6883051
Studies on lateral rolling locomotion of a snake robot
A reconfigurable modular snake robot has been developed, which can not only move on a plane but aIso achieve some f-dimensional motions while reconfigured. Control equations of 3-dimensional locomotion were established by the composition of two bending motions in mutual orthogonal plane. Three types of lateral rolling locomotion, flapping, linear rolling and curved rolling, were achieved by controlling the amplitudes and the number of two waves in the two bending motions. Using the three types of locomotion the snake robot can realize net lateral translation, alternation of its contact base and rolling over some obstacles. The lateral rolling locomotion obtains its driving force through the interaction with the environment. The rolling shape and its direction depend on the transferring direction and phase difference of the two waves respectively.
206600042
Multiagent Reinforcement Learning for a Planetary Exploration Multirobot System
In a planetary rover system called “SMC rover”, the motion coordination between robots is a key problem to be solved. Multiagent reinforcement learning methods for multirobot coordination strategy learning are investigated. A reinforcement learning based coordination mechanism is proposed for the exploration system. Four-robot climbing a slope is studied in detail as an instance. The actions of the robots are divided into two layers and realized respectively, which simplified the complexity of the climbing task. A Q-Learning based multirobot coordination strategy mechanism is proposed for the climbing mission. An OpenGL 3D simulation platform is used to verify the strategy and the learning results.
206544153
Analysis of creeping locomotion of a snake robot on a slope
Biological snakes' diverse locomotion modes and physiology make them supremely adapted for environment. To realize these snakes' noticeable features, we have developed a snake-like robot that has no any forward direction driving force. To enlarge the environment-adaptable ability of our robot, in this study we discuss the creeping locomotion of our snake-like robot on a slope. A computer simulator is presented for analysis of the creeping locomotion of our snake-like robot on a slope, and the environment-adaptable body shape for the creeping locomotion of the snake-like robot on slope is also derived through this simulator.
152660
Gaits-transferable CPG controller for a snake-like robot
With slim and legless body, particular ball articulation, and rhythmic locomotion, a nature snake adapted itself to many terrains under the control of a neuron system. Based on analyzing the locomotion mechanism, the main functional features of the motor system in snakes are specified in detail. Furthermore, a bidirectional cyclic inhibitory (BCI) CPG model is applied for the first time to imitate the pattern generation for the locomotion control of the snake-like robot, and its characteristics are discussed, particularly for the generation of three kinds of rhythmic locomotion. Moreover, we introduce the neuron network organized by the BCI-CPGs connected in line with unilateral excitation to switch automatically locomotion pattern of a snake-like robot under different commands from the higher level control neuron and present a necessary condition for the CPG neuron network to sustain a rhythmic output. The validity for the generation of different kinds of rhythmic locomotion modes by the CPG network are verified by the dynamic simulations and experiments. This research provided a new method to model the generation mechanism of the rhythmic pattern of the snake.
21075507
BP Networks Based Trajectory Planning and Inverse Kinematics of a Reconfigurable Mars Rover
The inverse kinematics of series manipulators presents an inherent complexity due to their various structures and kinematics constraints. To a novel reconfigurable Mars rover's arm, the inverse kinematics had been solved by numerical method combined with space geometry relations, but the complex calculating process can not be utilized in real-time control. In this paper, some actions in common use are programmed in the child rover, and the BP neural network was used to solve the inverse kinematics and trajectory planning. To a desired trajectory, some solutions by direct kinematics algorithms and geometry relations corresponding to the trajectory were used as the BP network's training data set, and the non-linear mapping from joint-variable space to operation-variable space was obtained with iterative training and learning method. The results show the output of training is consistent with the desired path, and the obtained reference trajectory is smooth.
14083445
Network-based reconfiguration routes for a self-reconfigurable robot
This paper presents a network-based analysis approach for the reconfiguration problem of a self-reconfigurable robot. The self-reconfigurable modular robot named “AMOEBA-I” has nine kinds of non-isomorphic configurations that consist of a configuration network. Each configuration of the robot is defined to be a node in the weighted and directed configuration network. The transformation from one configuration to another is represented by a directed path with nonnegative weight. Graph theory is applied in the reconfiguration analysis, where reconfiguration route, reconfigurable matrix and route matrix are defined according to the topological information of these configurations. Algorithms in graph theory have been used in enumerating the available reconfiguration routes and deciding the best reconfiguration route. Numerical analysis and experimental simulation results prove the validity of the approach proposed in this paper. And it is potentially suitable for other self-reconfigurable robots’ configuration control and reconfiguration planning.
31996271
A Method of General Stiffness Modeling for Multi-axis Machine Tool
In this paper, a new method for computing general stiffness model at tool tip for multi-axis machine tool is presented. The formula of general stiffness model at tool tip is derived from virtual-work principle and point transformation matrix method. Point transformation matrix method indicates the transformation relationship of elastic displacement on both ends of flexible axes as well as the transformation relationship of force. By multiplying the point transformation matrix, the final stiffness matrix at tool tip will be obtained efficiently. In this modeling method, the final stiffness matrix is composed of local compliance matrixes according to their contribution to the final stiffness matrix.
16509577
Novel Routing Algorithms for Hierarchical Architecture in ASON
The hierarchical routing infrastructure in Automatic Switched Optical Network (ASON) is researched. Three operational algorithms MLLR (Multi-Layer Least Loaded Routing Algorithm), MLCR (Multi-Layer Least Congestion Routing Algorithm) and MROB (Multi-Layer Routing Algorithm based on backtracking) are proposed. In these algorithms, the resource coordination and balancing of multi-domain and multilayer are considered based on the fixed alternate hierarchical routing. A platform named AHORSP (ASON based hierarchical optimal routing & signaling platform) supporting our routing optimization scheme is proposed and demonstrated. Based on the platform the average block probability can be reduced effectively with acceptable time performance by these algorithms.
38250707
Minimizing Spatial Deformation Method for Online Signature Matching
Elastic matching is an important algorithm for online signature verification. Most of elastic matching algorithms are based on dynamic time warping(DTW). In this paper, we propose a new points matching algorithm for online signature verification. After resampling a signature with equidistant spacing, we describe the resampling point by its (3+1) demesional((3+1)D) information: 3D spatial information (x-axis, y-axis, time) and a feature vector. A soft-assign matrix and two special restrictions are introduced for recording the correspondence between two signatures. With a deterministic annealing framework, the mapping between two sets of (3+1)D signature points is achieved by minimizing the warping energy of the thin-plate spline(TPS). Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the DTW-based matching algorithms.
10918777
Online Signature Verification by Combining Shape Contexts and Local Features
Most parameter-based online signature verification methods achieve correspondence between the points of two signatures by minimizing the accumulation of their local feature distances. The matching based on minimizing the local feature distances alone is not adequate since the point contains not only local features but the distribution of the remaining points relative to it. One useful way to get correspondences between points on two shapes and measure the similarity of the two shapes is to use the shape context, since this descriptor can be used to describe the distributive relationship between a reference point and the remaining points on a shape. In this paper, we introduce a shape context descriptor for describing an online signature point which contains both 2D spatial information and a time stamp. A common algorithm, dynamic time warp (DTW), is used for the elastic matching between two signatures. When combining shape contexts and local features, we achieve better results than when using only the local features. We evaluate the proposed method on a signature database from the First International Signature Verification Competition (SVC2004). Experimental results demonstrate that the shape context is a good feature and has available complementarity for describing the signature point. The best result by combining the shape contexts and the local features yields an Equal Error Rate (EER) of 6.77% for five references.
1802579
Analysis and Improvement of An Iris Identification Algorithm
Iris recognition using complex valued 2D Gabor filters received a great success in broad applications. Such method encoded the iris phase information which was extracted according to the complex valued 2D filters' response. In this paper, we theoretically analyzed the complex-valued 2D Gabor filters. Based on analysis, we concluded that the real part of complex-valued 2D Gabor filter would reduce the whole system performance because it is not perfectly band passed filter. An improved algorithm then proposed to extract the phase information of iris image. The new method has more advantages such as lower false rate, much less space of codes and shorter time of encoding and matching. In order to reduce the disturbance of eyelashes, eyelids, specular reflections, or other noise, a matching template is designed by dilating the positions of them. Experimental results show that the latter method has an encouraging performance