{"title":"Iteratively Locating Voronoi Vertices for Dispersion Estimation","authors":"Stephen R. Lindemann, P. Cheng","doi":"10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570710","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570710","url":null,"abstract":"We present a new sampling-based algorithm for iteratively locating Voronoi vertices of a point set in the unit cube Id= [0, 1]d. The algorithm takes an input sample and executes a series of transformations, each of which projects the sample to a new face of the Voronoi cell in which it is located. After d such transformations, the sample has been transformed into a Voronoi vertex. Locating Voronoi vertices has many potential applications for motion planning, such as estimating dispersion for coverage and verification applications, and providing information useful for Voronoi-biased or multiple-tree planning. We prove theoretical results regarding our algorithm, and give experimental results comparing it to naive sampling for the problem of dispersion estimation.","PeriodicalId":350878,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation","volume":"58 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132386563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fuzzy Enhanced Control of an Underactuated Finger Using Tactile and Position Sensors","authors":"L. Birglen, C. Gosselin","doi":"10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570459","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570459","url":null,"abstract":"This paper proposes a control scheme dedicated to underactuated fingers with the intention of maximizing the capabilities of the latter using tactile and position information at a minimum cost. Tactile sensors are implemented on one prototype of underactuated finger and used to enhance the behaviour of the hand despite its limited number of control signals. First, tactile technology is briefly recalled and discussed. Second, the electronic design of the sensors' controller is presented. Third, a real-time control scheme is introduced, based on a fuzzy force control method. Finally, a slippage prevention technique is presented. Results are discussed based on experimental observations and indicate that the behaviour of underactuated fingers can be substantially enhanced with tactile information and a classic fuzzy control approach.","PeriodicalId":350878,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132446231","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Interactive Teaching of a Mobile Robot","authors":"J. Miura, Koji Iwase, Y. Shirai","doi":"10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570632","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570632","url":null,"abstract":"Personal service robots are expected to help people in their everyday life in the near future. Such robots must be able to not only move around but also perform various operations such as carrying a user-specified object or turning a TV on. Robots working in houses and offices have to deal with a vast variety of environments and operations. Since it is almost impossible to give the robots complete knowl edge in advance, on-site robot teaching will be important. We are developing a novel teaching framework called task model-based interactive teaching. A task model describes what knowledge is necessary for achieving a task. A robot examines the task model to determine missing pieces of knowledge, and asks the user to teach them. By leading the interaction with the user in this way, the user can teach important (focal) point easily and efficiently. This paper deals with a task of moving to a destination at a different floor; the task includes not only the movement but also the operation of recognizing and pushing elevator buttons. Experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed teaching framework.","PeriodicalId":350878,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation","volume":"106 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132517275","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
D. Accoto, D. Campolo, P. Castrataro, Vito Surico, E. Guglielmelli, P. Dario
{"title":"A Soft Electrochemical Actuator for Biomedical Robotics","authors":"D. Accoto, D. Campolo, P. Castrataro, Vito Surico, E. Guglielmelli, P. Dario","doi":"10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570556","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570556","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a new biphasic electrofluidic rotary actuator relying on electrochemical mechanisms. Gas (H2and O2) is generated at two platinum (Pt) electrodes, immersed in an electrolytic solution, when a low voltage, V, is applied to them. The generated gas pressurizes a closed elastomeric chamber, that deforms under the action of the applied pressure. The chamber is shaped so that no structural failure occurs and the desired output motion is produced, without any need for additional mechanical means such as motion converters. Simple thermodynamic considerations allow estimating the electromechanical coupling factors for the most common external loads.","PeriodicalId":350878,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation","volume":"69 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133013309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Autonomous Towed Vehicle for Underwater Inspection in a Port Area","authors":"Jin-Kyu Choi, H. Sakai, Toshinari Tanaka","doi":"10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570117","url":null,"abstract":"This paper discusses an autonomous towed vehicle for underwater inspection in a port area, in which a sea current is so fast and complex. The autonomous towed vehicle has three different navigation modes; towed mode, autonomous mode and kite mode, to assure safe and reliable inspection in such a port area. An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is employed as a towed vehicle to increase autonomy. In towed systems, it is important to monitor a towed force for preventing cable breaks and making use of it more efficiently since a towing cable plays an important role in transmitting electric signals and towing forces. In this paper, we propose a sequence for towed force estimation consisting of different navigation modes and control methods for it. In addition, the navigation control system of the autonomous towed vehicle is briefly described. Simulations to verify the towed force estimation and control methods are carried out and the results are discussed.","PeriodicalId":350878,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation","volume":"75 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132084241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Manipulation of Deformable Linear Objects: From Geometric Model Towards Program Generation","authors":"Jürgen Acker, D. Henrich","doi":"10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570333","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570333","url":null,"abstract":"This paper discusses the handling of deformable linear objects (DLOs), such as hoses, wires, or leaf springs in a polyhedral environment. It investigates the formulation of assembly or disassembly tasks based on contact states. The result is an approach that facilitates the automatic extraction of robot programs from demonstrations in virtual reality and provides a base for the parameterization of detection algorithms. For this purpose, a contact state model for the description of assembly or disassembly tasks of DLOs is presented. It is described how the contact states can be derived from a geometric model of both the DLO and the environment. Such a model may be obtained by a simulation of the manipulation tasks in virtual reality. Further, the possible transitions between the contact states are classified into general transition classes. Those transition classes enable the selection of algorithms to detect such contact state transitions.","PeriodicalId":350878,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130931292","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fully-Isotropic Over-Constrained Parallel Wrists with Two Degrees of Freedom","authors":"G. Gogu","doi":"10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570735","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570735","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper we present singularity-free fully-isotropic parallel wrists (PWs) with two degrees of freedom. The mobile platform has 2 rotations (2R) driven by two rotary actuators mounted on the base. A method is proposed for structural synthesis of 2R-PWs with uncoupled motions and fully-isotropic based on the theory of linear transformations. A one-to-one correspondence exists between the actuated joint velocity space and the external velocity space of the moving platform. The Jacobian matrix mapping the two vector spaces of 2R-PWs with uncoupled motions is a diagonal 2×2 matrix. We use the condition number and the manipulability ellipsoids for their performance analysis. The Jacobian matrix of fully-isotropic 2R-PWs presented in this paper is the identity 2×2 matrix throughout their entire workspace. The condition number and the determinant of the Jacobian matrix being equal to one, the manipulator performs very well with regard to force and motion transmission capabilities. As far as we are aware this paper presents for the first time solutions of singularity-free parallel wrists fully-isotropic throughout their entire workspace.","PeriodicalId":350878,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127920679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Automatic Pallet Engagment by a Vision Guided Forklift","authors":"Michael J. Seelinger, J. Yoder","doi":"10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570744","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570744","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a vision-guided control method called mobile camera-space manipulation (MCSM) that enables a robotic forklift vehicle to engage pallets based on a pallet’s actual current location by using feedback from vision sensors that are part of the robotic forklift. MCSM is capable of high precision mobile manipulation control without relying on strict camera calibration. The paper contains development of the method as well as experimental results with a forklift prototype in actual pallet engagement tasks. The technology could be added to AGV (automatically guided vehicle) systems enabling them to engage arbitrarily located pallets. It also could be added to standard forklifts as an operator assist capability.","PeriodicalId":350878,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131739241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Optimization of Robot Paths Computed by Randomized Planners","authors":"S. Vougioukas","doi":"10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570431","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570431","url":null,"abstract":"Randomized path planners have been successfully used to compute feasible paths for difficult planning problems. Such paths are typically computed without taking into account any optimality criteria and may contain many “jagged” segments because of the randomness involved in their generation. This paper presents a two-phase path planning algorithm, which uses a randomized planner to compute low-cost paths, and gradient descent to locally optimize these paths by minimizing a Hamiltonian function. The algorithm is tested on motion planning for a non-holonomic car-like robot. The results indicate that the two-phase approach is practical; however, gradient descent seems to be inefficient for the optimization of long paths.","PeriodicalId":350878,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129197263","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A. Schultz, Joseph H. Solomon, M. Peshkin, M. Hartmann
{"title":"Multifunctional Whisker Arrays for Distance Detection, Terrain Mapping, and Object Feature Extraction","authors":"A. Schultz, Joseph H. Solomon, M. Peshkin, M. Hartmann","doi":"10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570503","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOT.2005.1570503","url":null,"abstract":"Several species of animals use whiskers to accurately navigate and explore objects in the absence of vision. We have developed inexpensive arrays of artificial whiskers based on strain-gage and Flex Sensor technologies that can be used either in passive (“dragging”) mode, or in active (“whisking”) mode. In the present work we explore the range of functions that whisker arrays can serve on a rover. We demonstrate that when mounted on a rover, whisker arrays can (1) Detect obstacles and determine obstacle distance (2) Map terrain features (3) Determine ground and surface texture (4) Provide an estimate of rover speed (5) Identify “slip” of the rover wheels, and (6) Perform 3-dimensional extraction of object shape. We discuss the potential use of whisker arrays on planetary rovers and as an investigative tool for exploring the encoding of sensory information in the nervous system of animals.","PeriodicalId":350878,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation","volume":"1948 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129263664","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}