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On-line Kollisionserkennung mit hierarchisch modellierten Hindernissen für ein Mehrarm-Robotersystem
(1991)
Dieses Kapitel gliedert sich in drei Teile. Zuerst wird die Vorgehensweise in dieser Diplomarbeit zusammengefaßt. Dann folgen die gewonnenen Schlußfolgerungen mit einer Bewertung der verglichenen Ansätze. Der letzte Teil ist ein Ausblick auf die möglichen Anwendungen der Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit. Methodik Bei der Aufgabe, eine on-line Kollisionserkennung mit hierarchisch modellierten Hindernissen für ein Mehrarm-Robotersystem zu untersuchen, wurden folgende Schritte vorgenommen: " Klassifizierung der bisherigen Ansätze zur Beschleunigung der Kollisionserkennung mit einem Arm. Dabei wurde unterschieden zwischen dem Einsatz-Zeitpunkt und der Methode der Ansätze. " Modifikation des Weltmodells der Kollisionserkennung für den Einsatz von mehreren Roboterarmen. Kollisionsklassen wurden in einer formalen Darstellung eingeführt und ihre Eigenschaften betrachtet. " Untersuchung der Approximation von Objekten (z. B. Armsegmente und Hindernisse) durch Primitive. Dabei wurden Algorithmen zur Berechnung der Approximationen entworfen und implementiert. Unterschiedliche Strategien zur Abstandsberechnung mit Primitiven-Approximationen wurden entwickelt. " Untersuchung und Erweiterung der hierarchischen Modellierung für den Einsatz bei bewegten Objekten (wie z. B. Roboterarmen). Dazu wurden eine on-line Aktualisierung der Geometrie und eine Auswahl der optimalen Baumstruktur eingesetzt. " Implementierung der bisherigen und eigenen Beschleunigungs-Ansätze. Für die Durchführung von Experimenten wurden die Ansätze in ein Simulationssystem eingebunden und das Simulationssystem erweitert. " Vergleich und Bewertung der Beschleunigungs-Ansätze durch Messung von Laufzeiten und Qualität der resultierenden Abstandsvektoren. Untersuchung anderer einflußnehmender Parameter, wie z. B. der Sicherheitsabstand oder die Frequenz (Schrittweite) der Kollisionserkennung. Schlußfolgerungen Die Untersuchung der implementierten Ansätze zur on-line Kollisionserkennung erlaubt folgende Bewertung und Folgerungen: " Die on-line Kollisionserkennung mit Abstandsvektoren für mehrere Arme ist bei der Verwendung der entsprechenden Beschleunigungs-Ansätze möglich. Die Berechnungszeit pro Bewegungsschritt liegt im Bereich von wenigen Millisekunden. " Die eingeführte Unterteilung der Umwelt in Kollisionsklassen schafft einen einfachen Mechanismus zur Kollisionserkennung in Szenen mit mehreren bewegten Objekten. Die Kollisionsklassen ermöglichen eine systematische Kollisionserkennung für ein Mehrarm-Robotersystem. " Der Vergleich der Primitiven-Approximationen zeigt, daß der ausschließliche Einsatz der Bounding-Box als Primitiv zu besseren Ergebnissen führt als der Einsatz von mehreren Primitiven wie z. B. in [Adolphs]. Die Verbesserungen betreffen den Aufwand der Abstandsberechnung und die Qualität des Abstandsvektors. " Schon bei wenigen Objekten empfiehlt sich eine hierarchische Darstellung zur Beschleunigung der Kollisionserkennung, da sie zu sehr schnellen Abstandsberechnungen führt. Vor allem bei Szenen mit vielen Objekten ist eine hierarchische Darstellung unverzichtbar. " Durch das neue Konzept der dynamischen Hierarchien ist eine hierarchische Modellierung auch für bewegte Objekte möglich. Die dynamischen Hierarchien garantieren eine optimale Darstellung und ermöglichen eine relativ genaue Modellierung des Roboterarms. Bei der Kollisionserkennung für mehrere Roboterarme ist durch den Einsatz von dynamischen Hierarchien ein Beschleunigungsfaktor von 100 gegenüber dem einfachen Verfahren erreicht worden. Damit ist eine on-line Anwendung möglich. Ausblick Aufbauend auf den hier erzielten Ergebnissen sind folgende Anwendungen denkbar: " Eine on-line Bahnplanung basierend auf den berechneten Abstandsvektoren ist möglich. Von Punkt zu Punkt geplante Bahnen können mit Hilfe der Abstandsvektoren modifiziert und Ausweichtrajektorien generiert werden. " Die Potential-Feld-Methode zur lokalen Bahnplanung kann aufgrund den on-line berechneten Abstandsvektoren angewendet werden. " Auch exakte Abstände können schnell berechnet werden. Diese Abstandsberechnung wird effizient durch die Kombination der dynamischen Hierarchien mit einer A*-Suche. " Die schnelle Abstandsberechnung kann auch für andere Gebiete eingesetzt werden. Beispiele dafür sind der Aufbau von Konfigurations-Räumen oder die Layout-Planung. " Bei zu handhabenden Objekten, wie z. B. Werkstücke, kann das Konzept der Kollisionsklassen einfach um einen dynamischen Wechsel erweitert werden. Dabei wechselt z. B. ein Werkstück, wenn es von dem Arm gegriffen wird, die Klasse.
For the online collision detection with a multi-arm robot a fast method for computing the so-called collision vector is presented. Manipulators and obstacles are modelled by sets of convex polytopes. Known distance algorithms serve as a foundation. To speed up the collision detection dynamic obstacles are approximated by geometric primitives and organized in hierarchies. On-line, the here introduced Dynamic Hierarchies are adjusted to the current arm configuration. A comparison with previous methods shows an increased acceleration of the computations.
Four different initialization methods for parallel Branch-and-bound algorithms are described and compared with reference to several criteria. A formal analysis of their idle times and efficiency follows. It indicates that the efficiency of three methods depends on the branching factor of the search tree. Furthermore, the fourth method offers the best efficiency of the overall algorithm when a centralized OPEN set is used. Experimental results by a PRAM simulation support these statements.
This paper presents fill algorithms for boundary-defined regions in raster graphics. The algorithms require only a constant size working memory. The methods presented are based on the so-called "seed fill" algorithms using the internal connectivity of the region with a given inner point. Basic methods as well as additional heuristics for speeding up the algorithm are described and verified. For different classes of regions, the time complexity of the algorithms is compared using empirical results.
Zur Planung und Steuerung von komplexen rechnerintegrierten Fertigungssystemen (CIM) ist die Abarbeitung vieler extrem aufwendiger Algorithmen notwendig. Aus dem Bereich der Fertigungssteuerung zählt die Generierung von Maschinenbelegungsplänen (scheduling) dazu. Zur Steigerung der Lösungsgeschwindigkeit bzw. zum Erreichen exakter Ergebnisse bietet sich der massive Einsatz von Rechenparallelität an. Mit Parallelrechnern ist durch die gleichzeitige Verwendung von vielen Prozessoren potentiell eine sehr große Leistungssteigerung zu erreichen. Dafür muß jedoch die vorhandene Parallelität effektiv genutzt werden. Die dazu erforderliche Verteilung der anstehenden Arbeit auf eine große Menge von Prozessoren heißt Lastverteilung und stellt den Kern dieser Arbeit dar. Als allgemeiner Algorithmus zur Lösung kombinatorischer Optimierungs-probleme wird das Branch-and-bound-Verfahren eingesetzt und auf fein-körnigen Parallelrechnerarchitekturen ausgeführt. Zur Lastverteilung werden folgende drei Ansätze verfolgt und untersucht: " Statische Lastverteilung: Es werden mehrere Methoden zur Initialisierung der Prozessoren, welche vor dem eigentlichen Optimierungsalgorithmus ausgeführt werden, analysiert. Es zeigt sich, daß sich die statische Last-verteilung überproportional stark auf die Laufzeit des nachfolgenden Branch-and-bound-Algorithmus auswirkt. Es ist daher wichtig, der bisher unterschätzten statischen Lastverteilung für die parallele Baumsuche mit realen Problemstellungen, besondere Aufmerksamkeit zu schenken. " Dynamische Lastverteilung: Es wird ein vereinfachtes, gut skalierbares Flüssigkeitsmodell als erste synchrone lokale Lastverteilung entwickelt, welche besonders für Parallelrechner mit kurzer Verzögerungszeit beim Aufbau von Kommunikationsverbindungen effizient ist. Die Methode wird mit dem bekannten, aus dem Asynchronen übertragenen, Mittelungs-Ansatz verglichen. Zum analytischen Vergleich wird als ein realistischeres Aufwandsmaß die Kommunikationsmenge statt der üblichen Anzahl von Kommunikationsschritte verwendet. Der in der Prozessoranzahl bisher benötigte quadratische Zeitaufwand wird durch das Flüssigkeitsmodell auf einen linearen Aufwand reduziert, wobei das Flüssigkeitsmodell auch bzgl. der konstanten Zeitfaktoren signifikant effizienter ist. " Implizite Lastverteilung: Zur Vermeidung von Wartezeiten der unbe-teiligten Prozessoren während der Lastverteilung wird der Lastverteilungs-prozeß mit dem Branch-and-bound-Prozeß verschmolzen. Das neuartige Konzept der k-Expansion unterstützt eine automatische Lastverteilung und approximiert eine globale Suchstrategie. Zur Validierung der Ergebnisse werden Simulationen und Experimente mit einem Satz von Benchmark-Problemen durchgeführt. Der zugrunde liegende SIMD-Rechner ist eine MasPar MP-1 mit 16.384 Prozessoren in einem 2- dimensionalen Torus. Als exemplarische, NP-harte Anwendungsdomäne werden statische, non-operationale Planungsprobleme betrachtet.
Load balancing is one of the central problems that have to be solved in parallel computation. Here, the problem of distributed, dynamic load balancing for massive parallelism is addressed. A new local method, which realizes a physical analogy to equilibrating liquids in multi-dimensional tori or hypercubes, is presented. It is especially suited for communication mechanisms with low set-up to transfer ratio occurring in tightly-coupled or SIMD systems. By successive shifting single load elements to the direct neighbors, the load is automatically transferred to lightly loaded processors. Compared to former methods, the proposed Liquid model has two main advantages. First, the task of load sharing is combined with the task of load balancing, where the former has priority. This property is valuable in many applications and important for highly dynamic load distribution. Second, the Liquid model has high efficiency. Asymptotically, it needs O(D . K . Ldiff ) load transfers to reach the balanced state in a D-dimensional torus with K processors per dimension and a maximum initial load difference of Ldiff . The Liquid model clearly outperforms an earlier load balancing approach, the nearest-neighbor-averaging. Besides a survey of related research, analytical results within a formal framework are derived. These results are validated by worst-case simulations in one-and two-dimensional tori with up to two thousand processors.
The paper presents a novel approach to parallel motion planning for robot manipulators in 3D workspaces. The approach is based on a randomized parallel search algorithm and focuses on solving the path planning problem for industrial robot arms working in a reasonably cluttered workspace. The path planning system works in the discretized configuration space which needs not to be represented explicitly. The parallel search is conducted by a number of rule-based sequential search processes, which work to nd a path connecting the initial configuration to the goal via a number of randomly generated subgoal configurations. Since the planning performs only on-line collision tests with proper proximity information without using pre-computed information, the approach is suitable for planning problems with multirobot or dynamic environments. The implementation has been carried out on the parallel virtual machine (PVM) of a cluster of SUN4 workstations and SGI machines. The experimental results have shown that the approach works well for a 6-dof robot arm in a reasonably cluttered environment, and that parallel computation increases the efficiency of motion planning significantly.
We have presented a novel approach to parallel motion planning for robot manipulators in 3D workspaces. The approach is based on arandomized parallel search algorithm and focuses on solving the path planning problem for industrial robot arms working in a reasonably cluttered workspace. The path planning system works in the discretized con guration space, which needs not to be represented explicitly. The parallel search is conducted by a number of rule-based sequential search processes, which work to find a path connecting the initial con guration to the goal via a number of randomly generated subgoal con gurations. Since the planning performs only on-line collision tests with proper proximity information without using pre-computed information, the approach is suitable for planning problems with multirobot or dynamic environments. The implementation has been carried outontheparallel virtual machine (PVM) of a cluster of SUN4 workstations and SGI machines. The experimental results have shown that the approach works well for a 6-dof robot arm in a reasonably cluttered environment, and that parallel computation increases the e ciency of motion planning signi cantly.
One of the many features needed to support the activities of autonomous systems is the ability of motion planning. It enables robots to move in their environment securely and to accomplish given tasks. Unfortunately, the control loop comprising sensing, planning, and acting has not yet been closed for robots in dynamic environments. One reason involves the long execution times of the motion planning component. A solution for this problem is offered by the use of highly computational parallelism. Thus, an important task is the parallelization of existing motion planning algorithms for robots so that they are suitable for highly computational parallelism. In several cases, completely new algorithms have to be designed, so that a parallelization is feasible. In this survey, we review recent approaches to motion planning using parallel computation.
Die Bewegungsplanung für Industrieroboter ist eine notwendige Voraussetzung, damit sich autonome Systeme kollisionsfrei durch die Umwelt bewegen können. Die Berücksichtigung von dynamischen Hindernissen zur Laufzeit erfordert allerdings leistungsfähige Algorithmen, zur Lösung dieser Aufgabenstellung in Echtzeit. Eine Möglichkeit zur Beschleunigung der Algorithmen ist der effiziente Einsatz von skalierbarer Parallelverarbeitung. Die softwaretechnische Umsetzung kann aber nur dann erfolgreich sein, wenn ein Parallelrechner zur Verfügung steht, der einen hohen Datendurchsatz bei geringer Latenzzeit bietet. Darüber hinaus muß dieser Parallelrechner unter vertretbarem Aufwand bedienbar sein und ein gutes Preisleistungsverhältnis aufweisen, damit die Parallelverarbeitung verstärkt in der Industrie zum Einsatz kommt. In diesem Artikel wird ein Workstation-Cluster auf der Basis von neun Standard- PCs vorgestellt, die über eine spezielle Kommunikationskarte miteinander vernetzt sind. In den einzelnen Abschnitten werden die gesammelten Erfahrungen bei der Inbetriebnahme, Systemadministration und Anwendung geschildert. Als Beispiel für eine Anwendung auf diesem Cluster wird ein paralleler Bewegungsplaner für Industrieroboter beschrieben.
This paper presents the different possibilities for parallel processing in robot control architectures. At the beginning, we shortly review the historic development of control architectures. Then, a list of requirements for control architectures is set up from a parallel processing point of view. As our main topic, we identify the levels of parallel processing in robot control architectures. With each level of parallelism, examples for a typical robot control architecture are presented. Finally, a list of keywords is provided for each previous work we refer to.
Due to continuously increasing demands in the area of advanced robot control, it became necessary to speed up the computation. One way to reduce the computation time is to distribute the computation onto several processing units. In this survey we present different approaches to parallel computation of robot kinematics and Jacobian. Thereby, we discuss both the forward and the reverse problem. We introduce a classification scheme and classify the references by this scheme.
One of the many features needed to support the activities of autonomous systems is the ability of motion planning. It enables robots to move in their environment securely and to accomplish given tasks. Unfortunately, the control loop comprising sensing, planning, and acting has not yet been closed for robots in dynamic environments. One reason involves the long execution times of the motion planning component. A solution for this problem is offered by the use of highly computational parallelism. Thus, an important task is the parallelization of existing motion planning algorithms for robots so that they are suitable for highly computational parallelism. In several cases, completely new algorithms have to be designed, so that a parallelization is feasible. In this survey, we review recent approaches to motion planning using parallel computation. As a classification scheme, we use the structure given by the different approaches to the robot's motion planning. For each approach, the available parallel processing methods are discussed. Each approach is uniquely assigned a class. Finally, for each referenced research work, a list of keywords is given.
We present a parallel path planning method that is able to automatically handle multiple goal configurations as input. There are two basic approaches, goal switching and bi-directional search, which are combined in the end. Goal switching dynamically selects a fa-vourite goal depending on some distance function. The bi-directional search supports the backward search direction from the goal to the start configuration, which is probably faster. The multi-directional search with goal switching combines the advantages of goal switching and bi-directional search. Altogether, the planning system is enabled to select one of the pref-erable goal configuration by itself. All concepts are experimentally validated for a set of benchmark problems consisting of an industrial robot arm with six degrees of freedom in a 3D environment.
Es wird die Aufgabe der vollständigen räumlichen Abdeckung von Regionen in durch mobile Roboter betrachtet. Da-bei können die Regionen in vollständig, teilweise oder nicht bekannten Umgebungen liegen. Zur Lösung wird ein Verfahren aus der Computer-grafik zum Füllen von Bildregionen zugrunde gelegt. Das Verfahren hat eine lokale Sichtweise und läßt somit den Einsatz von Sensordaten und das Auftreten von unvorhergesehenen Hindernissen zu. Die Regionen können durch Karten off-line vorgegeben sein oder durch Sensordaten on-line aufgebaut werden. Dennoch ist eine vollständige und genau einma-lige Flächenbearbeitung garantiert. Dies wird an Beispielen in einer graphischen Visualisierung der Realzeit-Steuerung des Roboters validiert.
Anwendungen effizienter Verfahren in Automation - Universität Karlsruhe auf der SPS97 in Nürnberg -
(1998)
This paper discusses the problem of automatic off-line programming and motion planning for industrial robots. At first, a new concept consisting of three steps is proposed. The first step, a new method for on-line motion planning is introduced. The motion planning method is based on the A*-search algorithm and works in the implicit configuration space. During searching, the collisions are detected in the explicitly represented Cartesian workspace by hierarchical distance computation. In the second step, the trajectory planner has to transform the path into a time and energy optimal robot program. The practical application of these two steps strongly depends on the method for robot calibration with high accuracy, thus, mapping the virtual world onto the real world, which is discussed in the third step.
This paper presents a new approach to parallel motion planning for industrial robot arms with six degrees of freedom in an on-line given 3D environment. The method is based on the A*-search algorithm and needs no essential off-line computations. The algorithm works in an implicitly descrete configuration space. Collisions are detected in the cartesian workspace by hierarchical distance computation based on the given CAD model. By decomposing the 6D configuration space into hypercubes and cyclically mapping them onto multiple processing units, a good load distribution can be achieved. We have implemented the parallel motion planner on a workstation cluster with 9 PCs and tested the planner for several benchmark environments. With optimal discretisation, the new approach usually shows linear, and sometimes even superlinear speedups. In on-line provided environments with static obstacles, the parallel planning times are only a few seconds.
A practical distributed planning and control system for industrial robots is presented. The hierarchical concept consists of three independent levels. Each level is modularly implemented and supplies an application interface (API) to the next higher level. At the top level, we propose an automatic motion planner. The motion planner is based on a best-first search algorithm and needs no essential off-line computations. At the middle level, we propose a PC-based robot control architecture, which can easily be adapted to any industrial kinematics and application. Based on a client/server-principle, the control unit estab-lishes an open user interface for including application specific programs. At the bottom level, we propose a flexible and modular concept for the integration of the distributed motion control units based on the CAN bus. The concept allows an on-line adaptation of the control parameters according to the robot's configuration. This implies high accuracy for the path execution and improves the overall system performance.
We present a parallel control architecture for industrial robot cells. It is based on closed functional components arranged in a flat communication hierarchy. The components may be executed by different processing elements, and each component itself may run on multiple processing elements. The system is driven by the instructions of a central cell control component. We set up necessary requirements for industrial robot cells and possible parallelization levels. These are met by the suggested robot control architecture. As an example we present a robot work cell and a component for motion planning, which fits well in this concept.
This paper is based on a path planning approach we reported earlier for industrial robot arms with 6 degrees of freedom in an on-line given 3D environment. It has on-line capabilities by searching in an implicit and descrete configuration space and detecting collisions in the Cartesian workspace by distance computation based on the given CAD model. Here, we present different methods for specifying the C-space discretization. Besides the usual uniform and heuristic discretization, we investigate two versions of an optimal discretization for an user-predefined Cartesian resolution. The different methods are experimentally evaluated. Additionally, we provide a set of 3- dimensional benchmark problems for a fair comparison of path planner. For each benchmark, the run-times of our planner are between only 3 and 100 seconds on a Pentium PC with 133 MHz.
In this paper, the problem of path planning for robot manipulators with six degrees of freedom in an on-line provided three-dimensional environment is investigated. As a basic approach, the best-first algorithm is used to search in the implicit descrete configuration space. Collisions are detected in the Cartesian workspace by hierarchical distance computation based on the given CAD model. The basic approach is extended by three simple mechanisms and results in a heuristic hierarchical search. This is done by adjusting the stepsize of the search to the distance between the robot and the obstacles. As a first step, we show encouraging experimental results with two degrees of freedom for five typical benchmark problems.
This paper presents a new approach to parallel path planning for industrial robot arms with six degrees of freedom in an on-line given 3D environment. The method is based a best-first search algorithm and needs no essential off-line computations. The algorithm works in an implicitly discrete configuration space. Collisions are detected in the Cartesian workspace by hierarchical distance computation based on polyhedral models of the robot and the obstacles. By decomposing the 6D configuration space into hypercubes and cyclically mapping them onto multiple processing units, a good load distribution can be achieved. We have implemented the parallel path planner on a workstation cluster with 9 PCs and tested the planner for several benchmark environments. With optimal discretisation, the new approach usually shows very good speedups. In on-line provided environments with static obstacles, the parallel planning times are only a few seconds.
This paper presents a new approach to parallel motion planning for industrial robot arms with six degrees of freedom in an on-line given 3D environment. The method is based on the A-search algorithm and needs no essential off-line computations. The algorithm works in an implicitly descrete configuration space. Collisions are detected in the Cartesian workspace by hierarchical distance computation based on the given CAD model. By decomposing the 6D configuration space into hypercubes and cyclically mapping them onto multiple processing units, a good load distribution can be achieved. We have implemented the parallel motion planner on a workstation cluster with 9 PCs and tested the planner for several benchmark environments. With optimal discretisation, the new approach usually shows linear speedups. In on-line provided environments with static obstacles, the parallel planning times are only a few seconds.
Beim Greifen deformierbarer oder zerbrechlicher Werkstücke kommen der Greifgeschwindigkeit sowie der Greifkraft besondere Bedeutung zu. In dieser Arbeit wird eine universelle Steuerung für pneumatische Greifer beschrieben, die eine einfache Einstellung dieser Größen über zwei spannungsgesteuerte Proportionalventile gestattet. Diese Anordnung wird für eine Einflußanalyse von Greifkraft und Greifgeschwindigkeit beim Greifen von Kabeln und Kabelbäumen genutzt, welche sich als robust und unproblematisch erwiesen haben.
Manipulating deformable linear objects - Vision-based recognition of contact state transitions -
(1999)
A new and systematic approach to machine vision-based robot manipulation of deformable (non-rigid) linear objects is introduced. This approach reduces the computational needs by using a simple state-oriented model of the objects. These states describe the relation of the object with respect to an obstacle and are derived from the object image and its features. Therefore, the object is segmented from a standard video frame using a fast segmentation algorithm. Several object features are presented which allow the state recognition of the object while being manipulated by the robot.
The task of handling non-rigid one-dimensional objects by a robot manipulation system is investigated. To distinguish between different non-rigid object behaviors, five classes of deformable objects from a robotic point of view are proposed. Additionally, an enumeration of all possible contact states of one-dimensional objects with polyhedral obstacles is provided. Finally, the qualitative motion behavior of linear objects is analyzed for stable point contacts. Experiments with different materials validate the analytical results.
This paper deals with the robust manipulation of deformable linear objects such as hoses or wires. We propose manipulation based on thequalitative contact state between the deformable workpiece and a rigid environment. First, we give an enumeration of possible contact states and discuss the main characteristics of each state. Second, we investigate the transitions which are possible between the contact states and derive criteria and conditions for each of them. Finally, we apply the concept of contact states and state transitions to the description of a typical assembly task.
This paper deals with the problem of picking-up deformable linear workpieces such as cables or ropes with an industrial robot. First, we give a motivation and problem definition. Based on a brief conceptual discussion of possible approaches we derive an algorithm for picking-up hanging deformable linear objects using two light barriers as sensor system. For this hardware, a skill-based approach is described and the parameters and major influence factors are discussed. In an experi- mental study, the feasibility and reliability under diverse conditions are investigated. The algorithm is found to be very reliable, if certain boundary conditions are met.
In this paper, we investigate the efficient simulation of deformable linear objects. Based on the state of the art, we extend the principle of minimizing the potential energy by considering plastic deformation and describe a novel approach for treating workpiece dynamics. The major influence factors on precision and computation time are identified and investigated experimentally. Finally, we discuss the usage of parallel processing in order to reduce the computation time.
A new problem for the automated off-line programming of industrial robot application is investigated. The Multi-Goal Path Planning is to find the collision-free path connecting a set of goal poses and minimizing e.g. the total path length. Our solution is based on an earlier reported path planner for industrial robot arms with 6 degrees-of-freedom in an on-line given 3D environment. To control the path planner, four different goal selection methods are introduced and compared. While the Random and the Nearest Pair Selection methods can be used with any path planner, the Nearest Goal and the Adaptive Pair Selection method are favorable for our planner. With the latter two goal selection methods, the Multi-Goal Path Planning task can be significantly accelerated, because they are able to automatically solve the simplest path planning problems first. Summarizing, compared to Random or Nearest Pair Selection, this new Multi-Goal Path Planning approach results in a further cost reduction of the programming phase.
Besides the work in the field of manipulating rigid objects, currently, there are several research and development activities going on in the field of manipulating non-rigid or deformable objects. Several papers have been published on international conferences in this field from various projects and countries. But there has been no comprehensive work which provides both a representative overview of the state of the art and identifies the important aspects in this field. Thus, we collected these activities and invited the corresponding working groups to present an overview of their research. Altogether, nineteen authors coming from Japan, Germany, Italy, Greece, United Kingdom, and Australia contributed to this book. Their research work covers all the different aspects that occur when manipulating deformable objects. The contributions can be characterized and grouped by the following four aspects: * object modeling and simulation, * planning and control strategies, * collaborative systems, and * applications and industrial experiences. In the following, we give a short motivation and overview of the single chapters of the book. The simulation of deformable objects is one way to approach the problem of manipulating these objects by robots. Based on a physical model of the object and the occurring constraints, the resulting object shape is calculated. In Chapter 2, Hirai presents an energy-based approach, where the internal energy under the geometric constraints is minimized. Frugoli et al. introduce a force-based approach, where the forces between discrete particles are minimized meeting given constraints. Finally, Remde and Henrich extend the energy-based approach to plastic deformation and give a solution of the inverse simulation problem. Even if the object behavior is predicted by simulation, there is still the question of how to control the robot during a single manipulation operation. An additional question is how to retrieve an overall plan for the concatenated manipulation operations. In Chapter 3, Wada investigates the control problems when positioning multiple points of a planar deformable object. McCarrager proposes a control scheme exploiting the flexibility, rather than minimizing it. Abegg et al. use a simple contact state model to describe typical assembly tasks and to derive robust manipulation primitives. Finally, Ono presents an automatic sewing system and suggests a strategy for unfolding fabric. In several manipulation tasks, it is reasonable to apply more than one robot. Especially in cases, where the deformable object has to take a specific shape. Since the robots working at the same object are influencing each other, different control algorithms have to be introduced. In Chapter 4, Yoshida and Kosuge investigates this problem for the task of bending a sheet of metal and exploits the relation ship between the static object deformation and the bending moments. Tanner and Kyriakopoulos regard the deformable object as underactuated mechanical system and make use of the existence of non-holonomic constraints. Both approaches model the deformable object as finite elements. All of the above aspects have their counterpart in different applications and industrial experiences. In Chapter 5, Rizzi et al. present test cases and applications of their approach to simulate the manipulation of fabric, wires, cables, and soft bags. Buckingham and Graham give an overview of two European projects processing white fish including locating, gripping, and deheading the fish. Maruyama outlines the three development phases of a robot system for performing outage-free maintenance of live-line power supply in Japan. Finally, Kämper presents the development of a flexible automatic cabling unit for the wiring of long-tube lighting with plug components.
Diese Arbeit skizziert einen allgemeinen Ansatz zur Montage deformierbarer linearer Werkstücke (wie Kabel, Drähte, Schläuche, Blattfedern) mit Industrierobotern. Hierzu werden insbesondere die folgenden zwei Aspekte betrachtetet. Erstens die zuverlässige Ausführung der Montage unter Berücksichtigung der Werkstückdeformation und anderer Unsicherheiten, zweitens die numerische Simulation des Werkstückverhaltens. Zur robusten Ausführung der Montage wird das aus der Montage starrer Werkstücke bekannte Konzept der Manipulation-Skills auf deformierbare Werkstücke übertragen. Bei der numerischen Simulation wird insbesondere die Bestimmung der Greifertrajektorie bei gegebener Aufgabenstellung betrachtet.
A new and systematic basic approach to force- and vision-based robot manipulation of deformable (non-rigid) linear objects is introduced. This approach reduces the computational needs by using a simple state-oriented model of the objects. These states describe the relation between the deformable and rigid obstacles, and are derived from the object image and its features. We give an enumeration of possible contact states and discuss the main characteristics of each state. We investigate the performance of robust transitions between the contact states and derive criteria and conditions for each of the states and for two sensor systems, i.e. a vision sensor and a force/torque sensor. This results in a new and task-independent approach in regarding the handling of deformable objects and in a sensor-based implementation of manipulation primitives for industrial robots. Thus, the usage of sensor processing is an appropriate solution for our problem. Finally, we apply the concept of contact states and state transitions to the description of a typical assembly task. Experimental results show the feasibility of our approach: A robot performs several contact state transitions which can be combined for solving a more complex task.
In this chapter, the quantitative numerical simulation of the behavior of deformable linear objects, such as hoses, wires and leaf springs is studied. We first give a short review of the physical approach and the basic solution principle. Then, we give a more detailed description of some key aspects: We introduce a novel approach concerning dynamics based on an algorithm very similar to the one used for (quasi-) static computation. Then, we look at the plastic workpiece deformation, involving a modified computation algorithm and a special representation of the workpiece shape. Then, we give alternative solutions for two key aspects of the algorithm, and investigate the problem of performing the workpiece simulation efficiently, i.e., with desired precision in a short time. In the end, we introduce the inverse modeling problem which must be solved when the gripper trajectory for a given task shall be generated.
This paper deals with the handling of deformable linear objects (DLOs), such as hoses, wires or leaf springs. It investigates the a priori knowledge about the 6-dimensional force/torque signal for a changing contact situation between a DLO and a rigid polyhedral obstacle. The result is a complete list, containing for each contact change the most significant combination of force/torque signal components together with a description of the expected signal curve. This knowledge enables the reliable detection of changes in the DLO contact situation and with it the implementation of sensor-based manipulation skills for all possible contact changes.
This article presents contributions in the field of path planning for industrial robots with 6 degrees of freedom. This work presents the results of our research in the last 4 years at the Institute for Process Control and Robotics at the University of Karlsruhe. The path planning approach we present works in an implicit and discretized C-space. Collisions are detected in the Cartesian workspace by a hierarchical distance computation. The method is based on the A* search algorithm and needs no essential off-line computation. A new optimal discretization method leads to smaller search spaces, thus speeding up the planning. For a further acceleration, the search was parallelized. With a static load distribution good speedups can be achieved. By extending the algorithm to a bidirectional search, the planner is able to automatically select the easier search direction. The new dynamic switching of start and goal leads finally to the multi-goal path planning, which is able to compute a collision-free path between a set of goal poses (e.g., spot welding points) while minimizing the total path length.
The vibration induced in a deformable object upon automatic handling by robot manipulators can often be bothersome. This paper presents a force/torque sensor-based method for handling deformable linear objects (DLOs) in a manner suitable to eliminate acute vibration. An adjustment-motion that can be attached to the end of an arbitrary end-effector's trajectory is employed to eliminate vibration of deformable objects. Differently from model-based methods, the presented sensor-based method does not employ any information from previous motions. The adjustment-motion is generated automatically by analyzing data from a force/torque sensor mounted on the robot wrist. Template matching technique is used to find out the matching point between the vibrational signal of the DLO and a template. Experiments are conducted to test the new method under various conditions. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of the sensor-based adjustment-motion.
The task of handling non-rigid one-dimensional objects by a robot manipulation system is investigated. Especially, approaches to calculate motions with specific behavior in point contacts between the object and environment are regarded. For single point contacts, motions based on generalized rotations solving the direct and inverse manipulation problem are investigated. The latter problem is additionally tackled by simple rotation and translation motions. For double and multiple point contacts, motions based on Splines are suggested. In experimental results with steel springs, the predicted and measured effect for each approach are compared.
Manipulating Deformable Linear Objects: Attachable Adjustment-Motions for Vibration Reduction
(2001)
This paper addresses the problem of handling deformable linear objects (DLOs) in a suitable way to avoid acute vibration. Different types of adjustment-motions that eliminate vibration of deformable objects and can be attached to the end of an arbitrary end-effector trajectory are presented. For describing the dynamics of deformable linear objects, the finite element method is used to derive the dynamic differential equations. Genetic algorithm is used to find the optimal adjustment motion for each simulation example. Experiments are conducted to verify the presented manipulating method.
Manipulating Deformable Linear Objects: Model-Based Adjustment-Motion for Vibration Reduction
(2001)
This paper addresses the problem of handling deformable linear objects (DLOs) in a suitable way to avoid acute vibration. An adjustment-motion that eliminates vibration of DLOs and can be attached to the end of any arbitrary end-effector's trajectory is presented, based on the concept of open-loop control. The presented adjustment-motion is a kind of agile end-effector motion with limited scope. To describe the dynamics of deformable linear objects, the finite element method is used to derive the dynamic differential equations. Genetic algorithm is used to find the optimal adjustment-motion for each simulation example. In contrast to previous approaches, the presented method can be treated as one of the manipulation skills and can be applied to different cases without major changes to the method.
The paper focuses on the problem of trajectory planning of flexible redundant robot manipulators (FRM) in joint space. Compared to irredundant flexible manipulators, FRMs present additional possibilities in trajectory planning due to their kinematics redundancy. A trajectory planning method to minimize vibration of FRMs is presented based on Genetic Algorithms (GAs). Kinematics redundancy is integrated into the presented method as a planning variable. Quadrinomial and quintic polynomials are used to describe the segments which connect the initial, intermediate, and final points in joint space. The trajectory planning of FRMs is formulated as a problem of optimization with constraints. A planar FRM with three flexible links is used in simulation. A case study shows that the method is applicable.
We present a system concept allowing humans to work safely in the same environment as a robot manipulator. Several cameras survey the common workspace. A look-up-table-based fusion algorithm is used to back-project directly from the image spaces of the cameras to the manipulator?s con-figuration space. In the look-up-tables both, the camera calibration and the robot geometry are implicitly encoded. For experiments, a conven-tional 6 axis industrial manipulator is used. The work space is surveyed by four grayscale cameras. Due to the limits of present robot controllers, the computationally expensive parts of the system are executed on a server PC that communicates with the robot controller via Ethernet.
Point-to-Point Trajectory Planning of Flexible Redundant Robot Manipulators Using Genetic Algorithms
(2001)
The paper focuses on the problem of point-to-point trajectory planning for flexible redundant robot manipulators (FRM) in joint space. Compared with irredundant flexible manipulators, a FRM possesses additional possibilities during point-to-point trajectory planning due to its kinematics redundancy. A trajectory planning method to minimize vibration and/or executing time of a point-to-point motion is presented for FRM based on Genetic Algorithms (GAs). Kinematics redundancy is integrated into the presented method as planning variables. Quadrinomial and quintic polynomial are used to describe the segments that connect the initial, intermediate, and final points in joint space. The trajectory planning of FRM is formulated as a problem of optimization with constraints. A planar FRM with three flexible links is used in simulation. Case studies show that the method is applicable.
Manipulating Deformable Linear Objects: Manipulation Skill for Active Damping of Oscillations
(2002)
While handling deformable linear objects (DLOs), such as hoses, wires or leaf springs, with an industrial robot at high speed, unintended and undesired oscillations that delay further operations may occur. This paper analyzes oscillations based on a simple model with one degree of freedom (DOF) and presents a method for active open-loop damping. Different ways to interpret an oscillating DLO as a system with 1 DOF lead to translational and rotational adjustment motions. Both were implemented as a manipulation skill with a sepa-rate program that can be executed immediately after any robot motion. We showed how these manipulation skills can generate the needed adjustment motions automatically based on the readings of a wrist-mounted force/torque sensor. Experiments demonstrated the effectiveness under various conditions.
Es handelt sich um den Aufbau des ersten Roboter-gestützten Systems zum Fräsen an der lateralen Schädelbasis. Durch Rückkopplung der Sensordaten lässt sich ein menschähnliches Fräsen nachahmen. Mehr noch: Es besteht die Möglichkeit der automatisierten Detektion der Dura mater durch Analyse der Standardabweichung der Kräfte, da die Dura mater dämpfend auf den Fräser wirkt. Mit dem Roboter ist es möglich, ein exaktes Implantatbett im Bereich der lateralen Schädelbasis auszufräsen.