Browsing by Author "Bicho, Estela"
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- Competitive dynamics for behavior coordination in a joint transportation taskPublication . Bicho, Estela; Louro, Luis; Soares, Rui; Erlhagen, WolframWe address the problem of coordinating two non-holonomic mobile robots that move in formation while transporting a long payload. A competitive dynamics is introduced that gradually controls the activation and deactivation of individual behaviors. This process introduces (asymmetrical) hysteresis during behavioral switching. As a result behavioral oscillations, due to noisy information, are eliminated. Results in indoor environments show that if parameter values are chosen within reasonable ranges then, in spite of noise in the robots communi- cation and sensors, the overall robotic system works quite well even in cluttered environments. The robots overt behavior is stable and smooth.
- Coordinated transportation of a large object by a team of three robotsPublication . Soares, Rui; Bicho, EstelaDynamical systems theory in this work is used as a theoretical language and tool to design a distributed control architecture for a team of three robots that must transport a large object and simultaneously avoid collisions with either static or dynamic obstacles. The robots have no prior knowledge of the environment. The dynamics of behavior is defined over a state space of behavior variables, heading direction and path velocity. Task constraints are modeled as attractors (i.e. asymptotic stable states) of the behavioral dynamics. For each robot, these attractors are combined into a vector field that governs the behavior. By design the parameters are tuned so that the behavioral variables are always very close to the corresponding attractors. Thus the behavior of each robot is controlled by a time series of asymptotical stable states. Computer simulations support the validity of the dynamical model architecture.
- Coordinated transportation of a large object by a team of two robotsPublication . Soares, Rui; Bicho, EstelaIn this paper dynamical systems theory is used as a theoretical language and tool to design a distributed control architecture for a team of two robots that must transport a large object and simultaneously avoid collisions with obstacles (either static or dynamic). This work extends the previous work with two robots (see [1] and [5]). However here we demonstrate that it’s possible to simplify the architecture presented in [1] and [5] and reach an equally stable global behavior. The robots have no prior knowledge of the environment. The dynamics of behavior is defined over a state space of behavior variables, heading direction and path velocity. Task constrains are modeled as attractors (i.e. asymptotic stable states) of a behavioral dynamics. For each robot, these attractors are combined into a vector field that governs the behavior. By design the parameters are tuned so that the behavioral variables are always very close to the corresponding attractors. Thus the behavior of each robot is controlled by a time series of asymptotic stable states. Computer simulations support the validity of the dynamical model architecture.
- A Human-like Upper-limb Motion Planner: Generating naturalistic movements for humanoid robotsPublication . Gulletta, Gianpaolo; Costa e Silva, Eliana; Erlhagen, Wolfram; Meulenbroek, Ruud; Costa, Maria Fernanda Pires; Bicho, EstelaAs robots are starting to become part of our daily lives, they must be able to cooperate in a natural and efficient manner with humans to be socially accepted. Human-like morphology and motion are often considered key features for intuitive human–robot interactions because they allow human peers to easily predict the final intention of a robotic movement. Here, we present a novel motion planning algorithm, the Human-like Upper-limb Motion Planner, for the upper limb of anthropomorphic robots, that generates collision-free trajectories with human-like characteristics. Mainly inspired from established theories of human motor control, the planning process takes into account a task-dependent hierarchy of spatial and postural constraints modelled as cost functions. For experimental validation, we generate arm-hand trajectories in a series of tasks including simple point-to-point reaching movements and sequential object-manipulation paradigms. Being a major contribution to the current literature, specific focus is on the kinematics of naturalistic arm movements during the avoidance of obstacles. To evaluate human-likeness, we observe kinematic regularities and adopt smoothness measures that are applied in human motor control studies to distinguish between well-coordinated and impaired movements. The results of this study show that the proposed algorithm is capable of planning arm-hand movements with human-like kinematic features at a computational cost that allows fluent and efficient human–robot interactions.
- Object transportation by multiple mobile robots controlled by attractor dynamics: theory and implementationPublication . Soares, Rui; Bicho, Estela; Machado, Toni; Erlhagen, WolframDynamical systems theory is used as a theoretical language and tool to design a distributed control architecture for teams of mobile robots, that must transport a large object and simultaneously avoid collisions with (either static or dynamic) obstacles. Here we demonstrate in simulations and implementations in real robots that it is possible to simplify the architectures presented in previous work and to extend the approach to teams of n robots. The robots have no prior knowledge of the environment. The motion of each robot is controlled by a time series of asymptotical stable states. The attractor dynamics permits the integration of information from various sources in a graded manner. As a result, the robots show a strikingly smooth an stable team behaviour.
- Superquadrics Objects Representation for Robot ManipulationPublication . Silva, Eliana Costa e; Costa, M. Fernanda; Erlhagen, Wolfram; Bicho, EstelaSuperquadric are mathematically quite simple and have the ability to obtain a variety of shapes using low order parameterization. Furthermore they present closed-form equations and therefore can be used in the formulation of robotic movement planning problems, in particular in obstacle-avoidance and grasping constraints. In this paper we explore the modeling of objects using superquadrics. The classical nonlinear optimization problem for fitting shapes is extended by adding nonlinear constraints. The numerical results obtained by two different optimization methods are presented and a comparison of the volume of the superquadrics to the volume of simple ellipsoids is made.
- Towards Human-like Bimanual Movements in Anthropomorphic Robots: A Nonlinear Optimization ApproachPublication . Silva, Eliana Costa e; Costa, M. F.; Araujo, J. P.; Machado, D.; Louro, L.; Erlhagen, W.; Bicho, EstelaPreviously we have presented a model for generating human-like arm and hand movements on an unimanual anthropomorphic robot involved in human-robot collaboration tasks. The present paper aims to extend our model in order to address the generation of human-like bimanual movement sequences which are challenged by scenarios cluttered with obstacles. Movement planning involves large scale nonlinear constrained optimization problems which are solved using the IPOPT solver. Simulation studies show that the model generates feasible and realistic hand trajectories for action sequences involving the two hands. The computational costs involved in the planning allow for real-time human robot-interaction. A qualitative analysis reveals that the movements of the robot exhibit basic characteristics of human movements.
- Using attractor dynamics to generate decentralized motion control of two mobile robots transporting a long object in coordinationPublication . Soares, Rui; Bicho, EstelaDynamical systems theory is used here as a theoretical language and tool to design a distributed control architecture for a team of two mobile robots that must transport a long object and simultaneously avoid obstacles. In this approach the level of modeling is at the level of behaviors. A “dynamics” of behavior is defined over a state space of behavioral variables (heading direction and path velocity). The environment is also modeled in these terms by representing task constraints as attractors (i.e. asymptotically stable states) or reppelers (i.e. unstable states) of behavioral dynamics. For each robot attractors and repellers are combined into a vector field that governs the behavior. The resulting dynamical systems that generate the behavior of the robots may be nonlinear. By design the systems are tuned so that the behavioral variables are always very close to one attractor. Thus the behavior of each robot is controled by a time series of asymptotically stable states. Computer simulations support the validity of our dynamic model architectures.