Introduction to Robotics

Narendiran Anandan
Serkan Ergun
Automation System

ENVIRONMENT

SENSE PROCESS ACTUATE

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Measurement
• The objective of a measurement is to determine the value of the measurand.

• Measurand – Particular quantity subjected to measurement (Eg: Temperature of

the Room, Distance to an object, etc.)

• Measurement – A set of operations taken to determine the value of the

measurand.

• Example: Temperature of the room is 24.5°C

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Measurement Example

Sensor(k) Reading(tk) Mean = 24.23

1 24.3 Std.Deviation = 0.08

2 24.01
3 24.37
4 24.32
5 24.49
6 23.61
7 24.23
8 24.38
9 24.29
10 24.33

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Measurement Errors and Uncertainty

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Measurement Errors and Uncertainty
• Measurements have imperfections that give rise to an error in the measurement.
• Error = Measured value – True value
• True Value – value attributed to a particular quantity and accepted, sometimes by
convention, as having an uncertainty appropriate for a given purpose.
• Random Error:
• Arises from unpredictable variations of influence quantities.
• Can be reduced by increasing number of measurements.
• Systematic Error:
• Arise due to imperfections in measurement process and instruments. (Bias, Nonlinearity, etc.)
• Cannot be eliminated fully but can be often corrected.
• Uncertainty:
• parameter, associated with the result of a measurement, that characterizes the dispersion of
the values that could reasonably be attributed to the measurand.
• Example: Temperature of the room is 24°C (± 0.5 °C)

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Analog to Digital Conversion

ANALOG
SENSING DIGITAL
SYSTEM

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A small introduction to computers - Transistor

HIGH TRUE ON 1

LOW FALSE OFF 0

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A small introduction to computers – Boolean Logic

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Decimal Number System

5207 This is a base-10 number system.

103 102 101 100 Each digit has 10 possible values:
0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
5 2 0 7
5×103 + 2×102 + 0×101 +7x101
5×1000 + 2×100 + 0×10 +7x1
There are 10 types of people in the world … those who
understand binary and those who don’t.
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Binary Number System

110111012 = 22110 This is a base-2 number

system.
27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 Each bit has 2 possible
1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 values: 0,1

1×27 + 1×26 + 0×25 + 1×24 + 1×23 + 1×22 + 0×21 + 1×20

1×128 + 1×64 + 0×32 + 1×16 + 1×8 + 1×4 + 0×2 + 1×1
There are 10 types of people in the world … those who
understand binary and those who don’t.
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Exercise

•What is 1101012 in base 10?

There are 10 types of people in the world … those who

understand binary and those who don’t.
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Signal Processing
• A signal is a set of information or data.
• Signals can be scalar or vector.(Temperature, Pressure, Position,
Velocity).
• Signals can be analog or digital

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Signals – (Analog / Continuous)
• A finite, real-valued, smooth
function s(t) of a variable t
which usually represents time.
• Both s and t in s(t) are
continuous.

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Signals - Discreet
• A discrete-time signal is a
bounded, continuous-valued
sequence s[n] . Alternately, it
may be viewed as a continuous-
valued function of a discrete
index n.
• We often refer to the index n as
time, since discrete-time signals
are frequently obtained by
taking samples of a continuous-
time signal.

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Signals - Digital
• We will work with digital signals but develop theory mainly around
discrete-time signals.
• Digital computers deal with digital signals, rather than discrete-time
signals.
• A digital signal is a sequence s[n], that can only take a finite set of
values.
• Digital signals are discrete-time signals obtained after “quantization.“
• Digital signals too are usually obtained by taking measurements from
real-world phenomena. However, unlike the accepted norm for
analog signals, digital signals may take complex values.

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Sampling
• Sampling is the process of acquiring information at periodic intervals.

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Quantisation
• Quantisation is the process discretising the amplitude of the signal

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Common Signals - DC

The “DC” or constant signal

simply takes a constant value.

The DC signal typically

represents any constant offset
from 0 in real-world signals.

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Common Signals - Unit Step

• The “unit step”, also often referred

to as a Heaviside function, is
literally a step.
• It has 0 value until time 0, at which
point, it abruptly switches to 1.0.
• The unit step represents events that
change state, e.g. the switching on
of a system, or of another signal.

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Common Signals - Sinusoid

s(t) = A × cos(ωt + ɸ)
Most important signal in
all of signal processing.
A: Amplitude
ω: Angular frequency
ω = 2πf
f: Frequency
ɸ: Phase

A sine wave is completely described by its amplitude, frequency and phase.

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Composite Signals
• A composite signal is a sum of many simple sinusoidal signals
with different frequencies, amplitude and phases.
• A composite signal can be periodic or nonperiodic.
• A periodic composite signal can be decomposed into a series
of simple sine waves with discrete frequencies that have
integer values (1, 2, 3, and so on).
• Nonperiodic composite signal can be decomposed into a
combination of an infinite number of simple sine waves with
continuous frequencies, frequencies that have real values.

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Sampling theorem
The theorem states that the sample rate must be at
least twice the highest frequency component of the
signal.

In practice, because of the finite time available, a

sample rate somewhat higher than this is
necessary.

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Filtering
• In signal processing, a filter is a device or process that
removes some unwanted components or features from
a signal.
• Filtering is a class of signal processing, the defining
feature of filters being the complete or partial
suppression of some aspect of the signal.
• Most often, this means removing some frequencies or
frequency bands.

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Filtering

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Filters

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Filters

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Fourier Transform

The Fourier Transform is a mathematical

technique that transforms a function of
time, x(t), to a function of frequency, X(ω).

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Path Planning

Source: Path Planning Faigl, 2020.

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Real Mobile Robots
• In a real deployment, the problem is more complex
• The world is changing
• Robots update the knowledge about the environment
• localization, mapping and navigation
• New decisions have to made based on the feedback from the
environment
• Motion planning is a part of the mission replanning loop

• How to deal with real-world complexity?

• Relaxing constraints and considering realistic assumptions

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Motion Planning / Path Planning Notation
• W – World model describes the robot workspace and its boundary determines
the obstacles (O)

• A Robot is defined by its geometry, parameters (kinematics) and it is

controllable by the motion plan

• Configuration space (C-space) - A concept to describe possible configurations of

the robot. The robot’s configuration completely specify the robot location in W
including specification of all degrees of freedom.
• Collision-free configurations Cfree = C \ CO

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Motion Planning / Path Planning Notation
• Path is a continuous mapping in C-space

• Trajectory is a path with explicate parametrization of time, e.g., accompanied by

a description of the motion laws
• Additional requirements can be given:
• Smoothness of the path
• Kinodynamic constraints, e.g., considering friction forces
• Optimality criterion – shortest vs fastest (length vs curvature)

• Path planning – planning a collision-free path in C-space

• Motion planning – planning collision-free motion in the state space

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Graph theory
• Graphs are data structures that are composed of nodes and edges.

B
E

F
D

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Graph Theory – Weighted Graph

B 3
3 4 E

9 C
1
A
2

1 3 F
D

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Graph Theory – Directed Weighted graph

B 2
3 4 E

9 C
1
A
2

1 3 F
D

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Path planning - Visibility Graph
• Start, goal, vertices of obstacles are graph nodes
• Edges are “visible” connections between nodes, including obstacle edges

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Path planning - Visibility Graph
• Search for shortest path via visible vertices.

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Reduced visibility Graph
• The standard visibility graph has many needless
edges which are not going to be used in any case

• The lines that are useful for path planning are

the ones going around the obstacles, or passing
through the vertices that are extremes around
the obstacles

Eliminate unnecessary obstacle vertices

• Shortest path doesn't change!
• The required time to find it considerably decreases

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Visibility Graph
The common Visibility-Graph algorithm assumes
point robots.
The algorithm places waypoints on the obstacle
boundaries that increases the risk of collision.
Use C-space (expand each obstacle by the size of
the robot).
Graph search then now find the shortest path if one
exists using the grown obstacle set.

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Voronoi Graph
• The roadmap is the basis for the Voronoi graph that maximizes clearance from
the obstacles
• Start and goal positions are connected to the graph
• Path is found using a graph search algorithm

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Comparison
Visibility graph
• Shortest path, but it is close to obstacles. We have to consider safety of the
path. An error in plan execution can lead to a collision
• Complicated in higher dimensions

Voronoi graph
• It maximizes clearance, which can provide conservative paths
• Small changes in obstacles can lead to large changes in the graph
• Complicated in higher dimensions

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Visibility Graph Exercise

17,9
(10,8)

(3,6)

(16,4)

(7,2)

(0,0)

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