Realization of multi-objective evolved continuum robots using 3D printing

Continuum robots are recognized as one of the most flexible and versatile mobile robots that are capable of performing various kinds of motions to navigate in unknown and challenging environments. However, the large number of degrees of freedom leads to the difficulty in designing a continuum rob...

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Main Author: Chee, Wei Shun
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2016
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Online Access:https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/12016/1/Realization%20of%20multi-objective.pdf
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spelling my-ums-ep.120162017-10-27T08:11:32Z Realization of multi-objective evolved continuum robots using 3D printing 2016 Chee, Wei Shun TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery Continuum robots are recognized as one of the most flexible and versatile mobile robots that are capable of performing various kinds of motions to navigate in unknown and challenging environments. However, the large number of degrees of freedom leads to the difficulty in designing a continuum robot. Moreover, an open-ended synthesis problem arises whereby there exists no formal models thus far for a designer to determine the optimum control strategy, body structure, number of segments and suitable segment lengths during the design stage. Additionally, conventional methods for designing continuum robots do not consider the optimization of multiple objectives. As such, there has not been any research carried out thus far on co-evolving both the morphology and controller of continuum robots using a multi-objective evolutionary optimization approach. Therefore, in this research work, a system is developed to automatically design and optimize both the morphology and controller of continuum robots by employing a novel hybridized Genetic Programming and self-adaptive Differential Evolution algorithm. A multi-objective evolutionary algorithm is incorporated into the artificial evolutionary optimization process to simultaneously maximize the locomotion performance and minimize the complexity of the continuum robots. In addition, a novel GP tree-based encoding structure is proposed to allow for the representation of the continuum robot's morphology and controller to be optimized simultaneously during co-evolution. The artificial co-evolutionary process is carried out by using the Webots physics simulation software. Two types of continuum robots are to be evolved in this research, namely the snake-like continuum robot (SLCR) and multi-branching continuum robot (MBCR). The outcome of this work shows that the Pareto-optimal front of evolved solutions are successfully obtained for the simulated SLCRs where the evolved heterogeneous SLCRs can perform lateral undulation, narrow path crawling, vertical undulation and lateral rolling moving behaviours for locomotion. Additionally, the evolved solutions of the MBCRs are converging to a point where the MBCR with the least number of segments turns out to be the dominating solution. In order to validate the simulated results, the evolved SLCRs are transferred to real world for physical testing using 3D printing technology. The physical testing results demonstrate that the evolved SLCRs can be successfully transferred from simulation to the real world for actual physical deployment in its task environment. An 82.55% transference accuracy is achieved in this work which demonstrates that the proposed multi-objective co-evolutionary algorithm is feasible and practical to be employed for the automatic design of continuum robots 2016 Thesis https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/12016/ https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/12016/1/Realization%20of%20multi-objective.pdf text en public other masters Universiti Malaysia Sabah Faculty of Engineering
institution Universiti Malaysia Sabah
collection UMS Institutional Repository
language English
topic TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
spellingShingle TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
Chee, Wei Shun
Realization of multi-objective evolved continuum robots using 3D printing
description Continuum robots are recognized as one of the most flexible and versatile mobile robots that are capable of performing various kinds of motions to navigate in unknown and challenging environments. However, the large number of degrees of freedom leads to the difficulty in designing a continuum robot. Moreover, an open-ended synthesis problem arises whereby there exists no formal models thus far for a designer to determine the optimum control strategy, body structure, number of segments and suitable segment lengths during the design stage. Additionally, conventional methods for designing continuum robots do not consider the optimization of multiple objectives. As such, there has not been any research carried out thus far on co-evolving both the morphology and controller of continuum robots using a multi-objective evolutionary optimization approach. Therefore, in this research work, a system is developed to automatically design and optimize both the morphology and controller of continuum robots by employing a novel hybridized Genetic Programming and self-adaptive Differential Evolution algorithm. A multi-objective evolutionary algorithm is incorporated into the artificial evolutionary optimization process to simultaneously maximize the locomotion performance and minimize the complexity of the continuum robots. In addition, a novel GP tree-based encoding structure is proposed to allow for the representation of the continuum robot's morphology and controller to be optimized simultaneously during co-evolution. The artificial co-evolutionary process is carried out by using the Webots physics simulation software. Two types of continuum robots are to be evolved in this research, namely the snake-like continuum robot (SLCR) and multi-branching continuum robot (MBCR). The outcome of this work shows that the Pareto-optimal front of evolved solutions are successfully obtained for the simulated SLCRs where the evolved heterogeneous SLCRs can perform lateral undulation, narrow path crawling, vertical undulation and lateral rolling moving behaviours for locomotion. Additionally, the evolved solutions of the MBCRs are converging to a point where the MBCR with the least number of segments turns out to be the dominating solution. In order to validate the simulated results, the evolved SLCRs are transferred to real world for physical testing using 3D printing technology. The physical testing results demonstrate that the evolved SLCRs can be successfully transferred from simulation to the real world for actual physical deployment in its task environment. An 82.55% transference accuracy is achieved in this work which demonstrates that the proposed multi-objective co-evolutionary algorithm is feasible and practical to be employed for the automatic design of continuum robots
format Thesis
qualification_name other
qualification_level Master's degree
author Chee, Wei Shun
author_facet Chee, Wei Shun
author_sort Chee, Wei Shun
title Realization of multi-objective evolved continuum robots using 3D printing
title_short Realization of multi-objective evolved continuum robots using 3D printing
title_full Realization of multi-objective evolved continuum robots using 3D printing
title_fullStr Realization of multi-objective evolved continuum robots using 3D printing
title_full_unstemmed Realization of multi-objective evolved continuum robots using 3D printing
title_sort realization of multi-objective evolved continuum robots using 3d printing
granting_institution Universiti Malaysia Sabah
granting_department Faculty of Engineering
publishDate 2016
url https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/12016/1/Realization%20of%20multi-objective.pdf
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