Ben Horan

Towards optimization of a real-world Robotic-Sensor System of Systems

The problem of threat detection in an unstructured environment is considered. Three systems, comprising of robots and sensors, are proposed to form a system of systems (SoS) to find a solution to the problem. System interactions are defined to provide a framework for formulation as an SoS optimization problem. Different cost and objective functions are introduced for optimization of local criteria. Using different weights, a linear combination of the local cost and objective functions is obtained to propose a global objective function. An algorithm is suggested to find an optimum value for the global objective function leading towards optimization of the SoS.

System of systems approach to threat detection and integration of heterogeneous independently operable systems

This paper presents a system of systems approach to threat detection through integration of heterogeneous independently operable systems. The approach is presented on a realistic situation where a human-controlled base robot, swarm robot(s), and sensors work together to obtain a decision about a possible threat in the environment. The base robot is remotely operated by a human using a haptic control system. The swarm robot(s) are autonomous and can accept directives from the base robot. Finally, sensors directly communicate with (report to) the base robot. In this scenario, heterogeneous systems and human interact in a system of systems architecture. With the inclusion of human expert and sensor verification of swarm robots, the system can successfully perform the threat detection and reduce the false alarms. Finally, a system of systems simulation framework including a base robot, a swarm robot, and two sensors is presented in addition to an experimental evaluation of the proposed SoS architecture.

Haptic Microrobotic Cell Injection System

Microrobotic cell injection is the subject of increasing research interest. At present, an operator relies completely on visual information and can be subject to low success rates, poor repeatability, and extended training times. This paper focuses on increasing operator performance during cell injection in two ways. First, our completed haptic cell injection system aims to increase the operators performance during real-time cell injection. Haptic bilateralism is investigated and a mapping framework provides an intuitive method for manoeuvring the micropipette in a manner similar to handheld needle insertion. Volumetric virtual fixtures are then introduced to haptically assist the operator to penetrate the cell at the desired location. The performance of the volumetric virtual fixtures is also discussed. Second, the haptically enabled cell injection system is replicated as a virtual environment facilitating virtual offline operator training. Virtual operator training utilizes the same mapping framework and haptic virtual fixtures as the physical system allowing the operator to train offline and then directly transfer their skills to real-time cell injection.

OzTug mobile robot for manufacturing transportation

Firstly, this paper introduces the OzTug mobile robot developed to autonomously manoeuvre large loads within a manufacturing environment. The mobile robot utilises differential drive and necessary design criteria includes low-cost, mechanical robustness, and the ability to manoeuvre loads ranging up to 2000kg. The robot is configured to follow a predefined trajectory while maintaining the forward velocity of a user-specified velocity profile. A vision-based fuzzy logic line following controller enables the robot to track the paths on the floor of the manufacturing environment. Secondly, in order to tow large loads along predefined paths three different robot-load configurations are proposed. Simulation within the Webots environment was performed in order to empirically evaluate the three different robot-load configurations. The simulation results demonstrate the cost-performance trade-off of two of the approaches.

Haptic guidance for microrobotic intracellular injection

The ability for a bio-operator to utilise a haptic device to manipulate a microrobot for intracellular injection offers immense benefits. One significant benefit is for the bio-operator to receive haptic guidance while performing the injection process. In order to address this, this paper investigates the use of haptic virtual fixtures for cell injection and proposes a novel force field virtual fixture. The guidance force felt by the bio-operator is determined by force field analysis within the virtual fixture. The proposed force field virtual fixture assists the bio-operator when performing intracellular injection by limiting the micropipette tips motion to a conical volume as well as recommending the desired path for optimal injection. A virtual fixture plane is also introduced to prevent the bio-operator from moving the micropipette tip beyond the deposition target inside the cell. Simulation results demonstrate the operation of the guidance system.

3D Virtual Haptic Cone for Intuitive Vehicle Motion Control

Haptic technology provides the ability for a system to recreate the sense of touch to a human operator, and as such offers wide reaching advantages. The ability to interact with the humans tactual modality introduces haptic human-machine interaction to replace or augment existing mediums such as visual and audible information. A distinct advantage of haptic human-machine interaction is the intrinsic bilateral nature, where information can be communicated in both directions simultaneously. This paper investigates the bilateral nature of the haptic interface in controlling the motion of a remote (or virtual) vehicle and presents the ability to provide an additional dimension of haptic information to the user over existing approaches (Park et al., 2006; Lee et al., 2002; and Horan et al., 2007). The 3D virtual haptic cone offers the ability to not only provide the user with relevant haptic augmentation pertaining to the task at hand, as do existing approaches, however, to also simultaneously provide an intuitive indication of the current velocities being commanded.

Bilateral haptic teleoperation of an articulated track mobile robot

Teleoperation has been used in many applications, allowing a human operator to remotely control a robotic system in order to perform a particular task. Recently haptic teleoperation has focused mainly on improving performance in remote manipulation tasks, however the haptic approach offers similar advantages for teleoperative control of the motion of a mobile robot. This paper describes a prototype system designed to facilitate haptic teleoperation of an all-terrain, articulated track mobile robot. This system utilizes a multi-modal user interface intended to improve operator immersion, reduce operator overload and improve teleoperative task performance. The system architecture facilitates implementation of an application-specific haptic augmentation algorithm in order to improve operator performance in challenging real-world tasks. The contributions of this work can be categorized as the custom mobile platform, teleoperator interface and haptic augmentation strategy.

Intuitive Haptic Control Surface for Mobile Robot Motion Control

Haptic human-machine interfaces and similar techniques to enhancing human-robotic interaction offer significant potential over conventional approaches. This work considers achieving intuitive motion control of a tracked mobile robotic platform utilising a 3D virtual haptic cone. The 3D haptic cone extends upon existing approaches by introducing of a third dimension to the haptic control surface. It is suggested that this approach improves upon existing methods by providing the human operator with an intuitive method for issuing vehicle motion commands whilst still facilitating simultaneous real-time haptic augmentation regarding the task at hand. The presented approach is considered in the context of mobile robotic teleoperation however offers potential across many applications. Using the 2D haptic control surface as a benchmark, preliminary evaluation of the 3D haptic cone approach demonstrates a significant improvement in the ability to command the robot to cease motion.

Haptic microrobotic intracellular injection assistance using virtual fixtures

In manual cell injection the operator relies completely on visual information for task feedback and is subject to extended training times as well as poor success rates and repeatability. From this perspective, enhancing human-in-the-loop intracellular injection through haptic interaction offers significant benefits. This paper outlines two haptic virtual fixtures aiming to assist the human operator while performing cell injection. The first haptic virtual fixture is a parabolic force field designed to assist the operator in guiding the micropipettes tip to a desired penetration point on the cells surface. The second is a planar virtual fixture which attempts to assist the operator from moving the micropipettes tip beyond the deposition target location inside the cell. Preliminary results demonstrate the operation of the haptically assisted microrobotic cell injection system.

Grasping virtual objects with multi-point haptics

The majority of commercially available haptic devices offer a single point of haptic interaction. These devices are limited when it is desirable to grasp with multiple fingers in applications including virtual training, telesurgery and telemanipulation. Multipoint haptic devices serve to facilitate a greater range of interactions. This paper presents a gripper attachment to enable multi-point haptic grasping in virtual environments. The approach employs two Phantom Omni haptic devices to independently render forces to the users thumb and other fingers. Compared with more complex approaches to multi-point haptics, this approach provides a number of advantages including low-cost, reliability and ease of programming. The ability of the integrated multi-point haptic platform to interact within a CHAI 3D virtual environment is also presented.