Mario Ramírez-Neria , Rafal Madonski , Eduardo Gamaliel Hernández-Martínez , Norma Lozada-Castillo , Guillermo Fernández-Anaya , Alberto Luviano-Juárez
{"title":"Robust trajectory tracking for omnidirectional robots by means of anti-peaking linear active disturbance rejection","authors":"Mario Ramírez-Neria , Rafal Madonski , Eduardo Gamaliel Hernández-Martínez , Norma Lozada-Castillo , Guillermo Fernández-Anaya , Alberto Luviano-Juárez","doi":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104842","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104842","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article presents a Linear Active Disturbance Rejection scheme for the robust trajectory tracking control of an Omnidirectional robot, including an additional saturation element in the control design to improve the transient closed-loop response by including a saturation-input strategy in the Extended State Observer design, mitigating the possible arising peaking phenomenon. In addition, the controller is implemented in the kinematic model of the robotic system, assuming as the available information the position and orientation measurement and concerning the system structure, it is just known the order of the system and the control gain matrix as well. A wide set of laboratory experiments, including a comparison with a standard ADRC (<em>i.e</em>. without the proposed anti-peaking mechanism) and a PI-based control including an anti-peaking proposal, in the presence of different disturbance elements in the terrain of smooth and abrupt nature is carried out to formulate a comprehensive assessment of the proposal which validate the practical advantages of the proposal in robust trajectory tracking of the kind of robots.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49592,"journal":{"name":"Robotics and Autonomous Systems","volume":"183 ","pages":"Article 104842"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142586364","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"YOLO with feature enhancement and its application in intelligent assembly","authors":"Fenglei Zheng , Aijun Yin , Chuande Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104844","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104844","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Object detection is the most important part in intelligent assembly tasks, accurate and fast detection for different targets can complete positioning and assembly tasks more automatically and efficiently. In this paper, a feature enhancement object detection model based on YOLO is proposed. Firstly, the expression ability of feature layer is enhanced through RFP (Recursive Feature Pyramid) structure. The ARSPP (Atrous Residual Spatial Pyramid Pooling) is proposed to have a further enhancement for the feature layers output by the backbone network, it improves the recognition performance for multi-scale targets of model by using different size of dilated convolution and residual connection. Finally, the contiguous pyramid features are fused and enhanced through the attention mechanism, the results are used for the input of next recursive or predictive output. The model proposed in this paper effectively improves the detection accuracy of YOLO, it has 3% MAP improvement in PASCAL VOC dataset. The validity and accuracy of the model are verified in the robot intelligent assembly recognition task.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49592,"journal":{"name":"Robotics and Autonomous Systems","volume":"183 ","pages":"Article 104844"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142578893","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Local obstacle avoidance control for multi-axle and multi-steering-mode wheeled robot based on window-zone division strategy","authors":"Yongqiang Zhu , Junru Zhu , Pingxia Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104843","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104843","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Due to the length of the body, multiple number of wheels and the complexity of controlling, it is difficult for a multi-axle wheeled robot to avoid obstacles autonomously in narrow space. To solve this problem, this article presents window-zone division and gap-seeking strategies for local obstacle avoidance of a multi-axle multi-steering-mode all-wheel-steering wheeled robot. Firstly, according to the influence degree of lidar points on the robot, combining with the human driving characteristics of avoiding obstacles, a window-zone division strategy is proposed. The lidar points are selected and divided according to the degree of emergency. By eliminating irrelevant points, the work of obstacle avoidance calculation is reduced. Thus, this increases the response speed of obstacle avoidance. Based on this, the robot uses a multi-steering-mode to avoid emergency obstacle. Secondly, the gap-seeking theory of normal obstacle avoidance is proposed. It can seek the passable gap among the surrounding lidar points according to the prediction of the robot's driving trajectory corresponding to different steering angles. Thirdly, the on-board control system and the upper computer program of the robot were designed. Thereafter a multi-steering-mode algorithm was designed based on the front and rear wheel steering angles and speed, as well as the travel trajectory forecast-drawing module. Finally, the proposed methods have been implemented on a five-axle all-wheel steering wheeled robot. Some obstacle avoidance experiments are carried out with S-shaped, Z-Shaped, U-Shaped, and Random obstacle distribution. The results show that the proposed strategy can finish all obstacle avoidance successfully.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49592,"journal":{"name":"Robotics and Autonomous Systems","volume":"183 ","pages":"Article 104843"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142572217","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fractional-order sliding mode control of manipulator combined with disturbance and state observer","authors":"Jinghui Pan","doi":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104840","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104840","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A fractional-order sliding mode control (FSMC) method for a manipulator based on disturbance and state observers is proposed. First, a state estimator is designed that can estimate the velocity and acceleration, and only joint position feedback and the mathematical model of the manipulator are needed. The state estimator converges in finite time. Then, the disturbance observer is designed. By designing the nominal system model of the manipulator, a disturbance observation error is introduced into the closed-loop control so that the performance of the manipulator can track the nominal system. Finally, a sliding mode controller (SMC) based on the fractional differential operator theory is also designed. The value of the sliding mode variable in the derivation of the controller is composed of the fractional derivative of the trajectory tracking error of the manipulator, whereas the fractional differentiation operation uses integration in its realization, and the integration is a low-pass filter, thus, high-frequency noise is suppressed. In the experimental section, the method designed is compared with the conventional sliding mode, which further reveals the rapidity and control accuracy of FSMC.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49592,"journal":{"name":"Robotics and Autonomous Systems","volume":"183 ","pages":"Article 104840"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142572216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An explainable deep learning model for automated classification and localization of microrobots by functionality using ultrasound images","authors":"Ferhat Sadak","doi":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104841","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104841","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rapid advancements of untethered microrobots offer exciting opportunities in fields such as targeted drug delivery and minimally invasive surgical procedures. However, several challenges remain, especially in achieving precise localization and classification of microrobots within living organisms using ultrasound (US) imaging. Current US-based detection algorithms often suffer from inaccurate visual feedback, causing positioning errors. This paper presents a novel explainable deep learning model for the localization and classification of eight different types of microrobots using US images. We introduce the Attention-Fused Bottleneck Module (AFBM), which enhances feature extraction and improves the performance of microrobot classification and localization tasks. Our model consistently outperforms baseline models such as YOLOR, YOLOv5-C3HB, YOLOv5-TBH, YOLOv5 m, and YOLOv7. The proposed model achieved mean Average Precision (mAP) of 0.861 and 0.909 at an IoU threshold of 0.95 which is 2% and 1.5% higher than the YOLOv5 m model in training and testing, respectively. Multi-thresh IoU analysis was performed at IoU thresholds of 0.6, 0.75, and 0.95, and demonstrated that the microrobot localization accuracy of our model is superior. A robustness analysis was performed based on high and low frequencies, gain, and speckle in our test data set, and our model demonstrated higher overall accuracy. UsingScore-CAM in our framework enhances interpretability, allowing for transparent insights into the model’s decision-making process. Our work signifies a notable advancement in microrobot classification and detection, with potential applications in real-world scenarios using the newly available USMicroMagset dataset for benchmarking.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49592,"journal":{"name":"Robotics and Autonomous Systems","volume":"183 ","pages":"Article 104841"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142572215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ivan Moskalenko , Anastasiia Kornilova , Gonzalo Ferrer
{"title":"Visual place recognition for aerial imagery: A survey","authors":"Ivan Moskalenko , Anastasiia Kornilova , Gonzalo Ferrer","doi":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104837","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104837","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Aerial imagery and its direct application to visual localization is an essential problem for many Robotics and Computer Vision tasks. While Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are the standard default solution for solving the aerial localization problem, it is subject to a number of limitations, such as, signal instability or solution unreliability that make this option not so desirable. Consequently, visual geolocalization is emerging as a viable alternative. However, adapting <em>Visual Place Recognition</em> (VPR) task to aerial imagery presents significant challenges, including weather variations and repetitive patterns. Current VPR reviews largely neglect the specific context of aerial data. This paper introduces a methodology tailored for evaluating VPR techniques specifically in the domain of aerial imagery, providing a comprehensive assessment of various methods and their performance. However, we not only compare various VPR methods, but also demonstrate the importance of selecting appropriate zoom and overlap levels when constructing map tiles to achieve maximum efficiency of VPR algorithms in the case of aerial imagery. The code is available on our GitHub repository — <span><span>https://github.com/prime-slam/aero-vloc</span><svg><path></path></svg></span>.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49592,"journal":{"name":"Robotics and Autonomous Systems","volume":"183 ","pages":"Article 104837"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142553696","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mingxuan Ding , Qinyun Tang , Kaixin Liu , Xi Chen , Dake Lu , Changda Tian , Liquan Wang , Yingxuan Li , Gang Wang
{"title":"Advancements in amphibious robot navigation through wheeled odometer uncertainty extension and distributed information fusion","authors":"Mingxuan Ding , Qinyun Tang , Kaixin Liu , Xi Chen , Dake Lu , Changda Tian , Liquan Wang , Yingxuan Li , Gang Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104839","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104839","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The advancement and safeguarding of the water-land interface region is of paramount importance, and amphibious robots with the capacity for autonomous operation can play a pivotal role in this domain. However, the inability of the majority of reliable navigation sensors to adapt to the water-land interface environment presents a significant challenge for amphibious robots, as obtaining positional information is crucial for autonomous operation. To address this issue, we have proposed a positioning and navigation framework, designated as NAWR (Navigation Algorithm for Amphibious Wheeled Robots), with the objective of enhancing the navigation capabilities of amphibious robots. Firstly, a method for representing the odometer's confidence based on a simplified wheel-terrain interaction model has been developed. This method quantitatively assesses the reliability of each odometer by estimating the slip rate. Secondly, we have introduced an improved split covariance intersection filter (I-SCIF), which maximizes the utilization of navigation information sources to enhance the accuracy of positional estimation. Finally, we will integrate these two methods to form the NAWR framework and validate the effectiveness of the proposed methods through multiple robot field trials. The results from both field trials and ablation tests collectively demonstrate that the modules and overall approach within the NAWR framework effectively enhance the navigation capabilities of amphibious robots.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49592,"journal":{"name":"Robotics and Autonomous Systems","volume":"183 ","pages":"Article 104839"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142586363","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Michele Perrelli, Francesco Lago, Salvatore Garofalo, Luigi Bruno, Domenico Mundo, Giuseppe Carbone
{"title":"A critical review and systematic design approach for innovative upper-limb rehabilitation devices","authors":"Michele Perrelli, Francesco Lago, Salvatore Garofalo, Luigi Bruno, Domenico Mundo, Giuseppe Carbone","doi":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104835","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104835","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper conducts a thorough literature review and assessment of prevailing upper-limb rehabilitation devices, scrutinizing their strengths and limitations. The focus of this work is mainly on soft exosuit devices but some rigid and hybrid exoskeleton devices are also discussed as a comparative mean. Subsequently, this manuscript delineates explicit design guidelines with the intent of fostering a systematic approach toward innovation in the realm of upper-limb rehabilitation technology. Through an examination of current concepts and technological paradigms, this study seeks to contribute nuanced insights aimed at optimizing both efficacy and user experience in rehabilitation device design. The culmination of this critical analysis results in the proposal of a systematic design procedure to inform and influence the trajectory of specific user-tailored innovations within the domain of upper-limb rehabilitation devices.The proposed approach enables the identification of features and weaknesses in existing devices, facilitating also the design of innovative solutions for unsolved issues in the field of wearable robotics. A design example is presented to clarify the proposed design procedure.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49592,"journal":{"name":"Robotics and Autonomous Systems","volume":"183 ","pages":"Article 104835"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142527644","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zhifeng Huang , Runqiao Zhou , Ruiyuan Huang , Jun Ota
{"title":"Differential kinematics of a single-point-suspended manipulator with center-of-mass shift compensation","authors":"Zhifeng Huang , Runqiao Zhou , Ruiyuan Huang , Jun Ota","doi":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104820","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104820","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The single cable-suspended manipulator is suitable for special occasions such as aerial operation tasks of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and deep-well search and rescue. However, due to the lack of complete constraints at the base, the manipulator will have errors in end position due to the center-of-mass offset during the motion. In this paper, the model of CoM shifting is established, and the Jacobian matrix is improved based on this model, to realize the differential kinematics solution for the single cable-suspended manipulator. In addition, by introducing the constraint of CoM shift in the Jacobian matrix, it makes it possible to synchronize the planning of the motion of the end and the center of mass. This can effectively avoid the wobbling of the manipulator in the presence of elasticity or instability at the suspension point. Both simulation and prototype experiments effectively verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Using the method of this paper, the average error of the trajectories in the z-axis and x-axis can be reduced from 27.0 ± 2.6 mm to 5.6 ± 3.4 mm, and 43.0 ± 64.2 mm to 3.3 ± 4.8 mm, respectively.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49592,"journal":{"name":"Robotics and Autonomous Systems","volume":"183 ","pages":"Article 104820"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142553195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bo Fu , Yuming Chen , Yi Quan , Xilin Zhou , Chaoshun Li
{"title":"Bidirectional artificial potential field-based ant colony optimization for robot path planning","authors":"Bo Fu , Yuming Chen , Yi Quan , Xilin Zhou , Chaoshun Li","doi":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104834","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.robot.2024.104834","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ant colony optimization (ACO) is a common approach for addressing mobile robot path planning problems. However, it still encounters some challenges including slow convergence speed, susceptibility to local optima, and a tendency to falling into traps. We propose a bidirectional artificial potential field-based ant colony optimization (BAPFACO) algorithm to solve these issues. First, the bidirectional artificial potential field is introduced to initialize the grid environment model and restrict direction selection to jump out of the trap. Second, an adaptive heuristic function is presented to strengthen directionality of the algorithm and reduce the turning times. Third, a pseudo-random state transition rule based on potential difference between starting and ending nodes is developed to accelerate convergence speed. Finally, an improved pheromone update strategy incorporating pheromone diffusion mechanism and elite ants update strategy is proposed to help getting out of local optima. To demonstrate the advantages of BAPFACO, the validation of the performance in six different complexity environments and comparative experiments with other conventional search algorithms and ACO variants are conducted. The results of experiment show that compared to various ACO variants, BAPFACO have advantages in terms of reducing the turning times, shortening path length, improving convergence speed and avoiding ant loss. In complex environments, compared to IHMACO, the average path length enhancement percentage (<em>PLE</em>) of BAPFACO is 20.98%, the average iterations enhancement percentage (<em>IE</em>) of BAPFACO is 20.00% and the average turning times enhancement percentage (<em>TE</em>) of BAPFACO is 49.43%. These results firmly demonstrate the efficiency and practicality of the BAPFACO algorithm for mobile robot in path planning.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49592,"journal":{"name":"Robotics and Autonomous Systems","volume":"183 ","pages":"Article 104834"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142658822","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}