Available theses in industrial robotics (October 2016) Prof. Paolo Rocco Prof. Andrea Maria Zanchettin Politecnico di Milano - Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria
Industrial robotics What we want to study: Collaborative human-robot interaction Teleoperation of robots through haptic devices Force control of industrial robots New applications of robots
Collaborative robotics Industrial robotics Thesis 1 Topic: Human-robot collaboration The MERLIN group has a strong background in collaborative robotics A technology transfer is now in process, with a newly established spin-off company Theses will be available in this area to make the use of collaborative robots as widespread as possible
Online scheduling for productive humanrobot collaboration Industrial robotics Thesis 2 Topic: Human-robot collaboration In human-robot collaboration one issue is how to maximize productivity while guaranteeing safety Development of an algorithm to decide the activity the robot has to perform, considering human occupancy (safety), available resources (tools), priority constraints Prediction of human activities Optimization of the throughput
Selection of optimal hand-over position based on ergonomic evaluation Industrial robotics Thesis 3 Topic: Human-robot collaboration Robot acts as a third hand for workpiece positioning Muscular fatigue depends on task and posture Optimization of robot trajectory to reduce muscular fatigue Validation using semg data task Ergonomic simulation optimal object pose Database of tasks and postures Human motion tracking Trajectory generation
Intuitive programming through voice and gestures Industrial robotics Thesis 4 Topic: Innovative methods for robot programming Advanced sensing techniques are available for immediate use Robot, pick this object We would like to merge voice commands and point cloud processing to quickly select grasping poses of unknown objects www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko8clkj3e_k
Handling liquids in dynamic environments with spilling avoidance Industrial robotics Thesis 5 Topic: Applications of constraint-based trajectory generation Constraint-based reactive motion generation is a new method to generate the motion of the robot, solving online an optimization problem Perception of sloshing angle with optical sensors Identification of sloshing parameters (natural frequency, damping, etc.) Robust spilling avoidance www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiaaxox8yly
Improving interaction with the environment in constrained teleoperation Industrial robotics Thesis 6 Topic: Teleoperation and constrained optimization Classical teleoperation controllers must ensure the stability of the delayed master-slave robot system in contact with the environment passivity properties are usually exploited Optimization algorithms can guarantee that a robot satisfies predefined motion constraints Is it possible to constrain the slave robot motion to achieve stability for the whole teleoperation system? min JJ = xx AAAA bb ww ss. tt. CCCC dd
Merging teleoperation and human arm impedance Industrial robotics Thesis 7 Topic: Teleoperation and impedance control State-of-the-art teleoperation schemes provide force feedback to the user from a remote location but have to deal with destabilizing delays Teleimpedance schemes instead remove the haptic device and enhance the remote robot with human-like characteristics via real-time measurements of the human arm stiffness without stability issues Can we merge teleoperation with teleimpedance by estimating human impedance during operation with a master robot device, while preserving force feedback and stability?
Force-controlled contour following Industrial robotics Thesis 8 Topic: Robot force control Use workpiece commercial CAD/CAM Generate a suitable robot end-effector trajectory for workpiece contour following Exploit hybrid force/position control to perform the prescribed robot task Application on the COMAU Smart Six Robot.
Corner detection during contour following tasks Industrial robotics Thesis 9 Topic: Robot force control During a contour following task under force control, the robot can lose contact with the work piece in presence of corners. Can we devise a suitable control strategy to avoid this undesired robot behavior, with no need of a vision system? Application on the COMAU Smart Six Robot.
Optimization-based force control with stiff environment Industrial robotics Thesis 10 Topic: Robot force control The rigid contact between a robot and the environment introduces constraints on the dynamic model of the manipulator. Under this working condition, how can we perform implicit force control by means of constraint-based optimization? Application on the COMAU Smart Six Robot.
Performance Improvement of Direct Force Control (1) Industrial robotics Thesis 11 Topic: Robot force control Optimization based control strategies can outperform standard PID-based controllers. Starting from a recently proposed optimization based approach to direct force control, how can we extend it to systems with higher relative degree? Application on the COMAU Smart Six Robot.
Performance Improvement of Direct Force Control (2) Industrial robotics Thesis 12 Topic: Robot force control Direct controller synthesis methods (e.g. the VRFT approach) can be useful when dealing with force control in contact with an unknown environment. Optimization based control strategies can outperform standard PID-based controllers. Is it possible to merge these two approaches? Application on the COMAU Smart Six Robot.
Performance Improvement of Direct Force Control (3) Industrial robotics Thesis 13 Topic: Robot force control Optimization based control strategies can outperform standard PID-based controllers. Until now only the unilateral contact situation has been addressed. How can we extend it to multi-lateral contact situations, e.g. alignment of an object to a corner? Application on the COMAU Smart Six Robot.
Aerial manipulation Industrial robotics Thesis 14 Topic: New applications of robots An aerial robotic manipulator is a system composed of a quadrotor equipped with a robotic arm. Several control problems arise related to the coupling of the two systems A prototype has been made at MERLIN Experiments to be performed on the prototype
Industrial robotics for the additive manufacturing Industrial robotics Thesis 15 Topic: New applications of robots Additive manufacturing (3D printing) is one of the most fastgrowing technologies for the factory of the future Industrial robots can serve as dexterous 3D printers Application on a KUKA robot. Atropos +LAB POLIMI To be confirmed (cooperation with another POLIMI Department)