I NTRO TO PO10029: C ONTROL E NHANCEMENTS FOR A IR M USCLE B IOMIMETIC H AND Dr. Kathleen Lamkin-Kennard Sept. 14, 2009

P ROJECT B ACKGROUND Started in 2007 as group of projects to see if we could recreate hand motions using air muscles Projects have become part of larger scale research program to create biomimetic robotic platforms Multiple projects involved (not just senior design) M.S. theses: Scalability and kinetic study of finger and hand motions, underwater actuation, development of electroactive polymers as actuation mechanisms, development of controls and simulation platform for design purposes Senior design: PO 8023, PO 8024, PO 9023, PO 9029

L ONG -T ERM G OALS OF B IOMIMETIC R ESEARCH P ROGRAM Recreate human motions for purpose of developing dextrous manipulator platforms Develop platform capable of operating at different scales E.g. microscale, large industrial scale Develop platform capable of integrating with various controls platforms E.g. glove control Develop platform that can be used in variety of environments

B IOMIMETIC R ESEARCH P ROGRAM TO DATE Focused on mimicking hand and finger motions Future will extend to other limbs (individual and coordinated) Focused on different actuation mechanisms Primarily air muscles Also electroactive polymers Now focusing on creation of a development platform for mechanical design and controls This is where you come in!!! Future applications: Remote surgery, large scale maintenance, remote detonation, assistive exoskeletal devices, etc.

R ATIONALE FOR CREATION OF DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM Devices developed to date have been developed largely as “one of” devices No common architecture for mechanical development or controls Built using trial and error approach Want to come up with method for simulating device feasibility prior to actual fabrication Reduce cost, development time Want to be able to test controls on virtual devices ahead of time Reduce development time, cost Enable testing of controls without physical hardware

W HAT WILL DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM CONSIST OF ? To start: 3D kinematic model of mechanical designs (likely done in SolidWorks) Controls software (likely done in LabVIEW) Capable of driving both physical and virtual prototypes Integration of controls software with kinematic models (ie. Controls software should be capable of driving virtual model of mechanical design) In the future: 3D kinetic model of mechanical designs

S O WHERE DO YOU COME IN ?? B ACK TO YOUR PROJECT … Your team will be implementing the development platform Will use biomimetic hand developed by PO 9023 and kinematic models of the physical hand Can verify platform capabilities since we have a working physical prototype Will also be implementing closed loop feedback capabilities on physical hand

Y OUR PROJECT Design and implement controls software that can be applied to both physical and virtual prototypes Physical prototype - existing hand platform developed PO9023 (AS IS!!!) Virtual prototype will be developed using SolidWorks and the LabVIEW Mechatronics tool kit. Will need to implement closed loop displacement feedback on current hand platform Linear and rotary potentiometers exist on hand and software exists to obtain closed loop feedback, but the previous team was unable to get the closed loop feedback working

M Y CUSTOMER NEEDS Maintenance and repair of existing hand hardware developed by PO9023. Maintenance and repair will be necessary to meet customer needs below, however improvements to the existing mechanical hardware are beyond the scope of this project. Implement closed loop feedback control on robotic hand developed by PO9023. Displacement feedback must be obtained using existing linear and rotary potentiometers on existing hand. Displacement feedback will be used to drive mechanical hardware to a target position. Target position will be input into LabVIEW as a percentage of maximum displacement in each direction in 3D space. Output will be motion of the physical hardware. The team will be responsible for benchmarking the capabilities of the existing hand with regards to degrees of freedom and displacement to determine maximum displacement capabilities in each direction. Notes: Force characterization is beyond the scope of this project. Also, no target specifications are given from the customer for displacements or velocities to be achieved since the team is limited to working with the existing hardware “as is”. Build kinematic model of existing hand hardware using SolidWorks/Cosmos Motion Builder. The kinematic model must have identical kinematic degrees of freedom as the existing mechanical hand hardware developed by PO9023. However, it does not have to be an exact geometric configuration (e.g. cables in kinematic model may be reduced to alternative controllable mechanism, etc.). Kinematic model must output displacement outputs equivalent to the outputs obtained from the linear and rotary potentiometers on the physical hardware. Drive kinematic model from LabView using the LabVIEW/ SolidWorks Mechatronics Toolkit ( The kinematic model in SolidWorks must accept the same inputs from LabVIEW used to drive the physical mechanical hand (ie. inputs in LabVIEW = % max deflection and outputs = deflection of SolidWorks kinematic model). 3D positions from SolidWorks will then be transmitted back to LabVIEW in a manner analogous to the feedback that the potentiometers from the physical device would provide back to LabVIEW. Note: this simulated closed loop feedback between SolidWorks and Labview may be done manually if limited by software capabilities. Quantitative analysis comparing displacements of mechanical hand to virtual model. Method for comparison will be determined by team. Must include error analysis. A detailed documentation package describing the control system, kinematic model, and interface delivered. Starting from a features required viewpoint, system architecture, and module descriptions. This is essential as the management team views this as a starting point for future projects.

K EY DELIVERABLES LabVIEW software capable of driving existing mechanical hand hardware and receiving feedback from existing rotary and linear potentiometers Documented analysis that existing hardware is capable of receiving feedback from linear and rotary potentiometers on existing hand. Team must provide demonstration that a target position can be input into LabVIEW and mechanical hardware will respond appropriately. Software assembly in SolidWorks capable of reproducing kinematic motion of physical hand hardware LabVIEW software capable of driving SolidWorks kinematic model to target positions. Team must provide demonstration that a target position can be input into LabVIEW and kinematic model will respond appropriately. Quantitative analysis comparing mechanical hand motions to virtual kinematic model. Must include error analysis.

W HAT DOESN ’ T PROJECT INCLUDE ? Investigation of strength capabilities Life cycling – assume air muscles are essentially a disposable item Modeling of air muscles (will get information on how they work from Sylvan Hemingway) ASL Extensive air muscle testing Improvements to existing hand Kinetic modeling

R ESOURCES Sylvan Hemingway (M.S. student) – air muscle capabilities Yateen Shembade (M.S. student) – integration of SolidWorks and LabVIEW Melissa Monahan (M.S. student) – hand modeling Scott Kennard – SolidWorks modeling LabVIEW mechatronics experts – need to establish this relationship Existing data for air muscles Extensive testing of muscles has been done previously

C AUTIONS Benchmarking of the existing system will be a critical set of investigations in the first three weeks Capability of the system- degrees of freedom, displacements- what can the hand system do? Understanding of human hand physiology and capabilities of existing hand. Define capabilities of existing hand in terms of common physiological language. Identification of Mechatronics toolkit software capabilities will also be a critical investigation to be accomplished in the first three weeks Software is an ALPHA version! Senior Design process is helpful, but don’t get bogged down in the process and documentation You still need to do the engineering!