http://robios8.me.wisc.edu/ (World Wide Web Directory, ~04/1995)
UW-Madison Robotics Lab
Vladimir Lumelsky, Director
Sanjay Tiwari, Associate Scientist
Research Activities
The research in our Robotics Laboratory can be divided into
three areas: theory/algorithms, graphics simulation/animation,
and experimental work with hardware. Our theoretical tools come
primarily from geometry and topology. We have been able to show
that in spite of the formidable complexity and uncertainties of
the robot environment, even simple sensory data are often
sufficient to guarantee successful collision-free motion. A more
recent direction here is work on vision-based exploration in
three dimensions. Our computer graphics work is done with our
three Silicon Graphics workstations, and concentrates on
visualization and animation of motion, both in physical and in
the corresponding configuration space. In the hardware area, we
are working, here at UW and with the industry, on experimental
validation of the motion planning strategies: one example is a
recent prototype of a sensitive skin which covers the
whole body of a large industrial arm manipulator in a manner
similar to the human skin -- except proximity, not tactile,
sensing is used based on many hundreds of sensors covering the
skin. We also attempt to compare the performance of our systems
with the human skills in motion planning, and develop hybrid
systems in which the resulting motion comes from a real-time
blend of geometric reasoning and decisions of a human operator
and of an automatic planning system.
http://robios8.me.wisc.edu/ (World Wide Web Directory, ~04/1995)