Event Description
Title: Compliance Control of Emulated MM-UAV in Experimental Test Platform
Physics Major: Pareshkumar Brahmbhatt
Abstract: Compliance control is an important strategy which helps minimize damage to both the equipment and the environment. Compliance, variable stiffness, is the ability to maintain an equilibrium position in the presence of external forces. This work uses torque sensor information to determine mechanical impedance felt by a robot arm, and the mechanical impedance is used to develop a strategy to minimize potential damage, compliance control, while solving real world problems such as picking up objects, and placing them in a similarly shaped hole; a peg-in-hole problem. This task is done with full environmental knowledge of the desired target position and the robot arm end-effector position. The complexity of a peg-in-hole task has been tackled using many different ground-based, robotic systems in the past but, on an aerial platform, the difficulty increases as there is no solid base for this particular robot arm system to use to brace itself against an external force that may act on it. The aerial mobile platform generates dynamic inertial properties of the system and shifting centers of mass, meaning it will emulate the behavior of a free-floating helicopter, and responds to an applied force or like a squid as it interacts with the sea floor via the buoyant force.
For achievable experimental results, a test platform is developed using a simulation model as reference to emulate aerial platform dynamics as well as the errors which need to be mitigated to stabilize the vehicle as it hovers. Dynamic models from past works will be used to mimic flight dynamics of a small-scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) while in the hover position. A 3 degree-of-freedom manipulation gantry emulates X, Y, and Z, whereas, yaw, pitch and roll are mimicked by a gimbal attachment to the gantry system. A 7 degree-of-freedom robot arm manipulator will be used to attempt a peg-in-hole task with the full environmental knowledge mentioned before. The flight emulation approach will provide safe and repeatable results that prevent loss of equipment, and make use of compliance control as a strategy to minimize damage to the environment and the manipulator.
Advisor: Dr. Paul Oh, ME Dept. |
