1,720,966 research outputs found
Experimental verification of an orientation estimation technique for autonomous robotic platforms
Get PDFResearch on autonomous platforms ranging from unmanned aerial and underwater vehicles to wheeled, tracked and legged machines enlarges the application boundaries of robotic systems. The control of these platforms, however, is a challenging task which requires the availability or estimation of various feedback variables. Orientation information of the autonomous platform is vital for robotic control. A variety of approaches and instruments are reported in the literature for orientation estimation with inertial sensors. Many approaches are based on Kalman filters. The use of Extended Kalman filters (EKF), Unscented Kalman filters and complimentary Kalman filters are proposed too. This thesis concentrates on the estimation of orientation from measurements provided by inertial sensors. The use of three-axial linear accelerometers and rate gyros is considered. The sequential use of two estimators is proposed for orientation estimation. The first one is a Kalman Filter and it is employed for the gravity estimation mainly based on acceleration readings. The second estimator has the structure of an Extended Kalman Filter which uses the gravity estimate generated by the first estimator and rate gyro readings for the orientation estimation. Orientation is estimated in a multivariable fashion, without the simplifying assumption of decoupling between onedimensional rotations about the three gyroscope axes. Therefore quite large angles of rotation can be handled accurately. The presented approach uses a quaternion representation which avoids representation singularities common with orientation descriptors like Euler angles. The computational efficiency is improved by the quaternion representation too. In order to test the estimation methods, experimental studies are carried out. A three-degrees-of-freedom robot is designed and built. The accelerometer and gyroscope unit is mounted at the tool end of this manipulator which generated test motion in the experiments. In order to create a basis for comparison, robot joint encoder data is used and actual rotation matrices during the motion are computed. The experiments indicate that the proposed technique delivers reliable orientation estimates in a large range of rotation angles and motion frequencies
Joint friction estimation for walking bipeds
No full textThis paper proposed a new approach for the joint friction estimation of non-slipping walking biped robots. The proposed approach is based on the combination of a measurement-based strategy and a model-based method. The former is used to estimate the joint friction online when the foot is in contact with the ground, while the latter adopts a friction model to represent the joint friction when the leg is swinging. The measurement-based strategy utilizes the measured ground reaction forces (GRF) and the readings of an inertial measurement unit (IMU) located at the robot body. Based on these measurements, the joint angular accelerations and the body attitude and velocity are estimated. The aforementioned measurements and estimates are used in a reduced dynamical model of the biped. However, when the leg is swinging, this strategy is inapplicable. Therefore, a friction model is adopted. Its parameters are identified adaptively using the estimated online friction whenever the foot is in contact. The estimated joint friction is used in the feedback torque control signal. The proposed approach is validated using the full-dynamics of 12-DOF biped model. By using this approach, the robot center of mass (CoM) position error is reduced by 10% which demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach
An improved real-time adaptive Kalman filter with recursive noise covariance updating rules
No full textKalman filter (KF) is used extensively for state estimation. Among its requirements are the process and observation noise covariances which are unknown or partially known in real life applications. Biased initializations of the covariances result in performance degradation of KF or divergence. Therefore, an extensive research is carried on to improve its performance however, relying on a moving window, heavy computations, and the availability of the exact model are the fundamental problems in most of the proposed techniques. In this paper, we are using the idea of the recursive estimation of KF to propose two recursive updating rules for the process and observation covariances respectively designed based on the covariance matching principles. Each rule is a tuned scaled version of the previous covariance in addition to a tuned correction term derived based on the most recent available data. The proposed adaptive Kalman filter AKF avoided the aforementioned problems and proved itself to have an improved performance over the conventional KF. The results show that the AKF estimates are more accurate, have less noise and more stable against biased covariance initializations
Joint friction estimation and slip prediction of biped walking robots
Get PDFFriction is a nonlinear and complex phenomenon. It is unwanted at the biped joints since it deteriorates the robot’s walking performance in terms of speed and dynamic behavior. On the other hand, it is desired and required between the biped feet and the walking surface to facilitate locomotion. Further, friction forces between the feet and the ground determine the maximum acceleration and deceleration that the robot can afford without foot slip. Although several friction models are developed, there is no exact model that represents the friction behavior. This is why online friction estimation and compensation enter the picture. However, when online model-free estimation is difficult, a model-based method of online identification can prove useful. This thesis proposes a new approach for the joint friction estimation and slip prediction of walking biped robots. The joint friction estimation approach is based on the combination of a measurementbased strategy and a model-based method. The former is used to estimate the joint friction online when the foot is in contact with the ground, it utilizes the force and acceleration measurements in a reduced dynamical model of the biped. The latter adopts a friction model to represent the joint friction when the leg is swinging. The model parameters are identified adaptively using the estimated online friction whenever the foot is in contact. Then the estimated joint friction contributes to joint torque control signals to improve the control performance. The slip prediction is a model-free friction-behavior-inspired approach. A measurement-based online algorithm is designed to estimate the Coulomb friction which is regarded as a slip threshold. To predict the slip, a safety margin is introduced in the negative vicinity of the estimated Coulomb friction. The estimation algorithm concludes that if the applied force is outside the safety margin, then the foot tends to slip. The proposed estimation approaches are validated by experiments on SURALP (Sabanci University Robotics Research Laboratory Platform) and simulations on its model. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of these methods
Reduced filtered dynamic model for joint friction estimation of walking bipeds
No full textThe present paper presents a novel method for estimating the joint friction of walking bipeds. It combines a measurement-based method with an adaptive model-based method to estimate the joint friction. The former is used when the feet is in contact, while the latter is used when the leg is swinging. The measurements are the feet forces and the readings of an inertial measure unit located at the biped body. The measurement-based method utilizes these measurements into a reduced filtered dynamic model of the biped to obtain an online estimated filtered version of the joint friction. Once the foot swings, a friction model is adopted to represent the joint friction behavior. The model parameters are adaptively identified using the online estimated filtered friction whenever the foot is in contact. The results are validated using full-dynamics of 12-DOF biped model and show a dramatic tracking of the estimated friction to the true one
An improved real-time adaptive Kalman filter with recursive noise covariance updating rules
No full textKalman filter (KF) is used extensively for state estimation. Among its requirements are the process and observation noise covariances which are unknown or partially known in real life applications. Biased initializations of the covariances result in performance degradation of KF or divergence. Therefore, an extensive research is carried on to improve its performance however, relying on a moving window, heavy computations, and the availability of the exact model are the fundamental problems in most of the proposed techniques. In this paper, we are using the idea of the recursive estimation of KF to propose two recursive updating rules for the process and observation covariances respectively designed based on the covariance matching principles. Each rule is a tuned scaled version of the previous covariance in addition to a tuned correction term derived based on the most recent available data. The proposed adaptive Kalman filter AKF avoided the aforementioned problems and proved itself to have an improved performance over the conventional KF. The results show that the AKF estimates are more accurate, have less noise and more stable against biased covariance initializations
Joint friction estimation for walking bipeds
No full textThis paper proposed a new approach for the joint friction estimation of non-slipping walking biped robots. The proposed approach is based on the combination of a measurement-based strategy and a model-based method. The former is used to estimate the joint friction online when the foot is in contact with the ground, while the latter adopts a friction model to represent the joint friction when the leg is swinging. The measurement-based strategy utilizes the measured ground reaction forces and the readings of an inertial measurement unit (IMU) located at the robot body. Based on these measurements, the joint angular accelerations and the body attitude and velocity are estimated. The aforementioned measurements and estimates are used in a reduced dynamical model of the biped. However, when the leg is swinging, this strategy is inapplicable. Therefore, a friction model is adopted. Its parameters are identified adaptively using the estimated online friction whenever the foot is in contact. The estimated joint friction is used in the feedback torque control signal. The proposed approach is validated using the full-dynamics of 12-DOF biped model. By using this approach, the robot center of mass position error is reduced by 10% which demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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