Robotics

Research in Robotics

Research in robotics is conducted under the direction of Dr. T.C. Hsia and supported by a well-equipped research laboratory. Research projects include:

• Collision avoidance path planning
• Neural network applications to inverse kinematics, motion control, and active force control
• Robotic deburring
• Multi-arm coordinated control
• Telerobotics
• Robust motion and force control
• Modular adaptive intelligent control systems
• Fuzzy logic control for direct drive manipulators

Robotics Research Laboratory

The Robotics Research Laboratory provides experimental research support in advanced and intelligent control of robotic systems. The major facilities consist of four complete single-arm workcells. Two of the workcells can also be configured to operate as a dual-arm workcell for research in coordinated multi-arm control.

The first workcell is centered around the Unimation PUMA 560 robot arm with six degrees of freedom. The PUMA arm is equipped with a JR3 6-axis force sensor and can be controlled using either a Unimation industrial controller running the VAL-II robot programming language or a PC486-based custom controller equipped with an ASPI Banshee TMS320C30 DSP card. In addition, different tools can be mounted to the JR3 force sensor, such as the BarrettHand BH8-250 dextrous robotic hand. The second workcell is similar to the first except that the custom controller is equipped with an ASPI Vortex TMS320C40 DSP card. The two workcells are interconnected via a National Instruments GPIB communications interface. Each workcell can be used in a stand-alone mode or configured together in a dual-arm mode for research into coordinated multi-arm control. Additionally, each workcell can be configured as a telerobotics test bed with a Schilling master arm for manual control.

The third workcell consists of an IBM 7576 robot interfaced to its own IBM controller running the AML/X robot programming language. This robot is a SCARA-type robots with five degrees of freedom and is equipped with an ATI 6-axis force sensor.

The fourth workcell consists of an Integrated Motions, Inc. direct-drive planar two-link manipulator with a PC486-based controller equipped with a Spectrum TMS320C30 DSP board. This high-speed manipulator provides a vehicle for research in advanced nonlinear control algorithms.

In addition to the robot workcells, the facilities include an OPTOTRAK digitizing and motion analysis system capable of tracking a target equipped with infrared emitting diodes in three-dimensional space. Also, a high-precision Deadal xyz-positioning table is available for precise robot and vision system calibration.

The Robotics Research Laboratory is located in room 2229 in Engineering Unit II.

Students

• Amer Al-Yahmadi
• Charlie Chi
• Young-Seob Hwang
• Gene Oldfield

Recent Graduates

• Robert G. Bonitz
• Seul Jung
• Robert Lapkass
• Ty A. Lasky

Visitors

• Dr. Ji Hong Lee graduated from Kaist University (Korea) in 1991. His research interest includes: Robotics, Human Body Motion Captures, Fuzzy Logic, and Neural Networks.

This WebPage is maintained by Charlie Chi. Please send comments and questions to