Calligraphy Robot

Chinese calligraphy not only brings us aesthetic, but also is beneficial to our mind and body. It is popular in China, especially among the elderly. We have developed a calligraphy robot which helps teach the elderly calligraphy. The robot is also helpful for rehabilitation after stroke. It has the following features:

1) The robot learns the motion from human writing, and thereafter performs the writing on its own. After it has acquired the writing skills, the robot can even guide human to write calligraphy.

2) A linear rail and a paper conveyer are developed to expand the workspace of the robot. Therefore, the robot is capable of writing a large piece of calligraphic work.

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Freeform Robot

Modular self-reconfigurable robotic systems have strong self-adaptation and self-healing ability, which makes it capable of coping with various tasks in complex and changeable environments. Most existing modular self-reconfigurable robots have connection constraints on the mechanical structure. Their relative positioning and motion planning capacities are also limited to the structured environment, which is different from the real and changing environment. To break these limitations, this project aims to develop key technologies for modular self-reconfiguration robots to be applied in unstructured environments. The research results can lay a theoretical and technical foundation for the development of swarm robots and field robots, and can also be widely used in the areas of search and rescue, space exploration, etc. More info:

Omni-directional Vehicle

The omni-directional kart, named “OK-1”, is a hybrid electric vehicle with technology of omni-directional steering, which is designed and developed in the Advance Robotics Lab. It is omni-directional, because it can make crab-like parallel translation and tornado-like rotation. Hence, parking becomes an easy manipulation for even a freshman of driving.Omni-directional steering technology consists of 4 wheel independent drive-by-wire technology and 4 wheel independent steer-by-wire technology. For every steer-drive module, there is one steering motor and one driving motor. The four modules can be configured into various steering modes, for instances front wheel steering, four wheel steering, zero-radius turning, lateral parking, etc. The vehicle mobility is significantly enhanced, and consequently, parking in tight regions becomes a piece of cake. Meanwhile, the canceling of traditional transition and steering mechanism makes the mass center of the vehicle lower, and thus the vehicle is more stable.With the capability of zero-radius turning (ZRT), rotation of the vehicle can be independent on translation. Thus the occupied area is minimized, and there is almost no turn which can not be made by OK-1. For laterally arranged parking slots, ZRT mode can help to park the vehicle easily.With the mode of lateral parking (LP), lateral translation is independent on rotation of the vehicle. In the occasion that the vehicle is restricted by a front vehicle and a rear one, it can still move in or our freely.