This work is concerned by the issue of calibrating a robotic workplace, including the localization of a calibration object for the purpose of calibrating a 2D or 3D camera, a robotic arm and a scene of robotic workplace. At first, the problems related to the calibration of the aforementioned elements were studied. Further, an analysis of suitable methods for performing these calibrations was performed. The result of this work is application of ROS robotic system providing methods for three different types of calibration programs, whose functionality is experimentally verified at the end of this work.

This diploma thesis deals with the tracking of objects using a robotic manipulator Epson C3 and a color camera. The work describes the basic qualities of the device to be used. The OpenCV library and its wrapper EmguCV are used as software tools for computer vision. It discusses the basic issues and principles of tracking objects in the image and introduces some methods of tracking. These methods have been tested and therefore their strengths and weaknesses, which appeared during testing, are listed here. Furthermore, there is a procedure for calculating the new coordinates of the camera and the manipulator effector using homogeneous transformations. The work contains the results of testing the algorithms and their evaluation. The output of the work is a test application for the Epson C3 robot.

This thesis describes playing draughts game by 6 axis manipulator Lynxmotion AL5D controlled by ARM Cortex M3 MCU. It involves algorithms for image recognition, artificial intelligence and algorithms for controlling 6 axis manipulator in real-time.

The aim of the thesis is to design, create and evaluate a user interface for control of service robot. I will focus on controlling of robotic arm, to be able to accomplish pick and place tasks. Specifically I will work with robotic platform PR2. The thesis describes different devices for sensing and perception of a user and usage of information from these devices to control robotic arm. Moreover, different methods for controlling of robotic arm are described there. Application design and implementation is presented further in this thesis together with description of the experiments used for evaluation of application.

[pt] Questões de segurança têm sido fatores cruciais para que robôs se tornem aptos a trabalhar em colaboração com seres humanos. Esse esforço envolve um controle de força mais refinado e uma certa flexibilidade nas juntas para que a adaptação dos robôs ao ambiente real e às atividades comuns dos seres humanos seja efetiva. Uma das tecnologias com esse objetivo é o Atuador Elástico em Série (SEA - Series Elastic Actuator), que apresenta um bom desempenho para controle de força, tolerância a impactos causados por agentes externos, baixa impedância, e a redução de vibrações mecânicas. Em um SEA, um elemento elástico passivo é adicionado entre o motor e o elo acionado, a fim de gerar flexibilidade. Este elemento pode ser uma mola, ou outro elemento deformável com flexibilidade caracterizada por sua geometria e pela elasticidade do material utilizado. Esta tese propõe um Atuador Elástico em Série Baseado em Elastômero (eSEA), cuja flexibilidade é obtida a partir de um elastômero depositado entre dois elementos metálicos: um interno acoplado ao atuador, e o outro externo acoplado ao elo. O eSEA foi projetado e avaliado por software de CAD e Elementos Finitos, com o intuito de obter a flexibilidade desejada para a aplicação. Foram produzidas duas versões do eSEA, com duas durezas diferentes: 10 e 55 Shore A. Testes estáticos com células de carga foram executados para caracterizar a rigidez dos eSEA. Os eSEA foram instalados em manipuladores robóticos especialmente desenvolvidos para essa tese. Experimentos compararam o desempenho das técnicas de controle com e sem a influência dos eSEA, mostrando que o uso dos eSEA diminuiu os erros de posicionamento do manipulador e possibilitou o controle de força sem a necessidade de sensores específicos. A fim de criar um modelo para que a estimativa do torque seja mais precisa a partir do eSEA, foram realizadas técnicas de identificação para estimar uma função de transferência que melhor representa o alongamento da borracha. E combinados com modelos NARX e NARMAX do erro de estimativa, gerou-se um modelo híbrido para o elemento elástico no qual soma-se a função de transferência com o erro modelado. / [en] Safety issues have been crucial factors for robots to become able to work in collaboration with humans. This effort involves more refined force control and a certain flexibility at the joints, for the robots to better adapt to real environments and common human tasks. A technology with this objective is the Series Elastic Actuator (SEA), which presents good performance for force control, tolerance to impacts caused by external agents, low impedance, and dampening of mechanical vibrations. In an SEA, a passive elastic element is added between the motor and the driven link, in order to generate a desired flexibility. This element can be a spring, or else another deformable element with flexibility characterized by its geometry and material elasticity. This thesis proposes an Elastomer-Based Series Elastic Actuator (eSEA), whose flexibility is obtained from an elastomer deposited between two metallic elements: an internal element attached to the actuator, and an external element attached to the link. The eSEA was designed and evaluated by CAD and Finite Element software, in order to obtain the desired flexibility for the application. Two versions of the eSEA were produced, with two different hardnesses: 10 and 55 Shore A. Static tests with load cells were then executed to characterize the stiffness of the eSEA. The eSEA elements were installed on robotic manipulators especially developed for this thesis. Experiments compared the performance of control techniques with and without the influence of eSEA, showing that the use of the eSEA reduced manipulator positioning errors and enabled force control without the need for specific sensors. In order to create a model for more accurate torque estimation from eSEA, identification techniques were performed to estimate a transfer function that best represents the rubber elongation. And combined with NARX and NARMAX models of the estimation error, a hybrid model was generated for the elastic element in which the transfer function is added together with the modeled error.

Цель работы – спроектировать и реализовать аппаратную и программную часть учебно-лабораторного комплекса по мехатронике и робототехнике. Определены основные требования к объекту, требования проанализированы, и на их основе разработан комплекс на основе стенда по автоматизированному электроприводу и робота-манипулятора. / The aim of the work is design and implementation the hardware and software parts of the educational unit for mechatronics and robotics education. The basic requirements for the unit have been determined, the requirements have been analyzed, and on their basis a unit that consists of an automated electric drive and a robotic manipulator has been designed.

The effective surveillance of large critical areas is crucial for their security and privacy. There is no publicly available and acceptable solution of automating this task. This thesis aims to create an application utilizing a combination of a pan-tilt robotic manipulator and a visible-spectrum camera. Based on the pan-tilt unit's position and camera's images, the application searches for semantically significant changes in the captured environment and marks these regions of interest.

Tato práce popisuje konstrukci skenovacího systému pro tvorbu trojrozměrných modelů. Kombinace laserového scanneru a robotického manipulátoru tvoří velice flexibilní zařízení schopné snímat jak velké, tak malé a detailní objekty. Zařízení nachází uplatnění v mnoha aplikacích, zejména v lékařství, kde přináší řadu nesporných výhod proti stávajícím systémům. Práce popisuje mechanickou konstrukci zařízení, funkční principy a jeho kalibrační proceduru. Součástí práce je i software pro vizualizaci naměřených dat a jejich zpracování do podoby modelů se stínovaným povrchem. Výsledkem práce je funkční zařízení a rozsáhlý obslužný software.