Thesis (Ph.D)--Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010. / Committee Chair: Rehg, James M.; Committee Member: Christensen, Henrik; Committee Member: Dellaert, Frank; Committee Member: Essa, Irfan; Committee Member: Malik, Jitendra. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Thesis (M. S.)--Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010. / Committee Co-Chair: Johnson, Eric; Committee Co-Chair: Lipkin, Harvey; Committee Member: Sadegh, Nader. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Double-screw vehicles have been developed to operate in soft, wet terrains such as marsh, snow, and water. Their exceptional performance in soft and wet terrains is at the expense of performance on rigid terrains such as pavement. Furthermore, turning can be difficult because the method of turning varies depending on the terrain. Therefore, in this study, several different quad-screw-configurations were proposed and tested to improve upon double-screw vehicles. A test-bed was developed which could easily be converted into each quad-screw-configuration for testing on a variety of surfaces (grass, dirt, sand, clay, marsh, snow, gravel, pavement, and water). In addition, a force-vector analysis was performed for each screw-configuration to predict and understand performance in different terrains. From the testing and analysis, the inline-screw configuration was the most versatile because it was omnidirectional on all surfaces but water and pavement. Regardless, it was fully capable of navigating water, both on the surface and submerged, and pavement by rotating about its center.

In 2010, a donation was given to the University of Victoria Robotics and Mechanisms lab by Roper Industries. It was a Flight Telerobotic Servicer (FTS) Right Finger training tool. This is an electro-hydraulic robotic arm, approximately eight feet long, weighing in excess of four hundred pounds. This arm was designed and built in the late nineteen eighties as part of a program in support of the Space Station Freedom project. The intention of the arm was to assist in the training of astronauts in the use of an end effector which would be mounted at the distal end of the Canadarm©. The end effector would have right and left fingers, as well as a thumb (used for stabilization, not grasping). Unfortunately, the robot did not come with any of the control hardware, software, manuals, or functional descriptions, and the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) were not able to share any information regarding the nature of the controls. The focus of the present work is to re-animate this arm without additional feedback, operating the arm only by hand-eye control, using currently available electronics and hardware. Also, investigate the absolute position sensors. These are described as near-infinite resolution analog absolute position sensors. Investigation was also conducted on an alternate solution (Vernier Optical Encoder), which was finally were abandoned. Strain-gauge type torque feedback sensors were found to be functional, and can be used without further work on future experimentation. The outcome of the research and assembly is a fully functional electro-hydraulic robotic arm, which is digitally controlled using an XBOX© game controller, using only visual feedback for position. The position sensor work was not as fruitful, with no working position sensors available. The torque feedback sensors are functional, but not utilized in the final work. / Graduate

Flying insects display remarkable maneuverability. Unlike typical airplanes, these insects are able to execute an evasive action, rapidly change their flight speed and direction, or leisurely land on flowers buffeted by wind, exhibiting aerodynamic feats unmatched by any state-of-the-art aircraft. By subtly tuning their wing motions, they generate and manipulate unsteady aerodynamic phenomenon that is the basis of their extraordinary maneuverability. Inspired by these tiny animals, scientists and engineers have pushed the boundaries of technology in many aspects, including meso-scale fabrication, electronics, and artificial intelligence, to develop autonomous millimeter-scale flapping-wing robots. In this thesis, we demonstrate, on real insect-scale robots, that using only an approximate model of the aerodynamics and flight dynamics in combination with conventional tools in nonlinear control, the inherently unstable flapping-wing robot can achieve steady hover. We present the development of flight controllers that gradually enhance the flight precision, allowing the robot to realize increasingly aggressive trajectories, including a highly acrobatic maneuver---perching on a vertical surface, as observed in its natural counterparts. We also demonstrate that these experiments lead to higher fidelity of in-flight aerodynamic models, strengthening our understanding of the dynamics of the robot and real insects. / Engineering and Applied Sciences

This research is mainly about autonomously navigation of an agricultural wheeled mobile robot in an unstructured outdoor setting. This project has four distinct phases defined as: (i) Navigation and control of a wheeled mobile robot for a point-to-point motion. (ii) Navigation and control of a wheeled mobile robot in following a given path (path following problem). (iii) Navigation and control of a mobile robot, keeping a constant proximity distance with the given paths or plant rows (proximity-following). (iv) Navigation of the mobile robot in rut following in farm fields. A rut is a long deep track formed by the repeated passage of wheeled vehicles in soft terrains such as mud, sand, and snow. To develop reliable navigation approaches to fulfill each part of this project, three main steps are accomplished: literature review, modeling and computer simulation of wheeled mobile robots, and actual experimental tests in outdoor settings. First, point-to-point motion planning of a mobile robot is studied; a fuzzy-logic based (FLB) approach is proposed for real-time autonomous path planning of the robot in unstructured environment. Simulation and experimental evaluations shows that FLB approach is able to cope with different dynamic and unforeseen situations by tuning a safety margin. Comparison of FLB results with vector field histogram (VFH) and preference-based fuzzy (PBF) approaches, reveals that FLB approach produces shorter and smoother paths toward the goal in almost all of the test cases examined. Then, a novel human-inspired method (HIM) is introduced. HIM is inspired by human behavior in navigation from one point to a specified goal point. A human-like reasoning ability about the situations to reach a predefined goal point while avoiding any static, moving and unforeseen obstacles are given to the robot by HIM. Comparison of HIM results with FLB suggests that HIM is more efficient and effective than FLB. Afterward, navigation strategies are built up for path following, rut following, and proximity-following control of a wheeled mobile robot in outdoor (farm) settings and off-road terrains. The proposed system is composed of different modules which are: sensor data analysis, obstacle detection, obstacle avoidance, goal seeking, and path tracking. The capabilities of the proposed navigation strategies are evaluated in variety of field experiments; the results show that the proposed approach is able to detect and follow rows of bushes robustly. This action is used for spraying plant rows in farm field. Finally, obstacle detection and obstacle avoidance modules are developed in navigation system. These modules enables the robot to detect holes or ground depressions (negative obstacles), that are inherent parts of farm settings, and also over ground level obstacles (positive obstacles) in real-time at a safe distance from the robot. Experimental tests are carried out on two mobile robots (PowerBot and Grizzly) in outdoor and real farm fields. Grizzly utilizes a 3D-laser range-finder to detect objects and perceive the environment, and a RTK-DGPS unit for localization. PowerBot uses sonar sensors and a laser range-finder for obstacle detection. The experiments demonstrate the capability of the proposed technique in successfully detecting and avoiding different types of obstacles both positive and negative in variety of scenarios.

Anthropomorphism is a common phenomenon when people attribute human characteristics to non-human objects. It plays an important role in acceptance of robots in natural human environments. Various studies in the field of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) show that there are various factors that can affect the extent to which a robot is anthropomorphized. However, our knowledge of this phenomenon is segmented, as there is a lack of a coherent model of anthropomorphism that could consistently explain these findings. A robot should be able to adjust its level of anthropomorphism to a level that can optimize its task performance. In order to do that, robotic system designers must know which characteristics affect the perception of robots' anthropomorphism. Currently, existing models of anthropomorphism emphasize the importance of the context and perceiver in this phenomenon, but provide little guidelines regarding the factors of a perceived object that are affecting it. The proposed reverse process to anthropomorphization is known as dehumanization. In the recent years research in social psychology has found which characteristics are deprived from people who are perceived as subhumans or are objectified. Furthermore, the process of dehumanization is two dimensional rather than unidimensional. This thesis discusses a model of anthropomorphism that uses characteristics from both dimensions of dehumanization and those relating to robots' physical appearance to affect the anthropomorphism of a robot. Furthermore, involvement of implicit and explicit processes in anthropomorphization are discussed. In this thesis I present five empirical studies that were conducted to explore anthropomorphism in HRI. Chapter 3 discusses development and validation of a cognitive measurement of humanlikeness using the magnitude of the inversion effect. Although robot stimuli were processed more similarly to human stimuli rather than objects and induced the inversion effect, the results suggest that this measure has limited potential for measuring humanlikeness due to the low variance that it can explain. The second experiment, presented in Chapter 4 explored the involvement of Type I and Type II processing in anthropomorphism. The main findings of this study suggest that anthropomorphism is not a result of a dual-process and self-reports have a potential to be suitable measurement tools of anthropomorphism. Chapter 5 presents the first empirical work on the dimensionality of anthropomorphism. Only perceived emotionality of a robot, but not its perceived intelligence, affects its anthropomorphization. This finding is further supported by a follow up experiment, presented in Chapter 6, that shows that Human Uniqueness dimension is less relevant for a robot's anthropomorphiazability than Human Nature (HN) dimension. Intentionality of a robot did not result in its higher anthropomorphizability. Furthermore, this experiment showed that humanlike appearance of a robot is not linearly related with its anthropomorphism during HRI. The lack of linear relationship between humanlike appearance and attribution of HN traits to a robot during HRI is further supported by the study described in Chapter 7. This last experiment shows also that another factor of HN, sociability, affects the extent to which a robot is anthropomorphized and therefore the relevance of HN dimension in the process of anthropomorphization. This thesis elaborates on the process of anthropomorphism as an important factor affecting HRI. Without fully understanding the process itself and what factors make robots to be anthropomorphized it is hard to measure the impact of anthropomorphism on HRI. It is hoped that understanding anthropomorphism in HRI will make it possible to design interactions in a way that optimizes the benefits of that phenomenon for an interaction.

Στην παρούσα εργασία μελετάμε την εφαρμογή ενός ρομποτικού βραχίονα στην διαδικασία της ενδομυελικής ήλωσης, η οποία είναι η συνήθης τεχνική που χρησιμοποιείται σε διαδικασίες ρουτίνας, για την ανακατασκευή των καταγμάτων του μηριαίου οστού και της κνήμης. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, αρχικά γίνεται προσπάθεια ανίχνευσης των οπών του ενδομυελικού ήλου, οι οποίες λαμβάνονται μέσω ενός C-arm, στον τρισδιάστατο χώρο. Στις οπές αυτές τοποθετούνται ειδικά μεταλλικά καρφιά που στοχεύουν στη συγκράτηση του ενδομυελικού ήλου με το οστό του ασθενούς. Από τη στιγμή που έχει προσδιοριστεί ο άξονας που συνδέει δύο οπές στον ήλο, οδηγείται ρομποτικός βραχίονας προκειμένου να τρυπηθεί το οστό του ασθενούς, κατά μήκος αυτού του άξονα. Η όλη διαδικασία μελετάται μέσω προσομοίωσης στην παρούσα εργασία. / The summary is not available.

Current robot manipulation and control paradigms have largely been developed for static or highly structured environments such as those common in factories. For most techniques in robot trajectory generation, such as heuristic-based geometric planning, this has led to putting a high cost on contact with the world. This approach and methodology can be prohibitive to robots operating in many unmodeled and dynamic environments. This dissertation presents work on using haptic based feedback (torque and tactile sensing) to formulate a controller for robot manipulation in clutter. We define “clutter” as any environment in which we expect the robot to make both incidental and purposeful contact while maneuvering and manipulating. The controllers developed in this dissertation take the form of single or multi-time step Model Predictive Control (a form of optimal control which incorporates feedback) which attempts to regulate contact forces at multiple locations on a robot arm while reaching to a goal. The results and conclusions in this dissertation are based on extensive testing in simulation (tens of thousands of trials) and testing in realistic scenarios with real robots incorporating tactile sensing. The approach is novel in the sense that it allows contact and explicitly incorporate the contact and predictive model of the robot arm in calculating control effort at every time step. The expected broader impact of this research is progress towards a new foundation of reactive feedback controllers that will include a higher likelihood of success in many constrained and dynamic scenarios such as reaching into containers without line of sight, maneuvering in cluttered search and rescue situations or working with unpredictable human co-workers.

Šiame baigiamajame darbe buvo suprojektuota ir pagaminta roboto bazė mokymams. Baigiamojo darbo tikslas – suprojektuoti bei pagaminti roboto bazę mokymams. Darbo objektas: roboto bazės mokymams projektavimas ir gaminimas. Bakalauro darbas susideda iš dviejų dalių: teorinės ir praktinės. Pirmoje darbo dalyje buvo atlikta esamos analogiškos komercinės įrangos (robotų) analizė bei robotų projektavime ir gaminime taikomų technologijų apžvalga. Praktinėje baigiamojo darbo dalyje pateiktas roboto projektavimo ir gaminimo aprašymas. Šioje dalyje taip pat buvo parašytos demonstracinės roboto veikimo principų programos. Atskirose plokštėse suprojektuotos maitinimo, variklių valdymo ir jutiklių grandinės. Darbe naudojami linijos siekimo, infraraudonųjų spindulių bei ultragarso jutikliai. Visi jutikliai buvo sėkmingai išbandyti ir, vadovaujantis šiais rezultatais, buvo rašoma programinė įranga.Suprojektuotas ir pagamintas robotas leis studentams susipažinti su pagrindiniais robototechnikos, elektrinių variklių valdymo ir jutiklių veikimo principais. Padarytas robotas negali būti laikomas galutiniu variantu. Darbe numatytos roboto tobulinimo galimybes prijungiant papildomus išorinius įrenginius. / The analysis of similar commercial equipment (robots) was conducted in the first part of the Thesis. The review of the technologies applied in the projecting and production of the robot was also presented in theoretical part. The practical part of the Thesis includes the description of the robot production and manufacture. In this part four demonstration programmes representing the principles of robot operation were written. he present robot will allow the students learning the main principles of robot technologies, control of electrical motors and operation of sensors. The produced robot shall not be considered to be complete and, thus, it presupposes the possibilities of upgrading and connection of additional peripheral equipment.