The increasing demand for physical interaction between humans and robots has led to an interest in robots whose behavior is guaranteed to be safe when they are in close proximity with humans. However, attaining sufficiently high levels of performance while ensuring safety creates formidable challenges in mechanical design, actuation, sensing, and control. To promote safety without compromising performance, a new actuation concept, referred to as hybrid actuation, has been developed. Since low impedance output at high frequencies is essential for robot safety, while optimal passive stiffness is needed for robot performance, the new actuation approach employs a pneumatic artificial muscle as a macro actuator to provide low-frequency torques. Artificial pneumatic muscles provide high force-to-weight ratio and inherent compliance, both of which allow for low impedance actuation. To compensate for the slow and non-linear dynamics of pneumatic actuation, a small electromagnetic actuator collocated at the robot's joint is employed as a mini actuator, which provides high mechanical bandwidth for high performance without increasing the inertia and size of the manipulator. To achieve the appropriate balance between safety and performance, design methodologies were developed that optimally determine key design parameters such as the required mini motor torque capacity, the joint stiffness introduced by an antagonistic pair of muscles, and the pulley radius. Using a testbed, referred to as the Stanford Safety Robot (S2rho), the hybrid actuation was evaluated for position tracking performance, force tracking performance, and impact behavior. The experimental results demonstrate that by significantly improving control performance with the hybrid actuation over performance with pneumatic muscles alone, while reducing the effective inertia significantly, the competing design objectives of safety and performance can be successfully integrated into a single robotic manipulator. As an extension of the hybrid actuation concept, the new design of dual four-degree-of-freedom robotic arms with torso is presented and detailed descriptions of the design are included.

The increasing demand for physical interaction between humans and robots has led to an interest in robots whose behavior is guaranteed to be safe when they are in close proximity with humans. However, attaining sufficiently high levels of performance while ensuring safety creates formidable challenges in mechanical design, actuation, sensing, and control. To promote safety without compromising performance, a new actuation concept, referred to as hybrid actuation, has been developed. Since low impedance output at high frequencies is essential for robot safety, while optimal passive stiffness is needed for robot performance, the new actuation approach employs a pneumatic artificial muscle as a macro actuator to provide low-frequency torques. Artificial pneumatic muscles provide high force-to-weight ratio and inherent compliance, both of which allow for low impedance actuation. To compensate for the slow and non-linear dynamics of pneumatic actuation, a small electromagnetic actuator collocated at the robot's joint is employed as a mini actuator, which provides high mechanical bandwidth for high performance without increasing the inertia and size of the manipulator. To achieve the appropriate balance between safety and performance, design methodologies were developed that optimally determine key design parameters such as the required mini motor torque capacity, the joint stiffness introduced by an antagonistic pair of muscles, and the pulley radius. Using a testbed, referred to as the Stanford Safety Robot (S2rho), the hybrid actuation was evaluated for position tracking performance, force tracking performance, and impact behavior. The experimental results demonstrate that by significantly improving control performance with the hybrid actuation over performance with pneumatic muscles alone, while reducing the effective inertia significantly, the competing design objectives of safety and performance can be successfully integrated into a single robotic manipulator. As an extension of the hybrid actuation concept, the new design of dual four-degree-of-freedom robotic arms with torso is presented and detailed descriptions of the design are included.

A Mathematical Introduction to Robotic Manipulation presents a mathematical formulation of the kinematics, dynamics, and control of robot manipulators. It uses an elegant set of mathematical tools that emphasizes the geometry of robot motion and allows a large class of robotic manipulation problems to be analyzed within a unified framework. The foundation of the book is a derivation of robot kinematics using the product of the exponentials formula. The authors explore the kinematics of open-chain manipulators and multifingered robot hands, present an analysis of the dynamics and control of robot systems, discuss the specification and control of internal forces and internal motions, and address the implications of the nonholonomic nature of rolling contact are addressed, as well. The wealth of information, numerous examples, and exercises make A Mathematical Introduction to Robotic Manipulation valuable as both a reference for robotics researchers and a text for students in advanced robotics courses.

Human Inspired Dexterity in Robotic Manipulation provides up-to-date research and information on how to imitate humans and realize robotic manipulation. Approaches from both software and hardware viewpoints are shown, with sections discussing, and highlighting, case studies that demonstrate how human manipulation techniques or skills can be transferred to robotic manipulation. From the hardware viewpoint, the book discusses important human hand structures that are key for robotic hand design and how they should be embedded for dexterous manipulation. This book is ideal for the research communities in robotics, mechatronics and automation. Investigates current research direction in robotic manipulation Shows how human manipulation techniques and skills can be transferred to robotic manipulation Identifies key human hand structures for robotic hand design and how they should be embedded in the robotic hand for dexterous manipulation

This book introduces novel thinking and techniques to the control of robotic manipulation. In particular, the concept of teleimpedance control as an alternative method to bilateral force-reflecting teleoperation control for robotic manipulation is introduced. In teleimpedance control, a compound reference command is sent to the slave robot including both the desired motion trajectory and impedance profile, which are then realized by the remote controller. This concept forms a basis for the development of the controllers for a robotic arm, a dual-arm setup, a synergy-driven robotic hand, and a compliant exoskeleton for improved interaction performance.

The science and engineering of robotic manipulation. "Manipulation" refers to a variety of physical changes made to the world around us. Mechanics of Robotic Manipulation addresses one form of robotic manipulation, moving objects, and the various processes involved—grasping, carrying, pushing, dropping, throwing, and so on. Unlike most books on the subject, it focuses on manipulation rather than manipulators. This attention to processes rather than devices allows a more fundamental approach, leading to results that apply to a broad range of devices, not just robotic arms. The book draws both on classical mechanics and on classical planning, which introduces the element of imperfect information. The book does not propose a specific solution to the problem of manipulation, but rather outlines a path of inquiry.

Dexterous and autonomous manipulation is a key technology for the personal and service robots of the future. Advances in Bimanual Manipulation edited by Bruno Siciliano provides the robotics community with the most noticeable results of the four-year European project DEXMART (DEXterous and autonomous dual-arm hand robotic manipulation with sMART sensory-motor skills: A bridge from natural to artificial cognition). The volume covers a host of highly important topics in the field, concerned with modelling and learning of human manipulation skills, algorithms for task planning, human-robot interaction, and grasping, as well as hardware design of dexterous anthropomorphic hands. The results described in this five-chapter collection are believed to pave the way towards the development of robotic systems endowed with dexterous and human-aware dual-arm/hand manipulation skills for objects, operating with a high degree of autonomy in unstructured real-world environments.

This book collects papers on the state of th eart in experimental robotics. Experimental Robotics is at the core of validating robotics research for both its systems science and theoretical foundations. Because robotics experiments are carried out on physical, complex machines whose controllers are subject to uncertainty, devising meaningful experiments and collecting statistically significant results pose important and unique challenges in robotics. Robotics experiments serve as a unifying theme for robotics system science and algorithmic foundations. These observations have led to the creation of the International Symposia on Experimental Robotics. The papers of the book were presented at the 2002 International Symposium on Experimental Robotics.

This book moves from a thorough investigation of human capabilities during movements and interactions with objects and environment and translates those principles into the design planning and control of innovative mechatronic systems, providing significant advancements in the fields of human–robot interaction, autonomous robots, prosthetics and assistive devices. The work presented in this monograph is characterized by a significant paradigmatic shift with respect to typical approaches, as it always place the human at the center of the technology developed, and the human represents the starting point and the actual beneficiary of the developed solutions. The content of this book is targeted to robotics and neuroscience enthusiasts, researchers and makers, students and simple lovers of the matter.