Robotics Commons^™

The Development And Testing Of A Gyroscope-Based Neck Strengthening Rehabilitation Device, Nicole D. Devos

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Neck pain can be debilitating, and is experienced by the majority of people at some point over the course of their life. Resistance training has been shown to have significant improvement in pain or disability for patients. There are few options available for telerehabilitation, and the use of gyroscope stabilizers is proposed for this use. A biomechanics model of a head--neck--gyroscope system was created. In order to also model the dynamics of such a system, this work proposes a blended method using the Denavit--Hartenberg (DH) convention, popular in the field of robotics, with the Lagrangian mechanics approach to analyze an …

Space Force Design Project, Emily Greene, Ashton Orosa, Julia Patek, Nathan Doty

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The objective of our research project is to develop a lab testbed composed of a curved surface to represent a spacecraft hull, a mobile robot equipped with repair tools, and a robotic arm equipped with a laser 3D scanner. This project is part of a larger grant to the University of Akron from Space Force and Air Research Labs. The lab testbed developed in this project will be used to assist in creating and testing a software and algorithm to inspect and repair spacecraft while in orbit. The project will involve researching spacecraft hulls to create an accurate simulation bed, …

Multi-Robot Symbolic Task And Motion Planning Leveraging Human Trust Models: Theory And Applications, Huanfei Zheng

All Dissertations

Multi-robot systems (MRS) can accomplish more complex tasks with two or more robots and have produced a broad set of applications. The presence of a human operator in an MRS can guarantee the safety of the task performing, but the human operators can be subject to heavier stress and cognitive workload in collaboration with the MRS than the single robot. It is significant for the MRS to have the provable correct task and motion planning solution for a complex task. That can reduce the human workload during supervising the task and improve the reliability of human-MRS collaboration. This dissertation relies …

Design And Analysis Of Marangoni-Driven Robotic Surfers, Mitchel L. Timm

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

We designed and experimentally studied the dynamics of two robotic systems that surf along the water-air interface. The robots were self-propelled by means of creating and maintaining a surface tension gradient resulting from an asymmetric release of isopropyl alcohol (IPA). The imbalance in the distribution of surface tension surrounding the robots generates a propulsive force commonly referred to as Marangoni propulsion. First, we considered a single surfer, which was custom-made with novel control mechanisms that allow for both forward motion and steering to be remotely adjusted solely through the manipulation of local surface stresses. We analyzed the performance of this …

A Hyperelastic Porous Media Framework For Ionic Polymer-Metal Composites And Characterization Of Transduction Phenomena Via Dimensional Analysis And Nonlinear Regression, Zakai J. Olsen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMC) are smart materials that exhibit large deformation in response to small applied voltages, and conversely generate detectable electrical signals in response to mechanical deformations. The study of IPMC materials is a rich field of research, and an interesting intersection of material science, electrochemistry, continuum mechanics, and thermodynamics. Due to their electromechanical and mechanoelectrical transduction capabilities, IPMCs find many applications in robotics, soft robotics, artificial muscles, and biomimetics. This study aims to investigate the dominating physical phenomena that underly the actuation and sensing behavior of IPMC materials. This analysis is made possible by developing a new, hyperelastic …

Dual-Axis Solar Tracker, Bryan Kennedy

All Undergraduate Projects

Renewable energies, and fuels that are not fossil fuel-based, are one of the prolific topics of debate in modern society. With climate change now becoming a primary focus for scientists and innovators of today, one of the areas for the largest amount of potential and growth is that of the capturing and utilization of Solar Energy. This method involves using a mechanical system to track the progression of the sun as it traverses the sky throughout the day. A dual-axis solar tracker such as the one designed and built for this project, can follow the sun both azimuthally and in …

A Dynamical System Approach For Resource-Constrained Mobile Robotics, Tauhidul Alam

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The revolution of autonomous vehicles has led to the development of robots with abundant sensors, actuators with many degrees of freedom, high-performance computing capabilities, and high-speed communication devices. These robots use a large volume of information from sensors to solve diverse problems. However, this usually leads to a significant modeling burden as well as excessive cost and computational requirements. Furthermore, in some scenarios, sophisticated sensors may not work precisely, the real-time processing power of a robot may be inadequate, the communication among robots may be impeded by natural or adversarial conditions, or the actuation control in a robot may be …

A New Approach To Multiplanar, Real-Time Simulation Of Physiological Knee Loads And Synthetic Knee Components Augmented By Local Composition Control In Fused Filament Fabrication, Joshua Taylor Green

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Despite numerous advances in biomedical engineering, few developments in surgical simulation have been made outside of computational models. Cadavers remain the primary media on which surgical research and simulation is conducted. Most attempts to quantify the effects of orthopedic surgical methods fail to achieve statistical significance due to limited quantities of cadaver specimen, large variations among the cadaver population, and a lack of repeatability among measurement techniques. The general purpose of the research covered in this dissertation is to develop repeatable simulation of physiological loads and develop techniques to fabricate a synthetic-based replacement of cadaver specimens. Future work applying this …

Dynamic Simulation And Neuromuscular Control Of Movement: Applications For Predictive Simulations Of Balance Recovery, Misagh Mansouri Boroujeni

Doctoral Dissertations

Balance is among the most challenging tasks for patients with movement disorders. Study and treatment of these disorders could greatly benefit from combined software tools that offer better insights into neuromuscular biomechanics, and predictive capabilities for optimal surgical and rehabilitation treatment planning. A platform was created to combine musculoskeletal modeling, closed-loop forward dynamic simulation, optimization techniques, and neuromuscular control system design. Spinal (stretch-reflex) and supraspinal (operational space task-based) controllers were developed to test simulation-based hypotheses related to balance recovery and movement control. A corrective procedure (rectus femoris transfer surgery) was targeted for children experiencing stiff-knee gait and how this procedure …

Development Of A Novel Handheld Device For Active Compensation Of Physiological Tremor, Abhijit Saxena

Abhijit Saxena

In microsurgery, the human hand imposes certain limitations in accurately positioning the tip of a device such as scalpel. Any errors in the motion of the hand make microsurgical procedures difficult and involuntary motions such as hand tremors can make some procedures significantly difficult to perform. This is particularly true in the case of vitreoretinal microsurgery. The most familiar source of involuntary motion is physiological tremor. Real-time compensation of tremor is, therefore, necessary to assist surgeons to precisely position and manipulate the tool-tip to accurately perform a microsurgery. In this thesis, a novel handheld device (AID) is described for compensation …

Analysis Of An Actuated Two Segment Leg Model Of Locomotion, Nikhil Vinayak Rao

Open Access Theses

Research studies on dynamic models of legged locomotion have generally focused on telescoping-type leg models. Such telescoping spring loaded inverted pendulum (SLIP) models have been able to accurately predict observed center of mass (CoM) trajectories. There have been comparatively fewer studies on dynamics of locomotion

with segmented legs. Some earlier studies on the dynamics due to leg segmentation appear straightforward. For example, a simple model with the only joint moment being due to a passive springy knee has been shown to behave similarly to a telescoping spring-mass model. However, in real-life animal locomotion, there are multiple joint-moments acting at the …

Development Of A Novel Handheld Device For Active Compensation Of Physiological Tremor, Abhijit Saxena

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In microsurgery, the human hand imposes certain limitations in accurately positioning the tip of a device such as scalpel. Any errors in the motion of the hand make microsurgical procedures difficult and involuntary motions such as hand tremors can make some procedures significantly difficult to perform. This is particularly true in the case of vitreoretinal microsurgery. The most familiar source of involuntary motion is physiological tremor. Real-time compensation of tremor is, therefore, necessary to assist surgeons to precisely position and manipulate the tool-tip to accurately perform a microsurgery. In this thesis, a novel handheld device (AID) is described for compensation …

Adaptive Kriging Controller Design For Hypersonic Flight Vehicle Via Back-Stepping, Bin Xu

Bin Xu

No abstract provided.

Direct Neural Discrete Control Of Hypersonic Flight Vehicle, Bin Xu

Bin Xu

No abstract provided.

Adaptive Discrete-Time Controller Design With Neural Network For Hypersonic Flight Vehicle Via Back-Stepping, Bin Xu

Bin Xu

In this article, the adaptive neural controller in discrete time is investigated for the longitudinal dynamics of a generic hypersonic flight vehicle. The dynamics are decomposed into the altitude subsystem and the velocity subsystem. The altitude subsystem is transformed into the strict-feedback form from which the discrete-time model is derived by the first-order Taylor expansion. The virtual control is designed with nominal feedback and neural network (NN) approximation via back-stepping. Meanwhile, one adaptive NN controller is designed for the velocity subsystem. To avoid the circular construction problem in the practical control, the design of coefficients adopts the upper bound instead …

Adaptive Neural Control Based On Hgo For Hypersonic Flight Vehicles, Bin Xu

Bin Xu

This paper describes the design of adaptive neural controller for the longitudinal dynamics of a generic hypersonic flight vehicle (HFV) which are decomposed into two functional systems, namely the altitude subsystem and the velocity subsystem. For each subsystem, one adaptive neural controller is investigated based on the normal output-feedback formulation. For the altitude subsystem, the high gain observer (HGO) is taken to estimate the unknown newly defined states. Only one neural network (NN) is employed to approximate the lumped uncertain system nonlinearity during the controller design which is considerably simpler than the ones based on back-stepping scheme with the strict-feedback …

Task Allocation For Multi-Spacecraft Cooperation Based On Estimation Of Distribution Algorithm, Bin Xu

Bin Xu

One two-stage task allocation strategy is proposed for multi-spacecraft cooperation during the long-range orbit transfer with two impulses. This paper focuses on the task value maximum and cost minimum optimization by assigning spacecraft to different task. At the first stage time and energy cost are considered based on the spacecraft dynamics. The optimization result is together with the target value as the factor for the task allocation model at the second stage. The optimization is processed separately in continuous and discrete time domain with estimation of distribution algorithm (EDA). Different task allocation mode is formulated and the strategy is verified …

Composite Control Based On Optimal Torque Control And Adaptive Kriging Control For The Crab Rover, Bin Xu

Bin Xu

Terrainability is mostly dependant on the suspension mechanism and the control of a space rover. For the six wheeled CRAB rover, this paper presents the composite control design with torque control and adaptive Kriging control to improve the terrainability, somewhat related to minimizing heel slip. As CRAB is moving slowly, the torque control is processed by minimizing the variance of the required friction coefficient based on the static model. Adaptive Kriging control is used to track the commanded velocity. The system uncertainty is compensated by Kriging estimation based on the velocity dynamics. Experiment results with two different tires show the …

Adaptive Hypersonic Flight Control Via Back-Stepping And Kriging Estimation, Bin Xu

Bin Xu

This paper investigates the adaptive Kriging controller for the longitudinal dynamics of a generic hypersonic flight vehicle (HFV). For the altitude subsystem, the dynamics are transformed into the strict-feedback form where the backstepping scheme is employed. Considering the nonlinearity of the dynamics, the nominal feedback is included in the controller while Kriging system is designed to estimate the uncertainty. With the proposed controller, the almost surely bounded stability is guaranteed. The simulation study is presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.

Adaptive Pid Control Based On Rbf Network Approximating The Satellite Clock Thermal Model, Bin Xu

Bin Xu

The accuracy o f t ime information prov ided by sate llite clock g reat ly depends on its frequency stab ili􀀁 ty, w hich is up to the stability o f the co re tempera ture. Th is paper introduces an adaptive PID control for the sate llite c lock system whose mode l is approx imated based on RBF neural netw orks. Simu lation resu lts demonstrate the va lid ity o f the proposed contro.l

An Improved Robust Projection Identification Algorithm To Manned Maneuvering Units, Bin Xu

Bin Xu

空间载人机动装置(MMU )在进行救援过程中, 其动力学参数存在很大的不确定性。为解决这一辨识问题, 本文首先推导系统关于各动力学参数的线性化模型, 然后结合该线性模型的特点, 提出了一种用于估计动力学参数的改进鲁棒投影算法, 并在理论上分析了该算法的收敛性质, 数字仿真验证了方法的有效性。