The paper addresses optimal control problem of mobile manipulators. Dynamic equations of those mechanisms are assumed herein to be uncertain. Moreover, unbounded disturbances act on the mobile manipulator whose end-effector tracks a desired (reference) trajectory given in a task (Cartesian) space. A computationally efficient class of two-stage cascaded (hierarchical) control algorithms based on both the transpose Jacobian matrix and transpose actuation matrix, has been proposed. The offered control laws involve two kinds of non-singular terminal sliding mode (TSM) manifolds, which were also introduced in the paper. The proposed class of cooperating sub-controllers is shown to be finite time stable by fulfilment of practically reasonable assumptions. The performance of the proposed control strategies is illustrated on an exemplary mobile manipulator whose end-effector tracks desired trajectory.

Neutralisation of the terrorist explosive devices is a risky task. Such tasks may be carried out by robots in order to protect human life. The article describes chosen design problems concerning the new neutralisation and assisting robot SMR-100 Expert. The robot was to be designed for the use in confined spaces, particularly inside the air-crafts, buses and rail cars. In order to achieve this ambitious plan, new advanced technological designing tools had to be applied. A number of interesting design issues were approached. The successful development of the prototype robot Expert in Poland resulted in the creation of the first intervention robot in the world able to perform all necessary anti-terrorist tasks inside the passenger planes.

The author suggests that a mobile counterweight mechanism could be introduced to the excavator structure for coupling the hydraulic system with the excavating equipment. It is shown that the mobile counterweight mechanism reduces power demand, at the same time improving stability of the excavator.

In order for a quadruped robot to be able to move on wheels while keeping its platform in horizontal position, and to walk, the kinematic system of its limbs should be so designed that each of the wheels has at least four degrees of freedom. Consequently, the designed system will have many DOFs and many controlled drives. This paper presents a novel solution in which, thanks to a suitable limb kinematic system geometry, the number of drives for the robot travel function, i.e. travelling on an uneven surface with the robot platform kept horizontal, has been reduced by four which are used only for walking. The robot structure, the required geometry of the limb links and the driving torque characteristics are presented. Moreover, an idea of the control system is sketched. Finally, selected results of the tests carried out on the robot prototype are reported.

The aim of this paper is to present an in-pipe modular robotic system that can navigate inaccessible industrial pipes in order to check their condition, locate leakages, and clean the ventilation systems. The aspects concerning the development of a lightweight and energy efficient modular robotic system are presented. The paper starts with a short introduction about modular inspection systems in the first chapter, followed by design aspects and finalizing with the test of the developed robotic system.

Basic gesture sensors can play a significant role as input units in mobile smart devices. However, they have to handle a wide variety of gestures while preserving the advantages of basic sensors. In this paper a user-determined approach to the design of a sparse optical gesture sensor is proposed. The statistical research on a study group of individuals includes the measurement of user-related parameters like the speed of a performed swipe (dynamic gesture) and the morphology of fingers. The obtained results, as well as other a priori requirements for an optical gesture sensor were further used in the design process. Several properties were examined using simulations or experimental verification. It was shown that the designed optical gesture sensor provides accurate localization of fingers, and recognizes a set of static and dynamic hand gestures using a relatively low level of power consumption.

Mobile devices have become an integral part of our life and provide dozens of useful services to their users. However, usability of mobile devices is hindered by battery lifetime. Energy conservation can extend battery lifetime, however, any energy management policy requires accurate prediction of energy consumption, which is impossible without reliable energy measurement and estimation methods and tools. We present an analysis of the energy measurement methodologies and describe the implementations of the internal (profiling) software (proprietary, custom) and external software-based (Java API, Sensor API, GSM AT) energy measurement methodologies. The methods are applied to measure energy consumption on a variety of mobile devices (laptop PC, PDA, smart phone). A case study of measuring energy consumption on a mobile computer using 3DMark06 benchmarking software is presented

Main topic of the paper is a problem of designing the input-output decoupling controllers for nonholonomic mobile manipulators. We propose a selection of output functions in much more general form than in [1,2]. Regularity conditions guaranteeing the existence of the input-output decoupling control law are presented. Theoretical considerations are illustrated with simulations for mobile manipulator consisting of RTR robotic arm mounted atop of a unicycle which moves in 3D-space.

The authors describe the program undertaken at the Warsaw University of Technology (WUT), aimed at developing mobile aerodynamic laboratories to be used for investigation into aerodynamic properties of airfoils or lightweight propulsion systems - in natural scale and in natural atmosphere. The enterprise was named the EB-program, and has both: research and educational aspects; in all phases of the program (i.e. design, manufacturing and testing) the WUT students are involved. As the result of work, three mobile aerodynamic laboratories were build: EB-1 - which was tested on the car roof, EB-2 - unique flying laboratory based on the PW-6 glider, and EB-3 - a new generation of flying wind tunnel to be used on the AOS-71 glider, which currently is under preparation to the flight tests. The authors present in detail the measurement systems and procedures supported by the Lab View software.

The study presents the issue of kinematic discrepancy of hydrostatic drive systems of high mobility vehicles, and its impact on the presence of the unfavourable phenomenon of circulating power. Furthermore, it presents a theoretical discussion concerning the capacity of the compensation of kinematic discrepancy by a hydrostatic drive system on the basis of tests using static characteristics.

The paper concerns development of original method of optimal control at energy performance index and its application to dynamic processes surveillance of some mechatronic systems. The latter concerns chatter vibration surveillance during highspeed slender milling of rigid details, as well as motion control of two-wheeled mobile platform. Results of on-line computer simulations and real performance on the target objects reflect a great efficiency of the processes surveillance.

A method of planning collision-free trajectory for a mobile manipulator tracking a line section path is presented. The reference trajectory of a mobile platform is not needed, mechanical and control constraints are taken into account. The method is based on a penalty function approach and a redundancy resolution at the acceleration level. Nonholonomic constraints in a Pfaffian form are explicitly incorporated to the control algorithm. The problem is shown to be equivalent to some point-to-point control problem whose solution may be easier determined. The motion of the mobile manipulator is planned in order to maximise the manipulability measure, thus to avoid manipulator singularities. A computer example involving a mobile manipulator consisting of a nonholonomic platform (2,0) class and a 3 DOF RPR type holonomic manipulator operating in a three-dimensional task space is also presented.

This paper reviews parametric audio coders and discusses novel technologies introduced in a low-complexity, low-power consumption audio decoder and music synthesizer platform developed by the authors. The decoder uses parametric coding scheme based on the MPEG-4 Parametric Audio standard. In order to keep the complexity low, most of the processing is performed in the parametric domain. This parametric processing includes pitch and tempo shifting, volume adjustment, selection of psychoacoustically relevant components for synthesis and stereo image creation. The decoder allows for good quality 44.1 kHz stereo audio streaming at 24 kbps. The synthesizer matches the audio quality of industry-standard sample-based synthesizers while using a twenty times smaller memory footprint soundbank. The presented decoder/synthesizer is designed for low-power mobile platforms and supports music streaming, ringtone synthesis, gaming and remixing applications.

The growing number of mobile devices and the increasing popularity of multimedia services result in a new challenge of providing mobility in access networks. The paper describes experimental research on media (audio and video) streaming in a mobile IEEE 802.11 b/g/n environment realizing network-based mobility. It is an approach to mobility that requires little or no modification of the mobile terminal. Assessment of relevant parameters has been conducted in an IPv6 testbed. During the tests, both Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) parameters have been considered. Against the background of standard L3 and L2 handovers, an emerging mobility solution named Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) has been examined. Its advantages (L3 connectivity maintenance) and disadvantages (packet loss during handover) are emphasized based on the obtained results. Moreover, a new solution for handover optimization has been proposed. A handoff influence upon audio/video generation and transfer imperfections has been studied and found to be an interesting direction of future work.

In this paper we propose a sensor-based navigation method for navigation of wheeled mobile robot, based on the Kohonen self-organising map (SOM). We discuss a sensor-based approach to path design and control of wheeled mobile robot in an unknown 2-D environment with static obstacles. A strategy of reactive navigation is developed including two main behaviours: a reaching the middle of a collision-free space behaviour, and a goal-seeking behaviour. Each low-level behaviour has been designed at design stage and then fused to determine a proper actions acting on the environment at running stage. The combiner can fuse low-level behaviours so that the mobile robot can go for the goal position without colliding with obstacles one for the convex obstacles and one for the concave ones. The combiner is a softswitch, based on the idea of artificial potential fields, that chooses more then one action to be active with diRerent degrees at each time step. The output of the navigation level is fed into a neural tracking controller that takes into account the dynamics of the mobile robot. The purpose of the neural controller is to generate the commands for the servo-systems of the robot so it may choose its way to its goal autonomously, while reacting in real-time to unexpected events. Computer simulation has been conducted to illustrate the performance of the proposed solution by a series of experiments on the emulator of wheeled mobile robot Pioneer-2DX.

Vibration intensity in mobile machines depends on the road roughness profile, ride velocity and dissipative properties of machine components. To reduce vibrations of a mobile machine with a boom equipment one of the available passive methods, utilizing a hydropnematic system for boom support to improve flexibility, the system incorporating throttling valves. Energy dissipation in a hydropneumatic system controls the decay of vibrations of the machine body and equipment. In the range of large velocities, passive methods prove inadequate. When ride velocity is to be increased, at the same time the required safety features and stabilization of the position of machine equipment are to be provided, further dynamic analyses are fully merited to identify processes taking place in the driving system. The final result should be the synthesis of the LQR control system to modulate the loading characteristics of the motor and to control the flow in a hydraulic boom-support system.

In this work, a novel approach to designing an on-line tracking controller for a nonholonomic wheeled mobile robot (WMR) is presented. The controller consists of nonlinear neural feedback compensator, PD control law and supervisory element, which assure stability of the system. Neural network for feedback compensation is learned through approximate dynamic programming (ADP). To obtain stability in the learning phase and robustness in face of disturbances, an additional control signal derived from Lyapunov stability theorem based on the variable structure systems theory is provided. Verification of the proposed control algorithm was realized on a wheeled mobile robot Pioneer–2DX, and confirmed the assumed behavior of the control system.

This paper presents a design of a tracked in-pipe inspection mobile robot with an adaptive drive positioning system. The robot is intended to operate in circular and rectangular pipes and ducts, oriented horizontally and vertically. The paper covers a design process of a virtual prototype, focusing on track adaptation to work environment. A mathematical description of a kinematic model of the robot is presented. Operation of the prototype in pipes with a cross-section greater than 210 mm is described. Laboratory tests that validate the design and enable determination of energy consumption of the robot are presented.

This paper presents a control concept for a single-axle mobile robot moving on the horizontal plane. A mathematical model of the nonholonomic mechanical system is derived using Hamel’s equations of motion. Subsequently, a concept for a tracking controller is described in detail. This controller keeps the mobile robot on a given reference trajectory while maintaining it in an upright position. The control objective is reached by a cascade control structure. By an appropriate input transformation, we are able to utilize an input-output linearization of a subsystem. For the remaining dynamics a linear set-point control law is presented. Finally, the performance of the implemented control law is illustrated by simulation results.

Recent research has reported that an increasing number of migrants in Norway are concentrated in the low-skilled sectors of the labour market, irrespective of their educational background, thus facilitating the formation of migrant niches in the long term. Despite the growing body of literature that raises the problem of downward professional mobility and deskilling among migrant populations, little scholarly attention has been paid to migrants’ struggles and vulnerabilities as a result of underemployment. Drawing on 30 in-depth interviews, this article explores the common experience of habitus mismatch and suffering among Poles who have worked below their level of competence or professional experience since migrating to Norway. By an-alysing subjective experiences of downward professional and social mobility and the conflict between valued and stigmatised identities, the article examines the various habitus mismatches that contribute to suffering in downwardly mobile Polish migrants.