RESEARCH

This page summerizes my research efforts during my studies at Clemson University in the Control and Robotics Group.


RESEARCH AREAS


GENERAL PUBLICATIONS

M. Loffler, "New Object-Oriented and PC-Based Approaches to Robot Control Software", Ph.D. Thesis, Clemson University, Clemson, August, 2001



RESEARCH PROJECTS


 The Robotic Platform

The Robotic Platform is an object-oriented robot programming system. All components (i.e., graphical user interface, 3D simulation, servo control, trajectory generation, task programming, and sensor integration) are integrated in one homogeneous class design. All components run on a single PC, on a single operating system, the QNX Real-Time Platform. The system allows for generic programming (e.g., manipulator independent programming). Extensions integrate seemlessly into the graphical user interface and the 3D simulator. The 3D simulator dynamically adapts to the robot control program, using Open Inventor and VRML 3D model files.

Conference Papers:
M. Loffler, V. Chitrakaran, D. Dawson, "Design and Implementation of the Robotic Platform", Proc. of the IEEE Conference on Control Applications, Mexico City, Mexico, September, 2001, pp. 357-362.

Journal Papers:
M. Loffler, V. Chitrakaran, and D. Dawson, "Design and Implementation of the Robotic Platform", Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, Special Issue on Multiple Cooperating Robots, to appear.

(see copyright notice and the end of this page)








 QMotor 3.0 - A PC Based Real-Time Multitasking Graphical Control Environment


QMotor is a framework for advanced control implementation. QMotor allows the user to easily implement complex control algorithms on a QNX PC, tune the control and plot variables in multiple plot windows.
More information about QMotor.

Conference Papers:
N. Costescu, M. Loffler, M. Feemster, and D. Dawson, "QMotor 3.0 - An Object Oriented System for PC Control Program Implementation and Tuning", Proc. of the American Control Conference, Arlington, VA, June, 2001, pp. 4526-4531.

Journal Papers:
M. Loffler, D. Dawson, and N. Costescu, "QMotor 3.0 and QMotor Robotic Toolkit: A PC Based Control Platform", IEEE Control Systems Magazine, to appear.

N. Costescu, D. Dawson, and M. Loffler, "QMotor 2.0 - A Real-Time PC Based Control Environment," IEEE Control Systems Magazine, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 68-76.

(see copyright notice and the end of this page)






 QMotor Robotic Toolkit

The QMotor Robotic Toolkit is set of libraries, programs, and utilities specifically targeted for robotic applications that utilize the QMotor control environment. The toolkit contains a GUI based teachpendant, a trajectory generator, and control programs for the Puma 560 and the Barrett Whole Arm Manipulator (WAM).
More information about the QMotor Robotic Toolkit

Conference Papers:
M. Loffler, D. Dawson, E. Zergeroglu, and N. Costescu, "Object-Oriented Techniques in Robot Manipulator Control Software Development", Proc. of the American Control Conference, Arlington, VA, June, 2001, pp. 4520-4525.

Journal Papers:
M. Loffler, D. Dawson, and N. Costescu, "QMotor 3.0 and QMotor Robotic Toolkit: A PC Based Control Platform", IEEE Control Systems Magazine, to appear.

(see copyright notice and the end of this page)






 QRobot - A PC Based Robot Control System


QRobot is a PC-based system for telerobotic decontamination and decommissioning. The system integrates hardware interfacing, real-time joint level control, sensors, control of tools, networking and task level programming (ARCL) as well as operator interfaces using video and virtual reality. The system demonstrates that the PC, a cost effective and widely used platform, is well suited to the integration of real-time control tasks and advanced user interfaces. In the first stage of the project, the joint level control was implement on a QNX 4 PC and a network interface to the robot control library RCCL was developed. In the second stage, RCCL was replaced by ARCL, running on the same QNX 4 PC. QRobot is part of the Virtual Reality Based Telerobotic Decontamination and Decommissioning Project.
More information about QRobot.

Conference Papers:
M. Loffler, N. Costescu, E. Zergeroglu, and D. Dawson, "Telerobotic Decontamination and Decommissioning with QRobot, a PC-Based Robot Control System", Proc. of the Conference on Control Applications, Anchorage, AK, Sept., 2000, pp. 24-29.

N. Costescu, M. Loffler, E. Zergeroglu, and D. Dawson, "QRobot - A Multitasking PC Based Robot Control System", Proc. of the IEEE Conference on Control Applications, Trieste, Italy, Sept., 1998, pp 892-896.

Journal Papers:
M. Loffler, N. Costescu, E. Zergeroglu, and D. Dawson, "Telerobotic Decontamination and Decommissioning with QRobot, a PC-Based Robot Control System", International Journal of Computers and Applications, to appear.

N. Costescu, M. Loffler, E. Zergeroglu, and D. Dawson", QRobot - A Multitasking PC Based Robot Control System", Microcomputer Applications Journal, Vol. 18, No. 1, 1999, pp.13-22.

(see copyright notice and the end of this page)








 QWidgets++ - A C++ Class Libary For The Photon microGUI

The Robotic Platform, QMotor, and QRobot require graphical user interfaces on the QNX operating systemm, using Photon, the QNX windows manager. Photon programming by using the Photon API is extensive and leads to long programs that are not easy to read. Using PhAB, the GUI builder for Photon simplifies the development but is limited: It is not possible to use object oriented programming techniques (e.g. to re-use GUI components), and it is not straightforward to dynamically create GUI components. To overcome these problems, QWidgets++ was developed.
More information about QWidgets++








 The Unwinding Analyzer

This project was a collaboration with the textile department. The Unwinding Analyzer is a PC-based measurement system for high-speed yarn unwinding. It measures the tension in the yarn and takes snapshots of the yarn path. The yarn path is then determined by image processing, and the yarn tension and the path can be compared with theoretical calculations.
More about nonlinear phenomena in high-speed yarn unwinding

Related Publications:
M. Löffler, "Measurement of the Three-dimensional Yarn Path and Tension in Yarn Unwinding", Diploma Thesis, Technische Universität München, September, 1996.






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