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Modular robots are systems that can change its geometry or configuration when connecting more modules or when rearranging them in a different manner to perform a variety of tasks. Graph theory can be used to describe modular robots configurations, hence the possibility to determine the flexibility of the robot to move from one point to another. When the robot΄s configurations are represented in a mathematical way, forward kinematics can be obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we propose a strategy for modelling a human hand for Haptics interaction.The strategy consists in a parallel computing architecture that calculates the dynamics of a hand, this is accomplished by computing the dynamics of each finger in a parallel manner. In this approach multiple threads (e.g. haptics thread, graphics thread, collision detection thread, etc.) run concurrently and therefore we developed a synchronization mechanism for data exchange. We describe in detail the elements of the developed software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a bilateral control method by state convergence for teleoperation systems where the master and slave robots do not necessarily have homothetic kinematics. This method uses a virtual robot to relate the kinematics of the master and slave robots. An application of this type of control is also presented in which a robot of three degrees of freedom is teleoperated by using a commercial haptic device with six degrees of freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows a new methodology for bilateral controller design based on transparency using a modified state convergence control scheme. This methodology offers some advantages upon designing bilateral systems. The design is based on modelling the behaviour of the master and the slave by applying state space equations, and considering perfect transparency cannot be reached. Therefore, the objective of the controllers is to guarantee the convergence of the master and slave status. This paper describes the criteria to achieve transparency on steady state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a bilateral control architecture for teleoperation systems where the environment must not be identified to design the control gains. In this control scheme, the interaction force of the slave with the environment is an external input. This force is not modeled by gains inside the control architecture. In the paper, the state convergence methodology is used to design the control gains of the teleoperation system. The control system allows that the slave state follows the master state and to establish the desired dynamics of the teleoperation system. Several simulation results are shown to verify the performance of the control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, stereoscopic image visualization for teleoperated robots is studied. The use of stereo vision systems shows some difficulties: image disparity is the main problem. It affects the correct image fusion process by the brain. Disparity curve calculations are shown and a method to calibrate stereoscopic images for telerobotics is explained. Experiments have been carried out to obtain the limits for a proper image fusion. The use of stereoscopic image has been assessed to execute teleoperated robot guidance tasks. The performance of stereoscopic and monoscopic image is compared. Stereoscopic images have shown a guaranteed depth perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper describes the architecture of a modular robot called RobMAT. A module description which includes both hardware and software features are shown. The module has 3 DoF which gives great functionality to the module. The connection between modules forms molecules. The simplest molecule is called base with 5 DoF. Channels of communication between modules (CAN bus) and molecules (Bluetooth) are also described. A method in representing molecule configurations based on Graph Theory is explained. This method allows developing algorithm for dynamically changing-robots such as modular robots. It also explains how the molecule is allowed to act as a whole synchronization algorithm. Finally a collaborative manipulation task, which is teleoperated, is shown. Elements involve in teleoperation are also described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter describes a telerobotic system for maintenance of aerial electrical livepower lines. Maintenance-related tasks are of great relevance for utilities companies, as their goal of achieving a good service quality depends to a great extent on the performance of maintenance and inspection issues. A telerobotic system called ROBTET, has been developed by the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, in collaboration with Iberdrola and Cobra, a Spanish utility company and contractor, respectively. The ROBTET system has been in operation in the Spanish electricity network since 2002, which attests to the success of the prototype and also allows for the incorporation of improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter describes a new bilateral control method of teleoperation systems. This method is based on the state space formulation and it can be applied to any teleoperation system where the master and the slave would be represented by nth-order linear differential equations. The control system allows that the slave manipulator follows the master. The tracking is achieved by state convergence between the master and the slave. The method is able also to establish the desired dynamics of this convergence and the dynamics of the slave manipulator. Furthermore a simple design procedure is provided to obtain the control system gains. The advantage of this design procedure is that it is only necessary to solve a set of equations to calculate the control system gains. The control by state convergence can be also applied to teleoperation systems with communication time delay. In this case, the Taylor expansion is used to approximate the time delay. The state convergence allows that the slave manipulator follows the master in spite of the time delay in the communication channel. Experimental results with a teleoperation system of one DoF are presented to verify the control method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter presents a novel parallel structure based on a modification of the 6 degrees of freedom (d.o.f.) Gough-Stewart platform where the linear actuators have been replaced by cable-driven pantographs. This device is used as a haptic interface. The goal of this design is to be used as a first prototype of a haptic device that tries to explote the particular characteristics of parallel structures to get a high bandwidth haptic interface able to be used as an impedance or as an admittance display. The remainder of the chapter is as follows; first some considerations about using parallel structures as haptic devices are made; then the geometrical model and the kinematic analysis are shown. Next, the hardware and software architectures used on the system, and the control schemes implemented on a multi-axis board are detailed. The designed control setup of the interface allows the implementation and experimentation of several bilateral control schemes. Experimental results with this device inside a classical force-position bilateral control are also shown at the end of this chapter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of atelerobotic system is to connect humans and robots in order to reproduce operator actions at a distance. We must take numerous matters into account in order to efficiently produce such interaction, most of which are related to human interaction, distributed control, and information flow between operator and remote robots. All these topics are dealt with in depth in this book. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter introduces the main topics of a telerobotic system. It describes the architecture of such a system from a general point of view and emphasizes the interaction between a human operator and a robot that performs the task in the remote environment. Furthermore it focuses on multi-modal human system interfaces and explains the main features of haptic, auditory, and visual interfaces. Finally important issues for the measurement and evaluation of the attribute telepresence are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a bilateral control method for teleoperation systems where the master and the slave are modeled by different order transfer functions. The proposed methodology represents the teleoperation system on the state space and it is based in the state convergence between the master and the slave. The method allows that the slave follows the master, and it is able to establish the dynamic behavior of the teleoperation system. The first results obtained when the method is being applied to a commercial teleoperation system in which the master and the slave are modeled by different order discrete transfer functions are shown in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]