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Cooperative transportation: realizing the promises of robotic networks using a tailored software/hardware architecture

  • Henrik Ebel

    Henrik Ebel received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Simulation Technology from the University of Stuttgart, Germany, in 2014 and 2016, and completed his doctoral studies in 2021. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Engineering and Computational Mechanics at the University of Stuttgart. His research interests include multibody system dynamics, control engineering, and robotics. Of particular interest are the cooperation of multiple robotic agents, as well as optimization-based control.

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    and Peter Eberhard

    Peter Eberhard is full professor and since 2002 director of the Institute of Engineering and Computational Mechanics (ITM) at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. He was Treasurer and Bureau member of IUTAM, the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, and served before in many national and international organizations, e. g., as Chairman of the IMSD (International Association for Multibody System Dynamics) or DEKOMECH (German Committee for Mechanics).

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Published/Copyright: March 25, 2022

Abstract

With cooperative transportation, the paper looks at a demanding problem from distributed robotics. At its heart, the proposed transportation scheme uses distributed model predictive control. Yet, distributed control alone does not suffice to solve the task. Thus, also distributed organization, a custom software architecture, simulation, and custom robotic hardware are dealt with, bridging the gap between distributed control theory and practical robotics. The robots are enabled to transport arbitrarily-shaped objects, automatically adapting to changing circumstances and numbers of robots.

Zusammenfassung

Der Beitrag befasst sich mit einer kooperativen Transportaufgabe als anspruchsvolles Modellproblem aus der verteilten Robotik. Im Kern nutzt das vorgeschlagene Transportschema verteilte modellprädiktive Regelung. Jedoch genügt verteilte Regelung alleine nicht, um die Transportaufgabe zu lösen. Um eine Brücke von der verteilten Regelungstheorie zur praktischen Robotik zu schlagen, werden daher auch die verteilte Organisation, eine maßgeschneiderte Softwarearchitektur, die Simulation sowie maßgeschneiderte Hardwareroboter behandelt. Im Ergebnis können die Roboter beliebig geformte Objekte transportieren und sich autonom an verschiedene Begebenheiten anpassen.

Award Identifier / Grant number: 390740016

Award Identifier / Grant number: EB195/32-1 433183605

Funding statement: This research is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy – EXC 2075 – 390740016, project PN4-4 “Theoretical Guarantees for Predictive Control in Adaptive Multi-Agent Scenarios” and project EB195/32-1 433183605 “Research on Multibody Dynamics and Control for Collaborative Elastic Object Transportation by a Heterogeneous Swarm with Aerial and Land-Based Mobile Robots”.

About the authors

Henrik Ebel

Henrik Ebel received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Simulation Technology from the University of Stuttgart, Germany, in 2014 and 2016, and completed his doctoral studies in 2021. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Engineering and Computational Mechanics at the University of Stuttgart. His research interests include multibody system dynamics, control engineering, and robotics. Of particular interest are the cooperation of multiple robotic agents, as well as optimization-based control.

Peter Eberhard

Peter Eberhard is full professor and since 2002 director of the Institute of Engineering and Computational Mechanics (ITM) at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. He was Treasurer and Bureau member of IUTAM, the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, and served before in many national and international organizations, e. g., as Chairman of the IMSD (International Association for Multibody System Dynamics) or DEKOMECH (German Committee for Mechanics).

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Received: 2021-07-29
Accepted: 2021-10-21
Published Online: 2022-03-25
Published in Print: 2022-04-26

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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