ME 482/582 (Robot Engineering) Class Information

Department of Mechanical Engineering

1. Syllabus and misc. info.

Here is an MTTC Map so you can find my MTTC office and the lab when we have projects to show. My office is in Suite 235 (to the left of where the MTTC Cafe used to be) but that door may be locked. It's best to phone me (272-7156) from outside the door, or knock on the glass with a metallic object (now discouraged). If I'm there I will hear you.

The text for the class has some errors: here is an errata sheet for the book, courtesy of Ellen Applebaum.

2. Mailing List.

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3. MATLAB.

You can also go to the Mathworks' MATLAB Tutorial...click on the "View Tutorial" below the MATLAB Tutorial heading. There is a lot more information here, which may or may not be more helpful.

Here are MATLAB functions for the three rotation matrices rotx, roty, and rotz.

4. Homework Submission and Grading."

5. Homework "hints and answers."

• Chapter 2 Hints (including format for the two MATLAB functions for the Programming Exercises)
• Here is a brief discussion of pre- and postmultiplication using transformation operators.
• chpt2.m, the "Chapter 2" script (main program) I will use to test your "utoi" and "itou" functions.
• Chapter 3 Hints (also including format for the two MATLAB functions for the Programming Exercises)...got the hints posted as fast as I could.
• chpt3.m, the "Chapter 3" script (main program) I will use to test your "kin" and "where" functions. The transforms {T} relative to {W} and {S} relative to {B} are "hard-coded" in the script, but feel free to change them if you want to try other situations.
• Chapter 4 Hints (including format AND PARTIAL RESULTS for the two MATLAB functions for the Programming Exercises).
• chpt4.m, the "Chapter 4" script (main program) I will use to test your "kin" and "where" functions. This script uses "structures" in MATLAB to simplify things a little. Don't worry, you don't have to understand this script to use it!
• Chapter 5 Hints, including a discussion of the MATLAB Exercise in which the inverse Jacobian is used to move a 3R robot at given Cartesian velocities. You will be writing (and emailing me) two M-files: function jacob.m and script rmrc.m. Remember to use a smaller time step than given: 0.05 or smaller. This HW is due on Friday, October 30.
• simr.m, a function which is the line-drawing simulator for the MATLAB Exercise. Its syntax is: simr(theta), where theta is the Nx3 array of joint angles (radians). This should be portable across various computers, although I seem to recall some screensize problems in the past.
• Chapter 6 Hints (including the manipulator dynamics problem I made up, and Programming Exercise (Part 6). I changed my mind BACK and am NOT going to have you do MATLAB Exercise 6A. I do have some suggestions (and the EOMs) for the Programming Exercise in these hints.
• chpt6.m, the "Chapter 6" script. It prompts you to enter initial position (initial velocity is fixed at zero; input torque is also fixed at zero), then simulates the motion for a desired amount of time. The "display period" is also user-selectable. The resulting data are written out to the workspace.
• simd.m, a script which is an animated dynamic simulator for the Chapter 6 Programming Exercises (uses update.m). The initial position, final time, and "display period" are all selectable. Some of the window parameters may not work on a given computer, so good luck.
• draw_robot.m, which "simd" needs to draw the simulated robot.
• Chapter 7 Hints; note that we are doing the "MATLAB EXERCISE 7" instead of the "Programming Exercises." And this time you don't email me anything; include the results of MATLAB EXERCISE 7 along with your Chapter 7 HW. NOTE: The time durations of the two motion segments in Problem 6 have been changed.
• Trajectory Demo; This discusses the trajectories we will see in the lab. This will include 1st, 3rd-order (cubic), and 5th-order (quintic) polynomials; also "L-shaped" motions using (1) Cubic splined using "specified velocity" at the via point, and (2) cubics splined using "continuous acceleration" at the via point.

6. Homework and Programming Solutions.

• Chapter 2 HW solution (including listings of the MATLAB functions).
• utoi.m, the "utoi" function which converts from user form [x y theta_deg] to internal [T matrix] form.
• itou.m, the "itou" function which converts the other way.
• euler2R.m, a function which converts from ZYZ Euler angles to a 3x3 R matrix (MATLAB Exercise 2A part (a)).
• R2euler.m, a function which converts from a 3x3 R matrix to ZYZ Euler angles (MATLAB Exercise 2A part (b)).
• Chapter 3 HW Solution, (including sketch of planar robot).
• kin.m, the "kin" function for the Programming Exercises.
• where.m, the "where" function for the Programming Exercises.
• Chapter 4 HW Solution, including a screenshot of the ADAMS model of the 3-link RRR robot of the Programming Exercises.
• invkin.m, the "invkin" function for the Programming Exercises.
• solve.m, the "solve" function for the Programming Exercises.
• unwrap.m, the "unwrap" function I used to keep joing angles within +/-pi (this must be in your current directory to avoid conflict with the MATLAB "unwrap" function).
• invkin.m, the "invkin" function for HW problem 4.11.
• kin.m, the "kin" function for HW problem 4.11.
• Chapter 5 HW Solution, including the plots from the MATLAB Exercise, but not the code.
• rmrc.m, the "rmrc" script for the Chapter 5 MATLAB Exercise. It contains parameters for both the "text" motion and the longer "demo" motion I should in class (use comments to select the one you wish to use).
• simr.m, the "simr" function for the Chapter 5 MATLAB Exercise. This animates the manipulator, and---like rmrc.m---has parameters for both trajectories. I thought I had posted this before, but I guess not. Sorry.
• jacob.m, the "jacob" Jacobian function for the Chapter 5 MATLAB Exercise.
• update.m, the "update" function; used to advance the robot joint state (theta, thetadot) one time step. It accepts a vector of joint torques, and uses an integration time step of 0.001 seconds.
• Chapter 6 HW Solution. Hopefully all mistakes corrected.
• Chapter 7 HW Solution, including the vector/matrix formulation needed for Problem 6(b) when the durations of the two segments are NOT equal.

7. Midterm Exam.

8. Midterm Project.

• Here is the problem statement for the Midterm Project, now with object trajectory defined. I have tried the trajectory, and it's duration must be extended to 4*pi seconds (it's too fast for the robots). I've modified the project statement to reflect that. The coefficients for the parameter "gamma" have changed, and the resulting trajectories are now twice as long. Not a big deal.

  NOTE: Due date is Monday, October 19, 2009. We will meet in the lab on Wednesday, October 21 to execute your trajectories on the Staubli robots.

• Here are File Submission Guidelines for the Midterm Project. Now changed to reflect 4*pi second duration.

• Here are some tips on Generating the Trajectory for the Midterm Project. Now changed to reflect 4*pi second duration.

9. Final Project.