#### Autonomous Robots

Journal Information
ISSN / EISSN : 0929-5593 / 1573-7527
Current Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC (10.1007)
Former Publisher:
Total articles ≅ 1,425
Current Coverage
SCOPUS
SCIE
COMPENDEX
LOCKSS
Archived in
SHERPA/ROMEO
Filter:

#### Latest articles in this journal

, Shubham Juneja, Lukas Valatka,
Published: 4 May 2021
Autonomous Robots pp 1-14; doi:10.1007/s10514-021-09980-x

The publisher has not yet granted permission to display this abstract.
Published: 4 May 2021
Autonomous Robots pp 1-12; doi:10.1007/s10514-021-09979-4

The publisher has not yet granted permission to display this abstract.
Jingtao Zhang, Zhipeng Xu, Fangchao Yu,
Published: 10 April 2021
Autonomous Robots pp 1-20; doi:10.1007/s10514-021-09981-w

The publisher has not yet granted permission to display this abstract.
Published: 22 March 2021
Autonomous Robots pp 1-16; doi:10.1007/s10514-021-09977-6

Abstract:
We propose a new meta-module design for two important classes of modular robots. The new meta-modules are three-dimensional, robust and compact, improving on the previously proposed ones. One of them applies to so-called edge-hinged modular robot units, such as M-TRAN, SuperBot, SMORES, UBot, PolyBot and CKBot, while the other one applies to so-called central-point-hinged modular robot units, which include Molecubes and Roombots. The new meta-modules use the rotational degrees of freedom of these two types of robot units in order to expand and contract, as to double or halve their length in each of the two directions of its three dimensions, therefore simulating the capabilities of Crystalline and Telecube robots. Furthermore, in the edge-hinged case we prove that the novel meta-module can also perform the scrunch, relax and transfer moves that are necessary in any tunneling-based reconfiguration algorithm for expanding/contracting modular robots such as Crystalline and Telecube. This implies that the use of meta-meta-modules is unnecessary, and that currently existing efficient reconfiguration algorithms can be applied to a much larger set of modular robots than initially intended. We also prove that the size of the new meta-modules is optimal and cannot be further reduced.
Published: 14 March 2021
Autonomous Robots pp 1-22; doi:10.1007/s10514-021-09978-5

Abstract:
We present a complete framework for the safe deployment of humanoid robots in environments containing humans. Proceeding from some general guidelines, we propose several safety behaviors, classified in three categories, i.e., override, temporary override, and proactive. Activation and deactivation of these behaviors is triggered by information coming from the robot sensors and is handled by a state machine. The implementation of our safety framework is discussed with respect to a reference control architecture. In particular, it is shown that an MPC-based gait generator is ideal for realizing all behaviors related to locomotion. Simulation and experimental results on the HRP-4 and NAO humanoids, respectively, are presented to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.
, Victor Barasuol, Claudio Semini, Joni Dambre, Francis Wyffels
Published: 12 March 2021
Autonomous Robots, Volume 45, pp 421-434; doi:10.1007/s10514-021-09974-9

The publisher has not yet granted permission to display this abstract.
Published: 12 March 2021
Autonomous Robots pp 1-15; doi:10.1007/s10514-021-09972-x

Abstract:
Considering an environment containing polygonal obstacles, we address the problem of planning motions for a pair of planar robots connected to one another via a cable of limited length. Much like prior problems with a single robot connected via a cable to a fixed base, straight line-of-sight visibility plays an important role. The present paper shows how the reduced visibility graph provides a natural discretization and captures the essential topological considerations very effectively for the two robot case as well. Unlike the single robot case, however, the bounded cable length introduces considerations around coordination (or equivalently, when viewed from the point of view of a centralized planner, relative timing) that complicates the matter. Indeed, the paper has to introduce a rather more involved formalization than prior single-robot work in order to establish the core theoretical result—a theorem permitting the problem to be cast as one of finding paths rather than trajectories. Once affirmed, the planning problem reduces to a straightforward graph search with an elegant representation of the connecting cable, demanding only a few extra ancillary checks that ensure sufficiency of cable to guarantee feasibility of the solution. We describe our implementation of A${}^\star$ search, and report experimental results. Lastly, we prescribe an optimal execution for the solutions provided by the algorithm.
Published: 10 March 2021
Autonomous Robots pp 1-19; doi:10.1007/s10514-021-09975-8

The publisher has not yet granted permission to display this abstract.
Published: 10 March 2021
Autonomous Robots, Volume 45, pp 389-405; doi:10.1007/s10514-021-09971-y

Abstract:
We present a novel method for learning from demonstration 6-D tasks that can be modeled as a sequence of linear motions and compliances. The focus of this paper is the learning of a single linear primitive, many of which can be sequenced to perform more complex tasks. The presented method learns from demonstrations how to take advantage of mechanical gradients in in-contact tasks, such as assembly, both for translations and rotations, without any prior information. The method assumes there exists a desired linear direction in 6-D which, if followed by the manipulator, leads the robot’s end-effector to the goal area shown in the demonstration, either in free space or by leveraging contact through compliance. First, demonstrations are gathered where the teacher explicitly shows the robot how the mechanical gradients can be used as guidance towards the goal. From the demonstrations, a set of directions is computed which would result in the observed motion at each timestep during a demonstration of a single primitive. By observing which direction is included in all these sets, we find a single desired direction which can reproduce the demonstrated motion. Finding the number of compliant axes and their directions in both rotation and translation is based on the assumption that in the presence of a desired direction of motion, all other observed motion is caused by the contact force of the environment, signalling the need for compliance. We evaluate the method on a KUKA LWR4+ robot with test setups imitating typical tasks where a human would use compliance to cope with positional uncertainty. Results show that the method can successfully learn and reproduce compliant motions by taking advantage of the geometry of the task, therefore reducing the need for localization accuracy.
Published: 6 March 2021
Autonomous Robots, Volume 45, pp 371-388; doi:10.1007/s10514-021-09970-z

Abstract:
Industrial robots are increasingly used to perform tasks requiring an interaction with the surrounding environment (e.g., assembly tasks). Such environments are usually (partially) unknown to the robot, requiring the implemented controllers to suitably react to the established interaction. Standard controllers require force/torque measurements to close the loop. However, most of the industrial manipulators do not have embedded force/torque sensor(s) and such integration results in additional costs and implementation effort. To extend the use of compliant controllers to sensorless interaction control, a model-based methodology is presented in this paper. Relying on sensorless Cartesian impedance control, two Extended Kalman Filters (EKF) are proposed: an EKF for interaction force estimation and an EKF for environment stiffness estimation. Exploiting such estimations, a control architecture is proposed to implement a sensorless force loop (exploiting the provided estimated force) with adaptive Cartesian impedance control and coupling dynamics compensation (exploiting the provided estimated environment stiffness). The described approach has been validated in both simulations and experiments. A Franka EMIKA panda robot has been used. A probing task involving different materials (i.e., with different - unknown - stiffness properties) has been considered to show the capabilities of the developed EKFs (able to converge with limited errors) and control tuning (preserving stability). Additionally, a polishing-like task and an assembly task have been implemented to show the achieved performance of the proposed methodology.