RAMSETE: Articulated and Mobile Robotics for Services and Technology

292 Pages·2001·3.57 MB·English

by  Salvatore Nicosia

Lecture Notes
in Control and Information Sciences 270
Editors:M.Thoma · M.Morari
Springer
Berlin
Heidelberg
NewYork
Barcelona
HongKong
London
Milan
Paris
Singapore
Tokyo
Salvatore Nicosia, Bruno Siciliano,
Antonio Bicchi, Paolo Valigi (Eds)
RAMSETE
Articulated and Mobile Robotics
for Services and Technologies
1 3
SeriesAdvisoryBoard
A.Bensoussan·P.Fleming·M.J.Grimble·P.Kokotovic·
A.B.Kurzhanski·H.Kwakernaak·J.L.Massey
Editors
ProfessorSalvatoreNicosia ProfessorBrunoSiciliano
DipartimentodiInformaticaSistemi DipartimentodiInformatica
eProduzione eSistemistica
Universita` diRoma“TorVergata” Universita` diNapoliFedericoII
ViaTorVergata110 ViaClaudio21
00133Roma,Italy 80125Napoli,Italy
ProfessorAntonioBicchi ProfessorPaoloValigi
Centro“E.Piaggio” DipartimentodiIngegneriaElettronica
Universita` diPisa edell’Informazione
ViaDiotisalvi2 Universita` diPerugia
56126Pisa,Italy ViaG.Duranti93
06125Perugia,Italy
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RAMSETE:articulatedandmobileroboticsforservicesandtechnologies/SalvatoreNicosia...(ed)
Berlin;Heidelberg;NewYork;Barcelona;HongKong;London;Milano;Paris;Singapore;Tokyo:
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(LectureNotesincontrolandinformationsciences;270)
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Preface
Robotics applications, initially developed for industrial and manufacturing
contexts,arenowstronglypresentinseveral(cid:12)elds. Besideswell-knownspace
andhigh-technologyapplications,roboticsforeverydaylifeandmedicalser-
vicesisbecomingmoreandmorepopular.Asanexample,roboticmanipula-
torsareparticularlyusefulinsurgeryandradiationtreatments,theycouldbe
employed for civil demining, for helping disabled people, and ultimately for
domestic tasks, entertainment and education. Such a kind of robotic appli-
cations require the integration of many di(cid:11)erent skills. Autonomous vehicles
and mobile robots in general must be integrated with articulated manipula-
tors. Many robotic technologies (sensors, actuators and computing systems)
must be properly used with speci(cid:12)c technologies (localisation, planning and
controltechnologies).The taskofdesigningrobotsfortheseapplicationsisa
hard challenge:a speci(cid:12)c competence in each areais demanded, in the e(cid:11)ort
of a truly integrated multidisciplinary design.
This monographstems out of the researchproject RAMSETE (Robotica
Articolata e Mobile per i SErvizi e le TEcnologie| Articulated and Mobile
Robots for SErvices and TEchnologies), funded in 1999{2000 by the Ital-
ian Ministry for University, Scienti(cid:12)c and Technology Research (MURST),
involving a signi(cid:12)cant portion of the Italian robotics community; namely,
the research groups at: University of Bologna, University of Genoa, Poly-
technic of Milan, University of Naples, University of Perugia, University
of Pisa, University of Rome \La Sapienza", University of Rome \Tor Ver-
gata", Third University of Rome, and Polytechnic of Turin. At the web
sitehttp://www-lar.deis.unibo.it/ramseteacompletedescriptionofthe
project is available.
Early research activities in Italy in the (cid:12)eld of robotics date back to the
late (cid:12)fties. At that time, simultaneously with other activities in the United
States, an extremely versatile master/slave tele-manipulator was under de-
velopment at CNEN laboratories: the MASCOT. Some of the new versions
of such manipulator are still in operation at the Joint European Torus lab-
oratory, United Kingdom, were fusion reactors are under study. Since that
time, the Italian scienti(cid:12)c community has always played a major role in the
robotics(cid:12)eld,with anewconsiderableinterestabouttheendoftheseventies
when,downstreamoftheapplicationsinmanufacturing,somecomponentsof
theItalianacademystartedgivingcontributionsofrelevantscienti(cid:12)cinterest
inthe(cid:12)eldofarticulatedroboticsforindustrialapplicationsinstructureden-
vironments.Theircontributionstothe developmentof modernroboticswere
recognised by the whole international community. Among many others, rel-
evant results have been given in the areas of dynamic modelling and control
of articulated robots, adaptive and learning control, modelling and control
vi Preface
of elastic robots, asymptotic state observers, design and realisation of end
e(cid:11)ectors.
The main objective of this monograph is to provide robotic researchers
anddeveloperswith:a) areliableandauthoritativesourceofinformation,b)
meaningfulandfeasibledevelopments,c)signi(cid:12)canceandimpactofnewprob-
lems in the (cid:12)eld. The monographemphasises all the implementation aspects
related to major robot subsystems, i.e. both technology structures and spe-
ci(cid:12)cmethodologies.Thestudyofroboticsubsystemsaimedattheintegration
in asingle complexsystem, with autonomousmotion capabilities, represents
thecurrentfrontierofscienti(cid:12)cresearchinthe(cid:12)eldofrobotics.Inparticular,
the most relevant open problems deal with the integration of functions and
autonomousdecision capabilities of articulatedrobots, suchas controlof co-
operating arms, their interaction with the environment (contact and impact
phenomena),aswellastheintegrationoffunctionsandautonomousdecision
capabilities of mobile robots, such as those related to localisation, planning
of tasks and motion, and motion control. In addition, in all these situations
the following factors attain a crucial importance: hardware/software archi-
tectures for computation and control, availability of advanced actuatorsand
sensory systems.
Thetechnicalissuesarisinginthe studyof theaboveproblemsareexam-
ined in the perspective of the required skills. In particular, there are some
technological and methodological skills, that are necessary for the e(cid:11)ective
realisation of robots for (cid:12)eld and service applications. In this monograph,
these skills have been arranged into six methodological areas, three of them
focused on articulated robots and the others on mobile/autonomous robots,
and four technological areas. The areas are listed below and the research
group leading the activities during the project within each areais indicated.
{ Technological areas
Hardware/softwarearchitectures (Univ. Genoa)
Joint actuators (Polytech. Milan)
End e(cid:11)ectors (Univ. Pisa)
Sensors (Univ. Bologna)
{ Methodological areas
Articulated robots
Flexible link control (Univ. Perugia)
Interaction control (Univ. Naples)
Impact modelling and control (Polytech. Turin)
Mobile and autonomous robots
Vehicle control (Univ. Rome \La Sapienza")
Planning (Third Univ. Rome)
Localisation (Univ. Rome \Tor Vergata")
Preface vii
The book is intended for graduate students, researchers, scientists and
scholars who wish to broaden and strengthen their knowledge in robotics.
Besides thanking all the Authors for their valuable contributions to this
monograph,wewishto extend ourappreciationtoalltheparticipantstothe
RAMSETE project who have produced significant research results during
the latest two years. Warmest thanks are for Nicholas Pinfield, Engineering
Editor, and his assistants Hannah Ransley and Oliver Jackson of Springer-
Verlag, London. A final word of thanks goes to Costanzo Manes for the
pictorial illustration below.
February 2001 Salvatore Nicosia
Bruno Siciliano
Antonio Bicchi
Paolo Valigi
RROOMMAA TTRREE
Universita`degli studi
TOR VERGATA
MURST
List of Contributors
Damiano Angeletti
Dipartimento di Informatica Sistemistica e Telematica
Universita(cid:18) degli Studi di Genova
Via Opera Pia 13
16145 Genova, Italy
[email protected]
Antonio Bicchi
Centro \E. Piaggio"
Universita(cid:18) degli Studi di Pisa
Via Diotisalvi 2
56126 Pisa, Italy
[email protected]
Tommaso Bozzo
Dipartimento di Informatica Sistemistica e Telematica
Universita(cid:18) degli Studi di Genova
Via Opera Pia 13
16145 Genova, Italy
[email protected]
Fabrizio Caccavale
PRISMA Lab, Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica
Universita(cid:18) degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Via Claudio 21
80125 Napoli, Italy
[email protected]
Giorgio Cannata
Dipartimento di Informatica Sistemistica e Telematica
Universita(cid:18) degli Studi di Genova
Via Opera Pia 13
16145 Genova, Italy
[email protected]
Giuseppe Casalino
Dipartimento di Informatica Sistemistica e Telematica
Universita(cid:18) degli Studi di Genova
Via Opera Pia 13
16145 Genova, Italy
[email protected]
xvi List of Contributors
Alessandro De Luca
Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica
Universita(cid:18) degli Studi di Roma \La Sapienza"
Via Eudossiana 18
00184 Roma, Italy
[email protected]
Gianni Ferretti
Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione
Politecnico di Milano
Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32
20133 Milano, Italy
[email protected]
Antonio Ficola
Dipartimento di IngegneriaElettronica e dell’Informazione
Universita(cid:18) degli Studi di Perugia
Via G. Duranti 93
06125 Perugia,Italy
[email protected]
Mario Luca Fravolini
Dipartimento di IngegneriaElettronica e dell’Informazione
Universita(cid:18) degli Studi di Perugia
Via G. Duranti 93
06125 Perugia,Italy
[email protected]
Fabrizio Grandoni
Dipartimento di Informatica Sistemi e Produzione
Universita(cid:18) degli Studi di Roma \Tor Vergata"
Via Tor Vergata 110
00133 Roma, Italy
[email protected]
Marina Indri
Dipartimento di Automatica e Informatica
Politecnico di Torino
Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24
10129 Torino, Italy
[email protected]