This paper presents a feedforward control technique for suppressing residual vibrations of a flexible dual-manipulator. To construct the mathematical model of the manipulator system accurately, the parameters of the equations of motion are experimentally identified. In the control technique, we express the joint angle by a cubic spline function, and then use a particle swarm optimization to find an optimal path. The optimal path thus obtained carries a minimum vibration requirement. The suppression of the residual vibrations of the flexible dual-manipulator can be accomplished by rotating the joint angle along the optimal path. The validity and effectiveness of the proposed vibration control scheme is substantiated by simulation and experimental results.

 The subject of this article is the development of a prototype hyper-redundant laparoscopic tool. The manipulator consists of cascaded modules which are powered by Shape Memory Alloy wires (NiTi), acting as binary actuators with two stable states. As a result, the repeatability of the manipulators movement is ensured, alleviating the need for sensing of the manipulators joint-positions. Each module is composed of three active prismatic actuators in a tripod-configuration providing a 3-DOF (two rotational and one translational) maneuverability for each joint. I2C-networked microcontrollers activate the individual tendons in each joint. Certain design aspects as well as the kinematics of the binary manipulator are presented followed by experimental studies on the laparoscopic tool prototype.

 The aim of this paper is to present a comparative study of control algorithms for haptic interfaces and virtual environments subject to communication delays. It is well known that the presence of delays deteriorates the overall system performance. More precisely, delays introduce a feeling of viscosity in free motion and reduce the sense of stiffness in case of hard contacts. Six methods in their basic form (classic Proportional Derivative (PD), PD with local dissipation, PD with passivity observer, PD with passive set-point modulation, wave scattering transform and Smith predictor) are analyzed and compared, using a real-time experimental platform which enables tracking the impact of delays, from the point of view of position tracking error and transparency degree.

 The objective of this paper is to find optimal trajectories of a mobile robot during its motion from an initial position to a desired one in an autonomous way. For that, a new approach which uses hierarchical fuzzy systems has been proposed. This approach combines fuzzy logic systems and the potential field method. Firstly, the developed controller is based on fuzzy logic systems: this controller sends the speed values of each driving wheel to the robot, while seeking the goal. Secondly, the obstacle avoidance behavior is inspired from the potential field method: the robot is attracted to the target and pushed from obstacles. Genetic algorithms are used to optimize the consequences of fuzzy rules. Simulation results illustrate the validity and the efficiency of the suggested approach.

 This paper addresses 3D texture mapping in Visual Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (VSLAM) for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) applications. Landmark selection strategy based on feature detection methods such as Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) and Speed Up Robust Features (SURF) is adopted. The selected features are combined with additionally chosen features that are well distributed across the stereo views and refined by RANSAC in order to provide well visualized views for navigation. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of our 3D mapping strategy.