Abstract
Reconfigurable robotic systems can be adapted to different tasks or environments by reorganizing their mechanical configurations. Such systems have many redundant degrees of freedom in order to meet the combined demands of strength, rigidity, workspace kinematics, reconfigurability, and fault tolerance. In order to implement these new generations of robotic system, new approaches must be considered for design, analysis, and control. This paper presents an efficient distributed computational scheme which computes the kinematics, dynamics, redundancy resolution, and control inputs for real-time application to the control of the Tetrobot modular reconfigurable robots. The entire system is decomposed into subsystems based on a modular approach and Newton's equations of motion are derived and implemented using a recursive propagation algorithm. Two different dynamic resolution of redundancy schemes, the centralized Jacobian method and the distributed virtual force method, are proposed to optimize the actuating forces. Finally, distributed dynamic control algorithms provide an efficient modular implementation of the control architecture for a large family of configurations.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chen, I.-M. and Burdick, J.W. 1995. Determining task optimal modular robot assembly configurations. In Proc. IEEE Int'l Conf. on Robotics and Automation, Nagoya, Japan, pp. 132–137.
Chirikjian, G.S. and Burdick, J.W. 1994. A modal approach to hyper-redundant manipulator kinematics. IEEE Trans. on Robotics and Automation, 10(3):343–354.
Chirikjian, G.S. and Burdick, J.W. 1995a. The kinematics of hyper-redundant robot locomotion. IEEE Trans. on Robotics and Automation, 11(6):781–793.
Chirikjian, G.S. and Burdick, J.W. 1995b. Kinematically optimal hyper-redundant manipulator configurations. IEEE Trans. on Robotics and Automation, 11(6):794–806.
Fukuda, T. and Nakagawa, S. 1988. Dynamically reconfigurable robotic system. In Proc. IEEE Int'l Conf. on Robotics and Automation, Philadelphia, PA, pp. 1581–1586.
Fukuda, T. and Ueyama, T. 1994. Cellular Robotics and Micro Robotic Systems, World Scientific: NJ.
Hamlin, G.J. and Sanderson, A.C. 1994.Anovel concentric multilink spherical joint with parallel robotics applications. In Proc. IEEE Int'l Conf. on Robotics and Automation, San Diego, CA, pp. 1267–1272.
Hamlin, G.J. and Sanderson, A.C. 1997a. Tetrobot: A Modular Approach to Reconfigurable Parallel Robotics, Kluwer Academic Publishers: Newton, MA.
Hamlin, G.J. and Sanderson, A.C. 1997b. Tetrobot: A modular approach to parallel robotics. IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, 4(1):42–50.
Hirose, S. 1993. Biologically Inspired Robots: Snake-Like Locomotors and Manipulators, Oxford University Press: Oxford.
Hollerbach, J.M. and Suh, K.C. 1987. Redundancy resolution of manipulators through torque optimization. IEEE Journal of Robotics and Automation, RA-3(4):308–316.
Jain, S. and Kramer, S.N. 1990. Forward and inverse kinematic solution of the variable geometry truss robot based on the N-celled tetrahedron-tetrahedron truss. ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, 112:16–22.
Kang, H.J. and Freeman, R.A. 1993. Null space damping method for local joint torque optimization of redundant manipulators. Journal of Robotic Systems, 10(2):249–270.
Khatib, O. 1987. A unified approach for motion and force control of robot manipulators: The operational space formulation. IEEE Journal of Robotics and Automation, RA-3(1):43–53.
Khosla, P., Kanade, T., and Schmitz, D. 1988. Novel technology for manipulators: Reconfigurable systems. In Proc. Advances in Instrumentation, New York, NY, pp. 1763–1774.
Klein, C.A. and Huang, C.H. 1983. Review of pseudoinverse control for use with kinematically redundant manipulators. IEEE Trans. on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, SMC-13(3):245–250.
Kotay, K., Rus, D., Vona, M., and McGray, C. 1998. The self-reconfiguring robotic molecule. In Proc. IEEE Int'l Conf. on Robotics and Automation, Leuven, Belgium, pp. 424–431.
Lee, W.H. and Sanderson, A.C. 1998. Dynamic simulation of tetrahedron-based Tetrobot. In Proc. IEEE/RSJ Int'l Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Victoria, BC, Canada, pp. 630–635.
Lee, W.H. and Sanderson, A.C. 1999a. Dynamics and distributed control of Tetrobot modular robots. In Proc. IEEE Int'l Conf. on Robotics and Automation, Detroit, MI, pp. 2704–2710.
Lee, W.H. and Sanderson, A.C. 1999b. Distributed computation of dynamics in reconfigurable robotics. In Proc. IEEE/RSJ Int'l Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Kyongju, Korea, pp. 1561–1566.
Liegeois, A. 1977. Automatic supervisory control of the configuration and behavior of multibody mechanisms. IEEE Trans. Syst., Man, Cyber., SMC-7(12):867–871.
Liu, Y. and Arimoto, S. 1998. Decentralized adaptive and nonadaptive position/force controllers for redundant manipulators in cooperations. Int'l Journal of Robotics Res., 17(3):232–247.
Ma, S. 1996. A balancing technique to stabilize local torque optimization solution of redundant manipulators. Journal of Robotic Systems, 13(3):177–185.
Maciejewski, A.A. and Klein, C.A. 1985. Obstacle avoidance for kinematically redundant manipulators in dynamically varying environments. Int'l Journal of Robotics Res., 4(3):109–117.
Maciejewski, A.A. 1991. Kinetic limitations on the use of redundancy in robotic manipulators. IEEE Trans. on Robotics and Automation, 7(2):205–210.
Murata, S., Kurokawa, H., and Kokaji, S. 1994. Self-assembling machine. In Proc. IEEE Int'l Conf. on Robotics and Automation, San Diego, CA, pp. 441–448.
Murata, S., Kurokawa, H., Yoshida, E., Tomita, K., and Kokaji, S. 1998. A 3-D self-reconfigurable structure. In Proc. IEEE Int'l Conf. on Robotics and Automation, Leuven, Belgium, pp. 432–439.
Naccarato, F. and Hughes, P. 1991. Inverse kinematics of variable-geometry truss manipulators. Journal of Robotic Systems, 8(2):249–266.
Nakamura, Y. and Hanafusa, H. 1987. Task-priority based redundancy control of robot manipulators. Int'l Journal of Robotics Res., 6(2):3–15.
Padmanabhan, B., Arun, V., and Reinholtz, C.F. 1992. Closed-form inverse kinematic analysis of variable-geometry truss manipulators. Trans. of the ASME, Journal of Mechanical Design, 114:438–443.
Pamecha, A., Ebert-Uphoff, I., and Chirikjian, G.S. 1997. Useful metrics for modular robot motion planning. IEEE Trans. on Robotics and Automation, 13(4):531–545.
Paredis, C.J.J. and Khosla, P.K. 1996. Designing fault tolerant manipulators: Howmany degrees-of-freedom? Int'l Journal of Robotics Research, 15(6):611–628.
Seraji, H. 1989. Configuration control of redundant manipulators: Theory and implementation. IEEE Trans. on Robotics and Automation, 5(4):472–490.
Subramaniam, M. and Kramer, S.N. 1992. The inverse kinematic solution of the Tetrahedron based variable-geometry truss manipulator. ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, 114:433–437.
Vukobratovic, M. and Kircanski, M. 1984. A dynamic approach to nominal trajectory synthesis for redundant manipulators. IEEE Trans. Syst., Man, Cybern., SMC-14(4):580–586.
Whitney, D.E. 1969. Resolved motion rate control of manipulators and human prostheses. IEEE Trans. Man-Machine Syst., MMS-10(2):47–53.
Yim, M. 1994. New locomotion gaits. In Proc. IEEE Int'l Conf. on Robotics and Automation, San Diego, CA, pp. 2508–2514.
Yoshikawa, T. 1984. Analysis and control of robot manipulators with redundancy. In Robotics Research: 1st Int'l Symposium, M. Brady and R. Paul (Eds.), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 439–446.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lee, W.H., Sanderson, A.C. Dynamic Analysis and Distributed Control of the Tetrobot Modular Reconfigurable Robotic System. Autonomous Robots 10, 67–82 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026548520006
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026548520006