for even small errors in system parameters. This work presents a systematic solution for the problem of robust state estimation for flexible manipulators in the presence of parametric modeling error. The solution includes: 1) a modeling strategy, 2) sensor selection and placement, and 3) a novel, multiple model estimator. Modeling of the FLASHMan flexible gantry manipulator is accomplished using a developed hybrid transfer matrix / assumed modes method (TMM/AMM) approach to determine an accurate low-order state space representation of the system dynamics. This model is utilized in a genetic algorithm optimization in determining the placement of MEMs accelerometers for robust estimation and observability of the system’s flexible state variables. The initial estimation method applied to the task of determining robust state estimates under conditions of parametric modeling error was of a sliding mode observer type. Evaluation of the method through analysis, simulations and experiments showed that the state estimates produced were inadequate. This led to the development of a novel, multiple model adaptive estimator. This estimator utilizes a bank of similarly designed sub-estimators and a selection algorithm to choose the true value from a given set of possible system parameter values as well as the correct state vector estimate. Simulation and experimental results are presented which demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the derived method for the task of state variable estimation for flexible robotic manipulators.

As new challenges presents themselves continuously in today’s society the need for autonomous driving solutions is ever growing and with it: the need for creative solutions. This thesis investigates the pneumatic solution to making a car jump. The analysis of theoretical and testing results have demonstrated a correlation between the weight of the car and height of the jump. With the selected configuration it has been proven unattainable to make the car jump. Further research should look into the optimization of the pneumatic system, specifically the mass flow rate throughout the whole system.<br>I dagens samhälle presenteras nya utmaningar dagligen och behovet av autonoma lösningar i fordon ökar ständigt. I takt med det ökar behovet av kreativa lösningar. Detta examensarbete undersöker pneumatiska lösningen bakom att få en bil att hoppa. Analysen av teoritiska och experimentiella resultat visar en korrelation mellan bilens vikt och den möjliga hopphöjden. Med den valda konfigurationen är det inte möjligt att utföra hoppet och åtgärder tas upp i disskusionen. Vidare forskning bör undersöka optimeringen av det pneumatiska systemet, specifikt på hur det maximala massflödet kan uppnås i systemet.