Design Motion Planning And Control For Energy Sustainable Robotic Systems

Various missions can be carried out by intelligent robotic systems, especially for some dangerous tasks in inaccessible regions by human operators on behalf of humans, thanks to the development of robotic technology. In contrast to common urban robots, which can be maintained frequently by operators, sustainability must be considered for robots to perform competently without human assistance at a distance with limited energy sources. Sustainability refers to achieving development and implementation without wasting economic and environmental resources. That is why, for future generations or in the long-term period, minimizing wasted resources while increasing efficiency in teamed robotics missions ensures sustainability for robotic units. The robots deployed for performing even a primary quest, such as a target-visiting mission formulated into ``Traveling Salesperson Problem,'' in a continuously changing environment require reliable energy sources or strategies, energy-efficient maneuvers, situation awareness in a mission area, and well-defined planning for deployment. This dissertation introduces several elements to achieve the goal of sustainability. First, unmanned vehicles harvest renewable energy, such as solar energy, during the mission area and use harvested energy to compensate for energy consumption, which significantly extends the mission duration. In addition, deploying fixed or mobile charging stations provides greater flexibility in mission planning by recharging the mobile robots during the missions. Second, a robot containing unconventional functions to perform a specific duty in a particular mission environment has much higher efficiency than a general robot performing the same task. While changing the structure or geometry of the part of the robot or utilizing a unique mechanism, it increases sustainability by lowering the energy consumption or executing time compared to the conventional robots. Third, when multiple robots are deployed, it can be verified that a shorter mission period can be achieved through cooperation of multiple robots. Furthermore, a team combined with robots characterized by unique features can bridge the gaps that a single robot cannot achieve in a specific mission. Fourth, task assignments considering distinct robot characteristics can improve mission efficiency. Furthermore, when the robot's mission environment is monitored during the mission planning, it enhances not only the autonomy of the robots but also mission efficiency, which collectively contributes to overall system sustainability. This dissertation enhances sustainability through improved autonomy by combining motion control, integrated path planning, task allocation, and developing new functions. This work presents four robotic systems with various types of unmanned aerial and ground systems, including (1) design and control of a solar-powered airship, (2) design and path planning of an airborne wind energy system with foldable wings, (3) integrated path planning and task allocation for a team of jumping rovers, and (4) cooperative control of a team of rovers consisting of a solar-powered rover as a charging station and a jumping rover. In order to realize improved mission efficiency and enhance the performance of mission duration, ultimately aimed at increasing the sustainability of the robots, several aspects are considered in each application. The products of this dissertation include system design, algorithm development, and experimental verification, which enhance the sustainability of the missions for different types of unmanned robots in remote areas. Each robotic system in this dissertation provides potential and extension for a wide range of unmanned robots in various missions requiring high-level autonomy. The outcome of this study includes main ideas, algorithms, and test analysis that will enhance the sustainability of the missions with multiple unmanned robots in remote areas. The dissertation has demonstrated that integrating design, motion planning, and control can efficiently extend the mission duration for various robotic systems. Furthermore, the sustainability of these robotics systems has been demonstrated via simulation or experimentation under various indoor and outdoor missions.

In a world increasingly focused on environmental responsibility, sustainable robotics is emerging as a game-changer. This book explores the critical need for energy-efficient robotic arms and delves into various strategies to achieve this goal. From lightweight materials and efficient actuators to smart power management and renewable energy integration, readers gain a comprehensive understanding of how to design, build, and operate robots with minimal environmental impact. The book goes beyond just energy efficiency, emphasizing a holistic approach to sustainability throughout a robot's entire life cycle. This includes responsible material selection, sustainable manufacturing practices, and thoughtful end-of-life strategies like recycling and refurbishment. Real-world case studies showcase how companies are already putting these principles into action, inspiring others to follow suit. Looking ahead, the book explores the exciting future of sustainable robotics. It discusses the potential for these technologies to revolutionize industries like green manufacturing, sustainable construction, and environmental monitoring. Additionally, the book highlights the role robots can play in disaster relief, space exploration, and addressing various environmental challenges. However, the book also acknowledges the ethical considerations surrounding sustainable robotics. Responsible material sourcing, addressing potential job displacement due to automation, and minimizing environmental risks associated with specific technologies are crucial aspects to consider. By fostering public trust and transparent communication, we can ensure that sustainable robotics contributes to a future that benefits both society and the environment.

The optimization of motion and trajectory planning is an effective and usually costless approach to improving the performance of robots, mechatronic systems, automatic machines and multibody systems. Indeed, wise planning increases precision and machine productivity, while reducing vibrations, motion time, actuation effort and energy consumption. On the other hand, the availability of optimized methods for motion planning allows for a cheaper and lighter system construction. The issue of motion planning is also tightly linked with the synthesis of high-performance feedback and feedforward control schemes, which can either enhance the effectiveness of motion planning or compensate for its gaps. To collect and disseminate a meaningful collection of these applications, this book proposes 15 novel research studies that cover different sub-areas, in the framework of motion planning and control.

This book addresses the broad multi-disciplinary topic of robotics, and presents the basic techniques for motion and operation planning in robotics systems. Gathering contributions from experts in diverse and wide ranging fields, it offers an overview of the most recent and cutting-edge practical applications of these methodologies. It covers both theoretical and practical approaches, and elucidates the transition from theory to implementation. An extensive analysis is provided, including humanoids, manipulators, aerial robots and ground mobile robots. ‘Motion and Operation Planning of Robotic Systems’ addresses the following topics: *The theoretical background of robotics. *Application of motion planning techniques to manipulators, such as serial and parallel manipulators. *Mobile robots planning, including robotic applications related to aerial robots, large scale robots and traditional wheeled robots. *Motion planning for humanoid robots. An invaluable reference text for graduate students and researchers in robotics, this book is also intended for researchers studying robotics control design, user interfaces, modelling, simulation, sensors, humanoid robotics.

Lyapunov-Based Control of Robotic Systems describes nonlinear control design solutions for problems that arise from robots required to interact with and manipulate their environments. Since most practical scenarios require the design of nonlinear controllers to work around uncertainty and measurement-related issues, the authors use Lyapunov’s direct method as an effective tool to design and analyze controllers for robotic systems. After describing the evolution of real-time control design systems and the associated operating environments and hardware platforms, the book presents a host of standard control design tools for robotic systems using a common Lyapunov-based framework. It then discusses several problems in visual servoing control, including the design of homography-based visual servo control methods and the classic structure from motion problem. The book also deals with the issues of path planning and control for manipulator arms and wheeled mobile robots. With a focus on the emerging research area of human machine interaction, the final chapter illustrates the design of control schemes based on passivity such that the machine is a net energy sink. Including much of the authors’ own research work in controls and robotics, this book facilitates an understanding of the application of Lyapunov-based control design techniques to up-and-coming problems in robotics.

Robot Motion Control 2011 presents very recent results in robot motion and control. Forty short papers have been chosen from those presented at the sixth International Workshop on Robot Motion and Control held in Poland in June 2011. The authors of these papers have been carefully selected and represent leading institutions in this field. The following recent developments are discussed: Design of trajectory planning schemes for holonomic and nonholonomic systems with optimization of energy, torque limitations and other factors. New control algorithms for industrial robots, nonholonomic systems and legged robots. Different applications of robotic systems in industry and everyday life, like medicine, education, entertainment and others. Multiagent systems consisting of mobile and flying robots with their applications The book is suitable for graduate students of automation and robotics, informatics and management, mechatronics, electronics and production engineering systems as well as scientists and researchers working in these fields.

The last two decades have witnessed considerable progress in the study of underactuated robotic systems (URSs). Control Design and Analysis for Underactuated Robotic Systems presents a unified treatment of control design and analysis for a class of URSs, which include systems with multiple-degree-of-freedom and/or with underactuation degree two. It presents novel notions, features, design techniques and strictly global motion analysis results for these systems. These new materials are shown to be vital in studying the control design and stability analysis of URSs. Control Design and Analysis for Underactuated Robotic Systems includes the modelling, control design and analysis presented in a systematic way particularly for the following examples: l directly and remotely driven Acrobots l Pendubot l rotational pendulum l counter-weighted Acrobot 2-link underactuated robot with flexible elbow joint l variable-length pendulum l 3-link gymnastic robot with passive first joint l n-link planar robot with passive first joint l n-link planar robot with passive single joint double, or two parallel pendulums on a cart l 3-link planar robots with underactuation degree two 2-link free flying robot The theoretical developments are validated by experimental results for the remotely driven Acrobot and the rotational pendulum. Control Design and Analysis for Underactuated Robotic Systems is intended for advanced undergraduate and graduate students and researchers in the area of control systems, mechanical and robotics systems, nonlinear systems and oscillation. This text will not only enable the reader to gain a better understanding of the power and fundamental limitations of linear and nonlinear control theory for the control design and analysis for these URSs, but also inspire the reader to address the challenges of more complex URSs.

This book showcases how EcoMechatronics can increase sustainability within engineering and manufacturing. It brings together material from experts in core mechatronics technologies, discussing the challenges related to moving towards more environmentally friendly methods, and presenting numerous case studies and examples of EcoMechatronics oriented applications. The book begins with an introduction to EcoMechatronics in the context of sustainability, before covering core conceptual, technical and design issues associated with EcoMechatronics. It then offers a series of case studies and examples of EcoMechatronics oriented applications and finally, a consideration of the educational issues associated with moving to a new generation of environmentally oriented mechatronic engineers. EcoMechatronics will be of interest to practicing engineers, researchers, system developers. and graduate students in the field of mechatronics and environmental engineering.

Practical Motion Planning in Robotics Current Approaches and Future Directions Edited by Kamal Gupta Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada Angel P. del Pobil Jaume-l University, Castellon, Spain Designed to bridge the gap between research and industry, Practical Motion Planning in Robotics brings theoretical advances to bear on real-world applications. Capitalizing on recent progress, this comprehensive study emphasizes the practical aspects of techniques for collision detection, obstacle avoidance, path planning and manipulation planning. The broad approach spans both model- and sensor-based motion planning, collision detection and geometric complexity, and future directions. Features include: - Review of state-of-the-art techniques and coverage of the main issues to be considered in the development of motion planners for use in real applications - Focus on gross motion planning for articulated arms enabling robots to perform non-contact tasks with relatively high tolerances plus brief consideration of mobile robots - The use of efficient algorithms to tackle incremental changes in the environment - Illlustration of robot motion planning applications in virtual prototyping and the shipbuilding industry - Demonstration of efficient path planners combining both local and global planning approaches in conjunction with efficient techniques for collision detection and distance computations - International contributions from academia and industry Combining theory and practice, this timely book will appeal to academic researchers and practising engineers in the fields of robotic systems, mechatronics and computer science.

One of the ultimate goals in Robotics is to create autonomous robots. Such robots will accept high-level descriptions of tasks and will execute them without further human intervention. The input descriptions will specify what the user wants done rather than how to do it. The robots will be any kind of versatile mechanical device equipped with actuators and sensors under the control of a computing system. Making progress toward autonomous robots is of major practical inter est in a wide variety of application domains including manufacturing, construction, waste management, space exploration, undersea work, as sistance for the disabled, and medical surgery. It is also of great technical interest, especially for Computer Science, because it raises challenging and rich computational issues from which new concepts of broad useful ness are likely to emerge. Developing the technologies necessary for autonomous robots is a formidable undertaking with deep interweaved ramifications in auto mated reasoning, perception and control. It raises many important prob lems. One of them - motion planning - is the central theme of this book. It can be loosely stated as follows: How can a robot decide what motions to perform in order to achieve goal arrangements of physical objects? This capability is eminently necessary since, by definition, a robot accomplishes tasks by moving in the real world. The minimum one would expect from an autonomous robot is the ability to plan its x Preface own motions.