CAREER: Stratified Motion Planning with Application to Robotic Manipulation

这是一个为期四年的持续奖励的第一年资助。该CAREER奖的研究计划涉及所谓分层系统的基础理论和实验研究，这些系统受到时间和空间间歇物理约束。特别是，本研究涉及一种新的机器人操作控制方法的开发，该方法可以分析地适应物体与机械手（或手指）之间的滚动接触以及间歇性接触。对于拟人系统，通过间歇性接触的操作被称为“手指绑带”。该方法是考虑分层系统中固有的一般微分几何，并将这种结构与也利用微分几何工具的一般非线性控制技术相结合。这种操作方法将是通用的，因为它将以足够的数学通用性来表述，因此它独立于物体的任何特定表面参数化，任何特定的指尖参数化以及机器人手指或机械手的运动学。该奖项的教育部分包括研究生和本科生参与这些研究工作。PI部门将开发一个新的多学科本科工程课程组成部分，它将包括两门课程，一门致力于影响工程和工程伦理的一般法律主题，另一门完全涉及知识产权。最后，将制定一项当地外展计划，以提高当地学童在机器人领域的教育和热情。

This is the first year funding of a four year continuing award. The research plan of this CAREER award concerns basic theoretical and experimental research involving so-called stratified systems, which are systems subjected to temporally and spatially intermittent physical constraints. In particular, this research concerns the development of a new robotic manipulation control method that can analytically accommodate both rolling contact between the object and the manipulators (or fingers) as well as intermittent contact. For anthropomorphic systems, manipulation via intermittent contact is called "finger gaiting." The approach is to consider the generic differential geometry inherent in stratified systems and to couple this structure with general nonlinear control techniques which also utilize tools from differential geometry. This manipulation method will be general in that it will be formulated in sufficient mathematical generality so that it is independent of any particular surface parameterization of the object, any particular finger tip parameterizations, and the kinematics of the robotic fingers or manipulators. The educational component of this award includes the involvement of graduate as well as undergraduate students in these research efforts. A new multidisciplinary component of the undergraduate engineering curriculum in the PI's department will be developed which will consist of two courses, one devoted to general legal topics which affect engineering and engineering ethics and the other entirely to intellectual property. Finally, a local outreach program will be developed to enhance the education and enthusiasm of local school children in the area of robotics.