The international standard ISO 9283:1998 is popular for performance tests of industrial robots at present. It is desirable that the tests described in this standard should be sensitive to error sources of robot end positioning/orientation. In this paper, first, the kinematic and the joint stiffness model parameters are identified experimentally for two models of six-DOF (degree-of-freedom) serial industrial robots (i.e., the ABB IRB 1410 and UR5 robots). Then, the standard deviations of the derived model parameters are obtained as error inputs for the sensitivity analysis of the performance tests including the positioning/orientation accuracy/repeatability tests. By simulating the error sensitivity of the positioning/orientation accuracy/repeatability test methods for industrial robots, it is analyzed whether the tests described in the ISO 9283:1998 Standard are sensitive to the focused error sources, showing the limitations of the evaluation index of the ISO 9283:1998 Standard. The results show that for six-DOF serial industrial robots, the positioning accuracy test is the key to determining their motion performance. The orientation accuracy and repeatability tests are not necessary if the positioning accuracy and repeatability tests can be done for six-DOF serial industrial robots. Finally, the improvement suggestion of the performance test method is proposed. The research of this paper is beneficial for improving the performance evaluation methods of industrial robots. It can also help robot manufacturing enterprises analyze and improve the positioning/orientation accuracy/repeatability of their products.

According to the requirements of point cloud simplification for T-profile steel plate welding in shipbuilding, the disadvantages of the existing simplification algorithms are analyzed. In this paper, a point cloud simplification method is proposed based on octree coding and the threshold of the surface curvature feature. In this method, the original point cloud data are divided into multiple sub-cubes with specified side lengths by octree coding, and the points that are closest to the gravity center of the sub-cube are kept. The k-neighborhood method and the curvature calculation are performed in order to obtain the curvature features of the point cloud. Additionally, the point cloud data are divided into several regions based on the given adjustable curvature threshold. Finally, combining the random sampling method with the simplification method based on the regional gravity center, the T-profile point cloud data can be simplified. In this study, after obtaining the point cloud data of a T-profile plate, the proposed simplification method is compared with some other simplification methods. It is found that the proposed simplification method for the point cloud of the T-profile steel plate for shipbuilding is faster than the three existing simplification methods, while retaining more feature points and having approximately the same reduction rates.

Soft fingertips have distinct intrinsic features that allow robotic hands to offer adjustable and manageable stiffness for grasping. The stability of the grasp is determined by the contact stiffness between the soft fingertip and the object. Within this work, we proposed a line vector representation method based on the Winkler Model and investigated the contact stiffness between soft fingertips and objects to achieve control over the gripping force and fingertip displacement of the gripper without the need for sensors integrated in the fingertip. First, we derived the stiffness matrix of the soft fingertip, analyzed the contact stiffness, and constructed the global stiffness matrix; then, we established the grasp stiffness matrix based on the contact stiffness model, allowing for the analysis and evaluation of the soft fingertip’s manipulating process. Finally, our experiment demonstrated that the variation in object orientation caused by external forces can indicate the contact force status between the fingertip and the object. This contact force status is determined by the contact stiffness. The position error between the theoretical work and tested data was less than 9%, and the angle error was less than 5.58%. The comparison between the theoretical contact stiffness and the experimental results at the interface indicate that the present model for the contact stiffness is appropriate and the theoretical contact stiffness is consistent with the experiment data.

The reliability and safety of the cascade system, which is widely applied, have attached attention increasingly. Fault detection and diagnosis can play a significant role in enhancing its reliability and safety. On account of the complexity of the double closed-loop system in operation, the problem of fault diagnosis is relatively complex. For the single fault of the second-order valued system sensors, a real-time fault diagnosis method based on data-driven is proposed in this study. Off-line data is employed to establish static fault detection, location, estimation, and separation models. The static models are calibrated with on-line data to obtain the real-time fault diagnosis models. The real-time calibration, working flow and anti-interference measures of the real-time diagnosis system are given. Experiments results demonstrate the validity and accuracy of the fault diagnosis method, which is suitable for the general cascade system.

Fault diagnosis is studied based on the system type, which facilitates the realization of the engineering configuration and improves the diagnosis efficiency. The fault-tolerant control method is unified based on the concept of fault compensation. According to the dynamic characteristics of the system, the method takes the boundary value of no-fault signal fluctuation as the basis for fault detection, then takes the changing intensity of the solenoid valve control signal after the fault occurs as the fault location basis. Finally, it takes the difference or ratio of the signals before and after the fault occurs as the fault estimation. For the basis of fault separation, the integral value of the fitting equation between the fault signal and time is used as the Eigenvalue of fault type separation to comprehend fault separation. A program is written in C++ and combined with MATLAB/S-Fun function to realize fault tolerance. At the same time, the dynamic model calibration and real-time fault diagnosis, and fault-tolerant control process of sensor fault diagnosis are provided, which makes it suitable for general engineering feedforward-feedback systems and has a certain suppression effect on noise. The simulation results verify that the method is not only viable and it is exact.

This paper investigates the imperfect premise matching-based (IPMB) static output feedback (SOF) controller for T–S fuzzy systems with time-varying delays. Firstly, by employing integral inequality techniques, the membership-function-independent fuzzy SOF design methods in terms of LMIs are presented based on imperfect premise matching (IPM) strategy. The obtained stabilization conditions do not contain equality constraints, and the output matrices do not have rank constraints. Secondly, some suitable relaxation variables are employed, and more relaxed membership-function-dependent (MFD) stabilization conditions are obtained by considering the local boundary information of membership functions (MFs). Finally, two simulation examples are given to show the progressiveness of the proposed methods in this paper.