Abstracts Computer Science

Mechatronic system development and control of an elastic robot testbed

by Per Christian Bunaes

Robots and their applications have an ever-increasing importance in our modern society. Areas such as manufacturing and the space industry have been dependent on robots for a number of years. The automotive industry has used robots for repetitive tasks such as spot welding and painting since the 1970's. These applications require relatively little precision but have increased the production and eased the strain on the human body, as robots never get tired of doing the same task over and over again. As little precision was needed in most of the early and still many of the current manufacturing applications, relatively simple control of the robots motion is needed. As our computer technology has evolved exponentially in both speed and memory over the last few decades, we are able to implement more sophisticated control laws for the robots. Hence better accuracy can be achieved. Now, robots are used for detailed applications such as soldering on computer boards. Since better control makes the robots safer for human/robot interaction, the entertainment industry have started to utilize robots in simulators and other devices found in amusement parks.