Whole Body Impedance Control Of Wheeled Humanoid Robots

Introducing mobile humanoid robots into human environments requires the systems to physically interact and execute multiple concurrent tasks. The monograph at hand presents a whole-body torque controller for dexterous and safe robotic manipulation. This control approach enables a mobile humanoid robot to simultaneously meet several control objectives with different pre-defined levels of priority, while providing the skills for compliant physical contacts with humans and the environment. After a general introduction into the topic of whole-body control, several essential reactive tasks are developed to extend the repertoire of robotic control objectives. Additionally, the classical Cartesian impedance is extended to the case of mobile robots. All of these tasks are then combined and integrated into an overall, priority-based control law. Besides the experimental validation of the approach, the formal proof of asymptotic stability for this hierarchical controller is presented. By interconnecting the whole-body controller with an artificial intelligence, the immense potential of the integrated approach for complex real-world applications is shown. Several typical household chores, such as autonomously wiping a window or sweeping the floor with a broom, are successfully performed on the mobile humanoid robot Rollin’ Justin of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The results suggest the presented controller for a large variety of fields of application such as service robotics, human-robot cooperation in industry, telepresence in medical applications, space robotics scenarios, and the operation of mobile robots in dangerous and hazardous environments.

This book aims at providing algorithms for balance control of legged, torque-controlled humanoid robots. A humanoid robot normally uses the feet for locomotion. This paradigm is extended by addressing the challenge of multi-contact balancing, which allows a humanoid robot to exploit an arbitrary number of contacts for support. Using multiple contacts increases the size of the support polygon, which in turn leads to an increased robustness of the stance and to an increased kinematic workspace of the robot. Both are important features for facilitating a transition of humanoid robots from research laboratories to real-world applications, where they are confronted with multiple challenging scenarios, such as climbing stairs and ladders, traversing debris, handling heavy loads, or working in confined spaces. The distribution of forces and torques among the multiple contacts is a challenging aspect of the problem, which arises from the closed kinematic chain given by the robot and its environment.

This book is for researchers, engineers, and students who are willing to understand how humanoid robots move and be controlled. The book starts with an overview of the humanoid robotics research history and state of the art. Then it explains the required mathematics and physics such as kinematics of multi-body system, Zero-Moment Point (ZMP) and its relationship with body motion. Biped walking control is discussed in depth, since it is one of the main interests of humanoid robotics. Various topics of the whole body motion generation are also discussed. Finally multi-body dynamics is presented to simulate the complete dynamic behavior of a humanoid robot. Throughout the book, Matlab codes are shown to test the algorithms and to help the reader ́s understanding.

In order to achieve human-like performance, this book covers the four steps of reasoning a robot must provide in the concept of intelligent physical compliance: to represent, plan, execute, and interpret compliant manipulation tasks. A classification of manipulation tasks is conducted to identify the central research questions of the addressed topic. It is investigated how symbolic task descriptions can be translated into meaningful robot commands.Among others, the developed concept is applied in an actual space robotics mission, in which an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) commands the humanoid robot Rollin' Justin to maintain a Martian solar panel farm in a mock-up environment

This book offers a comprehensive reference guide for modeling humanoid robots using intelligent and fuzzy systems. It provides readers with the necessary intelligent and fuzzy tools for controlling humanoid robots by incomplete, vague, and imprecise information or insufficient data, where classical modeling approaches cannot be applied. The respective chapters, written by prominent researchers, explain a wealth of both basic and advanced concepts including fuzzy control, metaheuristic-based control, neutrosophic control, etc. To foster reader comprehension, all chapters include relevant numerical examples or case studies. Taken together, they form an excellent reference guide for researchers, lecturers, and postgraduate students pursuing research on humanoid robots. Moreover, by extending all the main aspects of humanoid robots to its intelligent and fuzzy counterparts, the book presents a dynamic snapshot of the field that is expected to stimulate new directions, ideas, and developments.

What Is Autonomous Robotics An autonomous robot is a robot that conducts behaviors or performs tasks autonomously (without external influence). Autonomous robotics is commonly regarded as a branch of artificial intelligence, robotics, and information engineering. How You Will Benefit - Answering the public top questions about autonomous robotics. - Real world examples for the usage of robots in many industries and corporations. - 17 appendices to explain, briefly, 266 emerging technology in each industry to have 360-degree full understanding of robotics' technologies. - Insights, and validations about the following topics: Chapter 1: Autonomous Robot Chapter 2: Behavior-Based Robotics Chapter 3: Robot Learning Chapter 4: Cloud Robotics Chapter 5: Ubiquitous Robot Chapter 6: Swarm Robotics Chapter 7: Fog robotics Chapter 8: Robotic Sensing Chapter 9: Robotic sensors Chapter 10: Robot navigation Chapter 11: Simultaneous localization and mapping Chapter 12: Teleoperation Chapter 13: Telerobotics Chapter 14: Bio-inspired robotics Chapter 15: Biorobotics Chapter 16: Cognitive robotics Chapter 17: Developmental robotics Chapter 18: Domestic robot Chapter 19: Evolutionary robotics Chapter 20: Humanoid robot Chapter 21: Microbotics Chapter 22: Robotics Chapter 23: Industrial robot Chapter 24: PatrolBot Chapter 25: Amazon Scout Chapter 26: RoboBee Chapter 27: Robomow Chapter 28: Wake-up robot problem Chapter 29: Kidnapped robot problem Chapter 30: Three Laws of Robotics Who This Book Is For Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of robot.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Social Robotics, ICSR 2016, held in Kansas City, MO, USA, in November 2016. The 98 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 107 submissions. The theme of the 2016 conference is Sociorobotics: Design and implementation of social behaviors of robots interacting with each other and humans. In addition to technical sessions, ICSR 2016 included three workshops: The Synthetic Method in Social Robotics (SMSR 2016), Social Robots: A Tool to Advance Interventions for Autism, and Using Social Robots to Improve the Quality of Life in the Elderly.

This book provides exclusive insight into the development of a new generation of robotic underwater technologies. Deploying and using even the most simple and robust mechanical tools is presenting a challenge, and is often associated with an enormous amount of preparation, continuous monitoring, and maintenance. Therefore, all disciplinary aspects (e.g. system design, communication, machine learning, mapping and coordination, adaptive mission planning) are examined in detail and together this gives an extensive overview on research areas influencing next generation underwater robots. These robotic underwater systems will operate autonomously with the help of the most modern artificial intelligence procedures and perform environmental monitoring as well as inspection and maintenance of underwater structures. The systems are designed as modular and reconfigurable systems for long term autonomy to remain at the site for longer periods of time. New communication methods using AI enable missions of hybrid teams of humans and heterogeneous robots. Thus this volume will be an important reference for scientists on every qualification level in ​the field of underwater technologies, industrial maritime applications, and maritime science.