Autonomous Robots: Modeling, Path Planning, and Control

358 Pages·2009·10.28 MB·English

by  Farbod Fahimi (auth.)

Autonomous Robots
Modeling, Path Planning, and Control
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Farbod Fahimi
Autonomous Robots
Modeling, Path Planning, and Control
123
FarbodFahimi
MechanicalEngineeringDepartment
UniversityofAlberta
Edmonton,Alberta
Canada
[email protected]
ISBN:978-0-387-09537-0 e-ISBN:978-0-387-09538-7
DOI10.1007/978-0-387-09538-7
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2008931982
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Preface
AutonomousVersusConventionalRobots
Itisatleasttwodecadessincetheconventionalroboticmanipulatorshavebecomea
commonmanufacturingtoolfordifferentindustries,fromautomotivetopharmaceu-
tical.Theprovenbenefitsofutilizingroboticmanipulatorsformanufacturingindif-
ferentindustriesmotivatedscientistsandresearcherstotrytoextendtheapplications
ofrobotstomanyotherareas.Toextendtheapplicationofrobotics,scientistshad
toinventseveralnewtypesofrobotsotherthanconventionalmanipulators.Thenew
typesofrobotscanbecategorizedintwogroups:redundant(andhyper-redundant)
manipulatorsandmobile(ground,marine,andaerial)robots.Thesetwogroupsof
robotshavemorefreedomfortheirmobility,whichallowsthemtodotasksthatthe
conventionalmanipulatorscannotdo.
Engineershavetakenadvantageoftheextramobilityofthenewrobotstomake
them work in constrained environments. The constraints can range from limited
joint motions for redundant (or hyper-redundant) manipulators to obstacles in the
way of mobile (ground, marine, and aerial) robots. Since these constraints usually
depend on the work environment, they are variable. Engineers have had to invent
methodstoallowtherobotsdealwithavarietyofconstraintsautomatically.Arobot
that is equipped with those methods that make it able to automatically deal with
avarietyofenvironmentalconstraintswhileperformingadesiredtaskiscalledan
autonomousrobot.
PurposeoftheBook
There are many books that discuss different aspects of Robotics. However, they
mostlyfocusonconventional roboticmanipulators andatbest,addabriefsection
toaddressmobilerobots.Recently,theapplicationofautonomousrobots(redundant
andhyper-redundantmanipulators,andground,marine,andaerialrobots)isfinding
itswayintoindustriesandevenintopeople’severydaylife.Onecanmentionseveral
examples such as robotic helicopters for surveillance, aerial photography, or farm
spraying, high-end cars that park themselves, robotic vacuum cleaners, etc. It is
becomingmoreimportantthatourstudentslearnaboutautonomousrobotsandour
vii
viii Preface
engineershaveinformationresourcesfordesigning,analyzing,andcontrollingthese
robots.
Since most of the robotic books only deal with conventional robots, nowadays,
studentsdonothaveachancetolearnaboutautonomousrobotsandengineerswho
design autonomous robots have to resort to extracting information from research
literaturetodesignthem,whichistediousforthem.Thepresentbookprovidesthe
theories and methods that are useful for understanding and designing autonomous
robotstostudentsandengineersinaformthatisdetailedandeasytofollow.
The purpose of this book is to familiarize the Mechanical and Electrical Engi-
neeringstudentsandengineerswiththemethodsofmodeling/analysis/controlthat
havebeenprovenefficientthroughresearch.
ScopeoftheBook
Similartotheconventionalroboticmanipulators,theautonomousrobotsaremulti-
disciplinarymachinesandcanbestudiedfromdifferentpointsofview,i.e.,indus-
trial, electrical, mechanical, and controls points of view. Autonomous robots can
also be studied from the Artificial Intelligence point of view. Covering all these
aspects of autonomous robots in one book is almost impossible and each of these
aspectshastheirownaudience.Forthesereasons,thescopeofthepresentbookis
the mechanics and controls of autonomous robots. The book covers the kinematic
anddynamicmodeling/analysisofautonomousrobotsaswellasthemethodssuit-
ablefortheircontrol.
LeveloftheBook
This book is useful for last-year undergraduate and first-year graduate students as
wellasengineers.ThereadersshouldhavepassedasecondyearcourseinDynamics
and a third year course in Automatic Control (or similar) to be able to fully take
advantage of this book. The mentioned prerequisites are not an obstacle for Me-
chanical or Electrical Engineering students and engineers, since these courses are
offeredinABET(orCEABforCanadaianhighereducation)accreditedengineering
programs.
FeaturesoftheBook
Thekeyfeatureofthepresentbookisitscontents,whichhaveneverbeengathered
within one book and have never been presented in a form useful to students and
engineers.
(cid:2)
The present book contains the theoretical tools necessary for analyzing the dy-
namicsandcontrolofautonomousrobotsinoneplace.Thetopicsthatareprac-
tical and are of interest to autonomous robot designers have been picked from
advancedroboticsresearchliterature.Thesetopicsaresortedappropriatelyand
willformthecontentsofthebook.
Preface ix
(cid:2)
Thisbookpresentsthetheoreticaltoolsforanalyzingthedynamicsofandcon-
trolling autonomous robots in a form that is comprehensible for students and
engineers.Theadvancedroboticsresearchliteraturehaveusuallybeenauthored
with the research community in mind. The mathematical notation and the pre-
sentationmethodofthesepublicationsarenoteasytounderstand.Thesepubli-
cations normally lack the necessary details and intermediate steps. The current
bookusesauniformnotation,providesthemathematicalbackgroundofthethe-
ories presentred, expands the details, and includes the intermediate steps and
(cid:2) comprehensiveexamplestoeaseandacceleratethereader’scomprehension.
Thecurrentbookhasproblemsattheendofeachchapter.Theproblemsallowthe
readertopracticethetheoriespresentedineachchapter.Thesolutiontomostof
theproblemsneedsomecomputeraidedanalysis.Someofthelongerproblems
aremoresuitablefortermprojects.
Theauthorhopesthatthepresentbookbecomesanassetforlearningtheappli-
cationofdynamicsandcontrolsinthefieldofautonomousrobots.
Edmonton,Alberta,Canada FarbodFahimi
July2008