This paper proposes a novel soft robotic design that possesses variable stiffness and position feedback. A gripper adopting this design is presented. Each finger in the gripper is based on a 3D printed substrate (driv...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781509060009
This paper proposes a novel soft robotic design that possesses variable stiffness and position feedback. A gripper adopting this design is presented. Each finger in the gripper is based on a 3D printed substrate (driven by an air actuated soft actuator) composed of two smart materials: shape memory polymer (SMP) and conductive thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). SMP's dramatic change of elastic modulus around its glass transition temperature (T-g) enables the finger to have variable stiffness. The conductive TPU acts as a heater to provide Joule heating for the SMP when a weakening of stiffness is needed. Furthermore, the deflection of the substrate can be estimated due to the conductive TPU's inherent piezo-resistive effect. Experiments regarding the finger's position estimation capability and variable stiffness property are conducted. A gripper is fabricated to perform grasping demonstration. The proposed robotic design has other potential applications such as metamorphic legged robots.
Modern computer architectures have an everincreasing demand for performance, but are constrained in power dissipation and chip area. To tackle these demands, architectures with application-specific accelerators have g...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781538640340
Modern computer architectures have an everincreasing demand for performance, but are constrained in power dissipation and chip area. To tackle these demands, architectures with application-specific accelerators have gained traction in research and industry. While this is a very promising direction, hard-wired accelerators fall short when too many applications need to be supported or flexibility is required. In this paper, we propose an automatic loop detection and hardware acceleration approach for an adaptive reconfigurable processor. Our contribution is Auto-SI, an automated process that transparently and dynamically provides hardware acceleration alongside a general-purpose processor by employing reconfigurable hardware. We detail the benefits of Auto-SI, i.e., transparent and flexible acceleration of unmodified binaries, provide an analysis of the overheads incurred and present an evaluation of our implementation prototype.
This paper presents a systematic control synthesis method in order to achieve auto-transition for KH-Lion, a tail-sitter hybrid UAV. Although there are huge potentials in various applications of the hybrid tail-sitter...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781538626795
This paper presents a systematic control synthesis method in order to achieve auto-transition for KH-Lion, a tail-sitter hybrid UAV. Although there are huge potentials in various applications of the hybrid tail-sitter UAVs, the transition between vertical take-off and landing mode and cruise mode is still a challenge now. Due to the complex behaviour that the transition can generate, it is very difficult to implement the auto-transition as the reference transition trajectory is hard to obtain. In this paper, we propose to use the model validated from the experiments to generate an optimal reference trajectory for transition. A constrained dynamic programming technique is applied to the model with the consideration of all necessary constraints. A feedback control algorithm is also designed to track the desired transition trajectory. Simulation result and successful flight experiments have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed synthesis method.
Glazed facade units must satisfy numerous criteria. In addition to allowing an unobstructed view of the exterior they should also provide protection from direct sunlight and the associated heat transfer. In order to o...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781509060009
Glazed facade units must satisfy numerous criteria. In addition to allowing an unobstructed view of the exterior they should also provide protection from direct sunlight and the associated heat transfer. In order to optimize the performance of glazed facades under varying conditions, much effort has been directed towards the development of adaptive glazing systems based on smart materials or smart mechanism. This article will outline the functional principles and visual properties of one self-adjusting, thermochromic glazing, two controllable electrochromic systems and one liquid crystal based system. By modifying conventional liquid crystal technologies used for display applications and upscaling the pixel size to an architectural meso scale a switchable glazing system with unique and promising characteristics was developed by the authors. The authors are currently investigating all these glazing systems described here, with the systems as the south facing glazing of identical rooms in a test building. The advantages and the most promising fields of application of these adaptive systems will be presented herein.
In this paper we consider the problem of cooperative control of a swarm of autonomous heterogeneous mobile agents that are required to intercept a group of moving targets while avoiding contacts with dynamic obstacles...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781538626795
In this paper we consider the problem of cooperative control of a swarm of autonomous heterogeneous mobile agents that are required to intercept a group of moving targets while avoiding contacts with dynamic obstacles. Traditionally these type of problems are solved by decomposing the solution into several sub problems: targets assignments, coordinated interception control, motion planning and motion control. In this paper we present a simultaneous solution to these problems based on the Probabilistic Navigation Function (PNF). The proposed solution considers uncertainties in the targets and obstacles locations. such that the locations and geometries of the targets and obstacles are given by Gaussian probability distributions. These probabilities are convoluted with the agents', obstacles' and targets' geometries to provide a Global Probability Navigation Function - phi. The PNF provides an analytic solution, and guarantees a simultaneous interception of all targets while limiting the risk of the agents to a given value. The complexity of the solution is linear with the number of targets and agents, and therefore is not limited to small problems. Although the solution provided by the PNF is not optimal, it provides simple and efficient solution, making it suitable for a large range of real time applications.
Recent developments of a novel electromagnetic tactile sensors have prompted requirements to investigate the mutual inductance between a micro planar coil and a non-coaxial planar coil. To realize miniaturization desi...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781509060009
Recent developments of a novel electromagnetic tactile sensors have prompted requirements to investigate the mutual inductance between a micro planar coil and a non-coaxial planar coil. To realize miniaturization design for robot applications, the ratio of pitch to radius for planar spiral coil is over 20%. In this paper, an extended formula is proposed for mutual inductance calculation of energy-transferring component which consists of two micro planar spiral coils sandwiched between two substrates for tactile sensor. The calculated results have higher accuracy than previous methods and it can quickly determine the mutual coupling of two planar coils that have different relative positions and distance between them. This new calculation method provides a convenient and useful tool for determining the mutual inductance of micro planar spiral coil with high ratio of pitch to radius. The theory has been favorably tested by finite-element analysis and compared with predecessors' research.
In this work, we present a thermally-controlled coiled polymeric wire as a novel variable stiffness element for robotics applications. We characterized the stiffness behavior of a single twisted nylon wire with 1 mm d...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781509060009
In this work, we present a thermally-controlled coiled polymeric wire as a novel variable stiffness element for robotics applications. We characterized the stiffness behavior of a single twisted nylon wire with 1 mm diameter at different operating temperatures between 25 degrees C to 50 degrees C. We observed a linear relationship between the temperature and the stiffness of the nylon wire. This is promising since it would facilitate straightforward adjustment of spring behavior in variable stiffness actuated systems. In order to see the stiffness modulation through temperature change, we conducted dynamic tests on a single joint mechanism with two nylon springs connected in an antagonistic configuration. Specifically, the nylon springs were immersed in water and the temperature was controlled using a Peltier cell. Experimental results indicate that the natural frequency and the damping ratio of the second order system are proportional and inversely proportional to the temperature, respectively.
In order to enable robot systems to solve challenging tasks autonomously, it is sufficient to provide visual perception systems, which can solve different recognition tasks. The work presented here is designed for mai...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781509060009
In order to enable robot systems to solve challenging tasks autonomously, it is sufficient to provide visual perception systems, which can solve different recognition tasks. The work presented here is designed for maintenance applications which are very similar to (dis-) assembly tasks. Therefore, we describe a novel perception strategy using RGBD data to get the required information for manipulation planning, like object class, position and geometric appearance. To handle this problem, well-known segmentation and recognition algorithms are used and task-specifically allocated. The system works with different levels of detail. On the one hand, it is possible to fit geometric primitives related to the different components. On the other hand, classifiers are used to assign the corresponding object semantic. Combining this information in a scene analysis allows the creation of a relational graph, which is further used for manipulation planning. All methods are explained and experimental validated.
The Catapult project has brought the power and performance of FPGA-based reconfigurable computing to Microsoft’s hyperscale datacenters, accelerating major production cloud applications such as Bing web sea...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781509065431
The Catapult project has brought the power and performance of FPGA-based reconfigurable computing to Microsoft’s hyperscale datacenters, accelerating major production cloud applications such as Bing web search and Microsoft Azure, and enabling a new generation of machine learning and artificial intelligence applications. Catapult is now deployed in nearly every new server across the more than a million machines that make up the Microsoft hyperscale cloud.
The circuit behaviour in Adiabatic logic and FinFET Technology is studied in detail in the literature so as to improve the ultralow power design. The energy saved by adiabatic logic using FinFET is significant compare...
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