Proportional-integral (PI) controllers are used for continuous control of technological processes' parameters. Algorithms of Pi-controllers have not undergone fundamental changes over the past decade. Manufacturers do not propose controllers that exceed the standard Pi-controller on several key technical characteristics, which include expense of energy and resources, accuracy of control and stability margin. Therefore, this article offers resource-efficient Pi-controller. Its use allows to achieve the following objectives: to save energy and resources, to improve automatic control accuracy and to increase the stability margin. A universal energy- efficient PI-controller is put as a basis of this design. Manufacturing tolerances are used to improve its technical characteristics. Situational approach is applied in solving the problem. Computational experiments were carried out for the seven known models of objects of control with the transport delay to assess the effectiveness. In the linear case the superiority of resource-efficient PI-controller compared with energy- efficient PI-controller is characterized by the following results: - the summary changing of the output of controller (modulo) decreases on average 1,75 times. This helps to save energy and resources of actuator; - the error of maximum control is reduced by an average of 1,2 times, thereby increasing the quality of products; - an average operation time of the actuator is decreased by an average of 1,3 times. This ensures resources savings of the actuator. The following fact indicates the increase of stability margin: if the coefficients of transmission of control objects increased to values when the automatic control system with PI-controller is at the limit of stability, then continuous oscillations are observed in the automatic control system with PI-controller. Herewith an acceptable quality of control is realized in the automatic control system with a resource-efficient PI-controller, since the maximum control error is less in 5 times. The benefits of resource-efficient PI-controller are preserved in a variety of operating conditions - in the presence of nonlinear elements and the various controller setting. The presented results confirm the high efficiency of resource-efficient PI-controller compared with both PI-controller and energy- efficient PI-controller. Comprehensive solution of improvement problem of the basic technical characteristics of the PI-controller determines the practical value of the work. Companies of chemical and related industries are interested in the use of controllers to enhance the effectiveness of automatic control systems.

The problem of fault diagnosis in technical systems described by linear dynamic models is studied. The suggested method of diagnosis is based on sliding mode observers estimating the disturbances that then is used for diagnostic observer operation. As a result, a degree of robustness of the diagnostic process is increased significantly. To realize the suggested method, three steps have to be fulfilled. Firstly, the reduced model of the system under consideration invariant with respect to the faults and sensitive to the disturbances is constructed. Based on this model, the sliding mode observer estimating the disturbances is obtained. The feature of such an observer is that a sliding motion takes place forcing the estimation error equal to zero in finite time therefore the disturbances can be estimated. Finally, the diagnostic observer sensitive to the faults and the disturbances and using the estimated disturbances as the known input is designed. This observer generates a residual which is used for decision making about faults. Since the disturbances are used now as the known input, a degree of robustness is increased significantly. Theoretical results are illustrated by practical example of the general electric servoactuator of manipulation robots under absence of the external loading moment.

Today, in technologically advanced countries there are a number of scientific and technical projects to create robotic systems (RS) in various fields of medicine. The additional efforts are wanted for their practical introduction in the extreme environment, in particular, for the rescue of persons of hazardous occupations, which are most at risk when performing their professional activities. In future lunar missions, the particular attention will be necessary for assistance a crew during extravehicular activity (EVA) on the moon's surface. EVA is one of the most important types of flight's operations and requires strict fulfilling the safety requirements, when fulfilling rescue operations in emergency evacuation with using of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR). To select potentially suitable solutions to adapt existing land-based rescue robots to the conditions of human exploration of the Moon, it is necessary to turn an attention to the a couple of important characteristics, such as: the weight and size, the load capacity, resistance to overturning when carrying loads comparable in mass with the mass of the robot, off-road capability across rough terrain with various densities of soil, the natural "Human Robot Interaction" on base of multimodal interfaces for remote robot control, and others. The paper gives the general representation of the problem situations on the lunar surface, when a crew in autonomy conditions has great difficulties, that are connected with the rescue and evacuation of a cosmonaut during EVA into the Lunar Lander in case of crashing the spacesuit's life support system and/or the loss of performance by a cosmonaut.

Principal advantage of robotic systems is the ability to perform tasks of dexterous manipulation with objects with sufficient removal of the person from the operating area. Particularly relevant are issues of robotics operations when working with explosive objects that pose a threat to human life and health. The simplest manipulation tasks include object grasping, which is the initial stage of most operations. Grasp of object is a problem of its immobilization inside the robot's gripper. Solving this problem makes it possible to hold object in the presence of external perturbations. An algorithm for selection of deformable object grasp is considered, taking into account the minimization of contact forces. Distinctive features of the algorithm - taking into consideration the change in the shape of the object's surface and the displacement of its center of mass, caused by deformation of the object during grasping and execution of the manipulation task, and verification of the object desired position reachability at the grasp planning stage. The algorithm for grasp planning includes: an algorithm for generating grasp hypotheses; algorithm for planning the trajectories of gripper's links for object grasping; algorithm for determining the intersections of object's and gripper's links'polygonal model; algorithm for calculating the forces of contact interaction between object and gripper's links; algorithm for determining the center of mass of the object, deformed during grasping; algorithm for estimating the stability of grasp; algorithm for verifying the reachability of the object desired position; algorithm for planning the gripper's joints movement for moving object during manipulation task; algorithm for determining the grasp method.

A general approach to an interpretation of the existing terminology and to an application of the service robot component modularity classifications is considered. Classifications of modules according to functional and structural criteria are presented. Classification of modules according to functional criterion was developed for machine-building products and it is of little use for robot structure descri ption. Structural classification is oriented on a modular presentation of various robot subsystems but it is rather hard to use it to describe modular mechanical structures. Concepts of the modular robot architecture development are considered from positions of the component and functional approaches. The component approach is based on the Design Structure Matrix that gives a possibility to optimize the modular robot structure according to an objective function. The functional approach is used to analyze a composition of the robot functions and to decompose functions onto sub-functions to determine a modular composition of the robot. A brief overview of the morphotronic methods being developed currently and the contact & channel method used for the robots structural design is presented. Morphotronics is a new approach to the formal synthesis of the generalized system architecture. The contact & channel method enables to represent mechatronic robotic devices as a composition of components with inputs and outputs and to develop modular structures.

The analysis of modern development trends and methods of construction of collaborative medical robotic systems is carried out. An approach is proposed for the design of medical collaborative robotics, which is aimed at a purposeful scientific and technical search for new robotic and mechatronic technologies. The goal of developing new technologies is a significant excess of the capabilities of natural human systems in the performance of medical operations. In the following work, the state and development trends of medical robotics such as autonomous robotic surgery and recently found application in a medical field additive manufacturing are studied. Design approach applicable to the relatively new medical collaborative robotics is proposed. Several mathematical criteria with respect to both engineering and medical aspects are developed. Based on the analysis of typical movements and trajectories of the medical instrument, the following functional criteria were used in the design: - the standard deviation from a linear (semilunar, scalloped) trajectory is the deviation value at each point from its projection to the midline; - the error in the magnitude of the air gap between the laser tip and the treated biological tissue; - accuracy of the average speed of movement of a medical instrument; - standard deviation from the average speed of movement of a medical instrument. Components of efficient surgery robot are described. Results of the development of two experimental setups for the maxil-lofacial laser surgery robotic system and robotic based 3D bio-printing 'in situ', respectively, are given. Proposed systems exceed the capabilities of human in the performance of medical operations, and can be a basis for the development of principally new maxillofacial laser surgery and 3D bio-printing robotic based systems. This work accomplished by collaboration of Moscow State Technological University "STANKIN" and Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry named after A I. Evdokimov.

The article presents an approach to using of visual location of an arbitrary number of known natural landmarks for correction of position estimation of a mobile robot. The approach is based on using of the Extended Kalman Filter to perform steps of the position prediction and correction based on the visual location. The visual location is performed using a calibrated camera (or a set of cameras) installed on the mobile robot. The task of a mobile robot navigation in a case of poorly determined conditions is often soled using a set of expensive LIDARs. Other sensors like GNSS and odometer often used in mobile robots are usually not precise enough (for example when maneuvering on intersections). The recent research in the field of computer vision allows creation of much less expensive systems based on image analysis from one or several cameras. When used together with other sensors such system can significantly increase the navigation precision and stability. Known visual navigation approaches like visual SLAM and visual odometer are often used but they are often not precise enough especially when the camera movement is mostly rotating. A set of one or more natural visual landmarks can be located automatically in real time using mobile robot cameras. Existing methods provide partial solutions for the position or direction estimation using 3 or more landmarks. The proposed approach is based on using of the Extended Kalman Filter for efficient fusion of the odometer and GNSS data with the visual location of one or more landmarks. Since all the landmarks are used one at a time independently the number of landmarks, cameras, their types and positions are arbitrary. The method is working with one camera and one landmark as well as with a round view camera system with one or many landmarks. Experiments involving autonomous driving through different intersections shown the feasibility of reaching of the accuracy of horizontal position of 10 cm and rotation of 1° and below. The method has been developed for improving of unmanned vehicles navigation at intersections but can be applied to navigation of different ground, space, marine and underwater mobile robots.

The article contains results of research on the possibility of using an ultrasonic sensor in the sensor system of a mobile robot to determine the shape of the obstacle. The ultrasonic sensor has a wide beam aperture, i.e. large measuring angle (measuring angle -30°). Therefore, such a sensor allows only detecting an obstacle and determining a certain distance to him. But it is not known from which obstacle point the "echo" is received and it is not known to what part of the obstacle this distance is measured. The sensor cannot determine the shape of the obstacle because of low space resolution. For example, when a robot moves in a residential or office rooms, it would be desirable to identify obstacles such as "corners formed by walls" (internal or external) or "doorways" (with doors open or closed). A hypothesis was proposed that the use of scanning angular movements of the ultrasonic sensor will increase its resolution, required to determine the shape of the obstacle. The pivot-tilt mechanism was developed and assembled. The ultrasonic sensor attached on this computer-controlled mechanism and by algorithmic analysis of the data coming from the sensor during the scanning process, the form of the obstacle was recognized. Was found that using of algorithmic analysis is possible to determine the shapes of flat object, such as: "flat wall", "outer corner", "inner corner", "door opening with an open door", etc. This mechanism is expected to be used in the sensor system of a heterogeneous modular mobile robot.

In the article, based on the analysis of the world experience in the application of remotely-controlled robotic systems, it is concluded that the mass application of irrationality in the course of a prospective combined arms battle is irrational. The main disadvantages of classical remote control in combat conditions are increased requirements for the communication channel, limited range, unmasking of the object and control point, as well as the possibility of using radio electronic and fire countermeasures due to intensive radio exchange. It is shown that the real increase in the efficiency of the use of robotic complexes for military purposes is possible when they are used as part of groups, but they must have elements of autonomy and the ability to solve intellectual problems. Ensuring the autonomy of the functioning of robots and their groups located at a considerable distance from the control center, when performing tasks for their intended purpose, is primarily related to the development of intelligent combat weapon control systems for combat robots, including all the main phases of combat operations. The issues of acquiring knowledge for the construction of intelligent weapon control systems for autonomous terrestrial robots are considered. This phase of the life cycle is proposed, such as the pilot operation of robotic complexes for military purposes, used to determine the appearance and formation of intellectual decision-making systems, the acquisition in the course of it of formalization of knowledge about typical tasks of operation, a list, characteristics and attributes of typical goals, sequence of actions, list emerging alternatives in making decisions in the course of combat operations and the rules for their selection. It is proposed to involve engineers in knowledge during the whole cycle of pilot operation to form the rules of combat use of robotic complexes by experience, to formalize the knowledge gained for subsequent automation of decision-making processes and the formation of intellectual systems for military-type military hardware.

The article presents an overview of modern approaches to the use of virtual reality tools as a means of training operational staff of ergatic systems. The most important aspect in the preparation of the operator of the ergatic system is the reproduction of the psychophysiological state, as in real professional practice. Virtual reality can have a profound psycho-physiological effect, creating an environment close to the real situation. Separate accents are made on the problems of using virtual and augmented reality tools related to probabilistic cognitive dissonance arising in the management of real physical objects. At the same time, virtual reality allows more effective activation of cognitive processes in imitative learning. The prospects for using virtual reality tools in vocational training are outlined. An extensive analysis and systematization of the use of virtual reality as simulators has been carried out. Recommendations for the preparation of professionally important qualities of operators of ergatic systems are given depending on the type of simulation training in virtual reality. Particular attention was paid to the purpose of simulators of virtual reality and examples of simulating work activity. The limitations and disadvantages of virtual systems in simulation training are considered. The material presented can open new prospects for further research studies. It seems interesting to those who work in the field of ergatic systems and human-computer interaction.

Network-centric business implemented via open self-organizing B2B production network is a relatively novel concept of global business organization that has become the subject of the active research and development during the last decade. In the developed countries, this paradigm is considered as a new very promising future model of distributed business and virtual organizations. The paper analyzes the state-of-the-art in this field, formulates its key problems and challenges and proposes, for B2B production network, an open self-organized multi-agent architecture. It describes and justifies the proposed basic models designed to solve the key B2B production network applied tasks. Among them, it outlines panning task that is allocation of particular components of a completely distributed business process to particular network nodes to execute, and distributed coordination of local schedules of the network nodes solving the allocated subtasks of the shared business processes. The significant attention is also paid to the description of the developed model of the software infrastructure intended to support network node communications and interactions in ad-hoc (p2p) manner. The fundamental role of self-organization as the basis of the B2B-open network applied and infrastructural functionalities is emphasized. The B2B production network is considered as a basic class of applications that best fits great potential of self-organized B2B network as a distributed production model.

The article is devoted to the problem of expanding the capabilities of onboard GLONASS. In GLONASS, the implementation of various methods is possible to determine the parameters of the object's trajectory. Pseudo-range method is supplemented with well-known error compensation methodologies. In particular, a two-frequency error determination method introduced to compensate errors of radio signal passed through the ionosphere. This makes it possible to solve the problem of precise estimation of object's location coordinates very effectively. It is actual to consider the location coordinates as the initial information in the construction of onboard navigation algorithms for estimating other parameters of the trajectory, among which the most important is the velocity vector of the object relative to the Earth surface. The article presents a mathematical model of the inverse trajectory problem, the purpose of which is to evaluate object's location coordinates derivatives, described the used technology, research is carried out and procedures are proposed to improve the solvability of the problem under conditions of finite accuracy of measurements and representation of numbers in a computing environment. To solve the problem, a neural-like algorithm of the Kalman type is proposed. The results of computational experiments are also presented.

The problem of optimal reorientation of spacecraft orbit is considered in quaternion formulation. Control (jet thrust vector orthogonal to the plane of the orbit) is limited in magnitude. It is necessary to minimize the costs of characteristic velocity for the process of reorientation of the spacecraft orbit. To describe the motion of the spacecraft center of mass quaternion differential equation of the orientation of the orbital coordinate system was used. The actual special case of the problem, when the spacecraft's orbit is circular and control equals to its maximum (in modulus) value on adjacent parts of active spacecraft motion (there are also parts of passive motion of the spacecraft), was considered. Various iterative methods (Newton's method, gradient descent method, etc.) are often used to solve boundary value problems obtained as a result of the maximum principle. There are no formulas for finding unknown initial values of conjugate variables. Original evolutionary algorithm for finding the trajectories of spacecraft fastest flights is built. In this case the lengths of the sections of the spacecraft motion are unknown. This method does not require any information about the unknown initial values of conjugate variables. The high speed of operation of the proposed evolutionary algorithm is achieved through the use of existing in this case, a known analytical solution of equations of the problem. Examples of numerical solution of the problem for the case when the difference between the initial and final orientations of the spacecraft's orbit equals to a few (or tens of) degrees in angular measure, are given. Also the case was considered when the final orientation of the spacecraft's orbit corresponds to one of the satellites of Russian GLONASS orbital grouping. The graphs of components of the quaternion of orientation of the orbital coordinate system, the deviation of the current position of the spacecraft's orbit to the required and optimal control are drawn. Specific features and regularities of the process of optimum reorientation of the spacecraft's orbit are given.