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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 703 records · Page 39

How Useful Are Imaging and Remote Sensing Technologies in Decontamination and Decommissioning? - 17363

The examples of application of imaging and remote sensing technologies during decontamination and decommissioning works in nuclear environment at Kurchatov Institute site are presented. The systems which realized these technologies are: radiometric system installed on mechanical arm of Brokk remote controlled vehicle, collimated scanning spectrometric system and portable gamma cameras of different types. Objects of application: facilities of research reactors at characterization and under dismantling, temporal radwaste storages during discharge and remediation. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Dynamic stabilization methods for bilateral control of remote manipulation

This paper discusses and analyses several control strategies for generalized, bilateral master/slave manipulator systems. In these manipulators the two arms have different dynamic/kinematic properties which implies a more difficult control problem. Attention is focused on torque/force driven arms. Required performance for the necessary control computer(s) is discussed.

Handlykken, M.↗

System integration of pattern recognition, adaptive aided, upper limb prostheses

The requirements for successful integration of a computer aided control system for multi degree of freedom artificial arms are discussed. Specifications are established for a system which shares control between a human amputee and an automatic control subsystem. The approach integrates the following subsystems: (1) myoelectric pattern recognition, (2) adaptive computer aiding; (3) local reflex control; (4) prosthetic sensory feedback; and (5) externally energized arm with the functions of prehension, wrist rotation, elbow extension and flexion and humeral rotation.

Lyman, J.↗

Investigating Astromaterials Curation Applications for Dexterous Robotic Arms

The Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation office at NASA Johnson Space Center is currently investigating tools and methods that will enable the curation of future astromaterials collections. Size and temperature constraints for astromaterials to be collected by current and future proposed missions will require the development of new robotic sample and tool handling capabilities. NASA Curation has investigated the application of robot arms in the past, and robotic 3-axis micromanipulators are currently in use for small particle curation in the Stardust and Cosmic Dust laboratories. While 3-axis micromanipulators have been extremely successful for activities involving the transfer of isolated particles in the 5-20 micron range (e.g. from microscope slide to epoxy bullet tip, beryllium SEM disk), their limited ranges of motion and lack of yaw, pitch, and roll degrees of freedom restrict their utility in other applications. For instance, curators removing particles from cosmic dust collectors by hand often employ scooping and rotating motions to successfully free trapped particles from the silicone oil coatings. Similar scooping and rotating motions are also employed when isolating a specific particle of interest from an aliquot of crushed meteorite. While cosmic dust curators have been remarkably successful with these kinds of particle manipulations using handheld tools, operator fatigue limits the number of particles that can be removed during a given extraction session. The challenges for curation of small particles will be exacerbated by mission requirements that samples be processed in N2 sample cabinets (i.e. gloveboxes). We have been investigating the use of compact robot arms to facilitate sample handling within gloveboxes. Six-axis robot arms potentially have applications beyond small particle manipulation. For instance, future sample return missions may involve biologically sensitive astromaterials that can be easily compromised by physical interaction with a curator; other potential future returned samples may require cryogenic curation. Robot arms may be combined with high resolution cameras within a sample cabinet and controlled remotely by curator. Sophisticated robot arm and hand combination systems can be programmed to mimic the movements of a curator wearing a data glove; successful implementation of such a system may ultimately allow a curator to virtually operate in a nitrogen, cryogenic, or biologically sensitive environment with dexterity comparable to that of a curator physically handling samples in a glove box.

Snead, C. J.↗

Design and control of remote manipulators

Results of investigations on vibrational modes of manipulators revealed: (1) any arbitrary manipulator may be analyzed for its small motion compliances; (2) a simulation of the Martin-Marietta shuttle boom with a 65,000 lb. payload attached, indicated three natural frequencies; and (3) simulations can be made of rigid limbs and flexible joints as well as for flexible limbs and locked joints and combinations thereof. Trajectories for arms were determined so that some integral criterion such as integral of kinetic energy or control torque magnitude is minimized over a motion of the arm. Experiments performed to evaluate various TV displays in conjunction with manipulator control modes showed that when mounted directly to the manipulator control arm and arranged to look approximately along the arm to the hand the operator could perform the task almost as quickly as when viewing the task directly.

Whitney, D. E.↗

Adaptive Force Control For Compliant Motion Of A Robot

Two adaptive control schemes offer robust solutions to problem of stable control of forces of contact between robotic manipulator and objects in its environment. They are called "adaptive admittance control" and "adaptive compliance control." Both schemes involve use of force-and torque sensors that indicate contact forces. These schemes performed well when tested in computational simulations in which they were used to control seven-degree-of-freedom robot arm in executing contact tasks. Choice between admittance or compliance control is dictated by requirements of the application at hand.

Seraji, Homayoun↗

Context-Dependent Arm Pointing Adaptation

We sought to determine the effectiveness of head posture as a contextual cue to facilitate adaptive transitions in manual control during visuomotor distortions. Subjects performed arm pointing movements by drawing on a digitizing tablet, with targets and movement trajectories displayed in real time on a computer monitor. Adaptation was induced by presenting the trajectories in an altered gain format on the monitor. The subjects were shown visual displays of their movements that corresponded to either 0.5 or 1.5 scaling of the movements made. Subjects were assigned to three groups: the head orientation group tilted the head towards the right shoulder when drawing under a 0.5 gain of display and towards the left shoulder when drawing under a 1.5 gain of display, the target orientation group had the home & target positions rotated counterclockwise when drawing under the 0.5 gain and clockwise for the 1.5 gain, the arm posture group changed the elbow angle of the arm they were not drawing with from full flexion to full extension with 0.5 and 1.5 gain display changes. To determine if contextual cues were associated with display alternations, the gain changes were returned to the standard (1.0) display. Aftereffects were assessed to determine the efficacy of the head orientation contextual cue. . compared to the two control cues. The head orientation cue was effectively associated with the multiple gains. The target orientation cue also demonstrated some effectiveness while the.arm posture cue did not. The results demonstrate that contextual cues can be used to switch between multiple adaptive states. These data provide support for the idea that static head orientation information is a crucial component to the arm adaptation process. These data further define the functional linkage between head posture and arm pointing movements.

Seidler, R. D.↗

Teleoperation of Construction Robots Using Human Interaction: Case Study Examples: Preprint

The integration of advanced teleoperation methods in construction robotics has the potential to enhance productivity and safety in demanding environments. Among different methods, hand gestures have emerged as an intuitive approach, enabling seamless communication between human operators and robotic systems. This study demonstrates the use of hand gestures for controlling a model robotic excavator and a virtual robotic arm in construction applications. Two case study examples are presented. In the first case study, a series of hand gestures are performed to control a model robotic excavator's bucket and arm movements. The second case study focuses on using hand gestures to control a virtual robotic arm to perform a material handling task in a simulated environment. In both cases, the performed hand gestures are all successfully captured and interpreted by the gesture-based teleoperation method to conduct the corresponding tasks, which demonstrates the application of the gesture-based control method for various types of construction robots. Also, the limitations of the gesture-based teleoperation method (e.g., recognition delay, sensitivity to motion outliers) are discussed. Future work will focus on developing a digital twin system to support gesture-based teleoperation for a wider range of construction robots.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Decomposition and state variable feedback control of elastic robotic systems

Energy-efficient, lightweight robot arms for space applications have considerable structural flexibility. An approach to control of a class of flexible robotic systems is presented. A control law is derived which decouples the joint-angle motion from the flexible motion and, in addition, asymptotically decomposes the elastic dynamics into two subsystems. This allows the design of an elastic mode stabilizer independently based on lower order models representing structural flexibility. The closed-loop system is shown to be globally asymptotically stable and robust to uncertaintly in system parameters. Simulation results show that the combination of nonlinear decoupling and elastic stabilization permits rapid, accurate tracking of large joint angle commands with well damped elastic response, in spite of space vehicle motion and payload uncertainty.

Singh, S. N.↗

Automatic solar lamp intensity control system

System that substitutes solar cells directly in the path of the radiation incident on the test volume and uses a dc bridge-null system was developed. The solar cell is affixed to a heat sink mounted on each of three arms for each solar lamp. Control of the radiation from the solar lamps is automatic.

Leverone, H.↗

rp (a1)

For ship-based deployments, some instruments require actively stabilized platforms to compensate for the ship's motion, especially rotations around the long axis of the ship (roll), short axis (pitch), and, for some instruments, vertical axis (yaw). ARM currently employs two types of stabilized platforms: one electrically controlled for lighter instruments that includes yaw control (dubbed RPY for Roll, Pitch, Yaw) and one hydraulic platform with three independently controlled legs for heavier instruments, like the Marine W-Band ARM Cloud Radar (MWACR), (dubbed RPH for Roll, Pitch, Heave [vertical translational motion]). For a comprehensive report on the purpose, characteristics, and functionality of the RPH hydraulic stabilized platform, see this Report on the Second ARM Mobile Facility (AMF2) Roll, Pitch, and Heave (RPH) Stabilization Platform: Design and Evaluation. For further details of the platform's electronics, configuration, and performance evaluation, see this Report on the Second ARM Mobile Facility (AMF2) Stabilization Platform: Control Strategy and Implementation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

rphcontrol (a1)

For ship-based deployments, some instruments require actively stabilized platforms to compensate for the ship's motion, especially rotations around the long axis of the ship (roll), short axis (pitch), and, for some instruments, vertical axis (yaw). ARM currently employs two types of stabilized platforms: one electrically controlled for lighter instruments that includes yaw control (dubbed RPY for Roll, Pitch, Yaw) and one hydraulic platform with three independently controlled legs for heavier instruments, like the Marine W-Band ARM Cloud Radar (MWACR), (dubbed RPH for Roll, Pitch, Heave [vertical translational motion]). For a comprehensive report on the purpose, characteristics, and functionality of the RPH hydraulic stabilized platform, see this Report on the Second ARM Mobile Facility (AMF2) Roll, Pitch, and Heave (RPH) Stabilization Platform: Design and Evaluation. For further details of the platform's electronics, configuration, and performance evaluation, see this Report on the Second ARM Mobile Facility (AMF2) Stabilization Platform: Control Strategy and Implementation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

rphtilt (a1)

For ship-based deployments, some instruments require actively stabilized platforms to compensate for the ship's motion, especially rotations around the long axis of the ship (roll), short axis (pitch), and, for some instruments, vertical axis (yaw). ARM currently employs two types of stabilized platforms: one electrically controlled for lighter instruments that includes yaw control (dubbed RPY for Roll, Pitch, Yaw) and one hydraulic platform with three independently controlled legs for heavier instruments, like the Marine W-Band ARM Cloud Radar (MWACR), (dubbed RPH for Roll, Pitch, Heave [vertical translational motion]). For a comprehensive report on the purpose, characteristics, and functionality of the RPH hydraulic stabilized platform, see this Report on the Second ARM Mobile Facility (AMF2) Roll, Pitch, and Heave (RPH) Stabilization Platform: Design and Evaluation. For further details of the platform's electronics, configuration, and performance evaluation, see this Report on the Second ARM Mobile Facility (AMF2) Stabilization Platform: Control Strategy and Implementation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Quality of Survival and Growth in Children and Young Adults in the PNET4 European Controlled Trial of Hyperfractionated Versus Conventional Radiation Therapy for Standard-Risk Medulloblastoma

Purpose: To compare quality of survival in “standard-risk” medulloblastoma after hyperfractionated radiation therapy of the central nervous system with that after standard radiation therapy, combined with a chemotherapy regimen common to both treatment arms, in the PNET4 randomised controlled trial. Methods and Materials: Participants in the PNET4 trial and their parents/caregivers in 7 participating anonymized countries completed standardized questionnaires in their own language on executive function, health status, behavior, health-related quality of life, and medical, educational, employment, and social information. Pre- and postoperative neurologic status and serial heights and weights were also recorded. Results: Data were provided by 151 of 244 eligible survivors (62%) at a median age at assessment of 15.2 years and median interval from diagnosis of 5.8 years. Compared with standard radiation therapy, hyperfractionated radiation therapy was associated with lower (ie, better) z-scores for executive function in all participants (mean intergroup difference 0.48 SDs, 95% confidence interval 0.16-0.81, P=.004), but health status, behavioral difficulties, and health-related quality of life z-scores were similar in the 2 treatment arms. Data on hearing impairment were equivocal. Hyperfractionated radiation therapy was also associated with greater decrement in height z-scores (mean intergroup difference 0.43 SDs, 95% confidence interval 0.10-0.76, P=.011). Conclusions: Hyperfractionated radiation therapy was associated with better executive function and worse growth but without accompanying change in health status, behavior, or quality of life.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

The JPL telerobotic Manipulator Control and Mechanization (MCM) subsystem

The Manipulator Control and Mechanization (MCM) subsystem of the telerobot system provides the real-time control of the robot manipulators in autonomous and teleoperated modes and real time input/output for a variety of sensors and actuators. Substantial hardware and software are included in this subsystem which interfaces in the hierarchy of the telerobot system with the other subsystems. The other subsystems are: run time control, task planning and reasoning, sensing and perception, and operator control subsystem. The architecture of the MCM subsystem, its capabilities, and details of various hardware and software elements are described. Important improvements in the MCM subsystem over the first version are: dual arm coordinated trajectory generation and control, addition of integrated teleoperation, shared control capability, replacement of the ultimate controllers with motor controllers, and substantial increase in real time processing capability.

Hayati, Samad↗

Intelligent control and adaptive systems; Proceedings of the Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, Nov. 7, 8, 1989

Various papers on intelligent control and adaptive systems are presented. Individual topics addressed include: control architecture for a Mars walking vehicle, representation for error detection and recovery in robot task plans, real-time operating system for robots, execution monitoring of a mobile robot system, statistical mechanics models for motion and force planning, global kinematics for manipulator planning and control, exploration of unknown mechanical assemblies through manipulation, low-level representations for robot vision, harmonic functions for robot path construction, simulation of dual behavior of an autonomous system. Also discussed are: control framework for hand-arm coordination, neural network approach to multivehicle navigation, electronic neural networks for global optimization, neural network for L1 norm linear regression, planning for assembly with robot hands, neural networks in dynamical systems, control design with iterative learning, improved fuzzy process control of spacecraft autonomous rendezvous using a genetic algorithm.

Rodriguez, Guillermo↗

Reflexive obstacle avoidance for kinematically-redundant manipulators

Dexterous telerobots incorporating 17 or more degrees of freedom operating under coordinated, sensor-driven computer control will play important roles in future space operations. They will also be used on Earth in assignments like fire fighting, construction and battlefield support. A real time, reflexive obstacle avoidance system, seen as a functional requirement for such massively redundant manipulators, was developed using arm-mounted proximity sensors to control manipulator pose. The project involved a review and analysis of alternative proximity sensor technologies for space applications, the development of a general-purpose algorithm for synthesizing sensor inputs, and the implementation of a prototypical system for demonstration and testing. A 7 degree of freedom Robotics Research K-2107HR manipulator was outfitted with ultrasonic proximity sensors as a testbed, and Robotics Research's standard redundant motion control algorithm was modified such that an object detected by sensor arrays located at the elbow effectively applies a force to the manipulator elbow, normal to the axis. The arm is repelled by objects detected by the sensors, causing the robot to steer around objects in the workspace automatically while continuing to move its tool along the commanded path without interruption. The mathematical approach formulated for synthesizing sensor inputs can be employed for redundant robots of any kinematic configuration.

Karlen, James P.↗

A computer assisted teleoperator control station with tactile feedback

A computer-assisted teleoperator control system for making comparative performance evaluations is described. A local and a remote control station, each with decision-making capability, communicate with each other through a simulated time delay. Supervisory control at three increasingly automatic levels is possible. The highest level of programmed control is facilitated through the ARM language which was developed to permit easily readable program manuscripts to be written and assembled into programs of motions by novice programmers. Experimental results show the advantage of this form of supervisory control with both direct and delayed (3 sec) manipulation tasks. In addition, two systems to measure and reproduce force distributions have been designed. One system reproduces contact on the external surfaces of the remote hand using 21 airjet simulators. Another system reproduces the shape of the contact between object and jaws using 288 piezoelectric (bimorph) stimulators.

Hill, J. W.↗