President’s Message/Message du Président Spring / Printemps 2018 21 Collaborative Robots continued from page 17 Collaborative 2-Joint Modules Robot Fore link Upper link Fork connector Base Wrist module (Tilt & Roll) Elbow module (Tilt & Roll) Shoulder module (Pan & Tilt) MOBILE ROBOT FOR IN-GROUND MINE DETECTION An articulated remote controlled mobile manipulator has been developed to scan autonomously off-road and unstructured terrain for buried landmines and explo- sives. The robot consists of a dual- arm manipulator mounted on a six-wheel mobile platform, mine or explosive detector, range sensors, ter- rain mapping soft- ware, and hard- ware and software for communication, data transfer and control. The plat- form can also be used with tracks mounted over the wheels. The tracks help climb steep slopes, and move over very rough ter- rain. The platform can be operated in remote control, semi-autonomous, and autonomous modes. The ter- rain map is gener- ated with respect to a range sensor frame to minimize the computation- al load in real-time. Sensors scan and measure the range with respect to the terrain and relative to the ref- erence coordinate frame. Also, the normal direction to the terrain is computed in real-time. Based upon the terrain map that is generated in real-time, the mine detector’s pos- ition and orientation is controlled IRA-10is a two-joint compliant modules modular, reconfigurable, high payload/weight ratio robot arm for collaborative human- robot operations. The robot is a 6-DOF robot arm that can be reconfigured in multiple ways. The robot manipulator comprises turret, shoulder, elbow, first wrist roll, wrist tilt and second wrist roll. The robot includes two links, the upper-arm, and the forearm. The robot has modular shoul- der, elbow, and wrist whereby each module is composed of two rotary joints with their motor drivers and their interface boards installed in the module hous- ing. These features make the robot installation or replace- ment easier during operation or servicing. Another feature is the internal cabling design, in which all cables pass through inside of the links and through the modules. The upper link con- nects the shoulder module to the elbow module, and the fore link connects the elbow module to the wrist module. The two-joint module robot provides a compact structure and is lightweight. The shoulder module has tilt – pan joints. It could be reversely installed to become tilt – roll and then a turret module (pan joint) can be added to become a 7-DOF arm. The tilt output side and its opposite side are designed to connect to a fork-type mechan- ical interface. The pan joint is designed to connect to the base of an arm. Two motor-drivers are located inside the module. All cables are internal to the module. such that a desired (constant) sep- aration and orientation with respect to the terrain is maintained. One of the dual-arms (Detector Arm – DA) holds the mine or explo- sive detector (e.g. metal detector, Ground Penetrating Radar source, or a nuclear quadrupole resonance instrument) that is manipulated autonomously. A plurality of mine detectors can be mounted on the DA. The autonomous motion of the DA is synthesized and con- trolled on-line based on a 3D map of the terrain. The map is generated in real-time by fusion of sensory data acquired from a scanning laser range- finder, an array of four ultrasonic sensors, and joint encoders of the dual arm. The rangefinder, a motorized scanning mirror, and ultrasonic sensors are mounted on the other articulat- ed arm (Sensor Arm – SA). The SA has a pan joint allowing it to be positioned relative to the DA such that it always scans “ahead” of the DA. The DA holds and maintains the detector at a desired constant ver- tical distance from the ground irrespective of undulations of the a priori unknown terrain profile. As well, the DA can maintain the detector orientation constant with respect to the unknown terrain. ■ The elbow two-joint module has tilt-roll joints. The tilt joint output and mechanical interface assemblies on the opposite side of the housing connect to the upper arm. The roll joint output connects to the forearm. Two motor-drivers, two electronic interface boards and all wirings are located inside of the module. To keep consistent with robot shapes, this module has the same shape as the wrist module. The use of frameless motors is to reduce weight and size; other features are similar to IRA-20. ■ The rangefinder, a motorized scanning mirror, and ultrasonic sensors are mounted on the other articulated arm (Sensor Arm – SA). The SA has a pan joint allowing it to be positioned relative to the DA such that it always scans “ahead” of the DA. It could be reversely installed to become tilt – roll and then a turret module (pan joint) can be added to become a 7-DOF arm. COLLABORATIVE 2-JOINT MODULES ROBOT Security Robots continued from page 15