Navigation and control of a mobile manipulator for inspection

CATEGORY: ROBOTIC SYSTEMS 
Navigation and control of a mobile manipulator for inspection

Type	Thesis
Author	Adewole A. Ayoade
URL	http://gradworks.umi.com/15/83/1583653.html
Date	2015
University	COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES
Abstract	Oil and gas workers in the Middle East are frequently faced with environmental challenges when performing their daily tasks, as temperature could get as high as 50 degrees C with humidity level fluctuating between 80-90%. As common with other oil and gas environments, the workers are often faced with potential exposure to poisonous gases like H2S, Methane, etc., hence, making their job very risky. Developing a mobile robotic system will help remove these workers from harm’s way. However, integrating this robotic system into the environment demands that it can navigate through narrow spaces from one location to another location to execute a task successfully without colliding with obstacles. Also, it requires that humans are kept in the control loop to make critical decisions as there is zero tolerance to error in this environment. Using an oil refinery as the target deployment environment, the author develops an inexpensive navigation system to enable a mobile manipulator to perform inspection tasks within hazardous environments. This includes the fusion of information from WiFi, GPS, IMU, encoders, laser range finder, compass, and artificial visual markers to determine the robot location within the facility. He also presents a gap-finding obstacle avoidance algorithm, and address the problem of defining inspection poses for the robotic arm to inspect a gauge. Leveraging on these capabilities, he proposes a shared control framework to achieve human collaboration in performing inspection tasks. The implementation results are promising; the robot accurately localizes, efficiently avoids obstacles, successfully executes inspection tasks, and collaborates with a human operator to achieve tasks.

Review of Robotics In Onshore Oil-Gas Industry

CATEGORY: ROBOTICS
Proceedings of 2013IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation, August 4 - 7, Takamatsu, Japan
Review of Robotics In Onshore Oil-Gas Industry
Amit Shukla and Hamad Karki
ashukla@pi.ac.ae , hkarki@pi.ac.ae
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Abstract
Tasks which are repeated, dirty, and dangerous and require high degree of accuracy are already automated in manufacturing enterprises. Their success has inspired the oil and gas industry to automate some of its highly dangerous and repetitive tasks. Most such processes are remotely operated, and require highly skilled operators. Such processes benefit not only in terms of overall health and safety, by removing humans from hazardous environments, but also by reducing the number staff required for continuous inspection and manipulation of plant facilities. Considering the sensitivity of inflammable products involved in this industry usage of completely autonomous robots is still a far fetch choice. Therefore, semi-autonomous robots are excellent choice for this industry, at least in the near term.
In the oil and gas industry, robots are used both in upstream and downstream process such as pipe handling in drilling operations, pipe inspection , tank inspection, and remote controlled underwater vehicles (ROVs). Authors present the state of art technology particularly related to application of robotic solutions to in-pipe inspection robots (lPIRs) and tank inspection robots (TIRs) at onshore oil and gas facilities.
Full Text Source (Subscription or Fee): http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=6618077

Multi Robot Exploration System For Industrial Environment Parameter Analysing Using Labview

CATEGORY: ROBOTS & ROBOTICS
International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT), Vol. 2 Issue 4, April - 2013
Multi Robot Exploration System For Industrial Environment Parameter Analysing Using Labview
Dinu Mathew
ME(Applied Electronics), Sathyabama University, Chennai,India
Abstract
The Multi Robot System explore and collect various vital parameters from a sensitive or critically controlled industrial environment. The vital parameters taken from the critical environment in this application are temperature and flammable gas presence. The data acquired through robots are send to a central station where further processing and analyzing of acquired data is done. The data processing and analyzing is performed by a System design application software called LabVIEW. Virtual Representation of the industrial environment parameters can be achieved using LabVIEW. Data communication takes place through Zigbee wireless communication. Necessary control signals are also generated and sent back to the robots using LabVIEW. These robots can sense the obstructions in the path and avoid them to facilitate smooth voyage. A microcontroller, PIC16F877A is used to control the robots. IEEE 802.15.4 wireless transceiver is used for data communication and the hardware section interfacing with the LabVIEW is done through Virtual Instrumentation System Architecture(VISA).
In this paper a Multi Robot Exploration System(MRES) is designed that overcomes the above limitations and problems faced by the existing system and provides a better efficiency compared to the present system in the industries. Multi robots explore and monitor the industrial environment continuously and collect the critically controlled environmental parameters frequently whether there is any leakage of any flammable gas presence or any temperature variation from the normal level in the areas where human interference is required. Multi robots detects the obstructions using the obstruction sensors and move around the entire industry. Throughout its voyage, Robo cars sense the critical parameters using the specific sensors and the acquired data is sent back to the central station through wireless medium(Zigbee Technology).The data received at the central station is processed and analysed using LabVIEW technology. Use of LabVIEW helps us to virtually represent the entire industrial environment parameters using Control Knobs and Indicators. The Multi Robot System reduces the manpower required for monitoring and data acquisition process. It also reduces the risk of human beings being adversely affected by the imbalance in the critical environmental parameters like leakage of gases or temperature rise.
Free Full Text Source: http://www.ijert.org/browse/volume-2-2013/april-2013-edition?download=3304%3Amulti-robot-exploration-system-for-industrial-environment-parameter-analysing-using-labview&start=400

Intelligent Control of Welding Gun Pose for Pipeline Welding Robot Based on Improved Radial Basis Function Network and Expert System

CATEGORY: ROBOTS & ROBOTICS
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, 2013, Vol. 10, 115:2013
Intelligent Control of Welding Gun Pose for Pipeline Welding Robot Based on Improved Radial Basis Function Network and Expert System
Jingwen Tian 1,*, Meijuan Gao 1 and Yonggang He1
ttjjww999@163.com
1 Beijing Key Laboratory of Information Service Engineering, Beijing Union University, China
Abstract
Since the control system of the welding gun pose in whole‐position welding is complicated and nonlinear, an intelligent control system of welding gun pose for a pipeline welding robot based on an improved radial basis function neural network (IRBFNN) and expert system (ES) is presented in this paper. The structure of the IRBFNN is constructed and the improved genetic algorithm is adopted to optimize the network structure. This control system makes full use of the characteristics of the IRBFNN and the ES. The ADXRS300 micro‐mechanical gyro is used as the welding gun position sensor in this system. When the welding gun position is obtained, an appropriate pitch angle can be obtained through expert knowledge and the numeric reasoning capacity of the IRBFNN. ARM is used as the controller to drive the welding gun pitch angle step motor in order to adjust the pitch angle of the welding gun in real‐time. The experiment results show that the intelligent control system of the welding gun pose using the IRBFNN and expert system is feasible and it enhances the welding quality. This system has wide prospects for application.
The artificial neural network is a new technique in recent years. Its ability to approach nonlinear functions and its strong self‐adaptation has been proved in theory and has also been validated in actual applications [9]. Artificial neural network solves some problems that expert systems possess, such as knowledge representation, knowledge acquisition, paralleled inference etc [10]. The RBFNN adopted a local approaching network. It has a superior fast learning speed and is capable of a strong functional approach. It can effectively overcome the weakness of the BP network, such as slow convergence and its frequently being trapped in local minima [9, 11]. With the aim of shortening the traditional genetic algorithm, an improved genetic algorithm which is adaptive is used to optimize the RBFNN structure which can enhance the accuracy and global search efficiency. At the same time, the development of neural network theory which features in the nonlinear parallel distribution process provides an effective method to solve the problems of the traditional expert system.
As we all know, classic control theories are very effective in solving control problems in a linear constant system, however, the control of the welding gun pose is a complex nonlinear controlling target that cannot be captured in a mathematical model [7]. With the aim of solving the control problem of the welding gun pose in the case of whole‐position welding, an intelligent control system based on the IRBFNN and expert system is presented in this paper. ADXRS300 micro‐mechanical gyro is used as the welding gun pose sensor in this system.
Free Full Text Source: http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs/42840/InTech-Intelligent_control_of_welding_gun_pose_for_pipeline_welding_robot_based_on_improved_radial_basis_function_network_and_expert_system.pdf

A Wall Climbing Robot Based on the Improved Electro Adhesion Technology

CATEGORY: ROBOTS & ROBOTICS
Applied Mechanics and Materials (Volume 328, 2013), Pages 56-61, DOI 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.328.56
A Wall Climbing Robot Based on the Improved Electro Adhesion Technology
Jin Chao Guo, Guang Hui Dai, Guang Chao Cui
Abstract
Electro adhesion is an interesting new adhesion technology that offers a novel method for the design of an adhesion type of climbing robot.
Authors present an improved electro adhesion technology, using ERG (Electro Rheological Gel) as the insulating layer of electrode array. Experiments show that the adhesion force is enhanced by using ERG and the electrode array has self-cleaning function to some extent. Authors constructed a climbing robot which is able to climb walls made of various materials, including wood, glass and concrete.
Full Text Source (Subscription or Fee): http://www.scientific.net/AMM.328.56

Numerical analysis of a non-contact surface adhesion system based on vortex cup for wall climbing robots

CATEGORY: ROBOTS & ROBOTICS
2013 First RSI/ISM International Conference on  Robotics and Mechatronics (ICRoM), 13-15 Feb. 2013, Page(s): 368 - 373
Numerical analysis of a non-contact surface adhesion system based on vortex cup for wall climbing robots
Fallah, A. ; Rezasoltani, M. ; Riasi, A. ; Moradi, H.
Sch. of Mech. Eng., Univ. of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Researchers designed and evaluated an adhesion system for wall climbing robots using vortex cup. They constructed a small scale model of the system and computed the flow patterns including pressure and velocity fields using CFD analysis.
They validated the results using mesh independency to compare with the available experimental data. Additionally, they studied effect of various parameters such as the number of nozzles, diffuser length, cup height and cup radius on the adhesion force.
Full Text Source (Subscription or Fee): http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6510135&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D6510135

Designing And Development Of Magnetic Wall Climbing Device In Power Station

CATEGORY: ROBOTICS
Mechanica Confab, Vol. 2, No. 2, February-March 2013
Designing And Development Of Magnetic Wall Climbing Device In Power Station
Sanjay Nishane, Ajay Kale
Abstract
Climbing is a challenging task for autonomous mobile robots primarily due to requirements for agile locomotion and high maneuverability as well as robust and efficient attachment and detachment. Many external, environmental conditions that have a critical need for automation, gives rise to need of robotics. The exploitation of wall-climbing robots has broad prospect undoubtedly. The potential is enormous for wall-climbing robots which can work in almost all environments; however, with the limits of many factors, the application is rather limited. Such robots could, among other applications, be used to inspect the hulls of spacecraft for damage, leakages in oil refineries, their stickiness ensuring that they would stay attached. The wall climbing device must be flexible and should have accurate dimensions so as to reach the specific height and perform the given task. CAD software will be used for modeling of such designs.
Introduction
Interest in the development of climbing systems has grown rapidly in recent years. Climbing devices are very useful that can be adopted in a variety of applications such as maintenance, building, inspection, and safety, mainly in the process and construction industries. These systems are mainly adopted in places where direct access by a human operator is very expensive, because of the need for scaffolding or special structures or situation is very dangerous due to the presence of a hostile environment. The main motivation for its use is to increase the operation efficiency, eliminate the costly assembly of scaffolding and to protect human health and safety in hazardous tasks. Several climbing devices have already been developed, and others are under development, for applications ranging from cleaning to inspection of difficult to reach constructions. A wall-climbing device should not only be light, so that it may reduce excessive adhesion forces, but also have large payload in order to carry instrumentations and ancillary equipment, for the tasks it is designed, during navigation.
The device proposed to be developed in this project makes use of permanent magnets which are alternately magnetized to cause advancement of the main frame in steps. Actuation of magnet is controlled pneumatically with compact pneumatic cylinders attached to the main frame.
Recently various robots have been designed for wall cleaning and maintenance. There are three kinds of kinematics for the motion on smooth vertical surfaces: multiple legs, a sliding frame and a wheeled and chain-track vehicle. Four different principles of adhesion which are vacuum suckers, negative pressure, propellers and grasping are also used by climbing robots. Since 1996 the group at the Robotics Institute of BeiHang University has developed a series of autonomous climbing robots with sliding frames for glass-wall cleaning. In this paper, the individual robot’s mechanical constructions and unique aspects are introduced in detail.
Free Full Text Source: http://www.confabjournals.com/confabjournals/images/442013175112Complete%20Issue%20Vol.%202,%20No.%202,%20February-March%202013.pdf#page=34