In this article, a novel integral sliding-mode observer is proposed to estimate the external disturbance and velocity of Euler-Lagrangian systems. This method provides high bandwidth and precise estimation with only commanded input and position measurement. A system velocity measurement is not required to construct the sliding-mode manifold. The convergence of the estimation error to zero is theoretically in finite time, which is proven by a direct Lyapunov method utilizing the passivity property of Euler-Lagrangian systems. An integral sliding manifold is designed to reduce the reaching phase, such that the robustness of the estimation is enhanced. The method has been applied to a robot manipulator to estimate the joint velocity and external contact forces in a physical human-robot task. Simulations and experiments reveal that this novel method provides fast, precise, and robust estimation results and can be used to replace the measurement of an external force sensor. The successful application of this observer to a force-sensor-less admittance controller for a manipulator contributes to the implementation of a sensor-free safety framework for human-robot collaboration (HRC).

Simulation provides an efficient and safe evaluation solution for industrial automation to pretest software before deploying it in real systems. However, only high-fidelity simulation environments that precisely reconstruct the behavioral patterns of real systems can guarantee a successful transfer from simulation to reality (sim-to-real). Many existing industrial simulation tools provide libraries for various industrial devices, which simplify the development efforts significantly, but they generally lack the ability to model the system dynamics and often fail to generate a realistic representation when the system performance is sensitive to the modeling deviation. For example, robots equipped with intelligent algorithms potentially lead to task failure if the software is sensitive to the variation of the system dynamics. In this paper, we design a novel simulation platform for industrial manufacturing use cases consisting of a cooperative robot and a modular manufacturing device. With the dynamic model of the robot integrated into a manufacturing digital-twining software, the platform achieves high simulation fidelity by incorporating the effect of the robot dynamics to the control logic of the industrial tasks. Also, the simulation can exchange data with the real robot via an open protocol, which enables the simultaneous test of the real and simulated systems. Two experiments are conducted on the simulation platform to validate its fidelity in terms of the consistent control logic with the real system. Also, a workpiece distribution use case is studied to show how the simulation platform is used to develop a task-planning algorithm for a manufacturing application.

Reinforcement learning (RL) for motion planning of multi-degree-of-freedom robots still suffers from low efficiency in terms of slow training speed and poor generalizability. In this paper, we propose a novel RL-based robot motion planning framework that uses implicit behavior cloning (IBC) and dynamic movement primitive (DMP) to improve the training speed and generalizability of an off-policy RL agent. IBC utilizes human demonstration data to leverage the training speed of RL, and DMP serves as a heuristic model that transfers motion planning into a simpler planning space. To support this, we also create a human demonstration dataset using a pick-and-place experiment that can be used for similar studies. Comparison studies reveal the advantage of the proposed method over the conventional RL agents with faster training speed and higher scores. A real-robot experiment indicates the applicability of the proposed method to a simple assembly task. Our work provides a novel perspective on using motion primitives and human demonstration to leverage the performance of RL for robot applications.

This paper proposes a novel distributed coverage controller for a multi-agent system with constant-speed unicycle robots (CSUR). The work is motivated by the limitation of the conventional method that does not ensure the satisfaction of hard state-and input-dependent constraints and leads to feasibility issues for multi-CSUR systems. In this paper, we solve these problems by designing a novel coverage cost function and a saturated gradient-search-based control law. Theoretical proofs are provided to guarantee that the CSURs ultimately move to the optimal coverage configuration without moving out of the covered domain. The controller is implemented in a distributed manner based on a novel communication standard among the agents. A series of simulation studies are conducted to validate the correctness of our theory by showing the efficacy of the proposed coverage controller in different initial conditions and with various control parameters. A comparison study in simulation reveals the advantage of the proposed method over the conventional method in terms of avoiding infeasibility. The experimental study verifies the applicability of the method to real robots. The development procedure of the method from theoretical analysis to experimental validation provides a novel framework for multi-agent system coordinate control with complex dynamics. Note to Practitioners —This paper gives a novel method to effectively cover a polygonal area using multiple constant-speed unicycle robots (CSUR) like wheeled robots and fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (fUAV). Compared to the conventional approaches, our method allows these robots to cover a target region using circular orbits without departing the covered region. Also, the method satisfies common control saturation constraints in practice and can be implemented in a reliable distributed scheme. While the efficacy and correctness of the proposed method are rigorously proved using control theory, we also provide necessary interpretive elucidations to explain its underlying mechanism and selection rationale. The method is validated to be effective for wheeled robots in experimental studies, although it can also be applied to fUAVs in theory.