Module Design and Functionally Non-Isomorphic Configurations of the Hex-DMR II System

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua D. Davis ◽  
Yunuscan Sevimli ◽  
Baxter R. Eldridge ◽  
Gregory S. Chirikjian
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Robotic Systems ◽  
Modular Robots ◽  
Design Constraints ◽  
Module Design ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Novel ◽  
Operational Capabilities ◽  
Mapping Task

Modular robots have sustained the interest of the robotics community over the past several years. In particular, many modular robotic systems are reconfigurable, robust against faults, and low-cost due to mass production of a small number of homogeneous modules. Faults in these systems are normally tolerated through redundancy or corrected by discarding damaged modules which reduces the operational capabilities of the robot. To overcome these difficulties, we developed and discussed the general design constraints of a heterogeneous modular robotic system (Hex-DMR II) capable of autonomous team repair and diagnosis. In this paper, we discuss the design of each module, in detail, and present a new, novel elevator module. Then, we introduce a forest-like structure that enumerates every non-isomorphic, functional agent configuration of our system. Finally, we present a case study contrasting the kinematics and power consumption of two particular configurations during a mapping task.

Module Design and Functionally Non-Isomorphic Configurations of the Hex-DMR II System

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua D. Davis ◽  
Yunuscan Sevimli ◽  
Baxter R. Eldridge ◽  
Gregory S. Chirikjian
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Robotic Systems ◽  
Modular Robots ◽  
Design Constraints ◽  
Module Design ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Novel ◽  
Operational Capabilities ◽  
Mapping Task

Modular robots have captured the interest of the robotics community over the past several years. In particular, many modular robotic systems are reconfigurable, robust against faults, and low-cost due to mass production of a small number of different homogeneous modules. Faults in these systems are normally tolerated through redundancy or corrected by discarding damaged modules, which reduces the operational capabilities of the robot. To overcome these difficulties, we previously developed and discussed the general design constraints of a heterogeneous modular robotic system (Hex-DMR II) capable of autonomous team repair and diagnosis. In this paper, we discuss the design of each module, in detail, and present a new, novel elevator module. Then, we introduce a forestlike structure that enumerates every non-isomorphic, functional agent configuration of our system. Finally, we present a case study contrasting the kinematics and power consumption of two particular configurations during a mapping task.

Autonomous Docking of Hybrid-Wheeled Modular Robots with an Integrated Active Genderless Docking Mechanism

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Shubhdildeep S. Sohal ◽  
Bijo Sebastian ◽  
Pinhas Ben-Tzvi
Keyword(s):  
Visual Servoing ◽  
Mechanical Design ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Image Plane ◽  
Robotic Systems ◽  
Modular Robots ◽  
Tracking Accuracy ◽  
Drive Mechanism ◽  
Docking Mechanism ◽  
Autonomous Docking

Abstract This paper presents a self-reconfigurable modular robot with an integrated 2-DOF active docking mechanism. Active docking in modular robotic systems has received a lot of interest recently as it allows small versatile robotic systems to coalesce and achieve the structural benefits of large systems. This feature enables reconfigurable modular robotic systems to bridge the gap between small agile systems and larger robotic systems. The proposed self-reconfigurable mobile robot design exhibits dual mobility using a tracked drive mechanism for longitudinal locomotion and a wheeled drive mechanism for lateral locomotion. The 2-DOF docking interface allows for efficient docking while tolerating misalignments. To aid autonomous docking, visual marker-based tracking is used to detect and re-position the source robot relative to the target robot. The tracked features are then used in Image-Based Visual Servoing to bring the robots close enough for the docking procedure. The hybrid-tracking algorithm allows eliminating external pixelated noise in the image plane resulting in higher tracking accuracy along with faster frame update on a low-cost onboard computational device. This paper presents the overall mechanical design and the integration details of the modular robotic module with the docking mechanism. An overview of the autonomous tracking and docking algorithm is presented along-with a proof-of-concept real world demonstration of the autonomous docking and self-reconfigurability. Experimental results to validate the robustness of the proposed tracking method, as well as the reliability of the autonomous docking procedure, are also presented.

scholarly journals Smart and Modular

2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (09) ◽  
pp. 48-51
Author(s):  
Harry H. Cheng ◽  
Graham Ryland ◽  
David Ko ◽  
Kevin Gucwa ◽  
Stephen Nestinger
Keyword(s):  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Robotic System ◽  
Search And Rescue ◽  
Degree Of Freedom ◽  
Robotic Systems ◽  
Modular Robots ◽  
Modular Robot ◽  
Modular Systems ◽  
The Past ◽  
Three Degrees Of Freedom

This article discusses the advantages of a modular robot that can reassemble itself for different tasks. Modular robots are composed of multiple, linked modules. Although individual modules can move on their own, the greatest advantage of modular systems is their structural reconfigurability. Modules can be combined and assembled to form configurations for specific tasks and then reassembled to suit other tasks. Modular robotic systems are also very well suited for dynamic and unpredictable application areas such as search and rescue operations. Modular robots can be reconfigured to suit various situations. Quite a number of modular robotic system prototypes have been developed and studied in the past, each containing unique geometries and capabilities. In some systems, a module only has one degree of freedom. In order to exhibit practical functionality, multiple interconnected modules are required. Other modular robotic systems use more complicated modules with two or three degrees of freedom. However, in most of these systems, a single module is incapable of certain fundamental locomotive behaviors, such as turning.

scholarly journals Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robotic Systems: A Survey on Hardware Architectures

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Sankhar Reddy Chennareddy ◽  
Anita Agrawal ◽  
Anupama Karuppiah
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Consumer Products ◽  
Robotic Systems ◽  
Modular Robots ◽  
Self Healing ◽  
Utilization Factor ◽  
The Past ◽  
Reconfigurable Robots ◽  
Real World Applications ◽  
Hardware Architectures

Modular self-reconfigurable robots present wide and unique solutions for growing demands in the domains of space exploration, automation, consumer products, and so forth. The higher utilization factor and self-healing capabilities are most demanded traits in robotics for real world applications and modular robotics offer better solutions in these perspectives in relation to traditional robotics. The researchers in robotics domain identified various applications and prototyped numerous robotic models while addressing constraints such as homogeneity, reconfigurability, form factor, and power consumption. The diversified nature of various modular robotic solutions proposed for real world applications and utilization of different sensor and actuator interfacing techniques along with physical model optimizations presents implicit challenges to researchers while identifying and visualizing the merits/demerits of various approaches to a solution. This paper attempts to simplify the comparison of various hardware prototypes by providing a brief study on hardware architectures of modular robots capable of self-healing and reconfiguration along with design techniques adopted in modeling robots, interfacing technologies, and so forth over the past 25 years.

Configuration analysis of a reconfigurable Rubik's snake robot

2018 ◽  
Vol 233 (9) ◽  
pp. 3137-3154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinguo Liu ◽  
Xin Zhang ◽  
Ketao Zhang ◽  
Jian S Dai ◽  
Shujun Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Robotic Systems ◽  
Modular Robots ◽  
Digital Code ◽  
Snake Robot ◽  
Target Configuration ◽  
Working Space ◽  
Core Content ◽  
Configuration Representation ◽  
Motion Sequence

Versatility and adaptability are the most prominent advantages of reconfigurable modular robotic systems. Unlike integrated robotic systems, reconfigurable modular robots can be rearranged to adapt to unpredictable environments. This paper presents a novel reconfigurable modular robot inspired by the Rubik's snake toy. For this reconfigurable Rubik's snake robot, the special feature is that it can work as not only a mechanism but also as a reconfigurable structure. In this paper, the configuration analysis is the core content. The concept of valid configurations is proposed to describe valid, controllable, and non-interference configurations. The configuration analysis theories are introduced in accordance with the configuration representation, the isomorphism analysis, the interference analysis, and the motion sequence analysis. Here, the configuration representation is proposed to define the position and orientation of two modules by using the adjacency matrix and the binary digital code, respectively. The equivalent digital code and the configuration ring are used to distinguish the same or symmetric configurations for the open and closed isomorphism configurations, respectively. Meanwhile, a case study is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the isomorphism analysis. Furthermore, the working space interference method is introduced to detect the interference issue in the process of forming target configurations. To accomplish a target configuration properly, the motion sequence matrix is defined to describe the motion sequence for achieving a target configuration. Finally, an experiment on the configuration transformation is demonstrated to verify the rationality and correctness of the theories of configuration analysis.

scholarly journals Agile Tasking of Robotic Systems with Explicit Autonomy

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael C. Cardoso ◽  
John L. Michaloski ◽  
Craig Schlenoff ◽  
Angelo Ferrando ◽  
Louise A. Dennis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Automated Planning ◽  
Robotic Systems ◽  
Robot Programming ◽  
Command Language ◽  
The Past ◽  
Agent Programming ◽  
Desirable Feature ◽  
Standard Interface ◽  
Programming Interface

Task agility is an increasingly desirable feature for robots in application domains such as manufacturing. The Canonical Robot Command Language (CRCL) is a lightweight information model built for agile tasking of robotic systems. CRCL replaces the underlying complex proprietary robot programming interface with a standard interface. In this paper, we exchange the automated planning component that CRCL used in the past for a rational agent in the Gwendolen agent programming language, thus providing greater possibilities for formal verification and explicit autonomy. We evaluate our approach by performing agile tasking in a kitting case study.

scholarly journals Airlines Performance and Eflciency Evaluation using a MCDA Methodology. The Case for Low Cost Carriers vs Legacy Carriers

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Miranda ◽  
Maria E. Baltazar ◽  
Jorge Silva
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Performance Indicators ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Air Transportation ◽  
Air Transport ◽  
Multi Criteria Decision Making ◽  
Evaluation Technique ◽  
The Past ◽  
Low Cost Carriers

Abstract The air transport has suffered a remarkable transformation over the past decade. Thewaywe travel today is quite different from how we did ten years ago. Due to the rise of low cost carriers, the market of air transportation has been constantly changing and presently witnessing the transformation of legacy carriers in order to manage to continue operating. The main purpose of thiswork is to show the differences in efficiency for different performance areas on a case study comprised of six different airline carriers, legacy and low cost, using a Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDA) tool - Measuring Attractiveness by a Category Based Evaluation Technique (MACBETH). With the results obtained in this study, it is expected to show the work that is being carried out to obtain a model that would measure the efficiency of one or various airline companies in a defined period of time, using a set of performance indicators, to which specialists in the area previously have given weights.

scholarly journals EXTRACTION OF DEMS AND ORTHOIMAGES FROM ARCHIVE AERIAL IMAGERY TO SUPPORT PROJECT PLANNING IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

2017 ◽  
Vol IV-5/W1 ◽  
pp. 9-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Cogliati ◽  
E. Tonelli ◽  
D. Battaglia ◽  
M. Scaioni
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Aerial Survey ◽  
Project Planning ◽  
Aerial Imagery ◽  
Aerial Images ◽  
Aerial Photos ◽  
The Past ◽  
Software Packages ◽  
Close Range

Archive aerial photos represent a valuable heritage to provide information about land content and topography in the past years. Today, the availability of low-cost and open-source solutions for photogrammetric processing of close-range and drone images offers the chance to provide outputs such as DEM’s and orthoimages in easy way. This paper is aimed at demonstrating somehow and to which level of accuracy digitized archive aerial photos may be used within a such kind of low-cost software (Agisoft Photoscan Professional<sup>®</sup>) to generate photogrammetric outputs. Different steps of the photogrammetric processing workflow are presented and discussed. The main conclusion is that this procedure may come to provide some final products, which however do not feature the high accuracy and resolution that may be obtained using high-end photogrammetric software packages specifically designed for aerial survey projects. In the last part a case study is presented about the use of four-epoch archive of aerial images to analyze the area where a tunnel has to be excavated.

WestJet Airlines: hybrid but profitable

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 23-25
Author(s):  
Mark Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Airline Industry ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Strategic Positioning ◽  
Hybrid Strategy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
Low Cost Carrier ◽  
One Year

Purpose – The article looks at a Canadian airline, WestJet, that began as a low-cost carrier and is now adopting a more hybrid strategy. It analyses the difficulty of such a strategy and makes the comparison with Singapore Airlines (SIA) which has attempted to do the same. Design/methodology/approach – The article is a case study primarily of WestJet, but also of SIA. Findings – The airline industry is notorious for its low profits in the good years and appalling losses in the bad ones. The Canadian airline, WestJet, is one of the few companies that has defied this trend over the past decade. Indeed, it has reported positive net incomes for all but one year since it was created in 1996. In doing so, the Alberta-based firm is bucking not just the trend on profitability but also on strategic positioning.

From hard to soft: theory and Neolithic studies in Scotland

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 7-19
Author(s):  
Kenneth Brophy
Keyword(s):  
The Past

The Scottish Theoretical Archaeology Group (STAG) conference organisers expressed some doubts about how far theory has changed, and impacted, archaeological establishment and academia in Scotland. In this paper, I will argue that Scotland is certainly not isolated in a theoretical sense, although in the past, Scottish archaeology could be accused of being theoretically conservative, or at least dependent on ideas and models developed elsewhere. A case-study looking at Neolithic studies will be used to illustrate that despite some recent critical historiographies of the study of the period in Scotland, archaeologists in Scotland and those working with Scottish material have been theoretically innovative and in step with wider paradigm changes. The study of the Neolithic in Scotland, it could be argued, has been shaped by theory more than the study of any other period; we are not isolated, but rather part of wider networks of discourse.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document