MSc in Automation and Control Engineering
MSc in Computer Science and Engineering
MSc in Electronics Engineering
MSc in Engineering Physics
MSc in Biomedical Engineering
Prof. Paolo Rocco
The
course is offered in the second semester
The goal of this course is to
present current and advanced methodologies for the control of robotic
manipulators. The course covers selected topics ranging from
kinematic and dynamic modelling of an industrial robot, to advanced
motion planning and control, to control of the interaction of the robot with
the environment based on force and vision feedback. The goal of the course is
fully aligned with the overall goals of the Automation and Control Engineering
Program, while being an excellent complement for students enrolled in other
Programs (Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Electronics
Engineering, Engineering Physics, and others).
A mix of theoretical and industrially relevant topics characterizes the course,
where extensive use of software for simulation and offline programming of
robots will be made.
Course syllabus is as follows:
1. Introduction
Industrial robots: basic concepts and
examples.
Market of industrial
robotics.
Trends in industrial robotics.
2. Advanced robot
kinematics
Review of direct, inverse and
differential kinematics.
Kinematic calibration.
Kinematics of redundant manipulators:
methods for redundancy resolution.
3. Robot dynamics
Dynamic models of robot manipulators.
Euler-Lagrange and Newton-Euler
formulations: main properties.
Identification of dynamic parameters.
Direct and inverse dynamics.
4. Advanced motion planning
Review of motion generation in joint
space and in operational space.
Path planning in joint space and in the
operational space.
Path planning with obstacle avoidance.
Kinematic and dynamic scaling of
trajectories.
Interpolation of points (splines).
5. Control of robot manipulators
Review of independent joint control
methods.
Centralized model-based controllers:
computed torque feedforward control, PD control with
gravity compensation, inverse dynamics control, robust and adaptive control.
Operational space control.
6. Interaction with the environment
Force sensors.
Impedance and admittance control.
Hybrid position/force control.
7. Control with vision sensors
Image processing.
Camera calibration.
Image-based and position-based control
systems.
Interaction matrix and image Jacobian.
8. Collaborative robotics (notes)
Human-robot interaction.
Collaborative applications.
Some
of the practice sessions will make use of computer simulation tools and of
commercial tools for robot offline programming.
Prerequisites
Basics
in Automatic Control and Mechanics.
Bibliography
B. Siciliano,
L. Villani, G. Oriolo, A. De Luca: Foundations
of Robotics., Springer, 2025 (in English)
G. Magnani, G. Ferretti, P.
Rocco Tecnologie dei sistemi di controllo, 2a ed.,
McGraw Hill, 2007 (in Italian)
Lecture
notes are available in the WeBeep
channel for students enrolled in the course.
In order to participate in the lab activities,
students need to bring their own laptop with them.
You need to install your own copy of MATLAB/Simulink. Instructions
how to download and install your free copy of MATLAB are available here:
https://www.software.polimi.it/mathworks-matlab/?lang=en
You also need to install an
additional toolbox, the Robotics Toolbox by Peter Corke. The instructions to download
and install the toolbox (latest release is 10.4) are available at:
https://petercorke.com/toolboxes/robotics-toolbox/
Please notice that this is not the toolbox on robotics delivered by The MathWorks. Functionalities of the toolbox have been checked with success with recent versions of MATLAB until R2019b.
A manual
of the toolbox is available.
Depending on the way you installed the toolbox, in order to
run the toolbox you may need to issue the
initialization command:
startup_rvc
Students will take a written examination, integrated by an oral one at the instructor's discretion. Text of the exam will be in English, solutions should preferably be given in English.
Texts of exams are published here.
Students may also refer to the exams of the previously offered course Control of industrial robots.
Results of the exams will be notified to the students through the online services.