ULISSE

Walks of ULISSE robot

Project name

Analysis and realization of walks in mixed environment and new graphic user interface for a pneumatic four-leg robot

Project short description

We'll try to expand the the possible walks of the robot ULISSE and try to implement some sensors to allow the robot to "know where is" in the room: video sensors, touch sensors or ... .

We also will try to drive it with a camera put on it and find some future application for the robot.

Dates

Start date: 2008/06/17

End date: 2009/04/20

Project head

G. Gini

Students currently working on the project

Davide Valentino Fasani User:DavideFasani

Chiara Fornoni User:ChiaraFornoni

Students who worked on the project in the past

Lorenzo Molinaro

Cristian Salvaterra

Part 2: project description

• state of the art;
• design notes and guidelines;
• description and results of experiments;
• photos;
• configuration and the use of hardware and software;

State of the art:

ULISSE is a four-leg robot, with an aluminium loom, twelve pneumatic pistons (three in each leg), twelve optical encoder to set the length of each piston, twenty-four air valve to insert air into pistons.

• 

  The robot ULISSE

The control system is formed by a router, four network cards and wires to connect all the components.

It’s impossible to command the robot by an high-level interface, but it must be commanded by specify the lengthening of each piston, study the timing and the actions to reach the final goal.

ULISSE is formed by a parallel structure, so it’s very difficult to model it for the cinematic study.

• 

  The ULISSE’s control system

Design notes and guidelines:

During the work on ULISSE, we had notice that it is sensitive at electro-magnetic waves and at the direct light on encoders.

To resolve this problems we put on the robot a Faraday cage to shield the electronic components and some structures to cover the optical sensors.

• 

  Encoder’s cover

Description and results of experiments:

We implement four new walks for the robot, two curved movement, and two actions to pass obstacles, the obstacles that has been made for this project are a little stair with three steps and a block that the robot have to climb over.

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  Stair

• 

  obstacle

We also re-implement the GUI to allow future student to import some text file into the ULISSE control program and in this way study new walks and improve the autonomy.

• 

  Initial window

• 

  Window to load a file

• 

  Window to send commands to robot

Photos:

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• 
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Some images that show ULISSE during the obstacle’s climb .

Configuration and the use of hardware and software:

The complete manual and report of this work is in the thesis named “Analisi e realizzazione di andature in ambiente misto e nuova interfaccia utente per un robot quadrupede pneumatico”.

You can find it in the Central Library.