Christian Sauter

Semi-autonomous flying robot for physical interaction with environment

This contribution presents the first results of the development of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) which is capable of applying force to a wall while maintaining flight stability. This is a novel idea since UAVs are used so far only for tasks without physical contact to the surrounding objects. The basis for the work presented is a quadrotor system which is stabilized with an inertial measurement unit. As a new approach an additional actuator was added to generate forces in physical contact while the UAV stays horizontal. A control architecture based on ultrasonic distance sensors and a CMOS-camera is proposed. The performance of the system was proved by several flight tests. Potential applications of the system can be physical tasks at high places like cleaning windows or walls as well as rescue or maintenance tasks.

Upper Body of a new Humanoid Robot - the Design of ARMAR III

The development of a humanoid robot platform within the scope of the collaborative research centre 588 has the objective of creating a machine that closely cooperates with humans. This development area presents a new challenge to designers. In contrast to industrial robots - for which mechanical rigidity, precision and high velocities are primary requirements - the key aspects here are prevention of hazards to users, a motion space that corresponds to that of human beings and a lightweight design. In order to meet these requirements, the robot must have humanlike appearance, motion space and dexterity. Additionally, its kinematics should be familiar to the user, its motions predictable, so as to encourage inexperienced persons to interact with the machine. This article gives insight into the design of the mechatronic components of the upper body of the humanoid robot ARMAR III. Due to the special boundary conditions for the design of such a humanoid robot and complex interaction between system elements, the design process is very challenging. The robot has a modular structure. The modules for neck, torso and arms were designed and built at the Institute of Product Development (IPEK) at the University of Karlsruhe (TH). The design of these modules of the upper body and the problems solved by these designs are presented in this article

Design of Modules and Components for Humanoid Robots

The development of a humanoid robot in the collaborative research centre 588 has the objective of creating a machine that closely cooperates with humans. The collaborative research centre 588 (SFB588) “Humanoid Robots – learning and cooperating multi-modal robots” was established by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in Karlsruhe in May 2000. The SFB588 is a cooperation of the University of Karlsruhe, the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (FZK), the Research Center for Information Technologies (FZI) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Information and Data Processing (IITB) in Karlsruhe. In this project, scientists from different academic fields develop concepts, methods and concrete mechatronic components and integrate them into a humanoid robot that can share its working space with humans. The long-term target is the interactive cooperation of robots and humans in complex environments and situations. For communication with the robot, humans should be able to use natural communication channels like speech, touch or gestures. The demonstration scenario chosen in this project is a household robot for various tasks in the kitchen. Humanoid robots are still a young technology with many research challenges. Only few humanoid robots are currently commercially available, often at high costs. Physical prototypes of robots are needed to investigate the complex interactions between robots and humans and to integrate and validate research results from the different research fields involved in humanoid robotics. The development of a humanoid robot platform according to a special target system at the beginning of a research project is often considered a time consuming hindrance. In this article a process for the efficient design of humanoid robot systems is presented. The goal of this process is to minimize the development time for new humanoid robot platforms by including the experience and knowledge gained in the development of humanoid robot components in the collaborative research centre 588. Weight and stiffness of robot components have a significant influence on energy efficiency, operating time, safety for users and the dynamic behaviour of the system in general. The finite element based method of topology optimization gives designers the possibility to develop structural components efficiently according to specified loads and boundary conditions without having to rely on coarse calculations, experience or

Academic Engineering Design Education in a Realistic Environment

The objective of academic education for mechanical design engineers is to convey qualifications which are necessary for product development in an industrial environment. The goal of the work described here is to improve engineering design education and to provide a more active learning experience. Design students should be familiarized with modern methods and technologies which they will most likely encounter during their future career. Design cannot be taught sufficiently in lectures alone [1, 2] and requirements on graduates in product development are continuously increasing. Not only professional skills but also social skills as well as proficiency with new technologies and methodologies become increasingly important [3]. For meeting these requirements the Karlsruhe Education Model for Product Development (KaLeP) [4] was developed at the Institute of Product Development (IPEK) at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany. In this contribution we present KaLeP, the role of modern design tools like CAD/PDM and wikis in education, the course projects for Machine Design and Integrated Product Development including training concept as well as the technical and organizational environment in which these courses take place.Copyright

An Approach for the Modularization of a Product Architecture of Redesign Processes of Complex Systems

Design Structure Matrix (DSM) is known as an efficient tool to modularize product architectures. It is only effective when all the matrix elements are described with a similar level of abstraction. This lies generally in the level of the real existing components. In order to implement a DSM, all assemblies, components and their relations have to be defined beforehand. In this step, the product architecture is often developed intuitively without any analysis. After the analysis using DSM, the developed product architecture normally requires rectification. Some components have to be designed and modified repeatedly. In this paper, the model for describing the relationship between function and embodiment, the Contact and Channel Model (C&CM) as well as an approach and its implementation will be presented to avoid this repetition. After a principle solution has been selected, the system is modeled with C&CM elements in a new intermediate level of abstraction. An integration analysis by DSM can be performed in parallel with the use of a search algorithm to find the modular product architecture. The analysis result is a guideline for a modular architecture which helps designers to reduce the number of required iterations. This approach is implemented in the development of a robot forearm for the humanoid robot ARMAR III.Copyright

A Two Layered Process for Early Design Activities Using Evolutionary Strategies

Especially in system and conceptual design activities designers resort to already existing components that are combined and arranged to a new system which has to fulfill a predefined set of requirements. Designers have to deal with requirements and constraints that are changing during the development process. General goal is an automatic generation of compatible conceptual design proposals that meet the predefined requirements such as design space, EMC, etc. To this, libraries containing standardized data on components have to be developed. These libraries include component specific characteristics and data such as CAx models or efficiency factors. In an iterative process compatible systems are configured and evaluated by means of CAx based analyses. Afterwards an optimization system based on genetic algorithms accesses these data to find optimal configurations. By combining the optimization algorithm with a CAD system, design proposals are directly visualized and can be processed by the designer in the further product development process.