2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.03CH37422)
ABSTRACT This paper describes an efficient dynamic simulation of a humanoid robot. In the simulat... more ABSTRACT This paper describes an efficient dynamic simulation of a humanoid robot. In the simulation, an order n formulation is used to solve the inverse dynamics and forward dynamics of a multi-body system. The formulation can deal with a tree structure and multiple contacts with the environment. In order to simulate a collision with friction between the foot and a floor, a virtual spring-damper contact model is proposed. By introducing this model, computation of contact becomes easier and faster compared with other method such as plastic contact. A simulation of ascending steep stairs is carried out in order to demonstrate the validity of the simulation. The results of the simulation are presented and discussed.
2011 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration (SII), 2011
ABSTRACT Recently, industrial robots are widely employed in various fields. However, some assembl... more ABSTRACT Recently, industrial robots are widely employed in various fields. However, some assembly tasks are still manually completed because of complicate assembly sequences and requirements of high accuracy positioning. Therefore, we propose a new system in which human workers cooperate with assistant robot complementarily in assembling a heavy mechanical part. This paper describes the prototype of a gravity compensation mechanism and a gripper employed in this robot. The gravity compensation mechanism is designed to relieve the burden of worker for holding the mechanical part. The developed gripper is characterized by its implementation of non-force closure grasping. It allows to change the attitude of the payload in the envelope of the gripper closure.
2006 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2006
When a human needs to generate a large force, the human will try to apply an impulsive force coop... more When a human needs to generate a large force, the human will try to apply an impulsive force cooperating whole body. However, exerting impulsive force is one of the most difficult tasks for humanoid robots, because a reaction force caused by the applied impulsive force may bring the humanoid robot down. This paper discusses a humanoid robot motion to generate
2010 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration, 2010
ABSTRACT Robot is now expending their ability from simple repetitive tasks to complex assembling ... more ABSTRACT Robot is now expending their ability from simple repetitive tasks to complex assembling tasks for supporting human life activities and advanced manufacturing automations. Manufacturing automation needs more narrow tolerance to assemble parts than human life support. In manufacturing automation, insertion tasks are the most frequently used primitive tasks. It is simple but impossible assembling tasks for robots without calibrations by high precision sensory devices. Laser displacement sensors are more fast, robust, and high precision one than any other measuring devices. The high precision performance of laser displacement sensor makes robots use it as a calibrations and feature extractions device. This paper will address how to find out the hole position and insertion direction vector from the acquired point clouds. Experiments will show the automated precision insertion task of manipulators.
2011 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM), 2011
ABSTRACT Blunt dissection is a fundamental technique in brain surgery to expose an affected or to... more ABSTRACT Blunt dissection is a fundamental technique in brain surgery to expose an affected or to separate tissues without cutting. This paper addresses a linear elastic frac- ture model to simulate blunt dissection in a virtual brain surgery. Blunt dissection is simulated by fracturing a linear elastic finite elements when the stress applied to the element exceeds the specified fracture stress. However if an element is fractured without any consideration for connections with adjacent elements, the fracture may produce some structurally unstable elements. The structurally unstable elements cause computational instability. In order to avoid this instability problem, an element fracture method is proposed. The fracture model is verified by comparing the results of blunt dissection simulation with the result of experiments.
2009 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, 2009
Humanoid robots posses the unique ability to cross obstacles by stepping over or upon them. Howev... more Humanoid robots posses the unique ability to cross obstacles by stepping over or upon them. However, conventional 2D methods for robot navigation fail to exploit it and thus design trajectories only by circumventing obstacles. Recently, global algorithms have been presented that take into account this feature of humanoids. However, due to high computational complexity, most of them are very time
2010 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration, 2010
ABSTRACT In this study, we work for autonomous takeoff and landing of a miniature size unmanned a... more ABSTRACT In this study, we work for autonomous takeoff and landing of a miniature size unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). We get the information of attitude and altitude by using a small Linux computer and various sensors equipped with fuselage. Attitude and altitude feedback control scheme and autonomous takeoff and landing strategies are proposed. We also develop a landing system that recognize landing site by visual feedback.
Unlike wheeled robots, humanoid robots are able to cross obstacles by stepping over or upon them.... more Unlike wheeled robots, humanoid robots are able to cross obstacles by stepping over or upon them. Conventional 2D methods for robot navigation fail to exploit this unique ability of humanoids and thus design trajectories only by circumventing obstacles. Recently, global algorithms have been presented that take into account this feature of humanoids. However, due to high computational complexity, most of them are very time consuming. In this paper, we present a new approach to footstep planning in obstacle cluttered environments that employs a human-like strategy to terrain traversal. Simulation results of its implementation on a model of the Saika-3 humanoid robot are also presented. The algorithm, being one of reactive nature, refutes previous claims that reactive algorithms fail to find successful paths in complex obstacle cluttered environments.
In order to exert a large force on an environment, it is effective to apply impulsive force. We d... more In order to exert a large force on an environment, it is effective to apply impulsive force. We describe the motions in which tasks are performed by applying impulsive force as "impact motions." This paper proposes a way to generate impact motions for humanoid robots to exert a large force and the feedback control method for driving a nail robustly. The impact motion is optimized based on a three dimensional model using sequential quadratic programming (SQP). In this research, a nailing task is taken as an example of impact motion. A dominant parameter for driving a nail strongly is revealed and motions which maximize the parameter are generated considering the robot's postural stability. In order to evaluate the proposed scheme, a life-sized humanoid robot drives nails into a plate made of chemical wood. The optimized motion is compared with a motion designed heuristically by a human. Average driving depth is clearly increased by the proposed method.
2007 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2007
ABSTRACT Performance of a human size humanoid robot is strictly limited by performance of the mot... more ABSTRACT Performance of a human size humanoid robot is strictly limited by performance of the motor. The progress of a motor has not been remarkable compared with the progress of electronics. Therefore, the great progress of the performance of the motor cannot be expected, at least in the present circumstances. In this paper, a gravity compensation mechanism is designed which is applicable to a general biped robot. The mechanism is expected to reduce the joint torque of the legs required to support the gravitational force of the whole body. A humanoid robot Saika-4 is equipped with the gravity compensation mechanism in the legs. To evaluate effectiveness of the gravity compensation mechanism, preliminary experiments are performed using the humanoid robot.
2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.03CH37422)
ABSTRACT This paper describes an efficient dynamic simulation of a humanoid robot. In the simulat... more ABSTRACT This paper describes an efficient dynamic simulation of a humanoid robot. In the simulation, an order n formulation is used to solve the inverse dynamics and forward dynamics of a multi-body system. The formulation can deal with a tree structure and multiple contacts with the environment. In order to simulate a collision with friction between the foot and a floor, a virtual spring-damper contact model is proposed. By introducing this model, computation of contact becomes easier and faster compared with other method such as plastic contact. A simulation of ascending steep stairs is carried out in order to demonstrate the validity of the simulation. The results of the simulation are presented and discussed.
2011 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration (SII), 2011
ABSTRACT Recently, industrial robots are widely employed in various fields. However, some assembl... more ABSTRACT Recently, industrial robots are widely employed in various fields. However, some assembly tasks are still manually completed because of complicate assembly sequences and requirements of high accuracy positioning. Therefore, we propose a new system in which human workers cooperate with assistant robot complementarily in assembling a heavy mechanical part. This paper describes the prototype of a gravity compensation mechanism and a gripper employed in this robot. The gravity compensation mechanism is designed to relieve the burden of worker for holding the mechanical part. The developed gripper is characterized by its implementation of non-force closure grasping. It allows to change the attitude of the payload in the envelope of the gripper closure.
2006 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2006
When a human needs to generate a large force, the human will try to apply an impulsive force coop... more When a human needs to generate a large force, the human will try to apply an impulsive force cooperating whole body. However, exerting impulsive force is one of the most difficult tasks for humanoid robots, because a reaction force caused by the applied impulsive force may bring the humanoid robot down. This paper discusses a humanoid robot motion to generate
2010 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration, 2010
ABSTRACT Robot is now expending their ability from simple repetitive tasks to complex assembling ... more ABSTRACT Robot is now expending their ability from simple repetitive tasks to complex assembling tasks for supporting human life activities and advanced manufacturing automations. Manufacturing automation needs more narrow tolerance to assemble parts than human life support. In manufacturing automation, insertion tasks are the most frequently used primitive tasks. It is simple but impossible assembling tasks for robots without calibrations by high precision sensory devices. Laser displacement sensors are more fast, robust, and high precision one than any other measuring devices. The high precision performance of laser displacement sensor makes robots use it as a calibrations and feature extractions device. This paper will address how to find out the hole position and insertion direction vector from the acquired point clouds. Experiments will show the automated precision insertion task of manipulators.
2011 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM), 2011
ABSTRACT Blunt dissection is a fundamental technique in brain surgery to expose an affected or to... more ABSTRACT Blunt dissection is a fundamental technique in brain surgery to expose an affected or to separate tissues without cutting. This paper addresses a linear elastic frac- ture model to simulate blunt dissection in a virtual brain surgery. Blunt dissection is simulated by fracturing a linear elastic finite elements when the stress applied to the element exceeds the specified fracture stress. However if an element is fractured without any consideration for connections with adjacent elements, the fracture may produce some structurally unstable elements. The structurally unstable elements cause computational instability. In order to avoid this instability problem, an element fracture method is proposed. The fracture model is verified by comparing the results of blunt dissection simulation with the result of experiments.
2009 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, 2009
Humanoid robots posses the unique ability to cross obstacles by stepping over or upon them. Howev... more Humanoid robots posses the unique ability to cross obstacles by stepping over or upon them. However, conventional 2D methods for robot navigation fail to exploit it and thus design trajectories only by circumventing obstacles. Recently, global algorithms have been presented that take into account this feature of humanoids. However, due to high computational complexity, most of them are very time
2010 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration, 2010
ABSTRACT In this study, we work for autonomous takeoff and landing of a miniature size unmanned a... more ABSTRACT In this study, we work for autonomous takeoff and landing of a miniature size unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). We get the information of attitude and altitude by using a small Linux computer and various sensors equipped with fuselage. Attitude and altitude feedback control scheme and autonomous takeoff and landing strategies are proposed. We also develop a landing system that recognize landing site by visual feedback.
Unlike wheeled robots, humanoid robots are able to cross obstacles by stepping over or upon them.... more Unlike wheeled robots, humanoid robots are able to cross obstacles by stepping over or upon them. Conventional 2D methods for robot navigation fail to exploit this unique ability of humanoids and thus design trajectories only by circumventing obstacles. Recently, global algorithms have been presented that take into account this feature of humanoids. However, due to high computational complexity, most of them are very time consuming. In this paper, we present a new approach to footstep planning in obstacle cluttered environments that employs a human-like strategy to terrain traversal. Simulation results of its implementation on a model of the Saika-3 humanoid robot are also presented. The algorithm, being one of reactive nature, refutes previous claims that reactive algorithms fail to find successful paths in complex obstacle cluttered environments.
In order to exert a large force on an environment, it is effective to apply impulsive force. We d... more In order to exert a large force on an environment, it is effective to apply impulsive force. We describe the motions in which tasks are performed by applying impulsive force as "impact motions." This paper proposes a way to generate impact motions for humanoid robots to exert a large force and the feedback control method for driving a nail robustly. The impact motion is optimized based on a three dimensional model using sequential quadratic programming (SQP). In this research, a nailing task is taken as an example of impact motion. A dominant parameter for driving a nail strongly is revealed and motions which maximize the parameter are generated considering the robot's postural stability. In order to evaluate the proposed scheme, a life-sized humanoid robot drives nails into a plate made of chemical wood. The optimized motion is compared with a motion designed heuristically by a human. Average driving depth is clearly increased by the proposed method.
2007 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2007
ABSTRACT Performance of a human size humanoid robot is strictly limited by performance of the mot... more ABSTRACT Performance of a human size humanoid robot is strictly limited by performance of the motor. The progress of a motor has not been remarkable compared with the progress of electronics. Therefore, the great progress of the performance of the motor cannot be expected, at least in the present circumstances. In this paper, a gravity compensation mechanism is designed which is applicable to a general biped robot. The mechanism is expected to reduce the joint torque of the legs required to support the gravitational force of the whole body. A humanoid robot Saika-4 is equipped with the gravity compensation mechanism in the legs. To evaluate effectiveness of the gravity compensation mechanism, preliminary experiments are performed using the humanoid robot.
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Papers by Atsushi Konno