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Ducted-type underwater robot that we developed has streamlined outer shape with duct inside, so that it can have low fluid resistance and because of short body length, it has highly good motion performance like short turning radius. Ducted type underwater robot that we developed had made as concept with rudder inside the duct. But for enlarge the turning force, it must have larger space and our robot...
This paper introduces a new type of versatile modular reconfigurable robot. This robot is a self-reconfigurable truss structure. The requirements and challenges involved to build a functioning system are explored. These include the functional requirements, and the implications on hardware design, software issues and topological analysis. One potential application for this robot is the shoring of damaged...
Robotic systems that are soft or incorporate soft actuators are well suited for operation in unstructured environments and for safe interactions with fragile objects. The majority, however, are tethered or burdened with bulky payloads of pumps and compressors. In a recent article we presented a sealed, inflated actuator composed of fluidically connected membrane dielectric elastomer actuators capable...
Humanlike robot skills, e.g., cleaning a table or handing over a plate, can often be generalized to different task variations. Usually, these are start-/goal position, and trained environment changes. We investigate how to modify motion primitives to context changes, which are not included in the training data. Specifically, we focus on maintaining humanlike motion characteristics and generalizability,...
High-level, closed-loop traversal through obstacle-strewn environments remains an open and challenging endeavor for snake-like robotic platforms. Rectilinear forms of locomotion, despite their unique mobility advantages compared to other gait shapes, have seen relatively little progress toward this objective. A dynamical exposition of traveling wave rectilinear motion is reviewed and applied to generate...
In this work, we propose a method to compute the stiffness of flexible joints and its realization in order to let the fingers track a certain predefined trajectory. We refer to tendon-driven, underactuated and passively compliant hands composed of deformable joints and rigid links. Specific stiffness and pre-form shapes can be assigned to the finger joints can be given s such that a single-cable actuation...
We present the design, modeling, and implementation of a novel pneumatic actuator, the Pneumatic Reel Actuator (PRA). The PRA is highly extensible, lightweight, capable of operating in compression and tension, compliant, and inexpensive. An initial prototype of the PRA can reach extension ratios greater than 16:1, has a force-to-weight ratio over 28:1, reach speeds of 0.87 meters per second, and can...
We propose an alternative to the common approaches to the topological segmentation in structured or unstructured environments, Contour-Based Segmentation. It is faster and equally accurate, without the need of fine tuning parameters or heuristics. During robotic exploration, we propose an incremental version that reduces the processing time by reusing the previous segmentation. Tests demonstrate the...
Path planning of AUV is a research topic of great importance. And the velocity vector synthesis method and belief function method can be applied in this area. Though it can plan a straight way for AUV to reach the target under the influence of current, the velocity vector synthesis method cannot avoid obstacles. Then belief function method is proposed to avoid obstacles and prevent speed jump of AUV...
This paper presents an inchworm inspired soft robot composed of the soft body, the front foot as well as the back foot. Compared to the traditional inchworm-type robot consisting of rigid components, the driven mode for the soft robot is more simple. The soft robot inspired by the inchworm has higher locomotion efficiency than the other bionic soft robot. The main idea of this paper is to imitate...
In this paper, we propose an epoch-making soft sheet actuator called “Wavy-sheet”. Inspired by gastropod's locomotion, Wavy-sheet can generate continuous traveling waves on the whole soft body. It aims to be applied to a mobile soft mat capable of moving and transporting without damaging the object and the ground. The actuator, driven by pneumatics, is mainly composed of a couple of flexible rubber...
This paper addresses the problem of grasping unknown objects with a humanoid robot. Conventional approaches fail when the shape, dimension or pose of the objects are missing. We propose a novel approach in which the grasping problem is solved by modeling the object and the volume graspable by the hand with superquadric functions. The object model is computed in real-time using stereo vision. Pose...
In this paper, a lightweight central pattern generator(CPG) model is designed for a snake-like robot, to achieve smooth transition of body shape and locomotion speed. First, based on the convergence behavior of the gradient system, a lightweight CPG model with fast computing time is designed and compared with other widely adopted CPG models. Then, the body shape and locomotion speed transitions in...
We present new algorithms to perform fast probabilistic collision queries between convex as well as non-convex objects. Our approach is applicable to general shapes, where one or more objects are represented using Gaussian probability distributions. We present a fast new algorithm for a pair of convex objects, and extend the approach to non-convex models using hierarchical representations. We highlight...
For a manipulation skill to be applicable to a wide range of scenarios, it must generalize between different objects and object configurations. Robots should therefore learn skills that adapt to features describing the objects being manipulated. Most of these object features will however be irrelevant for generalizing the skill and, hence, the robot should select a small set of relevant features for...
The paper presents a novel design of compliant soft mobile robot using shape memory alloy. This paper also demonstrates the capability of shape memory alloy (Ni-Ti) as an actuator for a micro robot. Soft robots provide better flexibility and softness which increases the range of locomotion and their capability in complex environment. The robot presented in the paper has 60X50X50 mm dimension. Shape...
This paper presents the development of an inspection-class Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) that can be employed to aid in the reduction of operational and maintenance (O&M) costs of offshore renewable energy systems. The estimated costs for the offshore renewables sectors are presented and accessibility challenges to the offshore structures, specifically off the coast of Ireland, are discussed...
To overcome the high time consumption, unreasonable rotation and poor environment adaptability in obstacle avoidance of wheeled robots formation, a strategy combining heuristic path planning function and optimal formation transformation is proposed, and it is applied to AGV (Automatic Guided Vehicle). First of all, a base of common robots formation knowledge and the transformation time is built; Secondly,...
This paper reports a research for vision and 2D Lidar based autonomous docking for autonomous surface vehicle. The work is related to one of the tasks in 2016 Maritime RobotX Challenge. Docking bays are located by using Lidar scanning data and symbols are identified by template matching and comparing Euclidean distance in HSV color space. Before proceeding to the bay, lateral position alignment is...
Mems Microrobot applications evolve in ultra-dense contexts. They are at the stage of the simulation to obtain 2-Dimension or shapes for the deployment of individual or collective intelligent programs, and collectively achieve miniaturized and flexible workshops. Now-on, manufacturers and academicians projects are at the stage of modeling and prototyping Mems, and simulating Mems systems applications...
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