Current Issue : July - September Volume : 2017 Issue Number : 3 Articles : 5 Articles
A life-support service robotmust avoid both static and dynamic obstacles for working in a real environment. Here, a static obstacle\nmeans an obstacle that does not move, and a dynamic obstacle is the one that moves. Assuming the robot is following a target\nperson, we discuss how the robot avoids a crowd through which the target person passes and arrives at the target position. The\npurpose of this paper is to propose a crowd avoidance method that makes a robot to be able to avoid both static and dynamic\nobstacles. The method uses the surface points of the obstacles to form an avoidance region, and the robot moves along the edge of\nthe region. We conducted experiments assuming various situations such that the robot was blocked, there was a wide gap in the\ncrowd, or a person in the crowd yielded for the robot to pass through. As an experimental result, it was confirmed the robot could\navoid the crowd even when the obstacles were aligned in an ââ?¬Å?inverted wedgeââ?¬Â shape.\n1. Introduction\nMany research works have been conducted for developing\nlife-support service robots [1]. Here, the robots we are\nfocusing on include autonomous mobile robots that conduct\ntasks such as bringing a beverage to the user based on the\nuserââ?¬â?¢s request [2, 3]. A life-support service robot differs from\nindustrial robots because the life-support service robotsmust\nwork under an environment where humans and the robots\ncoexist. For this purpose, a life-support service robot must\nhave several abilities such asmanipulation [4, 5], vision [6, 7],\nand mobility [8, 9]. We especially focus on the mobility in\nthis paper.The two technologies, the path planning, and the\npath following are important for realizing the autonomous\nnavigation of the robot.Many research works have been done\nfor those issues so far [10ââ?¬â??17]. The path planning and the following\nbehavior are either based on the prepared map of the\nenvironment or based on the on-the-fly measurement of the\nenvironment.We focus on the latter case so that the robot can\nmove around the new and dynamic environment where the\nobstacles (mainly humans) move. Our interest in this paper\nis the robot navigation based...
The preliminary experimental study toward the implementation of an armrehabilitation device based on a twisted string actuation\nmodule is presented. Theactuationmodule is characterized by an integrated force sensor based on optoelectronic components. The\nadopted actuation system can be used for a wide set of robotic applications and is particularly suited for very compact, light-weight,\nand wearable robotic devices, such as wearable rehabilitation systems and exoskeletons.Thorough presentation and description of\nthe proposed actuation module as well as the basic force sensor working principle are illustrated and discussed. A conceptual\ndesign of a wearable arm assistive system based on the proposed actuation module is presented. Moreover, the actuation module\nhas been used in a simple assistive application, in which surface-electromyography signals are used to detect muscle activity of\nthe user wearing the system and to regulate the support action provided to the user to reduce his effort, showing in this way the\neffectiveness of the approach....
Hydraulic actuators have high power-to-weight ratios, making them suitable for high-power robotic applications such\nas in walking robots and construction machines. However, large frictional forces in hydraulic actuators, rotary hydraulic\nactuators in particular, degrade the control performance. To suppress frictional forces and increase robustness\nagainst modeling errors, this study considered the integration of feedback modulators (with minimum control inputs\nexceeding static frictional forces) with disturbance observers. In the proposed controller, nonlinear static frictional\nforces are suppressed by the feedback modulators and linear disturbances are suppressed by the disturbance observers.\nThe validity was experimentally verified in this study....
The low Reynolds number condition presents a fundamental constraint on designing\nlocomotive mechanisms for microscale robots. We report on the use of an oscillating magnetic field to\ninduce on-surface translational motion of particle based microrobots. The particle based microrobots\nconsist of microparticles, connected in a chain-like manner using magnetic self-assembly, where\nthe non-rigid connections between the particles provide structural flexibility for the microrobots.\nFollowing the scallop theorem, the oscillation of flexible bodies can lead to locomotion at low\nReynolds numbers, similar to the beating motion of sperm flagella. We characterized the velocity\nprofiles of the microrobots by measuring their velocities at various oscillating frequencies. We also\ndemonstrated the directional steering capabilities of the microrobots. This work will provide insights\ninto the use of oscillation as a viable mode of locomotion for particle based microrobots near a surface....
Although many researchers have begun to study the area of Cyber Physical Social Sensing\n(CPSS), few are focused on robotic sensors. We successfully utilize robots in CPSS, and propose\na sensor trajectory planning method in this paper. Trajectory planning is a fundamental problem in\nmobile robotics. However, traditional methods are not suited for robotic sensors, because of their low\nefficiency, instability, and non-smooth-generated paths. This paper adopts an optimizing function\nto generate several intermediate points and regress these discrete points to a quintic polynomial\nwhich can output a smooth trajectory for the robotic sensor. Simulations demonstrate that our\napproach is robust and efficient, and can be well applied in the CPSS field....
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