Search

This paper presents a novel Differential Modular Robot Joint (DMRJ), which has high payload capability and low weight. The ratio between the output torque and the reducer's weight is 178.3 Nm/kg, which is the highest value we have known. The DMRJ is designed modularly for high payload tasks and can be attached to robots as arms or legs. Two high power DC brush motors are applied to drive the differential mechanism, which can rotate in two degrees of freedom (DOF) and has a minimal size. A control algorithm for the DMRJ has been devised in accordance with the kinematic and mechanical analysis. A prototype of the DMRJ has been manufactured, and the effectiveness of the control algorithm has been verified by several experiments. Thanks to its excellent performance, the DMRJ can be widely utilized in many robotic applications.

In this paper ceiling affixed ARToolKitPlus 2D code artificial landmarks are evaluated for purposes of robot localization and navigation. Ceiling affixed codes rarely come in contact with people, equipment or robots, and for this reason they are more likely to stay detectable over a longer period of time. Multi threshold averaging, light gradient compensation and neighbourhood search techniques further enhanced AR-ToolKitPlus performance. Multi threshold averaging collects positioning results at each gray scale threshold level. After all of the threshold levels are analyzed, the related results are averaged into a final result. Light gradient compensation eliminates effects of uneven lighting in the neighbourhood of a 2D code. Neighbourhood search for a 2D code requires fewer computational resources than a global search. Further repeatability improvements are achieved by means of averaging localizations. Localization performance is evaluated at varying distances of the 2D code from the camera. Experimental results show substantial improvements in repeatability and reliability over the baseline ARToolKitPlus performance. Improved performance will allow for realtime 2D code based localization for indoor robot navigation.

This paper presented a novel power transmission lines inspecting robot named “Linebot”, which has high maneuverability and keeps in compact size and lightweight. Linebot has 11 degrees of freedom totally. It equips with two open-close wheels and a pair of grippers, which can be driven separately. As a result, there are three main types of motions to overcome the obstacles on the lines more efficiently. Prototype of Linebot has been developed for further research. It is composed of two parts connected by a pitch joint. Each part contains an open-close assembly, friction adjustment mechanism, grippers, pitch control mechanism, which can be controlled separately. The desired motion can be obtained by appropriate control of the drive cells. The prototype of Linebot had been developed and some experiments had been done to validate the robot's motions.

In this paper, a novel precise pick and place device (PPD) is proposed for robotic manipulators. It is capable of accurately picking the work pieces and placing them when they are deviated from their initial taught picking positions. In addition, a new muti-line identification algorithm is also developed, which is very effective, especially when the obtained data is limited but needs precise identification. Moreover, the design and implementation of PPD are developed, including hardware design, control algorithm, muti-line fitting approach, offsets calculation and compensation of inverse kinematics, etc. The advantages of PPD are low cost, effective algorithm with high accuracy, when compare with vision or other traditional approaches. Numerous pick and place experiments have been conducted and the results are satisfied.

This paper proposed a biologically inpired handrail climbing robot "MonkeyBot" that could provide inspection and maintenance for the space station. Space debris is the biggest hazards for space station from the outer space. When a threat from orbital derbis is idenfitied a bit late, the station will be potentially damaged by the debris. MonkeyBot is designed to meet this challenge, especially for some key components or areas on the space station. MonkeyBot is a redundancy robot with four limbs, which not only has multi climbing strategies and gaits to achieve a full coverage of the space module, but also it has dexterous capability for on-orbit servicing with each limb. This paper will focus on the geometry design, mathematical modeling, workspace and dexterity analysis and climbing strategies and climbing gaits evaluation. The analysis result shows that the maneuverability surpasses the state of art space station exterior robot.