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Christopher Peers

BurgerFlippingRobots

Robot Lab Live 2022

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Our entry for Robot Lab Live 2022 was two robot dogs fitted with arms cooking fake burgers (health and safety wouldn’t let us use real food!)  

This demonstration shows how a motion capture suit – such as the ones used in animation film-making – can be used to control two robot dogs to perform the fairly dexterous task of cooking and assembling a burger. The two robots both carry a robotic arm, and all will be controlled simultaneously from a single pilot to cook fresh ingredients into a fully edible burger, all without having to step into the kitchen. 

The full video can be found here.

TeLeManInAction

TeLeMan – A Teleoperative Legged Manipulator for Hazardous Missions

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TeLeMan – A Teleoperative Legged Manipulator for Hazardous Missions

Ever wanted to make a coffee from an extremely large distance away, or maybe you left the oven on at home, or perhaps, you would like to defuse an extremely dangerous explosive device located in a densely populated area but seems to be very far away?

No need to worry! A collaboration between the Real Robotics lab at the University of Leeds and the Robot Perception and Learning Lab at the University College London (UCL), resulted in the design of a system capable of complete wireless teleoperation and precision manipulation. Through the use of a quadruped robot with mounted robotic arm in conjunction with a wearable inertia-based motion capture system, the robot is able to be controlled remotely without the need of line of sight and is able to traverse many difficult environments. This system would then be controlled via the use of the motion capture suit allowing the robotic arm to be controlled as precisely as a real human arm. A robust robotic system combined with an effective control method, creates a teleoperation system capable of remote precision manipulation.

Creating this robot was an exciting and wonderful journey, and in the end, a fully functioning prototype was created with a demonstration shown of It being teleoperated to defuse an explosive device.

First demonstrations in the Real Robotics lab
First demonstrations in the Real Robotics lab
TeLeMan – Teleoperation and Telexistence of a Legged Manipulator via IMU-Body Sensing for EOD

A whole-body control system was used which allows for both the quadruped platform and the robotic arm to be controlled simultaneously using the motion capture suit. The use of the motion capture suit allows the teleoperator to simultaneously control the locomotion of the quadruped robot as well as the manipulation from the robotic arm.

The teleoperation strategies for the human operator are as follows

  • Hands must be closed to enable the control of the robot
  • Left arm controls the quadruped and the right arm controls the robotic arm
  • With the left hand closed, steps will send a velocity command to the quadruped in their respective directions. Rotation commands can be sent by turning the foot about the ankle.
  • With the right hand closed, any movements of the right hand will translate into position commands for the arm relative to the original position of the right hand when it was closed.

Through repeated testing, the controls were fine-tuned to maximise the operator’s efficiency in the task as well as for the overall safety of the robotic system.

The system had minimal input delay from the operator, could be reliably and precisely controlled in manipulation tasks and offered a robust solution to tasks that required both teleoperation and manipulation precision.

Everyone is looking forward to teleoperating the TeLeMan robot
Everyone is looking forward to teleoperating the TeLeMan robot

Most recently, the TeLeMan robot was then taken to the DASA Telexistance event. Throughout this day, a live demo of the robot being teleoperated to open a box and remove a wire from an explosive device was continuously shown to an ecstatic audience. Although there were some technical slip ups, the overall reception from the event was very positive and a bright future for the TeLeMan robot can be seen ahead.

A lovely photo of the team attending the DASA Telexistance event on 12th October 2021
A lovely photo of the team attending the DASA Telexistance event on 12th October 2021

The TeLeMan team consists of:

  • Christopher Peers (University of Leeds)
  • Chengxu Zhou (University of Leeds)
  • Robert Richardson (University of Leeds)
  • Dimitrios Kanoulas (UCL)

Time lapse of the DASA Telexistance event, around 200 visitors came to see the TeLeMan robot
Time lapse of the DASA Telexistance event, around 200 visitors came to see the TeLeMan robot
Covid19-LBA-TeamPhoto

Real Robotics fighting COVID-19: The Tale of Engineers, Robots, and a Deadly Virus

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Real Robotics Team at the University of Leeds has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with autonomous robots for on-demand intelligent precision disinfection. The robots, developed by researchers in the Self-Repairing Cities project at the Universities of Leeds, Birmingham, Southampton and UCL, are equipped with onboard sensing and computation power that enables them to navigate, identify targets, and disinfect them. This effort contributes to help in controlling the virus transmission from frequently touched surfaces in public spaces.

The recent COVID-19 outbreak has dramatically influenced our lives. Germs and viruses have always been surrounding us and will continue to exist and evolve. Disinfecting public spaces is undoubtedly essential to control the spread of the virus. Public Health England has recently published coronavirus survival data on surfaces which reports that the virus can survive up to 72 hours on surfaces depending on the type of surface, humidity, and temperature. It takes an infected person to cough or sneeze in his/her hand and touch a surface in public to create a point of infection that can potentially hunt down the next victim touching that surface. That surface, for instance, can be a door handle of a nearby shop or a public bench.

Current disinfection practices of public places usually aim for maximum coverage of spaces. While these practices can help in attenuating the spread of disease, they often lack consistency and accuracy, which can lead to inadequate surface coverage, leaving behind potential infection spots, or over usage of disinfectant that can lead to unnecessarily public exposure to chemicals.

Real Robotics fighting COVID-19: The Tale of Engineers, Robots, and a Deadly Virus
Real Robotics fighting COVID-19: The Tale of Engineers, Robots, and a Deadly Virus

At Real Robotics, we have identified the current challenges, and we decided to put our multidisciplinary team of researchers, engineers, and robots in action. We needed our system to address mobility, modularity, consistency, and accuracy of the disinfection operations in public spaces. To support this effort, we repurposed part of the Self Repairing Cities project that is supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation.

Real Robotics fighting COVID-19: The Tale of Engineers, Robots, and a Deadly Virus
Real Robotics fighting COVID-19: The Tale of Engineers, Robots, and a Deadly Virus

In the past ten weeks, our team has tirelessly worked to design and build a smart robotic disinfection system prototypes for precision spray systems. We initially focused on automation to address mobility, to cover multiple spots quickly, and on consistency, to make sure the operation complies with specific standards. We designed and built two systems to serve our goals; the first is based on a ground wheeled robot (HUSKY), and the second is based on a legged robot (LAIKAGO). Both robots are equipped with integrated custom-built pump-spray systems to handle spraying the disinfectant solution. It was then the time to go beyond automation toward robot intelligence and advanced autonomy to address the modularity and accuracy of the disinfection operation. Each robot is equipped with LiDARs, inertial sensors, and visual and depth sensors that enable the development of navigating autonomously, identifying target areas, and spray them as needed ensuring coverage and avoiding overuse of chemicals.

Real Robotics fighting COVID-19: The Tale of Engineers, Robots, and a Deadly Virus
Real Robotics fighting COVID-19: The Tale of Engineers, Robots, and a Deadly Virus

For us to understand the disinfection requirements, we have identified a range of surfaces used or touched in public (hotspots) and study their geometries to optimise disinfection. It is hard to assume specific contact points or angles of contact between people and the used surfaces, which incentivized us to think of the disinfection process as a three-dimensional coverage problem instead of two-dimensional spraying. For spray precision, the multi-nozzle spray module is mounted on a multi-degrees of freedoms robotic manipulator and visual and depth sensors. We are developing detection and tracking of hotspots based on machine learning and compute manipulator-pump trajectories for effective disinfection.

Real Robotics fighting COVID-19: The Tale of Engineers, Robots, and a Deadly Virus
Real Robotics fighting COVID-19: The Tale of Engineers, Robots, and a Deadly Virus

In the past few weeks, we have tested the viability of our systems in the real world. So far, we have run some robot tests and collected data from two locations, Leeds Bradford International Airport and Leeds City Centre, in collaboration with Leeds Bradford Airport and Leeds City Council. The testing helps us further to understand operational challenges and different scenarios of disinfection.

We believe that robots and intelligent systems will play an essential role in public health, and we are eager to contribute to the national and global health efforts to combat COVID-19.

Real Robotics fighting COVID-19: The Tale of Engineers, Robots, and a Deadly Virus

The team involved in this project (alphabetical order) were:

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