Autonomous mobile robot for visual inspection of MEP provisions

Quality control inspection is an imperative procedure in the construction industry. During construction, to get the plaster clearance of a specified area, the quality control engineer has to validate the mechanical, electrical and, plumbing (MEP) provisions laid out in the construction site with an engineering drawing approved by the consultant. The proposed system illustrates the implementation of an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) for inspecting MEP provisions amidst the construction phase. Power distribution, heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC), telecommunications, water supply, and drainage are few examples of MEP engineering subsystems. In this paper, the main focus is on the inspection of plumbing services. These include provisions for washbasin and faucet in washrooms and sink in the kitchen area. The feedback program generated gives the evaluation result on the count of plumbing provisions inspected.

On the Global Behavior of a Geometric PDAV Controller by Means of a Geometrically Exact Linearization

A complex motion encountered in a number of robotic, industrial and defense applications is the motion of a rigid body when one of its body-fixed axes tracks a desired Pointing Direction while it rotates at high Angular Velocity around the pointing direction (PDAV); during this motion high frequency precession/nutation oscillations arise. This work analyzes the global/local closed-loop behavior induced by a developed geometric, PDAV controller and studies the high frequency precession/nutation oscillations that characterize PDAV motions. This is done via geometrically-exact linearization and via simulation techniques that amount to charting the smooth closed-loop vector fields on the manifold. A method to quickly estimate the frequency of the precession/nutation oscillations is developed and can be used for sizing actuators. A thorough understanding of the behavior of the closed-loop flow induced by the PDAV controller is achieved, allowing the control engineer to anticipate/have a rough estimate of the system closed-loop response.

Realities of Formalization

In the postwar USSR, there were a few scattered research groups engaged in research most closely resembling “Western” mainstream economics. Inspired by the new sciences of the artificial, these groups were able to make important contributions to various fields of economic theory. This article focuses on the story of one group created by the control engineer Mark Aizerman at the Institute of Control Sciences in Moscow. It discusses the origins and the outstanding diversity and dynamics of the group’s research agenda, reconstructs the factors that made Aizerman turn from the cybernetics of mechanical or biological systems to the abstract theory of choice and rationality, and demonstrates how the group was related to—and communicated with—the scholars doing work in social choice, mechanism design, and formal political theory. It also speculates on one missed research opportunity of doing experimental economics—something that, given the ideological and intellectual constraints Aizerman was facing, was hardly possible in the Soviet context, but could have been a synthesis of economics and engineering. The article also discusses a research culture Aizerman created and nurtured in his lab by encouraging research collaboration, sharing ideas, and freely moving across various disciplines.

Configuration Optimization for End-Point Stabilization of Redundant Manipulators With Base Flexibility

This paper presents a method to determine an optimal configuration of a teleoperated excavator to minimize the induced undercarriage oscillation for robust end-point stabilization. Treating the excavator as a kinematically redundant system, where non-unique combinations of the undercarriage position and arm posture can locate the end-point at the same reference. A specific configuration can be chosen to not excite undercarriage oscillation with simple end-point error feedback control without model-based or measurement-based vibration suppression. Robust stability measures based on normalized coprime factorization as well as modal decomposition solve the redundancy of the kinematics. An advantage of this approach is that the control engineer can proceed as if the excavator arm is fixed to rigid ground, which is practically not the case, and apply simple traditional Jacobian-based end-point control.

IDENTIFIKASI FAKTOR INTERNAL YANG MENYEBABKAN PEMBENGKAKAN BIAYA PERALATAN PADA PROYEK KONSTRUKSI GEDUNG BERTINGKAT

Salah satu permasalahan yang timbul pada pelaksanaan konstruksi gedung bertingkat adalah terjadinya pembengkakan biaya. Biaya peralatan merupakan komponen biaya yang sering luput dari pengendalian, sehingga ada kecenderungan meningkat akibat lemahnya pengendalian. Usaha awal yang dapat dilakukan untuk meminimalisasi terjadinya pembengkakan biaya peralatan adalah dengan mengidentifikasi faktor-faktor internal penyebab terjadinya pembengkakan biaya peralatan. Faktor internal pembengkakan biaya peralatan dibagi kedalam 6 kelompok faktor, yaitu kelompok perencanaan dan pengendalian, kelompok pengorganisasian, kelompok pengadaan, kelompok operasional, kelompok pemeliharaan, dan kelompok pengawasan dan pengendalian. Studi ini dilakukan dengan menyebarkan kuesioner kepada para praktisi lapangan proyek konstruksi gedung bertingkat, seperti project manager, site manager, quantity of surveyor, quality of control, engineer, dll. Sebanyak 70 kuesioner yang telah disebarkan, jumlah kuesioner yang terkumpul kembali sebanyak 51 kuesioner. Analisis data menggunakan metode statistik deskriptif, hasil yang didapat bahwa faktor pengorganisasian merupakan sumber utama pada pembengkakan biaya peralatan pada proyek konstruksi gedung bertingkat.

A Review of Challenges in Integrating Robot and Motion Control Into a Single System

Automation industries are trying to integrate and consolidate the operation of various processes that make up their production line. Most often, every one of those processes is controlled by unique controllers and hardware as the process demands. Each of these independently controlled units can be seen as “islands of automation”. It is indeed a challenge for the control engineer to ensure smooth communication between these islands. The challenge gets magnified many fold when the plant performs troubleshooting, maintenance, or an upgrade. Compatibility over time, between components that make up the line can never be guaranteed in today’s world dominated by software drivers where improvements and upgrades are frequent. It is generally agreed in the industry that controllers and software consolidation should be done as much as possible. In this paper, the authors would like to discuss the case of integration of two such islands of automation, i.e. motion control (traditional single axis control of servos) and robotics. Automation integrators working on applications such as packaging, converting, palletizing etc. use a combination of robots and independently acting servos to achieve their objective. Programming software and programming methods for these two elements have been quite different. There has been a push in the automation industry to consolidate the control programming of motion components and robots because the underlying control techniques that actuate motion are the same. However, there are challenges that must be overcome in order to ensure that this push brings about useful and substantial changes that reduce control programming, maintaining and troubleshooting efforts. Such challenges are listed in this paper. Potential solutions to overcome these challenges are also laid out in this work.