{"title":"A Non-planar Assembly of Modular Tetrahedral-shaped Aerial Robots","authors":"Obadah Wali, Mohamad T. Shahab, Eric Feron","doi":"10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10161301","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10161301","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a new design of aerial vehicles with tetrahedral geometry. We call this design the TetraQuad. The TetraQuad is a fractal modular aerial robot. A characteristic of fractals is that they have a geometric shape that can be assembled to generate the same geometry on a larger scale. Therefore multiple TetraQuad modules can be assembled to produce a larger scaled tetrahedral shaped aerial vehicle. The advantage is to have modular aerial robots that assemble in the vertical direction; this increases the rigidity of the structure, as well as reduces the wake interaction of the elevated propellers in the assembly. This work presents a design and analysis of the TetraQuad module as well as assemblies of multiple modules. A modular controller strategy is discussed. The functionality of the controller is illustrated using simulations. We validate our design with experimental flight tests.","PeriodicalId":360533,"journal":{"name":"2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115612480","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":"Modeling of a Robotic Transcatheter Delivery System","authors":"Namrata U. Nayar, Ronghuai Qi, J. Desai","doi":"10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10161486","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10161486","url":null,"abstract":"Intracardiac transcatheter systems guided by advanced imaging modalities are gaining popularity in treating mitral regurgitation in non-surgical candidates. Robotically steerable transcatheter systems must use model-based control strategies to ensure safer and more effective transcatheter procedures with less trauma while using smaller control gains. In this paper, a 4-DoF robotically steerable tendon-driven robot was fabricated, and the relationship between the tendon displacement and the joint angle was derived. This relation was derived in two parts to make this approach applicable to any other catheter system. A model was derived to determine the tendon tensions needed to achieve desired joint angles. Then, the tendon characteristics were studied, and a tendon elongation (TE) model was derived as a function of tendon length. Executing the modeling process in two steps makes it easy to introduce additional parameters like length, friction, and pose, to characterize complex systems like catheters. The TE model was used to actuate the joints of the robot and RMSE was computed to characterize its performance. Also, PID control was used along with the TE model to improve the system's performance, and the contribution of the model and the controller in the system was recorded.","PeriodicalId":360533,"journal":{"name":"2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123130073","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}
Shinya Sadachika, Masahito Kanekiyo, Hiroyuki Nabae, G. Endo
{"title":"Repetitive Twisting Durability of Synthetic Fiber Ropes","authors":"Shinya Sadachika, Masahito Kanekiyo, Hiroyuki Nabae, G. Endo","doi":"10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10160745","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10160745","url":null,"abstract":"Synthetic fiber ropes are widely used for robots because of their advantages such as lightweight, high tensile strength and flexibility. However, there is limited information on the physical properties of synthetic fiber ropes when used for robots. This study focuses on repetitive twisting of synthetic fiber ropes and provides information for selecting them for robots based on durability. To this end, we conducted repetitive twisting experiments on five types of ropes made from different fibers; we revealed that Dyneema has higher durability against repetitive twisting than the other ropes when a single rope is twisted. In addition, we conducted experiments on Dyneema by applying torsion to two ropes in parallel like a twisted string actuator. The result indicated that two Dyneema ropes in parallel have higher durability than a single rope; however, we revealed that the the tensile strength decreases sharply with an increase in the angle of twist.","PeriodicalId":360533,"journal":{"name":"2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117058279","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}
Baptiste Pelletier, C. Lesire, Christophe Grand, D. Doose, M. Rognant
{"title":"Predictive Runtime Verification of Skill-based Robotic Systems using Petri Nets","authors":"Baptiste Pelletier, C. Lesire, Christophe Grand, D. Doose, M. Rognant","doi":"10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10160434","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10160434","url":null,"abstract":"This work presents a novel approach for the online supervision of robotic systems assembled from multiple complex components with skillset-based architectures, using Petri nets (PN). Predictive runtime verification is performed, which warns the system user about actions that would lead to the violation of safety specifications, using online model-checking tools on the system PNs.","PeriodicalId":360533,"journal":{"name":"2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)","volume":"19 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120894498","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}
Raffaele Brilli, Marco Legittimo, F. Crocetti, Mirko Leomanni, M. L. Fravolini, G. Costante
{"title":"Monocular Reactive Collision Avoidance for MAV Teleoperation with Deep Reinforcement Learning","authors":"Raffaele Brilli, Marco Legittimo, F. Crocetti, Mirko Leomanni, M. L. Fravolini, G. Costante","doi":"10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10160427","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10160427","url":null,"abstract":"Enabling Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) with semi-autonomous capabilities to assist their teleoperation is crucial in several applications. Remote human operators do not have, in general, the situational awareness to perceive obstacles near the drone, nor the readiness to provide commands to avoid collisions. In this work, we devise a novel teleoperation setting that asks the operator to provide a simple high-level signal encoding the speed and the direction they expect the drone to follow. We then endow the MAV with an end-to-end Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) model that computes control commands to track the desired trajectory while performing collision avoidance. Differently from State-of-the-Art (SotA) works, it allows the robot to move freely in the 3D space, requires only the current RGB image captured by a monocular camera and the current robot position, and does not make any assumption about obstacle shape and size. We show the effectiveness and the generalization capabilities of our strategy by comparing it against a SotA baseline in photorealistic simulated environments.","PeriodicalId":360533,"journal":{"name":"2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127155730","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":"Computational Modeling in System with Non-Circular Timing Pulleys","authors":"Renzo Caballero, Angelica Coronado, Eric Feron","doi":"10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10160802","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10160802","url":null,"abstract":"We analyze and model a belt transmission system with non-circular timing pulleys. Using a 3D printer as a proof-of-concept device, experiments consisting of tracking the pose data of a printer nozzle and its pulleys are conducted. A computational model from our previous work is validated with the experimental data and expanded to model more complex systems with multiple non-circular timing pulleys as well as slippage and non-ideal tensions. Finally, an example with two non-circular timing pulleys is presented and simulated utilizing the proposed method.","PeriodicalId":360533,"journal":{"name":"2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)","volume":"75 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127286178","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}
F. F. Nyboe, N. Malle, G. V. Bögel, L. Cousin, T. Heckel, Konstantin Troidl, Anders Schack Madsen, E. Ebeid
{"title":"Towards Autonomous UAV Railway DC Line Recharging: Design and Simulation","authors":"F. F. Nyboe, N. Malle, G. V. Bögel, L. Cousin, T. Heckel, Konstantin Troidl, Anders Schack Madsen, E. Ebeid","doi":"10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10161506","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10161506","url":null,"abstract":"Autonomously recharging UAVs from existing infrastructure has enormous potential for various applications, such as infrastructure inspection, surveillance, and search and rescue. While it is an active area of research, most related work focuses on alternating current (AC) infrastructure while very little work has been done on investigating the potential of recharging UAVs from direct current (DC) infrastructure. This work proposes a UAV system designed to autonomously recharge from existing DC infrastructure. Two onboard powerline grippers and a motorized cable drum enable the UAV to perform a two-stage landing on railway DC lines where a wire is connected between them through the UAV for recharging. Light-weight electronics designed to be carried by the UAV are developed to harvest energy from up to 3kV DC railway lines. The recharge mission is autonomously executed using fully onboard and real-time perception and trajectory planning and tracking algorithms. The potential of the system is shown in lab setting validation, with hardware-in-the-loop simulation, and partly in a real overhead powerline environment, verifying the functionality of the sub-components.","PeriodicalId":360533,"journal":{"name":"2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)","volume":"133 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127313013","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":"Towards a Finned-Swimming Exoskeleton: A Robotic Flutter Kicking Testbed and its Corresponding Thrust Generation","authors":"Beau Johnson, M. Goldfarb","doi":"10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10161195","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10161195","url":null,"abstract":"While lower limb exoskeletons for above-ground locomotion have been emerging, few attempts have been made to develop an exoskeleton to augment human swimming. Such efforts are hindered by a lack of knowledge surrounding the kinematics and kinetics of human swimming. This paper presents the design of a robotic platform to be used as a finned swimming testbed; describes a controller to generate finned swimming movement; and presents experiments and associated experimental results conducted to explore thrust production resulting from a flutter kick swimming motion.","PeriodicalId":360533,"journal":{"name":"2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)","volume":"101 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127318619","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":"Flow-Based Rendezvous and Docking for Marine Modular Robots in Gyre-Like Environments","authors":"G. Knizhnik, Peihan Li, Mark H. Yim, M. A. Hsieh","doi":"10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10161430","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10161430","url":null,"abstract":"Modular self-assembling systems typically assume that modules are present to assemble. But in sparsely observed ocean environments modules of an aquatic modular robotic system may be separated by distances they do not have the energy to cross, and the information needed for optimal path planning is often unavailable. In this work we present a flow-based rendezvous and docking controller that allows aquatic robots in gyre-like environments to rendezvous with and dock to a target by leveraging environmental forces. This approach does not require complete knowledge of the flow, but suffices with imperfect knowledge of the flow's center and shape. We validate the performance of this control approach in both simulations and experiments relative to naive rendezvous and docking strategies and show that energy efficiency improves as the scale of the gyre increases.","PeriodicalId":360533,"journal":{"name":"2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)","volume":"53 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127447796","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":"WE-Filter: Adaptive Acceptance Criteria for Filter-based Shared Autonomy","authors":"Michael Bowman, Xiaoli Zhang","doi":"10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10161228","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10161228","url":null,"abstract":"Filter-based shared control aims to accept and augment an operator's ability to control a robot. Current solutions accept actions based on their direction aligning with the robot's optimal policy. These strategies reject a human's small corrective actions if they conflict with the robot's direction and accept too aggressive actions as long as they are consistent with the robot's direction. Such strategies may cause task failures and the operator's feeling of loss of control. To close the gap, we propose WE-Filter, which has flexible, adaptive criteria allowing the operator's small corrective actions and tempering too aggressive ones. Inspired by classical work-energy impact problems between two dynamic, interactive bodies, both inputs' properties (direction and magnitude) are inherently considered, creating intuitive, adaptive bounds to accept sensible actions. The model identifies behaviors before and after impact. The rationale is that each timestep of shared control acts as an impact between the operator's and the robot's policies, where post-impact behaviors depend on their previous behaviors. As time continues, a series of impacts occur. The aim is to minimize impacts that occur to reach an agreement faster and reduce strong reactionary behaviors. Our model determines flexible acceptance criteria to bound a mismatch of magnitude and finds a replacement action for conflicting policies. The WE-Filter achieves better task performance, the ratio of accepted actions, and action similarity than the existing methods.","PeriodicalId":360533,"journal":{"name":"2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127547194","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}