Cable Suspended Robots: Trajectory Planning and Control with Positive Inputs
Cable suspended robots are structurally similar to parallel actuated robots, but with the fundamental difference that cables can pull the end-effector but not push it. This feature makes trajectory planning and feedback control of cable suspended robots lot more challenging than their counterpart parallel actuated robots. The talk will present planning and control methods for the following classes of cable suspended robots: (i) six degree-of-freedom cable suspended robots for cargo handling; (ii) three degree-of-freedom planar robot with redundant actuation; (iii) two-stage cable robots for mid-sea ship-to-ship cargo transfer. Simulation and experimental results will be presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.
Biography:
Sunil K. Agrawal received a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 1990. He is currently a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at University of Delaware and is the director of Mechanical Systems Laboratory. He has published more than 200 journal and conference papers and 2 books in the areas of controlled mechanical systems, dynamic optimization, and robotics. Dr. Agrawal's honors include a Presidential Faculty Fellowship from the White House in 1994, a Bessel Prize from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany in 2003, and a Fellow of the ASME in 2004. He is an ASME Distinguished Lecturer for the years 2004-2007. He has served as an Associate Technical Editor for the Journal of Mechanical Design, Transactions of the ASME, IEEE Transactions of Control Systems Technology, and IEEE Transactions of Robotics and Automation. He is the Program Chair for 2004 ASME Mechanisms and Robotics Conference and the Conference Chair for 2005 ASME Mechanisms and Robotics Conference. He is an Associate Technical Editor for Journal of Dynamic Systems Measurement and Control, Transactions of the ASME for the years 2004-2007.