Electrical and Electronics Commons^™

Development Of An Embedded Iot Board For Real-Time Floor Estimation Of Autonomous Robots, Carter J. Sorensen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As service robots become more prevalent in multi-story environments such as hospitals, hotels, and laboratories, accurate floor-level detection is critical to ensuring operational reliability. Consider a robot tasked with delivering medical samples in a multi-story laboratory. Without accurate feedback, a robot exiting on the wrong floor could introduce delays, disrupt workflows, or compromise sample integrity. Internet of Things (IoT) technologies offer a way to address these risks by providing real-time error detection and corrective capability. However, current IoT-based floor estimation systems often require invasive modifications to building infrastructure—particularly elevator control panels. These approaches introduce challenges related to cost, liability, backward …

Autonomous Landscape Exploration Rover Using Imaging Surface Navigation (Alexis), Noah Jones, Dominic Salupo

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The objective is to develop a small-form-factor rover prototype that can be used to prove out a novel traversal method for use on extraterrestrial surfaces. The novel traversal method being proposed is LIDAR/CV-enhanced navigation, provided by a detachable flight vehicle that can communicate with the rover. On planets with thin atmospheres, cold gas thrusters or similar may be needed, but for the scope of this project more traditional flight/propulsion methods will be used.

Cal Poly Gen 2 Battlebot Electrical System, Kelvin C. Villago

Electrical Engineering

BattleBots is a popular robot combat sport where engineers from all over the world design and construct a robot with the aim to disable or impair the opposing robot. The Cal Poly Gen 2 BattleBot aims to complete a robot from scratch with hopes to compete in the official competition. This report focuses on the electronic design behind the robot, specifically the printed circuit board (PCB) and component selection. The design process of this project involved choosing specific motors and microcontrollers based on cost, efficiency, and benefits with the end goal of a complete printed circuit board (PCB). Brushed motors …

Dueling Robot, Abigail Coy

All Undergraduate Projects

This project was undertaken as a personal challenge to combine a Mechanical Engineering Technology degree and an Electrical Engineering Technology degree into a single final project showing the cumulative knowledge gained. It was determined that a robot to participate in Western Allied Robotics would be designed and manufactured for the 3 lb. weight class.

A two-part power system was designed to provide more power to the weapon arm. This design combined a compressive spring’s kinetic energy with the torque from the electric motor. Research determined all of the purchased components required and analysis were performed to determine the geometry and …

Designing The Power System Of A Robot, Nolan Hays

Honors College Theses

This thesis outlines the acquired skills and knowledge acquired through the course of four years of Murray State University’s School of Engineering. The capstone for students in the department was to team up and complete an interdisciplinary senior design project using skills from various tracks of engineering. For this thesis, there is a greater emphasis on the electrical engineering track. The objective of the project was to build an autonomous robot to complete the various tasks within the scope of the IEEE SoutheastCon 2023 Hardware Competition. The robot was controlled via a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B. There were three …

Implementation Of Static Rfid Landmarks In Slam For Planogram Compliance, Brennan L. Drake

Honors College Theses

Autonomous robotic systems are becoming increasingly prevalent in everyday life and exhibit robust solutions in a wide range of applications. They face many obstacles with the foremost of which being SLAM, or Simultaneous Localization and Mapping, that encompasses both creation of the map of an unknown environment and localization of the robot in said environment. In this experiment, researchers propose the use of RFID tags in a semi-dynamic commercial environment to provide concrete landmarks for localization and mapping in pursuit of increased locational certainty. With this obtained, the ultimate goal of the research is to construct a robotics platform for …

Additive Manufacturing Using Robotic Manipulators, Fdm, And Aerosol Jet Printers., Alexander Curry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Additive manufacturing has created countless new opportunities for fabrication of devices in the past few years. Advances in additive manufacturing continue to change the way that many devices are fabricated by simplifying processes and often lowering cost. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is the most common form of 3D printing. It is a well-developed process that can print various plastic materials into three-dimensional structures. This technology is used in a lot of industries for rapid prototyping and sometimes small batch manufacturing. It is very inexpensive, and a prototype can be created in a few hours, rather than days. This is useful …

Collaborative Human-Machine Interfaces For Mobile Manipulators., Shamsudeen Olawale Abubakar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The use of mobile manipulators in service industries as both agents in physical Human Robot Interaction (pHRI) and for social interactions has been on the increase in recent times due to necessities like compensating for workforce shortages and enabling safer and more efficient operations amongst other reasons. Collaborative robots, or co-bots, are robots that are developed for use with human interaction through direct contact or close proximity in a shared space with the human users. The work presented in this dissertation focuses on the design, implementation and analysis of components for the next-generation collaborative human machine interfaces (CHMI) needed for …

Design, Manufacture, And Test Of A Hybrid Aerial-Ground Robotic Platform, William Garrett Willmon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A hybrid aerial-ground robotic platform allows for enhanced functionality combining most of the operational profiles of an aerial and ground vehicle with applications to intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), infrastructure inspection, emergency response, photography, etc. Motivated by this challenge, we designed, developed, and tested a prototype hybrid aerial-ground robotic vehicle capable of guidance, navigation, and control in the air and on the ground. The thesis focus is on the system design. As such, at first, we designed and analyzed the mechanical component to ensure durability. We then designed the electrical component to reduce overall weight and maximize battery life. We developed …

Engineering Design I, Hao Su

Open Educational Resources

Introduction to robotics

A Low-Cost Experimental Testbed For Multi-Agent System Coordination Control, Victor Fernandez-Kim

LSU Master's Theses

A multi-agent system can be defined as a coordinated network of mobile, physical agents that execute complex tasks beyond their individual capabilities. Observations of biological multi-agent systems in nature reveal that these ``super-organisms” accomplish large scale tasks by leveraging the inherent advantages of a coordinated group. With this in mind, such systems have the potential to positively impact a wide variety of engineering applications (e.g. surveillance, self-driving cars, and mobile sensor networks). The current state of research in the area of multi-agent systems is quickly evolving from the theoretical development of coordination control algorithms and their computer simulations to experimental …

Designing A Robotic Platform For Investigating Swarm Robotics, Jonathan Gray

Senior Honors Theses

This paper documents the design and subsequent construction of a low-cost, flexible robotic platform for swarm robotics research, and the selection of appropriate swarm algorithms for the implementation of a swarm focused predominantly on target location. The design described herein is intended to allow for the construction of robots large enough to meaningfully interact with their environment while maintaining a low per-robot cost of materials and a low assembly time. The design process is separated into three stages: mechanical design, electrical design, and software design. All major design components are described in detail under the appropriate design section. The BOM …

Search Methods For Mobile Manipulator Performance Measurement, Samuel Nana Yaw Amoako-Frimpong

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Mobile manipulators are a potential solution to the increasing need for additional flexibility and mobility in industrial robotics applications. However, they tend to lack the accuracy and precision achieved by fixed manipulators, especially in scenarios where both the manipulator and the autonomous vehicle move simultaneously. This thesis analyzes the problem of dynamically evaluating the positioning error of mobile manipulators. In particular, it investigates the use of Bayesian methods to predict the position of the end-effector in the presence of uncertainty propagated from the mobile platform. Simulations and real-world experiments are carried out to test the proposed method against a deterministic …

Roborodentia Robot: Treadbot, Stephen C. Schmidt

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This document is a summary of my contest entry to the 2018 Cal Poly Roborodentia competition. It is meant to be a process overview and design outline of the mechanical, electrical, and software components of my robot.

Caddy: A 2005 Roborodentia Entry With Vision And Path Planning Abilities, Taylor Braun-Jones

Computer Engineering

Roborodentia is an autonomous robotics competition held each year during Cal Poly’s Open House. For the 2005 competition, robot entries needed to navigate a maze searching for three randomly placed golf balls, collect them, and then deposit the balls in the “nest” at the end of the maze. A newly added aspect for the 2005 competition included two bonus balls that were placed on a platform behind the wall in two predetermined corners of the maze.

Caddy is a robot that was entered into the 2005 Roborodentia competition. Caddy included a vision system that allowed searching for balls down untraveled …

Nonlinear Estimation And Control For Assistive Robots, Zhao Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we document the progress in the estimation and control design of a smart assistive robot arm that can provide assistance during activities of daily living to the elderly and/or users with disabilities. Interaction with the environment is made challenging by the kinematic uncertainty in the robot, imperfect sensor calibration, limited view of angle as well as the fact that most activities of daily living are generally required to be performed in unstructured environments. For monocular visual systems, range (or depth) information is always crucial for target modeling and system control design. In the first part of my …

Cooperative Remote Sensing And Actuation Using Networked Unmanned Vehicles, Haiyang Chao

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation focuses on how to design and employ networked unmanned vehicles for remote sensing and distributed control purposes in the current information-rich world. The target scenarios are environmental or agricultural applications such as river/reservoir surveillance, wind profiling measurement, and monitoring/control of chemical leaks, etc. AggieAir, a small and low-cost unmanned aircraft system, is designed based on the remote sensing requirements from environmental monitoring missions. The state estimation problem and the advanced lateral flight controller design problem are further attacked focusing on the small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platform. Then the UAV-based remote sensing problem is focused with further flight …

A Virtual Reality Visualization Ofan Analytical Solution Tomobile Robot Trajectory Generationin The Presence Of Moving Obstacles, Ricardo Elias

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Virtual visualization of mobile robot analytical trajectories while avoiding moving obstacles is presented in this thesis as a very helpful technique to properly display and communicate simulation results. Analytical solutions to the path planning problem of mobile robots in the presence of obstacles and a dynamically changing environment have been presented in the current robotics and controls literature. These techniques have been demonstrated using two-dimensional graphical representation of simulation results. In this thesis, the analytical solution published by Dr. Zhihua Qu in December 2004 is used and simulated using a virtual visualization tool called VRML.

Autonomous Robotic Automation Systemwith Vision Feedback, Jeffery Rosino

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, a full design, development and application of an autonomous robotic automation system using vision feedback is performed. To realize this system, a cylindrical manipulator configuration is implemented, using a personal computer (PC) based PID controller from National Instruments. Full autonomous control will be achieved via a programmable human machine interface (HMI) developed on a PC using Borland C++ Builder. The vision feedback position control is accomplished using an ordinary "off-the-shelf" web camera. The manuscript is organized as follows; After Chapter 1, an introduction to automation history and its role in the manufacturing industry, Chapter 2 discusses and …

Survey And Implementation Of Commercial Manual Controllers For A Generic Telerobotics Architecture, Thomas E. Deeter

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine an input device for the Air Force's generic telerobotics architecture for large aircraft maintenance and repair. One area of concern is the human to machine interface, more specifically, which manual controller should be used for the specified tasks in this architecture. We mailed a survey to 68 companies in order to compile a list of possible input devices that the telerobotics architecture could use. 32 companies responded which gave me enough data to generate a list that described the physical traits of the input devices. We then divided the required tasks into …

Silicon Based Microactuators For Telerobotic Tactile Stimulation, Britton C. Read Iii

Theses and Dissertations

Silicon based microelectromechanical (MEM) devices using both surface and bulk micromachining have been realized to provide tactile stimulation. The bulk MEM devices utilize the bimorph principle and are fabricated in a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process through MOS implementation system (MOSIS). The surface MEM devices utilize the electrostatic principle and are fabricated in a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process through MOS implementation system (MOSIS). The surface MEM devices utilize the electrostatic principle and are fabricated in the multi-user MEM process (MUMPS) through MCNC. Eleven major designs are presented and tested to determine if they are suitable to provide …

Brightness Invariant Port Recognition For Robotic Aircraft Refueling, Richard A. Bennett

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis effort was to develop and test a brightness invariant recognition algorithm that would locate and identify the half-scale mock up of a Universal Aerial Refueling Receptacle Slipway Installation (UARRSI) aerial refueling port in different lightening conditions. This was accomplished by developing a brightness invariant port recognition of identifiable attributes of the refueling port to locate and identify the UARRSI port. Based on this approach, a brightness invariant port recognition system (BIPRS) was demonstrated which identified the refueling receptacle in different lightening conditions. The BIPRS was also invariant to orientation and size of the UARRSI port. …

Robotic Arms With Flexible Links As The Links Approach Rigidity, George A. Downes

Theses

The dynamics of single link flexible robotic arms are modeled using the Bernoulli-Euler beam equation and Lagrange's equation. The Bernoulli-Euler beam equation derivation is reviewed and is studied in the limiting case as the flexiblity approaches zero. Using the Bernoulli-Euler beam equation, a procedure is developed to calculate the position of the endpoint of a link given the displacement, slope or curvature of any point on the link. Also a procedure is developed to calculate the minimum Young's modulus of elasticity, E, given a specified endpoint displacement tolerance.

A rigid link model based on Lagrange's equation and a flexible link …

A Cmos Robotic Lan Interface Integrated Circuit Design, Yong-Bin Kim

Theses

This thesis describes the design including specification, schematics,logic and circuit simulation, and standard cell layout for a CMOS mixed-mode I.C. for interfacing sensors into a robotics local area network. The network accepts up to 256 interface chips as nodes in each area. A simple network protocol permits acquisition of digital data from the interface nodes through gateways into ARCNET and MAP.

The sensor chip interfaces directly from analog signals of range 0-1V and 0-20mV. It contains an 8-bit ADC. The application I.C. interfaces to sensors for pressure, tactile stress, humidity, temperature, etc.

Each of the sensor interface node I.C.s is …

A 3-D Tactile Sensor With Digital Output, Sin-Shou Cho

Theses

This thesis details the design of a new tactile sensor for general-purpose robot manipulators. Such manipulators, designed to be functionally equivalent to the human hand, will require sensor arrays that fulfill several requirements : (1) many sensor elements to minimize tactile imaging time, (2) close spacing of small sensing elements for fine spatial discrimination, (3) ability to be molded to a convex fingertip surface for taction on concave surfaces, (4) tolerance to over-scale forces without damage. In addition to the above, which are considered requirements, several other characteristics are desirable. Foremost is the ability to sense shear forces, which provide …

Robot Manipulators And Control, Theresa Wu

Theses

This paper on Robot Manipulators brings together theories from three fields : computer graphics, kinematic equations and microprocessor based control.

There are four chapters in this paper, chapter one is the conceptual development on homogeneous transformations, express the position and orientation of the transposition of an object in Cartisian coordinates. Chapter two develops the method of obtaining the Cartisian coordinate position and orientation of the end effector for a manipulator, give the joint coordinate as input and use the homogeneous transformation to express the position and orientation. Chapter 3 is a very difficult one; it solves the parameters for the …