A method is presented for autonomous kinematic calibration of the RSI 6-DOF hand controller, a two-loop parallel mechanism comprised of three 6-DOF arms with potentiometers on the first three joints of each arm. This double closed-loop kinematic calibration method is an adaptation of a previously developed single closed-loop method. The kinematic parameters identified are the joint angle offset...

Haptic interfaces are computer-controlled motorized devices that physically interact with human operators to render presence of computationally mediated environments. Ideal haptic devices are desired to withstand human applied forces with very high stiffness and be capable of displaying a full range of impedances down to the minimum value humans can perceive. The performance of a haptic interfa...

This paper addresses the problem of planning the motion of a multilimbed robot in order to “free-climb” vertical rock surfaces. Freeclimbing only relies on frictional contact with the surfaces rather than on special fixtures or tools like pitons. It requires strength, but more importantly it requires deliberate reasoning: not only must the robot decide how to adjust its posture to reach the nex...

We present a method to automatically morph trajectories from one mechanical system into trajectories of another system with potentially very different dynamics. Our method relies on a mapping from the source system’s configuration space to that of the target system to create a desired trajectory for the target system. A projection operatorbased trajectory optimization finds a dynamically-admiss...

-A computer aided method has been proposed for detecting isomorphism among planar kinematic chains with sample joints using a new invariant called the arranged sequence of modified total distance ranks of all the links (ASMTDRL). This invariant takes into account the degrees of'links, and degrees-of-freedom and types of joints of the kinematic chain. Two computer aided methods have also been de...