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Chapter 40 — Mobility and Manipulation

Oliver Brock, Jaeheung Park and Marc Toussaint

Mobile manipulation requires the integration of methodologies from all aspects of robotics. Instead of tackling each aspect in isolation,mobilemanipulation research exploits their interdependence to solve challenging problems. As a result, novel views of long-standing problems emerge. In this chapter, we present these emerging views in the areas of grasping, control, motion generation, learning, and perception. All of these areas must address the shared challenges of high-dimensionality, uncertainty, and task variability. The section on grasping and manipulation describes a trend towards actively leveraging contact and physical and dynamic interactions between hand, object, and environment. Research in control addresses the challenges of appropriately coupling mobility and manipulation. The field of motion generation increasingly blurs the boundaries between control and planning, leading to task-consistent motion in high-dimensional configuration spaces, even in dynamic and partially unknown environments. A key challenge of learning formobilemanipulation consists of identifying the appropriate priors, and we survey recent learning approaches to perception, grasping, motion, and manipulation. Finally, a discussion of promising methods in perception shows how concepts and methods from navigation and active perception are applied.

Universal gripper

Author  Cornel Creative Machines Lab

Video ID : 660

Universal robotic gripper based on the jamming of granular material.

Chapter 51 — Modeling and Control of Underwater Robots

Gianluca Antonelli, Thor I. Fossen and Dana R. Yoerger

This chapter deals with modeling and control of underwater robots. First, a brief introduction showing the constantly expanding role of marine robotics in oceanic engineering is given; this section also contains some historical backgrounds. Most of the following sections strongly overlap with the corresponding chapters presented in this handbook; hence, to avoid useless repetitions, only those aspects peculiar to the underwater environment are discussed, assuming that the reader is already familiar with concepts such as fault detection systems when discussing the corresponding underwater implementation. Themodeling section is presented by focusing on a coefficient-based approach capturing the most relevant underwater dynamic effects. Two sections dealing with the description of the sensor and the actuating systems are then given. Autonomous underwater vehicles require the implementation of mission control system as well as guidance and control algorithms. Underwater localization is also discussed. Underwater manipulation is then briefly approached. Fault detection and fault tolerance, together with the coordination control of multiple underwater vehicles, conclude the theoretical part of the chapter. Two final sections, reporting some successful applications and discussing future perspectives, conclude the chapter. The reader is referred to Chap. 25 for the design issues.

Underwater vehicle Nereus

Author  Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Video ID : 88

Nereus is the first vehicle to enable routine scientific investigation of the world's deepest ocean depths. Recently, Nereus successfully reached the deepest part of the world's ocean - the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean.

Chapter 21 — Actuators for Soft Robotics

Alin Albu-Schäffer and Antonio Bicchi

Although we do not know as yet how robots of the future will look like exactly, most of us are sure that they will not resemble the heavy, bulky, rigid machines dangerously moving around in old fashioned industrial automation. There is a growing consensus, in the research community as well as in expectations from the public, that robots of the next generation will be physically compliant and adaptable machines, closely interacting with humans and moving safely, smoothly and efficiently - in other terms, robots will be soft.

This chapter discusses the design, modeling and control of actuators for the new generation of soft robots, which can replace conventional actuators in applications where rigidity is not the first and foremost concern in performance. The chapter focuses on the technology, modeling, and control of lumped parameters of soft robotics, that is, systems of discrete, interconnected, and compliant elements. Distributed parameters, snakelike and continuum soft robotics, are presented in Chap. 20, while Chap. 23 discusses in detail the biomimetic motivations that are often behind soft robotics.

DLR Hand Arm System smashed with baseball bat

Author  Sebastian Wolf, Oliver Eiberger, Gerd Hirzinger

Video ID : 461

The DLR Hand Arm System is equipped with variable stiffness actuators (VSA). In this demonstration of robustness, the arm resists the impact of a baseball bat.

Chapter 46 — Simultaneous Localization and Mapping

Cyrill Stachniss, John J. Leonard and Sebastian Thrun

This chapter provides a comprehensive introduction in to the simultaneous localization and mapping problem, better known in its abbreviated form as SLAM. SLAM addresses the main perception problem of a robot navigating an unknown environment. While navigating the environment, the robot seeks to acquire a map thereof, and at the same time it wishes to localize itself using its map. The use of SLAM problems can be motivated in two different ways: one might be interested in detailed environment models, or one might seek to maintain an accurate sense of a mobile robot’s location. SLAM serves both of these purposes.

We review the three major paradigms from which many published methods for SLAM are derived: (1) the extended Kalman filter (EKF); (2) particle filtering; and (3) graph optimization. We also review recent work in three-dimensional (3-D) SLAM using visual and red green blue distance-sensors (RGB-D), and close with a discussion of open research problems in robotic mapping.

MonoSLAM: Real-time single camera SLAM

Author  Andrew Davison

Video ID : 453

This video describes MonoSLAM, an influential early real-time, single-camera, visual SLAM system, described in Chap. 46.4, Springer Handbook of Robotics, 2nd edn (2016). Reference: A.J. Davison, I. Reid, N. Molton, O. Stasse: MonoSLAM: Real-time single camera SLAM, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intel. 29(6), 1052-1067 (2007).

Chapter 18 — Parallel Mechanisms

Jean-Pierre Merlet, Clément Gosselin and Tian Huang

This chapter presents an introduction to the kinematics and dynamics of parallel mechanisms, also referred to as parallel robots. As opposed to classical serial manipulators, the kinematic architecture of parallel robots includes closed-loop kinematic chains. As a consequence, their analysis differs considerably from that of their serial counterparts. This chapter aims at presenting the fundamental formulations and techniques used in their analysis.

3-DOF dynamically balanced parallel robot

Author  Clément Gosselin

Video ID : 49

This video demonstrates a 3-DOF dynamically balanced parallel robot. References: 1. S. Foucault, C. Gosselin: On the development of a planar 3-DOF reactionless parallel mechanism, Proc. ASME Mech. Robot. Conf., Montréal (2002); 2. Y. Wu, C. Gosselin: Synthesis of reactionless spatial 3-DOFf and 6-DOF mechanisms without separate counter-rotations, Int. J. Robot. Res. 23(6), 625-642 (2004)

Chapter 74 — Learning from Humans

Aude G. Billard, Sylvain Calinon and Rüdiger Dillmann

This chapter surveys the main approaches developed to date to endow robots with the ability to learn from human guidance. The field is best known as robot programming by demonstration, robot learning from/by demonstration, apprenticeship learning and imitation learning. We start with a brief historical overview of the field. We then summarize the various approaches taken to solve four main questions: when, what, who and when to imitate. We emphasize the importance of choosing well the interface and the channels used to convey the demonstrations, with an eye on interfaces providing force control and force feedback. We then review algorithmic approaches to model skills individually and as a compound and algorithms that combine learning from human guidance with reinforcement learning. We close with a look on the use of language to guide teaching and a list of open issues.

Demonstrations and reproduction of the task of juicing an orange

Author  Florent D'Halluin, Aude Billard

Video ID : 29

Human demonstrations of the task of juicing an orange, and reproductions by the robot in new situations where the objects are located in positions not seen in the demonstrations. URL: http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Robot_learning_by_demonstration

Chapter 27 — Micro-/Nanorobots

Bradley J. Nelson, Lixin Dong and Fumihito Arai

The field of microrobotics covers the robotic manipulation of objects with dimensions in the millimeter to micron range as well as the design and fabrication of autonomous robotic agents that fall within this size range. Nanorobotics is defined in the same way only for dimensions smaller than a micron. With the ability to position and orient objects with micron- and nanometer-scale dimensions, manipulation at each of these scales is a promising way to enable the assembly of micro- and nanosystems, including micro- and nanorobots.

This chapter overviews the state of the art of both micro- and nanorobotics, outlines scaling effects, actuation, and sensing and fabrication at these scales, and focuses on micro- and nanorobotic manipulation systems and their application in microassembly, biotechnology, and the construction and characterization of micro and nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS). Material science, biotechnology, and micro- and nanoelectronics will also benefit from advances in these areas of robotics.

Artificial bacterial flagella

Author  Bradley J. Nelson

Video ID : 11

This video shows two swimming microrobots (named artificial bacterial flagella) which are actuated by an externally applied magnetic torque. The microrobots are made of a magnetic, nanoparticle composite. They are steered manually through polymer microtunnels.

Chapter 72 — Social Robotics

Cynthia Breazeal, Kerstin Dautenhahn and Takayuki Kanda

This chapter surveys some of the principal research trends in Social Robotics and its application to human–robot interaction (HRI). Social (or Sociable) robots are designed to interact with people in a natural, interpersonal manner – often to achieve positive outcomes in diverse applications such as education, health, quality of life, entertainment, communication, and tasks requiring collaborative teamwork. The long-term goal of creating social robots that are competent and capable partners for people is quite a challenging task. They will need to be able to communicate naturally with people using both verbal and nonverbal signals. They will need to engage us not only on a cognitive level, but on an emotional level as well in order to provide effective social and task-related support to people. They will need a wide range of socialcognitive skills and a theory of other minds to understand human behavior, and to be intuitively understood by people. A deep understanding of human intelligence and behavior across multiple dimensions (i. e., cognitive, affective, physical, social, etc.) is necessary in order to design robots that can successfully play a beneficial role in the daily lives of people. This requires a multidisciplinary approach where the design of social robot technologies and methodologies are informed by robotics, artificial intelligence, psychology, neuroscience, human factors, design, anthropology, and more.

Overview of Autom: A robotic health coach for weight management

Author  Cynthia Breazeal

Video ID : 558

This video presents an overview of Autom, a robot designed to serve as a personal coach for weight management during a longitudinal study. Fifteen robots were deployed over a period of two months and were compared to two other conditions: A computer coach with the same dialog (but no physical or social embodiment) and a paper log (standard of care). The primary question the study addressed was long-term usage and engagement as that is the most critical to keeping weight off. The hypothesis (verified by the longitudinal study) is that the physical-social embodiment makes a positive difference in people's sustained engagement, perception of their working alliance, and social support provided by the robot (than the other two interventions). People were more engaged with the robot than the other two interventions, and the emotional bond was notable in the robot modality and much less so in the other two interventions.

Chapter 36 — Motion for Manipulation Tasks

James Kuffner and Jing Xiao

This chapter serves as an introduction to Part D by giving an overview of motion generation and control strategies in the context of robotic manipulation tasks. Automatic control ranging from the abstract, high-level task specification down to fine-grained feedback at the task interface are considered. Some of the important issues include modeling of the interfaces between the robot and the environment at the different time scales of motion and incorporating sensing and feedback. Manipulation planning is introduced as an extension to the basic motion planning problem, which can be modeled as a hybrid system of continuous configuration spaces arising from the act of grasping and moving parts in the environment. The important example of assembly motion is discussed through the analysis of contact states and compliant motion control. Finally, methods aimed at integrating global planning with state feedback control are summarized.

A square peg-in-hole demonstration using manipulation skills

Author  Unknown

Video ID : 362

This video shows a square peg-in-hole demonstration using manipulation skills which refer to a set of motion primitives derived from the analysis of assembly tasks. This video demonstrated three manipulation skills: move-to-touch skill, rotate-to-level skill, and rotate-to-insert skill, which are executed to insert a square peg into a hole.

Chapter 47 — Motion Planning and Obstacle Avoidance

Javier Minguez, Florant Lamiraux and Jean-Paul Laumond

This chapter describes motion planning and obstacle avoidance for mobile robots. We will see how the two areas do not share the same modeling background. From the very beginning of motion planning, research has been dominated by computer sciences. Researchers aim at devising well-grounded algorithms with well-understood completeness and exactness properties.

The challenge of this chapter is to present both nonholonomic motion planning (Sects. 47.1–47.6) and obstacle avoidance (Sects. 47.7–47.10) issues. Section 47.11 reviews recent successful approaches that tend to embrace the whole problemofmotion planning and motion control. These approaches benefit from both nonholonomic motion planning and obstacle avoidance methods.

Sena wheelchair: Autonomous navigation at University of Malaga (2007)

Author  Jose Luis Blanco

Video ID : 708

This experiment demonstrates how a reactive navigation method successfully enables our robotic wheelchair SENA to navigate reliably in the entrance of our building at the University of Malaga (Spain). The robot navigates autonomously amidst dozens of students while avoiding collisions. The method is based on a space transformation, which simplifies finding collision-free movements in real-time despite the arbitrarily complex shape of the robot and its kinematic restrictions.