In this paper, the problems are discussed for shape design and position arrangement for Water Strider Robot's supporting legs are discussed. A supporting leg is approached as Euler-Bernoulli elastic curved beam and a method for designing its optimal shape is proposed by analysing elastic deformation and stress-strain. The objective of the proposed optimal method is to attain the maximum lift force in leg operation. The effectiveness and validity of design results are verified through simulations and lab experiments. A method for properly locating supporting legs on the robot body is proposed by analysing the influence of leg location to lift force and the relationship of supporting legs' with robot's roll-resistant capability. A layout scheme for the Water Dancer II-a prototype with ten supporting legs is presented with its operation successful designed.

A frame of modular design problems and requirements for underactuated mechanisms is discussed as related to robotic fingers. The proposed modular mechanism is connected sequentially by series units of underactuated mechanisms, which have the feature of passive self-adaptive in grasp operation and uniformizable in design procedure. The design considerations for modular underactuated mechanism are outlined. Optimality criteria are analyzed with the aim to formulate a general design algorithm. An example of a four-phalanx modular robotic finger is studied as an improvement of new version LARM Hand with the aim to show the practical feasibility for the proposed modular concepts and design methods.

In this paper we have approached the problem for improving an anthropomorphic finger mechanism for adapting its configuration to the shape of a grasped object, even with more suitable contacts. Solutions with underactuated mechanisms and flexible mechanisms are considered by looking at design problems and feasible mechanical designs. Previous experiences and expertise from Cassino group and Beijing BUAA group have been integrated in a unique frame for design purposes of a new low-cost easy-operation finger mechanism with object-adaptability characteristics

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This paper deals with the problem of estimating the pose of a moving rigid body by measuring the length of six wires attached to it. Since wires can be seen as extensible legs, this problem is equivalent to that of solving the forward kinematics of a six-degree-of-freedom parallel manipulator. Among all possible locations for the attachments on the moving object, the "3-2-1" configuration is shown to exhibit a large number of favorable properties. The performance analysis of this particular configuration is addressed by finding analytic expressions for the estimated pose covariance matrix and the expected value of the pose estimation error, or bias error, which has been omitted in the previous analysis of wire-based tracking devices. This analysis takes advantage of a formulation for trilateration based on Cayley-Menger determinants, which is mathematically more tractable compared to previous ones, because all terms involved are determinants with geometric meaning. This accommodates a more thorough investigation of the properties of the device.

In this paper a humanoid robot named as WABIAN-RIV (WAseda BIpedal humANoid Refined IV) is analyzed in terms of stiffness characteristics. This paper proposes basic models and a formulation in order to deduce the stiffness matrix as a function of the most important stiffness parameters of the WABIAN architecture. The proposed formulation is useful for numerical estimation of stiffness performances.

This paper deals with the problem of estimating the pose of a rigid moving object by measuring the length of six wires attached to it. Among all possible locations for the attachments on the moving object, the "3-2-1" configuration exhibits the highest number of favorable properties. A closed-form coordinate-free solution to the forward kinematics of this particular configuration is given in terms of Cayley-Menger determinants. The proposed formulation is mathematically more tractable compared to previous ones because all terms are determinants with geometric meaning. This accommodates a more thorough investigation of the properties of the device and leads to formulas whose numerical conditioning is independent from the chosen reference frames.

Parallel manipulators are increasingly used in new applications by exploiting their peculiarities. The specific motion simulation capability of CaPaMan (Cassino parallel manipulator) can be used for an earthquake simulator. In this paper, a study of feasibility of such novel application of a 3-DOF CaPaMan prototype has been presented by looking experimentally not only at point seismograms but even to 3D earthquake motion. Although 3-DOFs do not permit exact repetition of real 3D earthquake motion, the results have been satisfactory since a design earthquake simulation has been determined and tested with the basic earthquake characteristics.

The proliferation of multimedia information sources and the availability of large capacity consumer storage devices, raise the need to present video in compact forms so that users can effectively access interesting parts to watch. Aiming at an implementation in consumer electronics products and targeting to non-IT-expert users, an innovative user-friendly tool for video browsing and retrieval has been developed. The color browser enhances conventional slide-bars by embodying information about the video content in its colored background. It exploits low level features, like the dominant colors or the volume of the sound-track, automatically extracted from the digital video streams to allow intuitive access and content-driven navigation through unstructured video sequences. 1.

A second prototype of a biped walking robot, called EP-WAR2 (Electropneumatic WAlking Robot), has been designed and built at LARM (Laboratory of Robotics and Mechatronics) in Cassino. In addition to the performances of the previous prototype EP-WAR, EP-WAR2 is able to climb stairs because of a new actuation system. A suitable programming of the programmable logic controller has been based on several subroutines, which run different walking motions and specifically to climb stairs. Experimental tests prove the validity of the proposed low-cost design and programming technique.

CaPaMan (Cassino parallel manipulator) is a three-degree of freedom parallel mechanism that has been designed and built at the Laboratory of Robotics and Mechatronics in Cassino. In the paper a study of the configuration singularities of the CaPaMan manipulator is presented by considering two different methods: an algebraic formulation and a vector analysis. It is shown that a formulation can give singularity related to the failure of the kinematic model at particular configurations of the manipulator. It is also proved that this type of singularity can be avoided by a proper analysis of the problem.

The workspace of REDIESTRO, a seven-axis manipulator with isotropic architecture, is evaluated numerically. Figures of merit such as volume, cross-section area, and dimensional ratio, are given. A parametric study of these figures is included.

An experimental system has been proposed for force control in a two-finger gripper with an easy sensorization by using a commercial force sensor. A suitable model of the control scheme has been designed to control the grasping force. Experimental tests have been carried out at the Laboratory of Robotics and Mechatronics in Cassino and they are reported in the paper to show the practical feasibility of two-finger grippers with force controlled pneumatic actuation.

A new prototype of biped walking robot, named as EP-WAR2 (Electropneumatic WAlking Robot), has been built at the Laboratory of Robotics and Mechatronics in Cassino. This prototype has been provided for logical sensors in order to avoid different obstacles which have been classified as right and left corners, right and left walls, and entire wall. A walking analysis of EP-WAR2 has been carried out for each type of these obstacles. The control system is given by a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller). Thus, a specific flow-chart for PLC programming has been based on several subroutines in order to foresee in advance and control several situations during the walking motion. External sensor system and PLC programming have been tested on autonomous motion of EP-WAR2 in unknown environments.

We report results of successful experiences using CaPaMan (Cassino Parallel Manipulator) as an earthquake simulator. The paper describes the experimental set up for a sensored mobile plate for verifying the numerical simulations with practical experiments. Reproducing accelerometer diagrams of actual earthquakes has proved a practical feasibility. Some numerical and experimental results are reported in the paper to show the interest for this application of CaPaMan.

The European Community (EC) sponsored project SMASH is investigating the needs and technological possibilities for multimedia storage device "at the home". Key frame extraction is an important preprocessing step for visual searching tools in image and video information. We describe two novel components of a key frame extraction system. Assuming that shot detection has taken place and that a frame-to-frame action measure is given, we propose a global key frame allocation method, which needs as input the user defined key frame rate, and an estimate for the average cumulative action. After assigning a number of key frames to a shot, an algorithm is proposed that distributes the key frames over the shot such that an optimal L/sub 1/ approximation of the cumulative action function is obtained.