The accuracy of an articulated torque analysis influences the comprehensive performances of heavy-duty multi-legged robots. Currently, the extremal estimation method and some complex methods are employed to calculate ...The accuracy of an articulated torque analysis influences the comprehensive performances of heavy-duty multi-legged robots. Currently, the extremal estimation method and some complex methods are employed to calculate the articulated torques, which results in a large safety margin or a large number of calculations. To quickly obtain accurate articulated torques, an analysis method for the articulated torque is presented for an electrically driven heavy-duty six-legged robot. First, the rearmost leg that experiences the maximum normal contact force is confirmed when the robot transits a slope. Based on the ant-type and crab-type tripod gaits, the formulas of classical mechanics and MATLAB software are employed to theoretically analyze the relevant static torques of the joints. With the changes in the joint angles for the abductor joint, hip joint, and knee joint, variable tendency charts and extreme curves are obtained for the static articulated torques. Meanwhile, the maximum static articulated torques and the corresponding poses of the robot are also obtained. According to the poses of the robot under the maximum static articulated torques, ADAMS software is used to carry out a static simulation analysis. Based on the relevant simulation curves of the articulated torques, the maximum static articulated torques are acquired. A comparative analysis of the maximum static articulated torques shows that the theoretical calculation values are higher than the static simulation values, and the maximum error value is approximately 10%. The proposed method lays a foundation for quickly determining accurate articulated torques to develop heavy-duty six-legged robots.展开更多
The electrically driven six-legged robot with high carrying capacity is an indispensable equipment for planetary exploration, but it hinders its practicability because of its low efficiency of carrying energy. Meanwhi...The electrically driven six-legged robot with high carrying capacity is an indispensable equipment for planetary exploration, but it hinders its practicability because of its low efficiency of carrying energy. Meanwhile, its load capacity also affects its application range. To reduce the power consumption, increase the load to mass ratio, and improve the stability of robot, the relationship between the walking modes and the forces of feet under the tripod gait are researched for an electrically driven heavy-duty six-legged robot. Based on the configuration characteristics of electrically driven heavy-duty six-legged, the typical walking modes of robot are analyzed. The mathematical models of the normal forces of feet are respectively established under the tripod gait of typical walking modes. According to the MATLAB software, the variable tendency charts are respectively gained for the normal forces of feet. The walking experiments under the typical tripod gaits are implemented for the prototype of electrically driven heavy-duty six-legged robot. The variable tendencies of maximum normal forces of feet are acquired. The comparison results show that the theoretical and experimental data are in the same trend. The walking modes which are most available to realize the average force of distribution of each foot are confirmed. The proposed method of analyzing the relationship between the walking modes and the forces of feet can quickly determine the optimal walking mode and gait parameters under the average distribution of foot force, which is propitious to develop the excellent heavy-duty multi-legged robots with the lower power consumption, larger load to mass ratio, and higher stability.展开更多
Current door-opening methods are mainly developed on tracked, wheeled and biped robots by applying multi-DOF manipulators and vision systems. However, door-opening methods for six-legged robots are seldom studied, esp...Current door-opening methods are mainly developed on tracked, wheeled and biped robots by applying multi-DOF manipulators and vision systems. However, door-opening methods for six-legged robots are seldom studied, especially using 0-DOF tools to operate and only force sensing to detect. A novel door-opening method for six-legged robots is developed and imple- mented to the six-parallel-legged robot. The kinematic model of the six-parallel-legged robot is established and the model of measuring the positional relationship between the robot and the door is proposed. The measurement model is completely based on only force sensing. The real- time trajectory planning method and the control strategy are designed. The trajectory planning method allows the maximum angle between the sagittal axis of the robot body and the normal line of the door plane to be 45°. A 0-DOF tool mounted to the robot body is applied to operate. By integrating with the body, the tool has 6 DOFs and enough workspace to operate. The loose grasp achieved by the tool helps release the inner force in the tool. Experiments are carried out to validate the method. The results show that the method is effective and robust in opening doors wider than 1 m. This paper proposes a novel door-opening method for six-legged robots, which notably uses a O-DOF tool and only force sensing to detect and open the door.展开更多
The electrically driven large-load-ratio six-legged robot with engineering capability can be widely used in outdoor and planetary exploration.However,due to the particularity of its parallel structure,the effective ut...The electrically driven large-load-ratio six-legged robot with engineering capability can be widely used in outdoor and planetary exploration.However,due to the particularity of its parallel structure,the effective utilization rate of energy is not high,which has become an important obstacle to its practical application.To research the power consumption characteristics of robot mobile system is beneficial to speed up it toward practicability.Based on the configuration and walking modes of robot,the mathematical model of the power consumption of mobile system is set up.In view of the tripod gait is often selected for the six-legged robots,the simplified power consumption model of mobile system under the tripod gait is established by means of reducing the dimension of the robot’s statically indeterminate problem and constructing the equal force distribution.Then,the power consumption of robot mobile system is solved under different working conditions.The variable tendencies of the power consumption of robot mobile system are respectively obtained with changes in the rotational angles of hip joint and knee joint,body height,and span.The articulated rotational zones and the ranges of body height and span are determined under the lowest power consumption.According to the walking experiments of prototype,the variable tendencies of the average power consumption of robot mobile system are respectively acquired with changes in duty ratio,body height,and span.Then,the feasibility and correctness of theory analysis are verified in the power consumption of robot mobile system.The proposed analysis method in this paper can provide a reference on the lower power research of the large-load-ratio multi-legged robots.展开更多
The equivalent mechanism of the system is often considered as one specific mechanism in most existing studies of multi-legged robots, however the equivalent mechanism is varying while the robot moves on the ground. Fo...The equivalent mechanism of the system is often considered as one specific mechanism in most existing studies of multi-legged robots, however the equivalent mechanism is varying while the robot moves on the ground. Four typical tripod period gaits of a radial symmetrical six-legged robot are analyzed. Similar to the metamorphic mechanism, the locomotion of multi-legged robot is considered as a series of varying hybrid serial-parallel mechanisms by assuming the constraints of the feet on the ground with hinges. One gait cycle is divided into several periods, and in different walking period there is a specific equivalent mechanism corresponding to it, and the walking process of multi-legged robot is composed by these series of equivalent mechanisms. Walking performance can be got by analyzing these series of equivalent mechanisms. Kinematics model of the equivalent mechanism is established, workspaces of equivalent mechanisms are illustrated by simulation and a concept of static stability workspace is proposed to evaluate the static stability of these four gaits. A new method to calculate the stride length of multi-legged robots is presented by analyzing the relationship between the workspace of two adjacent equivalent parallel mechanisms in one gait cycle. The stride lengths of four gaits are given by simulations. Comparison of stride length and static stability among these four typical tripod gaits are given. It has been proved that mixed gait and insect-wave gait II have better static stability than mammal kick-off gait and insect-wave gait I. Insect-wave gait II displays its advantage on stride length while the height of robot body lower than 87 mm, mammal kick-off gait has superiority on stride length while the height of robot body higher than 115 mm, and insect-wave gait I shows its shortcoming in stride length. The proposed method based on metamorphic theory and combining the footholds and body height of robot provides a new method to comprehensive analyze the performance of multi-legged robot.展开更多
Adaptive gaits for legged robots often requires force sensors installed on foot-tips,however impact,temperature or humidity can affect or even damage those sensors.Efforts have been made to realize indirect force esti...Adaptive gaits for legged robots often requires force sensors installed on foot-tips,however impact,temperature or humidity can affect or even damage those sensors.Efforts have been made to realize indirect force estimation on the legged robots using leg structures based on planar mechanisms.Robot Octopus III is a six-legged robot using spatial parallel mechanism（UP-2UPS） legs.This paper proposed a novel method to realize indirect force estimation on walking robot based on a spatial parallel mechanism.The direct kinematics model and the inverse kinematics model are established.The force Jacobian matrix is derived based on the kinematics model.Thus,the indirect force estimation model is established.Then,the relation between the output torques of the three motors installed on one leg to the external force exerted on the foot tip is described.Furthermore,an adaptive tripod static gait is designed.The robot alters its leg trajectory to step on obstacles by using the proposed adaptive gait.Both the indirect force estimation model and the adaptive gait are implemented and optimized in a real time control system.An experiment is carried out to validate the indirect force estimation model.The adaptive gait is tested in another experiment.Experiment results show that the robot can successfully step on a 0.2 m-high obstacle.This paper proposes a novel method to overcome obstacles for the six-legged robot using spatial parallel mechanism legs and to avoid installing the electric force sensors in harsh environment of the robot＇s foot tips.展开更多
Continuous-nondifferentiable terrains are extremely challenging for the environment adaption of six-legged robots. Previous researches have focused on gait planning methods to improve inherent ability of legged robots...Continuous-nondifferentiable terrains are extremely challenging for the environment adaption of six-legged robots. Previous researches have focused on gait planning methods to improve inherent ability of legged robots to walk over moderate terrains.However,most six-legged robots utilize relatively monotonic gait so that they still cannot well adapt tough terrains. As a result,the current legged robots easily get stuck and fall when encountering continuous-nondifferentiable terrains,such as stairs.Therefore,a method of gait switching is proposed so that six-legged robots can flexibly generate multiple gaits to adapt complex terrains. This study investigated the relationship between six-legged robot gait topologies and physical constraints,such as robot stability and robot-terrain interference. The proposed gait switcher can generate 0-6,1-5,2-4 and 3-3 gaits,which is instructed by the stability and interference criteria. Simulations and experiments were performed on a novel six-legged robot Hexa-XIII that succeeded climbing stairs over 45°. The effectiveness of the gait switching method is validated by the experiment results.展开更多
Walking on inclined terrains or slopes is challenging for multi-legged robots. Robots should be able to handle more strict constraints imposed by the physical system than they do on flat terrains, such as smaller leg ...Walking on inclined terrains or slopes is challenging for multi-legged robots. Robots should be able to handle more strict constraints imposed by the physical system than they do on flat terrains, such as smaller leg workspace and tighter stability margin. At the same time, robots need to autonomously generate constrained and stable motions to accommodate terrain inclination and unevenness. With regard to these issues, this paper provides a solution from two perspectives, mechanism design and planning methodology. The robot mechanism with a 1-DOF waist is firstly proposed to meet the requirements of the leg workspace and the static stability. After that, a step rolling planning scheme is introduced, in which the robot schedules its body planar 2D motion according to the human guidance and plans its elevation, roll, pitch as well as leg motions autonomously incorporating sensory feedbacks. The step rolling planning scheme ensures smooth and safe motion transitions from step to step.At last, simulations and experiments are carried out, demonstrating the effectiveness of our mechanical design and the proposed planning method.展开更多
Human tracking is an important issue for intelligent robotic control and can be used in many scenarios, such as robotic services and human-robot cooperation. Most of current human-tracking methods are targeted for mob...Human tracking is an important issue for intelligent robotic control and can be used in many scenarios, such as robotic services and human-robot cooperation. Most of current human-tracking methods are targeted for mobile/tracked robots, but few of them can be used for legged robots. Two novel human-tracking strategies, view priority strategy and distance priority strategy, are proposed specially for legged robots, which enable them to track humans in various complex terrains. View priority strategy focuses on keeping humans in its view angle arrange with priority, while its counterpart, distance priority strategy, focuses on keeping human at a reasonable distance with priority. To evaluate these strategies, two indexes（average and minimum tracking capability） are defined. With the help of these indexes, the view priority strategy shows advantages compared with distance priority strategy. The optimization is done in terms of these indexes, which let the robot has maximum tracking capability. The simulation results show that the robot can track humans with different curves like square, circular, sine and screw paths. Two novel control strategies are proposed which specially concerning legged robot characteristics to solve human tracking problems more efficiently in rescue circumstances.展开更多
Transit gait programming is a key problem for a multi-legged robot to climb automatically from the ground up the wall, as well as between wall intersections. In this paper, a new idea is put forward by which the compl...Transit gait programming is a key problem for a multi-legged robot to climb automatically from the ground up the wall, as well as between wall intersections. In this paper, a new idea is put forward by which the complex transit gait is decomposed into a sequence of two relatively simpler parts - single-leg motion and body pitching motion. An algorithm based on the above concept shows its feasibility and effectiveness in the graphic kinematics simulation.展开更多
Single-cell biomechanics and electrophysiology measuring tools have transformed biological research over the last few decades,which enabling a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of cellular behavior and function....Single-cell biomechanics and electrophysiology measuring tools have transformed biological research over the last few decades,which enabling a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of cellular behavior and function.Despite their high-quality information content,these single-cell measuring techniques suffer from laborious manual processing by highly skilled workers and extremely low throughput(tens of cells per day).Recently,numerous researchers have automated the measurement of cell mechanical and electrical signals through robotic localization and control processes.While these efforts have demonstrated promising progress,critical challenges persist,including human dependency,learning complexity,in-situ measurement,and multidimensional signal acquisition.To identify key limitations and highlight emerging opportunities for innovation,in this review,we comprehensively summarize the key steps of robotic technologies in single-cell biomechanics and electrophysiology.We also discussed the prospects and challenges of robotics and automation in biological research.By bridging gaps between engineering,biology,and data science,this work aims to stimulate interdisciplinary research and accelerate the translation of robotic single-cell technologies into practical applications in the life sciences and medical fields.展开更多
Underwater pipeline inspection plays a vital role in the proactive maintenance and management of critical marine infrastructure and subaquatic systems.However,the inspection of underwater pipelines presents a challeng...Underwater pipeline inspection plays a vital role in the proactive maintenance and management of critical marine infrastructure and subaquatic systems.However,the inspection of underwater pipelines presents a challenge due to factors such as light scattering,absorption,restricted visibility,and ambient noise.The advancement of deep learning has introduced powerful techniques for processing large amounts of unstructured and imperfect data collected from underwater environments.This study evaluated the efficacy of the You Only Look Once(YOLO)algorithm,a real-time object detection and localization model based on convolutional neural networks,in identifying and classifying various types of pipeline defects in underwater settings.YOLOv8,the latest evolution in the YOLO family,integrates advanced capabilities,such as anchor-free detection,a cross-stage partial network backbone for efficient feature extraction,and a feature pyramid network+path aggregation network neck for robust multi-scale object detection,which make it particularly well-suited for complex underwater environments.Due to the lack of suitable open-access datasets for underwater pipeline defects,a custom dataset was captured using a remotely operated vehicle in a controlled environment.This application has the following assets available for use.Extensive experimentation demonstrated that YOLOv8 X-Large consistently outperformed other models in terms of pipe defect detection and classification and achieved a strong balance between precision and recall in identifying pipeline cracks,rust,corners,defective welds,flanges,tapes,and holes.This research establishes the baseline performance of YOLOv8 for underwater defect detection and showcases its potential to enhance the reliability and efficiency of pipeline inspection tasks in challenging underwater environments.展开更多
Strategically coupling nanoparticle hybrids and internal thermosensitive molecular switches establishes an innovative paradigm for constructing micro/nanoscale-reconfigurable robots,facilitating energyefficient CO_(2)...Strategically coupling nanoparticle hybrids and internal thermosensitive molecular switches establishes an innovative paradigm for constructing micro/nanoscale-reconfigurable robots,facilitating energyefficient CO_(2) management in life-support systems of confined space.Here,a micro/nano-reconfigurable robot is constructed from the CO_(2) molecular hunters,temperature-sensitive molecular switch,solar photothermal conversion,and magnetically-driven function engines.The molecular hunters within the molecular extension state can capture 6.19 mmol g^(−1) of CO_(2) to form carbamic acid and ammonium bicarbonate.Interestingly,the molecular switch of the robot activates a molecular curling state that facilitates CO_(2) release through nano-reconfiguration,which is mediated by the temperature-sensitive curling of Pluronic F127 molecular chains during the photothermal desorption.Nano-reconfiguration of robot alters the amino microenvironment,including increasing surface electrostatic potential of the amino group and decreasing overall lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energy level.This weakened the nucleophilic attack ability of the amino group toward the adsorption product derivatives,thereby inhibiting the side reactions that generate hard-to-decompose urea structures,achieving the lowest regeneration temperature of 55℃ reported to date.The engine of the robot possesses non-contact magnetically-driven micro-reconfiguration capability to achieve efficient photothermal regeneration while avoiding local overheating.Notably,the robot successfully prolonged the survival time of mice in the sealed container by up to 54.61%,effectively addressing the issue of carbon suffocation in confined spaces.This work significantly enhances life-support systems for deep-space exploration,while stimulating innovations in sustainable carbon management technologies for terrestrial extreme environments.展开更多
At present,energy consumption is one of the main bottlenecks in autonomous mobile robot development.To address the challenge of high energy consumption in path planning for autonomous mobile robots navigating unknown ...At present,energy consumption is one of the main bottlenecks in autonomous mobile robot development.To address the challenge of high energy consumption in path planning for autonomous mobile robots navigating unknown and complex environments,this paper proposes an Attention-Enhanced Dueling Deep Q-Network(ADDueling DQN),which integrates a multi-head attention mechanism and a prioritized experience replay strategy into a Dueling-DQN reinforcement learning framework.A multi-objective reward function,centered on energy efficiency,is designed to comprehensively consider path length,terrain slope,motion smoothness,and obstacle avoidance,enabling optimal low-energy trajectory generation in 3D space from the source.The incorporation of a multihead attention mechanism allows the model to dynamically focus on energy-critical state features—such as slope gradients and obstacle density—thereby significantly improving its ability to recognize and avoid energy-intensive paths.Additionally,the prioritized experience replay mechanism accelerates learning from key decision-making experiences,suppressing inefficient exploration and guiding the policy toward low-energy solutions more rapidly.The effectiveness of the proposed path planning algorithm is validated through simulation experiments conducted in multiple off-road scenarios.Results demonstrate that AD-Dueling DQN consistently achieves the lowest average energy consumption across all tested environments.Moreover,the proposed method exhibits faster convergence and greater training stability compared to baseline algorithms,highlighting its global optimization capability under energy-aware objectives in complex terrains.This study offers an efficient and scalable intelligent control strategy for the development of energy-conscious autonomous navigation systems.展开更多
This paper presents the kinematic calibration of a novel six-legged walking machine tool comprising a six-legged mobile robot integrated with a parallel manipulator on the body.Each leg of the robot is a 2-universal-p...This paper presents the kinematic calibration of a novel six-legged walking machine tool comprising a six-legged mobile robot integrated with a parallel manipulator on the body.Each leg of the robot is a 2-universal-prismatic-spherical(UPS)and UP parallel mechanism,and the manipulator is a 6-PSU parallel mechanism.The error models of both subsystems are derived according to their inverse kinematics.The objective function for each kinematic limb is formulated as the inverse kinematic residual,i.e.,the deviation between the actual and computed joint coordinates.The hip center of each leg is first identified via sphere fitting,and the other kinematic parameters are identified by solving the objective function for each limb individually using the least-squares method.Thus,the kinematic parameters are partially decoupled,and the complexities of the error models are reduced.A calibration method is proposed for the legged robot to overcome the lack of a fixed base on the ground.A calibration experiment is conducted to validate the proposed method,where a laser tracker is used as the measurement equipment.The kinematic parameters of the entire robot are identified,and the motion accuracy of each leg and that of the manipulator are significantly improved after calibration.Validation experiments are performed to evaluate the positioning and trajectory errors of the six-legged walking machine tool.The results indicate that the kinematic calibration of the legs and manipulator improves not only the motion accuracy of each individual subsystem but also the cooperative motion accuracy among the subsystems.展开更多
基金supported by National Basic Research Program of China(973 Program, Grant No. 2013CB035502)International Science and Technology Cooperation Project with Russia (Grant No. 2010DFR70270)+2 种基金National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51275106)"111" Project (Grant No. B07018)Key Laboratory Opening Funding of Aerospace Mechanism and Control, China (Grant No. HIT. KLOF.2010057)
文摘The accuracy of an articulated torque analysis influences the comprehensive performances of heavy-duty multi-legged robots. Currently, the extremal estimation method and some complex methods are employed to calculate the articulated torques, which results in a large safety margin or a large number of calculations. To quickly obtain accurate articulated torques, an analysis method for the articulated torque is presented for an electrically driven heavy-duty six-legged robot. First, the rearmost leg that experiences the maximum normal contact force is confirmed when the robot transits a slope. Based on the ant-type and crab-type tripod gaits, the formulas of classical mechanics and MATLAB software are employed to theoretically analyze the relevant static torques of the joints. With the changes in the joint angles for the abductor joint, hip joint, and knee joint, variable tendency charts and extreme curves are obtained for the static articulated torques. Meanwhile, the maximum static articulated torques and the corresponding poses of the robot are also obtained. According to the poses of the robot under the maximum static articulated torques, ADAMS software is used to carry out a static simulation analysis. Based on the relevant simulation curves of the articulated torques, the maximum static articulated torques are acquired. A comparative analysis of the maximum static articulated torques shows that the theoretical calculation values are higher than the static simulation values, and the maximum error value is approximately 10%. The proposed method lays a foundation for quickly determining accurate articulated torques to develop heavy-duty six-legged robots.
基金Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.51505335,51275106)National Basic Research Program of China(973Program,Grant No.2013CB035502)
文摘The electrically driven six-legged robot with high carrying capacity is an indispensable equipment for planetary exploration, but it hinders its practicability because of its low efficiency of carrying energy. Meanwhile, its load capacity also affects its application range. To reduce the power consumption, increase the load to mass ratio, and improve the stability of robot, the relationship between the walking modes and the forces of feet under the tripod gait are researched for an electrically driven heavy-duty six-legged robot. Based on the configuration characteristics of electrically driven heavy-duty six-legged, the typical walking modes of robot are analyzed. The mathematical models of the normal forces of feet are respectively established under the tripod gait of typical walking modes. According to the MATLAB software, the variable tendency charts are respectively gained for the normal forces of feet. The walking experiments under the typical tripod gaits are implemented for the prototype of electrically driven heavy-duty six-legged robot. The variable tendencies of maximum normal forces of feet are acquired. The comparison results show that the theoretical and experimental data are in the same trend. The walking modes which are most available to realize the average force of distribution of each foot are confirmed. The proposed method of analyzing the relationship between the walking modes and the forces of feet can quickly determine the optimal walking mode and gait parameters under the average distribution of foot force, which is propitious to develop the excellent heavy-duty multi-legged robots with the lower power consumption, larger load to mass ratio, and higher stability.
基金Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.U1613208,51335007)National Basic Research Program of China(973 Program,Grant No.2013CB035501)+1 种基金Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.51421092)Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai-based ‘‘Innovation Action Plan’’ Project(Grant No.16DZ1201001)
文摘Current door-opening methods are mainly developed on tracked, wheeled and biped robots by applying multi-DOF manipulators and vision systems. However, door-opening methods for six-legged robots are seldom studied, especially using 0-DOF tools to operate and only force sensing to detect. A novel door-opening method for six-legged robots is developed and imple- mented to the six-parallel-legged robot. The kinematic model of the six-parallel-legged robot is established and the model of measuring the positional relationship between the robot and the door is proposed. The measurement model is completely based on only force sensing. The real- time trajectory planning method and the control strategy are designed. The trajectory planning method allows the maximum angle between the sagittal axis of the robot body and the normal line of the door plane to be 45°. A 0-DOF tool mounted to the robot body is applied to operate. By integrating with the body, the tool has 6 DOFs and enough workspace to operate. The loose grasp achieved by the tool helps release the inner force in the tool. Experiments are carried out to validate the method. The results show that the method is effective and robust in opening doors wider than 1 m. This paper proposes a novel door-opening method for six-legged robots, which notably uses a O-DOF tool and only force sensing to detect and open the door.
基金National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.51505335)Industry University Cooperation Collaborative Education Project of the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education of China(Grant No.202102517001)Doctor Startup Projects of TUTE of China(Grant No.KYQD1806)。
文摘The electrically driven large-load-ratio six-legged robot with engineering capability can be widely used in outdoor and planetary exploration.However,due to the particularity of its parallel structure,the effective utilization rate of energy is not high,which has become an important obstacle to its practical application.To research the power consumption characteristics of robot mobile system is beneficial to speed up it toward practicability.Based on the configuration and walking modes of robot,the mathematical model of the power consumption of mobile system is set up.In view of the tripod gait is often selected for the six-legged robots,the simplified power consumption model of mobile system under the tripod gait is established by means of reducing the dimension of the robot’s statically indeterminate problem and constructing the equal force distribution.Then,the power consumption of robot mobile system is solved under different working conditions.The variable tendencies of the power consumption of robot mobile system are respectively obtained with changes in the rotational angles of hip joint and knee joint,body height,and span.The articulated rotational zones and the ranges of body height and span are determined under the lowest power consumption.According to the walking experiments of prototype,the variable tendencies of the average power consumption of robot mobile system are respectively acquired with changes in duty ratio,body height,and span.Then,the feasibility and correctness of theory analysis are verified in the power consumption of robot mobile system.The proposed analysis method in this paper can provide a reference on the lower power research of the large-load-ratio multi-legged robots.
基金supported by National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholoars, China (Grant No. 51125020)Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University, China
文摘The equivalent mechanism of the system is often considered as one specific mechanism in most existing studies of multi-legged robots, however the equivalent mechanism is varying while the robot moves on the ground. Four typical tripod period gaits of a radial symmetrical six-legged robot are analyzed. Similar to the metamorphic mechanism, the locomotion of multi-legged robot is considered as a series of varying hybrid serial-parallel mechanisms by assuming the constraints of the feet on the ground with hinges. One gait cycle is divided into several periods, and in different walking period there is a specific equivalent mechanism corresponding to it, and the walking process of multi-legged robot is composed by these series of equivalent mechanisms. Walking performance can be got by analyzing these series of equivalent mechanisms. Kinematics model of the equivalent mechanism is established, workspaces of equivalent mechanisms are illustrated by simulation and a concept of static stability workspace is proposed to evaluate the static stability of these four gaits. A new method to calculate the stride length of multi-legged robots is presented by analyzing the relationship between the workspace of two adjacent equivalent parallel mechanisms in one gait cycle. The stride lengths of four gaits are given by simulations. Comparison of stride length and static stability among these four typical tripod gaits are given. It has been proved that mixed gait and insect-wave gait II have better static stability than mammal kick-off gait and insect-wave gait I. Insect-wave gait II displays its advantage on stride length while the height of robot body lower than 87 mm, mammal kick-off gait has superiority on stride length while the height of robot body higher than 115 mm, and insect-wave gait I shows its shortcoming in stride length. The proposed method based on metamorphic theory and combining the footholds and body height of robot provides a new method to comprehensive analyze the performance of multi-legged robot.
基金Supported by National Basic Research Program of China(973 Program,Grant No.2013CB035501)Research Fund of the State Key Lab of MSV of China(Grant No.MSV201208)
文摘Adaptive gaits for legged robots often requires force sensors installed on foot-tips,however impact,temperature or humidity can affect or even damage those sensors.Efforts have been made to realize indirect force estimation on the legged robots using leg structures based on planar mechanisms.Robot Octopus III is a six-legged robot using spatial parallel mechanism（UP-2UPS） legs.This paper proposed a novel method to realize indirect force estimation on walking robot based on a spatial parallel mechanism.The direct kinematics model and the inverse kinematics model are established.The force Jacobian matrix is derived based on the kinematics model.Thus,the indirect force estimation model is established.Then,the relation between the output torques of the three motors installed on one leg to the external force exerted on the foot tip is described.Furthermore,an adaptive tripod static gait is designed.The robot alters its leg trajectory to step on obstacles by using the proposed adaptive gait.Both the indirect force estimation model and the adaptive gait are implemented and optimized in a real time control system.An experiment is carried out to validate the indirect force estimation model.The adaptive gait is tested in another experiment.Experiment results show that the robot can successfully step on a 0.2 m-high obstacle.This paper proposes a novel method to overcome obstacles for the six-legged robot using spatial parallel mechanism legs and to avoid installing the electric force sensors in harsh environment of the robot＇s foot tips.
基金This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.U1613208)the National Key Research and Development Plan of China(Grant No.2017YFE0112200)the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant(Grant No.734575)。
文摘Continuous-nondifferentiable terrains are extremely challenging for the environment adaption of six-legged robots. Previous researches have focused on gait planning methods to improve inherent ability of legged robots to walk over moderate terrains.However,most six-legged robots utilize relatively monotonic gait so that they still cannot well adapt tough terrains. As a result,the current legged robots easily get stuck and fall when encountering continuous-nondifferentiable terrains,such as stairs.Therefore,a method of gait switching is proposed so that six-legged robots can flexibly generate multiple gaits to adapt complex terrains. This study investigated the relationship between six-legged robot gait topologies and physical constraints,such as robot stability and robot-terrain interference. The proposed gait switcher can generate 0-6,1-5,2-4 and 3-3 gaits,which is instructed by the stability and interference criteria. Simulations and experiments were performed on a novel six-legged robot Hexa-XIII that succeeded climbing stairs over 45°. The effectiveness of the gait switching method is validated by the experiment results.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.U1613208)the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Action Plan(Grant No.16DZ1201001)
文摘Walking on inclined terrains or slopes is challenging for multi-legged robots. Robots should be able to handle more strict constraints imposed by the physical system than they do on flat terrains, such as smaller leg workspace and tighter stability margin. At the same time, robots need to autonomously generate constrained and stable motions to accommodate terrain inclination and unevenness. With regard to these issues, this paper provides a solution from two perspectives, mechanism design and planning methodology. The robot mechanism with a 1-DOF waist is firstly proposed to meet the requirements of the leg workspace and the static stability. After that, a step rolling planning scheme is introduced, in which the robot schedules its body planar 2D motion according to the human guidance and plans its elevation, roll, pitch as well as leg motions autonomously incorporating sensory feedbacks. The step rolling planning scheme ensures smooth and safe motion transitions from step to step.At last, simulations and experiments are carried out, demonstrating the effectiveness of our mechanical design and the proposed planning method.
基金Supported by National Basic Research Program of China(973 Program,Grant No.2013CB035501)
文摘Human tracking is an important issue for intelligent robotic control and can be used in many scenarios, such as robotic services and human-robot cooperation. Most of current human-tracking methods are targeted for mobile/tracked robots, but few of them can be used for legged robots. Two novel human-tracking strategies, view priority strategy and distance priority strategy, are proposed specially for legged robots, which enable them to track humans in various complex terrains. View priority strategy focuses on keeping humans in its view angle arrange with priority, while its counterpart, distance priority strategy, focuses on keeping human at a reasonable distance with priority. To evaluate these strategies, two indexes（average and minimum tracking capability） are defined. With the help of these indexes, the view priority strategy shows advantages compared with distance priority strategy. The optimization is done in terms of these indexes, which let the robot has maximum tracking capability. The simulation results show that the robot can track humans with different curves like square, circular, sine and screw paths. Two novel control strategies are proposed which specially concerning legged robot characteristics to solve human tracking problems more efficiently in rescue circumstances.
文摘Transit gait programming is a key problem for a multi-legged robot to climb automatically from the ground up the wall, as well as between wall intersections. In this paper, a new idea is put forward by which the complex transit gait is decomposed into a sequence of two relatively simpler parts - single-leg motion and body pitching motion. An algorithm based on the above concept shows its feasibility and effectiveness in the graphic kinematics simulation.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China[62525301,62127811,62433019]the New Cornerstone Science Foundation through the XPLORER PRIZEthe financial support by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation[GZB20240797].
文摘Single-cell biomechanics and electrophysiology measuring tools have transformed biological research over the last few decades,which enabling a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of cellular behavior and function.Despite their high-quality information content,these single-cell measuring techniques suffer from laborious manual processing by highly skilled workers and extremely low throughput(tens of cells per day).Recently,numerous researchers have automated the measurement of cell mechanical and electrical signals through robotic localization and control processes.While these efforts have demonstrated promising progress,critical challenges persist,including human dependency,learning complexity,in-situ measurement,and multidimensional signal acquisition.To identify key limitations and highlight emerging opportunities for innovation,in this review,we comprehensively summarize the key steps of robotic technologies in single-cell biomechanics and electrophysiology.We also discussed the prospects and challenges of robotics and automation in biological research.By bridging gaps between engineering,biology,and data science,this work aims to stimulate interdisciplinary research and accelerate the translation of robotic single-cell technologies into practical applications in the life sciences and medical fields.
文摘Underwater pipeline inspection plays a vital role in the proactive maintenance and management of critical marine infrastructure and subaquatic systems.However,the inspection of underwater pipelines presents a challenge due to factors such as light scattering,absorption,restricted visibility,and ambient noise.The advancement of deep learning has introduced powerful techniques for processing large amounts of unstructured and imperfect data collected from underwater environments.This study evaluated the efficacy of the You Only Look Once(YOLO)algorithm,a real-time object detection and localization model based on convolutional neural networks,in identifying and classifying various types of pipeline defects in underwater settings.YOLOv8,the latest evolution in the YOLO family,integrates advanced capabilities,such as anchor-free detection,a cross-stage partial network backbone for efficient feature extraction,and a feature pyramid network+path aggregation network neck for robust multi-scale object detection,which make it particularly well-suited for complex underwater environments.Due to the lack of suitable open-access datasets for underwater pipeline defects,a custom dataset was captured using a remotely operated vehicle in a controlled environment.This application has the following assets available for use.Extensive experimentation demonstrated that YOLOv8 X-Large consistently outperformed other models in terms of pipe defect detection and classification and achieved a strong balance between precision and recall in identifying pipeline cracks,rust,corners,defective welds,flanges,tapes,and holes.This research establishes the baseline performance of YOLOv8 for underwater defect detection and showcases its potential to enhance the reliability and efficiency of pipeline inspection tasks in challenging underwater environments.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(22168008,22378085)the Guangxi Natural Science Foundation(2024GXNSFDA010053)+1 种基金the Technology Development Project of Guangxi Bossco Environmental Protection Technology Co.,Ltd(202100039)Innovation Project of Guangxi Graduate Education(YCBZ2024065).
文摘Strategically coupling nanoparticle hybrids and internal thermosensitive molecular switches establishes an innovative paradigm for constructing micro/nanoscale-reconfigurable robots,facilitating energyefficient CO_(2) management in life-support systems of confined space.Here,a micro/nano-reconfigurable robot is constructed from the CO_(2) molecular hunters,temperature-sensitive molecular switch,solar photothermal conversion,and magnetically-driven function engines.The molecular hunters within the molecular extension state can capture 6.19 mmol g^(−1) of CO_(2) to form carbamic acid and ammonium bicarbonate.Interestingly,the molecular switch of the robot activates a molecular curling state that facilitates CO_(2) release through nano-reconfiguration,which is mediated by the temperature-sensitive curling of Pluronic F127 molecular chains during the photothermal desorption.Nano-reconfiguration of robot alters the amino microenvironment,including increasing surface electrostatic potential of the amino group and decreasing overall lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energy level.This weakened the nucleophilic attack ability of the amino group toward the adsorption product derivatives,thereby inhibiting the side reactions that generate hard-to-decompose urea structures,achieving the lowest regeneration temperature of 55℃ reported to date.The engine of the robot possesses non-contact magnetically-driven micro-reconfiguration capability to achieve efficient photothermal regeneration while avoiding local overheating.Notably,the robot successfully prolonged the survival time of mice in the sealed container by up to 54.61%,effectively addressing the issue of carbon suffocation in confined spaces.This work significantly enhances life-support systems for deep-space exploration,while stimulating innovations in sustainable carbon management technologies for terrestrial extreme environments.
文摘At present,energy consumption is one of the main bottlenecks in autonomous mobile robot development.To address the challenge of high energy consumption in path planning for autonomous mobile robots navigating unknown and complex environments,this paper proposes an Attention-Enhanced Dueling Deep Q-Network(ADDueling DQN),which integrates a multi-head attention mechanism and a prioritized experience replay strategy into a Dueling-DQN reinforcement learning framework.A multi-objective reward function,centered on energy efficiency,is designed to comprehensively consider path length,terrain slope,motion smoothness,and obstacle avoidance,enabling optimal low-energy trajectory generation in 3D space from the source.The incorporation of a multihead attention mechanism allows the model to dynamically focus on energy-critical state features—such as slope gradients and obstacle density—thereby significantly improving its ability to recognize and avoid energy-intensive paths.Additionally,the prioritized experience replay mechanism accelerates learning from key decision-making experiences,suppressing inefficient exploration and guiding the policy toward low-energy solutions more rapidly.The effectiveness of the proposed path planning algorithm is validated through simulation experiments conducted in multiple off-road scenarios.Results demonstrate that AD-Dueling DQN consistently achieves the lowest average energy consumption across all tested environments.Moreover,the proposed method exhibits faster convergence and greater training stability compared to baseline algorithms,highlighting its global optimization capability under energy-aware objectives in complex terrains.This study offers an efficient and scalable intelligent control strategy for the development of energy-conscious autonomous navigation systems.
基金Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.U1613208)National Key Research and Development Plan of China(Grant No.2017YFE0112200)European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Skodowska-Curie Grant Agreement(Grant No.734575).
文摘This paper presents the kinematic calibration of a novel six-legged walking machine tool comprising a six-legged mobile robot integrated with a parallel manipulator on the body.Each leg of the robot is a 2-universal-prismatic-spherical(UPS)and UP parallel mechanism,and the manipulator is a 6-PSU parallel mechanism.The error models of both subsystems are derived according to their inverse kinematics.The objective function for each kinematic limb is formulated as the inverse kinematic residual,i.e.,the deviation between the actual and computed joint coordinates.The hip center of each leg is first identified via sphere fitting,and the other kinematic parameters are identified by solving the objective function for each limb individually using the least-squares method.Thus,the kinematic parameters are partially decoupled,and the complexities of the error models are reduced.A calibration method is proposed for the legged robot to overcome the lack of a fixed base on the ground.A calibration experiment is conducted to validate the proposed method,where a laser tracker is used as the measurement equipment.The kinematic parameters of the entire robot are identified,and the motion accuracy of each leg and that of the manipulator are significantly improved after calibration.Validation experiments are performed to evaluate the positioning and trajectory errors of the six-legged walking machine tool.The results indicate that the kinematic calibration of the legs and manipulator improves not only the motion accuracy of each individual subsystem but also the cooperative motion accuracy among the subsystems.
