Filippo Bonaccorso

Volcanic Environments: Robots for Exploration and Measurement

The study of volcanic activity is important from a scientific point of view as it allows for a better understanding of one of the most spectacular geological phenomena and of the working principles that are at the basis of geophysics. Furthermore, there are numerous events that directly result from volcanic eruptions and that affect many populations. Therefore, improving the prediction methods of eruptive phenomena would be of great benefit. There are more than 1,500 potentially active volcanoes in the world, and roughly 10% of the worlds population live in areas directly threatened by volcanoes. In all of these areas, volcanoes have a strong influence on many day-to-day activities. The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland in April 2010 caused the cancellation of more than 100,000 European flights and, consequently, left more than 10 million passengers stranded. Each year, on a graver note, many regions in the world are destroyed or heavily damaged by lava or pyroclastic flows, in some cases, resulting in numbers of casualties that could have been avoided with the improvement of early warning systems.

An Arc Welding Robot Control for a Shaped Metal Deposition Plant: Modular Software Interface and Sensors

This paper is focused on the study and the control of a process of robotic arc welding. The system developed has been used to study the whole process and to develop an automatic controller for the arc process of deposition. The process consists of a shaped metal deposition (SMD) system that is an innovative method for the manufacturing of metal objects, which uses a layer-by-layer deposition technique. A useful software interface has been implemented in a Labview environment to study the system and to develop and tune the parameters of an automatic controller.

A modular software interface for the control system of an arc welding robot

In this paper an interface designed for developing and studying a process of robotic arc welding, is described. The interface has been implemented in Labview™ environment. The process consists in the control of a SMD (Shaped Metal Deposition) system that is an innovative method for rapid manufacturing of metal objects. The system developed can also be used just to control arc process of deposition.

EKF - based MPPT control for vertical axis wind turbines

The paper proposes a novel sensorless maximum power point tracking control strategy for vector controlled vertical axis wind turbines. One relevant aspect of the proposed algorithm is that the mechanical rotor position sensor and anemometer are not needed. Estimation of the rotor position and speed of the electrical generator is performed by using an Extended Kalman Filter while the wind speed estimation is indirectly obtained through implementation of a suitable Maximum Power Point Tracking algorithm. Robustness to parameter variations and the dynamic behavior of the sensorless approach are investigated through numerical simulations.

FINITE ELEMENT MODELLING OF THE ADHESION SYSTEM OF A VORTEX BASED CLIMBING ROBOT

Vortex adhesion is one of the most promising techniques for the design of lightweight climbing robot. However the results presented up to now are mainly simple demonstrations of prototypes and do not give precise criteria for the design. In this paper we present our last results toward a better understanding of vortex technology and to the development of a simulation strategy based on finite element modelling. The vortexbased suction cup has been modelled and simulated by using finite element and the results are compared with experimental trials.

Evaluation of Algorithms for indoor mobile robot self-localization through laser range finders data

Abstract In this paper an evaluation of several indoor mobile robot localization algorithms is presented. Two-dimensional laser range scans are used to estimate motions without a kinematic model of the robot and, moreover, without using odometry. Features extracted from each scan are used as landmarks of the environment to estimate relative robot position in an unknown environment. Different known feature extraction algorithms have been deeply tested in order to evaluate their performances. A data association method uses simultaneous observation of features from two consecutive scans to determine correct features associations. Two different strategies are tested to estimate relative robot position using common features of two consecutive scans. All of these algorithms have been tested with two different angular resolutions of the laser scanner, and a comparison between all of them, in term of number of features identified and execution-time, is presented.

Arc welding Control for Shaped Metal Deposition Process

Abstract This paper is focused on the study and the control of a deposition process of robotic arc welding. The process consists of a SMD (Shaped Metal Deposition) system, that is a novel rapid prototyping tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding technique leading to near-net-shape, using a layer by layer deposition technique. An experimental setup has been properly implemented in order to study the system and to develop and tune the parameters of an automatic controller.