In this paper, a new splines–based control method for robot manipulators is presented and discussed. The above method can be effectively used for path planning and control of rigid and flexible robots. The computational simplicity of the proposed algorithm, together with its flexibility and its high–level intelligence built in, can be considered as promising tools for achieving the goals of modem robot manipulator design.

This paper deals with the control technique of a computer-controlled manipulator with high nonlinearity. To overcome the nonlinearity, a linearization of the system by nonlinear feedback has been employed. Because of the difficulty of the parameter identification under the variation of load, it is not easy to make correct nonlinear compensation for its linearization. In this paper, to solve this problem a robust servo controller based on a model is designed for the linearized manipulator, and a control system is constructed taking account of input nonlinearity. The method is applied to the three-joint manipulator endowed with a software servo using a minicomputer, and the effect of the proposed method is investigated.

Intensified automation related to computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) is viewed by Soviet planning authorities as a major means for increased productivity in Soviet industry. But efforts to increase automation are conditioned by the political–economic environment in which industrial production Systems are engineered and managed. The forces driving Soviet automation efforts are examined, and some tentative judgments are made on the proposed prospects for implementing changes aimed at enhancing the potential contribution of CIM to increased productivity in Soviet industry. The article is based on author's chapters in a forthcoming book, Soviet Automation: Perspectives and Prospects, edited by Jack Baranson (Mt. Airy, Md.: Lomond Publications, 1987).

The degree to which a binary tactile (or visual) image matches the original object is limited by the resolution of the sensor array. Given this fundamental limitation it is still possible to minimize the error in the image formed by the interconnection of the centers of activated sensors along the object's edge. This is achieved by a suitable choice of the physical size of each sensor within the limits of the pixel size. An empirical investigation shows that normally a sensor area of about 50% of the square of the resolution yields an optimal result.

A new approach to motion planning for multiple robots with multi-mode operations is proposed in this paper. Although sharing a common workspace, the robots are assumed to perform periodical tasks independently. The goal is to schedule the motion trajectories of the robots so as to avoid collisions among them. Rather than assigning the robots with different priorities and planning safe motion for only one robot at a time, as is done in most previous studies, an efficient method is developed that can simultaneously generate collision-free motions for the robots with or without priority assignment. Being regarded as a type of job-shop scheduling, the problem is reduced to that of finding a minimaximal path in a disjunctive graph and solved by an extension of the Balas algorithm. The superiority of this approach is demonstrated with various robot operation requirements, including “non-priority”, “with-priority”, and “multicycle” operation modes. Some techniques for speeding up the scheduling process are also presented. The planning results can be described by Gantt charts and executed by a simple “stop-and-go” control scheme. Simulation results on different robot operation modes are also presented to show the feasibility of the proposed approach.

An eight-legged walking machine with purely mechanical control of leg motion has been built, based on an old design by Space-General Corporation. The paper describes its mechanical design, and experiments with it on a variety of surfaces.

Planning of an active vision having anthropomorphic features, such as binocularity, foveas and gaze control, is proposed. The aim of the vision is to provide robots with the pose informaton of an adequate object to be grasped by the robots. For this, the paper describes a viewer-oriented fixation point frame and its calibration, active motion and gaze control of the vision, disparity filtering, zoom control, and estimation of the pose of a specific portion of a selected object. On the basis of the importance of the contour information and the scheme of stereo vision in recognizing objects by humans, the occluding contour pairs of objects are used as inputs in order to show the proposed visual planning.

This paper presents a method for a computer-aided choice of D.C. motors for manipulation robots. The method takes into account the complete dynamics of the manipulator mechanism. The discussion is concerned with the complexity of the actuator mathematical model. The necessary order of the model is found.

This paper presents a computationally simple stereo vision method for detecting useful features of obstacles on the ground relevant to a mobile robot's navigation in an indoor environment. Enhanced time efficiency and reliability is achieved by introducing a geometrical image transformation and a frame-wise iterative edge image comparison scheme. The image transformation used in this paper relates each constant disparity value to an oblique plane at an elevation from the floor. The stereo correspondence method is devised by implementing a frame-wise AND operation based upon edge orientation and a subsequent pixel wise intensity correlation checking. This method is efficient in terms of computation time and capable of identifying isodisparity points, so that the height information of all the obstacle points above the floor can be determined. The obtained disparities are recorded on a local map to give complete obstacle features for mobile robot's path planning. Through a series of experiments performed under various environmental conditions, it is found that the proposed method can effectively be applied for locating obstacles of various heights in indoor navigation of mobile robots.