Controlling grip force by maintaining a constant frictional safety margin to improve robotic grasping

Manipulating soft and fragile objects is a challenging task in robotic grasping. The key challenge for robotic grasping is to exert enough grip force to prevent slipping while being gentle enough to prevent damage to an object. Existing grippers used for processes like automatic harvesting of fruits, either apply excessive grip force leading to...

Stabilization of Visually Guided Robotic Lampreys

This thesis contains two contributions to the stabilization of visually guided robotic lampreys: the head stabilization method and the head-led target tracking design. Both approach the problem that camera inputs, attached to the head segment, are disturbed due to the participation of the head in the locomotion gait of the robot. Head...

Robotic swarm control through artificial pheromone trails: The case of curious ants

The extraordinary capability of swarming ant species in route finding and foraging efficiency through trail trail development has been studied for many years. Scientists have been able to capture the behavior of individual ants in control algorithms and used the resulting artificial swarm of ants to solve difficult problems. These problems...

A minimal longitudinal dynamic model of a tailless flapping wing robot for control design

Recently, several insect- and hummingbird-inspired tailless flapping wing robots have been introduced. However, their flight dynamics, which are likely to be similar to that of their biological counterparts, remain yet to be fully understood. We propose a minimal dynamic model that is not only validated with experimental data, but also able...

Design, control, and visual navigation of the DelftaCopter VTOL tail-sitter UAV

To participate in the Outback Medical Express UAV Challenge 2016, a vehicle was designed and tested that can autonomously hover precisely, takeoff and land vertically, fly fast forward efficiently, and use computer vision to locate a person and a suitable landing location. The vehicle is a novel hybrid tail‐sitter combining a delta‐shaped...

System dynamic design and control of the Plugless Robot Arm: Towards energy neutral robotics

Current robots consume a lot of energy. The work required for a task is generally just a tiny fraction of the total energy consumed. Most energy wastefully dissipated. Design of the 2 degree of freedom (DoF) Plugless Robot Arm shows that clever design can reduce these energy losses to a tiny remaining fraction. The Plugless Arm is designed to...

Exploiting Dynamics in robotic arms with repetitive tasks

Since the industrial revolution, machines have taken over many tasks from humans, increasing labor productivity and prosperity. In the 20th century, the introduction of robots created a second wave of automation, increasing the labor productivity even further. In order to create a third wave of automation, it is necessary to develop a new...

Fundamentals of ergonomic exoskeleton robots

This thesis is the first to provide the fundamentals of ergonomic exoskeleton design. The fundamental theory as well as technology necessary to analyze and develop ergonomic wearable robots interacting with humans is established and validated by experiments and prototypes. The fundamentals are (1) a new theoretical framework for analyzing...

The real-time Hermes robot arm simulator: HSF-P

The Hermes manipulation system (HERA) is a sophisticated space manipulator system, which has to perform tasks ranging from berthing to tool operation in various operational modes from fully automatic to purely manual. The HERA system main contractor is Fokker Space & Systems B.V. (FSS). Development and qualification of such a space-based...

Dynamics modelling, simulation, and control of a spacecraft/manipulator system

Four well-known formalisms for mathematical modelling of the dynamics of a spacecraft/manipulator system are derived from the unifying d'Alembert principle. The Newton-Euler formalism is discussed in more detail, as it allows efficient numerical simulation. An algorithm is defined for the control of the manipulator end-effector motion in...