Changchun Fan

Formation constrained coordinated motion control methods for the crustal movement simulation system

Crustal movement modeling and analysis is one of the major tasks in the earth system science. In this paper, a distributed system for simulating the crustal movement was developed. The crustal movement simulation system (CMSS) is designed based on multi-agent system (MAS). Such a simulation system is composed by a number of independently controlled parallel robots, and each robot represents a crustal plate. To achieve smooth and accurate motion without slipping and sliding, realtime coordinate control of the multi-agent system is essential. Based on the MAS, a general approach for formation constrained coordinated motion control scheme is proposed. The feasibility and effectiveness of the network-based MAS control method is verified through simulation.

The design and control of the crustal movement simulation system

Crustal movement modeling and analysis are the major task in the earth system science. In this paper, a distributed system for simulating the crustal movement was developed with embedded systems and common programming languages. The crustal movement simulation system (CMSS) is designed based on multi-agent system (MAS). A three layered MAS architecture with good generality is presented, which can be used in small, medium and large scale CMSS. A general approach for formation control of the multi-agent system is developed. Simulation results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Adaptive fuzzy logic based inspection robot for high voltage power transmission line

This paper presents a bi-brachiate robot for the inspection tasks of the high voltage power transmission line (HVPTL). The robot adopts a turning around method to get across the component (obstacles for the robot) installed on the HVPTL, and the process of the obstacle negotiation is expressed in detail. A simplified two-link model of the robot during obstacle negotiating stage is given. The adaptive fuzzy system is employed to approximate the models uncertain nonlinear functions, and the robot controller is given based on the approximation result. Simulation and field experiment results illustrate the validity of the proposed controller and effectiveness of the inspection robot.

An Embedded Vision System for a Power Transmission Line Inspection Robot

Surrounding environment information is significant for an inspection robot to plan its behavior to stride over obstacles. This paper describes a compact embedded monocular vision system for a power transmission line inspection robot. This system involving a DSP processor has superior hardware design and excellent performance on image processing. Emphasis of the image processing software design is the algorithm of image segmentation and straight line extraction. Base on the structure of the transmission lines, an algorithm for obstacle distance estimation is proposed. Experimental results show that good capability on recognition and location can be achieved with this proposed vision system.

Modeling and control of a bi-brachiate inspection robot for power transmission lines

This paper presents the framework, modeling, controller design, simulation and experiment results of a bi-brachiate inspection robot, which is designed to inspect the high voltage power transmission lines. A bionic structure is adopted for the mechanical design of the inspection robot. It has two multi-joint arms with a claw and a wheel on the top of each arm. A counterweight box is designed to adjust its center of mass (COM). With the wheels it can ride along the line when there are no obstacles. Once it encounters obstacles, the robot can negotiate the obstacle with a turning around way. In order to design a feedback control law, the simplified model of the robot body and its dynamic equation have been developed. Based on the models, an adaptive control law using fuzzy compensator is described in detail. Simulation and experiment results show the effectiveness of the control law and the designed robot prototype.