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
5 2 0 7 values: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9

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.
2 7 26 2 5 24 2 3 2 2 2 1 2 0
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 (or discreet!)

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

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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 – Discreet vs 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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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 to capture all information.

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.

E
B

C
A

D F

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

3 E
B
4
3
1
9 C
A 2

1 3 F
D

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

3 E
B
4
3
1
9 C
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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