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Foundations of Robotics Seminar, April 27, 2010
Time
and Place | Seminar Abstract
ICRA 2010 Practice Talks
Automation and Robotics
Matthew Mason
Carnegie Mellon University - Robotics Institute
DSAC -- Dynamic, Single Actuated Climber: Local Stability and Bifurcations
Amir Degani
Carnegie Mellon University - Robotics Institute
NSH 1507
Talk 4:30 pm
Automation and Robotics
This talk addresses the relation of factory automation and robotics. The main idea is to view an automated factory as an object of scientific study, furthering the primary goal of robotics, which is to understand the principles of animated machines. Factories offer many advantages to the aspiring roboticist. You can vivisect a factory without impeding its operation, and without moral concerns. You can discuss its design with its creator. And, since factory automation was not contrived by robotics researchers, the study of automated factories is closer to a natural science than, say, study of robotic origami. One question is whether factory automation, as a "structured" task domain, is so fundamentally different from "unstructured" task domains, as to limit the scope of any principles learned. The talk will include an attempt to bring some precision to the concepts of structured and unstructured task domains.
DSAC -- Dynamic, Single Actuated Climber: Local Stability and Bifurcations
This paper investigates a novel mechanism, called DSAC for Dynamic, Single Actuated Climber, which propels itself upwards by oscillating its leg in a symmetric fashion using a single actuator. This mechanism achieves dynamic, vertical motion while retaining simplicity in design and control. We explore the local orbital stability of the DSAC mechanism. We use the Poincare map method with a well chosen Poincare section to simplify the problem by reducing the dimension of the Poincare map to 3-dimensions. We find the stable regions while varying the controls input and some of the mechanism's parameters. Moreover, in response to a continuous change in a parameter of the mechanism, the symmetric and steady stable gait of the mechanism gradually evolves through a regime of period doubling bifurcations.
The Robotics Institute is part of the School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University.