A. De Santis

A unified fuzzy logic approach to trajectory planning and inverse kinematics for a fire fighting robot operating in tunnels

In this paper a fuzzy logic approach to automatic trajectory planning and closed-loop inverse kinematics for a robotic system purposely designed to extinguish fires in road and railway tunnels is presented. The robot is composed of a self-cooling monorail vehicle carrying a fire fighting monitor. A fuzzy inference system is adopted for the automatic generation of the task-space trajectory for the robot and to distribute the motion among the available joints in the presence of redundant degrees of mobility. Redundancy also allows assigning additional tasks besides the primary task. Simulation case studies are presented to test the performance of the whole system in a typical intervention scenario.

Fuzzy Trajectory Planning and Redundancy Resolution for a Fire Fighting Robot Operating in Tunnels

In this paper the problem of automatic trajectory planning and inverse kinematics for a robotic system purposely designed to extinguish fires in road and railway tunnels is considered. The robot is composed by a self-cooling monorail vehicle carrying a fire fighting monitor. A fuzzy inference system is adopted for the automatic generation of the task-space trajectory for the robot and to solve the inverse kinematics problem in the presence of redundant degrees of freedom. Redundancy also allows assigning additional tasks besides the primary task. Simulation case studies are presented to test the performance of the whole system in a typical intervention scenario.

An experimental investigation on impedance control for dual-arm cooperative systems

In this paper, an experimental comparison between different impedance control approaches for cooperative manipulators is presented. The experiments have been performed on a dual-arm setup composed by two six-dof industrial manipulators carrying a common object. A general impedance control scheme is adopted, which encompasses a centralized impedance control strategy aimed at conferring a compliant behavior at the object level, and a decentralized impedance control, enforced at the end-effector level, aimed at avoiding large internal loading of the object. The scheme allows individual activation/deactivation of each impedance strategy. The experimental investigation concerns the four different controller configurations that can be achieved by activating/deactivating the single impedance controllers.

Inhibition of adenylate cyclase by transglutaminase-catalyzed reactions in pigeon erythrocyte ghosts

We report the occurrence in pigeon erythrocytes of a soluble Ca2+-dependent transglutaminase (TGase) activity. The effect of the erythrocyte ghost protein modifications, determined by TGase-catalyzed reactions, on adenylate cyclase, phospholipid methyltransferase I and II activities and on the lipidic matrix fluidity of the membrane was investigated by using a purified guinea pig liver TGase preparation. The results showed a significant inhibitory effect of such modifications both on the basal and on the variously stimulated (by NaF, Gpp(NH)p alone or in the presence of 1-isoproterenol) adenylate cyclase activity. By contrast, both the phospholipid methylation and the fluidity of the lipidic matrix of the membrane were unaffected by TGase-mediated reactions. These data suggest a new possible inhibitory mechanism of the cyclic AMP synthesis which might be triggered by the enhancement of the cytosolic Ca2+ concentration.

Sensorimotor coupling via dynamic bayesian networks

In this paper we consider the problem of sensorimotor coordination in a Bayesian framework. To this end we introduce a novel kind of Dynamic Bayesian Network serving as the core tool to integrate active vision and task-constrained motor behaviors. The proposed system is put into work by addressing the challenging task of realistic drawing performed by a robotic agent, namely a 7-DOF anthropomorphic manipulator. Simulation results are compared to those obtained by eye-tracked human subjects involved in drawing experiments.