Aerospace initiatives in robotics research

Abstract

Thls paper sunmarlzes results to date of a robotlcs research program at The Aerospace Corporatlon. There ls an lnterest In the development of advanced robotlcs control concepts for flexlble automatlon In both terrestrlal and space appllcatlons. As a part of the robotlcs research actlvlty, an off-llne robot programlng capablllty was developed In a computer-alded englneerlng faclllty. The dlrect and lnverse klnematlcs of the robot, spllne flt trajectory smoothlng, and torque calculatlons for path valldatlon are an lntegral part of that capablllty. A dynamlcs-contr ol slmulatlon test bed has been developed. and has been used to valldate a number of advanced robotlcs control technlques. Addltlonal areas of l nterest and research actlvlty lnvolve t he use of computer vlslon In posltlon control. t he use of force feedback ln hybrld posltlon/force control schemes, and the development of an LQR for a compllant. planar mantpulator. The results of these efforts wlll be descrlbed.