Lukas Kopecny

Remote-controlled robotic platform ORPHEUS as a new tool for detection of bacteria in the environment

Remote‐controlled robotic systems are being used for analysis of various types of analytes in hostile environment including those called extraterrestrial. The aim of our study was to develop a remote‐controlled robotic platform (ORPHEUS‐HOPE) for bacterial detection. For the platform ORPHEUS‐HOPE a 3D printed flow chip was designed and created with a culture chamber with volume 600 μL. The flow rate was optimized to 500 μL/min. The chip was tested primarily for detection of 1‐naphthol by differential pulse voltammetry with detection limit (S/N = 3) as 20 nM. Further, the way how to capture bacteria was optimized. To capture bacterial cells (Staphylococcus aureus), maghemite nanoparticles (1 mg/mL) were prepared and modified with collagen, glucose, graphene, gold, hyaluronic acid, and graphene with gold or graphene with glucose (20 mg/mL). The most up to 50% of the bacteria were captured by graphene nanoparticles modified with glucose. The detection limit of the whole assay, which included capturing of bacteria and their detection under remote control operation, was estimated as 30 bacteria per μL.

Laser proximity scanner correlation based method for cooperative localization and map building

This article is concerned with an autonomous robot self-localization, that is the first step of robot navigation. Only if the robot knows where it is relative to a suitable coordinate frame, can it plan its trajectory, and plan the whole mission. The next important part of the autonomous mobile robotic system is a map of the environment. Many self-localization modules suppose the map of the neighbourhood is known. In this paper a method for cooperative robot map building and robot pose-estimation is presented. One SICK Laser proximity scanner is used as the only input sensor for the method. The method is based on angle, x and y histograms and cross-correlation function. As a localization quality estimation, robot evidence grids and modified evidence grids methods are used. The output from the method is a two-dimensional map of the robots environment and the actual position of the robot in this map. The method is programmed in GNU C programming language and tested on UTAR (Universal Teleprezence and Autonomous Robot) system. Results of practical experiments in a real environment are presented.

CASSANDRA - heterogeneous reconnaissance robotic system for dangerous environments

Robotic system consisting of multiple different remotely operated robots and one operators station is described. The system consists of two small robots, two bigger robots, and one flying machine, while each of them has different features to form balanced system for variety of missions. The robots, as well as the whole system and its possible mission configurations are described in the article. Great attention is paid to the communication subsystem, i.e. not only robot-to-operators station communication, but also signal retranslation.

Producing of tactile feedback via pneumatic muscles

This work describes development of new conception haptic glove interface with McKibben pneumatic muscles (pMA) along with their advantages and disadvantages for use in haptic. New solution of haptic stability problem has been found.

Orpheus Reconnissance Robots

Orpheus robotic system projects, including experimental Orpheus-X2 and Orpheus-EB, are presented. Novel member of Orpheus family named Orpheus-AC is presented. Orpheus-AC is a ruggedized teleoperated robot made for chemical and nuclear reconnaissance and was made at our department for VOP-026, Sternberk, s. p. company. It may be operated wireless or by wire, and fulfills military standards regarding EMC, environmental and special parameters.

Multi-robot system for disaster area exploration

CASSANDRA robotic system developed at LTR s.r.o. company and Brno University of Technology is described. The system contains an operator’s station controlled with one operator and a couple of robots – small and big ground robots, flying robots (quadrocopters), and mapping robot. The robots are primarily controlled by the operator with an advanced user interface with visual telepresence and augmented reality. Nevertheless, the robots include the possibility of semiautonomous operation based on self-localisation. The user interface consists of a computer, joypad, head-mounted display with inertial head-tracker, communication device, and Cassandra software developed by our team in Microsoft .NET. Orpheus class robots are described in the text. The robots are made to be reliable and to be able to work in extreme conditions, they are tested by a series of MIL-STD military tests for environmental parameters, EMC, vibrations and shocks, contamination/decontamination, etc. Orpheus-X3 is a general US&R robot with enhanced victim search capabilities, Orpheus-HOPE is made for water contamination measurements, Orpheus-AC2 is a ruggedized version for environmental parameter measurement. Two flying drones developed completely by our team are described, as well as EnvMap mapping robot for realtime construction of spatial digital maps with texture mapping. All the robots can be controlled with the help of visual telepresence and augmented reality – that makes robot control much more intuitive, and lets the rescuer concentrate on the mission itself. The control station may be used as a self-containing wearable system. The fusion system with multispectral measurement containing tricolor cameras, thermal imagers and TOF camera is described.

Hybrid electro-pneumatic robotic arm - integration of pneumatic muscle actuator

This paper describes lightweight, strong and precise hybrid robotic arm actuated by a pneumatic muscle actuator (PMA). The arm is precisely actuated by an electric servomotor with bearing reducer drive chain, and in special cases, when extremely high torque/force is needed (e.g. rescue applications, unintentional arm blocking by obstacle, high load elevating, payload ejecting) also with Pneumatic Muscle Actuator. The PMA acts like a highly nonlinear spring with controlled stiffness. Design and control of such a robotic arm is further described.

Haptic glove with pneumatic muscle actuators

Abstract This work summarises a development and design of a haptic glove for use in robotics, especially in telepresence, or in VR as an input and force feedback interface. The force and touch feedback is provided by Pneumatic muscle Actuators. The design is light, compact and easy to wear for long periods and also provided unrestricted motion of the users fingers.