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=== Modularity ===  
=== Modularity ===  
Modular robotics is a useful tool in the design of robots for in-field applications, as building a functional specialised robot from scratch is a time-consuming and cost-intensive process. If a modular design approach is taken, the costs of designing a robot could be severely reduced as one general robotic platform with some general functionalities would serve as the starting point, upon which modules can be placed to give the end-product the desired capabilities. A drawback of this modular design method, however, is that the design space will expand explosively due to the seemingly limitless possible configurations the robot could have <ref name= ”On Modular Robots”> Farritor, S. & Dubowsky, S. Autonomous Robots (2001) Volume 10: pp57-65. “On Modular Design of Field Robotic Systems”. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026596403167 </ref>. However, this design space can be brought to proportions by severely reducing it, by placing the constraints which arise from the task to be completed by the robot onto the possible configurations <ref name= “On Modular Robots”/>. By doing so any and all designs with but a singular deviation
Some examples of robots which implemented a modular design and with similar environmental working conditions as our to-be-designed seeding robot include the Small Robotic Farm Vehicle <ref> Bawden, O., Ball, D., Kulk, J., Perez, T., & Russell, R. Australian Conference on Robotics and Automation (2014). “A lightweight, modular robotic vehicle for the sustainable intensification of agriculture.” </ref>, the 4-wheel steering weed detection robot of Bak and Jakobsen <ref> Bak, T., & Jakobsen, H. (2004). Biosystems Engineering, Volume 87, pp 125-136. Bak, T., & Jakobsen, H. (2004). Agricultural robotic platform with four wheel steering for weed detection. Biosystems Engineering, 87(2), 125-136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2003.10.009 </ref>, the Amphibious Locomotion Robot of  <ref> Li, G., Urbina, R., Zhang, H., & Gomez, J. G.. International Conference on Advanced Mechatronic Systems (ICAMechS) (2017), pp 145-150 “Concept design and simulation of a water proofing modular robot for amphibious locomotion.”. IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAMechS.2017.8316566  </ref> and the Reconfigurable Integrated Multi-Robot Exploration System (RIMRES). <ref> Cordes, F., Bindel, D., Lange, C., & Kirchner, F. (2010, August). “Towards a modular reconfigurable heterogenous multi-robot exploration system.” Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (iSAIRAS’10) (2010) pp. 38-45.</ref>. These robots have in common that they are mostly based on a singular platform, suspended by wheels upon which several modules (e.g. sensors, mechatronic arms, pay-loads, other deployable robots, etc.) can be placed to increase functionality.


=== (Semi)-Autonomous Cars ===
=== (Semi)-Autonomous Cars ===

Revision as of 15:28, 28 April 2018

Group members

  • David van den Beld, 1001770
  • Gerben Erens, 0997906
  • Luc Kleinman, 1008097
  • Maikel Morren, 1002099
  • Adine van Wier, 0999813

Project

Project Statement

Planning

Below follows the planning for the project for the upcoming 9 weeks constituting the course 0LAUK0 Project: Robots Everywhere

Table 1: Preliminary planning for the project
Week number Task Person*
1
Choose definitive subject Collaborative effort of all members
Define problem statement and objectives David
Define users Adine
Obtain user requirements Gerben
Work out typical use cases Luc
Define the milestones and deliverables Maikel
Define the approach of the problem Collaborative effort of all members
Search for relevant state-of-the-art (SotA) sources, categories:
  1. Modularity
  2. (Semi-) Autonomous cars
  3. Sensors for prospecting/evaluating ground
  4. Drilling/plowing/seeding mechanism
  5. Current Forestation combat methods
All divided into the subcategories:
  1. Maikel
  2. David
  3. Luc
  4. Gerben
  5. Adine
Make project planning Collaborative effort of all members
2
Review user requirements and use cases Collaborative effort of all members
Finish collecting SotA articles and write SotA section Each member for their respective subcategory
Compile list of potential robot designs Collaborative effort of all members
Make some concept design sketches Maikel
Make a preliminary list of required parts Gerben
Define embedded software environment Luc
Preliminary elimination session for designs based on user requirements Adine
Start compiling list of design preferences/requirements/constraints David
3
Finish list of preferences/requirements/constraints Adine
Further eliminate designs due to constraints Collaborative effort of all members
Rank remaining designs and select a winner Collaborative effort of all members
Develop a building plan/schemata for the winner design Gerben, Luc
Start acquiring physical quantities for modelling design Maikel, David
Start with a simple model of some system parameters Maikel, David
4
Commence robot assembly according to highest priority of building schemata Gerben, David
Continue modelling/simulating Maikel
Start coding robot functionalities Luc
Catch up on documenting the wiki Adine
5
Continue robot assembly and coding Gerben, David, Luc
Continue modelling/simulating Maikel
Catch up on documenting the wiki Collaborative effort of all members
6
Continue robot assembly and coding Gerben, Luc
Test the first (few) finished sub-system(s) of the robot. Collaborative effort of all members
Finish modelling/simulating Maikel, David
Finish catching up on documenting the wiki Collaborative effort of all members
7
Finish robot assembly Gerben
Make concept designs for possible modules Luc
Make a draft for final presentation Maikel, David, Adine
Test the first (few) finished sub-system(s) of the robot. Collaborative effort of all members
8
Buffer time Collaborative effort of all members
Finish final presentation Maikel, David, Adine
Complete wiki Gerben, Luc

* The current division of task is a rough estimate for the next 7 weeks. New tasks may pop up or task division may be rotated, and is hence subject to change during the progress of the course.

Approach

The problem will be approached by a design question. What is the best design for a robot to combat deforestation which will be build modular so that it can be implemented for other purposes with minor changes. The first 2 weeks the approach will primarily be sequential, as user analysis, use cases and requirements/preferences/constraints need to be done sequentially before the rest of the project can start. Once this is over, the project will run in a parallel fashion where building and modelling will happen simultaneously.

Milestones and Deliverables

Table 2: Milestones
Date Accomplished
30-04-2018 SotA research done
03-05-2018 User analysis/use cases done
07-05-2018 Have a partially eliminated list of designs
10-05-2018 Pick final “winner” design
21-05-2018 Have the first working subsystem
25-05-2018 Finish modelling
31-05-2018 Have an operational prototype running
with at least 2 subsystems
07-06-2018 Made several concepts for modules
11-06-2018 Presentation is finished
14-06-2018 Wiki is completely updated

Literature Review

The literature review was divided into 5 subcategories, the results of which will be extended below.

Modularity

Modular robotics is a useful tool in the design of robots for in-field applications, as building a functional specialised robot from scratch is a time-consuming and cost-intensive process. If a modular design approach is taken, the costs of designing a robot could be severely reduced as one general robotic platform with some general functionalities would serve as the starting point, upon which modules can be placed to give the end-product the desired capabilities. A drawback of this modular design method, however, is that the design space will expand explosively due to the seemingly limitless possible configurations the robot could have Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; invalid names, e.g. too many. However, this design space can be brought to proportions by severely reducing it, by placing the constraints which arise from the task to be completed by the robot onto the possible configurations Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; invalid names, e.g. too many. By doing so any and all designs with but a singular deviation

Some examples of robots which implemented a modular design and with similar environmental working conditions as our to-be-designed seeding robot include the Small Robotic Farm Vehicle [1], the 4-wheel steering weed detection robot of Bak and Jakobsen [2], the Amphibious Locomotion Robot of [3] and the Reconfigurable Integrated Multi-Robot Exploration System (RIMRES). [4]. These robots have in common that they are mostly based on a singular platform, suspended by wheels upon which several modules (e.g. sensors, mechatronic arms, pay-loads, other deployable robots, etc.) can be placed to increase functionality.


(Semi)-Autonomous Cars

The patent on remote control systems granted to Mitsubishi Electric Crop. By the US government. This document is a thorough description of how remote control systems work, if we decide to make our vehicle remote controlled all the info we need is in here. But it is incredibly lengthy and written in a way that is not pleasant to read, so use it as a last resort. [5]

This 2 page article is a statement from Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, about his predictions for autonomous cars in the near future. It shows his vision, which is directly linked to his companies (one of the biggest on this market) vision. [6]

To get our car driving smoothly, we will probably utilize a remote control, meaning that it will be very closely related to a remote controlled toy car, to which this doc. is the current active patent. It shows the state of the art radio controlled toy car technology currently available. [7]

A guide to help us control a servo motor with our computer, as a servo motor is the most likely option if we want our car to drive without outside help. [8]

A short article on the workings of servo motors, the main two interesting reads are the control of the servo and the different types, as we will have to chose one if we opt to use servo’s to drive our car around. [9]

Even though this site is a webshop, and not a scientific article, it shows what technology we can buy within a respectable price range and thus shows what we do not need to make ourselves. Before we start thinking about how to make a part of our robot, lets first check what this shop has got. [10]

Sensors for prospecting/evaluating ground

Drilling/plowing/seeding mechanism

Current deforestation combat methods

Bibliography

  1. Bawden, O., Ball, D., Kulk, J., Perez, T., & Russell, R. Australian Conference on Robotics and Automation (2014). “A lightweight, modular robotic vehicle for the sustainable intensification of agriculture.”
  2. Bak, T., & Jakobsen, H. (2004). Biosystems Engineering, Volume 87, pp 125-136. Bak, T., & Jakobsen, H. (2004). Agricultural robotic platform with four wheel steering for weed detection. Biosystems Engineering, 87(2), 125-136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2003.10.009
  3. Li, G., Urbina, R., Zhang, H., & Gomez, J. G.. International Conference on Advanced Mechatronic Systems (ICAMechS) (2017), pp 145-150 “Concept design and simulation of a water proofing modular robot for amphibious locomotion.”. IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAMechS.2017.8316566
  4. Cordes, F., Bindel, D., Lange, C., & Kirchner, F. (2010, August). “Towards a modular reconfigurable heterogenous multi-robot exploration system.” Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (iSAIRAS’10) (2010) pp. 38-45.
  5. https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/eb/4b/ce/ba560b94ae5c1a/US5554980.pdf
  6. http://www.oharas.com/ET/elonmusk.pdf
  7. https://patents.google.com/patent/US4457101A/en
  8. http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Dynamically-control-a-servo-or-motor-throug/
  9. https://www.jameco.com/jameco/workshop/howitworks/how-servo-motors-work.html
  10. https://www.tinytronics.nl/shop/nl