We analyze the behavior of redundant robots when the joint motion is generated by inverting task velocity commands through a kinematic control scheme. Depending on the chosen inversion scheme, the robot motion is subject to differential constraints that may or may not be integrable. Accordingly, we give a classification in terms of holonomic, partially nonholonomic, and completely nonholonomic ...

Estimating a robot’s reachable workspace is a fundamental problem in robotics. For simple kinematic chains within an empty environment this computation can be relatively straightforward. For mobile kinematic structures and cluttered environments, the problem becomes more challenging. An efficient probabilistic method for workspace estimation is developed by applying a hierarchical strategy and ...

This paper describes the problem of designing control laws for path following robots, including two types of nonholonomic mobile manipulators. Due to a cascade structure of the motion equation, a backstepping procedure is used to achieve motion along a desired path. The control algorithm consists of two simultaneously working controllers: the kinematic controller, solving motion constraints, an...

Stereoscopic vision is a capability that supports the ability of robots to interact with visually complex environments. Epipolar geometry captures the projective relationship between the cameras in a stereo vision system, assisting in the reconstruction of three-dimensional information. However, a basic problem arises for robots with active vision systems whose cameras move with respect to each...

This paper addresses the problem of hand-eye coordination and, more specifically, tool-eye recalibration of humanoid robots. Inspired by results from neuroscience, a novel method to learn the forward kinematics model as part of the body schema of humanoid robots is presented. By making extensive use of techniques borrowed from the field of computer-aided geometry, the proposed Kinematic Bezier ...

A popular saying claims that "innovation is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." In this paper, we present a method for automating most of the perspiration involved in innovative design. We restrict our attention to innovative design processes which can be structured into three steps: discovery of a new technique, understanding it, and generalizing it to t the problem at hand. The method we de...

This paper presents the kinematic analysis and the development of a 4-degree-of-freedom serial-parallel mechanism for large commercial vehicle driving simulators. The degrees of freedom are selected according to the target maneuvers and the structure of human motion perception organs. Several kinematic properties of parallel part of the mechanism under study are investigated, including the inve...

Many mechanical systems can change dimension. r θ l k/2 k/2 y v u v m φ Body 2 1 m v v θ Rake θ l x We are primarily concerned with the problem of determining controllability and the motion planning problem. Slide 1 This motivational slide is intended to illustrate two main points: Changing dimensions is common, and There is a natural kinematic/dynamic dichotomy in such problems, which will be ...

This paper presents procedural guidelines for the construction of discontinuous state feedback controllers for driftless, kinematic nonholonomic systems, with extensions to a class of dynamic nonholonomic systems with drift. Given an ndimensional kinematic nonholonomic system subject to κ Pfaffian constraints, system states are partitioned into “leafwise” and “transverse,” based on the structur...

This article presents a novel parallel spherical mechanism called Argos with three rotational degrees of freedom. Design aspects of the first prototype built of the Argos mechanism are discussed. The direct kinematic problem is solved, leading always to four nonsingular configurations of the end effector for a given set of joint angles. The inverse-kinematic problem yields two possible configur...