Abstract

Mobile manipulators find applications in manufacturing, infrastructure inspection, and domestic services. While most mobile manipulators excel at pick and place, weaim to combine three distinct manipulation primitives: striking,Pushing, and pick-and-place. This integration enables versatile object manipulation and expands the robot’s operational range. Furthermore, we propose a new attachment that can be easily fitted with most industrial two-finger grippers, capable of making line contact while pushing or striking an object. The proposed framework includes a high-level action sequence planner, dedicated offline planners for each manipulation primitive (Strike, Push, and Pick & Place), and a whole-body controller. Preliminary results from simulations and hardware experiments demonstrate the potential for diverse applications in the field of mobile manipulation.

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel controller framework that provides trajectory tracking for an Aerial Manipulator (AM) while ensuring the safe operation of the system under unknown bounded disturbances. The AM considered here is a 2-DOF (degrees-of-freedom) manipulator rigidly attached to a UAV. Our proposed controller structure follows the conventional inner loop PID control for attitude dynamics and an outer loop controller for tracking a reference trajectory. The outer loop control is based on the Model Predictive Control (MPC) with constraints derived using the Barrier Lyapunov Function (BLF) for the safe operation of the AM. BLF-based constraints are proposed for two objectives, viz. 1) To avoid the AM from colliding with static obstacles like a rectangular wall, and 2) To maintain the end effector of the manipulator within the desired workspace. The proposed BLF ensures that the above-mentioned objectives are satisfied even in the presence of unknown bounded disturbances. The capabilities of the proposed controller are demonstrated through high-fidelity non-linear simulations with parameters derived from a real laboratory scale AM. We compare the performance of our controller with other state-of-the-art MPC controllers for AM.

Abstract

Throwing motion is known for phenomenally fast rearrangement, sorting tasks, and placing the object outside the limited workspace with less effort. However, in the robotics domain, despite many simple yet versatile, mechanically intelligent grippers reported earlier, they fo- cus primarily on achieving robust grasping and dexterous manipulation. This article presents a novel design of a sin- gle actuator driven hybrid gripper with mechanically cou- pled rigid links and elastic gripping surface; this arrange- ment provides the dual function of versatile grasping and throwing manipulation. The gripper comprises a latching mechanism (LM) that drives two passive rigid fingers by elongating/releasing the coupled elastic strip. Elongating the gripping surface enables the gripper to adapt to ob- jects with different geometries, vary surface contact force characteristics, and store the energy in the form of elastic potential. A mechanism to discharge the stored potential energy gradually or instantaneously is essential when the intended task is to place the object free from impact or away from the limited reachable workspace. The proposed LM can swiftly shift from a quick release to a gradual release of the stored elastic potential for greater object’s accelera- tion during throwing and no acceleration while placing. By doing so, the object can be placed at the desired location even farther than the manipulator’s reachable workspace. We report the proposed gripper’s design details, develop- ment, and experimentally demonstrate the versatile grasp- ing, impact-free placing, and throwing capabilities. Index Terms—Gripper design, multipurpose gripper, non- prehensile manipulation, throwing.

Abstract

Underwater gliders are common robotic platforms that usually have at least three degrees of freedom (DoF), namely surge, heave, and pitch. The heave motion generated using variable buoyancy can be vectored along surge direction using wings. These gliders are usually designed to be operated for specific applications and the mission dictates the diving requirements, usually quantified using factors such as dive-cycle, dive-in-depth, and range. Several parameters influence diving performance, of which, dimension and position of the wing play a significant role. The objective of this work is to study the effect of wing parameters such as the position of the wing (along the hull) and its dimensions, on the diving performance of the glider and thereby determine their optimal values for a given mission requirement. The wing can be accordingly designed and attached to the hull of the glider. The design and dynamics of RoBuoy, a novel underwater glider, is used for this study. Conveniently RoBuoy’s design allows modular wing positioning and dimensions, and hence the results of the study can be tested on this platform. A detailed study of the influence of the chosen wing parameters on the dynamics of the glider along with a Genetic Algorithm (GA) based approach to optimizing the parameters is presented in this paper.

Abstract

Among primates, the prehensile nature of the hand is vital for greater adaptability and a secure grip over the substrate/branches, particularly for arm-swinging motion or brachiation. Though various brachiation mechanisms that are mechanically equivalent to underactuated pendulum models are reported in the literature, not much attention has been given to the hand design that facilitates both locomotion and within-hand manipulation. In this paper, we propose a new robotic gripper design, equipped with shape conformable active gripping surfaces that can act as an active or passive joint and adapt to substrates with different shapes and sizes. A floating base serial chain, named GraspMaM, equipped with two such grippers, increases the versatility by performing a range of locomotion and manipulation modes without using dedicated systems. The unique gripper design allows the robot to estimate the passive joint state while arm-swinging and exhibits a dual relationship between manipulation and locomotion. We report the design details of the multimodal gripper and how it can be adapted for the brachiation motion assuming it as an articulated suspended pendulum model. Further, the system parameters of the physical prototype are estimated, and experimental results for the brachiation mode are discussed to validate and show the effectiveness of the proposed design.

Abstract

The paper introduces the novel Modular Pipe Climber III with a Three-Output Open Differential (3-OOD) mechanism to eliminate slipping of the tracks due to the changing cross-sections of the pipe. This will be achieved in any orientation of the robot. Previous pipe climbers use three-wheel/track modules, each with an individual driving mechanism to achieve stable traversing. Slipping of tracks is prevalent in such robots when it encounters the pipe turns. Thus, active control of each module’s speed is employed to mitigate the slip, thereby requiring substantial control effort. The proposed pipe climber implements the 3-OOD to address this issue by allowing the robot to mechanically modulate the track speeds as it encounters a turn. The proposed 3-OOD is the first three-output differential to realize the functional abilities of a traditional two-output differential.

Abstract

This paper presents the design of an in-pipe climbing robot that operates using a novel ‘Three-output open differential’(3-OOD) mechanism to traverse complex networks of pipes. Conventional wheeled/tracked in-pipe climbing robots are prone to slip and drag while traversing in pipe bends. The 3-OOD mechanism helps in achieving the novel result of eliminating slip and drag in the robot tracks during motion. The proposed differential realizes the functional abilities of the traditional two-output differential, which is achieved the first time for a differential with three outputs. The 3-OOD mechanism mechanically modulates the track speeds of the robot based on the forces exerted on each track inside the pipe network, by eliminating the need for any active control. The simulation of the robot traversing in the pipe network in different orientations and in pipe-bends without slip shows the proposed design’s effectiveness.

Abstract

This paper presents a novel passive three-output differential with three degrees of freedom (3DOF), that translates motion and torque from a single input to three outputs. The proposed ThreeOutput Open Differential is designed such that its functioning is analogous to the functioning of a traditional two-output open differential. That is, the differential translates equal motion and torque to all its three outputs when the outputs are unconstrained or are subjected to equivalent load conditions. The introduced design is the first differential with three outputs to realise this outcome. The differential action between the three outputs is realised passively by a symmetric arrangement of three two-output open differentials and three two-input open differentials. The resulting differential mechanism achieves the novel result of equivalent input to output angular velocity and torque relations for all its three outputs. Furthermore, Three-Output Open Differential achieves the novel result for differentials with more than two outputs where each of its outputs shares equivalent angular velocity and torque relations with all the other outputs. The kinematics and dynamics of the Three-Output Open Differential are derived using the bond graph method. In addition, the merits of the differential mechanism along with its current and potential applications are presented.