Multi-modal reconfigurable robotic platform with 3d-immersive telepresence system

The concept of reconfigurability and its applications in robotics have become prominent in the past few years as they provide versatility, adaptability and scalability to the systems. The reconfigurable robots can perform tasks in outer space, under the sea and in hazardous environments by rearranging their physical configurations to alter the system’s behavior and geometry. However, the concept of reconfigurable robots is not just constrained by the mechanical reconfiguration of the components, for the system should also demonstrate a modular reconfigurable behavior to newly imposed conditions. The objective of this work was to design and implement a multi-modal reconfigurable platform based on the concept of “form follows function” to be integrated with 3D-Immersive telepresence systems. The developed system was analyzed to verify the feasibility and functionality of the proposed architecture, and suggestions were made for future improvements.

Multi-modal reconfigurable robotic platform with 3d-immersive telepresence system

The concept of reconfigurability and its applications in robotics have become prominent in the past few years as they provide versatility, adaptability and scalability to the systems. The reconfigurable robots can perform tasks in outer space, under the sea and in hazardous environments by rearranging their physical configurations to alter the system’s behavior and geometry. However, the concept of reconfigurable robots is not just constrained by the mechanical reconfiguration of the components, for the system should also demonstrate a modular reconfigurable behavior to newly imposed conditions. The objective of this work was to design and implement a multi-modal reconfigurable platform based on the concept of “form follows function” to be integrated with 3D-Immersive telepresence systems. The developed system was analyzed to verify the feasibility and functionality of the proposed architecture, and suggestions were made for future improvements.

Post-synthesis modification of slide-ring gels for thermal and mechanical reconfiguration

Ring-sliding behavior in polyrotaxanes imbues gels, elastomers, and glasses with remarkable stress-dissipation and actuation properties. Since these properties can be modulated and tuned by structural parameters, many efforts have been...

Tunable and Active Phononic Crystals and Metamaterials

Phononic crystals (PCs) and metamaterials (MMs) can exhibit abnormal properties, even far beyond those found in nature, through artificial design of the topology or ordered structure of unit cells. This emerging class of materials has diverse application potentials in many fields. Recently, the concept of tunable PCs or MMs has been proposed to manipulate a variety of wave functions on demand. In this review, we survey recent developments in tunable and active PCs and MMs, including bandgap and bandgap engineering, anomalous behaviors of wave propagation, as well as tunable manipulation of waves based on different regulation mechanisms: tunable mechanical reconfiguration and materials with multifield coupling. We conclude by outlining future directions in the emerging field.

Energy-Based Limit Cycle Compensation for Dynamically Balancing Wheeled Inverted Pendulum Machines

In this paper we present an energy-based algorithm to minimize limit cycles in dynamically balancing wheeled inverted pendulum (IP) machines. Because the algorithm is not based on the numerical value of parameters, performance is robust and accounts for mechanical reconfiguration and wear. The effects of phenomena such as drive-train friction, rolling friction, backlash and sensor bandwidth are well known, causing either limit cycles or instabilities in IP balancing machines and yet compensation or control design to mitigate these effects are not well known. The effects of these non-linearities can be observed in the energy behavior of IP balancing machines, hence, as a broader goal we seek to establish an energy-based framework for the investigation of non-linearities in this class of machines. We successfully demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm on a two-wheeled IP balancing machine, “Charlie”, developed in our laboratory. As an example we show a reduction in the amplitude of limit cycles by 95.9% in wheel angle and 89.8% in pitch over a 10 second period.