Design of custom robotics using standard components and subsystems

根据已发表的文献，机器人技术的大部分理论工作一直并将继续集中在机械臂和末端执行器上，它们通常嵌入在自动单元中，最近也安装在移动平台上。大多数已发表的研究都涉及机器人手臂和相关的一般技术问题：机械结构、电子（计算机体系结构）和软件（控制）。总的来说，这项研究并没有从商业上可用的组件和子系统的实质性技术中获益。其结果是，研究结果不适合并受限于适合可用的实现手段（组件和子系统）。此外，它们不能有效地集成越来越多的机器人应用程序，这些应用程序不是围绕标准机械臂构建的。随着医疗、服务、军事等领域的应用开始成为新型机器人系统的主要组成部分，这一类别的应用正在明显增长。因此，就为新应用程序的有效集成提供支持而言，当前研究的有用性存在一个问题。它与现有的组件和子系统分离，主要关注机械臂。这项研究计划的长期目标是弥合这一差距。提出的工作的核心是一个新的系统设计范式和相关假设。基于新的范例，任何新的基于机器人的系统应用都可以基于定制概念进行研究和开发，并且可以使用标准组件和子系统来实现。主要的假设是，对于任何新的应用程序，当前先进组件和子系统的可用性几乎可以满足任何设计需求。这种范例为系统级的研究和开发提供了机会，也为组件和子系统开发人员提供了激励和想法。申请人已选择将他的研究方向转向系统开发。主要的焦点是建立一个可靠的和经济的设计基于机器人系统的方法。

Based on the published literature most of theoretical work in robotics has been and is continuing to be focused on robotic arms and end effectors, often embedded in automatic cells, more recently also mounted on mobile platforms. Most published research addresses robot arms and related generic issues of technology: mechanical structure, electronics (computer architecture), and software (control). By-and-large this research does not benefit from the substantial technology of components and subsystems that are available commercially. The outcome is that the research results are not suited and constrained to fit the available means of implementation (components and subsystems). Furthermore they do not lead to effective system integration of a growing number of robotic applications that are not built around standard robotic arms. This category is growing evidentially as applications in medical, service, military, etc. begun to form the larger portion of new robotic systems. Therefore, there is an issue with the usefulness of current research in terms of providing support for effective integration of new applications. It is detached form the available components and subsystems, and it focuses mainly on robotic arms. The long-term objective of this research program is to bridge this gap. At the core of the proposed work is a new system design paradigm and the related hypotheses. Based on the new paradigm any new robotic-based system application can be researched and developed based on custom concepts, and can be implemented with standard components and subsystems. The main hypothesis is that for any new application the current availability of advanced components and subsystems is such that almost any design requirement can be met. This paradigm provides opportunities for research and development at system level as well as incentives and ideas for components and subsystems developers. The applicant has selected to direct his research to system development. The main focus is to establish a methodology for reliable and economical design of robotic-based systems.