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OuijaBots: Omnidirectional Robots for Cooperative Object Transport with Rotation Control Using No Communication

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Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems

Part of the book series: Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics ((SPAR,volume 6))

Abstract

We propose a distributed force and torque controller for a group of robots to collectively transport objects with both translation and rotation control. No explicit communication among robots is required. This work goes beyond previous works by including rotation control and experimental demonstrations on a custom built robot platform. We prove that follower robots can synchronize both their forces and torques to a leader (either a robot or human) that guides the group, and thus contribute positively to the transport. We introduce a custom-designed omnidirectional robot platform, called the OuijaBot, with sensing and actuation capabilities for cooperative manipulation. Our approach is verified by experiments with four OuijaBots successfully transporting and rotating a payload through a narrow corridor.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Even though strict centrosymmetry is hard to achieve, when the number of robots is large with respect to the size of the object, it is likely that the robots will spread evenly around the object, so that the centrosymmetry can be nearly satisfied.

  2. 2.

    There are many off-the-shelf algorithms we can choose, and this is not the focus of this paper.

  3. 3.

    Initial movement can be also triggered without communication using random trials [19]. For the sake of clear presentation, we skip this phase, which is not the focus of this paper.

  4. 4.

    http://www.vicon.com/.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NSF grant CNS-1330036, and also by the Toyota-SAIL Center for AI Research. The authors are grateful for this support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Zijian Wang & Mac Schwager

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Guang Yang & Xuanshuo Su

Authors
  1. Zijian Wang
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  2. Guang Yang
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  3. Xuanshuo Su
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  4. Mac Schwager
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zijian Wang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Roderich Groß

  2. Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Andreas Kolling

  3. School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy (SEMTE), Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Spring Berman

  4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Emilio Frazzoli

  5. ENAC, IIE, DIAL, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

    Alcherio Martinoli

  6. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Fumitoshi Matsuno

  7. Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Melvin Gauci

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Wang, Z., Yang, G., Su, X., Schwager, M. (2018). OuijaBots: Omnidirectional Robots for Cooperative Object Transport with Rotation Control Using No Communication. In: Groß, R., et al. Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems. Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73008-0_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73008-0_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73006-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-73008-0

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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