7 accepted papers
We present a low-cost, three-degree-of-freedom (3-DOF) prismatic-spherical-revolute (PSR) parallel mechanism used as a testing platform for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) tethered to an unmanned surface vehicle (USV). The mechanism has three actuated linear rails kinematically linked to a platform…
The state estimation and control of a ball-balancing robot under high yaw rate is a challenging problem due to its highly nonlinear 3D dynamic. The small size and low-cost components in our Micro Ball-Balancing Robot makes the system inherently very noisy which further increases the complexity of th…
Our Tensegrity-Inspired Compliant Three degree-of-freedom (DOF) robotic joint adds omnidirectional compliance to robotic limbs while reducing sprung mass through base mounted actuation. This enables a robotic limb which is safer to operate alongside humans and fragile equipment while still capable o…
This paper presents a (patent-pending) small, quasi-static, minimal-complexity Stair Climbing Robot (SCR). The vehicle design is given simply by adding a third motor to a (Segway-like) Mobile Inverted Pendulum (MIP), enabling it to maneuver up stairs, leveraging feedback control, by planting it's “f…
The quasi-static catenary curve of a semi-slack tether between an essentially stationary unmanned air vehicle (UAV) and a small unmanned surface vehicle (USV) is investigated and characterized. An empirical analysis, performed over a discretized space of vertical and horizontal separations of the tw…
Duct exploration and maintenance is a task well suited for small agile robots, which must be capable of navigating complex and irregular systems of ducts. Previously, we presented a tensegrity robot, DuCTT (Duct Climbing Tetrahedral Tensegrity), which demonstrated the plausibility of such a robot fo
Ball-balancing robots (BBRs) are endowed with rich dynamics. When properly designed and stabilized via feedback to eliminate jitter, and intuitively coordinated with a well-designed smartphone interface, BBRs exhibit a uniquely fluid and organic motion. Unlike mobile inverted pendulums (MIPs, akin t…