Dominick Vanthienen

Rapid application development of constrained-based task modelling and execution using domain specific languages

Current state-of-the-art robot program development needs expert programmers. Moreover, most robot programs developed today are robot hardware and software specific, and therefore little reusable without modifications. This paper realizes easier robot (re-)programming, by software framework independent models that can be executed using different hard- and software platforms. First, the paper focuses on the formalization of the tasks to be fulfilled by a robot, more specifically constraint-based programming tasks using a Domain Specific Language (DSL). Second, it gives a reference implementation in Lua [1]. The presented DSL makes it easy to develop applications, yet is powerful to execute. It enables automatic model verification and code generation for different hard- and software platforms, diminishing code debugging efforts. Experimental validation shows the ease of creating an application and adapting it, the reduction of the amount of hand-written code, and the debugging aid offered through meaningful errors returned by model verification.

Force-Sensorless and Bimanual Human-Robot Comanipulation Implementation using iTaSC

This paper demonstrates the iTaSC approach to a force-sensorless and bimanual human-robot comanipulation task on a tree-structured robot, comprising (i) co-manipulation of an object with a person, (ii) dynamic and static obstacle avoidance with its base, (iii) maintaining visual contact with the operator, and (iv) unnatural pose prevention. The task is implemented in a structured way in a reusable software framework. The paper presents a simple sensorless wrench-nulling control scheme, enabling direct human-robot interaction without the use of a force sensor. A video shows the performance of the full task in different scenarios. The paper includes quantitative results for different scenarios, to validate the ability to activate and deactivate, as well as to change the weights of different parts of the task in a stable way.