2017 Screw-Theory Based Methods in Robotics Summer School

From 2 Dec, 2017 until 10 Dec, 2017

Scope

The 2017 Summer Screw-Theory Based Methods in Robotics will gather a selection of our regular lecturers, all recognized experts in the robotics applications of screw theory, and up to 40 participants at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia from 2 to 10 December. The school will teach attendees how to apply existing methods and empower them to develop new ones in their own research. The basic theoretical notions will be introduced in a rigorous manner, with emphasis on examples, applications, and exercises.

Applications of the theory of screws are based on a combined representation of angular and linear velocity, or similarly force and moment, as a single element of a six-dimensional vector space. The importance of screw theory in robotics is widely recognised, in principle. In practice, almost nowhere is it taught to engineering students and few know how to use it. Yet, in a variety of areas of robotics, methods and formalisms based on the geometry and algebra of screws have been shown to be superior to other techniques and have led to significant advances. These include the development of fast and efficient dynamics algorithms, discoveries in the nature of robot compliance and mechanism singularity, and the invention of numerous parallel mechanisms.

Topics of Interest

  • Basic vector-space properties of twists and wrenches: physical interpretation of the linear operations; linear dependence and independence, subspaces; bases and coordinates. Screw systems: geometry and classification, invariance and persistance. (Lecturers: Dimiter Zlatanov and Marco Carricato)
  • Scalar products, dual spaces, reciprocity. Constraint and freedom in mechanisms. Constraint analysis. Type synthesis of single-loop mechanisms and parallel manipulators. (Lecturers: Xianwen Kong and Dimiter Zlatanov)
  • Velocity and singularity analysis of parallel and interconnected-chain mechanisms. Derivation of input-output velocity equations and singularity conditions. (Lecturers: Matteo Zoppi and Dimiter Zlatanov)
  • Mappings between screw spaces, stiffness and inertia. Structure of robot compliance. Eigenvalue problems and eigenscrews. Synthesis with springs. (Lecturers: Harvey Lipkin and Dimiter Zlatanov)
  • 6D formulation of the dynamics of individual rigid bodies and rigid-body systems. Equations of motion. Dynamics algorithms. (Lecturers: Roy Featherstone and Harvey Lipkin)
  • Basic Lie group theory, matrix representations of the group of rigid-body displacements. Lie algebras as related to screw theory. The exponential map and its applications in modern robotics (Lecturers: Jon Selig and Peter Donelan).

Important Date

10 November 2017 - Registration Deadline

 

For more information, go to http://www.summerscrews.org/


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