In this paper, we studied numerically both kinematic and dynamic models of a biologically inspired mammal-like octopod robot walking with a tetrapod gait. Three different nonlinear oscillators were used to drive the robot’s legs working as central pattern generators. In addition, also a new, relatively simple and efficient model was proposed and investigated. The introduced model of the gait ge...

Advanced manufacturing technologies, and programmable machines such as industrial robots, are used to increase productivity and quality for competitiveness on a global market. Development of increasingly flexible manufacturing systems has resulted in an increasing importance of software aspects, both on a system level and for efficient interaction with human operators. Trends toward providing c...

The PUMA 560 robot has been well studied and used in countless experiments over many years and in many laboratories. However, it remains a challenge to assemble the complete data needed for model-based control of the robot. This paper presents a numerical comparison of kinematic, dynamic and electrical parameters for the PUMA 560 robot which have been reported in the literature. For the rst tim...

We propose a hierarchical scheme for rapid learning of context dependent "skills" that is based on the recently introduced "Parameterized SelfOrganizing Map" ("PSOM"). The underlying idea is to first invest some learning effort to specialize the system into a rapid learner for a more restricted range of contexts. The specialization is carried out by a prior "investment learning stage", during w...

There is presented a design of a sliding mode position control algorithm for the PUMA 560 robot position control. The Lagrange-Euler model of a robot is used for calculation of robot law. Computer simulations of the robot with the sliding mode control were performed. The presented control algorithm shows a good robustness with respect to the robot model uncertainty.

When referring to the term “industrial robot” in the following, we mean universal, programmable processing machines, which are usually incorporated in industrial manufacturing processes. Industrial robots are multi-functional handling automata which consist of a set of more or less rigid members, interconnected to a kinematic chain by rotational or prismatic joints. One end of this chain repres...

In this paper we discuss how the jamming phenomenon of granular materials might be exploited to achieve programmable matter – a robotic material that permits user specified shape changes. Opportunities for applying this research to the field of architecture are discussed. Experimental results are presented, which reveal the performance of a wide variety of materials under jamming conditions.

This paper presents an integrated task planning and control approach for manipulating a nonholonomic cart by mobile manipulators. The task considered in this study is to manipulate a nonholonomic cart to perform certain tasks such as pushing the cart along a straight line, making a turn at a corner, or tracking a sine wave. The cart manipulation task fully integrates the motion and force planni...