AN APPROACH TO SPECIFYING FINE MANIPULATION TASKS FOR INTELLIGENT ROBOTS

EXPERIENCE HAS PROVEN THAT EXPLOITING ROBOTS FOR MANIPULATION TASKS IS MUCH MORE DIFFICULT THAN ENGINEERS HADEXPECTED AND MANY ATTEMPTS AT AUTOMATING TASKS REQUIRING ROBOTIC MANIPULATION HAVE FAILED. RESEARCH HAS LED THE GRANTEES TO BELIEVE THAT A FORMAL APPROACH TO SPECIFYING THESTEPS REQUIRED FOR MANIPULATION TASKS IS ESSENTIAL TO DEVELOPING THE REQUIRED SOFTWARE FOR A SPECIFIC TASK, AND INADAPTIVELY CONTROLLING AND MONITORING ROBOTIC OPERATIONS. THEY HAVE DEFINED 14 PRIMITIVE OPERATIONS BASED ON THE REDUCTION IN THE DEGREES OF FREEDOM WHICH OCCURS WHEN COMPONENTS ARE ASSEMBLED OR MANIPULATED, AND FROM THEIR INITIAL EXPERIMENTS, THESE PRIMITIVES APPEAR TO ELEGANTLY AND COMPLETELY DEFINE THE FINE MANIPULATION REQUIRED FOR SIMPLE ASSEMBLY TASKS. EACH OF THE PRIMITIVES HAS A STRATEGY ASSOCIATED WITH ITS EXECUTION, AND A SET OF RECOVERY ALGORITHMS IN THE EVENT THE OPERATION FAILS. THE WORK HEREIN PROPOSED WILL EXPAND AND FURTHER TEST THE BASIC CONCEPTS. MANIPULATION BY CONSTRAINT CAN BE THOUGHT OF AS AN APPROACH TO REPRESENTING THE KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED TO ASSEMBLY OR MANIPULATE OBJECTS.