Design and Control of Intelligent Heterogeneous Multi-Configurable Chained Microrobotic Modular Systems
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UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA´ DE MADRID ESCUELA TECNICA´ SUPERIOR DE INGENIEROS INDUSTRIALES Design and Control of Intelligent Heterogeneous Multi-configurable Chained Microrobotic Modular Systems PhD Thesis Alberto Brunete Gonz´alez Ingeniero de Telecomunicaci´on 2010 DEPARTAMENTO DE AUTOMATICA,´ INGENIER´IA ELECTRONICA´ E INFORMATICA´ INDUSTRIAL ESCUELA TECNICA´ SUPERIOR DE INGENIEROS INDUSTRIALES Design and Control of Intelligent Heterogeneous Multi-configurable Chained Microrobotic Modular Systems PhD Thesis Alberto Brunete Gonz´alez Ingeniero de Telecomunicaci´on Supervisors Ernesto Gambao Gal´an Doctor Ingeniero Industrial Miguel Hernando Guti´errez Doctor Ingeniero Industrial 2010 T´ıtulo: Design and Control of Intelligent Heterogeneous Multi-configurable Chained Microrobotic Modular Systems Autor: Alberto Brunete Gonz´alez Ingeniero de Telecomunicaci´on (D-15) Tribunal nombrado por el Magfco. y Excmo. Sr. Rector de la Universidad Polit´ecnica de Madrid, el d´ıa de de 2010 Presidente: Vocal: Vocal: Vocal: Secretario: Suplente: Suplente: Realizado el acto de lectura y defensa de la tesis el d´ıa de de en la E.T.S.I. / Facultad El Presidente: El Secretario: Los Vocales: Dedication Version 0.95 vii viii Abstract The objective of this thesis is the \Design and Control of Intelligent Heterogeneous Multi- configurable Chained Microrobotic Modular Systems". That is, the development of mod- ular microrobots composed of different types of modules able to perform different types of movements (gaits), that can have different (chained) configurations depending on the task to perform. Heterogenous is the key word in this thesis. It is possible to find in literature many designs concerning modular robots, but almost all of them are homogenous: all are com- posed of the same modules except for some designs having two different modules but one of them passive. In this thesis, several active modules are proposed (rotation, support, extension, helicoidal, etc.) that can be combined and execute different gaits. The original idea was to make the robots as smaller as possible, reaching in the end a final diameter of 27mm. Although they are not really microrobots, they are in the mesoscale (from hundreds of microns to tens of centimeters) and in literature they are called for simplicity minirobots or microrobots. Several modules have been developed: the rotation module (indeed it is a double rotation module, but for simplicity it is called rotation module) v1 and v2, the helicoidal module v1 and v2, the support module v1, v1.1 and v2, the extension module v1 and v2, the camera module v1 and v2, the contact module (it is included in the camera module v2) and the battery module. Some others are still in the design or conceptual phase, but they can be simulated. They are the SMA-based module (there is already a prototype), the traveler module (in the design phase) and the sensor module (in a conceptual phase). All modules have been designed with the idea to miniaturized them in the future, and so both the electronic and the embedded control programs are as simple as possible (maintaining the planned functionality). Parallel to the construction of the modules a simulator has been developed to pro- vide a very efficient way of prototyping and verification of control algorithms, hardware design, and exploring system deployment scenarios. It is built upon an existing open source implementation of rigid body dynamics, the Open Dynamics Engine (ODE). Simu- lated modules have been designed as simple as possible (using simple primitives) to make simulation fluid, but trying to reflect as much as possible its real physic conditions and parameters, its electronics and communication buses, and the software embedded in the modules. The simulator has been validated using the information gathered from real mod- ules experiments and this has helped to adjust the parameters of the simulator to have an accurate model. Although the first idea was to develop the microrobot for pipe inspection, the expe- rience acquired with the first prototypes causes to realize that locomotion systems used inside pipes could also be suitable outside them, and that the prototypes and the control ix architecture were useful in open spaces. In this way, research was extended to open spaces and the ego-positioning system was added. The EGO-positioning system is a method that allows all individual robots of a swarm to know their own positions and orientations based in the projection of sequences of coded images composed of horizontal and vertical stripes over photodiodes placed on the robots. This concept can also be applied to the modules in order for them to know their position and orientation, and to send commands to all of them at the same time. To manage all of this a control architecture based on behaviors has been developed. Since the modules cannot have a big processor, a central control is included in the ar- chitecture to take the high level control. The central control has a model-based subpart and another part based on behaviors. The embedded control in the modules is entirely behavior-based. Between this two there is an heterogenous agent (layer) that allows the central control to treat all modules in the same way, since the heterogenous layer trans- lates its commands into module specific commands. A behavior-based architecture has been chosen because it is specifically appropriate for designing and controlling biologically inspired robots, it has proven to be suitable for modular systems and it integrates very well both low and high level control. In order to communicate all actors (behaviors, modules and central control), a commu- nication protocol based on I2C has been developed. It allows to send messages from the operator to the central control, from central control to the modules and between behaviors. A Module Description Language (MDL) has been designed, a language that allows modules to transmit their capabilities to the central control, so it can process this infor- mation and choose the best configuration and parameters for the microrobot. Inside the control architecture an offline genetic algorithm has been developed in order to: first, determine the modules to use to have an optimal configuration for an specific task (configuration demand), and second, determine the optimum parameters for best performance for a given module configuration (parameter optimization). Thus, the main contributions that can be found in this thesis are: the design and construction of an Heterogeneous Modular Multi-configurable Chained Microrobot able to perform different gaits (snake-like, inch-worm, helicoidal, combination), the design of a common interface for the modules, a behavior-based control architecture for heterogenous chained modular robot, a simulator for the physics and dynamics (including the design of a servo model), electronics, communications and embedded software routines of the modules, and finally, the enhancement of the ego-positioning system. x Resumen El objetivo de esta tesis es el dise~noy control de microrobots inteligentes modulares heterog´eneosmulticonfigurables de tipo cadena. Es decir, el desarrollo de microrobots modulares compuestos por diferentes tipos de m´odulos capaces de realizar diferentes tipos de movimientos (gaits en ingl´es),que pueden ser dispuestos en diferentes configuraciones (siempre en cadena) dependiendo de la tarea a realizar. Heterog´eneoes la palabra clave en esta tesis. Es posible encontrar en la literatura muchos dise~nossobre robots modulares, pero casi todos ellos son homog´eneos: todos se componen de los mismos m´odulos,excepto en algunos dise~nosque tienen dos m´odulos diferentes, pero uno de ellos pasivo. En esta tesis, se proponen varios m´odulosactivos (rotaci´on,soporte, extensi´on,helicoidales, etc) que se pueden combinar y ejecutar difer- entes movimientos, adem´asde otros pasivos (bater´ıas,sensores, medici´onde la distancia recorrida) como complemento a los primeros. La idea original era hacer los robots lo m´aspeque~nosposible, alcanzando finalmente un di´ametrode 27 mm. Aunque no se puedan considerar t´ecnicamente como microrobots, est´anen la mesoescala (entre cientos de micras y decenas de cent´ımetros)y en la literatura se les suele llamar por simplicidad minirrobots o microrrobots. Durante el desarrollo de esta tesis, varios m´oduloshan sido desarrollados: el m´odulo de rotaci´on(en realidad se trata de un m´odulode doble rotaci´on,pero por simplicidad se le llama m´odulode rotaci´on)v1 y v2, el m´odulohelicoidal v1 y v2, el m´odulode soporte v1, v1.1 y v2, el m´odulode extensi´onv1 y v2, el m´odulode c´amarav1 y v2, el m´odulo de contacto (que est´aincluido en el m´odulode la c´amarav2) y el m´odulode bater´ıa. Algunos otros est´antodav´ıaen fase de dise~noo conceptual, pero pueden ser utilizados en la simulaci´on. Son el m´odulobasado en SMA (ya existe un prototipo), el m´odulo de medici´onde distacia recorrida (en fase de dise~no)y el m´odulode sensores (en fase conceptual). Todos los m´oduloshan sido dise~nadoscon la idea de ser miniaturizados en el futuro, por lo que tanto la electr´onicacomo los programas de control integrados se han hecho tan simples como es posible (manteniendo por supuesto la funcionalidad prevista). Paralelamente a la construcci´onde los m´odulosse ha desarrollado un simulador para proporcionar un medio eficaz de creaci´onde prototipos y de verificaci´onde los algoritmos de control, dise~node hardware, y exploraci´onde escenarios de despliegue del sistema. Est´aconstruido sobre un software (libre y de c´odigoabierto) de simulaci´onde din´amica de cuerpos r´ıgidos, el Open Dynamics Engine (ODE). Los m´odulossimulados se han dise~nadode la forma m´assimple posible (usando primitivas simples) para hacer fluida la simulaci´on,pero tratando de reflejar lo m´asposible sus condiciones reales y los par´ametros f´ısicos,sus componentes electr´onicos y buses de comunicaci´on,y el software incluido en los m´odulos.El simulador ha sido validado con la informaci´onobtenida en experimentos con m´odulosreales, y esto ha ayudado a ajustar los par´ametrosdel simulador para tener xi un modelo preciso.