This thesis introduces a new measure of balance for bipedal robotics called the foot placement estimator (FPE). To develop this measure, stability first is defined for a simple biped. A proof of the stability of a simple biped in a controls sense is shown to exist using classical methods for nonlinear systems. With the addition of a contact model, an analytical solution is provided to define the bounds of the region of stability. This provides the basis for the FPE which estimates where the biped must step in order to be stable. By using the FPE in combination with a state machine, complete gait cycles are created without any precalculated trajectories. This includes gait initiation and termination. The bipedal model is then advanced to include more realistic mechanical and environmental models and the FPE approach is verified in a dynamic simulation. From these results, a 5-link, point-foot robot is designed and constructed to provide the final validation that the FPE can be used to provide closed-loop gait control. In addition, this approach is shown to demonstrate significant robustness to external disturbances. Finally, the FPE is shown in experimental results to be an unprecedented estimate of where humans place their feet for walking and jumping, and for stepping in response to an external disturbance.

Pronking is a legged locomotory gait in which all legs are used in synchrony, usually resulting in slow speeds but long flight phases and large jumping heights that may potentially be useful for mobile robots locomoting in cluttered natural environments. Instantiations of this gait for robotic systems suffer from severe pitch instability either due to underactuated leg designs, or the open-loop nature of proposed controllers. Nevertheless, both the kinematic simplicity of this gait and its dynamic nature suggest that the Spring-Loaded Inverted Pendulum Model (SLIP), a very successful predictive model for both natural and robotic runners, would be a good basis for more robust and maneuverable robotic pronking. In the scope of thesis, we describe a novel controller to achieve stable and controllable pronking for a planar, underactuated hexapod model, based on the idea of &ldquo / template-based control&rdquo / , a controller structure based on the embedding of a simple dynamical template within a more complex anchor system. In this context, high-level control of the gait is regulated through speed and height commands to the SLIP template, while the embedding controller based on approximate inverse-dynamics and carefully designed passive robot morphology ensures the stability of the remaining degrees of freedom. We show through extensive simulation experiments that unlike existing open-loop alternatives, the resulting control structure provides stability, explicit maneuverability and significant robustness against sensor noise.

An Inverted double pendulum is a combination of two individual pendulums which represents an example of a nonlinear and unstable dynamic system and it is also a good example of a physical system which can exhibit chaotic behavior.This document contains a first analysis of the model and the control of this system. Also presented is the installation of the electrical materials needed to control the system contain instrumenting the motor, current measurement system, motor shaft angle sensor, vision systemand MYRIO which is an embedded hardware device created by National Instruments will be used for data acquisition and control the system

Σκοπός της παρούσας διπλωματικής είναι ο έλεγχος ενός ανάστροφου εκκρεμούς φορτίου πλατφόρμας-σφαίρας (cart-ball) με χρήση ασαφούς ελέγχου ο οποίος υλοποιείται σε ηλεκτρονικό υπολογιστή στο περιβάλλον προγραμματισμού National Instruments LabVIEW 2009. Το φυσικό σύστημα αποτελείται από μία μεταλλική πλατφόρμα σταθερά προσδεδεμένη σε ένα γραμμικό άξονα της εταιρίας FESTO. Για την κίνηση του άξονα χρησιμοποιείται τριφασικός ηλεκτρικός σερβοκινητήρας, επίσης της FESTO, ο έλεγχος του οποίου γίνεται με χρήση ειδικού προγραμματιζόμενου ελεγκτή της ίδιας εταιρίας. Πάνω στην μεταλλική πλατφόρμα έχει τοποθετηθεί μία αψίδα παράλληλη στη διεύθυνση κίνησης της πλατφόρμας. Πάνω στην αψίδα έχουν δημιουργηθεί δύο οδηγοί επικαλυμμένοι με σκόνη γραφίτη σε μορφή κόλλας, η οποία τους κάνει ηλεκτρικά αγώγιμους. Ο ένας από τους οδηγούς έχει τάση 10V στα άκρα του ενώ το ένα άκρο του άλλου αγωγού είναι γειωμένο. Στόχος του αυτομάτου ελέγχου είναι να ισορροπήσει πάνω στην αψίδα μία μεταλλική σφαίρα. Η μεταλλική σφαίρα βραχυκυκλώνει τους δύο αγώγιμους οδηγούς και κατ' αυτό τον τρόπο, με την αρχή του ροοστάτη, λαμβάνεται η θέση της σφαίρας. Η μέτρηση της τιμής της θέσης της σφαίρας όπως και η θέση και η ταχύτητα της πλατφόρμας, οι οποίες λαμβάνονται από τον ελεγκτή του κινητήρα, εισάγονται στον υπολογιστή, μέσω ειδικής κάρτας Εισόδου/Εξόδου (Ε/Ε) της εταιρίας National Instruments, όπου λαμβάνονται από το LabVIEW και οδηγούνται στον ασαφή ελεγκτή που υλοποιείται στο ίδιο πρόγραμμα. Η ταχύτητα της σφαίρας λαμβάνεται επίσης υπ' όψιν στον αυτόματο έλεγχο και προκύπτει στο LabVIEW από παραγώγιση της θέσης της σφαίρας. Το ασαφές σύστημα αποτελείται από πέντε συναρτήσεις συμμετοχής για τη μεταβλητή της θέσης, τρεις συναρτήσεις συμμετοχής για τη μεταβλητή της ταχύτητας και εφτά συναρτήσεις συμμετοχής για την έξοδο του ελεγκτή που εκφράζει την επιθυμητή ταχύτητα της πλατφόρμας. Ο συμπερασμός γίνεται με χρήση 22 κανόνων. Η έξοδος του ασαφούς ελεγκτή εκφράζεται με μια τιμή από -10V έως +10V. Η έξοδος από τον ασαφή ελεγκτή οδηγείται πάλι μέσω της ειδικής κάρτας Ε/Ε στον προγραμματιζόμενο ελεγκτή του κινητήρα της FESTO ο οποίος ελέγχει κατάλληλα το ρεύμα τυλίγματος του κινητήρα ώστε να επιτευχθεί η επιθυμητή ταχύτητα. Η περίοδος του ελέγχου είναι 100 ms. Τα αποτελέσματα του ελέγχου του πιο πάνω συστήματος κρίνονται γενικά ικανοποιητικά δεδομένης της ισχυρής αστάθειας που το χαρακτηρίζει. / The subject of the thesis is the automatic control of an inverted pendulum consisting of a cart and a ball. We used fuzzy control to balance the ball on top of an arch. The controller was created in LabView 2009.

Magistro darbo tikslas – grįžtamosios migracijos procese, kylančių tapatybės ir susvetimėjimo problemų identifikavimas, taikant pedagoginės hermeneutikos analizės metodą. Pagrindinis tyrimo metodas – pusiau struktūruotas interviu. Darbe konceptualizuojamas grįžtamosios migracijos reiškinys. Atskleidžiama šio reiškinio pokyčio analizė nuo ekonominės, patriotinės sąvokos iki globalios tarpkultūrinės patirties sampratos traktavimo. Kadangi grįžtamoji migracija šiandienos kontekste apima ir vaikų grįžimą į tėvynę, svarbus faktorius tampa grįžtamųjų mokinių edukacinis procesas. Grįžtamosios migracijos pedagoginiame procese ypatingas dėmesys tenka subjektui, gebančiam adaptuoti ir interpretuoti užsienio šalies patirtį savo šalies ugdymo sistemoje. Edukacinės patirties perkeliamumas ir gebėjimas ją interpretuoti yra siejamas su pedagogine hermeneutika. Remiantis užsienio ir Lietuvos autoriais, analizuojama pedagoginė hermeneutika ir jos santykis su grįžtamąja migracija. Tyrimas patvirtina darbo autorių iškeltą hipotezę, kad re-emigrantų mokinių integraciją į Lietuvos edukacinę sistemą, sąlygoja skirtingas mokymo(si) ir kultūrinių skirtumų supratimas. / The aim of this paper is to identify the problems of alienation and identification, influenced by return migration, using the pedagogical hermeneutics analysis method. The instrument of the research – open interview questionnaire created by the authors. By analyzing the foreign and local academic literature, was conceptualized the phenomena of return migration. Was explored the transformation of notion of the return migration from understanding it as economical, patriotic idea to the concept of global intercultural experience treatment. Since the return migration of today's context includes the child's return to the homeland, the important factor is becoming pupils’ educational process. In the pedagogical process of the return migration particular attention goes to the subject enable to adapt and interpret the foreign country’s experiences in the homeland educational system. Educational experience transferability and the ability to interpret is related with pedagogical hermeneutics. The research confirmed the hypothesis that the integration of re-emigrated pupils in Lithuanian education system is determined by the different educational systems and cultural diversity.

O estudo da estabilidade e desempenho em sistemas de controle é um tópico relevante na teoria de sistemas. Quando são assumidas incertezas no modelo da planta, existe uma maior dificuldade para garantir um nível de desempenho adequado do sistema dinâmico e a estabilidade pode ser comprometida. Neste trabalho são utilizados um regulador linear quadrático robusto e um filtro de Kalman robusto combinados em uma única formulação para tratar de sistemas dinâmicos incertos em tempo real. O caso de estudo selecionado é o pêndulo invertido. Seus principais desafios de controle encontrados na literatura: estabilização, seguimento e levantamento-captura, serão considerados. Os algoritmos utilizados são motivados pelo fato de que problemas estocásticos podem ser resolvidos por meio de argumentos determinísticos, baseados nos conceitos de função penalidade e mínimos quadrados regularizados. Desta forma, é possível a obtenção do melhor desempenho em contrapartida à máxima influência de incerteza admissível. A análise de desempenho do controlador robusto é realizada por meio de ensaios práticos incluindo incertezas na planta, ruído nos sensores e distúrbios no sinal de controle do pêndulo. / The study of stability and performance in control systems is a relevant topic in systems theory. When uncertainties are considered in the model of the plant, there is a greater difficulty in ensuring an appropriate performance level of the dynamic system, plus, the stability could be compromised as well. In this dissertation a robust linear quadratic regulator and a robust Kalman filter are used in a unified manner to deal with uncertain dynamic systems in real time. The selected case study is the inverted pendulum. Its main control challenges found in the literature will be considered: stabilization, tracking and catching swing-up. The used algorithms are motivated by the fact that stochastic problems can be solved through deterministic arguments based on the concepts of penalty function and regularized least-squares. Thus, it is possible to obtain an optimal performance for the maximum acceptable uncertainty. The performance analysis of the robust control is carried out by practical experiments including uncertainties in the plant, noise in the sensors and disturbance in the pendulum control signal.

Nesta dissertação, um tipo diferente de pêndulo invertido controlado por rodas de reação é apresentado. Sua principal diferença está em seu ponto de articulação, que é constituído por uma junta esférica que permite com que o pêndulo gire em torno de seus três eixos. Além disso, três rodas de reação são utilizadas para seu controle e estabilização. Primeiramente, um modelo do sistema é obtido a partir das equação de Euler-Lagrange, das leis de Newton e das leis de Kirchhoff. Em seguida, uma lei de controle que assegura a estabilização assintótica do sistema em um grande domínio é proposta. Por fim, simulações são realizadas para validar o controlador projetado. Esse sistema possui diversas características interessantes, tanto do ponto de vista teórico como do ponto de vista de pesquisa. Do ponto de vista teórico, o sistema é nãolinear e suas entradas são fortemente acopladas, o que torna particularmente adequado para o processo de projeto e implementação de diversas técnicas de estabilização. Do ponto de vista de pesquisa, são consideradas duas técnicas de controle não linear: linearização padrão e linearização exata. Para que o sistema seja robusto e não desperdice energia, essas duas leis de controle diferentes são comutadas para a obtencão de um número suficiente de domínio de estabilidade. / In this dissertation, a different kind of the reaction wheel pendulum is presented. The main difference is that its articulation point consists of a ball joint that allows the pendulum to rotate around its three axes. Furthermore, three reaction wheels are used for its control and stabilization. First, a model of the system is obtained from Euler-Lagrange equations, Newton laws and Kirchhoff laws. After that, a control law that assure asymptotic stabilization of the system in a large domain is proposed. Finally, simulations are performed to validate the designed controller. This system has several interesting features, both from a theoretical standpoint as from a research standpoint. From a theoretical standpoint, the system is nonlinear and its inputs are tightly coupled, making it particularly suitable for the design and implementation process of various stabilization techniques. From a research standpoint, two non-linear control techniques are considered: standard linearization and exact linearization. For the system to be robust and do not waste energy, these two different control laws are switched for obtaining a sufficiently large domain of stability.

This thesis presents the design, construction, and control of a two-wheeled inverted pendulum (TWIP) robotic walker prototype for assisting mobility-impaired users with balance and fall prevention. A conceptual model of the robotic walker is developed and used to illustrate the purpose of this study. A linearized mathematical model of the two-wheeled system is derived using Newtonian mechanics. A control strategy consisting of a decoupled LQR controller and three state variable controllers is developed to stabilize the platform and regulate its behavior with robust disturbance rejection performance. Simulation results reveal that the LQR controller is capable of stabilizing the platform and rejecting external disturbances while the state variable controllers simultaneously regulate the system’s position with smooth and minimum jerk control. A prototype for the two-wheeled system is fabricated and assembled followed by the implementation and tuning of the control algorithms responsible for stabilizing the prototype and regulating its position with optimal performance. Several experiments are conducted, confirming the ability of the decoupled LQR controller to robustly balance the platform while the state variable controllers regulate the platform’s position with smooth and minimum jerk control.

No description available.

This diploma thesis is concerned with a construction design of single toggle jaw crusher DCJ 900x500. In the first part, the theoretical background and ways of material disintegration are discussed. The second chapter describes types of material crushers in general, especially jaw crushers and their parts. The third chapter is concerned with calculations and the design of the most important parts of the machine. The fourth part consists of the crusher power calculation, design of the pendulum and its production technology. The last part includes the result of FEM analysis for the particular variant of pendulum production. The thesis also includes drawing documentation of the crusher and the pendulum.