Addie Irawan

Control input converter for robot's leg joint with parallel actuation configuration

This paper presents the proposed control input converter (CiC) for robot legs joint control with parallel actuation. The parallel actuation commonly used in heavy machine such as backhoe and bulldozer. This configuration performing muscle-based movement since the actuator attached becoming part of the frame. Therefore this particular switching mechanism is designed to translating a desired signal to the linear actuator from any close-loop control input. This simple algorithm is developed from the behavior study of the attached linear actuator motion on each crossed joint angle. The verification is done on actual leg of Quadruped Parallel Leg Actuation (QPAL) robot system by using a real-time target embedded system with focusing on foot motion for each leg and joint angle position error tracking from some angle inputs.

Kinematics, Navigation, and Path Planning of Hexapod Robot

In Chap. 3, fundamental analysis on COMET-IV’s leg kinematics and dynamics has been briefly discussed. On further research progress on this robot, the developed kinematics and dynamics are exploited to be used for end-effector force on foot detection and overall COMET-IV stability for force-attitude control purposes. In COMET-IV research progress, the total force on foot is calculated for center of mass (CoM) identification as an input for robot attitude during walking session. This method is based on shoulder coordination system (SCS) kinematics on vertical position and total of force on foot for each touching leg on the ground. On the other hand, the designed force delivery on foot value is categorized phase by phase and threshold sensing method is applied for dynamic trajectory walking named force threshold-based trajectory. This method is done to achieve the novel end-effector force sensorless method that is applicable for large-scale legged robot that required expensive sensor on each leg’s tip.

Optimal Impedance Control with TSK-Type FLC for Hard Shaking Reduction on Hydraulically Driven Hexapod Robot

This paper presents a control strategy for improving the performance of force-based foot motion trajectory generation with optimal impedance control for a hydraulically driven hexapod robot known as COMET-IV. This technique facilitates walking/operating on extremely uneven and unstructured terrain. The trajectory module is stabilized using the derived impedance control with optimal force input. The robot’s body moment of inertia is calculated (instead of employing environmental modeling) and adapted as an impedance control input with improvement of TSK-FLC that is locally optimized via the solution of the algebraic Riccati equation of virtual robot dynamic itself. The proposed control strategy aims to generate a smooth dynamic signal in order to reduce the shaking of the robot’s foot while placing it on the ground during a walking session. The proposed control strategy is verified using an actual robot system while walking/operating on a setup consisting of an unstructured terrain and on actual extremely uneven terrain.

A proposal of antenna positioner implementation on a moving vehicle for Geosynchronous Satellite system

This article will discuss the proposal of antenna positioner (geosynchronous satellite) design to be used in moving vehicle. Geosynchronous satellite is widely used for communication and broadcasting due to its prefix position as being viewed from the earth. Most of the geosynchronous reception antenna point to a particular position. Having the antenna mounted on moving vehicles will require the system to adopt a flexible positioner. The positioner must be able to move the antenna to the required position precisely and accurately. The system will require a broad study on the architecture and its control system. This paper presents the proposal of the antenna system.

Reconfigurable foot-to-gripper leg for underwater bottom operator, Hexaquad

This paper presents the development of a configurable leg-to-arm for configurable robot, named Hexapod-to-Quadruped (Hexaquad) robot, which is designed and developed for riverbed/seabed exploration and related works. Reconfigurable legged robot, one of robotics research areas, is generally focused on optimizing the usage of leg during locomotion. Until recently, most of the researches have emphasized on leg reconfigurable design in order to solve issues related to fault tolerant, stability, multitasking and energy efficiency. However, the emphasis of Hexaquad robot is on providing optimum leg usage, actuation configuration as well as satisfying the legged robot stability criterion in reconfiguration mechanism. Inspired by foot-to-gripper (FTG) transformation of crab chelipads, each leg of the proposed Hexaquad robot have mass affect avoidance. The minimum torque on each leg joint is calculated as well as FTG using static torque calculation on multi-link structure before selecting the actuator/motor. Performance tests are done by performing fundamental testing on optimum standing posture, stress and displacement analysis on FTG model, including gripping tests to several shapes of objects both in the air and underwater environment.

Design and Optimization of Hydraulically Actuated Hexapod Robot COMET-IV

The development of COMET-III resulted in a completely self-contained drive system that closely approximated a practical robot. However, various problems emerged in the course of research and development. In general, there was significant scope for improvement in terms of adaptability to terrain and speed of movement. For example, owing to an insufficient amount of oil and poor durability, sustained tripod walking could not be achieved, and the achieved walking speed was slow; the possible range of motion of the legs, which lacked the ability to move sideways or diagonally, was small, and the robot could not move omnidirectionally. In particular, the preeminence of legged robots as locomotive robots is ascribed to their superior capability of discrete walking in specific environments (such as minefields) and outstanding ability in general to adapt to the terrain. These capabilities enable legged robots to easily move over difficult and uneven terrain—even in environments wherein crawler robots and wheeled robots are incapable of motion. Therefore, there is an urgent need to overcome the fatal flaws in COMET-III—for example, in terms of terrain adaptability and speed of movement.

Historical and Modern Perspective of Walking Robots

Study of historical evolution and modern point of view on a complex subject like robotics invokes motivations and professionalisms among the researchers. Research on walking machines started at the time of Leonardo da Vinci and that ultimately culminated into the development of the modern walking robots through the transformations and refinements of the ideas and design methodology over the centuries. Obviously, the allied technology of mechatronics, particularly for sensing, actuation, and control, available at various points of time in the past influenced the design and implementation of walking robot quite heavily. The urge for mimicking the walking creatures in the past and the various efforts to apply the knowledge gathered from the observations of the biological world in the design and control of walking robots has added a new dimension as well as posed many new challenges in the walking robot research. However, the various challenges faced during the design and implementation of walking robots in the past and lessons learned from them to overcome those challenges enriched the technology of walking robot and drove it toward maturity. Therefore, the knowledge of the historical evolution of walking robotics research and its modern point of view will definitely inspire a robotics researcher for undertaking new challenges for the design and development of walking robots and will also guide him to take correct design decision. This chapter presents the historical evolution of walking robots and its perspective in a condensed manner.

LRF Assisted Autonomous Walking in Rough Terrain for Hexapod Robot COMET-IV

This paper presents an autonomous navigation system for a hydraulically driven hexapod robot COMET-IV. This work aims to improve the capabilities and increase autonomy of the robot by improving mapping technique for unknown environment, obstacle avoidances, and leg motion control assistance using a laser range finder (LRF) 3D point clouds data. In the previous research, the Grid-based Walking Trajectory for Legged Robot (GWTLR) algorithm, in which the A* algorithm and Growing Obstacle methods are referenced, was developed (Molfino et al. J Ind Rob 2:163–170, 2005) and successfully applied to the COMET-IV, for avoiding obstacles. In this work, the capabilities of the legged robot to cross over, step on, ascending and descending a cliff are capitalized by reconditioning leg swing trajectory based on obstacles geometric. Experimental results of the proposed methods show that the trajectory planning can be done autonomously under the unknown environment. Therefore, the proposed methods were proven to be highly potential to be applied as a part of the overall system for actual stochastic terrain navigation.

Label-QoS switching protocol for quality of service assurance in dynamic swarm robot local network

Summary This paper presents the modeling and analysis of a proposed label–quality of service (QoS) switching protocol for heterogeneous robot in a swarm. Establishing the data communication and network in multirobot task allocation is an important aspect in robot collaboration. Instead of passing the data through the cloud network, each robot can be configured as a node in its swarm for intercommunication. This research was conducted to model and propose aggregation and classification methods in a swarm robot network inspired from multiprotocol label switching, namely, label-QoS switching protocol. Each packet of data is forwarded with a proposed 2-side label values that are concerned with addressing and QoS. This proposed protocol was applied in each of the nodes routing, and it was set up with forwarding information table. The simulation and analysis were conducted in 2 situations: (1) with a constant n–label switch mobile robot and a number of packet data increasing with time and (2) with a constant number of packet and varying n–label switch mobile robot by time. With reference to the network parameter performances, it shows that the anomaly treatment by the proposed protocol is able to prioritize the data forwarding between the robots at the edge of the swarm with class of service although the robot community at the center is increasing or getting crowded.

Forkloader Position Control for A Mini Heavy Loaded Vehicle using Fuzzy Logic-Antiwindup Control

This paper presents a proposed integrated Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) type Fuzzy Logic control (TSK-FLC) with Antiwindup elements for a forkloader position control of a Mini Heavy Loaded Forklift Autonomous Guided Vehicle (MHeLFAGV). The study was carried out by modeling TSK-FLC as a close-loop control for the each axis of the fork-lift’s movement. The degree of membership is designed with reference to the system response, in which ultrasonic sensor with 1cm resolution is used. Moreover, the rule base is determined and optimized to deal with microcontroller processing speed. In order to cater for the windup phenomenon, proportional and integrated antiwindup elements are integrated into the TSK-FLC model. This control strategy consumes less memory and is expected to increase the time response of the control system. The experiment and analysis is done on the actual forkloader unit of MHeLFAGV system. The experiment was done on the vertical axis motion since horizontal motion will have the same characteristic pattern of implementation and characteristic of tuning. The experiment shows that the proposed integrated TSK-FLC with antiwindup elements is able to speed up the time response of the system and eliminate the overshoot as well as oscillation on the forkloader movement.