Robust and Resilient Robots

A special issue of Robotics (ISSN 2218-6581).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2018) | Viewed by 40694

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A9, Canada
Interests: mechanical design; dynamic system and control; MEMS; robotics
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Resilience is known to human society but less known to engineering. Resilience is not elasticity nor reliability but it is a property of a system, measuring the ability of a system to recover from a partial damage on its own resource (CIRP Annals, 60:469-472, 2011). The concept of resilient robots has been recently proposed (On the concept of resilient robots, Industrial Electronics and Applications (ICIEA), 2011 6th IEEE Conference on). A resilient robotic system (single robot, group of robots) possesses the property of resilience by its structure along with its control or operation management. A full resilient robot is composed of the following systems: damage monitor, change planner as well as scheduler, and change execution management. Thus, a resilient robot goes beyond a self-reconfiguration system. A resilient system has important applications in the areas where an external assistance to a robot is prohibiting, e.g., rescuer, space exploration, see exploration, implanted devises in human body.

Papers are solicited in the following areas (but not limited): robot fault detection and diagnosis, under-actuated reconfiguration, change/reconfiguration planning, change/reconfiguration scheduling, change/reconfiguration execution and control, docking-undocking, new architecture of robots for improving the resilience.

Prof. Dr. Wenjun (Chris) Zhang
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Resilience
  • Robustness
  • Design
  • Control
  • Fault diagnosis
  • Reconfiguraiton
  • Planning
  • Scheduling

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 2869 KiB  
Article
A Safety Monitoring Model for a Faulty Mobile Robot
by André Leite, Andry Pinto and Aníbal Matos
Robotics 2018, 7(3), 32; https://doi.org/10.3390/robotics7030032 - 21 Jun 2018
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 8465
Abstract
The continued development of mobile robots (MR) must be accompanied by an increase in robotics’ safety measures. Not only must MR be capable of detecting and diagnosing faults, they should also be capable of understanding when the dangers of a mission, to themselves [...] Read more.
The continued development of mobile robots (MR) must be accompanied by an increase in robotics’ safety measures. Not only must MR be capable of detecting and diagnosing faults, they should also be capable of understanding when the dangers of a mission, to themselves and the surrounding environment, warrant the abandonment of their endeavors. Analysis of fault detection and diagnosis techniques helps shed light on the challenges of the robotic field, while also showing a lack of research in autonomous decision-making tools. This paper proposes a new skill-based architecture for mobile robots, together with a novel risk assessment and decision-making model to overcome the difficulties currently felt in autonomous robot design. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robust and Resilient Robots)
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6805 KiB  
Article
Automation of Electrical Cable Harnesses Testing
by Zhuming Bi, Carlos Pomalaza-Ráez, Dustin Hershberger, Jeremy Dawson, Andrew Lehman, John Yurek and Jared Ball
Robotics 2018, 7(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/robotics7010001 - 21 Dec 2017
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 10093
Abstract
Traditional automated systems, such as industrial robots, are applied in well-structured environments, and many automated systems have a limited adaptability to deal with complexity and uncertainty; therefore, the applications of industrial robots in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are very limited. The majority [...] Read more.
Traditional automated systems, such as industrial robots, are applied in well-structured environments, and many automated systems have a limited adaptability to deal with complexity and uncertainty; therefore, the applications of industrial robots in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are very limited. The majority of manual operations in SMEs are too complicated for automation. The rapidly developed information technologies (IT) has brought new opportunities for the automation of manufacturing and assembly processes in the ill-structured environments. Note that an automation solution should be designed to meet the given requirements of the specified application, and it differs from one application to another. In this paper, we look into the feasibility of automated testing for electric cable harnesses, and our focus is on some of the generic strategies for the improvement of the adaptability of automation solutions. Especially, the concept of modularization is adopted in developing hardware and software to maximize system adaptability in testing a wide scope of products. A proposed system has been implemented, and the system performances have been evaluated by executing tests on actual products. The testing experiments have shown that the automated system outperformed manual operations greatly in terms of cost-saving, productivity and reliability. Due to the potential of increasing system adaptability and cost reduction, the presented work has its theoretical and practical significance for an extension for other automation solutions in SMEs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robust and Resilient Robots)
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3647 KiB  
Article
A Novel Docking System for Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robots
by Tan Zhang, Wenjun Zhang and Madan M. Gupta
Robotics 2017, 6(4), 25; https://doi.org/10.3390/robotics6040025 - 10 Oct 2017
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 9224
Abstract
Existing self-reconfigurable robots achieve connections and disconnections by a separate drive of the docking system. In this paper, we present a new docking system with which the connections and disconnections are driven by locomotion actuators, without the need for a separate drive, which [...] Read more.
Existing self-reconfigurable robots achieve connections and disconnections by a separate drive of the docking system. In this paper, we present a new docking system with which the connections and disconnections are driven by locomotion actuators, without the need for a separate drive, which reduces the weight and the complexity of the modules. This self-reconfigurable robot consists of two types of fundamental modules, i.e., active and passive modules. By the docking system, two types of connections are formed with the fundamental modules, and the docking and undocking actions are achieved through simple control with less sensory feedback. This paper describes the design of the robotic modules, the docking system, the docking process, and the docking force analysis. An experiment is performed to demonstrate the self-reconfigurable robot with the docking system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robust and Resilient Robots)
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Review

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3373 KiB  
Review
Resilient Robots: Concept, Review, and Future Directions
by Tan Zhang, Wenjun Zhang and Madan M. Gupta
Robotics 2017, 6(4), 22; https://doi.org/10.3390/robotics6040022 - 25 Sep 2017
Cited by 78 | Viewed by 11807
Abstract
This paper reviews recent developments in the emerging field of resilient robots and the related robots that share common concerns with them, such as self-reconfigurable robots. This paper addresses the identity of the resilient robots by distinguishing the concept of resilience from other [...] Read more.
This paper reviews recent developments in the emerging field of resilient robots and the related robots that share common concerns with them, such as self-reconfigurable robots. This paper addresses the identity of the resilient robots by distinguishing the concept of resilience from other similar concepts and summarizes the strategies used by robots to recover their original function. By illustrating some issues of current resilient robots in the design of control systems, physical architecture modules, and physical connection systems, this paper shows several of the possible solutions to facilitate the development of the new and improved robots with higher resilience. The conclusion outlines several directions for the future of this field. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robust and Resilient Robots)
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