Project Readiness Package Rev 7/2/13
Introduction:
Administrative Information:
· Project Name (tentative): / Full Scale TigerBot Humanoid· Project Number, if known: / P16201
· Preferred Start/End Semester in Senior Design:
Fall/Spring / Spring/Fall· Faculty Champion: (technical mentor: supports proposal development, anticipated technical mentor during project execution; may also be Sponsor)
Name / Dept. / Email / PhoneFerat Sahin / EME / / 475 2175
For assistance identifying a Champion: B. Debartolo (ME), G. Slack (EE), J. Kaemmerlen (ISE), A. Becker-Gomez (CE)
· Other Support, if known: (faculty or others willing to provide expertise in areas outside the domain of the Faculty Champion)
Name / Dept. / Email / PhoneWayne Walter / ME / / 475-2925
Project “Guide” if known: (project mentor: guides team through Senior Design process and grades students; may also be Faculty Champion)
· Primary Customer, if known (name, phone, email): (actual or representative user of project output; articulates needs/requirements)
Ferat Sahin: Multi Agent Bio-Robotics Lab, Electrical and Microelectronics Engineering, RIT
475-2175
· Sponsor(s): (provider(s) of financial support)
Name/Organization / Contact Info. / Type & Amount of Support CommittedFerat Sahin / / EME department $3K
MSD / Mark Smith / $5K
Technic LLC / Abe Amirana / Equivalent to $9K (75% discount on Motors and related items)
Project Overview: 2-3 paragraphs that provide a general description of the project – background, motivation, customers, problem you’re trying to solve, project objectives.
This senior design project is the second project of the series of human scale TIGERBOT humanoid, for developing humanoid robots at RIT. The ultimate goal of the project series is to develop a robotic tour guide for RIT that could be used to recruit prospective students and interest K-12 students in various aspects of engineering through demonstration. Two humanoids were designed in 2012. They were both successful. The second humanoid was able to stand by itself, respond to voice, and balance itself. In 2013, two more TigerBot were designed. The third one has used inverse kinematics to walk but it was too heavy to fully function. The final and fourth TigerBot was successful in walking and standing normally and respond to voice pretty well with various motion response to commands. Last year, the first human scale humanoid design has been designed by a team of students. The students have designed the 22 DOF robot but they have constructed only on leg and tested various system components.
The goal of this project team is to take the TigerBot design to the next level—a full scale platform that will control the locomotion of the TigerBot while providing the base for future components, sensors or aspects of intelligence. The full scale platform must be autonomous, untethered, and able to walk straight and turn, avoid obstacles, and recover from a forward or backward fall. Since this is a platform robot, this senior design team will focus on system level design rather than component level design, with emphasis on the locomotion piece. Thus, students are encouraged to utilize and improve existing designs, ideas, and component from previous iterations of the TigerBot.
Detailed Project Description:
The goal of this section is provide enough detail for faculty to assess whether the proposed project scope and required skills are appropriate for 5th year engineering students working over two semesters. The sequence of the steps listed below may depend on your project, and the process is usually iterative, so feel free to customize. Emphasis is on the “whats” (qualitative and quantitative), not the “hows” (solutions), except for the section on “potential concepts,” which is necessary to assess the appropriateness of required skills and project scope. Not all of the information in this section may be shared with students. (Attach extra documentation as needed).
· Customer Needs and Objectives: Comprehensive list of what the customer/user wants or needs to be able to do in the “voice of the customer,” not in terms of how it might be done; desired attributes of the solution.
o Full human scale and proportional to a human
o Untethered
o Able to carry ¼ of its weight.
o Moves along 22 Degrees of Freedom (4 DOF arms, 5 DOF legs, 2 DOF head, and 2 DOF Torso)
§ Head turns 90 degrees towards right and left
§ Torso bends 90 degrees forward and turns 45 degrees left and right about the center axis
o Utilize servo motors that exist on the market
o Motion control of the robot needs to be a small factor computer with an operating system
o Enables the following movement schemes
o Walking
o Turning – Left and Right
o Recovery
§ Get up from forward fall and backward fall
§ Resistance to fall
o Obstacle Avoidance
§ Detect objects in front, back, left, right and 45 degrees off front center to left or right.
§ Stop when an object is within two feet
§ Turn right/left to avoid the obstacle
o Sense position and external forces applied to the robot to aid in good posture and resisting falls
o Detect and recognize at least 16 or more command words regardless of the person speaking
· Functional Decomposition: Functions and sub-functions (verb-noun pairs) that are associated with a system/solution that will satisfy customer needs and objectives. Focus on “what” has to be achieved and not on “how”it is to be achieved – decompose the system only as far as the (sub) functions are solution independent. This can be a simple function list or a diagram (functional diagram, FAST (why-how) diagram, function tree).Functional decomposition should not be shared with students.
· Provide Structure
o Contain power source safely
o Contain intelligence system safely
o Contain wiring safely
o Simulate human body
o Simulate human legs
o Simulate human arms
o Simulate human head
o Interface with environment (feet)
· Allow Movement in 22 degrees of freedom
· Provide Energy
o Turn system on/off
o Store energy
o Regulate energy
o Modify energy
o Distribute energy where required
o Transform energy to motion
o Provide information on energy levels to user
· Respond to Voice Commands
o Receive voice input
o Recognize known commands
o Process commands
o Execute commands
· Balance body
o Balance body while standing with or without load
o Balance body while walking with or without load
o Balance body while turning with or without load
· Recognize position in world
· Execute walking
o Recognize if load is present or not
o Select appropriate protocol
o Move body to walk
o Monitor velocity
o Control velocity
· Execute Turning
o Recognize if load is present or not
o Select appropriate protocol
o Move body to turn
· Avoid objects
o Detect object
o Stop moving
o Evaluate object
o Plan method to avoid object
o Move body to avoid object
· Recover body to standing from fall
o Sense fall
o Record/measure forces in the joints
o Determine position
o Execute recovery
· Potential Concepts:
As mentions before, there have been previous human scale humanoid design last year. The team is strongly encouraged to determine strengths and weaknesses of the existing design.
o Electromechanical Body
§ Two types of servos can be used: medium power and high power based on the torque needs of the joints
§ Only revolute joints should be used to simplify the design.
§ The number of degrees of freedom is limited to 22 as described
§ Links and joints can be reverse engineered based on our humanoid, ROBONOVA.
§ Worms gear integration with servos needs to be explored for high torque requirements
o Control Systems
§ Existing servo controllers can be used as there are servo controllers with 32 ports capable of controlling 32 DOF
§ Intelligence
· A PC101 type small computer or ARM based micro controller board could be used as the main computer of the system
· The software libraries will be sequence of angles for the servo motors. Thus, they can be experimentally determined.
· For interfacing with other components of the system, the main computer should have multiple means of interfacing such as I2C, ISP etc.
· ROS operating systems is probably the most common OS for robots. There are several libraries available.
· The robot should be ROS compatible
o Sensors
§ Internal Sensors
· Accelerometer and gyros are available on the market
§ External Sensors
· Voice recognition circuitries and chips are available on the market
· Bluetooth or wireless communication maybe part of the main computer
· Proximity sensors such as IR proximity sensors can be used for object detection
· RGB camera and/or Kinect type sensor for 3D distance mapping.
· Constraints:
The TigerBot platform senior design will only use components readily available on the market. Thus, the available components will drive the robot’s structure and design. Here are some of the constraints regarding certain design aspects of the TigerBot platform.
§ Robot center of gravity needs to be lower than the waist
§ Medium and high torque servos are required based on the joint types and locations, Use servo motors that exist on the market
§ Micro controller which will handle the motion control of the robot needs to be a small factor computer with minimal requirements of:
· 32 bits
· >2 G bytes
· Embedded OS
· C/C+ compiler
· Multiple Interfaces: I2C, SPI, USB,
§ Internal Sensors required
· Accelerometers – This is for detecting external forces such that the robot resists falling
· Gyroscopes – This is for detecting falls and primitive posture detection.
· Project Deliverables: Expected output, what will be “delivered” – be as specific and thorough as possible.
o Working prototype: A walking, turning, and balancing humanoid
o Human interaction via voice and wireless communication
o Autonomous
o Voice Activated
o Self-balancing
o Resistance to fall
o Able to get up any fall
o Design Drawings
o Wiki for the project
o Operation Manual
o Software Manual for Software Libraries developed.
· Budget Estimate: Major cost items anticipated.
$8,000
Additional funds may be available if the team comes up better components to design a better robot. The benefit should be high enough to require additional funding.
· Intellectual Property (IP) considerations: Describe any IP concerns or limitations associated with the project. Is there patent potential? Will confidentiality of any data or information be required?
Unlikely. Possibility of IP is unlikely in the platform robot as components available on the market will be used for the design of this humanoid.
· Other Information: Describe potential benefits and liabilities, known project risks, etc.
· Continuation Project Information, if appropriate: Include prior project(s) information, and how prior project(s) relate to the proposed project.
There have been four previous humanoid designs projects. The team is strongly recommended to take a serious look at previous TigerBot designs. The team should work on the weaknesses of the previous TigerBot robots and design a fully functional humanoid.
See:
P12201
P12202
P13201
P13203
P15201
Student Staffing:
· Skills Checklist: Complete the “PRP_Checklist” document and include with your submission.
· Anticipated Staffing Levels by Discipline:
Discipline / How Many? / Anticipated Skills Needed (concise descriptions)EE / 3 / Design of the joints, interfaces, and sensor integration. Power management and distribution.
ME / 2 / 1-Design of joints and links, 2- Biomechanics of the Robot as it needs to mimic human look, 3 – Design of the Robot body and internal compartments
CE / 1 / Interfacing controllers, programming walking sequences, and designing the sensor and actuator interface
ISE / 0-1 / Human factors
Other / 1 / Industrial design, human factors and body design
Other Resources Anticipated:
Describe resources needed to support successful development, implementation, and utilization of the project. This could include specific faculty expertise, laboratory space and equipment, outside services, customer facilities, etc. Indicate if resources are available, to your knowledge.
Category / Description / Resource Available?Faculty / Ferat Sahin
Wayne Walter
Environment / Multi Agent Bio Robotics Lab
Multidisciplinary Senior Design Laboratory
Machine Shop and EME Senior Design Lab
Equipment / Equipment in MABL and EME Senior design lab
Tools in Machine Shop
Materials
Other
Prepared by: / Date:
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