Articulated robot

About: Articulated robot is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4364 publications have been published within this topic receiving 52442 citations.

Acquiring and Generalizing the Embodiment Mapping From Human Observations to Robot Skills

Abstract: Robot imitation based on observations of the human movement is a challenging problem as the structure of the human demonstrator and the robot learner are usually different. A movement that can be demonstrated well by a human may not be kinematically feasible for robot reproduction. A common approach to solve this kinematic mapping is to retarget predefined corresponding parts of the human and the robot kinematic structure. When such a correspondence is not available, manual scaling of the movement amplitude and the positioning of the demonstration in relation to the reference frame of the robot may be required. This letter's contribution is a method that eliminates both the need of human-robot structural associations-and therefore is less sensitive to the type of robot kinematics-and searches for the optimal location and adaptation of the human demonstration, such that the robot can accurately execute the optimized solution. The method defines a cost that quantifies the quality of the kinematic mapping and decreases it in conjunction with task-specific costs such as via-points and obstacles. We demonstrate the method experimentally where a real golf swing recorded via marker tracking is generalized to different speeds on the embodiment of a 7 degree-of-freedom (DoF) arm. In simulation, we compare solutions of robots with different kinematic structures.

A motion control for a spherical robot with pendulum drive

Abstract: Problems of controlling a spherical robot with pendulum drive are considered. A mathematical model of the dynamics of this robot is constructed and control laws in the form of state feedback that provide robot motion along a given trajectory are synthesized. Results of computer simulation that demonstrate efficiency of the proposed control laws are presented.

Design and development of two generations of semi-autonomous social telepresence robots

Abstract: Our research focuses on how a telepresence robot operator, the people with the robot, and the robot itself collaborate so that the operator reaches his/her intended destination. Our research requires higher levels of autonomous navigation so that the robot can, for example, go to a specified destination and follow a person. However, commercial telepresence robots are primarily teleoperated, and only a few provide assisted navigation around obstacles. We present the evolution of our overall design for augmenting two VGo Communications' VGo robots, Hugo and Margo. We detail the requirements and design constraints encountered while developing our telepresence robot platforms.

A passively safe and gravity-counterbalanced anthropomorphic robot arm

Abstract: When designing a robot for human-safety during direct physical interaction, one approach is to size the robot’s actuators to be physically incapable of exerting damaging impulses, even during a controller failure. Merely lifting the arms against their own weight may consume the entire available torque budget, preventing the rapid and expressive movement required for anthropomorphic robots. To mitigate this problem, gravity-counterbalancing of the arms is a common tactic; however, most designs adopt a shoulder singularity configuration which, while favorable for simple counterbalance design, has a range of motion better suited for industrial robot arms. In this paper we present a shoulder design using a novel differential mechanism to counterbalance the arm while preserving an anthropomorphically favorable singularity configuration and natural range-of-motion. Furthermore, because the motors driving the shoulder are completely grounded, counterbalance masses or springs are easily placed away from the shoulder and low in the torso, improving mass distribution and balance. A robot arm using this design is constructed and evaluated for counterbalance efficacy and backdrivability under closed-loop force control.