摘要:
The article discusses the launch of the UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems Network (UK-RAS Network) funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to boost the robotics research and development (R&D) activities in Great Britain.
摘要:
Hyper-redundant (or snakelike) manipulators have many more degrees of freedom than required to position and orient an object in space. They have been employed in a variety of applications ranging from search-and-rescue to minimally invasive surgical procedures, and recently they even have been proposed as solutions to problems in maintaining civil infrastructure and the repair of satellites. The kinematic and dynamic properties of snakelike robots are captured naturally using a continuum backbone curve equipped with a naturally evolving set of reference frames, stiffness properties, and mass density. When the snakelike robot has a continuum architecture, the backbone curve corresponds with the physical device itself. Interestingly, these same modeling ideas can be used to describe conformational shapes of DNA molecules and filamentous protein structures in solution and in cells. This paper reviews several classes of snakelike robots: (1) hyper-redundant manipulators guided by backbone curves;(2) flexible steerable needles;and (3) concentric tube continuum robots. It is then shown how the same mathematical modeling methods used in these robotics contexts can be used to model molecules such as DNA. All of these problems are treated in the context of a common mathematical framework based on the differential geometry of curves, continuum mechanics, and variational calculus. Both coordinate-dependent Euler-Lagrange formulations and coordinate-free Euler-Poincare approaches are reviewed.
摘要:
This paper presents the steps for the mathematical modelling of a fish robot with four degrees of freedom (DOF) called UC-Ika 1. The swimming motion of the robot, which is inspired by tuna fish, needs to generate an undulatory motion by its tail peduncle and caudal fin. Hence, the robot has the benefit of a tail mechanism that plays a determining role in the dynamic behaviour of the robot. Analysing this tail mechanism and the hydrodynamic forces acting upon the fish robot, the governing equations of motion of the robot are derived. Solving these dynamic equations reveals that the robot has a cruising speed of 0.29 m/s, a slight oscillation in the gamma direction, and a small swing around its centre of mass. These results are validated by the experimental results of UC-Ika 1.