This thesis presents the design, modeling, and development of adaptive robot hands that are capable of performing dexterous, in-hand manipulation. The robot hand comprises of anthropomorphic robotic fingers, which employ an adaptive actuation mechanism. The mechanism achieves both flexion/extension and adduction/abduction, on the finger's metacarpophalangeal joint, by using two actuators. Moment arm pulleys are employed to drive the tendon laterally, such that an amplification on the abduction motion occurs, while also maintaining the flexion motion. Particular emphasis has been given to the modeling and the analysis of the actuation mechanism. Also, a model for spatial motion is provided that relates the actuation modes with the finger motion and the tendon force with the finger characteristics. For the hand design, the use of differential mechanisms simplifies the actuation scheme, as we utilize only two actuators for four fingers, achieving affordable dexterity. A design optimization framework assess the results of hand anthropometry studies to derive key parameters for the bio-inspired actuation design. The model assumptions are evaluated with the finite element method. The proposed finger has been fabricated with the Hybrid Deposition Manufacturing technique and the actuation mechanism's efficiency has been validated with experiments that include the computation of the finger workspace, the assessment of the force exertion capabilities, the demonstration of the feasible motions, and the grasping and manipulation capabilities. Also, the hand design is fabricated with off-the-shelf materials and rapid prototyping techniques while its efficiency has been validated using an extensive set of experimental paradigms that involved the execution of grasping and in-hand manipulation tasks with everyday objects. / Master of Science / This thesis presents the design, modeling, and development of adaptive robot hands that are capable of performing selective interdigitation, robust grasping, and dexterous, in-hand manipulation. The robotic fingers employ an adaptive actuation mechanism. The design is minimal and the hand is capable of performing selective interdigitation, robust grasping, and dexterous, in-hand manipulation. Particular emphasis has been given to the modeling and the analysis of the actuation mechanism. For the hand design, the use of differential mechanisms simplifies the actuation scheme, as we utilize only two actuators for four fingers, achieving affordable dexterity. A design optimization framework assess the results of hand anthropometry studies to derive key parameters for the actuation design. The robotic fingers and the anthropomorphic hand were fabricated using off-the-self materials and additive manufacturing techniques. Several experiments were performed to validate the efficacy of the robot hand.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde eine vergleichende Analyse der Hand- und Armfunktion von gesunden rechtshändigen alten und jungen Personen vorgenommen und dabei insbesondere der modulare Aufbau von Greifmustern analysiert. Es wurden vier Handfunktionstests durchgeführt: eine Tapping-Aufgabe an einer Computertastatur, eine Handkraftmessung mit dem Martin-Vigori-meter, der Jebsen-Taylor Test of Hand Function und eine standardisierte Greifaufgabe nach vier Greifobjekten (Münze, Kronkorken, kleine Dose, große Dose) mit Aufzeichnung der Handbewe-gungen mit einem Sensorhandschuh (Wü-Glove) und der Armbewegungen mit ultraschallemittierenden Markern. Die Auswertung der Greifaufgabe erfolgte zum einen nach kinematischen Aspekten (Dauer, maximale Geschwindigkeit, maximale Beschleunigung), zum anderen wurde mittels Hauptkomponentenanalyse der modulare Aufbau von Greifmustern untersucht und mittels Ähnlichkeitsanalysen (u.a. Mahalanobis-Distanz) die Finger- und Armkonfigurationen bei Objektkontakt verglichen. Daten von 66 Probanden wurden ausgewertet. Vollständige Datensätze lagen von 10 jungen (20-33 J.) und 10 alten (61-85 J.) Probanden vor. Junge Probanden zeigten erwartungsgemäß eine größere Handkraft und Fingerschnelligkeit und eine bessere Leistung im Jebsen-Taylor Test of Hand Function. Die Greifmuster der älteren Probanden waren verglichen mit den jungen Probanden interindividuell variabler, gleichzeitig aber ökonomischer organisiert. Diese ökonomischere Organisation kann als Folge impliziter Lernprozesse bei individuell unterschiedlichen Greiferfahrungen in Abhängigkeit des Alters gedeutet werden. Zunehmendes Lebensalter muss somit nicht nur mit einer Abnahme motorischer Funktionen verbunden sein, sondern kann auch positive Auswirkungen auf die Steuerung der Handfunktion in Form einer Optimierung von Greifmustern durch implizite Expertise haben.

Title: Ways and strategies of 10-12 years old pupils when solving selected type of word problems Abstract This Diploma thesis is focused on word problems that, to some extent, make pupils troubles with their solution. In the first theoretical part there are word problems that the work deals with. These are word problems with ant signal, dynamic, complementary, graphic and their characteristics. The next section is about the strategy of solving word problems and work with mistakes. The second part is focused on experiment of all types of word problems that are described in the theoretical part. This experiment is analysed according to strategies of pupils' and teachers' solutions. Those strategies are later described and commented in detail. Key words word problem, solving strategy, mistake, source of mistake, grasping of word problem

This dissertation propose a new fluidics based framework to determine a continuum between preshaping and grasping so as to appropriately preshape a multi-fingered robot hand for creating an optimal initialization of grasp. The continuum of a hand preshape closing upon an object that creates an initial object motion tendency of the object based on the impact moment patterns generated from the fingers is presented. These motion tendencies should then be suitable for the proper initiation of the grasping task. The aim is motivated by human like behavior where we preshape and land on an object to initiate a certain grasping behavior without losing the continuum during the &quot / preshaping to grasping&quot / phases. The continuity of momentum transfer phenomena is inspired by fluid dynamics that deals with fluid flow. We have adapted governing equations based on the physical principles of the fluid flow to generate momentum transfer from the robotic fingers, closing upon the object surface to fluid medium particles then from these fluid medium particles to the grasping object. Smoothed Particular Hydrodynamics (SPH) which is a mesh free particle method and finite volume approximation is used to analyze fluid flow equations. The fingers of the robotic hand and object are modeled by solidified fluid elements and also can be compliance. For evaluating the optimal grasp initialization of different hand preshape, we propose a decision support system consisting of artificial feed forward neural network based on the moment distribution on the object determines either : 1) given initial position and orientation of a robot hand, what preshape is suitable for generating a desired moment distribution on the surface of a given object in order to trigger a desired rotation in a desired direction when approaching with this preshaped hand or 2) given a predetermined hand preshape what initial position, orientation and hand aperture are suitable to generate a desired rotation upon approach and without causing the retroceeding of the object.

When a robotic system executes a task, there are a number of responsibilities that belong to either the operator and/or the robot. A more autonomous system has more responsibilities in the completion of a task and must possess the decision making skills necessary to adequately deal with these responsibilities. The system must also handle environmental constraints that limit the region of operability and complicate the execution of tasks. There are decisions about the robot’s internal configuration and how the manipulator should move through space, avoid obstacles, and grasp objects. These motions usually have limits and performance requirements associated with them. Successful completion of tasks in a given environment is aided by knowledge of the robot’s capabilities in its workspace. This not only indicates if a task is possible but can suggest how a task should be completed. In this work, we develop a grasping strategy for selecting and attaining grasp configurations for flexible tasks in environments containing obstacles. This is done by sampling for valid grasping configurations at locations throughout the workspace to generate a task plane. Locations in the task plane that contain more valid configurations are stipulated to have higher dexterity and thus provide greater manipulability of targets. For valid configurations found in the plane, we develop a strategy for selecting which configurations to choose when grasping and/or placing an object at a given location in the workspace. These workspace task planes can also be utilized as a design tool to configure the system around the manipulator’s capabilities. We determine the quality of manipulator positioning in the workspace based on manipulability and locate the best location of targets for manipulation. The knowledge of valid manipulator configurations throughout the workspace can be used to extend the application of task planes to motion planning between grasping configurations. This guides the end-effector through more dexterous workspace regions and to configurations that move the arm away from obstacles. The task plane technique employed here accurately captures a manipulator’s capabilities. Initial tests for exploiting these capabilities for system design and operation were successful, thus demonstrating this method as a viable starting point for incrementally increasing system autonomy. / text

This thesis investigates the questions of where to grasp and how to grasp a given object with an articulated robotic grasping device. To this end, aspects of grasp synthesis and hand motion planning and control are investigated. Grasp synthesis is the process of determining a palm pose with respect to the target object, as well as a hand joint configuration and/or grasp contact points such that a successful grasp execution is allowed. Existing methods tackling the grasp synthesis problem can be categorized in analytical and empirical approaches. Analytical approaches are based on geometric, kinematic and/or dynamic formulations, whereas empirical methods aim at mimicking human strategies.An overarching idea throughout this thesis is to circumvent the curse of dimensionality, which is inherent in high-dimensional planning problems, by incorporating empirical data in analytical approaches. To this end, tools from the field of constrained optimization are used (i) to synthesize grasp families based on available prototype grasps, (ii) to incorporate heuristics capturing human grasp strategies in the grasp synthesis process and (iii) to encode demonstrated grasp motions in primitive motion controllers.The first contribution is related to the computation and analysis of grasp families which are represented as Independent Contact Regions (ICR) on a target object’s surface. To this end, the well-known concept of the Grasp Wrench Space for a single grasp is extended to be applicable for a set of grasps. Applications of ICR include grasp qualification by capturing the robustness of a grasp to position inaccuracies and the visual guidance of a demonstrator in a teleoperating scenario. In the second main contribution of this thesis, it is shown how to reduce the grasp solution space during the synthesis process by accounting for human approach strategies. This is achieved by imposing appropriate constraints to a corresponding optimization problem. A third contribution in this dissertation is made to reactive motion planning. Here, primitive controllers are synthesized by estimating the free parameters of corresponding dynamical systems from multiple demonstrated trajectories. The approach is evaluated on an anthropomorphic robot hand/arm platform. Also, an extension to a Model Predictive Control (MPC) scheme is presented which allows to incorporate state constraints for auxiliary tasks such as obstacle avoidance.

Pour un mouvement de saisie, le système moteur doit contrôler un certain nombre de paramètres pour produire une commande motrice adaptée aux propriétés de l'objet. La compréhension des mécanismes mis en jeu dans l’élaboration de cette commande motrice repose ainsi sur plusieurs questions. Quelle est la nature des paramètres traités par le système nerveux ? Quelles sont les structures corticales impliquées ? Quand et comment ces paramètres sont-ils traités ? Durant l’exécution du mouvement ou durant la phase de préparation qui précède son initiation ? Ces questions sont autant de problématiques abordées dans ce travail de thèse dont l'objectif général est d'apporter une meilleure compréhension, d'une part, de l'organisation fonctionnelle des processus mentaux qui lient la perception à l'action, et d'autre part, de la façon dont ces processus se traduisent au niveau neurophysiologique. Nos recherches reposent notamment sur la comparaison entre l'homme et le singe étudiés dans un contexte expérimental similaire et réalisant une tâche de saisie manuelle identique. L'ensemble de nos travaux ont orienté notre réflexion vers 3 axes principaux. Premièrement, ils nous ont permis de préciser les principes fonctionnels qui régissent la préparation des mouvements de saisie manuelle. Deuxièmement, ils nous ont conduits à identifier plusieurs composantes qui caractérisent les modulations du rythme bêta (13 -35 Hz) et à dégager les principaux facteurs régissant leur présence ou leur absence. En ce sens, nous avons proposé une hypothèse qui permet d’interpréter dans un cadre théorique unifié la majorité des études proposant des interprétations souvent contradictoires du rythme bêta. / For grasping, the motor system has to control several movement parameters to produce a motor command adapted to the object properties. The understanding of the mechanisms involved in the development of this motor command relies on several questions. What kinds of parameters are processed by the nervous systems? What are the cortical structures involved? When and how these parameters are processed? During the execution or during the preparation phase preceding movement initiation? All these questions are addressed in this thesis which general objective is to provide a better understanding of the mental processes linking perception to action and to clarify how the functional organization of these processes is reflected in the neurophysiological activity. Our research is based in particular on the comparison between humans and monkeys studied in a similar experimental setting and performing an identical reach-to-grasp task. The results of this work led us to focus our discussion on three main axes. First, they allowed to specify the functional principles underlying the preparation of grasping movements. Second, we identified several components that characterize the modulations of the beta rhythm (15-35 Hz) and pinpointed the main factors governing their presence or absence. In this sense, we propose a hypothesis for interpreting in a unified theoretical framework a large number of studies that often provide conflicting interpretations of this sensorimotor rhythm.

No description available.

Primary intention of this doctoral thesis is to examine the potential of mathematical word problems and comparison of various solving processes of mathematical word problems among pupils. The theoretical part of this thesis is based on definition of the term "problem" and shows how different basic psychological directions approach this concept. This is followed with narrower definition of mathematical problem with particular regards to solving process itself, its phases and factors affecting its success rate. Afterwards, the mathematical problem is put in concrete terms with mathematical word problem and its diagnostic and didactic potential is examined. Using real examples and modifications, this thesis shows concrete task situation and its practical use in teaching. The actual research processed data obtained as a result of active survey focused on analysis of solutions used by pupils, putting emphasis on occurrence and type of a mistake and the moment of its emergence. The target group was pupils of lower primary schools. This research showed significantly higher success rate of pupils lead by constructive approach. Also, it proved false certain beliefs held by some traditionalists especially about the importance of written mathematical word problems, usage of unknowns or using the routine...

The exploration of realistic grasping with industrial robots could open gates in the way of understanding the industry, giving robots the ability to adapt to different situations without reprogramming and therefore, become more flexible tools. In order to facilitate this apparently complex task it is important to implement new tools for robot programming. The project presented shows the development of a program that lets the user give specific instructions about ways of approaching new objects in the task of robot grasping using a mixed reality interface. The proposed solution can let the user work in real time and repeat saved paths with familiar objects. This program consists of recording the user’s movement, saving and processing the information to a robot that can replicate the exact same approaches and grasps. The development of this project as a mixed reality interface permits bringing together the real and virtual world with safety of working with a previsualization of the robot and with the certainty of processing the information right in the real world. This solution is a flexible tool that can be changed to different situations and be implemented in any kind of production.