Many types of motor drivers have been developed to meet various mission requirements for robots, but any of them are sufficient so that, new motor drivers are yet to developed. In this paper, the software of a control motor controller called the Netroller is explained, intelligent and distributed motor controller for variable mission requirements. The Netroller drives a motor or any actuator with the pulse width modulation (PWM) mode. The Netroller consists of a microcomputer unit (MPU) and a communication network that interface that can connect the Netroller each other by control area network (CAN) and the Netroller complies reducing harness complexity. The Netroller communicate with a main concentrated computer unit (MCCU). Furthermore the Netroller is very small, so enable to distribute the robot joints. An example is applying the Netroller to the reconfiguration brachiating space robot (RBR) for improving robot performance and reliability.

To realize practical orbital servicing missions in the 21/sup st/ century, we have developed a new system concept for an orbital servicing vehicle named Hyper-OSV (Orbital Servicing Vehicle), which has higher speed manipulation capability and larger operation area than OSVs that were proposed in the 1990's. The main feature of Hyper-OSV (HOSV) is the separation of the operation function and the long-term in-orbit surviving functions such as a solar panel and a large communication antenna. This releases HOSV from attitude restrictions and flexible dynamics and provides a large operation area. The second feature of HOSV is the reconfigurable function that allows HOSV to perform various orbital servicing missions. One of the most difficult missions of HOSV is the noncooperative satellite capture. Separation of the operation function and the long-term in-orbit survival functions gives HOSV an agile working ability. Thus, we have proposed a satellite capturing strategy using an agile orbital servicing vehicle like HOSV and have been conducting its feasibility study. This paper outlines Hyper-OSV first, and then presents the satellite capturing strategy using an agile orbital servicing vehicle and feasibility studies of the satellite capturing.

A robotic system is developed to automate the packing of polycrystalline silicon nuggets into a fragile fused silica crucible in CZ semiconductor wafer production. The highly irregular shapes of the nuggets make this a difficult and challenging task. In this system, nugget grasping is done with a three-cup suction gripper and nugget manipulation is attained with a 7-DOF SCARA manipulator. An optical 3D vision system, based on active laser triangulation, measures the nugget and crucible profiles. A model-free virtual trial and error packing algorithm determines optimal nugget placement in real time. A hybrid position-force control scheme has been implemented and tested for physical nugget placement. The integrated system achieves high production rates, required precision and cost effectiveness.

The formulation and impact dynamic response of an n-link flexible manipulator systems using stress wave propagation theory is discussed. The usual method for deriving the intermittent motion of multibody systems has some limitations, such as the need to specify the value of the coefficient of restitution. In our analysis we apply wave propagation theory, which takes into account the mechanical properties and the initial velocities of the impacting bodies, and extend this theory to multibody systems. In the analysis, the manipulator links are modeled as beams, and simple one-dimensional theory is used for the longitudinal displacements and torsion, while Bernoulli-Euler theory is used for flexural displacements. We only consider the linear elasticity of the impacting body and neglect the plasticity and fracture. By using wave propagation theory, we can obtain the impact stress history, and realize that the coefficient of restitution depends on the dimension or shape of the bodies.