Ambler - Performance of a six-legged planetary rover

Science.gov (United States)

Krotkov, E. P.; Simmons, R. G.; Whittaker, W. L.

1992-08-01

In this paper, several performance metrics are quantified for the Ambler, a six-legged robot configured for autonomous traversal of Mars-like terrain. Power consumption measures are presented for walking on sandy terrain and for vertical lifts at different velocities. The performance of a novel dead reckoning approach is documented, and its accuracy is analyzed. The results of autonomous walking experiments are described in terms of terrain traversed, walking speed, and endurance.

Improving the efficiency of spatially selective operations for agricultural robotics in cropping field

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. L. Li

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Cropping fields often have well-defined poor-performing patches due to spatial and temporal variability. In an attempt to increase crop performance on poor patches, spatially selective field operations may be performed by agricultural robotics to apply additional inputs with targeted requirements. This paper addresses the route planning problem for an agricultural robot that has to treat some poor-patches in a field with row crops, with respect to the minimization of the total non-working distance travelled during headland turnings and in-field travel distance. The traversal of patches in the field is expressed as the traversal of a mixed weighted graph, and then the problem of finding an optimal patch sequence is formulated as an asymmetric traveling salesman problem and solved by the partheno-genetic algorithm. The proposed method is applied on a cropping field located in Northwestern China. Research results show that by using optimum patch sequences, the total non-working distance travelled during headland turnings and in-field travel distance can be reduced. But the savings on the non-working distance inside the field interior depend on the size and location of patches in the field, and the introduction of agricultural robotics is beneficial to increase field efficiency.

Improving the efficiency of spatially selective operations for agricultural robotics in cropping field

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Li, Y. L.; Yi, S. P.

2013-05-01

Cropping fields often have well-defined poor-performing patches due to spatial and temporal variability. In an attempt to increase crop performance on poor patches, spatially selective field operations may be performed by agricultural robotics to apply additional inputs with targeted requirements. This paper addresses the route planning problem for an agricultural robot that has to treat some poor-patches in a field with row crops, with respect to the minimization of the total non-working distance travelled during headland turnings and in-field travel distance. The traversal of patches in the field is expressed as the traversal of a mixed weighted graph, and then the problem of finding an optimal patch sequence is formulated as an asymmetric traveling salesman problem and solved by the parthenogenetic algorithm. The proposed method is applied on a cropping field located in Northwestern China. Research results show that by using optimum patch sequences, the total non-working distance travelled during headland turnings and in-field travel distance can be reduced. But the savings on the non-working distance inside the field interior depend on the size and location of patches in the field, and the introduction of agricultural robotics is beneficial to increase field efficiency. (Author) 21 refs.

Performance Evaluation Methods for Assistive Robotic Technology

Science.gov (United States)

Tsui, Katherine M.; Feil-Seifer, David J.; Matarić, Maja J.; Yanco, Holly A.

Robots have been developed for several assistive technology domains, including intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorders, eldercare, and post-stroke rehabilitation. Assistive robots have also been used to promote independent living through the use of devices such as intelligent wheelchairs, assistive robotic arms, and external limb prostheses. Work in the broad field of assistive robotic technology can be divided into two major research phases: technology development, in which new devices, software, and interfaces are created; and clinical, in which assistive technology is applied to a given end-user population. Moving from technology development towards clinical applications is a significant challenge. Developing performance metrics for assistive robots poses a related set of challenges. In this paper, we survey several areas of assistive robotic technology in order to derive and demonstrate domain-specific means for evaluating the performance of such systems. We also present two case studies of applied performance measures and a discussion regarding the ubiquity of functional performance measures across the sampled domains. Finally, we present guidelines for incorporating human performance metrics into end-user evaluations of assistive robotic technologies.

Manifold traversing as a model for learning control of autonomous robots

Science.gov (United States)

Szakaly, Zoltan F.; Schenker, Paul S.

1992-01-01

This paper describes a recipe for the construction of control systems that support complex machines such as multi-limbed/multi-fingered robots. The robot has to execute a task under varying environmental conditions and it has to react reasonably when previously unknown conditions are encountered. Its behavior should be learned and/or trained as opposed to being programmed. The paper describes one possible method for organizing the data that the robot has learned by various means. This framework can accept useful operator input even if it does not fully specify what to do, and can combine knowledge from autonomous, operator assisted and programmed experiences.

Rough terrain motion planning for actively reconfigurable mobile robots

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brunner, Michael

2015-01-01

In the aftermath of the Tohoku earthquake and the nuclear meltdown at the power plant of Fukushima Daiichi in 2011, reconfigurable robots like the iRobot Packbot were deployed. Instead of humans, the robots were used to investigate contaminated areas. Other incidents are the two major earthquakes in Northern Italy in May 2012. Besides many casualties, a large number of historical buildings was severely damaged. Due to the imminent danger of collapse, it was too dangerous for rescue personnel to enter many of the buildings. Therefore, the sites were inspected by reconfigurable robots, which are able to traverse the rubble and debris of the partially destroyed buildings. This thesis develops a navigation system enabling wheeled and tracked robots to safely traverse rough terrain and challenging structures. It consists of a planning mechanism and a controller. The focus of this thesis, however, is on the contribution to motion planning. The planning scheme employs a hierarchical approach to motion planning for actively reconfigurable robots in rough environments. Using a map of the environment the algorithm estimates the traversability under the consideration of uncertainties. Based on this analysis, an initial path search determines an approximate solution with respect to the robot's operating limits.Subsequently, a detailed planning step refines the initial path where it is required. The refinement step considers the robot's actuators and stability in addition to the quantities of the first search. Determining the robot-terrain interaction is very important in rough terrain. This thesis presents two path refinement approaches: a deterministic and a randomized approach. The experimental evaluation investigates the separate components of the planning scheme, the robot-terrain interaction for instance.In simulation as well as in real world experiments the evaluation demonstrates the necessity of such a planning algorithm in rough terrain and it provides

Rough terrain motion planning for actively reconfigurable mobile robots

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brunner, Michael

2015-02-05

In the aftermath of the Tohoku earthquake and the nuclear meltdown at the power plant of Fukushima Daiichi in 2011, reconfigurable robots like the iRobot Packbot were deployed. Instead of humans, the robots were used to investigate contaminated areas. Other incidents are the two major earthquakes in Northern Italy in May 2012. Besides many casualties, a large number of historical buildings was severely damaged. Due to the imminent danger of collapse, it was too dangerous for rescue personnel to enter many of the buildings. Therefore, the sites were inspected by reconfigurable robots, which are able to traverse the rubble and debris of the partially destroyed buildings. This thesis develops a navigation system enabling wheeled and tracked robots to safely traverse rough terrain and challenging structures. It consists of a planning mechanism and a controller. The focus of this thesis, however, is on the contribution to motion planning. The planning scheme employs a hierarchical approach to motion planning for actively reconfigurable robots in rough environments. Using a map of the environment the algorithm estimates the traversability under the consideration of uncertainties. Based on this analysis, an initial path search determines an approximate solution with respect to the robot's operating limits.Subsequently, a detailed planning step refines the initial path where it is required. The refinement step considers the robot's actuators and stability in addition to the quantities of the first search. Determining the robot-terrain interaction is very important in rough terrain. This thesis presents two path refinement approaches: a deterministic and a randomized approach. The experimental evaluation investigates the separate components of the planning scheme, the robot-terrain interaction for instance.In simulation as well as in real world experiments the evaluation demonstrates the necessity of such a planning algorithm in rough terrain and it provides

Lunar surface exploration using mobile robots

Science.gov (United States)

Nishida, Shin-Ichiro; Wakabayashi, Sachiko

2012-06-01

A lunar exploration architecture study is being carried out by space agencies. JAXA is carrying out research and development of a mobile robot (rover) to be deployed on the lunar surface for exploration and outpost construction. The main target areas for outpost construction and lunar exploration are mountainous zones. The moon's surface is covered by regolith. Achieving a steady traversal of such irregular terrain constitutes the major technical problem for rovers. A newly developed lightweight crawler mechanism can effectively traverse such irregular terrain because of its low contact force with the ground. This fact was determined on the basis of the mass and expected payload of the rover. This paper describes a plan for Japanese lunar surface exploration using mobile robots, and presents the results of testing and analysis needed in their development. This paper also gives an overview of the lunar exploration robot to be deployed in the SELENE follow-on mission, and the composition of its mobility, navigation, and control systems.

Vision Assisted Laser Scanner Navigation for Autonomous Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Jens Christian; Andersen, Nils Axel; Ravn, Ole

2008-01-01

This paper describes a navigation method based on road detection using both a laser scanner and a vision sensor. The method is to classify the surface in front of the robot into traversable segments (road) and obstacles using the laser scanner, this classifies the area just in front of the robot ...

Design and Development of a Step Climbing Wheeled Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Srijan BHATTACHARYA

2009-08-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a design of Step Climbing Robot that can move in uneven environment and traverse a slope or staircase. The condition imposed on this new system of robot is that it will move only in linear fashion, which will reduce the demands on the physical complexity of the robot unit. A summary of the current state of research in the field of mobile robots as it relates to robot stair climbing and moving in uneven surfaces. The architecture of the robot is developed and compared with the previous design.

Robotics Vision-based Heuristic Reasoning for Underwater Target Tracking and Navigation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chua Kia

2005-09-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a robotics vision-based heuristic reasoning system for underwater target tracking and navigation. This system is introduced to improve the level of automation of underwater Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs operations. A prototype which combines computer vision with an underwater robotics system is successfully designed and developed to perform target tracking and intelligent navigation. This study focuses on developing image processing algorithms and fuzzy inference system for the analysis of the terrain. The vision system developed is capable of interpreting underwater scene by extracting subjective uncertainties of the object of interest. Subjective uncertainties are further processed as multiple inputs of a fuzzy inference system that is capable of making crisp decisions concerning where to navigate. The important part of the image analysis is morphological filtering. The applications focus on binary images with the extension of gray-level concepts. An open-loop fuzzy control system is developed for classifying the traverse of terrain. The great achievement is the system's capability to recognize and perform target tracking of the object of interest (pipeline in perspective view based on perceived condition. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated by computer and prototype simulations. This work is originated from the desire to develop robotics vision system with the ability to mimic the human expert's judgement and reasoning when maneuvering ROV in the traverse of the underwater terrain.

Robotics Vision-based Heuristic Reasoning for Underwater Target Tracking and Navigation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chua Kia

2008-11-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a robotics vision-based heuristic reasoning system for underwater target tracking and navigation. This system is introduced to improve the level of automation of underwater Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs operations. A prototype which combines computer vision with an underwater robotics system is successfully designed and developed to perform target tracking and intelligent navigation. This study focuses on developing image processing algorithms and fuzzy inference system for the analysis of the terrain. The vision system developed is capable of interpreting underwater scene by extracting subjective uncertainties of the object of interest. Subjective uncertainties are further processed as multiple inputs of a fuzzy inference system that is capable of making crisp decisions concerning where to navigate. The important part of the image analysis is morphological filtering. The applications focus on binary images with the extension of gray-level concepts. An open-loop fuzzy control system is developed for classifying the traverse of terrain. The great achievement is the system's capability to recognize and perform target tracking of the object of interest (pipeline in perspective view based on perceived condition. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated by computer and prototype simulations. This work is originated from the desire to develop robotics vision system with the ability to mimic the human expert's judgement and reasoning when maneuvering ROV in the traverse of the underwater terrain.

A locust-inspired miniature jumping robot.

Science.gov (United States)

Zaitsev, Valentin; Gvirsman, Omer; Ben Hanan, Uri; Weiss, Avi; Ayali, Amir; Kosa, Gabor

2015-11-25

Unmanned ground vehicles are mostly wheeled, tracked, or legged. These locomotion mechanisms have a limited ability to traverse rough terrain and obstacles that are higher than the robot's center of mass. In order to improve the mobility of small robots it is necessary to expand the variety of their motion gaits. Jumping is one of nature's solutions to the challenge of mobility in difficult terrain. The desert locust is the model for the presented bio-inspired design of a jumping mechanism for a small mobile robot. The basic mechanism is similar to that of the semilunar process in the hind legs of the locust, and is based on the cocking of a torsional spring by wrapping a tendon-like wire around the shaft of a miniature motor. In this study we present the jumping mechanism design, and the manufacturing and performance analysis of two demonstrator prototypes. The most advanced jumping robot demonstrator is power autonomous, weighs 23 gr, and is capable of jumping to a height of 3.35 m, covering a distance of 1.37 m.

Evolving Robot Controllers for Structured Environments Through Environment Decomposition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Moreno, Rodrigo; Faiña, Andres; Støy, Kasper

2015-01-01

In this paper we aim to develop a controller that allows a robot to traverse an structured environment. The approach we use is to decompose the environment into simple sub-environments that we use as basis for evolving the controller. Specifically, we decompose a narrow corridor environment...... environments and that the order in which the decomposed sub-environments are presented in sequence impacts the performance of the evolutionary algorithm....

Biologically-Inspired Control Architecture for Musical Performance Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jorge Solis

2014-10-01

Full Text Available At Waseda University, since 1990, the authors have been developing anthropomorphic musical performance robots as a means for understanding human control, introducing novel ways of interaction between musical partners and robots, and proposing applications for humanoid robots. In this paper, the design of a biologically-inspired control architecture for both an anthropomorphic flutist robot and a saxophone playing robot are described. As for the flutist robot, the authors have focused on implementing an auditory feedback system to improve the calibration procedure for the robot in order to play all the notes correctly during a performance. In particular, the proposed auditory feedback system is composed of three main modules: an Expressive Music Generator, a Feed Forward Air Pressure Control System and a Pitch Evaluation System. As for the saxophone-playing robot, a pressure-pitch controller (based on the feedback error learning to improve the sound produced by the robot during a musical performance was proposed and implemented. In both cases studied, a set of experiments are described to verify the improvements achieved while considering biologically-inspired control approaches.

Human-Robot Planetary Exploration Teams

Science.gov (United States)

Tyree, Kimberly

2004-01-01

The EVA Robotic Assistant (ERA) project at NASA Johnson Space Center studies human-robot interaction and robotic assistance for future human planetary exploration. Over the past four years, the ERA project has been performing field tests with one or more four-wheeled robotic platforms and one or more space-suited humans. These tests have provided experience in how robots can assist humans, how robots and humans can communicate in remote environments, and what combination of humans and robots works best for different scenarios. The most efficient way to understand what tasks human explorers will actually perform, and how robots can best assist them, is to have human explorers and scientists go and explore in an outdoor, planetary-relevant environment, with robots to demonstrate what they are capable of, and roboticists to observe the results. It can be difficult to have a human expert itemize all the needed tasks required for exploration while sitting in a lab: humans do not always remember all the details, and experts in one arena may not even recognize that the lower level tasks they take for granted may be essential for a roboticist to know about. Field tests thus create conditions that more accurately reveal missing components and invalid assumptions, as well as allow tests and comparisons of new approaches and demonstrations of working systems. We have performed field tests in our local rock yard, in several locations in the Arizona desert, and in the Utah desert. We have tested multiple exploration scenarios, such as geological traverses, cable or solar panel deployments, and science instrument deployments. The configuration of our robot can be changed, based on what equipment is needed for a given scenario, and the sensor mast can even be placed on one of two robot bases, each with different motion capabilities. The software architecture of our robot is also designed to be as modular as possible, to allow for hardware and configuration changes. Two focus

Stable Stair Climbing in a Simple Hexapod Robot

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Moore, E. Z; Buehler, M

2001-01-01

.... Its ability to traverse highly fractured and unstable terrain has already been documented. In this paper, we describe open loop controllers for our small robot to climb and descend regular stairs...

Terrain Perception in a Shape Shifting Rolling-Crawling Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fuchida Masataka

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Terrain perception greatly enhances the performance of robots, providing them with essential information on the nature of terrain being traversed. Several living beings in nature offer interesting inspirations which adopt different gait patterns according to nature of terrain. In this paper, we present a novel terrain perception system for our bioinspired robot, Scorpio, to classify the terrain based on visual features and autonomously choose appropriate locomotion mode. Our Scorpio robot is capable of crawling and rolling locomotion modes, mimicking Cebrenus Rechenburgi, a member of the huntsman spider family. Our terrain perception system uses Speeded Up Robust Feature (SURF description method along with color information. Feature extraction is followed by Bag of Word method (BoW and Support Vector Machine (SVM for terrain classification. Experiments were conducted with our Scorpio robot to establish the efficacy and validity of the proposed approach. In our experiments, we achieved a recognition accuracy of over 90% across four terrain types namely grass, gravel, wooden deck, and concrete.

Human-like robots for space and hazardous environments

Science.gov (United States)

1994-01-01

The three year goal for the Kansas State USRA/NASA Senior Design team is to design and build a walking autonomous robotic rover. The rover should be capable of crossing rough terrain, traversing human made obstacles (such as stairs and doors), and moving through human and robot occupied spaces without collision. The rover is also to evidence considerable decision making ability, navigation, and path planning skills.

Traversing psychological distance.

Science.gov (United States)

Liberman, Nira; Trope, Yaacov

2014-07-01

Traversing psychological distance involves going beyond direct experience, and includes planning, perspective taking, and contemplating counterfactuals. Consistent with this view, temporal, spatial, and social distances as well as hypotheticality are associated, affect each other, and are inferred from one another. Moreover, traversing all distances involves the use of abstraction, which we define as forming a belief about the substitutability for a specific purpose of subjectively distinct objects. Indeed, across many instances of both abstraction and psychological distancing, more abstract constructs are used for more distal objects. Here, we describe the implications of this relation for prediction, choice, communication, negotiation, and self-control. We ask whether traversing distance is a general mental ability and whether distance should replace expectancy in expected-utility theories. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Performance of the Improvements of the CAESAR Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Riaan Stopforth

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Robots are able to enter concealed and unstable environments inaccessible to rescuers. Previous Urban Search And Rescue (USAR robots have experienced problems with malfunction of communication systems, traction systems, control and telemetry. These problems were accessed and improved in developing a prototype robot called CAESAR, which is an acronym for Contractible Arms Elevating Search And Rescue. Problems encountered with previous USAR robots are discussed. The mechanical, sensory and communication systems that were used on CAESAR are briefly explained. Each system was separately tested by performed experiments. Results of field tests and the robot performance experienced during a disaster scenario that was created are discussed. The capabilities of CAESAR are explained in these tests to determine if some of the problems experienced previously are solved.

Approaching human performance the functionality-driven Awiwi robot hand

CERN Document Server

Grebenstein, Markus

2014-01-01

Humanoid robotics have made remarkable progress since the dawn of robotics. So why don't we have humanoid robot assistants in day-to-day life yet? This book analyzes the keys to building a successful humanoid robot for field robotics, where collisions become an unavoidable part of the game. The author argues that the design goal should be real anthropomorphism, as opposed to mere human-like appearance. He deduces three major characteristics to aim for when designing a humanoid robot, particularly robot hands: _ Robustness against impacts _ Fast dynamics _ Human-like grasping and manipulation performance   Instead of blindly copying human anatomy, this book opts for a holistic design me-tho-do-lo-gy. It analyzes human hands and existing robot hands to elucidate the important functionalities that are the building blocks toward these necessary characteristics.They are the keys to designing an anthropomorphic robot hand, as illustrated in the high performance anthropomorphic Awiwi Hand presented in this book.  ...

Jumping robots: a biomimetic solution to locomotion across rough terrain.

Science.gov (United States)

Armour, Rhodri; Paskins, Keith; Bowyer, Adrian; Vincent, Julian; Megill, William; Bomphrey, Richard

2007-09-01

This paper introduces jumping robots as a means to traverse rough terrain; such terrain can pose problems for traditional wheeled, tracked and legged designs. The diversity of jumping mechanisms found in nature is explored to support the theory that jumping is a desirable ability for a robot locomotion system to incorporate, and then the size-related constraints are determined from first principles. A series of existing jumping robots are presented and their performance summarized. The authors present two new biologically inspired jumping robots, Jollbot and Glumper, both of which incorporate additional locomotion techniques of rolling and gliding respectively. Jollbot consists of metal hoop springs forming a 300 mm diameter sphere, and when jumping it raises its centre of gravity by 0.22 m and clears a height of 0.18 m. Glumper is of octahedral shape, with four 'legs' that each comprise two 500 mm lengths of CFRP tube articulating around torsion spring 'knees'. It is able to raise its centre of gravity by 1.60 m and clears a height of 1.17 m. The jumping performance of the jumping robot designs presented is discussed and compared against some specialized jumping animals. Specific power output is thought to be the performance-limiting factor for a jumping robot, which requires the maximization of the amount of energy that can be stored together with a minimization of mass. It is demonstrated that this can be achieved through optimization and careful materials selection.

Performance of a six-legged planetary rover - Power, positioning, and autonomous walking

Science.gov (United States)

Krotkov, Eric; Simmons, Reid

The authors quantify several performance metrics for the Ambler, a six-legged robot configured for autonomous traversal of Mars-like terrain. They present power consumption measures for walking on sandy terrain and for vertical lifts at different velocities. They document the accuracy of a novel dead reckoning approach, and analyze the accuracy. They describe the results of autonomous walking experiments in terms of terrain traversed, walking speed, number of instructions executed and endurance.

A Novel Randomized Search Technique for Multiple Mobile Robot Paths Planning In Repetitive Dynamic Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vahid Behravesh

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Presented article is studying the issue of path navigating for numerous robots. Our presented approach is based on both priority and the robust method for path finding in repetitive dynamic. Presented model can be generally implementable and useable: We do not assume any restriction regarding the quantity of levels of freedom for robots, and robots of diverse kinds can be applied at the same time. We proposed a random method and hill-climbing technique in the area based on precedence plans, which is used to determine a solution to a given trajectory planning problem and to make less the extent of total track. Our method plans trajectories for particular robots in the setting-time scope. Therefore, in order to specifying the interval of constant objects similar to other robots and the extent of the tracks which is traversed. For measuring the hazard for robots to conflict with each other it applied a method based on probability of the movements of robots. This algorithm applied to real robots with successful results. The proposed method performed and judged on both real robots and in simulation. We performed sequence of100tests with 8 robots for comparing with coordination method and current performances are effective. However, maximizing the performance is still possible. These performances estimations performed on Windows operating system and 3GHz Intel Pentium IV with and compiles with GCC 3.4. We used our PCGA robot for all experiments.  For a large environment of 19×15m2where we accomplished 40tests, our model is competent to plan high-quality paths in a severely short time (less than a second. Moreover, this article utilized lookup tables to keep expenses the formerly navigated robots made, increasing the number of robots don’t expand computation time.

Control Algorithms for a Shape-shifting Tracked Robotic Vehicle Climbing Obstacles

Science.gov (United States)

2008-12-01

robot be- havioural skills. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology is developing the shape-shifting robotic platform Octopus [6] (Figure l(b...and traverse steep (a) Lurker (b) Octopus (c) NUGV (d) Chaos (e) STRV Figure 1: Shape-shifting robotic vehicles in different research labs. DRDC...situations. The system is assumed stuck when vv?; + v~ + v’i) < 0.01 mls or Vx < O. Only forward movements are considered in this work, for this reason

Robotics virtual rail system and method

Science.gov (United States)

Bruemmer, David J [Idaho Falls, ID; Few, Douglas A [Idaho Falls, ID; Walton, Miles C [Idaho Falls, ID

2011-07-05

A virtual track or rail system and method is described for execution by a robot. A user, through a user interface, generates a desired path comprised of at least one segment representative of the virtual track for the robot. Start and end points are assigned to the desired path and velocities are also associated with each of the at least one segment of the desired path. A waypoint file is generated including positions along the virtual track representing the desired path with the positions beginning from the start point to the end point including the velocities of each of the at least one segment. The waypoint file is sent to the robot for traversing along the virtual track.

A New Terrain Classification Framework Using Proprioceptive Sensors for Mobile Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kai Zhao

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Mobile robots that operate in real-world environments interact with the surroundings to generate complex acoustics and vibration signals, which carry rich information about the terrain. This paper presents a new terrain classification framework that utilizes both acoustics and vibration signals resulting from the robot-terrain interaction. As an alternative to handcrafted domain-specific feature extraction, a two-stage feature selection method combining ReliefF and mRMR algorithms was developed to select optimal feature subsets that carry more discriminative information. As different data sources can provide complementary information, a multiclassifier combination method was proposed by considering a priori knowledge and fusing predictions from five data sources: one acoustic data source and four vibration data sources. In this study, four conceptually different classifiers were employed to perform the classification, each with a different number of optimal features. Signals were collected using a tracked robot moving at three different speeds on six different terrains. The new framework successfully improved classification performance of different classifiers using the newly developed optimal feature subsets. The greater improvement was observed for robot traversing at lower speeds.

Genetic Optimization and Simulation of a Piezoelectric Pipe-Crawling Inspection Robot

Science.gov (United States)

Hollinger, Geoffrey A.; Briscoe, Jeri M.

2004-01-01

Using the DarwinZk development software, a genetic algorithm (GA) was used to design and optimize a pipe-crawling robot for parameters such as mass, power consumption, and joint extension to further the research of the Miniature Inspection Systems Technology (MIST) team. In an attempt to improve on existing designs, a new robot was developed, the piezo robot. The final proposed design uses piezoelectric expansion actuators to move the robot with a 'chimneying' method employed by mountain climbers and greatly improves on previous designs in load bearing ability, pipe traversing specifications, and field usability. This research shows the advantages of GA assisted design in the field of robotics.

Generalising tree traversals to DAGs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bahr, Patrick; Axelsson, Emil

2015-01-01

We present a recursion scheme based on attribute grammars that can be transparently applied to trees and acyclic graphs. Our recursion scheme allows the programmer to implement a tree traversal and then apply it to compact graph representations of trees instead. The resulting graph traversals avoid...... is not sound. Therefore, we complement our implementation of the recursion scheme with a number of correspondence theorems that ensure soundness for various classes of traversals. We illustrate the practical applicability of the implementation as well as the complementing theory with a number of examples....

Comparison of precision and speed in laparoscopic and robot-assisted surgical task performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Zihni, Ahmed; Gerull, William D; Cavallo, Jaime A; Ge, Tianjia; Ray, Shuddhadeb; Chiu, Jason; Brunt, L Michael; Awad, Michael M

2018-03-01

Robotic platforms have the potential advantage of providing additional dexterity and precision to surgeons while performing complex laparoscopic tasks, especially for those in training. Few quantitative evaluations of surgical task performance comparing laparoscopic and robotic platforms among surgeons of varying experience levels have been done. We compared measures of quality and efficiency of Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery task performance on these platforms in novices and experienced laparoscopic and robotic surgeons. Fourteen novices, 12 expert laparoscopic surgeons (>100 laparoscopic procedures performed, no robotics experience), and five expert robotic surgeons (>25 robotic procedures performed) performed three Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery tasks on both laparoscopic and robotic platforms: peg transfer (PT), pattern cutting (PC), and intracorporeal suturing. All tasks were repeated three times by each subject on each platform in a randomized order. Mean completion times and mean errors per trial (EPT) were calculated for each task on both platforms. Results were compared using Student's t-test (P task performance was slower on the robotic platform compared with laparoscopy. In comparisons of expert laparoscopists performing tasks on the laparoscopic platform and expert robotic surgeons performing tasks on the robotic platform, expert robotic surgeons demonstrated fewer errors during the PC task (P = 0.009). Robotic assistance provided a reduction in errors at all experience levels for some laparoscopic tasks, but no benefit in the speed of task performance. Robotic assistance may provide some benefit in precision of surgical task performance. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Investigation of human-robot interface performance in household environments

Science.gov (United States)

Cremer, Sven; Mirza, Fahad; Tuladhar, Yathartha; Alonzo, Rommel; Hingeley, Anthony; Popa, Dan O.

2016-05-01

Today, assistive robots are being introduced into human environments at an increasing rate. Human environments are highly cluttered and dynamic, making it difficult to foresee all necessary capabilities and pre-program all desirable future skills of the robot. One approach to increase robot performance is semi-autonomous operation, allowing users to intervene and guide the robot through difficult tasks. To this end, robots need intuitive Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs) that support fine motion control without overwhelming the operator. In this study we evaluate the performance of several interfaces that balance autonomy and teleoperation of a mobile manipulator for accomplishing several household tasks. Our proposed HMI framework includes teleoperation devices such as a tablet, as well as physical interfaces in the form of piezoresistive pressure sensor arrays. Mobile manipulation experiments were performed with a sensorized KUKA youBot, an omnidirectional platform with a 5 degrees of freedom (DOF) arm. The pick and place tasks involved navigation and manipulation of objects in household environments. Performance metrics included time for task completion and position accuracy.

Minimizing Hexapod Robot Foot Deviations Using Multilayer Perceptron

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vytautas Valaitis

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Rough-terrain traversability is one of the most valuable characteristics of walking robots. Even despite their slower speeds and more complex control algorithms, walking robots have far wider usability than wheeled or tracked robots. However, efficient movement over irregular surfaces can only be achieved by eliminating all possible difficulties, which in many cases are caused by a high number of degrees of freedom, feet slippage, frictions and inertias between different robot parts or even badly developed inverse kinematics (IK. In this paper we address the hexapod robot-foot deviation problem. We compare the foot-positioning accuracy of unconfigured inverse kinematics and Multilayer Perceptron-based (MLP methods via theory, computer modelling and experiments on a physical robot. Using MLP-based methods, we were able to significantly decrease deviations while reaching desired positions with the hexapod's foot. Furthermore, this method is able to compensate for deviations of the robot arising from any possible reason.

Comparing Geologic Data Sets Collected by Planetary Analog Traverses and by Standard Geologic Field Mapping: Desert Rats Data Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Wanda; Evans, Cynthia; Gruener, John; Eppler, Dean

2014-01-01

Geologic mapping involves interpreting relationships between identifiable units and landforms to understand the formative history of a region. Traditional field techniques are used to accomplish this on Earth. Mapping proves more challenging for other planets, which are studied primarily by orbital remote sensing and, less frequently, by robotic and human surface exploration. Systematic comparative assessments of geologic maps created by traditional mapping versus photogeology together with data from planned traverses are limited. The objective of this project is to produce a geologic map from data collected on the Desert Research and Technology Studies (RATS) 2010 analog mission using Apollo-style traverses in conjunction with remote sensing data. This map is compared with a geologic map produced using standard field techniques.

Traversal Caches: A Framework for FPGA Acceleration of Pointer Data Structures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James Coole

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs and other reconfigurable computing (RC devices have been widely shown to have numerous advantages including order of magnitude performance and power improvements compared to microprocessors for some applications. Unfortunately, FPGA usage has largely been limited to applications exhibiting sequential memory access patterns, thereby prohibiting acceleration of important applications with irregular patterns (e.g., pointer-based data structures. In this paper, we present a design pattern for RC application development that serializes irregular data structure traversals online into a traversal cache, which allows the corresponding data to be efficiently streamed to the FPGA. The paper presents a generalized framework that benefits applications with repeated traversals, which we show can achieve between 7x and 29x speedup over pointer-based software. For applications without strictly repeated traversals, we present application-specialized extensions that benefit applications with highly similar traversals by exploiting similarity to improve memory bandwidth and execute multiple traversals in parallel. We show that these extensions can achieve a speedup between 11x and 70x on a Virtex4 LX100 for Barnes-Hut n-body simulation.

A new method to evaluate human-robot system performance

Science.gov (United States)

Rodriguez, G.; Weisbin, C. R.

2003-01-01

One of the key issues in space exploration is that of deciding what space tasks are best done with humans, with robots, or a suitable combination of each. In general, human and robot skills are complementary. Humans provide as yet unmatched capabilities to perceive, think, and act when faced with anomalies and unforeseen events, but there can be huge potential risks to human safety in getting these benefits. Robots provide complementary skills in being able to work in extremely risky environments, but their ability to perceive, think, and act by themselves is currently not error-free, although these capabilities are continually improving with the emergence of new technologies. Substantial past experience validates these generally qualitative notions. However, there is a need for more rigorously systematic evaluation of human and robot roles, in order to optimize the design and performance of human-robot system architectures using well-defined performance evaluation metrics. This article summarizes a new analytical method to conduct such quantitative evaluations. While the article focuses on evaluating human-robot systems, the method is generally applicable to a much broader class of systems whose performance needs to be evaluated.

RTSAH Traversal Order for Occlusion Rays

KAUST Repository

Ize, Thiago

2011-04-01

We accelerate the finding of occluders in tree based acceleration structures, such as a packetized BVH and a single ray kd-tree, by deriving the ray termination surface area heuristic (RTSAH) cost model for traversing an occlusion ray through a tree and then using the RTSAH to determine which child node a ray should traverse first instead of the traditional choice of traversing the near node before the far node. We further extend RTSAH to handle materials that attenuate light instead of fully occluding it, so that we can avoid superfluous intersections with partially transparent objects. For scenes with high occlusion, we substantially lower the number of traversal steps and intersection tests and achieve up to 2× speedups. © 2010 The Author(s).

RTSAH Traversal Order for Occlusion Rays

KAUST Repository

Ize, Thiago; Hansen, Charles

2011-01-01

We accelerate the finding of occluders in tree based acceleration structures, such as a packetized BVH and a single ray kd-tree, by deriving the ray termination surface area heuristic (RTSAH) cost model for traversing an occlusion ray through a tree and then using the RTSAH to determine which child node a ray should traverse first instead of the traditional choice of traversing the near node before the far node. We further extend RTSAH to handle materials that attenuate light instead of fully occluding it, so that we can avoid superfluous intersections with partially transparent objects. For scenes with high occlusion, we substantially lower the number of traversal steps and intersection tests and achieve up to 2× speedups. © 2010 The Author(s).

Towards Bio-Inspired Chromatic Behaviours in Surveillance Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sampath Kumar Karutaa Gnaniar

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The field of Robotics is ever growing at the same time as posing enormous challenges. Numerous works has been done in biologically inspired robotics emulating models, systems and elements of nature for the purpose of solving traditional robotics problems. Chromatic behaviours are abundant in nature across a variety of living species to achieve camouflage, signaling, and temperature regulation. The ability of these creatures to successfully blend in with their environment and communicate by changing their colour is the fundamental inspiration for our research work. In this paper, we present dwarf chameleon inspired chromatic behaviour in the context of an autonomous surveillance robot, “PACHONDHI”. In our experiments, we successfully validated the ability of the robot to autonomously change its colour in relation to the terrain that it is traversing for maximizing detectability to friendly security agents and minimizing exposure to hostile agents, as well as to communicate with fellow cooperating robots.

Role of Pectoral Fin Flexibility in Robotic Fish Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Bazaz Behbahani, Sanaz; Tan, Xiaobo

2017-08-01

Pectoral fins play a vital role in the maneuvering and locomotion of fish, and they have become an important actuation mechanism for robotic fish. In this paper, we explore the effect of flexibility of robotic fish pectoral fins on the robot locomotion performance and mechanical efficiency. A dynamic model for the robotic fish is presented, where the flexible fin is modeled as multiple rigid elements connected via torsional springs and dampers. Blade element theory is used to capture the hydrodynamic force on the fin. The model is validated with experimental results obtained on a robotic fish prototype, equipped with 3D-printed fins of different flexibility. The model is then used to analyze the impacts of fin flexibility and power/recovery stroke speed ratio on the robot swimming speed and mechanical efficiency. It is found that, in general, flexible fins demonstrate advantages over rigid fins in speed and efficiency at relatively low fin-beat frequencies, while rigid fins outperform flexible fins at higher frequencies. For a given fin flexibility, the optimal frequency for speed performance differs from the optimal frequency for mechanical efficiency. In addition, for any given fin, there is an optimal power/recovery stroke speed ratio, typically in the range of 2-3, that maximizes the speed performance. Overall, the presented model offers a promising tool for fin flexibility and gait design, to achieve speed and efficiency objectives for robotic fish actuated with pectoral fins.

Conformally symmetric traversable wormholes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boehmer, Christian G.; Harko, Tiberiu; Lobo, Francisco S. N.

2007-01-01

Exact solutions of traversable wormholes are found under the assumption of spherical symmetry and the existence of a nonstatic conformal symmetry, which presents a more systematic approach in searching for exact wormhole solutions. In this work, a wide variety of solutions are deduced by considering choices for the form function, a specific linear equation of state relating the energy density and the pressure anisotropy, and various phantom wormhole geometries are explored. A large class of solutions impose that the spatial distribution of the exotic matter is restricted to the throat neighborhood, with a cutoff of the stress-energy tensor at a finite junction interface, although asymptotically flat exact solutions are also found. Using the 'volume integral quantifier', it is found that the conformally symmetric phantom wormhole geometries may, in principle, be constructed by infinitesimally small amounts of averaged null energy condition violating matter. Considering the tidal acceleration traversability conditions for the phantom wormhole geometry, specific wormhole dimensions and the traversal velocity are also deduced

P-CSCF's Algorithm for Solving NAT Traversal

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jung-Ho; Cho, Jae-Hyoung; Lee, Jae-Oh

Many ways for efficient use of limited IP address of IPv4 are existed. The one of these ways is to construct the private network using Network Address Translator (NAT). NAT filtering rule makes network management easier. However, NAT Filtering rule makes NAT Traversal. Many solutions like Simple Traversal of UDP through NAT (STUN), Traversal Using Relay NAT (TURN) and Media Relay method exist. But these solutions require additional servers or devices. So, we suggest that P-CSCFs in the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) change the packet's header and solve the NAT Traversal without any additional equipment.

Automation and robotics human performance

Science.gov (United States)

Mah, Robert W.

1990-01-01

The scope of this report is limited to the following: (1) assessing the feasibility of the assumptions for crew productivity during the intra-vehicular activities and extra-vehicular activities; (2) estimating the appropriate level of automation and robotics to accomplish balanced man-machine, cost-effective operations in space; (3) identifying areas where conceptually different approaches to the use of people and machines can leverage the benefits of the scenarios; and (4) recommending modifications to scenarios or developing new scenarios that will improve the expected benefits. The FY89 special assessments are grouped into the five categories shown in the report. The high level system analyses for Automation & Robotics (A&R) and Human Performance (HP) were performed under the Case Studies Technology Assessment category, whereas the detailed analyses for the critical systems and high leverage development areas were performed under the appropriate operations categories (In-Space Vehicle Operations or Planetary Surface Operations). The analysis activities planned for the Science Operations technology areas were deferred to FY90 studies. The remaining activities such as analytic tool development, graphics/video demonstrations and intelligent communicating systems software architecture were performed under the Simulation & Validations category.

Robot Comedy Lab: experimenting with the social dynamics of live performance

OpenAIRE

Katevas, Kleomenis; Healey, Patrick G. T.; Harris, Matthew Tobias

2015-01-01

The success of live comedy depends on a performer's ability to 'work' an audience. Ethnographic studies suggest that this involves the co-ordinated use of subtle social signals such as body orientation, gesture, gaze by both performers and audience members. Robots provide a unique opportunity to test the effects of these signals experimentally. Using a life-size humanoid robot, programmed to perform a stand-up comedy routine, we manipulated the robot's patterns of gesture and gaze and examine...

Autonomous flying robots

CERN Document Server

Nonami, Kenzo; Suzuki, Satoshi; Wang, Wei; Nakazawa, Daisuke

2010-01-01

Worldwide demand for robotic aircraft such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) is surging. Not only military but especially civil applications are being developed at a rapid pace. Unmanned vehicles offer major advantages when used for aerial surveillance, reconnaissance, and inspection in complex and inhospitable environments. UAVs are better suited for dirty or dangerous missions than manned aircraft and are more cost-effective. UAVs can operate in contaminated environments, for example, and at altitudes both lower and higher than those typically traversed by m

Performance of Very Small Robotic Fish Equipped with CMOS Camera

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yang Zhao

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Underwater robots are often used to investigate marine animals. Ideally, such robots should be in the shape of fish so that they can easily go unnoticed by aquatic animals. In addition, lacking a screw propeller, a robotic fish would be less likely to become entangled in algae and other plants. However, although such robots have been developed, their swimming speed is significantly lower than that of real fish. Since to carry out a survey of actual fish a robotic fish would be required to follow them, it is necessary to improve the performance of the propulsion system. In the present study, a small robotic fish (SAPPA was manufactured and its propulsive performance was evaluated. SAPPA was developed to swim in bodies of freshwater such as rivers, and was equipped with a small CMOS camera with a wide-angle lens in order to photograph live fish. The maximum swimming speed of the robot was determined to be 111 mm/s, and its turning radius was 125 mm. Its power consumption was as low as 1.82 W. During trials, SAPPA succeeded in recognizing a goldfish and capturing an image of it using its CMOS camera.

A ToF-Camera as a 3D Vision Sensor for Autonomous Mobile Robotics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sobers Lourdu Xavier Francis

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to deploy a time-of-flight (ToF based photonic mixer device (PMD camera on an Autonomous Ground Vehicle (AGV whose overall target is to traverse from one point to another in hazardous and hostile environments employing obstacle avoidance without human intervention. The hypothesized approach of applying a ToF Camera for an AGV is a suitable approach to autonomous robotics because, as the ToF camera can provide three-dimensional (3D information at a low computational cost, it is utilized to extract information about obstacles after their calibration and ground testing and is mounted and integrated with the Pioneer mobile robot. The workspace is a two-dimensional (2D world map which has been divided into a grid/cells, where the collision-free path defined by the graph search algorithm is a sequence of cells the AGV can traverse to reach the target. PMD depth data is used to populate traversable areas and obstacles by representing a grid/cells of suitable size. These camera data are converted into Cartesian coordinates for entry into a workspace grid map. A more optimal camera mounting angle is needed and adopted by analysing the camera's performance discrepancy, such as pixel detection, the detection rate and the maximum perceived distances, and infrared (IR scattering with respect to the ground surface. This mounting angle is recommended to be half the vertical field-of-view (FoV of the PMD camera. A series of still and moving tests are conducted on the AGV to verify correct sensor operations, which show that the postulated application of the ToF camera in the AGV is not straightforward. Later, to stabilize the moving PMD camera and to detect obstacles, a tracking feature detection algorithm and the scene flow technique are implemented to perform a real-time experiment.

Robot Comedy Lab: Experimenting with the Social Dynamics of Live Performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kleomenis eKatevas

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The success of live comedy depends on a performer's ability to 'work' an audience. Ethnographic studies suggest that this involves the co-ordinated use of subtle social signals such as body orientation, gesture, gaze by both performers and audience members. Robots provide a unique opportunity to test the effects of these signals experimentally. Using a life-size humanoid robot, programmed to perform a stand-up comedy routine, we manipulated the robot's patterns of gesture and gaze and examined their effects on the real-time responses of a live audience. The strength and type of responses were captured using SHOREtm computer vision analytics. The results highlight the complex, reciprocal social dynamics of performer and audience behavior. People respond more positively when the robot looks at them, negatively when it looks away and that different performative gestures elicit systematically different patterns of audience response. This demonstrates that the responses of individual audience members depend on the specific interaction they're having with the performer. This work provides insights into how to design more effective, more socially engaging, forms of robot interaction that can be used in a variety of service contexts.

Robotic Online Path Planning on Point Cloud.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Ming

2016-05-01

This paper deals with the path-planning problem for mobile wheeled- or tracked-robot which drive in 2.5-D environments, where the traversable surface is usually considered as a 2-D-manifold embedded in a 3-D ambient space. Specially, we aim at solving the 2.5-D navigation problem using raw point cloud as input. The proposed method is independent of traditional surface parametrization or reconstruction methods, such as a meshing process, which generally has high-computational complexity. Instead, we utilize the output of 3-D tensor voting framework on the raw point clouds. The computation of tensor voting is accelerated by optimized implementation on graphics computation unit. Based on the tensor voting results, a novel local Riemannian metric is defined using the saliency components, which helps the modeling of the latent traversable surface. Using the proposed metric, we prove that the geodesic in the 3-D tensor space leads to rational path-planning results by experiments. Compared to traditional methods, the results reveal the advantages of the proposed method in terms of smoothing the robot maneuver while considering the minimum travel distance.

Warning Signals for Poor Performance Improve Human-Robot Interaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van den Brule, Rik; Bijlstra, Gijsbert; Dotsch, Ron; Haselager, Pim; Wigboldus, Daniel HJ

2016-01-01

The present research was aimed at investigating whether human-robot interaction (HRI) can be improved by a robot’s nonverbal warning signals. Ideally, when a robot signals that it cannot guarantee good performance, people could take preventive actions to ensure the successful completion of the

Robot performing heavy gymnastics. Kikai taiso wo suru robot

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Takashima, S. (Hosei Univ., Tokyo (Japan). Faculty of Engineering)

1991-11-01

Methods of simulation of the motion of human bodies and the control of the motion of bobots are sdudied in order to realize robots to perform gymnastics on a horizontal bar. A model of the human body structure is presented by dividing the human body into 8 parts: right and left arms, the head, the trunk, the right and left thighs, and the right and left foot, and a system is constructed by combination of the links of the rigid partswith an assumption on each link for simplification. A method to enhance the swing motion is devised in order to produce a suspension motionaas a basic movement of horizontal bar gymnastics. The basic condition to control the horizontal bar gynnastics and the control system of an articulation angle are considered. Two algorithms are presented in order to enhance the swing motion and to maintain suspension swing: excitation of the swing by a vertical motion of the center of gravity and excitation by the use of natural frequency. Computer simulation of suspension swing is executed and the results are shown in a figure. A prototype robot to perform horizontal bar gymnastics is manufactured and performs suspension swing, starting of swing, kip motion and giant swing. The concept of optimization is not included concretely in the prototype. 22 refs., 8 figs.

Robot Actors, Robot Dramaturgies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jochum, Elizabeth

This paper considers the use of tele-operated robots in live performance. Robots and performance have long been linked, from the working androids and automata staged in popular exhibitions during the nineteenth century and the robots featured at Cybernetic Serendipity (1968) and the World Expo...

Traversable terrain classification for outdoor autonomous robots using single 2D laser scans

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Jens Christian; Blas, Morten Rufus; Andersen, Nils Axel

2006-01-01

Interpreting laser data to allow autonomous robot navigation on paved as well as dirt roads using a fixed angle 2D laser scanner is a daunting task. This paper introduces an algorithm for terrain classification that fuses seven distinctly different classifiers: raw height, roughness, step size...

Physics-based approach to chemical source localization using mobile robotic swarms

Science.gov (United States)

Zarzhitsky, Dimitri

2008-07-01

Recently, distributed computation has assumed a dominant role in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics. To improve system performance, engineers are combining multiple cooperating robots into cohesive collectives called swarms. This thesis illustrates the application of basic principles of physicomimetics, or physics-based design, to swarm robotic systems. Such principles include decentralized control, short-range sensing and low power consumption. We show how the application of these principles to robotic swarms results in highly scalable, robust, and adaptive multi-robot systems. The emergence of these valuable properties can be predicted with the help of well-developed theoretical methods. In this research effort, we have designed and constructed a distributed physicomimetics system for locating sources of airborne chemical plumes. This task, called chemical plume tracing (CPT), is receiving a great deal of attention due to persistent homeland security threats. For this thesis, we have created a novel CPT algorithm called fluxotaxis that is based on theoretical principles of fluid dynamics. Analytically, we show that fluxotaxis combines the essence, as well as the strengths, of the two most popular biologically-inspired CPT methods-- chemotaxis and anemotaxis. The chemotaxis strategy consists of navigating in the direction of the chemical density gradient within the plume, while the anemotaxis approach is based on an upwind traversal of the chemical cloud. Rigorous and extensive experimental evaluations have been performed in simulated chemical plume environments. Using a suite of performance metrics that capture the salient aspects of swarm-specific behavior, we have been able to evaluate and compare the three CPT algorithms. We demonstrate the improved performance of our fluxotaxis approach over both chemotaxis and anemotaxis in these realistic simulation environments, which include obstacles. To test our understanding of CPT on actual hardware

COLLISION-AVOIDANCE FOR MOBILE ROBOTS USING REGION OF CERTAINTY: A PREDICTIVE APPROACH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. MANUP

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In on-line environment, obstacles may exhibit different trajectory. Trajectory analysis of the obstacle is essential in determining its future location. If this analysis is accurate the futuristic region where robot and obstacle collision is likely to occur can be estimated. This enables the mobile robot to take corrective action prior to collision. In this approach, the motion pattern of the obstacle is analysed by taking into account the past co-ordinates traversed by the obstacle. Then the futuristic region where the obstacle is likely to occupy is predicted. This region is termed as region of certainty. Simulation results shows that the approach gives more reliable prediction as many number of sample points representing the past positions travelled by the obstacles are taken into consideration. The algorithm yielded better performance under higher obstacle velocity conditions and the results were compared with distance time transform method.

A Voice Operated Tour Planning System for Autonomous Mobile Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Charles V. Smith Iii

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Control systems driven by voice recognition software have been implemented before but lacked the context driven approach to generate relevant responses and actions. A partially voice activated control system for mobile robotics is presented that allows an autonomous robot to interact with people and the environment in a meaningful way, while dynamically creating customized tours. Many existing control systems also require substantial training for voice application. The system proposed requires little to no training and is adaptable to chaotic environments. The traversable area is mapped once and from that map a fully customized route is generated to the user

The effect of music on robot-assisted laparoscopic surgical performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Siu, Ka-Chun; Suh, Irene H; Mukherjee, Mukul; Oleynikov, Dmitry; Stergiou, Nick

2010-12-01

Music is often played in the operating room to increase the surgeon's concentration and to mask noise. It could have a beneficial effect on surgical performance. Ten participants with limited experience with the da Vinci robotic surgical system were recruited to perform two surgical tasks: suture tying and mesh alignment when classical, jazz, hip-hop, and Jamaican music were presented. Kinematics of the instrument tips of the surgical robot and surface electromyography of the subjects were recorded. Results revealed that a significant music effect was found for both tasks with decreased time to task completion (P = .005) and total travel distance (P = .021) as well as reduced muscle activations ( P = .016) and increased median muscle frequency (P = .034). Subjects improved their performance significantly when they listened to either hip-hop or Jamaican music. In conclusion, music with high rhythmicity has a beneficial effect on robotic surgical performance. Musical environment may benefit surgical training and make acquisition of surgical skills more efficient.

On the Necessity of Including Joint Passive Dynamics in the Impedance Control of Robotic Legs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan Carlos Arevalo

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Bioinspired quadruped robots are among the best robot designs for field missions over the complex terrain encountered in extraterrestrial landscapes and disaster scenarios caused by natural and human-made catastrophes, such as those caused by nuclear power plant accidents and radiological emergencies. For such applications, the performance characteristics of the robots should include high mobility, adaptability to the terrain, the ability to handle a large payload and good endurance. Nature can provide inspiration for quadruped designs that are well suited for traversing complex terrain. Horse legs are an example of a structure that has evolved to exhibit good performance characteristics. In this paper, a leg design exhibiting the key features of horse legs is briefly described. This leg is an underactuated mechanism because it has two actively driven degrees of freedom (DOFs and one passively driven DOF. In this work, two control laws intended to be use in the stan ce phase are described: a control law that considers passive mechanism dynamics and a second law that neglects these dynamics. The performance of the two control laws is experimentally evaluated and compared. The results indicate that the first control law better achieves the control goal; however, the use of the second is not completely unjustified.

Robosapien Robot used to Model Humanoid Interaction to Perform tasks in Dangerous Manufacturing Environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stopforth, R; Bright, G

2014-01-01

Humans are involved with accidents in manufacturing environments. A possibility to prevent humans from these scenarios is, to introduce humanoid robots within these industrial areas. This paper investigates the control scenario and environments required at a small scale level, with the use of the Robosapien robot. The Robosapien robot is modified to control it with a task of removing a cylinder and inserting it into a hole. Analysis is performed on the performance of the Robosapien robot and relating it with that of a humanoid robot. A discussion with suggestions is concluded with the efficiency and profitability that would need to be considered, for having a humanoid robot within the manufacturing environment

Human-Like Room Segmentation for Domestic Cleaning Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Fleer

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Autonomous mobile robots have recently become a popular solution for automating cleaning tasks. In one application, the robot cleans a floor space by traversing and covering it completely. While fulfilling its task, such a robot may create a map of its surroundings. For domestic indoor environments, these maps often consist of rooms connected by passageways. Segmenting the map into these rooms has several uses, such as hierarchical planning of cleaning runs by the robot, or the definition of cleaning plans by the user. Especially in the latter application, the robot-generated room segmentation should match the human understanding of rooms. Here, we present a novel method that solves this problem for the graph of a topo-metric map: first, a classifier identifies those graph edges that cross a border between rooms. This classifier utilizes data from multiple robot sensors, such as obstacle measurements and camera images. Next, we attempt to segment the map at these room–border edges using graph clustering. By training the classifier on user-annotated data, this produces a human-like room segmentation. We optimize and test our method on numerous realistic maps generated by our cleaning-robot prototype and its simulated version. Overall, we find that our method produces more human-like room segmentations compared to mere graph clustering. However, unusual room borders that differ from the training data remain a challenge.

Performances on simulator and da Vinci robot on subjects with and without surgical background.

Science.gov (United States)

Moglia, Andrea; Ferrari, Vincenzo; Melfi, Franca; Ferrari, Mauro; Mosca, Franco; Cuschieri, Alfred; Morelli, Luca

2017-08-17

To assess whether previous training in surgery influences performance on da Vinci Skills Simulator and da Vinci robot. In this prospective study, thirty-seven participants (11 medical students, 17 residents, and 9 attending surgeons) without previous experience in laparoscopy and robotic surgery performed 26 exercises at da Vinci Skills Simulator. Thirty-five then executed a suture using a da Vinci robot. The overall scores on the exercises at the da Vinci Skills Simulator show a similar performance among the groups with no statistically significant pair-wise differences (p poor for the untrained groups (5 (3.5, 9)), without statistically significant difference (p < .05). This study showed, for subjects new to laparoscopy and robotic surgery, insignificant differences in the scores at the da Vinci Skills Simulator and at the da Vinci robot on inanimate models.

Transient field for W ions traversing Fe hosts and for Os ions traversing Fe and Ni hosts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stuchbery, A.E.; Bolotin, H.H.; Doran, C.E.

1987-02-01

Transient field strengths were measured for 184 W and 186 W ions traversing thin, magnetized Fe foils with velocities in the range 1.8 ≤ v/v>=o ≤ 5.7 (v>=o Bohr velocity) and for 188 Os, 190 Os, 192 Os ions traversing polarized Ni hosts with average velocities =o> ∼ 4. The present measured transient field strengths, together with previously measured results for W, Os ions, are compared with transient-field strength parametrizations, and discussed in terms of microscopic models of the transient field

Mechanical analysis of flying robot for nuclear safety and security control by radiological monitoring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, Hyo Sung; Woo, Tae Ho

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Radiological monitoring of the NPPs site is performed by the flying robot. • The mechanics of drone is investigated in the NPPs. • Yaw and Pitch motions are simulated for the robotic behaviors. • The flying robot is analyzed for the nuclear safety and security successfully. - Abstract: The flying robot is investigated for the nuclear accident and security treatment. Several mechanics are introduced for the movement of the drone. The optimized motion of the drone should cover all areas of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) over the site where the circular and surmounting motions are needed with traverse of zigzag shapes. There is the Yaw motion in the circular moving and the Pitch motion in the climbing and downing against reactor facility. The fallout is calculated from the radiation concentration in the breaking part of the NPPs where the radioactive material leaks from the containment, coolant loop, plant facility and so on. The dose equivalents are obtained where the values are changeable following the random values of the y value, average wind speed, and dispersed concentration in the detection position. The simulation of new positions of x, y, and z are normalized from 0.0 to 1.0. The mechanics of flying robot produces the multidisciplinary converged technology incorporated with the aerial radiation monitoring information.

Performance evaluation of an improved fish robot actuated by piezoceramic actuators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nguyen, Q S; Heo, S; Park, H C; Byun, D

2010-01-01

This paper presents an improved fish robot actuated by four lightweight piezocomposite actuators. Our newly developed actuation mechanism is simple to fabricate because it works without gears. With the new actuation mechanism, the fish robot has a 30% smaller cross section than our previous model. Performance tests of the fish robot in water were carried out to measure the tail-beat angle, the thrust force, the swimming speed for various tail-beat frequencies from 1 to 5 Hz and the turning radius at the optimal frequency. The maximum swimming speed of the fish robot is 7.7 cm s −1 at a tail-beat frequency of 3.9 Hz. A turning experiment shows that the swimming direction of the fish robot can be controlled by changing the duty ratio of the driving voltage; the fish robot has a turning radius of 0.41 m for a left turn and 0.68 m for a right turn

Performance evaluation of an improved fish robot actuated by piezoceramic actuators

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Q. S.; Heo, S.; Park, H. C.; Byun, D.

2010-03-01

This paper presents an improved fish robot actuated by four lightweight piezocomposite actuators. Our newly developed actuation mechanism is simple to fabricate because it works without gears. With the new actuation mechanism, the fish robot has a 30% smaller cross section than our previous model. Performance tests of the fish robot in water were carried out to measure the tail-beat angle, the thrust force, the swimming speed for various tail-beat frequencies from 1 to 5 Hz and the turning radius at the optimal frequency. The maximum swimming speed of the fish robot is 7.7 cm s - 1 at a tail-beat frequency of 3.9 Hz. A turning experiment shows that the swimming direction of the fish robot can be controlled by changing the duty ratio of the driving voltage; the fish robot has a turning radius of 0.41 m for a left turn and 0.68 m for a right turn.

Performance of high-level and low-level control for coordination of mobile robots

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Adinandra, S.; Caarls, J.; Kostic, D.; Nijmeijer, H.

2010-01-01

We analyze performance of different strategies for coordinated control of mobile robots. By considering an environment of a distribution center, the robots should transport goods from place A to place B while maintaining the desired formation and avoiding collisions. We evaluate performance of two

Better Drumming Through Calibration: Techniques for Pre-Performance Robotic Percussion Optimization

OpenAIRE

Murphy, Jim; Kapur, Ajay; Carnegie, Dale

2012-01-01

A problem with many contemporary musical robotic percussion systems lies in the fact that solenoids fail to respond lin-early to linear increases in input velocity. This nonlinearity forces performers to individually tailor their compositions to specific robotic drummers. To address this problem, we introduce a method of pre-performance calibration using metaheuristic search techniques. A variety of such techniques are introduced and evaluated and the results of the optimized solenoid-based p...

System and Method for Traversing Pipes

Science.gov (United States)

Graf, Jodi (Inventor); Pettinger, Ross (Inventor); Azimi, Shaun (Inventor); Magruder, Darby (Inventor); Ridley, Justin (Inventor); Lapp, Anthony (Inventor)

2017-01-01

A system and method is provided for traversing inside one or more pipes. In an embodiment, a fluid is injected into the one or more pipes thereby promoting a fluid flow. An inspection device is deployed into the one or more pipes at least partially filled with a flowing fluid. The inspection device comprises a housing wherein the housing is designed to exploit the hydrokinetic effects associated with a fluid flow in one or more pipes as well as maneuver past a variety of pipe configurations. The inspection device may contain one or more sensors capable of performing a variety of inspection tasks.

Robot Futures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christoffersen, Anja; Grindsted Nielsen, Sally; Jochum, Elizabeth Ann

Robots are increasingly used in health care settings, e.g., as homecare assistants and personal companions. One challenge for personal robots in the home is acceptance. We describe an innovative approach to influencing the acceptance of care robots using theatrical performance. Live performance...... is a useful testbed for developing and evaluating what makes robots expressive; it is also a useful platform for designing robot behaviors and dialogue that result in believable characters. Therefore theatre is a valuable testbed for studying human-robot interaction (HRI). We investigate how audiences...... perceive social robots interacting with humans in a future care scenario through a scripted performance. We discuss our methods and initial findings, and outline future work....

Hydrodynamic performance of a biomimetic robotic swimmer actuated by ionic polymer–metal composite

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shen, Qi; Wang, Tiammiao; Liang, Jianhong; Wen, Li

2013-01-01

In this paper, we study the thrust performance of a biomimetic robotic swimmer that uses ionic polymer–metal composite (IPMC) as a flexible actuator in viscous and inertial flow, for a comprehensive understanding of IPMC swimmers at different scales. A hydrodynamic model based on the elongated body theory was developed. Based on image analysis, the parameters of the model were identified and simulation results were obtained. To obtain the hydrodynamic thrust performance of the robotic swimmer, we implemented a novel experimental apparatus. Systematic tests were conducted in the servo towing system to measure the self-propelled speed and thrust efficiency under different actuation of IPMC. The undulatory motions of the IPMC swimmer were identified. Experimental results demonstrated that the theoretical model can accurately predict the speed and thrust efficiency of the robotic swimmer. When the Reynolds number of the robotic swimmer was reduced to approximately 0.1%, its speed and thrust efficiency were reduced by 95.22% and 87.33% respectively. It was concluded that the robotic swimmer has a low speed and thrust efficiency when it swims in a viscous flow. Generally, the thrust performance of the robotic swimmer is determined by the kinematics and Reynolds number. In addition, the optimal actuation frequency for the thrust efficiency is greater in a viscous fluid. These results may contribute to a better understanding of the swimming performance of IPMC actuated swimmers in a distinct flow regime (viscous and inertial regime). (paper)

Swimming Performance of Toy Robotic Fish

Science.gov (United States)

Petelina, Nina; Mendelson, Leah; Techet, Alexandra

2015-11-01

HEXBUG AquaBotsTM are a commercially available small robot fish that come in a variety of ``species''. These models have varying caudal fin shapes and randomly-varied modes of swimming including forward locomotion, diving, and turning. In this study, we assess the repeatability and performance of the HEXBUG swimming behaviors and discuss the use of these toys to develop experimental techniques and analysis methods to study live fish swimming. In order to determine whether these simple, affordable model fish can be a valid representation for live fish movement, two models, an angelfish and a shark, were studied using 2D Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and 3D Synthetic Aperture PIV. In a series of experiments, the robotic fish were either allowed to swim freely or towed in one direction at a constant speed. The resultant measurements of the caudal fin wake are compared to data from previous studies of a real fish and simplified flapping propulsors.

Quantifying and Maximizing Performance of a Human-Centric Robot under Precision, Safety, and Robot Specification Constraints

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The research project is an effort towards achieving 99.99% safety of mobile robots working alongside humans while matching the precision performance of industrial...

Development and Performance Evaluation of Image-Based Robotic Waxing System for Detailing Automobiles.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Chi-Ying; Hsu, Bing-Cheng

2018-05-14

Waxing is an important aspect of automobile detailing, aimed at protecting the finish of the car and preventing rust. At present, this delicate work is conducted manually due to the need for iterative adjustments to achieve acceptable quality. This paper presents a robotic waxing system in which surface images are used to evaluate the quality of the finish. An RGB-D camera is used to build a point cloud that details the sheet metal components to enable path planning for a robot manipulator. The robot is equipped with a multi-axis force sensor to measure and control the forces involved in the application and buffing of wax. Images of sheet metal components that were waxed by experienced car detailers were analyzed using image processing algorithms. A Gaussian distribution function and its parameterized values were obtained from the images for use as a performance criterion in evaluating the quality of surfaces prepared by the robotic waxing system. Waxing force and dwell time were optimized using a mathematical model based on the image-based criterion used to measure waxing performance. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed robotic waxing system and image-based performance evaluation scheme.

Induced vibrations increase performance of a winged self-righting robot

Science.gov (United States)

Othayoth, Ratan; Xuan, Qihan; Li, Chen

When upside down, cockroaches can open their wings to dynamically self-right. In this process, an animal often has to perform multiple unsuccessful maneuvers to eventually right, and often flails its legs. Here, we developed a cockroach-inspired winged self-righting robot capable of controlled body vibrations to test the hypothesis that vibrations assist self-righting transitions. Robot body vibrations were induced by an oscillating mass (10% of body mass) and varied by changing oscillation frequency. We discovered that, as the robot's body vibrations increased, righting probability increased, and righting time decreased (P locomotor transitions, but highlights the need for further stochastic modeling to capture the uncertain nature of when righting maneuvers result in successful righting.

An autonomous mobil robot to perform waste drum inspections

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peterson, K.D.; Ward, C.R.

1994-01-01

A mobile robot is being developed by the Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) Robotics Group of Westinghouse Savannah River company (WSRC) to perform mandated inspections of waste drums stored in warehouse facilities. The system will reduce personnel exposure and create accurate, high quality documentation to ensure regulatory compliance. Development work is being coordinated among several DOE, academic and commercial entities in accordance with DOE's technology transfer initiative. The prototype system was demonstrated in November of 1993. A system is now being developed for field trails at the Fernald site

Robotic Needle Guide for Prostate Brachytherapy: Clinical Testing of Feasibility and Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Danny Y; Burdette, Everette C; Fiene, Jonathan; Armour, Elwood; Kronreif, Gernot; Deguet, Anton; Zhang, Zhe; Iordachita, Iulian; Fichtinger, Gabor; Kazanzides, Peter

2010-01-01

Purpose Optimization of prostate brachytherapy is constrained by tissue deflection of needles and fixed spacing of template holes. We developed and clinically tested a robotic guide towards the goal of allowing greater freedom of needle placement. Methods and Materials The robot consists of a small tubular needle guide attached to a robotically controlled arm. The apparatus is mounted and calibrated to operate in the same coordinate frame as a standard template. Translation in x and y directions over the perineum ±40mm are possible. Needle insertion is performed manually. Results Five patients were treated in an IRB-approved study. Confirmatory measurements of robotic movements for initial 3 patients using infrared tracking showed mean error of 0.489 mm (SD 0.328 mm). Fine adjustments in needle positioning were possible when tissue deflection was encountered; adjustments were performed in 54/179 (30.2%) needles placed, with 36/179 (20.1%) adjustments of > 2mm. Twenty-seven insertions were intentionally altered to positions between the standard template grid to improve the dosimetric plan or avoid structures such as pubic bone and blood vessels. Conclusions Robotic needle positioning provided a means of compensating for needle deflections as well as the ability to intentionally place needles into areas between the standard template holes. To our knowledge, these results represent the first clinical testing of such a system. Future work will be incorporation of direct control of the robot by the physician, adding software algorithms to help avoid robot collisions with the ultrasound, and testing the angulation capability in the clinical setting. PMID:20729152

Comparison of pitot traverses taken at varying distances downstream of obstructions.

Science.gov (United States)

Guffey, S E; Booth, D W

1999-01-01

This study determined the deviations between pitot traverses taken under "ideal" conditions--at least seven duct diameter's lengths (i.e., distance = 7D) from obstructions, elbows, junction fittings, and other disturbances to flows--with those taken downstream from commonplace disturbances. Two perpendicular 10-point, log-linear velocity pressure traverses were taken at various distances downstream of tested upstream conditions. Upstream conditions included a plain duct opening, a junction fitting, a single 90 degrees elbow, and two elbows rotated 90 degrees from each other into two orthogonal planes. Airflows determined from those values were compared with the values measured more than 40D downstream of the same obstructions under ideal conditions. The ideal measurements were taken on three traverse diameters in the same plane separated by 120 degrees in honed drawn-over-mandrel tubing. In all cases the pitot tubes were held in place by devices that effectively eliminated alignment errors and insertion depth errors. Duct velocities ranged from 1500 to 4500 ft/min. Results were surprisingly good if one employed two perpendicular traverses. When the averages of two perpendicular traverses was taken, deviations from ideal value were 6% or less even for traverses taken as close as 2D distance from the upstream disturbances. At 3D distance, deviations seldom exceeded 5%. With single diameter traverses, errors seldom exceeded 5% at 6D or more downstream from the disturbance. Interestingly, percentage deviations were about the same at high and low velocities. This study demonstrated that two perpendicular pitot traverses can be taken as close as 3D from these disturbances with acceptable (< or = 5%) deviations from measurements taken under ideal conditions.

Ground robotic measurement of aeolian processes

Science.gov (United States)

Qian, Feifei; Jerolmack, Douglas; Lancaster, Nicholas; Nikolich, George; Reverdy, Paul; Roberts, Sonia; Shipley, Thomas; Van Pelt, R. Scott; Zobeck, Ted M.; Koditschek, Daniel E.

2017-08-01

Models of aeolian processes rely on accurate measurements of the rates of sediment transport by wind, and careful evaluation of the environmental controls of these processes. Existing field approaches typically require intensive, event-based experiments involving dense arrays of instruments. These devices are often cumbersome and logistically difficult to set up and maintain, especially near steep or vegetated dune surfaces. Significant advances in instrumentation are needed to provide the datasets that are required to validate and improve mechanistic models of aeolian sediment transport. Recent advances in robotics show great promise for assisting and amplifying scientists' efforts to increase the spatial and temporal resolution of many environmental measurements governing sediment transport. The emergence of cheap, agile, human-scale robotic platforms endowed with increasingly sophisticated sensor and motor suites opens up the prospect of deploying programmable, reactive sensor payloads across complex terrain in the service of aeolian science. This paper surveys the need and assesses the opportunities and challenges for amassing novel, highly resolved spatiotemporal datasets for aeolian research using partially-automated ground mobility. We review the limitations of existing measurement approaches for aeolian processes, and discuss how they may be transformed by ground-based robotic platforms, using examples from our initial field experiments. We then review how the need to traverse challenging aeolian terrains and simultaneously make high-resolution measurements of critical variables requires enhanced robotic capability. Finally, we conclude with a look to the future, in which robotic platforms may operate with increasing autonomy in harsh conditions. Besides expanding the completeness of terrestrial datasets, bringing ground-based robots to the aeolian research community may lead to unexpected discoveries that generate new hypotheses to expand the science

Evaluation by Expert Dancers of a Robot That Performs Partnered Stepping via Haptic Interaction.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tiffany L Chen

Full Text Available Our long-term goal is to enable a robot to engage in partner dance for use in rehabilitation therapy, assessment, diagnosis, and scientific investigations of two-person whole-body motor coordination. Partner dance has been shown to improve balance and gait in people with Parkinson's disease and in older adults, which motivates our work. During partner dance, dance couples rely heavily on haptic interaction to convey motor intent such as speed and direction. In this paper, we investigate the potential for a wheeled mobile robot with a human-like upper-body to perform partnered stepping with people based on the forces applied to its end effectors. Blindfolded expert dancers (N=10 performed a forward/backward walking step to a recorded drum beat while holding the robot's end effectors. We varied the admittance gain of the robot's mobile base controller and the stiffness of the robot's arms. The robot followed the participants with low lag (M=224, SD=194 ms across all trials. High admittance gain and high arm stiffness conditions resulted in significantly improved performance with respect to subjective and objective measures. Biomechanical measures such as the human hand to human sternum distance, center-of-mass of leader to center-of-mass of follower (CoM-CoM distance, and interaction forces correlated with the expert dancers' subjective ratings of their interactions with the robot, which were internally consistent (Cronbach's α=0.92. In response to a final questionnaire, 1/10 expert dancers strongly agreed, 5/10 agreed, and 1/10 disagreed with the statement "The robot was a good follower." 2/10 strongly agreed, 3/10 agreed, and 2/10 disagreed with the statement "The robot was fun to dance with." The remaining participants were neutral with respect to these two questions.

Evaluation by Expert Dancers of a Robot That Performs Partnered Stepping via Haptic Interaction

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Tiffany L.; Bhattacharjee, Tapomayukh; McKay, J. Lucas; Borinski, Jacquelyn E.; Hackney, Madeleine E.; Ting, Lena H.; Kemp, Charles C.

2015-01-01

Our long-term goal is to enable a robot to engage in partner dance for use in rehabilitation therapy, assessment, diagnosis, and scientific investigations of two-person whole-body motor coordination. Partner dance has been shown to improve balance and gait in people with Parkinson's disease and in older adults, which motivates our work. During partner dance, dance couples rely heavily on haptic interaction to convey motor intent such as speed and direction. In this paper, we investigate the potential for a wheeled mobile robot with a human-like upper-body to perform partnered stepping with people based on the forces applied to its end effectors. Blindfolded expert dancers (N=10) performed a forward/backward walking step to a recorded drum beat while holding the robot's end effectors. We varied the admittance gain of the robot's mobile base controller and the stiffness of the robot's arms. The robot followed the participants with low lag (M=224, SD=194 ms) across all trials. High admittance gain and high arm stiffness conditions resulted in significantly improved performance with respect to subjective and objective measures. Biomechanical measures such as the human hand to human sternum distance, center-of-mass of leader to center-of-mass of follower (CoM-CoM) distance, and interaction forces correlated with the expert dancers' subjective ratings of their interactions with the robot, which were internally consistent (Cronbach's α=0.92). In response to a final questionnaire, 1/10 expert dancers strongly agreed, 5/10 agreed, and 1/10 disagreed with the statement "The robot was a good follower." 2/10 strongly agreed, 3/10 agreed, and 2/10 disagreed with the statement "The robot was fun to dance with." The remaining participants were neutral with respect to these two questions. PMID:25993099

Cruise and turning performance of an improved fish robot actuated by piezoceramic actuators

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Quang Sang; Heo, Seok; Park, Hoon Cheol; Goo, Nam Seo; Byun, Doyoung

2009-03-01

The purpose of this study is improvement of a fish robot actuated by four light-weight piezocomposite actuators (LIPCAs). In the fish robot, we developed a new actuation mechanism working without any gear and thus the actuation mechanism was simple in fabrication. By using the new actuation mechanism, cross section of the fish robot became 30% smaller than that of the previous model. Performance tests of the fish robot in water were carried out to measure tail-beat angle, thrust force, swimming speed and turning radius for tail-beat frequencies from 1Hz to 5Hz. The maximum swimming speed of the fish robot was 7.7 cm/s at 3.9Hz tail-beat frequency. Turning experiment showed that swimming direction of the fish robot could be controlled with 0.41 m turning radius by controlling tail-beat angle.

Consistency of performance of robot-assisted surgical tasks in virtual reality.

Science.gov (United States)

Suh, I H; Siu, K-C; Mukherjee, M; Monk, E; Oleynikov, D; Stergiou, N

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate consistency of performance of robot-assisted surgical tasks in a virtual reality environment. Eight subjects performed two surgical tasks, bimanual carrying and needle passing, with both the da Vinci surgical robot and a virtual reality equivalent environment. Nonlinear analysis was utilized to evaluate consistency of performance by calculating the regularity and the amount of divergence in the movement trajectories of the surgical instrument tips. Our results revealed that movement patterns for both training tasks were statistically similar between the two environments. Consistency of performance as measured by nonlinear analysis could be an appropriate methodology to evaluate the complexity of the training tasks between actual and virtual environments and assist in developing better surgical training programs.

A flooding algorithm for multirobot exploration.

Science.gov (United States)

Cabrera-Mora, Flavio; Xiao, Jizhong

2012-06-01

In this paper, we present a multirobot exploration algorithm that aims at reducing the exploration time and to minimize the overall traverse distance of the robots by coordinating the movement of the robots performing the exploration. Modeling the environment as a tree, we consider a coordination model that restricts the number of robots allowed to traverse an edge and to enter a vertex during each step. This coordination is achieved in a decentralized manner by the robots using a set of active landmarks that are dropped by them at explored vertices. We mathematically analyze the algorithm on trees, obtaining its main properties and specifying its bounds on the exploration time. We also define three metrics of performance for multirobot algorithms. We simulate and compare the performance of this new algorithm with those of our multirobot depth first search (MR-DFS) approach presented in our recent paper and classic single-robot DFS.

Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance (RCTA) 2011 Baseline Assessment Experimental Strategy

Science.gov (United States)

2011-09-01

Traversal over different surfaces— climbing stairs , negotiating ditches, etc.—is an inherent mobility concern. The platform capability of moving over...2 design, not run in a factorial manner. a. Goal: To establish a baseline for the height and type of stairs the SUGV is willing to climb . b...bricks to adjust heights of platforms)? (GDRS will handle this.) • Do we want to add something like bags of mulch as steps for the robot to climb or

Traversable Schwarzschild-like wormholes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cataldo, Mauricio [Universidad del Bio-Bio, Departamento de Fisica, Facultad de Ciencias, Concepcion (Chile); Grupo de Cosmologia y Gravitacion-UBB, Concepcion (Chile); Liempi, Luis [Universidad de Concepcion, Departamento de Fisica, Concepcion (Chile); Universidad San Sebastian, Facultad de Ingenieria y Tecnologia, Concepcion (Chile); Rodriguez, Pablo [Universidad de Concepcion, Departamento de Fisica, Concepcion (Chile)

2017-11-15

In this paper we study relativistic static traversable wormhole solutions which are a slight generalization of Schwarzschild wormholes. In order to do this we assume a shape function with a linear dependence on the radial coordinate r. This linear shape function generates wormholes whose asymptotic spacetime is not flat: they are asymptotically locally flat, since in the asymptotic limit r → ∞ spacetimes exhibiting a solid angle deficit (or excess) are obtained. In particular, there exist wormholes which connect two asymptotically non-flat regions with a solid angle deficit. For these wormholes the size of their embeddings in a three-dimensional Euclidean space extends from the throat to infinity. A new phantom zero-tidal-force wormhole exhibiting such asymptotic is obtained. On the other hand, if a solid angle excess is present, the size of the wormhole embeddings depends on the amount of this angle excess, and the energy density is negative everywhere. We discuss the traversability conditions and study the impact of the β-parameter on the motion of a traveler when the wormhole throat is crossed. A description of the geodesic behavior for the wormholes obtained is also presented. (orig.)

Traversable Schwarzschild-like wormholes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cataldo, Mauricio; Liempi, Luis; Rodriguez, Pablo

2017-01-01

In this paper we study relativistic static traversable wormhole solutions which are a slight generalization of Schwarzschild wormholes. In order to do this we assume a shape function with a linear dependence on the radial coordinate r. This linear shape function generates wormholes whose asymptotic spacetime is not flat: they are asymptotically locally flat, since in the asymptotic limit r → ∞ spacetimes exhibiting a solid angle deficit (or excess) are obtained. In particular, there exist wormholes which connect two asymptotically non-flat regions with a solid angle deficit. For these wormholes the size of their embeddings in a three-dimensional Euclidean space extends from the throat to infinity. A new phantom zero-tidal-force wormhole exhibiting such asymptotic is obtained. On the other hand, if a solid angle excess is present, the size of the wormhole embeddings depends on the amount of this angle excess, and the energy density is negative everywhere. We discuss the traversability conditions and study the impact of the β-parameter on the motion of a traveler when the wormhole throat is crossed. A description of the geodesic behavior for the wormholes obtained is also presented. (orig.)

An Experimental Investigation of an Airfoil Traversing Across a Shear Flow

Science.gov (United States)

Hamedani, Borhan A.; Naguib, Ahmed; Koochesfahani, Manoochehr

2017-11-01

While the aerodynamics of an airfoil in a uniform approach flow is well understood, less attention has been paid to airfoils in non-uniform flows. An aircraft encounters such flow, for example, during landing through the air wake of an aircraft carrier. The present work is focused on investigating the fundamental aerodynamics of airfoils in such an environment using canonical flow experiments. To generate a shear approach flow, a shaped honeycomb block is employed in a wind tunnel setup. Direct force measurements are performed on a NACA 0012 airfoil, with an aspect ratio of 1.8, as the airfoil traverses steadily across the shear region. Measurements are conducted at a chord Reynolds number Rec 75k, based on the mean approach stream velocity at the center of the shear zone, for a range of airfoil traverse velocities and angles of attack (0 - 12 degree). The results are compared to those obtained for the same airfoil when placed statically at different points along the traverse path inside the shear zone. The comparison enables examination of the applicability of quasi-steady analysis in computing the forces on the moving airfoil. This work is supported by ONR Grant Number N00014-16-1-2760.

Swimming performance of a biomimetic compliant fish-like robot

Science.gov (United States)

Epps, Brenden P.; Valdivia Y Alvarado, Pablo; Youcef-Toumi, Kamal; Techet, Alexandra H.

2009-12-01

Digital particle image velocimetry and fluorescent dye visualization are used to characterize the performance of fish-like swimming robots. During nominal swimming, these robots produce a ‘V’-shaped double wake, with two reverse-Kármán streets in the far wake. The Reynolds number based on swimming speed and body length is approximately 7500, and the Strouhal number based on flapping frequency, flapping amplitude, and swimming speed is 0.86. It is found that swimming speed scales with the strength and geometry of a composite wake, which is constructed by freezing each vortex at the location of its centroid at the time of shedding. Specifically, we find that swimming speed scales linearly with vortex circulation. Also, swimming speed scales linearly with flapping frequency and the width of the composite wake. The thrust produced by the swimming robot is estimated using a simple vortex dynamics model, and we find satisfactory agreement between this estimate and measurements made during static load tests.

Performance Analysis of a Neuro-PID Controller Applied to a Robot Manipulator

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saeed Pezeshki

2012-11-01

Full Text Available The performance of robot manipulators with nonadaptive controllers might degrade significantly due to the open loop unstable system and the effect of some uncertainties on the robot model or environment. A novel Neural Network PID controller (NNP is proposed in order to improve the system performance and its robustness. The Neural Network (NN technique is applied to compensate for the effect of the uncertainties of the robot model. With the NN compensator introduced, the system errors and the NN weights with large dispersion are guaranteed to be bounded in the Lyapunov sense. The weights of the NN compensator are adaptively tuned. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the model validation approach and its efficiency to guarantee a stable and accurate trajectory tracking process in the presence of uncertainties.

A Combination of Terrain Prediction and Correction for Search and Rescue Robot Autonomous Navigation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yan Guo

2009-09-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a novel two-step autonomous navigation method for search and rescue robot. The algorithm based on the vision is proposed for terrain identification to give a prediction of the safest path with the support vector regression machine (SVRM trained off-line with the texture feature and color features. And correction algorithm of the prediction based the vibration information is developed during the robot traveling, using the judgment function given in the paper. The region with fault prediction will be corrected with the real traversability value and be used to update the SVRM. The experiment demonstrates that this method could help the robot to find the optimal path and be protected from the trap brought from the error between prediction and the real environment.

Modeling and evaluation of hand-eye coordination of surgical robotic system on task performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Yuanqian; Wang, Shuxin; Li, Jianmin; Li, Aimin; Liu, Hongbin; Xing, Yuan

2017-12-01

Robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery changes the direct hand and eye coordination in traditional surgery to indirect instrument and camera coordination, which affects the ergonomics, operation performance, and safety. A camera, two instruments, and a target, as the descriptors, are used to construct the workspace correspondence and geometrical relationships in a surgical operation. A parametric model with a set of parameters is proposed to describe the hand-eye coordination of the surgical robot. From the results, optimal values and acceptable ranges of these parameters are identified from two tasks. A 90° viewing angle had the longest completion time; 60° instrument elevation angle and 0° deflection angle had better performance; there is no significant difference among manipulation angles and observing distances on task performance. This hand-eye coordination model provides evidence for robotic design, surgeon training, and robotic initialization to achieve dexterous and safe manipulation in surgery. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Multi-robot system using low-cost infrared sensors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anubhav Kakkar

2013-03-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a proposed set of the novel technique, methods, and algorithm for simultaneous path planning, area exploration, area retrieval, obstacle avoidance, object detection, and object retrieval   autonomously by a multi-robot system. The proposed methods and algorithms are built considering the use of low cost infrared sensors with the ultimate function of efficiently exploring the given unknown area and simultaneously identifying desired objects by analyzing the physical characteristics of several of the objects that come across during exploration. In this paper, we have explained the scenario by building a coordinative multi-robot system consisting of two autonomously operated robots equipped with low-cost and low-range infrared sensors to perform the assigned task by analyzing some of the sudden changes in their environment. Along with identifying and retrieving the desired object, the proposed methodology also provide an inclusive analysis of the area being explored. The novelties presented in the paper may significantly provide a cost-effective solution to the problem of area exploration and finding a known object in an unknown environment by demonstrating an innovative approach of using the infrared sensors instead of high cost long range sensors and cameras. Additionally, the methodology provides a speedy and uncomplicated method of traversing a complicated arena while performing all the necessary and inter-related tasks of avoiding the obstacles, analyzing the area as well as objects, and reconstructing the area using all these information collected and interpreted for an unknown environment. The methods and algorithms proposed are simulated over a complex arena to depict the operations and manually tested over a physical environment which provided 78% correct results with respect to various complex parameters set randomly.

The Effect of Terrain Inclination on Performance and the Stability Region of Two-Wheeled Mobile Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zareena Kausar

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Two-wheeled mobile robots (TWMRs have a capability of avoiding the tip-over problem on inclined terrain by adjusting the centre of mass position of the robot body. The effects of terrain inclination on the robot performance are studied to exploit this capability. Prior to the real-time implementation of position control, an estimation of the stability region of the TWMR is essential for safe operation. A numerical method to estimate the stability region is applied and the effects of inclined surfaces on the performance and stability region of the robot are investigated. The dynamics of a TWMR is modelled on a general uneven terrain and reduced for cases of inclined and horizontal flat terrain. A full state feedback (FSFB controller is designed based on optimal gains with speed tracking on a horizontal flat terrain. The performance and stability regions are simulated for the robot on a horizontal flat and inclined terrain with the same controller. The results endorse a variation in equilibrium points and a reduction in stability region for robot motion on inclined terrain.

Trajectory generation for two robots cooperating to perform a task

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewis, C.L.

1995-01-01

This paper formulates an algorithm for trajectory generation for two robots cooperating to perform an assembly task. Treating the two robots as a single redundant system, this paper derives two Jacobian matrices which relate the joint rates of the entire system to the relative motion of the grippers with respect to one another. The advantage of this formulation over existing methods is that a variety of secondary criteria can be conveniently satisfied using motion in the null-space of the relative Jacobian. This paper presents methods for generating dual-arm joint trajectories which perform assembly tasks while at the same time avoiding obstacles and joint limits, and also maintaining constraints on the absolute position and orientation of the end-effectors

Deep ART Neural Model for Biologically Inspired Episodic Memory and Its Application to Task Performance of Robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Gyeong-Moon; Yoo, Yong-Ho; Kim, Deok-Hwa; Kim, Jong-Hwan

2017-06-26

Robots are expected to perform smart services and to undertake various troublesome or difficult tasks in the place of humans. Since these human-scale tasks consist of a temporal sequence of events, robots need episodic memory to store and retrieve the sequences to perform the tasks autonomously in similar situations. As episodic memory, in this paper we propose a novel Deep adaptive resonance theory (ART) neural model and apply it to the task performance of the humanoid robot, Mybot, developed in the Robot Intelligence Technology Laboratory at KAIST. Deep ART has a deep structure to learn events, episodes, and even more like daily episodes. Moreover, it can retrieve the correct episode from partial input cues robustly. To demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed Deep ART, experiments are conducted with the humanoid robot, Mybot, for performing the three tasks of arranging toys, making cereal, and disposing of garbage.

Modeling and identification for high-performance robot control : an RRR-robotic arm case study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kostic, D.; Jager, de A.G.; Steinbuch, M.; Hensen, R.H.A.

2004-01-01

We explain a procedure for getting models of robot kinematics and dynamics that are appropriate for robot control design. The procedure consists of the following steps: (i) derivation of robot kinematic and dynamic models and establishing correctness of their structures; (ii) experimental estimation

ArcGIS Digitization of Apollo Surface Traverses

Science.gov (United States)

Petro, N. E.; Bleacher, J. E.; Gladdis, L. R.; Garry, W. B.; Lam, F.; Mest, S. C.

2012-01-01

The Apollo surface activities were documented in extraordinary detail, with every action performed by the astronauts while on the surface recorded either in photo, audio, film, or by written testimony [1]. The samples and in situ measurements the astronauts collected while on the lunar surface have shaped our understanding of the geologic history of the Moon, and the earliest history and evolution of the inner Solar System. As part of an ongoing LASERfunded effort, we are digitizing and georeferencing data from astronaut traverses and spatially associating them to available, co-registered remote sensing data. Here we introduce the products produced so far for Apollo 15, 16, and 17 missions.

3D straight-stick laparoscopy versus 3D robotics for task performance in novice surgeons: a randomised crossover trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Shakir, Fevzi; Jan, Haider; Kent, Andrew

2016-12-01

The advent of three-dimensional passive stereoscopic imaging has led to the development of 3D laparoscopy. In simulation tasks, a reduction in error rate and performance time is seen with 3D compared to two-dimensional (2D) laparoscopy with both novice and expert surgeons. Robotics utilises 3D and instrument articulation through a console interface. Robotic trials have demonstrated that tasks performed in 3D produced fewer errors and quicker performance times compared with those in 2D. It was therefore perceived that the main advantage of robotic surgery was in fact 3D. Our aim was to compare 3D straight-stick laparoscopic task performance (3D) with robotic 3D (Robot), to determine whether robotic surgery confers additional benefit over and above 3D visualisation. We randomised 20 novice surgeons to perform four validated surgical tasks, either with straight-stick 3D laparoscopy followed by 3D robotic surgery or in the reverse order. The trial was conducted in two fully functional operating theatres. The primary outcome of the study was the error rate as defined for each task, and the secondary outcome was the time taken to complete each task. The participants were asked to perform the tasks as quickly and as accurately as possible. Data were analysed using SPSS version 21. The median error rate for completion of all four tasks with the robot was 2.75 and 5.25 for 3D with a P value performance time for completion of all four tasks with the robot was 157.1 and 342.5 s for 3D with a P value 3D robotic systems over 3D straight-stick laparoscopy, in terms of reduced error rate and quicker task performance time.

Performing mathematics activities with non-standard units of measurement using robots controlled via speech-generating devices: three case studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Adams, Kim D; Cook, Albert M

2017-07-01

Purpose To examine how using a Lego robot controlled via a speech-generating device (SGD) can contribute to how students with physical and communication impairments perform hands-on and communicative mathematics measurement activities. This study was a follow-up to a previous study. Method Three students with cerebral palsy used the robot to measure objects using non-standard units, such as straws, and then compared and ordered the objects using the resulting measurement. Their performance was assessed, and the manipulation and communication events were observed. Teachers and education assistants were interviewed regarding robot use. Results Similar benefits to the previous study were found in this study. Gaps in student procedural knowledge were identified such as knowing to place measurement units tip-to-tip, and students' reporting revealed gaps in conceptual understanding. However, performance improved with repeated practice. Stakeholders identified that some robot tasks took too long or were too difficult to perform. Conclusions Having access to both their SGD and a robot gave the students multiple ways to show their understanding of the measurement concepts. Though they could participate actively in the new mathematics activities, robot use is most appropriate in short tasks requiring reasonable operational skill. Implications for Rehabilitation Lego robots controlled via speech-generating devices (SGDs) can help students to engage in the mathematics pedagogy of performing hands-on activities while communicating about concepts. Students can "show what they know" using the Lego robots, and report and reflect on concepts using the SGD. Level 1 and Level 2 mathematics measurement activities have been adapted to be accomplished by the Lego robot. Other activities can likely be accomplished with similar robot adaptations (e.g., gripper, pen). It is not recommended to use the robot to measure items that are long, or perform measurements that require high

Study on Intelligent Control of Metal Filling System by Welding Robots in the Open Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei Fu

2014-08-01

Full Text Available robot model of three-arm and five-degree freedom plus large scope of traversing welding was established, and decoupling of models of “large scope of traversing”, “triangle movement of two arms” and “spherical movement of one arm” was realized. The model of “triangle movement of two arms ”is able to use geometrical calculation to solve the kinematics inverse problem , avoid the multiplicity, improve the calculation speed, eliminate the blind spots of the motions of welding gun of welding robot, and simplify the kinematic pair of kinematic mechanism for the arc filling strategy during welding travelling of robot. Binocular stereo vision camera was used to detect the edges of welds, and laser array sensor was used to detect the amount of metal filling of welds. In completely open conditions, feedback was fused based on sensor data to realize the welding tracking control by welding robot.

Computer-based laparoscopic and robotic surgical simulators: performance characteristics and perceptions of new users.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, David W; Romanelli, John R; Kuhn, Jay N; Thompson, Renee E; Bush, Ron W; Seymour, Neal E

2009-01-01

This study aimed to define perceptions of the need and the value of new simulation devices for laparoscopic and robot-assisted surgery. The initial experience of surgeons using both robotic and nonrobotic laparoscopic simulators to perform an advanced laparoscopic skill was evaluated. At the 2006 Society of American Gastroesophageal Surgeons (SAGES) meeting, 63 Learning Center attendees used a new virtual reality robotic surgery simulator (SEP Robot) and either a computer-enhanced laparoscopic simulator (ProMIS) or a virtual reality simulator (SurgicalSIM). Demographic and training data were collected by an intake survey. Subjects then were assessed during one iteration of laparoscopic suturing and knot-tying on the SEP Robot and either the ProMIS or the SurgicalSIM. A posttask survey determined users' impressions of task realism, interface quality, and educational value. Performance data were collected and comparisons made between user-defined groups, different simulation platforms, and posttask survey responses. The task completion rate was significantly greater for experts than for nonexperts on the virtual reality platforms (SurgicalSIM: 100% vs 36%; SEP Robot: 93% vs 63%; p platforms, whereas simulator metrics best discriminated expertise for the videoscopic platform. Similar comparisons for the virtual reality platforms were not feasible because of the low task completion rate for nonexperts. The added degrees of freedom associated with the robotic surgical simulator instruments facilitated completion of the task by nonexperts. All platforms were perceived as effective training tools.

Gait performance and foot pressure distribution during wearable robot-assisted gait in elderly adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Su-Hyun; Lee, Hwang-Jae; Chang, Won Hyuk; Choi, Byung-Ok; Lee, Jusuk; Kim, Jeonghun; Ryu, Gyu-Ha; Kim, Yun-Hee

2017-11-28

A robotic exoskeleton device is an intelligent system designed to improve gait performance and quality of life for the wearer. Robotic technology has developed rapidly in recent years, and several robot-assisted gait devices were developed to enhance gait function and activities of daily living in elderly adults and patients with gait disorders. In this study, we investigated the effects of the Gait-enhancing Mechatronic System (GEMS), a new wearable robotic hip-assist device developed by Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd., Korea, on gait performance and foot pressure distribution in elderly adults. Thirty elderly adults who had no neurological or musculoskeletal abnormalities affecting gait participated in this study. A three-dimensional (3D) motion capture system, surface electromyography and the F-Scan system were used to collect data on spatiotemporal gait parameters, muscle activity and foot pressure distribution under three conditions: free gait without robot assistance (FG), robot-assisted gait with zero torque (RAG-Z) and robot-assisted gait (RAG). We found increased gait speed, cadence, stride length and single support time in the RAG condition. Reduced rectus femoris and medial gastrocnemius muscle activity throughout the terminal stance phase and reduced effort of the medial gastrocnemius muscle throughout the pre-swing phase were also observed in the RAG condition. In addition, walking with the assistance of GEMS resulted in a significant increase in foot pressure distribution, specifically in maximum force and peak pressure of the total foot, medial masks, anterior masks and posterior masks. The results of the present study reveal that GEMS may present an alternative way of restoring age-related changes in gait such as gait instability with muscle weakness, reduced step force and lower foot pressure in elderly adults. In addition, GEMS improved gait performance by improving push-off power and walking speed and reducing muscle activity in the lower

Dynamic modeling and mobility analysis of the transforming roving-rolling explorer (TRREx) as it Traverses Rugged Martian Terrain

Science.gov (United States)

Edwin, Lionel E.; Mazzoleni, Andre P.

2016-03-01

All planetary surface exploration missions thus far have employed traditional rovers with a rocker-bogie suspension. These rovers can navigate moderately rough and flat terrain, but are not designed to traverse rugged terrain with steep slopes. The fact is, however, that the most scientifically interesting missions require exploration platforms with capabilities for navigating such types of rugged terrain. This issue motivates the development of new kinds of rovers that take advantage of the latest advances in robotic technologies to traverse rugged terrain efficiently. This work analyzes one such rover concept called the Transforming Roving-Rolling Explorer (TRREx) that is principally aimed at addressing the above issue. Biologically inspired by the way the armadillo curls up into a ball when threatened, and the way the golden wheel spider uses the dynamic advantages of a sphere to roll down hills when escaping danger, the TRREx rover can traverse like a traditional 6-wheeled rover over conventional terrain, but can also transform itself into a sphere, when necessary, to travel down steep inclines, or navigate rough terrain. This paper investigates the mobility of the TRREx when it is in its rolling mode, i.e. when it is a sphere and can steer itself through actuations that shift its center of mass to achieve the desired direction of roll. A mathematical model describing the dynamics of the rover in this spherical configuration is presented, and actuated rolling is demonstrated through computer simulation. Parametric analyzes that investigate the rover's mobility as a function of its design parameters are also presented. This work highlights the contribution of the spherical rolling mode to the enhanced mobility of the TRREx rover and how it could enable challenging surface exploration missions in the future.

Semi-autonomous exploration of multi-floor buildings with a legged robot

Science.gov (United States)

Wenger, Garrett J.; Johnson, Aaron M.; Taylor, Camillo J.; Koditschek, Daniel E.

2015-05-01

This paper presents preliminary results of a semi-autonomous building exploration behavior using the hexapedal robot RHex. Stairwells are used in virtually all multi-floor buildings, and so in order for a mobile robot to effectively explore, map, clear, monitor, or patrol such buildings it must be able to ascend and descend stairwells. However most conventional mobile robots based on a wheeled platform are unable to traverse stairwells, motivating use of the more mobile legged machine. This semi-autonomous behavior uses a human driver to provide steering input to the robot, as would be the case in, e.g., a tele-operated building exploration mission. The gait selection and transitions between the walking and stair climbing gaits are entirely autonomous. This implementation uses an RGBD camera for stair acquisition, which offers several advantages over a previously documented detector based on a laser range finder, including significantly reduced acquisition time. The sensor package used here also allows for considerable expansion of this behavior. For example, complete automation of the building exploration task driven by a mapping algorithm and higher level planner is presently under development.

Message passing with parallel queue traversal

Science.gov (United States)

Underwood, Keith D [Albuquerque, NM; Brightwell, Ronald B [Albuquerque, NM; Hemmert, K Scott [Albuquerque, NM

2012-05-01

In message passing implementations, associative matching structures are used to permit list entries to be searched in parallel fashion, thereby avoiding the delay of linear list traversal. List management capabilities are provided to support list entry turnover semantics and priority ordering semantics.

Synthesis of a Controller for Swarming Robots Performing Underwater Mine Countermeasures

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Tan, Yong

2004-01-01

This Trident Scholar project involved the synthesis of a swarm controller that is suitable for controlling movements of a group of autonomous robots performing underwater mine countermeasures (UMCM...

Autonomous Rover Traverse and Precise Arm Placement on Remotely Designated Targets

Science.gov (United States)

Felder, Michael; Nesnas, Issa A.; Pivtoraiko, Mihail; Kelly, Alonzo; Volpe, Richard

2011-01-01

Exploring planetary surfaces typically involves traversing challenging and unknown terrain and acquiring in-situ measurements at designated locations using arm-mounted instruments. We present field results for a new implementation of an autonomous capability that enables a rover to traverse and precisely place an arm-mounted instrument on remote targets. Using point-and-click mouse commands, a scientist designates targets in the initial imagery acquired from the rover's mast cameras. The rover then autonomously traverse the rocky terrain for a distance of 10 - 15 m, tracks the target(s) of interest during the traverse, positions itself for approaching the target, and then precisely places an arm-mounted instrument within 2-3 cm from the originally designated target. The rover proceeds to acquire science measurements with the instrument. This work advances what has been previously developed and integrated on the Mars Exploration Rovers by using algorithms that are capable of traversing more rock-dense terrains, enabling tight thread-the-needle maneuvers. We integrated these algorithms on the newly refurbished Athena Mars research rover and fielded them in the JPL Mars Yard. We conducted 43 runs with targets at distances ranging from 5 m to 15 m and achieved a success rate of 93% for placement of the instrument within 2-3 cm.

Generalising tree traversals and tree transformations to DAGs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bahr, Patrick; Axelsson, Emil

2017-01-01

We present a recursion scheme based on attribute grammars that can be transparently applied to trees and acyclic graphs. Our recursion scheme allows the programmer to implement a tree traversal or a tree transformation and then apply it to compact graph representations of trees instead. The resul......We present a recursion scheme based on attribute grammars that can be transparently applied to trees and acyclic graphs. Our recursion scheme allows the programmer to implement a tree traversal or a tree transformation and then apply it to compact graph representations of trees instead...... as the complementing theory with a number of examples....

Evidence for robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Shenoy, Ravikiran; Nathwani, Dinesh

2017-01-01

Robots have been successfully used in commercial industry and have enabled humans to perform tasks which are repetitive, dangerous and requiring extreme force. Their role has evolved and now includes many aspects of surgery to improve safety and precision. Orthopaedic surgery is largely performed on bones which are rigid immobile structures which can easily be performed by robots with great precision. Robots have been designed for use in orthopaedic surgery including joint arthroplasty and spine surgery. Experimental studies have been published evaluating the role of robots in arthroscopy and trauma surgery. In this article, we will review the incorporation of robots in orthopaedic surgery looking into the evidence in their use. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2017.

Prior video game exposure does not enhance robotic surgical performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Harper, Jonathan D; Kaiser, Stefan; Ebrahimi, Kamyar; Lamberton, Gregory R; Hadley, H Roger; Ruckle, Herbert C; Baldwin, D Duane

2007-10-01

Prior research has demonstrated that counterintuitive laparoscopic surgical skills are enhanced by experience with video games. A similar relation with robotic surgical skills has not been tested. The purpose of this study was to determine whether prior video-game experience enhances the acquisition of robotic surgical skills. A series of 242 preclinical medical students completed a self-reported video-game questionnaire detailing the frequency, duration, and peak playing time. The 10 students with the highest and lowest video-game exposure completed a follow-up questionnaire further quantifying video game, sports, musical instrument, and craft and hobby exposure. Each subject viewed a training video demonstrating the use of the da Vinci surgical robot in tying knots, followed by 3 minutes of proctored practice time. Subjects then tied knots for 5 minutes while an independent blinded observer recorded the number of knots tied, missed knots, frayed sutures, broken sutures, and mechanical errors. The mean playing time for the 10 game players was 15,136 total hours (range 5,840-30,000 hours). Video-game players tied fewer knots than nonplayers (5.8 v 9.0; P = 0.04). Subjects who had played sports for at least 4 years had fewer mechanical errors (P = 0.04), broke fewer sutures (P = 0.01), and committed fewer total errors (P = 0.01). Similarly, those playing musical instruments longer than 5 years missed fewer knots (P = 0.05). In the extremes of video-game experience tested in this study, game playing was inversely correlated with the ability to learn robotic suturing. This study suggests that advanced surgical skills such as robotic suturing may be learned more quickly by athletes and musicians. Prior extensive video-game exposure had a negative impact on robotic performance.

Human-Robot Teams Informed by Human Performance Moderator Functions

Science.gov (United States)

2012-08-29

performance factors that affect the ability of a human to drive at night, which includes the eyesight of the driver, the fatigue level of the driver...where human factors are factors that affect the performance of an individual. 7 for human interaction. For instance, they explain the various human... affecting trust in human-robot interaction. Human Factors 53(5), 517-527 (2001) 35. Hart, S. G. and Staveland, L. E. Development of NASA-TLX (Task

Robot Aesthetics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jochum, Elizabeth Ann; Putnam, Lance Jonathan

This paper considers art-based research practice in robotics through a discussion of our course and relevant research projects in autonomous art. The undergraduate course integrates basic concepts of computer science, robotic art, live performance and aesthetic theory. Through practice...... in robotics research (such as aesthetics, culture and perception), we believe robot aesthetics is an important area for research in contemporary aesthetics....

NAT Traversing Solutions for SIP Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huang Ya-Lin

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Session Initiation Protocol (SIP has been proposed for multimedia services and wide-area connectivity in smart home environments (SHEs. An important issue for SIP deployment in SHEs is network address translator (NAT traversing. SIP and Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP packets are delivered between an SHE (i.e., private IP network and Internet (i.e., a public IP network through an NAT function of a home gateway, and the NAT translates the IP/transport layer address and port number but leaves the application layer content unchanged. This results in inconsistency between the IP addresses/port numbers in the IP/transport layers and those in the SIP layer. To resolve this issue, we describe six solutions including static route, UPnP, STUN, ICE, ALG, and SBC. Then we compare these solutions in terms of smart home appliance (SHA modification, scope of NATs supported, multilayer NAT traversal, ease of configuration, security issue, and time complexities.

NAT Traversing Solutions for SIP Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Han-Chieh Chao

2008-05-01

Full Text Available Session Initiation Protocol (SIP has been proposed for multimedia services and wide-area connectivity in smart home environments (SHEs. An important issue for SIP deployment in SHEs is network address translator (NAT traversing. SIP and Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP packets are delivered between an SHE (i.e., private IP network and Internet (i.e., a public IP network through an NAT function of a home gateway, and the NAT translates the IP/transport layer address and port number but leaves the application layer content unchanged. This results in inconsistency between the IP addresses/port numbers in the IP/transport layers and those in the SIP layer. To resolve this issue, we describe six solutions including static route, UPnP, STUN, ICE, ALG, and SBC. Then we compare these solutions in terms of smart home appliance (SHA modification, scope of NATs supported, multilayer NAT traversal, ease of configuration, security issue, and time complexities.

Long-Range Untethered Real-Time Live Gas Main Robotic Inspection System

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hagen Schempf; Daphne D' Zurko

2004-10-31

Under funding from the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Northeast Gas Association (NGA), Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) developed an untethered, wireless remote controlled inspection robot dubbed Explorer. The project entailed the design and prototyping of a wireless self-powered video-inspection robot capable of accessing live 6- and 8-inch diameter cast-iron and steel mains, while traversing turns and Ts and elbows under real-time control with live video feedback to an operator. The design is that of a segmented actively articulated and wheel-leg powered robot design, with fisheye imaging capability and self-powered battery storage and wireless real-time communication link. The prototype was functionally tested in an above ground pipe-network, in order to debug all mechanical, electrical and software subsystems, and develop the necessary deployment and retrieval, as well as obstacle-handling scripts. A pressurized natural gas test-section was used to certify it for operation in natural gas at up to 60 psig. Two subsequent live-main field-trials in both cast-iron and steel pipe, demonstrated its ability to be safely launched, operated and retrieved under real-world conditions. The system's ability to safely and repeatably exidrecover from angled and vertical launchers, traverse multi-thousand foot long pipe-sections, make T and varied-angle elbow-turns while wirelessly sending live video and handling command and control messages, was clearly demonstrated. Video-inspection was clearly shown to be a viable tool to understand the state of this critical buried infrastructure, irrespective of low- (cast-iron) or high-pressure (steel) conditions. This report covers the different aspects of specifications, requirements, design, prototyping, integration and testing and field-trialing of the Explorer platform.

Robot Navigation Control Based on Monocular Images: An Image Processing Algorithm for Obstacle Avoidance Decisions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

William Benn

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This paper covers the use of monocular vision to control autonomous navigation for a robot in a dynamically changing environment. The solution focused on using colour segmentation against a selected floor plane to distinctly separate obstacles from traversable space: this is then supplemented with canny edge detection to separate similarly coloured boundaries to the floor plane. The resulting binary map (where white identifies an obstacle-free area and black identifies an obstacle could then be processed by fuzzy logic or neural networks to control the robot’s next movements. Findings show that the algorithm performed strongly on solid coloured carpets, wooden, and concrete floors but had difficulty in separating colours in multicoloured floor types such as patterned carpets.

Breaking the Game: The traversal of the emergent narrative in video games

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pedro Cardoso

2013-12-01

Full Text Available In video games the player’s actions shape the narrative of their personal experience, molding what otherwise would be a linear course. This emergent narrative is in a state of constant transformation, dependent on how the player influences it. This paper explores how the players traverse ergodic media such as video games and how narrative emerges from the interactions between them and the system. In a previous text we have proposed three types of traversal in video games (Cardoso & Carvalhais, 2013: 1 that in which the player has the ability to choose between mutually exclusive paths; 2 that in which the player has the ability to expand the narrative; and 3 that in which the traversal is determined by the disposition of the other actors in the game world towards the player and each other. This paper intends to further contribute by adding another one: 4 a type of traversal that is rooted in the exploitation of any flaws and glitches in the system, allowing the player to traverse the game through an overlooked side of the algorithm, journeying through a world of unpredictable behaviours and events, that may ultimately break the game altogether.  

Initial consecutive 125 cases of robotic assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy performed in Ireland's first robotic radical prostatectomy centre.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Bouchier-Hayes, D M

2012-03-01

We examined the patient characteristics, operative proceedings and the outcomes of the initial series of 125 cases of robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALRP) in an independent hospital in Ireland, performed by two surgeons using the da Vinci(®) surgical system.

Movement Performance of Human-Robot Cooperation Control Based on EMG-Driven Hill-Type and Proportional Models for an Ankle Power-Assist Exoskeleton Robot.

Science.gov (United States)

Ao, Di; Song, Rong; Gao, JinWu

2017-08-01

Although the merits of electromyography (EMG)-based control of powered assistive systems have been certified, the factors that affect the performance of EMG-based human-robot cooperation, which are very important, have received little attention. This study investigates whether a more physiologically appropriate model could improve the performance of human-robot cooperation control for an ankle power-assist exoskeleton robot. To achieve the goal, an EMG-driven Hill-type neuromusculoskeletal model (HNM) and a linear proportional model (LPM) were developed and calibrated through maximum isometric voluntary dorsiflexion (MIVD). The two control models could estimate the real-time ankle joint torque, and HNM is more accurate and can account for the change of the joint angle and muscle dynamics. Then, eight healthy volunteers were recruited to wear the ankle exoskeleton robot and complete a series of sinusoidal tracking tasks in the vertical plane. With the various levels of assist based on the two calibrated models, the subjects were instructed to track the target displayed on the screen as accurately as possible by performing ankle dorsiflexion and plantarflexion. Two measurements, the root mean square error (RMSE) and root mean square jerk (RMSJ), were derived from the assistant torque and kinematic signals to characterize the movement performances, whereas the amplitudes of the recorded EMG signals from the tibialis anterior (TA) and the gastrocnemius (GAS) were obtained to reflect the muscular efforts. The results demonstrated that the muscular effort and smoothness of tracking movements decreased with an increase in the assistant ratio. Compared with LPM, subjects made lower physical efforts and generated smoother movements when using HNM, which implied that a more physiologically appropriate model could enable more natural and human-like human-robot cooperation and has potential value for improvement of human-exoskeleton interaction in future applications.

Human-Robot Interaction

Science.gov (United States)

Sandor, Aniko; Cross, E. Vincent, II; Chang, Mai Lee

2015-01-01

Human-robot interaction (HRI) is a discipline investigating the factors affecting the interactions between humans and robots. It is important to evaluate how the design of interfaces affect the human's ability to perform tasks effectively and efficiently when working with a robot. By understanding the effects of interface design on human performance, workload, and situation awareness, interfaces can be developed to appropriately support the human in performing tasks with minimal errors and with appropriate interaction time and effort. Thus, the results of research on human-robot interfaces have direct implications for the design of robotic systems. For efficient and effective remote navigation of a rover, a human operator needs to be aware of the robot's environment. However, during teleoperation, operators may get information about the environment only through a robot's front-mounted camera causing a keyhole effect. The keyhole effect reduces situation awareness which may manifest in navigation issues such as higher number of collisions, missing critical aspects of the environment, or reduced speed. One way to compensate for the keyhole effect and the ambiguities operators experience when they teleoperate a robot is adding multiple cameras and including the robot chassis in the camera view. Augmented reality, such as overlays, can also enhance the way a person sees objects in the environment or in camera views by making them more visible. Scenes can be augmented with integrated telemetry, procedures, or map information. Furthermore, the addition of an exocentric (i.e., third-person) field of view from a camera placed in the robot's environment may provide operators with the additional information needed to gain spatial awareness of the robot. Two research studies investigated possible mitigation approaches to address the keyhole effect: 1) combining the inclusion of the robot chassis in the camera view with augmented reality overlays, and 2) modifying the camera

Robot Control Overview: An Industrial Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. Brogårdh

2009-07-01

Full Text Available One key competence for robot manufacturers is robot control, defined as all the technologies needed to control the electromechanical system of an industrial robot. By means of modeling, identification, optimization, and model-based control it is possible to reduce robot cost, increase robot performance, and solve requirements from new automation concepts and new application processes. Model-based control, including kinematics error compensation, optimal servo reference- and feed-forward generation, and servo design, tuning, and scheduling, has meant a breakthrough for the use of robots in industry. Relying on this breakthrough, new automation concepts such as high performance multi robot collaboration and human robot collaboration can be introduced. Robot manufacturers can build robots with more compliant components and mechanical structures without loosing performance and robots can be used also in applications with very high performance requirements, e.g., in assembly, machining, and laser cutting. In the future it is expected that the importance of sensor control will increase, both with respect to sensors in the robot structure to increase the control performance of the robot itself and sensors outside the robot related to the applications and the automation systems. In this connection sensor fusion and learning functionalities will be needed together with the robot control for easy and intuitive installation, programming, and maintenance of industrial robots.

Evolutionary Developmental Robotics: Improving Morphology and Control of Physical Robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Vujovic, Vuk; Rosendo, Andre; Brodbeck, Luzius; Iida, Fumiya

2017-01-01

Evolutionary algorithms have previously been applied to the design of morphology and control of robots. The design space for such tasks can be very complex, which can prevent evolution from efficiently discovering fit solutions. In this article we introduce an evolutionary-developmental (evo-devo) experiment with real-world robots. It allows robots to grow their leg size to simulate ontogenetic morphological changes, and this is the first time that such an experiment has been performed in the physical world. To test diverse robot morphologies, robot legs of variable shapes were generated during the evolutionary process and autonomously built using additive fabrication. We present two cases with evo-devo experiments and one with evolution, and we hypothesize that the addition of a developmental stage can be used within robotics to improve performance. Moreover, our results show that a nonlinear system-environment interaction exists, which explains the nontrivial locomotion patterns observed. In the future, robots will be present in our daily lives, and this work introduces for the first time physical robots that evolve and grow while interacting with the environment.

Application status and performance analysis of robot in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Chengze; Yan Zhi; Deng Jingshan

2012-01-01

Application status of robot in nuclear power plants in some countries is summarized. The related robots include accident response robot, dismantling and cleaning robot, in-service inspection robot, special-purpose robot and so on. Finally, some key technologies such as the radiation-tolerance and reliability of the robot systems are analyzed in details. (authors)

Robotic Ankle for Omnidirectional Rock Anchors

Science.gov (United States)

Parness, Aaron; Frost, Matthew; Thatte, Nitish

2013-01-01

Future robotic exploration of near-Earth asteroids and the vertical and inverted rock walls of lava caves and cliff faces on Mars and other planetary bodies would require a method of gripping their rocky surfaces to allow mobility without gravitational assistance. In order to successfully navigate this terrain and drill for samples, the grippers must be able to produce anchoring forces in excess of 100 N. Additionally, the grippers must be able to support the inertial forces of a moving robot, as well gravitational forces for demonstrations on Earth. One possible solution would be to use microspine arrays to anchor to rock surfaces and provide the necessary load-bearing abilities for robotic exploration of asteroids. Microspine arrays comprise dozens of small steel hooks supported on individual suspensions. When these arrays are dragged along a rock surface, the steel hooks engage with asperities and holes on the surface. The suspensions allow for individual hooks to engage with asperities while the remaining hooks continue to drag along the surface. This ensures that the maximum possible number of hooks engage with the surface, thereby increasing the load-bearing abilities of the gripper. Using the microspine array grippers described above as the end-effectors of a robot would allow it to traverse terrain previously unreachable by traditional wheeled robots. Furthermore, microspine-gripping robots that can perch on cliffs or rocky walls could enable a new class of persistent surveillance devices for military applications. In order to interface these microspine grippers with a legged robot, an ankle is needed that can robotically actuate the gripper, as well as allow it to conform to the large-scale irregularities in the rock. The anchor serves three main purposes: deploy and release the anchor, conform to roughness or misalignment with the surface, and cancel out any moments about the anchor that could cause unintentional detachment. The ankle design contains a

Measurement of the robot motor capability of a robot motor system: a Fitts's-law-inspired approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Hsien-I; Lee, C S George

2013-07-02

Robot motor capability is a crucial factor for a robot, because it affects how accurately and rapidly a robot can perform a motion to accomplish a task constrained by spatial and temporal conditions. In this paper, we propose and derive a pseudo-index of motor performance (pIp) to characterize robot motor capability with robot kinematics, dynamics and control taken into consideration. The proposed pIp provides a quantitative measure for a robot with revolute joints, which is inspired from an index of performance in Fitts's law of human skills. Computer simulations and experiments on a PUMA 560 industrial robot were conducted to validate the proposed pIp for performing a motion accurately and rapidly.

Singularities of robot mechanisms numerical computation and avoidance path planning

CERN Document Server

Bohigas, Oriol; Ros, Lluís

2017-01-01

This book presents the singular configurations associated with a robot mechanism, together with robust methods for their computation, interpretation, and avoidance path planning. Having such methods is essential as singularities generally pose problems to the normal operation of a robot, but also determine the workspaces and motion impediments of its underlying mechanical structure. A distinctive feature of this volume is that the methods are applicable to nonredundant mechanisms of general architecture, defined by planar or spatial kinematic chains interconnected in an arbitrary way. Moreover, singularities are interpreted as silhouettes of the configuration space when seen from the input or output spaces. This leads to a powerful image that explains the consequences of traversing singular configurations, and all the rich information that can be extracted from them. The problems are solved by means of effective branch-and-prune and numerical continuation methods that are of independent interest in themselves...

NAT Traversal Capability and Keep-Alive Functionality with IPSec in IKEv2 Implementation

OpenAIRE

CHAMAN SINGH; K.L.BANSAL

2012-01-01

Since IPv4 Private Networks are behind NAT (Network Address Translation) devices. So, to bypass the Binding Update and Binding Acknowledgment by NAT, we need to encapsulate it in UDP (User datagram Protocol) Packets. Hence, the Dual Stack Mobile IPv6 should support NAT Traversal and Detection. So for proper securing and fully functionality of NAT traversal, it should be IP Security Protected. Paper presents design and implementation of NAT traversal capability and keeps alive functionality wi...

Traversing the Fantasy of the Heroic Entrepreneur

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Garmann Johnsen, Christian; Meier Sørensen, Bent

2017-01-01

Purpose: While considerable critical energy has been devoted to unmasking the figure of the heroic entrepreneur, the idea that entrepreneurs are unique individuals with special abilities continues to be widespread in scholarly research, social media and popular culture. The purpose of this paper...... is to traverse the fantasy of the heroic entrepreneur by offering a reading of Richard Branson’s autobiography, Losing My Virginity. Design/methodology/approach: The theoretical approach of this paper is informed by Slavoj Žižek’s concept of fantasy and his critical analytical strategy of “traversing the fantasy......”. Žižek offers a theoretical framework that allows us to understand how narratives of famous entrepreneurs create paradoxical fantasies that produce desire. Findings: By offering a reading of Richard Branson’s autobiography, Losing My Virginity, this paper serves to illustrate how the fantasy...

The Power of Educational Robotics

Science.gov (United States)

Cummings, Timothy

The purpose of this action research project was to investigate the impact a students' participation in educational robotics has on his or her performance in the STEM subjects. This study attempted to utilize educational robotics as a method for increasing student achievement and engagement in STEM subjects. Over the course of 12 weeks, an after-school robotics program was offered to students. Guided by the standards and principles of VEX IQ, a leading resource in educational robotics, students worked in collaboration on creating a design for their robot, building and testing their robot, and competing in the VEX IQ Crossover Challenge. Student data was gathered through a pre-participation survey, observations from the work they performed in robotics club, their performance in STEM subject classes, and the analysis of their end-of-the-year report card. Results suggest that the students who participate in robotics club experienced a positive impact on their performance in STEM subject classes.

Industrial Robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Reed, Dean; Harden, Thomas K.

Robots are mechanical devices that can be programmed to perform some task of manipulation or locomotion under automatic control. This paper discusses: (1) early developments of the robotics industry in the United States; (2) the present structure of the industry; (3) noneconomic factors related to the use of robots; (4) labor considerations…

Provoking Performing Objects: Expanding the Design Space for Soft Robotics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bewley, Harvey; Vallgårda, Anna

2017-01-01

Soft robots are typically developed with specific functions in mind. What we propose here is to shift focus to their aesthetic and performative qualities as means to open up a larger space of potential expressions and tacit abilities of these animated artefacts. Basically, to focus on the aesthetic...

Avatar Robot for Crew Performance and Behavioral Health

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This project investigates the effectiveness of using an avatar robotic platform as a crew assistant and a family member substitute. This type of avatar robot is...

Traversable geometric dark energy wormholes constrained by astrophysical observations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Deng [Nankai University, Theoretical Physics Division, Chern Institute of Mathematics, Tianjin (China); Meng, Xin-he [Nankai University, Department of Physics, Tianjin (China); Institute of Theoretical Physics, CAS, State Key Lab of Theoretical Physics, Beijing (China)

2016-09-15

In this paper, we introduce the astrophysical observations into the wormhole research. We investigate the evolution behavior of the dark energy equation of state parameter ω by constraining the dark energy model, so that we can determine in which stage of the universe wormholes can exist by using the condition ω < -1. As a concrete instance, we study the Ricci dark energy (RDE) traversable wormholes constrained by astrophysical observations. Particularly, we find from Fig. 5 of this work, when the effective equation of state parameter ω{sub X} < -1 (or z < 0.109), i.e., the null energy condition (NEC) is violated clearly, the wormholes will exist (open). Subsequently, six specific solutions of statically and spherically symmetric traversable wormhole supported by the RDE fluids are obtained. Except for the case of a constant redshift function, where the solution is not only asymptotically flat but also traversable, the five remaining solutions are all non-asymptotically flat, therefore, the exotic matter from the RDE fluids is spatially distributed in the vicinity of the throat. Furthermore, we analyze the physical characteristics and properties of the RDE traversable wormholes. It is worth noting that, using the astrophysical observations, we obtain the constraints on the parameters of the RDE model, explore the types of exotic RDE fluids in different stages of the universe, limit the number of available models for wormhole research, reduce theoretically the number of the wormholes corresponding to different parameters for the RDE model, and provide a clearer picture for wormhole investigations from the new perspective of observational cosmology. (orig.)

Traversable geometric dark energy wormholes constrained by astrophysical observations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Deng; Meng, Xin-he

2016-01-01

In this paper, we introduce the astrophysical observations into the wormhole research. We investigate the evolution behavior of the dark energy equation of state parameter ω by constraining the dark energy model, so that we can determine in which stage of the universe wormholes can exist by using the condition ω < -1. As a concrete instance, we study the Ricci dark energy (RDE) traversable wormholes constrained by astrophysical observations. Particularly, we find from Fig. 5 of this work, when the effective equation of state parameter ω X < -1 (or z < 0.109), i.e., the null energy condition (NEC) is violated clearly, the wormholes will exist (open). Subsequently, six specific solutions of statically and spherically symmetric traversable wormhole supported by the RDE fluids are obtained. Except for the case of a constant redshift function, where the solution is not only asymptotically flat but also traversable, the five remaining solutions are all non-asymptotically flat, therefore, the exotic matter from the RDE fluids is spatially distributed in the vicinity of the throat. Furthermore, we analyze the physical characteristics and properties of the RDE traversable wormholes. It is worth noting that, using the astrophysical observations, we obtain the constraints on the parameters of the RDE model, explore the types of exotic RDE fluids in different stages of the universe, limit the number of available models for wormhole research, reduce theoretically the number of the wormholes corresponding to different parameters for the RDE model, and provide a clearer picture for wormhole investigations from the new perspective of observational cosmology. (orig.)

Planning strategies for the Ambler walking robot

Science.gov (United States)

Wettergreen, David; Thomas, Hans; Thorpe, Chuck

1990-01-01

A hierarchy of planning strategies is proposed and explained for a walking robot called the Ambler. The hierarchy decomposes planning into levels of trajectory, gait, and footfall. An abstraction of feasible traversability allows the Ambler's trajectory planner to identify acceptable trajectories by finding paths that guarantee footfalls without specifying exactly which footfalls. Leg and body moves that achieve this trajectory can be generated by the Ambler's gait planner, which incorporates pattern constraints and measures of utility to search for the best next move. By combining constraints from the quality and details of the terrain, the Ambler's footfall planner can select footfalls that insure stability and remain within the tolerances of the gait.

Roles and Self-Reconfigurable Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dvinge, Nicolai; Schultz, Ulrik Pagh; Christensen, David Johan

2007-01-01

A self-reconfigurable robot is a robotic device that can change its own shape. Self-reconfigurable robots are commonly built from multiple identical modules that can manipulate each other to change the shape of the robot. The robot can also perform tasks such as locomotion without changing shape......., significantly simplifying the task of programming self-reconfigurable robots. Our language fully supports programming the ATRON self-reconfigurable robot, and has been used to implement several controllers running both on the physical modules and in simulation.......A self-reconfigurable robot is a robotic device that can change its own shape. Self-reconfigurable robots are commonly built from multiple identical modules that can manipulate each other to change the shape of the robot. The robot can also perform tasks such as locomotion without changing shape....... Programming a modular, self-reconfigurable robot is however a complicated task: the robot is essentially a real-time, distributed embedded system, where control and communication paths often are tightly coupled to the current physical configuration of the robot. To facilitate the task of programming modular...

Measurement of the Robot Motor Capability of a Robot Motor System: A Fitts’s-Law-Inspired Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. S. George Lee

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Robot motor capability is a crucial factor for a robot, because it affects how accurately and rapidly a robot can perform a motion to accomplish a task constrained by spatial and temporal conditions. In this paper, we propose and derive a pseudo-index of motor performance (pIp to characterize robot motor capability with robot kinematics, dynamics and control taken into consideration. The proposed pIp provides a quantitative measure for a robot with revolute joints, which is inspired from an index of performance in Fitts’s law of human skills. Computer simulations and experiments on a PUMA 560 industrial robot were conducted to validate the proposed pIp for performing a motion accurately and rapidly.

Robotic Mobile System's Performance-Based MIMO-OFDM Technology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Omar Alani

2009-10-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a predistortion neural network (PDNN architecture has been imposed to the Sniffer Mobile Robot (SNFRbot that is based on spatial multiplexed wireless Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM transmission technology. This proposal is used to improve the system performance by combating one of the main drawbacks that is encountered by OFDM technology; Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR. Simulation results show that using PDNN resulted in better PAPR performance than the previously published work that is based on linear coding, such as Low Density Parity Check (LDPC codes and turbo encoding whether using flat fading channel or a Doppler spread channel.

Performance analysis for bounded persistent disturbances in PD/PID-controlled robotic systems with its experimental demonstrations

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jung Hoon; Hur, Sung-Moon; Oh, Yonghwan

2018-03-01

This paper is concerned with performance analysis of proportional-derivative/proportional-integral-derivative (PD/PID) controller for bounded persistent disturbances in a robotic manipulator. Even though the notion of input-to-state stability (ISS) has been widely used to deal with the effect of disturbances in control of a robotic manipulator, the corresponding studies cannot be directly applied to the treatment of persistent disturbances occurred in robotic manipulators. This is because the conventional studies relevant to ISS consider the H∞ performance for robotic systems, which is confined to the treatment of decaying disturbances, i.e. the disturbances those in the L2 space. To deal with the effect of persistent disturbances in robotic systems, we first provide a new treatment of ISS in the L∞ sense because bounded persistent disturbances should be intrinsically regarded as elements of the L∞ space. We next derive state-space representations of trajectory tracking control in the robotic systems which allow us to define the problem formulations more clearly. We then propose a novel control law that has a PD/PID control form, by which the trajectory tracking system satisfies the reformulated ISS. Furthermore, we can obtain a theoretical argument about the L∞ gain from the disturbance to the regulated output through the proposed control law. Finally, experimental studies for a typical 3-degrees of freedom robotic manipulator are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method introduced in this paper.

Design and Performance Evaluation of Real-time Endovascular Interventional Surgical Robotic System with High Accuracy.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Kundong; Chen, Bing; Lu, Qingsheng; Li, Hongbing; Liu, Manhua; Shen, Yu; Xu, Zhuoyan

2018-05-15

Endovascular interventional surgery (EIS) is performed under a high radiation environment at the sacrifice of surgeons' health. This paper introduces a novel endovascular interventional surgical robot that aims to reduce radiation to surgeons and physical stress imposed by lead aprons during fluoroscopic X-ray guided catheter intervention. The unique mechanical structure allowed the surgeon to manipulate the axial and radial motion of the catheter and guide wire. Four catheter manipulators (to manipulate the catheter and guide wire), and a control console which consists of four joysticks, several buttons and two twist switches (to control the catheter manipulators) were presented. The entire robotic system was established on a master-slave control structure through CAN (Controller Area Network) bus communication, meanwhile, the slave side of this robotic system showed highly accurate control over velocity and displacement with PID controlling method. The robotic system was tested and passed in vitro and animal experiments. Through functionality evaluation, the manipulators were able to complete interventional surgical motion both independently and cooperatively. The robotic surgery was performed successfully in an adult female pig and demonstrated the feasibility of superior mesenteric and common iliac artery stent implantation. The entire robotic system met the clinical requirements of EIS. The results show that the system has the ability to imitate the movements of surgeons and to accomplish the axial and radial motions with consistency and high-accuracy. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Communication of Robot Status to Improve Human-Robot Collaboration

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Future space exploration will require humans and robots to collaborate to perform all the necessary tasks. Current robots mostly operate separately from humans due...

Message Encryption in Robot Operating System: Collateral Effects of Hardening Mobile Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francisco J. Rodríguez-Lera

2018-03-01

Full Text Available In human–robot interaction situations, robot sensors collect huge amounts of data from the environment in order to characterize the situation. Some of the gathered data ought to be treated as private, such as medical data (i.e., medication guidelines, personal, and safety information (i.e., images of children, home habits, alarm codes, etc.. However, most robotic software development frameworks are not designed for securely managing this information. This paper analyzes the scenario of hardening one of the most widely used robotic middlewares, Robot Operating System (ROS. The study investigates a robot’s performance when ciphering the messages interchanged between ROS nodes under the publish/subscribe paradigm. In particular, this research focuses on the nodes that manage cameras and LIDAR sensors, which are two of the most extended sensing solutions in mobile robotics, and analyzes the collateral effects on the robot’s achievement under different computing capabilities and encryption algorithms (3DES, AES, and Blowfish to robot performance. The findings present empirical evidence that simple encryption algorithms are lightweight enough to provide cyber-security even in low-powered robots when carefully designed and implemented. Nevertheless, these techniques come with a number of serious drawbacks regarding robot autonomy and performance if they are applied randomly. To avoid these issues, we define a taxonomy that links the type of ROS message, computational units, and the encryption methods. As a result, we present a model to select the optimal options for hardening a mobile robot using ROS.

A Novel Identification Methodology for the Coordinate Relationship between a 3D Vision System and a Legged Robot.

Science.gov (United States)

Chai, Xun; Gao, Feng; Pan, Yang; Qi, Chenkun; Xu, Yilin

2015-04-22

Coordinate identification between vision systems and robots is quite a challenging issue in the field of intelligent robotic applications, involving steps such as perceiving the immediate environment, building the terrain map and planning the locomotion automatically. It is now well established that current identification methods have non-negligible limitations such as a difficult feature matching, the requirement of external tools and the intervention of multiple people. In this paper, we propose a novel methodology to identify the geometric parameters of 3D vision systems mounted on robots without involving other people or additional equipment. In particular, our method focuses on legged robots which have complex body structures and excellent locomotion ability compared to their wheeled/tracked counterparts. The parameters can be identified only by moving robots on a relatively flat ground. Concretely, an estimation approach is provided to calculate the ground plane. In addition, the relationship between the robot and the ground is modeled. The parameters are obtained by formulating the identification problem as an optimization problem. The methodology is integrated on a legged robot called "Octopus", which can traverse through rough terrains with high stability after obtaining the identification parameters of its mounted vision system using the proposed method. Diverse experiments in different environments demonstrate our novel method is accurate and robust.

Robotics for nuclear facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abe, Akira; Nakayama, Ryoichi; Kubo, Katsumi

1988-01-01

It is highly desirable that automatic or remotely controlled machines perform inspection and maintenance tasks in nuclear facilities. Toshiba has been working to develop multi-functional robots, with one typical example being a master-slave manipulator for use in reprocessing facilities. At the same time, the company is also working on the development of multi-purpose intelligent robots. One such device, an automatic inspection robot, to be deployed along a monorail, performs inspection by means of image processing technology, while and advanced intelligent maintenance robot is equipped with a special wheel-locomotion mechanism and manipulator and is designed to perform maintenance tasks. (author)

A Comparison of Robotic Simulation Performance on Basic Virtual Reality Skills: Simulator Subjective Versus Objective Assessment Tools.

Science.gov (United States)

Dubin, Ariel K; Smith, Roger; Julian, Danielle; Tanaka, Alyssa; Mattingly, Patricia

To answer the question of whether there is a difference between robotic virtual reality simulator performance assessment and validated human reviewers. Current surgical education relies heavily on simulation. Several assessment tools are available to the trainee, including the actual robotic simulator assessment metrics and the Global Evaluative Assessment of Robotic Skills (GEARS) metrics, both of which have been independently validated. GEARS is a rating scale through which human evaluators can score trainees' performances on 6 domains: depth perception, bimanual dexterity, efficiency, force sensitivity, autonomy, and robotic control. Each domain is scored on a 5-point Likert scale with anchors. We used 2 common robotic simulators, the dV-Trainer (dVT; Mimic Technologies Inc., Seattle, WA) and the da Vinci Skills Simulator (dVSS; Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale, CA), to compare the performance metrics of robotic surgical simulators with the GEARS for a basic robotic task on each simulator. A prospective single-blinded randomized study. A surgical education and training center. Surgeons and surgeons in training. Demographic information was collected including sex, age, level of training, specialty, and previous surgical and simulator experience. Subjects performed 2 trials of ring and rail 1 (RR1) on each of the 2 simulators (dVSS and dVT) after undergoing randomization and warm-up exercises. The second RR1 trial simulator performance was recorded, and the deidentified videos were sent to human reviewers using GEARS. Eight different simulator assessment metrics were identified and paired with a similar performance metric in the GEARS tool. The GEARS evaluation scores and simulator assessment scores were paired and a Spearman rho calculated for their level of correlation. Seventy-four subjects were enrolled in this randomized study with 9 subjects excluded for missing or incomplete data. There was a strong correlation between the GEARS score and the simulator metric

WARRIOR II, a high performance modular electric robot system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Downton, G.C.

1996-01-01

A high performance electric robot, WARRIOR, was built for in-reactor welding at the Oldbury nuclear power plant in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s. WARRIOR II has been developed as a lighter, smaller diameter articulated welding robot which can be deployed on its umbilical down a stand pipe for remote docking with the manipulator system which delivers it to its work site. A key feature of WARRIOR II has been the development of a prototype spherical modular joint. The module provides the drive torque necessary to motivate the robot arm, acts as the joint bearing, has standard mechanical interfaces for the limb sections, accurately measures the joint angle and has cable services running through the centre. It can act either as a bend or rotate joint and the interconnecting limb sections need only to be simple tubular sections. A wide range of manipulator configurations to suit the access constraints of particular problems can be achieved with a set of joint modules and limb sections. A general purpose motion controller has also been developed which is capable of kinematically controlling any configuration of WARRIOR II thus contributing to the realisation of the concept of a general purpose tool which can be used over and over again, at short notice, in any situation where a high precision, light weight, versatile manipulator is required. (UK)

Robust high-performance control for robotic manipulators

Science.gov (United States)

Seraji, Homayoun (Inventor)

1991-01-01

Model-based and performance-based control techniques are combined for an electrical robotic control system. Thus, two distinct and separate design philosophies have been merged into a single control system having a control law formulation including two distinct and separate components, each of which yields a respective signal component that is combined into a total command signal for the system. Those two separate system components include a feedforward controller and a feedback controller. The feedforward controller is model-based and contains any known part of the manipulator dynamics that can be used for on-line control to produce a nominal feedforward component of the system's control signal. The feedback controller is performance-based and consists of a simple adaptive PID controller which generates an adaptive control signal to complement the nominal feedforward signal.

Human-inspired feedback synergies for environmental interaction with a dexterous robotic hand.

Science.gov (United States)

Kent, Benjamin A; Engeberg, Erik D

2014-11-07

Effortless control of the human hand is mediated by the physical and neural couplings inherent in the structure of the hand. This concept was explored for environmental interaction tasks with the human hand, and a novel human-inspired feedback synergy (HFS) controller was developed for a robotic hand which synchronized position and force feedback signals to mimic observed human hand motions. This was achieved by first recording the finger joint motion profiles of human test subjects, where it was observed that the subjects would extend their fingers to maintain a natural hand posture when interacting with different surfaces. The resulting human joint angle data were used as inspiration to develop the HFS controller for the anthropomorphic robotic hand, which incorporated finger abduction and force feedback in the control laws for finger extension. Experimental results showed that by projecting a broader view of the tasks at hand to each specific joint, the HFS controller produced hand motion profiles that closely mimic the observed human responses and allowed the robotic manipulator to interact with the surfaces while maintaining a natural hand posture. Additionally, the HFS controller enabled the robotic hand to autonomously traverse vertical step discontinuities without prior knowledge of the environment, visual feedback, or traditional trajectory planning techniques.

Human-inspired feedback synergies for environmental interaction with a dexterous robotic hand

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kent, Benjamin A; Engeberg, Erik D

2014-01-01

Effortless control of the human hand is mediated by the physical and neural couplings inherent in the structure of the hand. This concept was explored for environmental interaction tasks with the human hand, and a novel human-inspired feedback synergy (HFS) controller was developed for a robotic hand which synchronized position and force feedback signals to mimic observed human hand motions. This was achieved by first recording the finger joint motion profiles of human test subjects, where it was observed that the subjects would extend their fingers to maintain a natural hand posture when interacting with different surfaces. The resulting human joint angle data were used as inspiration to develop the HFS controller for the anthropomorphic robotic hand, which incorporated finger abduction and force feedback in the control laws for finger extension. Experimental results showed that by projecting a broader view of the tasks at hand to each specific joint, the HFS controller produced hand motion profiles that closely mimic the observed human responses and allowed the robotic manipulator to interact with the surfaces while maintaining a natural hand posture. Additionally, the HFS controller enabled the robotic hand to autonomously traverse vertical step discontinuities without prior knowledge of the environment, visual feedback, or traditional trajectory planning techniques. (paper)

Human-robot skills transfer interfaces for a flexible surgical robot.

Science.gov (United States)

Calinon, Sylvain; Bruno, Danilo; Malekzadeh, Milad S; Nanayakkara, Thrishantha; Caldwell, Darwin G

2014-09-01

In minimally invasive surgery, tools go through narrow openings and manipulate soft organs to perform surgical tasks. There are limitations in current robot-assisted surgical systems due to the rigidity of robot tools. The aim of the STIFF-FLOP European project is to develop a soft robotic arm to perform surgical tasks. The flexibility of the robot allows the surgeon to move within organs to reach remote areas inside the body and perform challenging procedures in laparoscopy. This article addresses the problem of designing learning interfaces enabling the transfer of skills from human demonstration. Robot programming by demonstration encompasses a wide range of learning strategies, from simple mimicking of the demonstrator's actions to the higher level imitation of the underlying intent extracted from the demonstrations. By focusing on this last form, we study the problem of extracting an objective function explaining the demonstrations from an over-specified set of candidate reward functions, and using this information for self-refinement of the skill. In contrast to inverse reinforcement learning strategies that attempt to explain the observations with reward functions defined for the entire task (or a set of pre-defined reward profiles active for different parts of the task), the proposed approach is based on context-dependent reward-weighted learning, where the robot can learn the relevance of candidate objective functions with respect to the current phase of the task or encountered situation. The robot then exploits this information for skills refinement in the policy parameters space. The proposed approach is tested in simulation with a cutting task performed by the STIFF-FLOP flexible robot, using kinesthetic demonstrations from a Barrett WAM manipulator. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Virtual Reality Robotic Surgery Warm-Up Improves Task Performance in a Dry Lab Environment: A Prospective Randomized Controlled Study

Science.gov (United States)

Lendvay, Thomas S.; Brand, Timothy C.; White, Lee; Kowalewski, Timothy; Jonnadula, Saikiran; Mercer, Laina; Khorsand, Derek; Andros, Justin; Hannaford, Blake; Satava, Richard M.

2014-01-01

Background Pre-operative simulation “warm-up” has been shown to improve performance and reduce errors in novice and experienced surgeons, yet existing studies have only investigated conventional laparoscopy. We hypothesized a brief virtual reality (VR) robotic warm-up would enhance robotic task performance and reduce errors. Study Design In a two-center randomized trial, fifty-one residents and experienced minimally invasive surgery faculty in General Surgery, Urology, and Gynecology underwent a validated robotic surgery proficiency curriculum on a VR robotic simulator and on the da Vinci surgical robot. Once successfully achieving performance benchmarks, surgeons were randomized to either receive a 3-5 minute VR simulator warm-up or read a leisure book for 10 minutes prior to performing similar and dissimilar (intracorporeal suturing) robotic surgery tasks. The primary outcomes compared were task time, tool path length, economy of motion, technical and cognitive errors. Results Task time (-29.29sec, p=0.001, 95%CI-47.03,-11.56), path length (-79.87mm, p=0.014, 95%CI -144.48,-15.25), and cognitive errors were reduced in the warm-up group compared to the control group for similar tasks. Global technical errors in intracorporeal suturing (0.32, p=0.020, 95%CI 0.06,0.59) were reduced after the dissimilar VR task. When surgeons were stratified by prior robotic and laparoscopic clinical experience, the more experienced surgeons(n=17) demonstrated significant improvements from warm-up in task time (-53.5sec, p=0.001, 95%CI -83.9,-23.0) and economy of motion (0.63mm/sec, p=0.007, 95%CI 0.18,1.09), whereas improvement in these metrics was not statistically significantly appreciated in the less experienced cohort(n=34). Conclusions We observed a significant performance improvement and error reduction rate among surgeons of varying experience after VR warm-up for basic robotic surgery tasks. In addition, the VR warm-up reduced errors on a more complex task (robotic

Self-Reconfiguration Planning of Robot Embodiment for Inherent Safe Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Uchida, Masafumi; Nozawa, Akio; Asano, Hirotoshi; Onogaki, Hitoshi; Mizuno, Tota; Park, Young-Il; Ide, Hideto; Yokoyama, Shuichi

In the situation in which a robot and a human work together by collaborating with each other, a robot and a human share one working environment, and each interferes in each other. In other ward, it is impossible to avoid the physical contact and the interaction of force between a robot and a human. The boundary of each complex dynamic occupation area changes in the connection movement which is the component of collaborative works at this time. The main restraint condition which relates to the robustness of that connection movement is each physical charactristics, that is, the embodiment. A robot body is variability though the embodiment of a human is almost fixed. Therefore, the safe and the robust connection movement is brought when a robot has the robot body which is well suitable for the embodiment of a human. A purpose for this research is that the colaboration works between the self-reconfiguration robot and a human is realized. To achieve this purpose, a self-reconfiguration algorithm based on some indexes to evaluate a robot body in the macroscopic point of view was examined on a modular robot system of the 2-D lattice structure. In this paper, it investigated effect specially that the object of learning of each individual was limited to the cooperative behavior between the adjoining modules toward the macroscopic evaluation index.

CT-FC: more Comprehensive Traversal Focused Crawler

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

NFN Kuspriyanto

2012-03-01

Full Text Available In todays world, people depend more on the WWW information, including professionals who have to analyze the data according their domain to maintain and improve their business. A data analysis would require information that is comprehensive and relevant to their domain. Focused crawler as a topical based Web indexer agent is used to meet this applications information need. In order to increase the precision, focused crawler face the problem of low recall. The study on WWW hyperlink structure characteristics indicates that many Web documents are not strong connected but through co-citation & co-reference. Conventional focused crawler that uses forward crawling strategy could not visit the documents in these characteristics. This study proposes a more comprehensive traversal framework. As a proof, CT-FC (a focused crawler with the new traversal framework ran on DMOZ data that is representative to WWW characteristics. The results show that this strategy can increase the recall significantly.

Effects of Interruptibility-Aware Robot Behavior

OpenAIRE

Banerjee, Siddhartha; Silva, Andrew; Feigh, Karen; Chernova, Sonia

2018-01-01

As robots become increasingly prevalent in human environments, there will inevitably be times when a robot needs to interrupt a human to initiate an interaction. Our work introduces the first interruptibility-aware mobile robot system, and evaluates the effects of interruptibility-awareness on human task performance, robot task performance, and on human interpretation of the robot's social aptitude. Our results show that our robot is effective at predicting interruptibility at high accuracy, ...

Structured training on the da Vinci Skills Simulator leads to improvement in technical performance of robotic novices.

Science.gov (United States)

Walliczek-Dworschak, U; Mandapathil, M; Förtsch, A; Teymoortash, A; Dworschak, P; Werner, J A; Güldner, C

2017-02-01

The increasing use of minimally invasive techniques such as robotic-assisted devices raises the question of how to acquire robotic surgery skills. The da Vinci Skills Simulator has been demonstrated to be an effective training tool in previous reports. To date, little data are available on how to acquire proficiency through simulator training. We investigated the outcome of a structured training programme for robotic surgical skills by robotic novices. This prospective study was conducted from January to December 2013 using the da Vinci Skills Simulator. Twenty participants, all robotic novices, were enrolled in a 4-week training curriculum. After a brief introduction to the simulator system, three consecutive repetitions of five selected exercises (Match Board 1, 2, 3 and Ring and Rail 1, 2) were performed in a defined order on days 1, 8, 15 and 22. On day 22, one repetition of a previously unpractised more advanced module (Needle Targeting) was also performed. After completion of each study day, the overall performance, time to completion, economy in motion, instrument collisions, excessive instrument force, instruments out of view, master workspace range and number of drops were analysed. Comparing the first and final repetition, overall score and time needed to complete all exercises, economy of motion and instrument collisions were significantly improved in nearly all exercises. Regarding the new exercise, a positive training effect could be demonstrated. While its overall entry score was significantly higher, the time to completion and economy of motion were significantly lower than the scores on the first repetition of the previous 5 exercises. It could be shown that training on the da Vinci Skills Simulator led to an improvement in technical performance of robotic novices. With regard to a new exercise, the training had a positive effect on the technical performance. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Scaling Robotic Displays: Displays and Techniques for Dismounted Movement with Robots

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

you are performing the low crawl 4.25 5.00 Drive the robot while you are negotiating the hill 6.00 5.00 Drive the robot while you are climbing the... stairs 4.67 5.00 Drive the robot while you are walking 5.70 5.27 HMD It was fairly doable. 1 When you’re looking through the lens, it’s not...Scaling Robotic Displays: Displays and Techniques for Dismounted Movement with Robots by Elizabeth S. Redden, Rodger A. Pettitt

Colias: An Autonomous Micro Robot for Swarm Robotic Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Farshad Arvin

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Robotic swarms that take inspiration from nature are becoming a fascinating topic for multi-robot researchers. The aim is to control a large number of simple robots in order to solve common complex tasks. Due to the hardware complexities and cost of robot platforms, current research in swarm robotics is mostly performed by simulation software. The simulation of large numbers of these robots in robotic swarm applications is extremely complex and often inaccurate due to the poor modelling of external conditions. In this paper, we present the design of a low-cost, open-platform, autonomous micro-robot (Colias for robotic swarm applications. Colias employs a circular platform with a diameter of 4 cm. It has a maximum speed of 35 cm/s which enables it to be used in swarm scenarios very quickly over large arenas. Long-range infrared modules with an adjustable output power allow the robot to communicate with its direct neighbours at a range of 0.5 cm to 2 m. Colias has been designed as a complete platform with supporting software development tools for robotics education and research. It has been tested in both individual and swarm scenarios, and the observed results demonstrate its feasibility for use as a micro-sized mobile robot and as a low-cost platform for robot swarm applications.

Effects of imperfect automation and individual differences on concurrent performance of military and robotics tasks in a simulated multitasking environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, J Y C; Terrence, P I

2009-08-01

This study investigated the performance and workload of the combined position of gunner and robotics operator in a simulated military multitasking environment. Specifically, the study investigated how aided target recognition (AiTR) capabilities for the gunnery task with imperfect reliability (false-alarm-prone vs. miss-prone) might affect the concurrent robotics and communication tasks. Additionally, the study examined whether performance was affected by individual differences in spatial ability and attentional control. Results showed that when the robotics task was simply monitoring the video, participants had the best performance in their gunnery and communication tasks and the lowest perceived workload, compared with the other robotics tasking conditions. There was a strong interaction between the type of AiTR unreliability and participants' perceived attentional control. Overall, for participants with higher perceived attentional control, false-alarm-prone alerts were more detrimental; for low attentional control participants, conversely, miss-prone automation was more harmful. Low spatial ability participants preferred visual cueing and high spatial ability participants favoured tactile cueing. Potential applications of the findings include personnel selection for robotics operation, robotics user interface designs and training development. The present results will provide further understanding of the interplays among automation reliability, multitasking performance and individual differences in military tasking environments. These results will also facilitate the implementation of robots in military settings and will provide useful data to military system designs.

Prior video game utilization is associated with improved performance on a robotic skills simulator.

Science.gov (United States)

Harbin, Andrew C; Nadhan, Kumar S; Mooney, James H; Yu, Daohai; Kaplan, Joshua; McGinley-Hence, Nora; Kim, Andrew; Gu, Yiming; Eun, Daniel D

2017-09-01

Laparoscopic surgery and robotic surgery, two forms of minimally invasive surgery (MIS), have recently experienced a large increase in utilization. Prior studies have shown that video game experience (VGE) may be associated with improved laparoscopic surgery skills; however, similar data supporting a link between VGE and proficiency on a robotic skills simulator (RSS) are lacking. The objective of our study is to determine whether volume or timing of VGE had any impact on RSS performance. Pre-clinical medical students completed a comprehensive questionnaire detailing previous VGE across several time periods. Seventy-five subjects were ultimately evaluated in 11 training exercises on the daVinci Si Skills Simulator. RSS skill was measured by overall score, time to completion, economy of motion, average instrument collision, and improvement in Ring Walk 3 score. Using the nonparametric tests and linear regression, these metrics were analyzed for systematic differences between non-users, light, and heavy video game users based on their volume of use in each of the following four time periods: past 3 months, past year, past 3 years, and high school. Univariate analyses revealed significant differences between heavy and non-users in all five performance metrics. These trends disappeared as the period of VGE went further back. Our study showed a positive association between video game experience and robotic skills simulator performance that is stronger for more recent periods of video game use. The findings may have important implications for the evolution of robotic surgery training.

Novel CO2 laser robotic controller outperforms experienced laser operators in tasks of accuracy and performance repeatability.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Yu-Tung; Finley, Charles C; Giallo, Joseph F; Buckmire, Robert A

2011-08-01

To introduce a novel method of combining robotics and the CO(2) laser micromanipulator to provide excellent precision and performance repeatability designed for surgical applications. Pilot feasibility study. We developed a portable robotic controller that appends to a standard CO(2) laser micromanipulator. The robotic accuracy and laser beam path repeatability were compared to six experienced users of the industry standard micromanipulator performing the same simulated surgical tasks. Helium-neon laser beam video tracking techniques were employed. The robotic controller demonstrated superiority over experienced human manual micromanipulator control in accuracy (laser path within 1 mm of idealized centerline), 97.42% (standard deviation [SD] 2.65%), versus 85.11% (SD 14.51%), P = .018; and laser beam path repeatability (area of laser path divergence on successive trials), 21.42 mm(2) (SD 4.35 mm(2) ) versus 65.84 mm(2) (SD 11.93 mm(2) ), P = .006. Robotic micromanipulator control enhances accuracy and repeatability for specific laser tasks. Computerized control opens opportunity for alternative user interfaces and additional safety features. Copyright © 2011 The American Laryngological, Rhinological, and Otological Society, Inc.

Robotics 101

Science.gov (United States)

Sultan, Alan

2011-01-01

Robots are used in all kinds of industrial settings. They are used to rivet bolts to cars, to move items from one conveyor belt to another, to gather information from other planets, and even to perform some very delicate types of surgery. Anyone who has watched a robot perform its tasks cannot help but be impressed by how it works. This article…

Mobile robotics for CANDU maintenance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lipsett, M.G.; Rody, K.H.

1996-01-01

Although robotics researchers have been promising that robotics would soon be performing tasks in hazardous environments, the reality has yet to live up to the hype. The presently available crop of robots suitable for deployment in industrial situations are remotely operated, requiring skilled users. This talk describes cases where mobile robots have been used successfully in CANDU stations, discusses the difficulties in using mobile robots for reactor maintenance, and provides near-term goals for achievable improvements in performance and usefulness. (author) 5 refs., 2 ills

Preliminary Analysis of Remote Monitoring and Robotic Concepts for Performance Confirmation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McAffee, D.A.

1997-01-01

As defined in 10 CFR Part 60.2, Performance Confirmation is the ''program of tests, experiments and analyses which is conducted to evaluate the accuracy and adequacy of the information used to determine with reasonable assurance that the performance objectives for the period after permanent closure will be met''. The overall Performance Confirmation program begins during site characterization and continues up to repository closure. The main purpose of this document is to develop, explore and analyze initial concepts for using remotely operated and robotic systems in gathering repository performance information during Performance Confirmation. This analysis focuses primarily on possible Performance Confirmation related applications within the emplacement drifts after waste packages have been emplaced (post-emplacement) and before permanent closure of the repository (preclosure). This will be a period of time lasting approximately 100 years and basically coincides with the Caretaker phase of the project. This analysis also examines, to a lesser extent, some applications related to Caretaker operations. A previous report examined remote handling and robotic technologies that could be employed during the waste package emplacement phase of the project (Reference 5.1). This analysis is being prepared to provide an early investigation of possible design concepts and technical challenges associated with developing remote systems for monitoring and inspecting activities during Performance Confirmation. The writing of this analysis preceded formal development of Performance Confirmation functional requirements and program plans and therefore examines, in part, the fundamental Performance Confirmation monitoring needs and operating conditions. The scope and primary objectives of this analysis are to: (1) Describe the operating environment and conditions expected in the emplacement drifts during the preclosure period. (Presented in Section 7.2). (2) Identify and discuss the

Development of a Multi-functional Soft Robot (SNUMAX and Performance in RoboSoft Grand Challenge

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jun-Young Lee

2016-10-01

Full Text Available This paper introduces SNUMAX, the grand winner of the RoboSoft Grand Challenge. SNUMAX was built to complete all the tasks of the challenge. Completing these tasks required robotic compliant components that could adapt to variable situations and environments and generate enough stiffness to maintain performance. SNUMAX has three key components: transformable origami wheels, a polymer-based variable stiffness manipulator, and an adaptive caging gripper. This paper describes the design of these components and how they worked together to allow the robot to perform the contest’s navigation and manipulation tasks.

Interactive Exploration Robots: Human-Robotic Collaboration and Interactions

Science.gov (United States)

Fong, Terry

2017-01-01

For decades, NASA has employed different operational approaches for human and robotic missions. Human spaceflight missions to the Moon and in low Earth orbit have relied upon near-continuous communication with minimal time delays. During these missions, astronauts and mission control communicate interactively to perform tasks and resolve problems in real-time. In contrast, deep-space robotic missions are designed for operations in the presence of significant communication delay - from tens of minutes to hours. Consequently, robotic missions typically employ meticulously scripted and validated command sequences that are intermittently uplinked to the robot for independent execution over long periods. Over the next few years, however, we will see increasing use of robots that blend these two operational approaches. These interactive exploration robots will be remotely operated by humans on Earth or from a spacecraft. These robots will be used to support astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS), to conduct new missions to the Moon, and potentially to enable remote exploration of planetary surfaces in real-time. In this talk, I will discuss the technical challenges associated with building and operating robots in this manner, along with lessons learned from research conducted with the ISS and in the field.

Robot Choreography

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jochum, Elizabeth Ann; Heath, Damith

2016-01-01

We propose a robust framework for combining performance paradigms with human robot interaction (HRI) research. Following an analysis of several case studies that combine the performing arts with HRI experiments, we propose a methodology and “best practices” for implementing choreography and other...... performance paradigms in HRI experiments. Case studies include experiments conducted in laboratory settings, “in the wild”, and live performance settings. We consider the technical and artistic challenges of designing and staging robots alongside humans in these various settings, and discuss how to combine...

Hydraulic bilateral construction robot; Yuatsushiki bilateral kensetsu robot

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Maehata, K.; Mori, N. [Kayaba Industry Co. Ltd., Tokyo (Japan)

1999-05-15

Concerning a hydraulic bilateral construction robot, its system constitution, structures and functions of important components, and the results of some tests are explained, and the researches conducted at Gifu University are described. The construction robot in this report is a servo controlled system of a version developed from the mini-shovel now available in the market. It is equipped, in addition to an electrohydraulic servo control system, with various sensors for detecting the robot attitude, vibration, and load state, and with a camera for visualizing the surrounding landscape. It is also provided with a bilateral joy stick which is a remote control actuator capable of working sensation feedback and with a rocking unit that creates robot movements of rolling, pitching, and heaving. The construction robot discussed here, with output increased and response faster thanks to the employment of a hydraulic driving system for the aim of building a robot system superior in performance to the conventional model designed primarily for heavy duty, proves after tests to be a highly sophisticated remotely controlled robot control system. (NEDO)

Effort, performance, and motivation: insights from robot-assisted training of human golf putting and rat grip strength.

Science.gov (United States)

Duarte, Jaime E; Gebrekristos, Berkenesh; Perez, Sergi; Rowe, Justin B; Sharp, Kelli; Reinkensmeyer, David J

2013-06-01

Robotic devices can modulate success rates and required effort levels during motor training, but it is unclear how this affects performance gains and motivation. Here we present results from training unimpaired humans in a virtual golf-putting task, and training spinal cord injured (SCI) rats in a grip strength task using robotically modulated success rates and effort levels. Robotic assistance in golf practice increased trainees feelings of competence, and, paradoxically, increased their sense effort, even though it had mixed effects on learning. Reducing effort during a grip strength training task led rats with SCI to practice the task more frequently. However, the more frequent practice of these rats did not cause them to exceed the strength gains achieved by rats that exercised less often at higher required effort levels. These results show that increasing success and decreasing effort with robots increases motivation, but has mixed effects on performance gains.

Measurement of the Robot Motor Capability of a Robot Motor System: A Fitts’s-Law-Inspired Approach

OpenAIRE

C. S. George Lee; Hsien-I Lin

2013-01-01

Robot motor capability is a crucial factor for a robot, because it affects how accurately and rapidly a robot can perform a motion to accomplish a task constrained by spatial and temporal conditions. In this paper, we propose and derive a pseudo-index of motor performance (pIp ) to characterize robot motor capability with robot kinematics, dynamics and control taken into consideration. The proposed pIp provides a quantitative measure for a robot with revolute joints, which is inspired from an...

Effects of electromyography-driven robot-aided hand training with neuromuscular electrical stimulation on hand control performance after chronic stroke.

Science.gov (United States)

Rong, Wei; Tong, Kai Yu; Hu, Xiao Ling; Ho, Sze Kit

2015-03-01

An electromyography-driven robot system integrated with neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) was developed to investigate its effectiveness on post-stroke rehabilitation. The performance of this system in assisting finger flexion/extension with different assistance combinations was evaluated in five stroke subjects. Then, a pilot study with 20-sessions training was conducted to evaluate the training's effectiveness. The results showed that combined assistance from the NMES-robot could improve finger movement accuracy, encourage muscle activation of the finger muscles and suppress excessive muscular activities in the elbow joint. When assistances from both NMES and the robot were 50% of their maximum assistances, finger-tracking performance had the best results, with the lowest root mean square error, greater range of motion, higher voluntary muscle activations of the finger joints and lower muscle co-contraction in the finger and elbow joints. Upper limb function improved after the 20-session training, indicated by the increased clinical scores of Fugl-Meyer Assessment, Action Research Arm Test and Wolf Motor Function Test. Muscle co-contraction was reduced in the finger and elbow joints reflected by the Modified Ashworth Scale. The findings demonstrated that an electromyography-driven NMES-robot used for chronic stroke improved hand function and tracking performance. Further research is warranted to validate the method on a larger scale. Implications for Rehabilitation The hand robotics and neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) techniques are still separate systems in current post-stroke hand rehabilitation. This is the first study to investigate the combined effects of the NMES and robot on hand rehabilitation. The finger tracking performance was improved with the combined assistance from the EMG-driven NMES-robot hand system. The assistance from the robot could improve the finger movement accuracy and the assistance from the NMES could reduce the

Self Sustained Traversable Wormholes Induced by Gravity’s Rainbow and Noncommutative Geometry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Garattini Remo

2013-09-01

Full Text Available We compare the effects of Noncommutative Geometry and Gravity’s Rainbow on traversable wormholes which are sustained by their own gravitational quantum fluctuations. Fixing the geometry on a well tested model, we find that the final result shows that the wormhole is of the Planckian size. This means that the traversability of the wormhole is in principle, but not in practice.

Endoscopic traversability in patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: Is it a significant prognostic factor?

Science.gov (United States)

Shin, Hae Jin; Moon, Hee Seok; Kang, Sun Hyung; Sung, Jae Kyu; Jeong, Hyun Yong; Kim, Seok Hyun; Lee, Byung Seok; Kim, Ju Seok; Yun, Gee Young

2017-12-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prognostic impact of endoscopic traversability in patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.This retrospective study was based on medical records from a single tertiary medical center. The records of 317 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma treated with surgery or definitive chemoradiotherapy (CRT) between January 2009 and March 2016 were reviewed. Finally, we retrieved the data on 168 consecutive patients. These 168 patients were divided into 2 groups based on their endoscopic traversability findings: Group A (the endoscope traversable group), and Group B (the endoscope non-traversable group). We then retrospectively compared the clinical characteristics of these 2 groups.The endoscope non-traversable group (Group B) revealed an advanced clinical stage, a poor Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) score, a lower serum albumin level, a higher rate of requirement for esophageal stent insertion and definitive CRT as initial treatment than the endoscope traversable group (Group A). Patients with endoscope traversable cancer showed a significantly higher 3-year overall survival and 3-year relapse-free survival than patients who were endoscope non-traversable (53.8% vs 17.3%, P squamous cell carcinoma treated with definitive CRT, the serum albumin level squamous cell carcinoma treated with definitive CRT is a significant prognostic factor. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

Comparative performance analysis of M-IMU/EMG and voice user interfaces for assistive robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Laureiti, Clemente; Cordella, Francesca; di Luzio, Francesco Scotto; Saccucci, Stefano; Davalli, Angelo; Sacchetti, Rinaldo; Zollo, Loredana

2017-07-01

People with a high level of disability experience great difficulties to perform activities of daily living and resort to their residual motor functions in order to operate assistive devices. The commercially available interfaces used to control assistive manipulators are typically based on joysticks and can be used only by subjects with upper-limb residual mobilities. Many other solutions can be found in the literature, based on the use of multiple sensory systems for detecting the human motion intention and state. Some of them require a high cognitive workload for the user. Some others are more intuitive and easy to use but have not been widely investigated in terms of usability and user acceptance. The objective of this work is to propose an intuitive and robust user interface for assistive robots, not obtrusive for the user and easily adaptable for subjects with different levels of disability. The proposed user interface is based on the combination of M-IMU and EMG for the continuous control of an arm-hand robotic system by means of M-IMUs. The system has been experimentally validated and compared to a standard voice interface. Sixteen healthy subjects volunteered to participate in the study: 8 subjects used the combined M-IMU/EMG robot control, and 8 subjects used the voice control. The arm-hand robotic system made of the KUKA LWR 4+ and the IH2 Azzurra hand was controlled to accomplish the daily living task of drinking. Performance indices and evaluation scales were adopted to assess performance of the two interfaces.

Robotics for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakayama, Ryoichi; Kimura, Motohiko; Abe, Akira

1993-01-01

A continuing need exists for automatic or remote-controlled machines or robots which can perform inspection and maintenance tasks in nuclear power plants. Toshiba has developed several types of monofunctional and multi- functional robots for such purposes over the past 20 years, some of which have already been used in actual plants. This paper describes new multifunctional robots for inspection and maintenance. An inspection robot has been applied in an actual plant for two years for performance testing. Maintenance robots for grinding tasks have also been developed, which can be easily teleoperated by the operator using automatic control. These new robots are expected to be applied to actual inspection and maintenance work in nuclear power plants. (author)

A Novel Identification Methodology for the Coordinate Relationship between a 3D Vision System and a Legged Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xun Chai

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Coordinate identification between vision systems and robots is quite a challenging issue in the field of intelligent robotic applications, involving steps such as perceiving the immediate environment, building the terrain map and planning the locomotion automatically. It is now well established that current identification methods have non-negligible limitations such as a difficult feature matching, the requirement of external tools and the intervention of multiple people. In this paper, we propose a novel methodology to identify the geometric parameters of 3D vision systems mounted on robots without involving other people or additional equipment. In particular, our method focuses on legged robots which have complex body structures and excellent locomotion ability compared to their wheeled/tracked counterparts. The parameters can be identified only by moving robots on a relatively flat ground. Concretely, an estimation approach is provided to calculate the ground plane. In addition, the relationship between the robot and the ground is modeled. The parameters are obtained by formulating the identification problem as an optimization problem. The methodology is integrated on a legged robot called “Octopus”, which can traverse through rough terrains with high stability after obtaining the identification parameters of its mounted vision system using the proposed method. Diverse experiments in different environments demonstrate our novel method is accurate and robust.

Traversable braneworld wormholes supported by astrophysical observations

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Deng; Meng, Xin-He

2018-02-01

In this study, we investigate the characteristics and properties of a traversable wormhole constrained by the current astrophysical observations in the framework of modified theories of gravity (MOG). As a concrete case, we study traversable wormhole space-time configurations in the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) braneworld scenario, which are supported by the effects of the gravity leakage of extra dimensions. We find that the wormhole space-time structure will open in terms of the 2 σ confidence level when we utilize the joint constraints supernovae (SNe) Ia + observational Hubble parameter data (OHD) + Planck + gravitational wave (GW) and z based on various energy conditions; (ii) we can offer a strict restriction to the local wormhole space-time structure by using the current astrophysical observations; and (iii) we can clearly identify a physical gravitational resource for the wormholes supported by astrophysical observations, namely the dark energy components of the universe or equivalent space-time curvature effects from MOG. Moreover, we find that the strong energy condition is always violated at low redshifts.

Audio-visual feedback improves the BCI performance in the navigational control of a humanoid robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emmanuele eTidoni

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Advancement in brain computer interfaces (BCI technology allows people to actively interact in the world through surrogates. Controlling real humanoid robots using BCI as intuitively as we control our body represents a challenge for current research in robotics and neuroscience. In order to successfully interact with the environment the brain integrates multiple sensory cues to form a coherent representation of the world. Cognitive neuroscience studies demonstrate that multisensory integration may imply a gain with respect to a single modality and ultimately improve the overall sensorimotor performance. For example, reactivity to simultaneous visual and auditory stimuli may be higher than to the sum of the same stimuli delivered in isolation or in temporal sequence. Yet, knowledge about whether audio-visual integration may improve the control of a surrogate is meager. To explore this issue, we provided human footstep sounds as audio feedback to BCI users while controlling a humanoid robot. Participants were asked to steer their robot surrogate and perform a pick-and-place task through BCI-SSVEPs. We found that audio-visual synchrony between footsteps sound and actual humanoid’s walk reduces the time required for steering the robot. Thus, auditory feedback congruent with the humanoid actions may improve motor decisions of the BCI’s user and help in the feeling of control over it. Our results shed light on the possibility to increase robot’s control through the combination of multisensory feedback to a BCI user.

EAST93: Geophysical traverse from the Transantarctic Mountains to the Wilkes Basin, East Antarctica

Science.gov (United States)

ten Brink, Uri S.; Bannister, Stephen

1995-01-01

The East Antarctic Seismic Traverse (EAST93) was a geophysical traverse designed to image the bedrock under the East Antarctic ice cap. The traverse started 10 km west of the Taylor Dome drill site and 25 km west of the exposed bedrock of the Transantarctic Mountains at Lashly Mt. and ended 323 km west of the drill site over the Wilkes subglacial basin (Fig. 1). The traverse was located subparallel to latitude 78° S starting 30-50 km north of the Victoria Land Traverse (1958-1959). It was carried out jointly by the U.S. Geological Survey and Stanford University, U.S.A., together with the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, and Victoria University, New Zealand, during December 1993 and January 1994. The geophysical traverse included 236 km of multichannel seismic reflection data at 150 m shot intervals, 312.5 km of gravity data collected at intervals of 2.1 km, 312.5 km of magnetic data (total field intensity) collected at average intervals of 0.5 km, and 205 km of ground penetrating radar at intervals of 77 m. Relative locations and elevations of the entire traverse were measured at intervals of 150 m by traditional surveying methods, and tied to three absolute locations measured by the Global Positioning System (GPS). EAST93 is the first large-scale geophysical traverse on the polar plateau to our knowledge since the early 1960s. As such, the experiment presented several logistical challenges: (1) how to collect regional seismic profiles during the short Antarctic summer; (2) how to keep the scientific instruments running with minimal protection in harsh conditions; and (3) how to combine daily moves of camp with full days of work. The scientific and logistical aspects of the project proceeded, in general, according to plan despite the harsh conditions and our lack of previous experience on the polar plateau. Two unanticipated problems affected the progress of the work: the strong wind which slowed seismic acquisition, and the break-down of one of the

Perception-Driven Obstacle-Aided Locomotion for Snake Robots: The State of the Art, Challenges and Possibilities †

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Filippo Sanfilippo

2017-03-01

Full Text Available In nature, snakes can gracefully traverse a wide range of different and complex environments. Snake robots that can mimic this behaviour could be fitted with sensors and transport tools to hazardous or confined areas that other robots and humans are unable to access. In order to carry out such tasks, snake robots must have a high degree of awareness of their surroundings (i.e., perception-driven locomotion and be capable of efficient obstacle exploitation (i.e., obstacle-aided locomotion to gain propulsion. These aspects are pivotal in order to realise the large variety of possible snake robot applications in real-life operations such as fire-fighting, industrial inspection, search-and-rescue, and more. In this paper, we survey and discuss the state of the art, challenges, and possibilities of perception-driven obstacle-aided locomotion for snake robots. To this end, different levels of autonomy are identified for snake robots and categorised into environmental complexity, mission complexity, and external system independence. From this perspective, we present a step-wise approach on how to increment snake robot abilities within guidance, navigation, and control in order to target the different levels of autonomy. Pertinent to snake robots, we focus on current strategies for snake robot locomotion in the presence of obstacles. Moreover, we put obstacle-aided locomotion into the context of perception and mapping. Finally, we present an overview of relevant key technologies and methods within environment perception, mapping, and representation that constitute important aspects of perception-driven obstacle-aided locomotion.

Vertical and lateral forces when a permanent magnet above a superconductor traverses in arbitrary directions

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Yong

2008-12-01

In an actual levitation system composed of high temperature superconductors (HTSs) and permanent magnets (PMs), the levitating bodies may traverse in arbitrary directions. Many previous researchers assumed that the levitating bodies moved in a vertical direction or a lateral direction in order to simplify the problem. In this paper, the vertical and lateral forces acting on the PM are calculated by the modified frozen-image method when a PM above an HTS traverses in arbitrary directions. In order to study the effects of the movement directions on the vertical and lateral forces, comparisons of the forces that act on a PM traversing in a tilted direction with those that act on a PM traversing in a vertical direction or a lateral direction have been presented.

Vertical and lateral forces when a permanent magnet above a superconductor traverses in arbitrary directions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yang Yong [Key Laboratory of Applied Superconductivity, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190 (China); Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190 (China)], E-mail: yy@mail.iee.ac.cn

2008-12-15

In an actual levitation system composed of high temperature superconductors (HTSs) and permanent magnets (PMs), the levitating bodies may traverse in arbitrary directions. Many previous researchers assumed that the levitating bodies moved in a vertical direction or a lateral direction in order to simplify the problem. In this paper, the vertical and lateral forces acting on the PM are calculated by the modified frozen-image method when a PM above an HTS traverses in arbitrary directions. In order to study the effects of the movement directions on the vertical and lateral forces, comparisons of the forces that act on a PM traversing in a tilted direction with those that act on a PM traversing in a vertical direction or a lateral direction have been presented.

Vertical and lateral forces when a permanent magnet above a superconductor traverses in arbitrary directions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang Yong

2008-01-01

In an actual levitation system composed of high temperature superconductors (HTSs) and permanent magnets (PMs), the levitating bodies may traverse in arbitrary directions. Many previous researchers assumed that the levitating bodies moved in a vertical direction or a lateral direction in order to simplify the problem. In this paper, the vertical and lateral forces acting on the PM are calculated by the modified frozen-image method when a PM above an HTS traverses in arbitrary directions. In order to study the effects of the movement directions on the vertical and lateral forces, comparisons of the forces that act on a PM traversing in a tilted direction with those that act on a PM traversing in a vertical direction or a lateral direction have been presented.

Autonomous Fault Detection for Performance Bugs in Component Based Robotic Systems

Science.gov (United States)

2016-12-01

platform performs a modified version of the restaurant task from the RoboCup@Home competition 2015 [20]. Here, an operator first guides the robot around a...Control. Berlin: Springer, 2008. DOI: 10.1007/ 978-3-540-76304-8. [18] H. Zou and T. Hastie, “Regularization and variable selection via the elastic net

Absorbed dose from traversing spherically symmetric, Gaussian radioactive clouds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thompson, J.M.; Poston, J.W.

1999-01-01

If a large radioactive cloud is produced, sampling may require that an airplane traverse the cloud. A method to predict the absorbed dose to the aircrew from penetrating the radioactive cloud is needed. Dose rates throughout spherically symmetric Gaussian clouds of various sizes, and the absorbed doses from traversing the clouds, were calculated. Cloud size is a dominant parameter causing dose to vary by orders of magnitude for a given dose rate measured at some distance. A method to determine cloud size, based on dose rate readings at two or more distances from the cloud center, was developed. This method, however, failed to resolve the smallest cloud sizes from measurements made at 1,000 m to 2,000 m from the cloud center

Robotic vision system for random bin picking with dual-arm robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kang Sangseung

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Random bin picking is one of the most challenging industrial robotics applications available. It constitutes a complicated interaction between the vision system, robot, and control system. For a packaging operation requiring a pick-and-place task, the robot system utilized should be able to perform certain functions for recognizing the applicable target object from randomized objects in a bin. In this paper, we introduce a robotic vision system for bin picking using industrial dual-arm robots. The proposed system recognizes the best object from randomized target candidates based on stereo vision, and estimates the position and orientation of the object. It then sends the result to the robot control system. The system was developed for use in the packaging process of cell phone accessories using dual-arm robots.

A cargo-sorting DNA robot.

Science.gov (United States)

Thubagere, Anupama J; Li, Wei; Johnson, Robert F; Chen, Zibo; Doroudi, Shayan; Lee, Yae Lim; Izatt, Gregory; Wittman, Sarah; Srinivas, Niranjan; Woods, Damien; Winfree, Erik; Qian, Lulu

2017-09-15

Two critical challenges in the design and synthesis of molecular robots are modularity and algorithm simplicity. We demonstrate three modular building blocks for a DNA robot that performs cargo sorting at the molecular level. A simple algorithm encoding recognition between cargos and their destinations allows for a simple robot design: a single-stranded DNA with one leg and two foot domains for walking, and one arm and one hand domain for picking up and dropping off cargos. The robot explores a two-dimensional testing ground on the surface of DNA origami, picks up multiple cargos of two types that are initially at unordered locations, and delivers them to specified destinations until all molecules are sorted into two distinct piles. The robot is designed to perform a random walk without any energy supply. Exploiting this feature, a single robot can repeatedly sort multiple cargos. Localization on DNA origami allows for distinct cargo-sorting tasks to take place simultaneously in one test tube or for multiple robots to collectively perform the same task. Copyright © 2017, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Rapid Separation of Disconnected Triangle Meshes Based on Graph Traversal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ji, S J; Wang, Y

2006-01-01

In recent year, The STL file become a de facto standard on the file presentation in CAD/CAM, computer graph and reverse engineering. When point cloud which is obtained by scanning object body using optical instrument is used to reconstruct an original model, the points cloud is presented by the STL file. Usually, datum of several separated and relative objects are stored in a single STL file, when such a file is operated by a computer, the datum in the file is firstly separated and then each element of every triangle pitch on the triangle mesh is traversed and visited and is calculated. The problem is analyzed and studied by many experts, but there is still a lack of a simple and quick algorithm. An algorithm which uses graph traversal to traverse each element of the triangle meshes and separate several disconnected triangle meshes is presented by the paper, the searching and calculating speed of the data on the triangle meshes is enhanced, memory size of the computer is reduced, complexity of the data structure is simplified and powerful guarantee is made for the next process by using this algorithm

Marine Robot Autonomy

CERN Document Server

2013-01-01

Autonomy for Marine Robots provides a timely and insightful overview of intelligent autonomy in marine robots. A brief history of this emerging field is provided, along with a discussion of the challenges unique to the underwater environment and their impact on the level of intelligent autonomy required.  Topics covered at length examine advanced frameworks, path-planning, fault tolerance, machine learning, and cooperation as relevant to marine robots that need intelligent autonomy.  This book also: Discusses and offers solutions for the unique challenges presented by more complex missions and the dynamic underwater environment when operating autonomous marine robots Includes case studies that demonstrate intelligent autonomy in marine robots to perform underwater simultaneous localization and mapping  Autonomy for Marine Robots is an ideal book for researchers and engineers interested in the field of marine robots.      

Performance evaluation of 3D vision-based semi-autonomous control method for assistive robotic manipulator.

Science.gov (United States)

Ka, Hyun W; Chung, Cheng-Shiu; Ding, Dan; James, Khara; Cooper, Rory

2018-02-01

We developed a 3D vision-based semi-autonomous control interface for assistive robotic manipulators. It was implemented based on one of the most popular commercially available assistive robotic manipulator combined with a low-cost depth-sensing camera mounted on the robot base. To perform a manipulation task with the 3D vision-based semi-autonomous control interface, a user starts operating with a manual control method available to him/her. When detecting objects within a set range, the control interface automatically stops the robot, and provides the user with possible manipulation options through audible text output, based on the detected object characteristics. Then, the system waits until the user states a voice command. Once the user command is given, the control interface drives the robot autonomously until the given command is completed. In the empirical evaluations conducted with human subjects from two different groups, it was shown that the semi-autonomous control can be used as an alternative control method to enable individuals with impaired motor control to more efficiently operate the robot arms by facilitating their fine motion control. The advantage of semi-autonomous control was not so obvious for the simple tasks. But, for the relatively complex real-life tasks, the 3D vision-based semi-autonomous control showed significantly faster performance. Implications for Rehabilitation A 3D vision-based semi-autonomous control interface will improve clinical practice by providing an alternative control method that is less demanding physically as well cognitively. A 3D vision-based semi-autonomous control provides the user with task specific intelligent semiautonomous manipulation assistances. A 3D vision-based semi-autonomous control gives the user the feeling that he or she is still in control at any moment. A 3D vision-based semi-autonomous control is compatible with different types of new and existing manual control methods for ARMs.

78 FR 25407 - Safety Zones; National Cherry Festival Air Show and Fireworks Display; West Grand Traverse Bay...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-05-01

...-AA00 Safety Zones; National Cherry Festival Air Show and Fireworks Display; West Grand Traverse Bay... National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, MI will host an air show over the West Arm of Grand Traverse Bay. At the conclusion of the National Cherry Festival on July 6, 2013, fireworks will be launched in...

RIPE [robot independent programming environment]: A robot independent programming environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miller, D.J.; Lennox, R.C.

1990-01-01

Remote manual operations in radiation environments are typically performed very slowly. Sensor-based computer-controlled robots hold great promise for increasing the speed and safety of remote operations; however, the programming of robotic systems has proven to be expensive and difficult. Generalized approaches to robot programming that reuse available software modules and employ programming languages which are independent of the specific robotic and sensory devices being used are needed to speed software development and increase overall system reliability. This paper discusses the robot independent programming environment (RIPE) developed at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). The RIPE is an object-oriented approach to robot system architectures; it is a software environment that facilitates rapid design and implementation of complex robot systems for diverse applications. An architecture based on hierarchies of distributed multiprocessors provides the computing platform for a layered programming structure that models applications using software objects. These objects are designed to support model-based automated programming of robotic and machining devices, real-time sensor-based control, error handling, and robust communication

Inspection, maintenance, and repair of large pumps and piping systems using advanced robotic tools

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewis, R.K.; Radigan, T.M.

1998-01-01

Operating and maintaining large pumps and piping systems can be an expensive proposition. Proper inspections and monitoring can reduce costs. This was difficult in the past, since detailed pump inspections could only be performed by disassembly and many portions of piping systems are buried or covered with insulation. Once these components were disassembled, a majority of the cost was already incurred. At that point, expensive part replacement usually took place whether it was needed or not. With the completion of the Pipe Walkertrademark/LIP System and the planned development of the Submersible Walkertrademark, this situation is due to change. The specifications for these inspection and maintenance robots will ensure that. Their ability to traverse both horizontal and vertical, forward and backward, make them unique tools. They will open the door for some innovative approaches to inspection and maintenance of large pumps and piping systems

Robotics for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shiraiwa, Takanori; Watanabe, Atsuo; Miyasawa, Tatsuo

1984-01-01

Demand for robots in nuclear power plants is increasing of late in order to reduce workers' exposure to radiations. Especially, owing to the progress of microelectronics and robotics, earnest desire is growing for the advent of intellecturized robots that perform indeterminate and complicated security work. Herein represented are the robots recently developed for nuclear power plants and the review of the present status of robotics. (author)

Robotics for nuclear power plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shiraiwa, Takanori; Watanabe, Atsuo; Miyasawa, Tatsuo

1984-10-01

Demand for robots in nuclear power plants is increasing of late in order to reduce workers' exposure to radiations. Especially, owing to the progress of microelectronics and robotics, earnest desire is growing for the advent of intellecturized robots that perform indeterminate and complicated security work. Herein represented are the robots recently developed for nuclear power plants and the review of the present status of robotics.

Next generation light robotic

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Villangca, Mark Jayson; Palima, Darwin; Banas, Andrew Rafael

2017-01-01

-assisted surgery imbibes surgeons with superhuman abilities and gives the expression “surgical precision” a whole new meaning. Still in its infancy, much remains to be done to improve human-robot collaboration both in realizing robots that can operate safely with humans and in training personnel that can work......Conventional robotics provides machines and robots that can replace and surpass human performance in repetitive, difficult, and even dangerous tasks at industrial assembly lines, hazardous environments, or even at remote planets. A new class of robotic systems no longer aims to replace humans...... with so-called automatons but, rather, to create robots that can work alongside human operators. These new robots are intended to collaborate with humans—extending their abilities—from assisting workers on the factory floor to rehabilitating patients in their homes. In medical robotics, robot...

NONLINEAR FORCE PROFILE USED TO INCREASE THE PERFORMANCE OF A HAPTIC USER INTERFACE FOR TELEOPERATING A ROBOTIC HAND

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Anthony L. Crawford

2012-07-01

MODIFIED PAPER TITLE AND ABSTRACT DUE TO SLIGHTLY MODIFIED SCOPE: TITLE: Nonlinear Force Profile Used to Increase the Performance of a Haptic User Interface for Teleoperating a Robotic Hand Natural movements and force feedback are important elements in using teleoperated equipment if complex and speedy manipulation tasks are to be accomplished in hazardous environments, such as hot cells, glove boxes, decommissioning, explosives disarmament, and space. The research associated with this paper hypothesizes that a user interface and complementary radiation compatible robotic hand that integrates the human hand’s anthropometric properties, speed capability, nonlinear strength profile, reduction of active degrees of freedom during the transition from manipulation to grasping, and just noticeable difference force sensation characteristics will enhance a user’s teleoperation performance. The main contribution of this research is in that a system that concisely integrates all these factors has yet to be developed and furthermore has yet to be applied to a hazardous environment as those referenced above. In fact, the most prominent slave manipulator teleoperation technology in use today is based on a design patented in 1945 (Patent 2632574) [1]. The robotic hand/user interface systems of similar function as the one being developed in this research limit their design input requirements in the best case to only complementing the hand’s anthropometric properties, speed capability, and linearly scaled force application relationship (e.g. robotic force is a constant, 4 times that of the user). In this paper a nonlinear relationship between the force experienced between the user interface and the robotic hand was devised based on property differences of manipulation and grasping activities as they pertain to the human hand. The results show that such a relationship when subjected to a manipulation task and grasping task produces increased performance compared to the

Path Planning and Replanning for Mobile Robot Navigation on 3D Terrain: An Approach Based on Geodesic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kun-Lin Wu

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, mobile robot navigation on a 3D terrain with a single obstacle is addressed. The terrain is modelled as a smooth, complete manifold with well-defined tangent planes and the hazardous region is modelled as an enclosing circle with a hazard grade tuned radius representing the obstacle projected onto the terrain to allow efficient path-obstacle intersection checking. To resolve the intersections along the initial geodesic, by resorting to the geodesic ideas from differential geometry on surfaces and manifolds, we present a geodesic-based planning and replanning algorithm as a new method for obstacle avoidance on a 3D terrain without using boundary following on the obstacle surface. The replanning algorithm generates two new paths, each a composition of two geodesics, connected via critical points whose locations are found to be heavily relying on the exploration of the terrain via directional scanning on the tangent plane at the first intersection point of the initial geodesic with the circle. An advantage of this geodesic path replanning procedure is that traversability of terrain on which the detour path traverses could be explored based on the local Gauss-Bonnet Theorem of the geodesic triangle at the planning stage. A simulation demonstrates the practicality of the analytical geodesic replanning procedure for navigating a constant speed point robot on a 3D hill-like terrain.

GPU accelerated tandem traversal of blocked bounding volume hierarchy collision detection for multibody dynamics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Damkjær, Jesper; Erleben, Kenny

2009-01-01

and a simultaneous descend in the tandem traversal. The data structure design and traversal are highly specialized for exploiting the parallel threads in the NVIDIA GPUs. As proof-of-concept we demonstrate a GPU implementation for a multibody dynamics simulation, showing an approximate speedup factor of up to 8...

Running over unknown rough terrain with a one-legged planar robot

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andrews, Ben; Miller, Bruce; Clark, Jonathan E; Schmitt, John

2011-01-01

The ability to traverse unknown, rough terrain is an advantage that legged locomoters have over their wheeled counterparts. However, due to the complexity of multi-legged systems, research in legged robotics has not yet been able to reproduce the agility found in the animal kingdom. In an effort to reduce the complexity of the problem, researchers have developed single-legged models to gain insight into the fundamental dynamics of legged running. Inspired by studies of animal locomotion, researchers have proposed numerous control strategies to achieve stable, one-legged running over unknown, rough terrain. One such control strategy incorporates energy variations into the system during the stance phase by changing the force-free leg length as a sinusoidal function of time. In this research, a one-legged planar robot capable of implementing this and other state-of-the-art control strategies was designed and built. Both simulated and experimental results were used to determine and compare the stability of the proposed controllers as the robot was subjected to unknown drop and raised step perturbations equal to 25% of the nominal leg length. This study illustrates the relative advantages of utilizing a minimal-sensing, active energy removal control scheme to stabilize running over rough terrain.

Robotic surgery update.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacobsen, G; Elli, F; Horgan, S

2004-08-01

Minimally invasive surgical techniques have revolutionized the field of surgery. Telesurgical manipulators (robots) and new information technologies strive to improve upon currently available minimally invasive techniques and create new possibilities. A retrospective review of all robotic cases at a single academic medical center from August 2000 until November 2002 was conducted. A comprehensive literature evaluation on robotic surgical technology was also performed. Robotic technology is safely and effectively being applied at our institution. Robotic and information technologies have improved upon minimally invasive surgical techniques and created new opportunities not attainable in open surgery. Robotic technology offers many benefits over traditional minimal access techniques and has been proven safe and effective. Further research is needed to better define the optimal application of this technology. Credentialing and educational requirements also need to be delineated.

Initial experience using a robotic-driven laparoscopic needle holder with ergonomic handle: assessment of surgeons' task performance and ergonomics.

Science.gov (United States)

Sánchez-Margallo, Juan A; Sánchez-Margallo, Francisco M

2017-12-01

The objective of this study is to assess the surgeons' performance and ergonomics during the use of a robotic-driven needle holder in laparoscopic suturing tasks. Six right-handed laparoscopic surgeons with different levels of experience took part in this study. Participants performed a set of three different intracorporeal suturing tasks organized in ten trials during a period of five weeks. Surgeons used both conventional (Conv) and robotic (Rob) laparoscopic needle holders. Precision using the surgical needle, quality of the intracorporeal suturing performance, execution time and leakage pressure for the urethrovesical anastomosis, as well as the ergonomics of the surgeon's hand posture, were analyzed during the first, fifth and last trials. No statistically significant differences in precision and quality of suturing performance were obtained between both groups of instruments. Surgeons required more time using the robotic instrument than using the conventional needle holder to perform the urethrovesical anastomosis, but execution time was significantly reduced after training ([Formula: see text] 0.05). There were no differences in leakage pressure for the anastomoses carried out by both instruments. After training, novice surgeons significantly improved the ergonomics of the wrist ([Formula: see text] 0.05) and index finger (Conv: 36.381[Formula: see text], Rob: 30.389[Formula: see text]; p = 0.024) when using the robotic instrument compared to the conventional needle holder. Results have shown that, although both instruments offer similar technical performance, the robotic-driven instrument results in better ergonomics for the surgeon's hand posture compared to the use of a conventional laparoscopic needle holder in intracorporeal suturing.

Stair Climbing Control for 4-DOF Tracked Vehicle Based on Internal Sensors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daisuke Endo

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In search-and-rescue missions, multi-degrees-of-freedom (DOF tracked robots that are equipped with subtracks are commonly used. These types of robots have superior locomotion performance on rough terrain. However, in teleoperated missions, the performance of tracked robots depends largely on the operators’ ability to control every subtrack appropriately. Therefore, an autonomous traversal function can significantly help in the teleoperation of such robots. In this paper, we propose a planning and control method for 4-DOF tracked robots climbing up/down known stairs automatically based on internal sensors. Experimental results obtained using mockup stairs verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Urology residents experience comparable workload profiles when performing live porcine nephrectomies and robotic surgery virtual reality training modules.

Science.gov (United States)

Mouraviev, Vladimir; Klein, Martina; Schommer, Eric; Thiel, David D; Samavedi, Srinivas; Kumar, Anup; Leveillee, Raymond J; Thomas, Raju; Pow-Sang, Julio M; Su, Li-Ming; Mui, Engy; Smith, Roger; Patel, Vipul

2016-03-01

In pursuit of improving the quality of residents' education, the Southeastern Section of the American Urological Association (SES AUA) hosts an annual robotic training course for its residents. The workshop involves performing a robotic live porcine nephrectomy as well as virtual reality robotic training modules. The aim of this study was to evaluate workload levels of urology residents when performing a live porcine nephrectomy and the virtual reality robotic surgery training modules employed during this workshop. Twenty-one residents from 14 SES AUA programs participated in 2015. On the first-day residents were taught with didactic lectures by faculty. On the second day, trainees were divided into two groups. Half were asked to perform training modules of the Mimic da Vinci-Trainer (MdVT, Mimic Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, USA) for 4 h, while the other half performed nephrectomy procedures on a live porcine model using the da Vinci Si robot (Intuitive Surgical Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, USA). After the first 4 h the groups changed places for another 4-h session. All trainees were asked to complete the NASA-TLX 1-page questionnaire following both the MdVT simulation and live animal model sessions. A significant interface and TLX interaction was observed. The interface by TLX interaction was further analyzed to determine whether the scores of each of the six TLX scales varied across the two interfaces. The means of the TLX scores observed at the two interfaces were similar. The only significant difference was observed for frustration, which was significantly higher at the simulation than the animal model, t (20) = 4.12, p = 0.001. This could be due to trainees' familiarity with live anatomical structures over skill set simulations which remain a real challenge to novice surgeons. Another reason might be that the simulator provides performance metrics for specific performance traits as well as composite scores for entire exercises. Novice trainees experienced

Robotics in hazardous waste management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mahalingam, R.J.; Jayaraman, K.M.; Cunningham, A.J.; Meieran, H.B.; Zafrir, H.; Kroitoru, L.

1994-01-01

This paper addresses the advent of mobile robotic systems into the earth sciences and environmental studies. It presents issues surrounding the rationale for employing stationary and mobile robots to assist in waste chemical site remediation and cleanup activities, missions that could be conducted, and the current availability status for these devices. This rationale is an extension of that being promoted by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to assist in resolving environmental restoration and waste management (ER and WM) issues associated with several DOE national laboratories, facilities, and other sites. DOE has also committed to restore the environment surrounding the existing storage facilities and sites to a safe state. Technologies that are expected to play a major role in these activities are stationary and mobile robotic devices, and in particular, mobile robots. Specific topics discussed in this article include: introduction to robotics: motivations for considering robots in HWM: incorporation of robotics into HWM methods--this subsection includes a rationale for performing a ''screening test'' to determine the advantages of using a robot; safety and performance factors; illustrations for robots in action and current and future trends

Future of robotic surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Lendvay, Thomas Sean; Hannaford, Blake; Satava, Richard M

2013-01-01

In just over a decade, robotic surgery has penetrated almost every surgical subspecialty and has even replaced some of the most commonly performed open oncologic procedures. The initial reports on patient outcomes yielded mixed results, but as more medical centers develop high-volume robotics programs, outcomes appear comparable if not improved for some applications. There are limitations to the current commercially available system, and new robotic platforms, some designed to compete in the current market and some to address niche surgical considerations, are being developed that will change the robotic landscape in the next decade. Adoption of these new systems will be dependent on overcoming barriers to true telesurgery that range from legal to logistical. As additional surgical disciplines embrace robotics and open surgery continues to be replaced by robotic approaches, it will be imperative that adequate education and training keep pace with technology. Methods to enhance surgical performance in robotics through the use of simulation and telementoring promise to accelerate learning curves and perhaps even improve surgical readiness through brief virtual-reality warm-ups and presurgical rehearsal. All these advances will need to be carefully and rigorously validated through not only patient outcomes, but also cost efficiency.

Robotic Observatory System Design-Specification Considerations for Achieving Long-Term Sustainable Precision Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Wray, J. D.

2003-05-01

The robotic observatory telescope must point precisely on the target object, and then track autonomously to a fraction of the FWHM of the system PSF for durations of ten to twenty minutes or more. It must retain this precision while continuing to function at rates approaching thousands of observations per night for all its years of useful life. These stringent requirements raise new challenges unique to robotic telescope systems design. Critical design considerations are driven by the applicability of the above requirements to all systems of the robotic observatory, including telescope and instrument systems, telescope-dome enclosure systems, combined electrical and electronics systems, environmental (e.g. seeing) control systems and integrated computer control software systems. Traditional telescope design considerations include the effects of differential thermal strain, elastic flexure, plastic flexure and slack or backlash with respect to focal stability, optical alignment and angular pointing and tracking precision. Robotic observatory design must holistically encapsulate these traditional considerations within the overall objective of maximized long-term sustainable precision performance. This overall objective is accomplished through combining appropriate mechanical and dynamical system characteristics with a full-time real-time telescope mount model feedback computer control system. Important design considerations include: identifying and reducing quasi-zero-backlash; increasing size to increase precision; directly encoding axis shaft rotation; pointing and tracking operation via real-time feedback between precision mount model and axis mounted encoders; use of monolithic construction whenever appropriate for sustainable mechanical integrity; accelerating dome motion to eliminate repetitive shock; ducting internal telescope air to outside dome; and the principal design criteria: maximizing elastic repeatability while minimizing slack, plastic deformation

Human-robot interaction tests on a novel robot for gait assistance.

Science.gov (United States)

Tagliamonte, Nevio Luigi; Sergi, Fabrizio; Carpino, Giorgio; Accoto, Dino; Guglielmelli, Eugenio

2013-06-01

This paper presents tests on a treadmill-based non-anthropomorphic wearable robot assisting hip and knee flexion/extension movements using compliant actuation. Validation experiments were performed on the actuators and on the robot, with specific focus on the evaluation of intrinsic backdrivability and of assistance capability. Tests on a young healthy subject were conducted. In the case of robot completely unpowered, maximum backdriving torques were found to be in the order of 10 Nm due to the robot design features (reduced swinging masses; low intrinsic mechanical impedance and high-efficiency reduction gears for the actuators). Assistance tests demonstrated that the robot can deliver torques attracting the subject towards a predicted kinematic status.

Easy Reconfiguration of Modular Industrial Collaborative Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schou, Casper

2016-01-01

the production staff collaborating to perform common tasks. This change of environment imposes a much more dynamic lifecycle for the robot which consequently requires new ways of interacting. This thesis investigates how the changeover to a new task on a collaborative robot can be performed by the shop floor...... operators already working alongside the robot. To effectively perform this changeover, the operator must both reconfigure the hardware of the robot and reprogram the robot to match the new task. To enable shop floor operators to quickly and intuitively program the robot, this thesis proposes the use...... of parametric, task-related robot skills with a manual parameterization method. Reconfiguring the hardware entails adding, removing, or modifying some of the robot’s components. This thesis investigate how software configurator tools can aid the operator in selecting appropriate hardware modules, and how agent...

WARRIOR II, a high performance modular electric robot system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Downton, G.C.

1996-01-01

Initially designed for in-reactor welding by the Central Electricity Generating Board, WARRIOR has been developed using the concept of modular technology to become a light-weight, high performance robotic system. Research work on existing machines for in-reactor inspection and repair and heavy duty hydraulic manipulators was progressed in order to develop WARRIOR II, a versatile in-reactor welding system usable at any nuclear power station light enough to be deployed by existing remote handling equipment. WARRIOR II can be significantly reconfigured quickly to pursue different ends. (UK)

Remote Lab for Robotics Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robinson Jiménez

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This article describes the development of a remote lab environment used to test and training sessions for robotics tasks. This environment is made up of the components and devices based on two robotic arms, a network link, Arduino card and Arduino shield for Ethernet, as well as an IP camera. The remote laboratory is implemented to perform remote control of the robotic arms with visual feedback by camera, of the robots actions, where, with a group of test users, it was possible to obtain performance ranges in tasks of telecontrol of up to 92%.

Design and Implementation of Fire Extinguisher Robot with Robotic Arm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Memon Abdul Waris

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Robot is a device, which performs human task or behave like a human-being. It needs expertise skills and complex programming to design. For designing a fire fighter robot, many sensors and motors were used. User firstly send robot to an affected area, to get live image of the field with the help of mobile camera via Wi-Fi using IP camera application to laptop. If any signs of fire shown in image, user direct robot in that particular direction for confirmation. Fire sensor and temperature sensor detects and measures the reading, after confirmation robot sprinkle water on affected field. During extinguish process if any obstacle comes in between the prototype and the affected area the ultrasonic sensor detects the obstacle, in response the robotic arm moves to pick and place that obstacle to another location for clearing the path. Meanwhile if any poisonous gas is present, the gas sensor detects and indicates by making alarm.

An Integrated Framework for Human-Robot Collaborative Manipulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheng, Weihua; Thobbi, Anand; Gu, Ye

2015-10-01

This paper presents an integrated learning framework that enables humanoid robots to perform human-robot collaborative manipulation tasks. Specifically, a table-lifting task performed jointly by a human and a humanoid robot is chosen for validation purpose. The proposed framework is split into two phases: 1) phase I-learning to grasp the table and 2) phase II-learning to perform the manipulation task. An imitation learning approach is proposed for phase I. In phase II, the behavior of the robot is controlled by a combination of two types of controllers: 1) reactive and 2) proactive. The reactive controller lets the robot take a reactive control action to make the table horizontal. The proactive controller lets the robot take proactive actions based on human motion prediction. A measure of confidence of the prediction is also generated by the motion predictor. This confidence measure determines the leader/follower behavior of the robot. Hence, the robot can autonomously switch between the behaviors during the task. Finally, the performance of the human-robot team carrying out the collaborative manipulation task is experimentally evaluated on a platform consisting of a Nao humanoid robot and a Vicon motion capture system. Results show that the proposed framework can enable the robot to carry out the collaborative manipulation task successfully.

Modular robotics for playful physiotherapy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lund, Henrik Hautop

2009-01-01

We developed modular robotic tiles to be used for playful physiotherapy, which is supposed to motivate patients to engage in and perform physical rehabilitation exercises. We tested the modular robotic tiles for an extensive period of time (3 years) in daily use in a hospital rehabilitation unit e.......g. for cardiac patients. Also, the tiles were tested for performing physical rehabilitation of stroke patients in their private home. In all pilot test cases qualitative feedback indicate that the patients find the playful use of modular robotic tiles engaging and motivating for them to perform...

Advanced robot locomotion.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Neely, Jason C.; Sturgis, Beverly Rainwater; Byrne, Raymond Harry; Feddema, John Todd; Spletzer, Barry Louis; Rose, Scott E.; Novick, David Keith; Wilson, David Gerald; Buerger, Stephen P.

2007-01-01

This report contains the results of a research effort on advanced robot locomotion. The majority of this work focuses on walking robots. Walking robot applications include delivery of special payloads to unique locations that require human locomotion to exo-skeleton human assistance applications. A walking robot could step over obstacles and move through narrow openings that a wheeled or tracked vehicle could not overcome. It could pick up and manipulate objects in ways that a standard robot gripper could not. Most importantly, a walking robot would be able to rapidly perform these tasks through an intuitive user interface that mimics natural human motion. The largest obstacle arises in emulating stability and balance control naturally present in humans but needed for bipedal locomotion in a robot. A tracked robot is bulky and limited, but a wide wheel base assures passive stability. Human bipedal motion is so common that it is taken for granted, but bipedal motion requires active balance and stability control for which the analysis is non-trivial. This report contains an extensive literature study on the state-of-the-art of legged robotics, and it additionally provides the analysis, simulation, and hardware verification of two variants of a proto-type leg design.

Robotics in endoscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

Klibansky, David; Rothstein, Richard I

2012-09-01

The increasing complexity of intralumenal and emerging translumenal endoscopic procedures has created an opportunity to apply robotics in endoscopy. Computer-assisted or direct-drive robotic technology allows the triangulation of flexible tools through telemanipulation. The creation of new flexible operative platforms, along with other emerging technology such as nanobots and steerable capsules, can be transformational for endoscopic procedures. In this review, we cover some background information on the use of robotics in surgery and endoscopy, and review the emerging literature on platforms, capsules, and mini-robotic units. The development of techniques in advanced intralumenal endoscopy (endoscopic mucosal resection and endoscopic submucosal dissection) and translumenal endoscopic procedures (NOTES) has generated a number of novel platforms, flexible tools, and devices that can apply robotic principles to endoscopy. The development of a fully flexible endoscopic surgical toolkit will enable increasingly advanced procedures to be performed through natural orifices. The application of platforms and new flexible tools to the areas of advanced endoscopy and NOTES heralds the opportunity to employ useful robotic technology. Following the examples of the utility of robotics from the field of laparoscopic surgery, we can anticipate the emerging role of robotic technology in endoscopy.

Performance impact of mutation operators of a subpopulation-based genetic algorithm for multi-robot task allocation problems.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Chun; Kroll, Andreas

2016-01-01

Multi-robot task allocation determines the task sequence and distribution for a group of robots in multi-robot systems, which is one of constrained combinatorial optimization problems and more complex in case of cooperative tasks because they introduce additional spatial and temporal constraints. To solve multi-robot task allocation problems with cooperative tasks efficiently, a subpopulation-based genetic algorithm, a crossover-free genetic algorithm employing mutation operators and elitism selection in each subpopulation, is developed in this paper. Moreover, the impact of mutation operators (swap, insertion, inversion, displacement, and their various combinations) is analyzed when solving several industrial plant inspection problems. The experimental results show that: (1) the proposed genetic algorithm can obtain better solutions than the tested binary tournament genetic algorithm with partially mapped crossover; (2) inversion mutation performs better than other tested mutation operators when solving problems without cooperative tasks, and the swap-inversion combination performs better than other tested mutation operators/combinations when solving problems with cooperative tasks. As it is difficult to produce all desired effects with a single mutation operator, using multiple mutation operators (including both inversion and swap) is suggested when solving similar combinatorial optimization problems.

30 Years of Robotic Surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Leal Ghezzi, Tiago; Campos Corleta, Oly

2016-10-01

The idea of reproducing himself with the use of a mechanical robot structure has been in man's imagination in the last 3000 years. However, the use of robots in medicine has only 30 years of history. The application of robots in surgery originates from the need of modern man to achieve two goals: the telepresence and the performance of repetitive and accurate tasks. The first "robot surgeon" used on a human patient was the PUMA 200 in 1985. In the 1990s, scientists developed the concept of "master-slave" robot, which consisted of a robot with remote manipulators controlled by a surgeon at a surgical workstation. Despite the lack of force and tactile feedback, technical advantages of robotic surgery, such as 3D vision, stable and magnified image, EndoWrist instruments, physiologic tremor filtering, and motion scaling, have been considered fundamental to overcome many of the limitations of the laparoscopic surgery. Since the approval of the da Vinci(®) robot by international agencies, American, European, and Asian surgeons have proved its factibility and safety for the performance of many different robot-assisted surgeries. Comparative studies of robotic and laparoscopic surgical procedures in general surgery have shown similar results with regard to perioperative, oncological, and functional outcomes. However, higher costs and lack of haptic feedback represent the major limitations of current robotic technology to become the standard technique of minimally invasive surgery worldwide. Therefore, the future of robotic surgery involves cost reduction, development of new platforms and technologies, creation and validation of curriculum and virtual simulators, and conduction of randomized clinical trials to determine the best applications of robotics.

Multi-Robot Assembly Strategies and Metrics

Science.gov (United States)

MARVEL, JEREMY A.; BOSTELMAN, ROGER; FALCO, JOE

2018-01-01

We present a survey of multi-robot assembly applications and methods and describe trends and general insights into the multi-robot assembly problem for industrial applications. We focus on fixtureless assembly strategies featuring two or more robotic systems. Such robotic systems include industrial robot arms, dexterous robotic hands, and autonomous mobile platforms, such as automated guided vehicles. In this survey, we identify the types of assemblies that are enabled by utilizing multiple robots, the algorithms that synchronize the motions of the robots to complete the assembly operations, and the metrics used to assess the quality and performance of the assemblies. PMID:29497234

Multi-Robot Assembly Strategies and Metrics.

Science.gov (United States)

Marvel, Jeremy A; Bostelman, Roger; Falco, Joe

2018-02-01

We present a survey of multi-robot assembly applications and methods and describe trends and general insights into the multi-robot assembly problem for industrial applications. We focus on fixtureless assembly strategies featuring two or more robotic systems. Such robotic systems include industrial robot arms, dexterous robotic hands, and autonomous mobile platforms, such as automated guided vehicles. In this survey, we identify the types of assemblies that are enabled by utilizing multiple robots, the algorithms that synchronize the motions of the robots to complete the assembly operations, and the metrics used to assess the quality and performance of the assemblies.

Tunneling and traversal of ultracold three-level atoms through vacuum-induced potentials

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Badshah, Fazal; Irfan, Muhammad; Qamar, Shahid [Department of Physics and Applied Mathematics, Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nilore, Islamabad 45650 (Pakistan); Qamar, Sajid [Department of Physics, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad (Pakistan)

2011-09-15

The passage of ultracold three-level atoms through the potential induced by the vacuum cavity mode is discussed using cascade atomic configuration. We study the tunneling or traversal time of the ultracold atoms via a bimodal high-Q cavity. It is found that the phase time, which may be considered as a measure for the time required to traverse the cavity, exhibits superclassical and subclassical behaviors. Further, the dark states and interference effects in cascade atomic configuration may influence the passage time of the atom through the cavity.

Tunneling and traversal of ultracold three-level atoms through vacuum-induced potentials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Badshah, Fazal; Irfan, Muhammad; Qamar, Shahid; Qamar, Sajid

2011-01-01

The passage of ultracold three-level atoms through the potential induced by the vacuum cavity mode is discussed using cascade atomic configuration. We study the tunneling or traversal time of the ultracold atoms via a bimodal high-Q cavity. It is found that the phase time, which may be considered as a measure for the time required to traverse the cavity, exhibits superclassical and subclassical behaviors. Further, the dark states and interference effects in cascade atomic configuration may influence the passage time of the atom through the cavity.

Design of Piano -playing Robotic Hand

OpenAIRE

Lin Jen-Chang; Hsin-Cheng Li; Kuo-Cheng Huang; Shu-Wei Lin

2013-01-01

Unlike the market slowdown of industrial robots, service & entertainment robots have been highly regarded by most robotics reseach and market research agencies. In this study we developed a music playing robot (which can also work as a service robot) for public performance. The research is mainly focused on the mechanical and electrical control of piano-playing robot, the exploration of correlations among music theory, rhythm and piano keys, and eventually the research on playing skill of...

Rehearsal for the Robot Revolution

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jochum, Elizabeth; Goldberg, Ken

that are central to social robotics. However automated performances that merely substitute robotic actors for human ones do not always capture our imagination or prove entertaining. While some plays explore ambivalence to robots or “misbehaving machines” thematically (such as R.U.R.), the exigencies of live...

An example of the use of robotics in French nuclear power plants the ISIS robot

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seguy, J.; Thirion, H.

1988-01-01

The authors report how Robotics in French nuclear power plants (NPP) is used to solve maintenance problems. One of the most typical example of the use of robotics in French NPP is the ISIS robot. The first generation of this robot has performed the repair of corroded upper internal structures in Chinon A3 gaz cooled reactor. Two robots of this type have successfully welded more than 200 repair parts in the core without major failure during more than 12,000 hours

Why Robots Should Be Social: Enhancing Machine Learning through Social Human-Robot Interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

de Greeff, Joachim; Belpaeme, Tony

2015-01-01

Social learning is a powerful method for cultural propagation of knowledge and skills relying on a complex interplay of learning strategies, social ecology and the human propensity for both learning and tutoring. Social learning has the potential to be an equally potent learning strategy for artificial systems and robots in specific. However, given the complexity and unstructured nature of social learning, implementing social machine learning proves to be a challenging problem. We study one particular aspect of social machine learning: that of offering social cues during the learning interaction. Specifically, we study whether people are sensitive to social cues offered by a learning robot, in a similar way to children's social bids for tutoring. We use a child-like social robot and a task in which the robot has to learn the meaning of words. For this a simple turn-based interaction is used, based on language games. Two conditions are tested: one in which the robot uses social means to invite a human teacher to provide information based on what the robot requires to fill gaps in its knowledge (i.e. expression of a learning preference); the other in which the robot does not provide social cues to communicate a learning preference. We observe that conveying a learning preference through the use of social cues results in better and faster learning by the robot. People also seem to form a "mental model" of the robot, tailoring the tutoring to the robot's performance as opposed to using simply random teaching. In addition, the social learning shows a clear gender effect with female participants being responsive to the robot's bids, while male teachers appear to be less receptive. This work shows how additional social cues in social machine learning can result in people offering better quality learning input to artificial systems, resulting in improved learning performance.

Why Robots Should Be Social: Enhancing Machine Learning through Social Human-Robot Interaction.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joachim de Greeff

Full Text Available Social learning is a powerful method for cultural propagation of knowledge and skills relying on a complex interplay of learning strategies, social ecology and the human propensity for both learning and tutoring. Social learning has the potential to be an equally potent learning strategy for artificial systems and robots in specific. However, given the complexity and unstructured nature of social learning, implementing social machine learning proves to be a challenging problem. We study one particular aspect of social machine learning: that of offering social cues during the learning interaction. Specifically, we study whether people are sensitive to social cues offered by a learning robot, in a similar way to children's social bids for tutoring. We use a child-like social robot and a task in which the robot has to learn the meaning of words. For this a simple turn-based interaction is used, based on language games. Two conditions are tested: one in which the robot uses social means to invite a human teacher to provide information based on what the robot requires to fill gaps in its knowledge (i.e. expression of a learning preference; the other in which the robot does not provide social cues to communicate a learning preference. We observe that conveying a learning preference through the use of social cues results in better and faster learning by the robot. People also seem to form a "mental model" of the robot, tailoring the tutoring to the robot's performance as opposed to using simply random teaching. In addition, the social learning shows a clear gender effect with female participants being responsive to the robot's bids, while male teachers appear to be less receptive. This work shows how additional social cues in social machine learning can result in people offering better quality learning input to artificial systems, resulting in improved learning performance.

Multi-robot caravanning

KAUST Repository

Denny, Jory

2013-11-01

We study multi-robot caravanning, which is loosely defined as the problem of a heterogeneous team of robots visiting specific areas of an environment (waypoints) as a group. After formally defining this problem, we propose a novel solution that requires minimal communication and scales with the number of waypoints and robots. Our approach restricts explicit communication and coordination to occur only when robots reach waypoints, and relies on implicit coordination when moving between a given pair of waypoints. At the heart of our algorithm is the use of leader election to efficiently exploit the unique environmental knowledge available to each robot in order to plan paths for the group, which makes it general enough to work with robots that have heterogeneous representations of the environment. We implement our approach both in simulation and on a physical platform, and characterize the performance of the approach under various scenarios. We demonstrate that our approach can successfully be used to combine the planning capabilities of different agents. © 2013 IEEE.

Continuum limbed robots for locomotion

Science.gov (United States)

Mutlu, Alper

This thesis focuses on continuum robots based on pneumatic muscle technology. We introduce a novel approach to use these muscles as limbs of lightweight legged robots. The flexibility of the continuum legs of these robots offers the potential to perform some duties that are not possible with classical rigid-link robots. Potential applications are as space robots in low gravity, and as cave explorer robots. The thesis covers the fabrication process of continuum pneumatic muscles and limbs. It also provides some new experimental data on this technology. Afterwards, the designs of two different novel continuum robots - one tripod, one quadruped - are introduced. Experimental data from tests using the robots is provided. The experimental results are the first published example of locomotion with tripod and quadruped continuum legged robots. Finally, discussion of the results and how far this technology can go forward is presented.

Optimized Assistive Human-Robot Interaction Using Reinforcement Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Modares, Hamidreza; Ranatunga, Isura; Lewis, Frank L; Popa, Dan O

2016-03-01

An intelligent human-robot interaction (HRI) system with adjustable robot behavior is presented. The proposed HRI system assists the human operator to perform a given task with minimum workload demands and optimizes the overall human-robot system performance. Motivated by human factor studies, the presented control structure consists of two control loops. First, a robot-specific neuro-adaptive controller is designed in the inner loop to make the unknown nonlinear robot behave like a prescribed robot impedance model as perceived by a human operator. In contrast to existing neural network and adaptive impedance-based control methods, no information of the task performance or the prescribed robot impedance model parameters is required in the inner loop. Then, a task-specific outer-loop controller is designed to find the optimal parameters of the prescribed robot impedance model to adjust the robot's dynamics to the operator skills and minimize the tracking error. The outer loop includes the human operator, the robot, and the task performance details. The problem of finding the optimal parameters of the prescribed robot impedance model is transformed into a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) problem which minimizes the human effort and optimizes the closed-loop behavior of the HRI system for a given task. To obviate the requirement of the knowledge of the human model, integral reinforcement learning is used to solve the given LQR problem. Simulation results on an x - y table and a robot arm, and experimental implementation results on a PR2 robot confirm the suitability of the proposed method.

Controlling Tensegrity Robots Through Evolution

Science.gov (United States)

Iscen, Atil; Agogino, Adrian; SunSpiral, Vytas; Tumer, Kagan

2013-01-01

Tensegrity structures (built from interconnected rods and cables) have the potential to offer a revolutionary new robotic design that is light-weight, energy-efficient, robust to failures, capable of unique modes of locomotion, impact tolerant, and compliant (reducing damage between the robot and its environment). Unfortunately robots built from tensegrity structures are difficult to control with traditional methods due to their oscillatory nature, nonlinear coupling between components and overall complexity. Fortunately this formidable control challenge can be overcome through the use of evolutionary algorithms. In this paper we show that evolutionary algorithms can be used to efficiently control a ball-shaped tensegrity robot. Experimental results performed with a variety of evolutionary algorithms in a detailed soft-body physics simulator show that a centralized evolutionary algorithm performs 400 percent better than a hand-coded solution, while the multi-agent evolution performs 800 percent better. In addition, evolution is able to discover diverse control solutions (both crawling and rolling) that are robust against structural failures and can be adapted to a wide range of energy and actuation constraints. These successful controls will form the basis for building high-performance tensegrity robots in the near future.

Robotic bariatric surgery: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Fourman, Matthew M; Saber, Alan A

2012-01-01

Obesity is a nationwide epidemic, and the only evidence-based, durable treatment of this disease is bariatric surgery. This field has evolved drastically during the past decade. One of the latest advances has been the increased use of robotics within this field. The goal of our study was to perform a systematic review of the recent data to determine the safety and efficacy of robotic bariatric surgery. The setting was the University Hospitals Case Medical Center (Cleveland, OH). A PubMed search was performed for robotic bariatric surgery from 2005 to 2011. The inclusion criteria were English language, original research, human, and bariatric surgical procedures. Perioperative data were then collected from each study and recorded. A total of 18 studies were included in our review. The results of our systematic review showed that bariatric surgery, when performed with the use of robotics, had similar or lower complication rates compared with traditional laparoscopy. Two studies showed shorter operative times using the robot for Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, but 4 studies showed longer operative times in the robotic arm. In addition, the learning curve appears to be shorter when robotic gastric bypass is compared with the traditional laparoscopic approach. Most investigators agreed that robotic laparoscopic surgery provides superior imaging and freedom of movement compared with traditional laparoscopy. The application of robotics appears to be a safe option within the realm of bariatric surgery. Prospective randomized trials comparing robotic and laparoscopic outcomes are needed to further define the role of robotics within the field of bariatric surgery. Longer follow-up times would also help elucidate any long-term outcomes differences with the use of robotics versus traditional laparoscopy. Copyright © 2012 American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. All rights reserved.

Adaptive heterogeneous multi-robot teams

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Parker, L.E.

1998-11-01

This research addresses the problem of achieving fault tolerant cooperation within small- to medium-sized teams of heterogeneous mobile robots. The author describes a novel behavior-based, fully distributed architecture, called ALLIANCE, that utilizes adaptive action selection to achieve fault tolerant cooperative control in robot missions involving loosely coupled, largely independent tasks. The robots in this architecture possess a variety of high-level functions that they can perform during a mission, and must at all times select an appropriate action based on the requirements of the mission, the activities of other robots, the current environmental conditions, and their own internal states. Since such cooperative teams often work in dynamic and unpredictable environments, the software architecture allows the team members to respond robustly and reliably to unexpected environmental changes and modifications in the robot team that may occur due to mechanical failure, the learning of new skills, or the addition or removal of robots from the team by human intervention. After presenting ALLIANCE, the author describes in detail the experimental results of an implementation of this architecture on a team of physical mobile robots performing a cooperative box pushing demonstration. These experiments illustrate the ability of ALLIANCE to achieve adaptive, fault-tolerant cooperative control amidst dynamic changes in the capabilities of the robot team.

Supervisory control for a complex robotic system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miller, D.J.

1988-01-01

The Robotic Radiation Survey and Analysis System investigates the use of advanced robotic technology for performing remote radiation surveys on nuclear waste shipping casks. Robotic systems have the potential for reducing personnel exposure to radiation and providing fast reliable throughput at future repository sites. A primary technology issue is the integrated control of distributed specialized hardware through a modular supervisory software system. Automated programming of robot trajectories based upon mathematical models of the cask and robot coupled with sensory feedback enables flexible operation of a commercial gantry robot with the reliability needed to perform autonomous operations in a hazardous environment. Complexity is managed using structured software engineering techniques resulting in the generation of reusable command primitives which contribute to a software parts catalog for a generalized robot programming language

Do laparoscopic skills transfer to robotic surgery?

Science.gov (United States)

Panait, Lucian; Shetty, Shohan; Shewokis, Patricia A; Sanchez, Juan A

2014-03-01

Identifying the set of skills that can transfer from laparoscopic to robotic surgery is an important consideration in designing optimal training curricula. We tested the degree to which laparoscopic skills transfer to a robotic platform. Fourteen medical students and 14 surgery residents with no previous robotic but varying degrees of laparoscopic experience were studied. Three fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery tasks were used on the laparoscopic box trainer and then the da Vinci robot: peg transfer (PT), circle cutting (CC), and intracorporeal suturing (IS). A questionnaire was administered for assessing subjects' comfort level with each task. Standard fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery scoring metric were used and higher scores indicate a superior performance. For the group, PT and CC scores were similar between robotic and laparoscopic modalities (90 versus 90 and 52 versus 47; P > 0.05). However, for the advanced IS task, robotic-IS scores were significantly higher than laparoscopic-IS (80 versus 53; P robotic-PT score when compared with laparoscopic-PT (92 versus 105; P  0.05). The robot was favored over laparoscopy for all drills (PT, 66.7%; CC, 88.9%; IS, 94.4%). For simple tasks, participants with preexisting skills perform worse with the robot. However, with increasing task difficulty, robotic performance is equal or better than laparoscopy. Laparoscopic skills appear to readily transfer to a robotic platform, and difficult tasks such as IS are actually enhanced, even in subjects naive to the technology. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Laws on Robots, Laws by Robots, Laws in Robots : Regulating Robot Behaviour by Design

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Leenes, R.E.; Lucivero, F.

2015-01-01

Speculation about robot morality is almost as old as the concept of a robot itself. Asimov’s three laws of robotics provide an early and well-discussed example of moral rules robots should observe. Despite the widespread influence of the three laws of robotics and their role in shaping visions of

Kinematic-Kinetic-Rigidity Evaluation of a Six Axis Robot Performing a Task

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. Karagulle

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Six axis serial robots of different sizes are widely used for pick and place, welding and various other operations in industry. Developments in mechatronics, which is the synergistic integration of mechanism, electronics and computer control to achieve a functional system, offer effective solutions for the design of such robots. The integrated analysis of robots is usually used in the design stage. In this study, it is offered that the integrated analysis of robots can also be used at the application stage. SolidWorks, CosmosMotion and ABAQUS programs are used with an integrated approach. Integration software (IS is developed in Visual Basic by using the application programming interface (API capabilities of these programs. An ABB-IRB1400 industrial robot is considered for the study. Different trajectories are considered. Each task is first evaluated by a kinematic analysis. If the task is out of the workspace, then the task is cancelled. This evaluation can also be done by robot programs like Robot Studio. It is proposed that the task must be evaluated by considering the limits for velocities, motor actuation torques, reaction forces, natural frequencies, displacements and stresses due to the flexibility. The evaluation is done using kinematic, kinetic and rigidity evaluation charts. The approach given in this work can be used for the optimal usage of robots.

Serendipitous Offline Learning in a Neuromorphic Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Terrence C Stewart

2016-02-01

Full Text Available We demonstrate a hybrid neuromorphic learning paradigm that learns complex sensorimotor mappings based on a small set of hard-coded reflex behaviours. A mobile robot is first controlled by a basic set of reflexive hand-designed behaviours. All sensor data is provided via a spike-based silicon retina camera (eDVS, and all control is implemented via spiking neurons simulated on neuromorphic hardware (SpiNNaker. Given this control system, the robot is capable of simple obstacle avoidance and random exploration. To train the robot to perform more complex tasks, we observe the robot and find instances where he robot accidentally performs the desired action. Data recorded from the robot during these times is then used to update the neural control system, increasing the likelihood of the robot performing that task in the future, given a similar sensor state. As an example application of this general-purpose method of training, we demonstrate the robot learning to respond to novel sensory stimuli (a mirror by turning right if it is present at an intersection, and otherwise turning left. In general, this system can learn arbitrary relations between sensory input and motor behaviour.

The Fate of a Normal Human Cell Traversed by a Single Charged Particle

Science.gov (United States)

Fournier, C.; Zahnreich, S.; Kraft, D.; Friedrich, T.; Voss, K.-O.; Durante, M.; Ritter, S.

2012-01-01

The long-term “fate” of normal human cells after single hits of charged particles is one of the oldest unsolved issues in radiation protection and cellular radiobiology. Using a high-precision heavy-ion microbeam we could target normal human fibroblasts with exactly one or five carbon ions and measured the early cytogenetic damage and the late behaviour using single-cell cloning. Around 70% of the first cycle cells presented visible aberrations in mFISH after a single ion traversal, and about 5% of the cells were still able to form colonies. In one third of selected high-proliferative colonies we observed clonal (radiation-induced) aberrations. Terminal differentiation and markers of senescence (PCNA, p16) in the descendants of cells traversed by one carbon ion occurred earlier than in controls, but no evidence of radiation-induced chromosomal instability was found. We conclude that cells surviving single-ion traversal, often carrying clonal chromosome aberrations, undergo accelerated senescence but maintain chromosomal stability. PMID:22966418

Development and validation of a composite scoring system for robot-assisted surgical training--the Robotic Skills Assessment Score.

Science.gov (United States)

Chowriappa, Ashirwad J; Shi, Yi; Raza, Syed Johar; Ahmed, Kamran; Stegemann, Andrew; Wilding, Gregory; Kaouk, Jihad; Peabody, James O; Menon, Mani; Hassett, James M; Kesavadas, Thenkurussi; Guru, Khurshid A

2013-12-01

A standardized scoring system does not exist in virtual reality-based assessment metrics to describe safe and crucial surgical skills in robot-assisted surgery. This study aims to develop an assessment score along with its construct validation. All subjects performed key tasks on previously validated Fundamental Skills of Robotic Surgery curriculum, which were recorded, and metrics were stored. After an expert consensus for the purpose of content validation (Delphi), critical safety determining procedural steps were identified from the Fundamental Skills of Robotic Surgery curriculum and a hierarchical task decomposition of multiple parameters using a variety of metrics was used to develop Robotic Skills Assessment Score (RSA-Score). Robotic Skills Assessment mainly focuses on safety in operative field, critical error, economy, bimanual dexterity, and time. Following, the RSA-Score was further evaluated for construct validation and feasibility. Spearman correlation tests performed between tasks using the RSA-Scores indicate no cross correlation. Wilcoxon rank sum tests were performed between the two groups. The proposed RSA-Score was evaluated on non-robotic surgeons (n = 15) and on expert-robotic surgeons (n = 12). The expert group demonstrated significantly better performance on all four tasks in comparison to the novice group. Validation of the RSA-Score in this study was carried out on the Robotic Surgical Simulator. The RSA-Score is a valid scoring system that could be incorporated in any virtual reality-based surgical simulator to achieve standardized assessment of fundamental surgical tents during robot-assisted surgery. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Tele-operated service robots : ROSE

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Osch, van M.P.W.J.; Bera, D.; Hee, van K.M.; Koks, Y.; Zeegers, H.

2014-01-01

Service robots are robots that are intended to perform tasks normally done by humans in an environment in which humans work as well. However, they are neither required to accomplish these tasks in the same way as humans nor need to look like a human being. A tele-operated robot is controlled from a

Traversing incore probe device

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoshioka, Michiko.

1985-01-01

Purpose: To measure the neutron flux distribution in the reactor core always at a high accuracy. Constitution: A nuclear fission ionizing chamber type detector is disposed at the end of a cable for sending a detection signal of a traversing incore probe device and, further, a gamma-ray ionizing chamber type detector is connected in adjacent therewith and a selection circuit for selecting both of the detection signals and inputting them to a display device is disposed. Then, compensation for the neutron monitors is conducted by the gamma-ray ionizing chamber type detector during normal operation in which control rods are not driven and the positioning is carried out by the nuclear fission ionizing chamber type detector. Furthermore, both of the compensation for the neutron detector and the positioning are carried out by the nuclear fission ionizing chamber type detector upon starting where the control rods are driven. (Sekiya, K.)

Parallel Robot for Lower Limb Rehabilitation Exercises

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alireza Rastegarpanah

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study is to investigate the capability of a 6-DoF parallel robot to perform various rehabilitation exercises. The foot trajectories of twenty healthy participants have been measured by a Vicon system during the performing of four different exercises. Based on the kinematics and dynamics of a parallel robot, a MATLAB program was developed in order to calculate the length of the actuators, the actuators’ forces, workspace, and singularity locus of the robot during the performing of the exercises. The calculated length of the actuators and the actuators’ forces were used by motion analysis in SolidWorks in order to simulate different foot trajectories by the CAD model of the robot. A physical parallel robot prototype was built in order to simulate and execute the foot trajectories of the participants. Kinect camera was used to track the motion of the leg’s model placed on the robot. The results demonstrate the robot’s capability to perform a full range of various rehabilitation exercises.

Understanding Cognitive Performance During Robot-Assisted Surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Guru, Khurshid A; Shafiei, Somayeh B; Khan, Atif; Hussein, Ahmed A; Sharif, Mohamed; Esfahani, Ehsan T

2015-10-01

To understand cognitive function of an expert surgeon in various surgical scenarios while performing robot-assisted surgery. In an Internal Review Board approved study, National Aeronautics and Space Administration-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) questionnaire with surgical field notes were simultaneously completed. A wireless electroencephalography (EEG) headset was used to monitor brain activity during all procedures. Three key portions were evaluated: lysis of adhesions, extended lymph node dissection, and urethro-vesical anastomosis (UVA). Cognitive metrics extracted were distraction, mental workload, and mental state. In evaluating lysis of adhesions, mental state (EEG) was associated with better performance (NASA-TLX). Utilizing more mental resources resulted in better performance as self-reported. Outcomes of lysis were highly dependent on cognitive function and decision-making skills. In evaluating extended lymph node dissection, there was a negative correlation between distraction level (EEG) and mental demand, physical demand and effort (NASA-TLX). Similar to lysis of adhesion, utilizing more mental resources resulted in better performance (NASA-TLX). Lastly, with UVA, workload (EEG) negatively correlated with mental and temporal demand and was associated with better performance (NASA-TLX). The EEG recorded workload as seen here was a combination of both cognitive performance (finding solution) and motor workload (execution). Majority of workload was contributed by motor workload of an expert surgeon. During UVA, muscle memory and motor skills of expert are keys to completing the UVA. Cognitive analysis shows that expert surgeons utilized different mental resources based on their need. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Girls, Boys, and Bots: Gender Differences in Young Children’s Performance on Robotics and Programming Tasks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amanda Sullivan

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Prior work demonstrates the importance of introducing young children to programming and engineering content before gender stereotypes are fully developed and ingrained in later years. However, very little research on gender and early childhood technology interventions exist. This pilot study looks at N=45 children in kindergarten through second grade who completed an eight-week robotics and programming curriculum using the KIWI robotics kit. KIWI is a developmentally appropriate robotics construction set specifically designed for use with children ages 4 to 7 years old. Qualitative pre-interviews were administered to determine whether participating children had any gender-biased attitudes toward robotics and other engineering tools prior to using KIWI in their classrooms. Post-tests were administered upon completion of the curriculum to determine if any gender differences in achievement were present. Results showed that young children were beginning to form opinions about which technologies and tools would be better suited for boys and girls. While there were no significant differences between boys and girls on the robotics and simple programming tasks, boys performed significantly better than girls on the advanced programming tasks such as, using repeat loops with sensor parameters. Implications for the design of new technological tools and curriculum that are appealing to boys and girls are discussed.

Parametric study of the swimming performance of a fish robot propelled by a flexible caudal fin

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Low, K H; Chong, C W, E-mail: mkhlow@ntu.edu.s, E-mail: ch0018ee@ntu.edu.s [School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798 (Singapore)

2010-12-15

In this paper, we aim to study the swimming performance of fish robots by using a statistical approach. A fish robot employing a carangiform swimming mode had been used as an experimental platform for the performance study. The experiments conducted aim to investigate the effect of various design parameters on the thrust capability of the fish robot with a flexible caudal fin. The controllable parameters associated with the fin include frequency, amplitude of oscillation, aspect ratio and the rigidity of the caudal fin. The significance of these parameters was determined in the first set of experiments by using a statistical approach. A more detailed parametric experimental study was then conducted with only those significant parameters. As a result, the parametric study could be completed with a reduced number of experiments and time spent. With the obtained experimental result, we were able to understand the relationship between various parameters and a possible adjustment of parameters to obtain a higher thrust. The proposed statistical method for experimentation provides an objective and thorough analysis of the effects of individual or combinations of parameters on the swimming performance. Such an efficient experimental design helps to optimize the process and determine factors that influence variability.

Parametric study of the swimming performance of a fish robot propelled by a flexible caudal fin.

Science.gov (United States)

Low, K H; Chong, C W

2010-12-01

In this paper, we aim to study the swimming performance of fish robots by using a statistical approach. A fish robot employing a carangiform swimming mode had been used as an experimental platform for the performance study. The experiments conducted aim to investigate the effect of various design parameters on the thrust capability of the fish robot with a flexible caudal fin. The controllable parameters associated with the fin include frequency, amplitude of oscillation, aspect ratio and the rigidity of the caudal fin. The significance of these parameters was determined in the first set of experiments by using a statistical approach. A more detailed parametric experimental study was then conducted with only those significant parameters. As a result, the parametric study could be completed with a reduced number of experiments and time spent. With the obtained experimental result, we were able to understand the relationship between various parameters and a possible adjustment of parameters to obtain a higher thrust. The proposed statistical method for experimentation provides an objective and thorough analysis of the effects of individual or combinations of parameters on the swimming performance. Such an efficient experimental design helps to optimize the process and determine factors that influence variability.

Parametric study of the swimming performance of a fish robot propelled by a flexible caudal fin

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Low, K H; Chong, C W

2010-01-01

In this paper, we aim to study the swimming performance of fish robots by using a statistical approach. A fish robot employing a carangiform swimming mode had been used as an experimental platform for the performance study. The experiments conducted aim to investigate the effect of various design parameters on the thrust capability of the fish robot with a flexible caudal fin. The controllable parameters associated with the fin include frequency, amplitude of oscillation, aspect ratio and the rigidity of the caudal fin. The significance of these parameters was determined in the first set of experiments by using a statistical approach. A more detailed parametric experimental study was then conducted with only those significant parameters. As a result, the parametric study could be completed with a reduced number of experiments and time spent. With the obtained experimental result, we were able to understand the relationship between various parameters and a possible adjustment of parameters to obtain a higher thrust. The proposed statistical method for experimentation provides an objective and thorough analysis of the effects of individual or combinations of parameters on the swimming performance. Such an efficient experimental design helps to optimize the process and determine factors that influence variability.

Proposing an International Collaboration on Lightweight Autonomous Vehicles to Conduct Scientific Traverses and Surveys over Antarctica and the Surrounding Sea Ice

Science.gov (United States)

Carsey, Frank; Behar, Alberto

2004-01-01

We have continued to develop a concept for use of autonomous rovers, originally developed for use in planetary exploration, in polar science on Earth; the concept was the subject of a workshop, and this report summarizes and extends that workshop. The workshop on Antarctic Autonomous Scientific Vehicles and Traverses met at the National Geographic Society on February 14 and 15, 2001 to discuss scientific objectives and benefits of the use of autonomous rovers. The participants enthusiastically viewed rovers as being uniquely valuable for such tasks as data taking on tedious or repetitive routes, traverses in polar night, difficult or hazardous routes, extremely remote regions, routes requiring only simple instrumentation, traverses that must be conducted at low speed, augments of manned traverses, and scientific procedures not compatible with human presence or combustion engines. The workshop has concluded that instrumented autonomous vehicles, of the type being developed for planetary exploration, have the potential to contribute significantly to the way science in conducted in Antarctica while also aiding planetary technology development, and engaging the public's interest. Specific objectives can be supported in understanding ice sheet mass balance, sea ice heat and momentum exchange, and surface air chemistry processes. In the interval since the workshop, we have concluded that organized program to employ such rovers to perform scientific tasks in the Fourth International Polar Year would serve the objectives of that program well.

Human Robot Interaction for Hybrid Collision Avoidance System for Indoor Mobile Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mazen Ghandour

2017-06-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a novel approach for collision avoidance for indoor mobile robots based on human-robot interaction is realized. The main contribution of this work is a new technique for collision avoidance by engaging the human and the robot in generating new collision-free paths. In mobile robotics, collision avoidance is critical for the success of the robots in implementing their tasks, especially when the robots navigate in crowded and dynamic environments, which include humans. Traditional collision avoidance methods deal with the human as a dynamic obstacle, without taking into consideration that the human will also try to avoid the robot, and this causes the people and the robot to get confused, especially in crowded social places such as restaurants, hospitals, and laboratories. To avoid such scenarios, a reactive-supervised collision avoidance system for mobile robots based on human-robot interaction is implemented. In this method, both the robot and the human will collaborate in generating the collision avoidance via interaction. The person will notify the robot about the avoidance direction via interaction, and the robot will search for the optimal collision-free path on the selected direction. In case that no people interacted with the robot, it will select the navigation path autonomously and select the path that is closest to the goal location. The humans will interact with the robot using gesture recognition and Kinect sensor. To build the gesture recognition system, two models were used to classify these gestures, the first model is Back-Propagation Neural Network (BPNN, and the second model is Support Vector Machine (SVM. Furthermore, a novel collision avoidance system for avoiding the obstacles is implemented and integrated with the HRI system. The system is tested on H20 robot from DrRobot Company (Canada and a set of experiments were implemented to report the performance of the system in interacting with the human and avoiding

DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Using Human-Machine Teamwork to Perform Disaster Response with a Humanoid Robot

Science.gov (United States)

2017-02-01

leverage our tools and skills to develop a system in which we can get the simulated government furnished equipment (GFE) robot to walk over various types...our control software to the constellation and made a small helper program that gave us the possibility to restart our control software should...avoided this way. - The time and bandwidth limits caused us to integrate helper tools based on computer vision and a microphone sensor into the robot

Robots As Intentional Agents: Using Neuroscientific Methods to Make Robots Appear More Social.

Science.gov (United States)

Wiese, Eva; Metta, Giorgio; Wykowska, Agnieszka

2017-01-01

Robots are increasingly envisaged as our future cohabitants. However, while considerable progress has been made in recent years in terms of their technological realization, the ability of robots to interact with humans in an intuitive and social way is still quite limited. An important challenge for social robotics is to determine how to design robots that can perceive the user's needs, feelings, and intentions, and adapt to users over a broad range of cognitive abilities. It is conceivable that if robots were able to adequately demonstrate these skills, humans would eventually accept them as social companions. We argue that the best way to achieve this is using a systematic experimental approach based on behavioral and physiological neuroscience methods such as motion/eye-tracking, electroencephalography, or functional near-infrared spectroscopy embedded in interactive human-robot paradigms. This approach requires understanding how humans interact with each other, how they perform tasks together and how they develop feelings of social connection over time, and using these insights to formulate design principles that make social robots attuned to the workings of the human brain. In this review, we put forward the argument that the likelihood of artificial agents being perceived as social companions can be increased by designing them in a way that they are perceived as intentional agents that activate areas in the human brain involved in social-cognitive processing. We first review literature related to social-cognitive processes and mechanisms involved in human-human interactions, and highlight the importance of perceiving others as intentional agents to activate these social brain areas. We then discuss how attribution of intentionality can positively affect human-robot interaction by (a) fostering feelings of social connection, empathy and prosociality, and by (b) enhancing performance on joint human-robot tasks. Lastly, we describe circumstances under which

Robots As Intentional Agents: Using Neuroscientific Methods to Make Robots Appear More Social

Science.gov (United States)

Wiese, Eva; Metta, Giorgio; Wykowska, Agnieszka

2017-01-01

Robots are increasingly envisaged as our future cohabitants. However, while considerable progress has been made in recent years in terms of their technological realization, the ability of robots to interact with humans in an intuitive and social way is still quite limited. An important challenge for social robotics is to determine how to design robots that can perceive the user’s needs, feelings, and intentions, and adapt to users over a broad range of cognitive abilities. It is conceivable that if robots were able to adequately demonstrate these skills, humans would eventually accept them as social companions. We argue that the best way to achieve this is using a systematic experimental approach based on behavioral and physiological neuroscience methods such as motion/eye-tracking, electroencephalography, or functional near-infrared spectroscopy embedded in interactive human–robot paradigms. This approach requires understanding how humans interact with each other, how they perform tasks together and how they develop feelings of social connection over time, and using these insights to formulate design principles that make social robots attuned to the workings of the human brain. In this review, we put forward the argument that the likelihood of artificial agents being perceived as social companions can be increased by designing them in a way that they are perceived as intentional agents that activate areas in the human brain involved in social-cognitive processing. We first review literature related to social-cognitive processes and mechanisms involved in human–human interactions, and highlight the importance of perceiving others as intentional agents to activate these social brain areas. We then discuss how attribution of intentionality can positively affect human–robot interaction by (a) fostering feelings of social connection, empathy and prosociality, and by (b) enhancing performance on joint human–robot tasks. Lastly, we describe circumstances under

Robots As Intentional Agents: Using Neuroscientific Methods to Make Robots Appear More Social

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eva Wiese

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Robots are increasingly envisaged as our future cohabitants. However, while considerable progress has been made in recent years in terms of their technological realization, the ability of robots to interact with humans in an intuitive and social way is still quite limited. An important challenge for social robotics is to determine how to design robots that can perceive the user’s needs, feelings, and intentions, and adapt to users over a broad range of cognitive abilities. It is conceivable that if robots were able to adequately demonstrate these skills, humans would eventually accept them as social companions. We argue that the best way to achieve this is using a systematic experimental approach based on behavioral and physiological neuroscience methods such as motion/eye-tracking, electroencephalography, or functional near-infrared spectroscopy embedded in interactive human–robot paradigms. This approach requires understanding how humans interact with each other, how they perform tasks together and how they develop feelings of social connection over time, and using these insights to formulate design principles that make social robots attuned to the workings of the human brain. In this review, we put forward the argument that the likelihood of artificial agents being perceived as social companions can be increased by designing them in a way that they are perceived as intentional agents that activate areas in the human brain involved in social-cognitive processing. We first review literature related to social-cognitive processes and mechanisms involved in human–human interactions, and highlight the importance of perceiving others as intentional agents to activate these social brain areas. We then discuss how attribution of intentionality can positively affect human–robot interaction by (a fostering feelings of social connection, empathy and prosociality, and by (b enhancing performance on joint human–robot tasks. Lastly, we describe

Intelligent robotic tracker

Science.gov (United States)

Otaguro, W. S.; Kesler, L. O.; Land, K. C.; Rhoades, D. E.

1987-01-01

An intelligent tracker capable of robotic applications requiring guidance and control of platforms, robotic arms, and end effectors has been developed. This packaged system capable of supervised autonomous robotic functions is partitioned into a multiple processor/parallel processing configuration. The system currently interfaces to cameras but has the capability to also use three-dimensional inputs from scanning laser rangers. The inputs are fed into an image processing and tracking section where the camera inputs are conditioned for the multiple tracker algorithms. An executive section monitors the image processing and tracker outputs and performs all the control and decision processes. The present architecture of the system is presented with discussion of its evolutionary growth for space applications. An autonomous rendezvous demonstration of this system was performed last year. More realistic demonstrations in planning are discussed.

Robot-assisted general surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Hazey, Jeffrey W; Melvin, W Scott

2004-06-01

With the initiation of laparoscopic techniques in general surgery, we have seen a significant expansion of minimally invasive techniques in the last 16 years. More recently, robotic-assisted laparoscopy has moved into the general surgeon's armamentarium to address some of the shortcomings of laparoscopic surgery. AESOP (Computer Motion, Goleta, CA) addressed the issue of visualization as a robotic camera holder. With the introduction of the ZEUS robotic surgical system (Computer Motion), the ability to remotely operate laparoscopic instruments became a reality. US Food and Drug Administration approval in July 2000 of the da Vinci robotic surgical system (Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale, CA) further defined the ability of a robotic-assist device to address limitations in laparoscopy. This includes a significant improvement in instrument dexterity, dampening of natural hand tremors, three-dimensional visualization, ergonomics, and camera stability. As experience with robotic technology increased and its applications to advanced laparoscopic procedures have become more understood, more procedures have been performed with robotic assistance. Numerous studies have shown equivalent or improved patient outcomes when robotic-assist devices are used. Initially, robotic-assisted laparoscopic cholecystectomy was deemed safe, and now robotics has been shown to be safe in foregut procedures, including Nissen fundoplication, Heller myotomy, gastric banding procedures, and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. These techniques have been extrapolated to solid-organ procedures (splenectomy, adrenalectomy, and pancreatic surgery) as well as robotic-assisted laparoscopic colectomy. In this chapter, we review the evolution of robotic technology and its applications in general surgical procedures.

Robotic radical hysterectomy in the management of gynecologic malignancies.

Science.gov (United States)

Pareja, Rene; Ramirez, Pedro T

2008-01-01

Robotic surgery is being used with increasing frequency in gynecologic oncology. To date, 44 cases were reported in the literature of radical hysterectomy performed with robotic surgery. When comparing robotic surgery with laparoscopy or laparotomy in performing a radical hysterectomy, the literature shows that robotic surgery offers an advantage over the other 2 surgical approaches with regard to operative time, blood loss, and length of hospitalization. Future studies are needed to further elucidate the equivalence or superiority of robotic surgery to laparoscopy or laparotomy in performing a radical hysterectomy.

Cultural Robotics: The Culture of Robotics and Robotics in Culture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hooman Samani

2013-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we have investigated the concept of “Cultural Robotics” with regard to the evolution of social into cultural robots in the 21st Century. By defining the concept of culture, the potential development of a culture between humans and robots is explored. Based on the cultural values of the robotics developers, and the learning ability of current robots, cultural attributes in this regard are in the process of being formed, which would define the new concept of cultural robotics. According to the importance of the embodiment of robots in the sense of presence, the influence of robots in communication culture is anticipated. The sustainability of robotics culture based on diversity for cultural communities for various acceptance modalities is explored in order to anticipate the creation of different attributes of culture between robots and humans in the future.

Friendly network robotics; Friendly network robotics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1997-03-01

This paper summarizes the research results on the friendly network robotics in fiscal 1996. This research assumes an android robot as an ultimate robot and the future robot system utilizing computer network technology. The robot aiming at human daily work activities in factories or under extreme environments is required to work under usual human work environments. The human robot with similar size, shape and functions to human being is desirable. Such robot having a head with two eyes, two ears and mouth can hold a conversation with human being, can walk with two legs by autonomous adaptive control, and has a behavior intelligence. Remote operation of such robot is also possible through high-speed computer network. As a key technology to use this robot under coexistence with human being, establishment of human coexistent robotics was studied. As network based robotics, use of robots connected with computer networks was also studied. In addition, the R-cube (R{sup 3}) plan (realtime remote control robot technology) was proposed. 82 refs., 86 figs., 12 tabs.

Peano—A Traversal and Storage Scheme for Octree-Like Adaptive Cartesian Multiscale Grids

KAUST Repository

Weinzierl, Tobias

2011-01-01

Almost all approaches to solving partial differential equations (PDEs) are based upon a spatial discretization of the computational domain-a grid. This paper presents an algorithm to generate, store, and traverse a hierarchy of d-dimensional Cartesian grids represented by a (k = 3)- spacetree, a generalization of the well-known octree concept, and it also shows the correctness of the approach. These grids may change their adaptive structure throughout the traversal. The algorithm uses 2d + 4 stacks as data structures for both cells and vertices, and the storage requirements for the pure grid reduce to one bit per vertex for both the complete grid connectivity structure and the multilevel grid relations. Since the traversal algorithm uses only stacks, the algorithm\\'s cache hit rate is continually higher than 99.9 percent, and the runtime per vertex remains almost constant; i.e., it does not depend on the overall number of vertices or the adaptivity pattern. We use the algorithmic approach as the fundamental concept for a mesh management for d-dimensional PDEs and for a matrix-free PDE solver represented by a compact discrete 3 d-point operator. In the latter case, one can implement a Jacobi smoother, a Krylov solver, or a geometric multigrid scheme within the presented traversal scheme which inherits the low memory requirements and the good memory access characteristics directly. © 2011 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

Robot vision for nuclear advanced robot

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakayama, Ryoichi; Okano, Hideharu; Kuno, Yoshinori; Miyazawa, Tatsuo; Shimada, Hideo; Okada, Satoshi; Kawamura, Astuo

1991-01-01

This paper describes Robot Vision and Operation System for Nuclear Advanced Robot. This Robot Vision consists of robot position detection, obstacle detection and object recognition. With these vision techniques, a mobile robot can make a path and move autonomously along the planned path. The authors implemented the above robot vision system on the 'Advanced Robot for Nuclear Power Plant' and tested in an environment mocked up as nuclear power plant facilities. Since the operation system for this robot consists of operator's console and a large stereo monitor, this system can be easily operated by one person. Experimental tests were made using the Advanced Robot (nuclear robot). Results indicate that the proposed operation system is very useful, and can be operate by only person. (author)

Mergeable nervous systems for robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Mathews, Nithin; Christensen, Anders Lyhne; O'Grady, Rehan; Mondada, Francesco; Dorigo, Marco

2017-09-12

Robots have the potential to display a higher degree of lifetime morphological adaptation than natural organisms. By adopting a modular approach, robots with different capabilities, shapes, and sizes could, in theory, construct and reconfigure themselves as required. However, current modular robots have only been able to display a limited range of hardwired behaviors because they rely solely on distributed control. Here, we present robots whose bodies and control systems can merge to form entirely new robots that retain full sensorimotor control. Our control paradigm enables robots to exhibit properties that go beyond those of any existing machine or of any biological organism: the robots we present can merge to form larger bodies with a single centralized controller, split into separate bodies with independent controllers, and self-heal by removing or replacing malfunctioning body parts. This work takes us closer to robots that can autonomously change their size, form and function.Robots that can self-assemble into different morphologies are desired to perform tasks that require different physical capabilities. Mathews et al. design robots whose bodies and control systems can merge and split to form new robots that retain full sensorimotor control and act as a single entity.

ALLIANCE: An architecture for fault tolerant multi-robot cooperation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Parker, L.E.

1995-02-01

ALLIANCE is a software architecture that facilitates the fault tolerant cooperative control of teams of heterogeneous mobile robots performing missions composed of loosely coupled, largely independent subtasks. ALLIANCE allows teams of robots, each of which possesses a variety of high-level functions that it can perform during a mission, to individually select appropriate actions throughout the mission based on the requirements of the mission, the activities of other robots, the current environmental conditions, and the robot`s own internal states. ALLIANCE is a fully distributed, behavior-based architecture that incorporates the use of mathematically modeled motivations (such as impatience and acquiescence) within each robot to achieve adaptive action selection. Since cooperative robotic teams usually work in dynamic and unpredictable environments, this software architecture allows the robot team members to respond robustly, reliably, flexibly, and coherently to unexpected environmental changes and modifications in the robot team that may occur due to mechanical failure, the learning of new skills, or the addition or removal of robots from the team by human intervention. The feasibility of this architecture is demonstrated in an implementation on a team of mobile robots performing a laboratory version of hazardous waste cleanup.

Swimming performance of a bio-inspired robotic vessel with undulating fin propulsion.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Hanlin; Curet, Oscar M

2018-06-18

Undulatory fin propulsion exhibits high degree of maneuver control -- an ideal for underwater vessels exploring complex environments. In this work, we developed and tested a self-contained, free-swimming robot with a single undulating fin running along the length of the robot, which controls both forward motion and directional maneuvers. We successfully replicated several maneuvers including forward swimming, reversed motion, diving, station-keeping and vertical swimming. For each maneuver, a series of experiments were performed as a function of fin frequency, wavelength and traveling wave direction to measure swimming velocities, orientation angles and mean power consumption. In addition, three-dimensional flow fields were measured during forward swimming and station-keeping using volumetric particle image velocimetry (PIV). The efficiency for forward swimming was compared using three metrics: cost of transport, wave efficiency and Strouhal number. The results indicate that the cost of transport exhibits a V-shape trend with the minimum value at low swimming velocity. The robot can reach optimal wave efficiency and locomotor performance at a range of 0.2 to 0.4 St. Volumetric PIV data reveal the shed of vortex tubes generated by the fin during forward swimming and station keeping. For forward swimming, a series of vortex tubes are shed off the fin edge with a lateral and downward direction with respect to the longitudinal axis of the fin. For station keeping, flow measurements suggest that the vortex tubes are shed at the mid-section of the fin while the posterior and anterior segment of the vortex stay attached to the fin. These results agree with the previous vortex structures based on simulations and 2D PIV. The further development of this vessel with high maneuverability and station keeping performance can be used for oceanography, coastal exploration, defense, oil industry and other marine industries where operations are unsafe or impractical for divers or

Why Robots Should Be Social: Enhancing Machine Learning through Social Human-Robot Interaction

Science.gov (United States)

de Greeff, Joachim; Belpaeme, Tony

2015-01-01

Social learning is a powerful method for cultural propagation of knowledge and skills relying on a complex interplay of learning strategies, social ecology and the human propensity for both learning and tutoring. Social learning has the potential to be an equally potent learning strategy for artificial systems and robots in specific. However, given the complexity and unstructured nature of social learning, implementing social machine learning proves to be a challenging problem. We study one particular aspect of social machine learning: that of offering social cues during the learning interaction. Specifically, we study whether people are sensitive to social cues offered by a learning robot, in a similar way to children’s social bids for tutoring. We use a child-like social robot and a task in which the robot has to learn the meaning of words. For this a simple turn-based interaction is used, based on language games. Two conditions are tested: one in which the robot uses social means to invite a human teacher to provide information based on what the robot requires to fill gaps in its knowledge (i.e. expression of a learning preference); the other in which the robot does not provide social cues to communicate a learning preference. We observe that conveying a learning preference through the use of social cues results in better and faster learning by the robot. People also seem to form a “mental model” of the robot, tailoring the tutoring to the robot’s performance as opposed to using simply random teaching. In addition, the social learning shows a clear gender effect with female participants being responsive to the robot’s bids, while male teachers appear to be less receptive. This work shows how additional social cues in social machine learning can result in people offering better quality learning input to artificial systems, resulting in improved learning performance. PMID:26422143

Consideration of Task Performance for Robots Engaged in Extremely Dangerous Environment in Nuclear Power Plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hong, Seung Mo; Han, Kee Soo; Yi, Sung Deok; Kim, Seoung Rae [Nuclear Engineering Service and Solution Co. Ltd., Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Choi, Young [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2015-05-15

After Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident, it is started to pay more attention to operation and accident of nuclear power plants (NPPs). For domestic nuclear industry, it was recommended to establish corresponding strategies against accidents due to extremely dangerous natural disasters. Each nuclear power plant is also preparing to establish strategies to secure nuclear safety functions by estimating the counterplans for extreme accidents. Robots are particularly being used to access the areas where those are dangerous for human beings to access or to restore the accident. Robot technologies in NPPs are emerging cutting-edge technologies that are just a start except the developed countries like USA, Japan, etc. But they are carefully considered because they have the advantages of performing tasks in extremely dangerous environment in NPPs instead of human beings. In this study, the applicability of robots will be considered in extremely dangerous environment in NPPs. Accurate judgment of the inside situation of the plant and quick actions in the extreme condition like earthquake accompanied by loss of all AC powers should be considered as major function in terms of prevention of accident spread. According to the reported stress test results of domestic NPPs, the difficult things for operators to carry out in extreme conditions can be predictable, therefore the active use of robots as accident mitigation strategies will be helpful to reduce the unnecessary spending for facility improvement. Current trend of domestic and foreign robot technology development focuses on the information search of the inside of the plant and development of preventive maintenance of NPPs. As seen actually in Fukushima Daiichi, main roles of robots place emphasis on measuring the inside radiation level accessing to the area where operator cannot access and delivering information which can support operator's decision-making and actions. Therefore, it is considered that development of

Vortex Formation and Acceleration of a Fish-Inspired Robot Performing Starts from Rest

Science.gov (United States)

Devoria, Adam; Bapst, Jonathan; Ringuette, Matthew

2009-11-01

We investigate the unsteady flow of a fish-inspired robot executing starts from rest, with the objective of understanding the connection among the kinematics, vortex formation, and acceleration performance. Several fish perform ``fast starts,'' where the body bends into a ``C'' or ``S'' shape while turning (phase I), followed by a straightening of the body and caudal fin and a linear acceleration (phase II). The resulting highly 3-D, unsteady vortex formation and its relationship to the acceleration are not well understood. The self-propelled robotic model contains motor-driven joints with programmable motion to emulate phase II of a simplified C-start. The experiments are conducted in a water tank, and the model is constrained to 1 direction along rails. The velocity is measured using digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) in multiple planes. Vortex boundaries are identified using the finite-time Lyapunov exponent, then the unsteady vortex circulation is computed. The thrust is estimated from the identified vortices, and correlated with the circulation and model acceleration for different kinematics.

NASA Robotic Neurosurgery Testbed

Science.gov (United States)

Mah, Robert

1997-01-01

The detection of tissue interface (e.g., normal tissue, cancer, tumor) has been limited clinically to tactile feedback, temperature monitoring, and the use of a miniature ultrasound probe for tissue differentiation during surgical operations, In neurosurgery, the needle used in the standard stereotactic CT or MRI guided brain biopsy provides no information about the tissue being sampled. The tissue sampled depends entirely upon the accuracy with which the localization provided by the preoperative CT or MRI scan is translated to the intracranial biopsy site. In addition, no information about the tissue being traversed by the needle (e.g., a blood vessel) is provided. Hemorrhage due to the biopsy needle tearing a blood vessel within the brain is the most devastating complication of stereotactic CT/MRI guided brain biopsy. A robotic neurosurgery testbed has been developed at NASA Ames Research Center as a spin-off of technologies from space, aeronautics and medical programs. The invention entitled "Robotic Neurosurgery Leading to Multimodality Devices for Tissue Identification" is nearing a state ready for commercialization. The devices will: 1) improve diagnostic accuracy and precision of general surgery, with near term emphasis on stereotactic brain biopsy, 2) automate tissue identification, with near term emphasis on stereotactic brain biopsy, to permit remote control of the procedure, and 3) reduce morbidity for stereotactic brain biopsy. The commercial impact from this work is the potential development of a whole new generation of smart surgical tools to increase the safety, accuracy and efficiency of surgical procedures. Other potential markets include smart surgical tools for tumor ablation in neurosurgery, general exploratory surgery, prostate cancer surgery, and breast cancer surgery.

Robotic-assisted versus laparoscopic colectomy: cost and clinical outcomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Bradley R; Yoo, Andrew C; Moore, Matt; Gunnarsson, Candace

2014-01-01

Laparoscopic colectomies, with and without robotic assistance, are performed to treat both benign and malignant colonic disease. This study compared clinical and economic outcomes for laparoscopic colectomy procedures with and without robotic assistance. Patients aged ≥18 years having primary inpatient laparoscopic colectomy procedures (cecectomy, right hemicolectomy, left hemicolectomy, and sigmoidectomy) identified by International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Edition procedure codes performed between 2009 and the second quarter of 2011 from the Premier Hospital Database were studied. Patients were matched to a control cohort using propensity scores for disease, comorbidities, and hospital characteristics and were matched 1:1 for specific colectomy procedure. The outcomes of interest were hospital cost of laparoscopic robotic-assisted colectomy compared with traditional laparoscopic colectomy, surgery time, adverse events, and length of stay. Of 25,758 laparoscopic colectomies identified, 98% were performed without robotic assistance and 2% were performed with robotic assistance. After matching, 1066 patients remained, 533 in each group. Lengths of stay were not significantly different between the matched cohorts, nor were rates of major, minor, and/or surgical complications. Inpatient procedures with robotic assistance were significantly more costly than those without robotic assistance ($17,445 vs $15,448, P = .001). Operative times were significantly longer for robotic-assisted procedures (4.37 hours vs 3.34 hours, P < .001). Segmental colectomies can be performed safely by either laparoscopic or robotic-assisted methods. Increased per-case hospital costs for robotic-assisted procedures and prolonged operative times suggest that further investigation is warranted when considering robotic technology for routine laparoscopic colectomies.

Tree Climbing Robot Design, Kinematics and Motion Planning

CERN Document Server

Lam, Tin Lun

2012-01-01

Climbing robot is a challenging research topic that has gained much attention from researchers. Most of the robots reported in the literature are designed to climb on manmade structures, but seldom robots are designed for climbing natural environment such as trees. Trees and manmade structures are very different in nature. It brings different aspects of technical challenges to the robot design. In this book, you can find a collection of the cutting edge technologies in the field of tree-climbing robot and the ways that animals climb. It provides a valuable reference for robot designers to select appropriate climbing methods in designing tree-climbing robots for specific purposes. Based on the study, a novel bio-inspired tree-climbing robot with several breakthrough performances has been developed and presents in this book. It is capable of performing various actions that is impossible in the state-of-the-art tree-climbing robots, such as moving between trunk and branches. This book also proposes several appro...

Lunar Surface Potential Increases during Terrestrial Bow Shock Traversals

Science.gov (United States)

Collier, Michael R.; Stubbs, Timothy J.; Hills, H. Kent; Halekas, Jasper; Farrell, William M.; Delory, Greg T.; Espley, Jared; Freeman, John W.; Vondrak, Richard R.; Kasper, Justin

2009-01-01

Since the Apollo era the electric potential of the Moon has been a subject of interest and debate. Deployed by three Apollo missions, Apollo 12, Apollo 14 and Apollo 15, the Suprathermal Ion Detector Experiment (SIDE) determined the sunlit lunar surface potential to be about +10 Volts using the energy spectra of lunar ionospheric thermal ions accelerated toward the Moon. We present an analysis of Apollo 14 SIDE "resonance" events that indicate the lunar surface potential increases when the Moon traverses the dawn bow shock. By analyzing Wind spacecraft crossings of the terrestrial bow shock at approximately this location and employing current balancing models of the lunar surface, we suggest causes for the increasing potential. Determining the origin of this phenomenon will improve our ability to predict the lunar surface potential in support of human exploration as well as provide models for the behavior of other airless bodies when they traverse similar features such as interplanetary shocks, both of which are goals of the NASA Lunar Science Institute's Dynamic Response of the Environment At the Moon (DREAM) team.

Development of inspection robots for bridge cables.

Science.gov (United States)

Yun, Hae-Bum; Kim, Se-Hoon; Wu, Liuliu; Lee, Jong-Jae

2013-01-01

This paper presents the bridge cable inspection robot developed in Korea. Two types of the cable inspection robots were developed for cable-suspension bridges and cable-stayed bridge. The design of the robot system and performance of the NDT techniques associated with the cable inspection robot are discussed. A review on recent advances in emerging robot-based inspection technologies for bridge cables and current bridge cable inspection methods is also presented.

Human-Robot Interaction Directed Research Project

Science.gov (United States)

Sandor, Aniko; Cross, Ernest V., II; Chang, Mai Lee

2014-01-01

Human-robot interaction (HRI) is a discipline investigating the factors affecting the interactions between humans and robots. It is important to evaluate how the design of interfaces and command modalities affect the human's ability to perform tasks accurately, efficiently, and effectively when working with a robot. By understanding the effects of interface design on human performance, workload, and situation awareness, interfaces can be developed to appropriately support the human in performing tasks with minimal errors and with appropriate interaction time and effort. Thus, the results of research on human-robot interfaces have direct implications for the design of robotic systems. This DRP concentrates on three areas associated with interfaces and command modalities in HRI which are applicable to NASA robot systems: 1) Video Overlays, 2) Camera Views, and 3) Command Modalities. The first study focused on video overlays that investigated how Augmented Reality (AR) symbology can be added to the human-robot interface to improve teleoperation performance. Three types of AR symbology were explored in this study, command guidance (CG), situation guidance (SG), and both (SCG). CG symbology gives operators explicit instructions on what commands to input, whereas SG symbology gives operators implicit cues so that operators can infer the input commands. The combination of CG and SG provided operators with explicit and implicit cues allowing the operator to choose which symbology to utilize. The objective of the study was to understand how AR symbology affects the human operator's ability to align a robot arm to a target using a flight stick and the ability to allocate attention between the symbology and external views of the world. The study evaluated the effects type of symbology (CG and SG) has on operator tasks performance and attention allocation during teleoperation of a robot arm. The second study expanded on the first study by evaluating the effects of the type of

Human-Robot Teaming: From Space Robotics to Self-Driving Cars

Science.gov (United States)

Fong, Terry

2017-01-01

In this talk, I describe how NASA Ames has been developing and testing robots for space exploration. In our research, we have focused on studying how human-robot teams can increase the performance, reduce the cost, and increase the success of space missions. A key tenet of our work is that humans and robots should support one another in order to compensate for limitations of manual control and autonomy. This principle has broad applicability beyond space exploration. Thus, I will conclude by discussing how we have worked with Nissan to apply our methods to self-driving cars, enabling humans to support autonomous vehicles operating in unpredictable and difficult situations.

Robotic-assisted surgery in ophthalmology.

Science.gov (United States)

de Smet, Marc D; Naus, Gerrit J L; Faridpooya, Koorosh; Mura, Marco

2018-05-01

Provide an overview of the current landscape of robotics in ophthalmology, including the pros and cons of system designs, the clinical development path, and the likely future direction of the field. Robots designed for eye surgery should meet certain basic requirements. Three designs are currently being developed: smart surgical tools such as the steady hand, comanipulation devices and telemanipulators using either a fixed or virtual remote center of motion. Successful human intraocular surgery is being performed using the Preceyes surgical system. Another telemanipulation robot, the da Vinci Surgical System, has been used to perform a pterygium repair in humans and was successful in ex-vivo corneal surgery despite its nonophthalmic design. Apart from Preceyes' BV research platform, none of the currently eye-specific systems has reached a commercial stage. Systems are likely to evolve from robotic assistance during specific procedural steps to semiautonomous surgery, as smart sensors are introduced to enhance the basic functionalities of robotic systems. Robotics is still in its infancy in ophthalmology but is rapidly reaching a stage wherein it will be introduced into everyday ophthalmic practice. It will most likely be introduced first for demanding vitreo-retinal procedures, followed by anterior segment applications.

Problems of Sport Biomechanics and Robotics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wlodzimierz S. Erdmann

2013-02-01

Full Text Available This paper presents many common areas of interest of different specialists. There are problems described from sport, biomechanics, sport biomechanics, sport engineering, robotics, biomechanics and robotics, sport biomechanics and robotics. There are many approaches to sport from different sciences and engineering. Robotics is a relatively new area and has had moderate attention from sport specialists. The aim of this paper is to present several areas necessary to develop sport robots based on biomechanics and also to present different types of sport robots: serving balls, helping to provide sports training, substituting humans during training, physically participating in competitions, physically participating in competitions against humans, serving as models of real sport performance, helping organizers of sport events and robot toys. Examples of the application of robots in sports communities are also given.

Scaling effects in spiral capsule robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Liang; Hu, Rong; Chen, Bai; Tang, Yong; Xu, Yan

2017-04-01

Spiral capsule robots can be applied to human gastrointestinal tracts and blood vessels. Because of significant variations in the sizes of the inner diameters of the intestines as well as blood vessels, this research has been unable to meet the requirements for medical applications. By applying the fluid dynamic equations, using the computational fluid dynamics method, to a robot axial length ranging from 10 -5 to 10 -2  m, the operational performance indicators (axial driving force, load torque, and maximum fluid pressure on the pipe wall) of the spiral capsule robot and the fluid turbulent intensity around the robot spiral surfaces was numerically calculated in a straight rigid pipe filled with fluid. The reasonableness and validity of the calculation method adopted in this study were verified by the consistency of the calculated values by the computational fluid dynamics method and the experimental values from a relevant literature. The results show that the greater the fluid turbulent intensity, the greater the impact of the fluid turbulence on the driving performance of the spiral capsule robot and the higher the energy consumption of the robot. For the same level of size of the robot, the axial driving force, the load torque, and the maximum fluid pressure on the pipe wall of the outer spiral robot were larger than those of the inner spiral robot. For different requirements of the operating environment, we can choose a certain kind of spiral capsule robot. This study provides a theoretical foundation for spiral capsule robots.

ARIES: A mobile robot inspector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Byrd, J.S.

1995-01-01

ARIES (Autonomous Robotic Inspection Experimental System) is a mobile robot inspection system being developed for the Department of Energy (DOE) to survey and inspect drums containing mixed and low-level radioactive waste stored in warehouses at DOE facilities. The drums are typically stacked four high and arranged in rows with three-foot aisle widths. The robot will navigate through the aisles and perform an autonomous inspection operation, typically performed by a human operator. It will make real-time decisions about the condition of the drums, maintain a database of pertinent information about each drum, and generate reports

Conceptual design for transmission line inspection robot

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jalal, M F Abdul; Sahari, K S Mohamed; Anuar, A; Arshad, A D Mohd; Idris, M S

2013-01-01

Power transmission line is used for power distribution purposes due to their cost effective measure compared to underlying cable. However, prolonged exposure to natural weather may cause fatigue stress to the lines as well as induce material failure. Therefore, periodical line inspection is considered uttermost important as a preventive measure to avoid power outage. However, transmission line inspection has always been a high risk and expensive work. Hazardous works that may harm operator as well as routine that requires precise handling can be performed by robots. Various types of robots have been designed and developed for line inspection but only perform well on a straight and continuous line. As these robots encounter an obstacle during the inspection, then the real problem in terms of robot stability and smooth operation arises. In this paper, conceptual design and evaluation for transmission line inspection robot is presented. The inspection robot mobile robot must be able to bypass or avoid obstacles as it travels along the power transmission line.

Nozzle Mounting Method Optimization Based on Robot Kinematic Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Chaoyue; Liao, Hanlin; Montavon, Ghislain; Deng, Sihao

2016-08-01

Nowadays, the application of industrial robots in thermal spray is gaining more and more importance. A desired coating quality depends on factors such as a balanced robot performance, a uniform scanning trajectory and stable parameters (e.g. nozzle speed, scanning step, spray angle, standoff distance). These factors also affect the mass and heat transfer as well as the coating formation. Thus, the kinematic optimization of all these aspects plays a key role in order to obtain an optimal coating quality. In this study, the robot performance was optimized from the aspect of nozzle mounting on the robot. An optimized nozzle mounting for a type F4 nozzle was designed, based on the conventional mounting method from the point of view of robot kinematics validated on a virtual robot. Robot kinematic parameters were obtained from the simulation by offline programming software and analyzed by statistical methods. The energy consumptions of different nozzle mounting methods were also compared. The results showed that it was possible to reasonably assign the amount of robot motion to each axis during the process, so achieving a constant nozzle speed. Thus, it is possible optimize robot performance and to economize robot energy.

ALLIANCE: An architecture for fault tolerant multi-robot cooperation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parker, L.E.

1995-02-01

ALLIANCE is a software architecture that facilitates the fault tolerant cooperative control of teams of heterogeneous mobile robots performing missions composed of loosely coupled, largely independent subtasks. ALLIANCE allows teams of robots, each of which possesses a variety of high-level functions that it can perform during a mission, to individually select appropriate actions throughout the mission based on the requirements of the mission, the activities of other robots, the current environmental conditions, and the robot's own internal states. ALLIANCE is a fully distributed, behavior-based architecture that incorporates the use of mathematically modeled motivations (such as impatience and acquiescence) within each robot to achieve adaptive action selection. Since cooperative robotic teams usually work in dynamic and unpredictable environments, this software architecture allows the robot team members to respond robustly, reliably, flexibly, and coherently to unexpected environmental changes and modifications in the robot team that may occur due to mechanical failure, the learning of new skills, or the addition or removal of robots from the team by human intervention. The feasibility of this architecture is demonstrated in an implementation on a team of mobile robots performing a laboratory version of hazardous waste cleanup

The da vinci robot system eliminates multispecialty surgical trainees' hand dominance in open and robotic surgical settings.

Science.gov (United States)

Badalato, Gina M; Shapiro, Edan; Rothberg, Michael B; Bergman, Ari; RoyChoudhury, Arindam; Korets, Ruslan; Patel, Trushar; Badani, Ketan K

2014-01-01

Handedness, or the inherent dominance of one hand's dexterity over the other's, is a factor in open surgery but has an unknown importance in robot-assisted surgery. We sought to examine whether the robotic surgery platform could eliminate the effect of inherent hand preference. Residents from the Urology and Obstetrics/Gynecology departments were enrolled. Ambidextrous and left-handed subjects were excluded. After completing a questionnaire, subjects performed three tasks modified from the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery curriculum. Tasks were performed by hand and then with the da Vinci robotic surgical system (Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale, California). Participants were randomized to begin with using either the left or the right hand, and then switch. Left:right ratios were calculated from scores based on time to task completion. Linear regression analysis was used to determine the significance of the impact of surgical technique on hand dominance. Ten subjects were enrolled. The mean difference in raw score performance between the right and left hands was 12.5 seconds for open tasks and 8 seconds for robotic tasks (Probot tasks, respectively (Probotic and open approaches for raw time scores (Phand, prior robotic experience, and comfort level. These findings remain to be validated in larger cohorts. The robotic technique reduces hand dominance in surgical trainees across all task domains. This finding contributes to the known advantages of robotic surgery.

Optimization approaches for robot trajectory planning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos Llopis-Albert

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The development of optimal trajectory planning algorithms for autonomous robots is a key issue in order to efficiently perform the robot tasks. This problem is hampered by the complex environment regarding the kinematics and dynamics of robots with several arms and/or degrees of freedom (dof, the design of collision-free trajectories and the physical limitations of the robots. This paper presents a review about the existing robot motion planning techniques and discusses their pros and cons regarding completeness, optimality, efficiency, accuracy, smoothness, stability, safety and scalability.

Application of robotic principles to laboratory automation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pierce, T.B.

1986-01-01

The possibility of applying robotic techniques to some laboratory tasks is considered. A low-cost rig was constructed, at AERE Harwell, to examine the performance of a number of low-cost commercial robots. The importance of justifying the costs of introducing robotic systems and the difficulty of analysing the cost-benefit of robotic over mechanical systems is stressed. (UK)

Utilizing Machine Learning and Automated Performance Metrics to Evaluate Robot-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy Performance and Predict Outcomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Hung, Andrew J; Chen, Jian; Che, Zhengping; Nilanon, Tanachat; Jarc, Anthony; Titus, Micha; Oh, Paul J; Gill, Inderbir S; Liu, Yan

2018-05-01

Surgical performance is critical for clinical outcomes. We present a novel machine learning (ML) method of processing automated performance metrics (APMs) to evaluate surgical performance and predict clinical outcomes after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP). We trained three ML algorithms utilizing APMs directly from robot system data (training material) and hospital length of stay (LOS; training label) (≤2 days and >2 days) from 78 RARP cases, and selected the algorithm with the best performance. The selected algorithm categorized the cases as "Predicted as expected LOS (pExp-LOS)" and "Predicted as extended LOS (pExt-LOS)." We compared postoperative outcomes of the two groups (Kruskal-Wallis/Fisher's exact tests). The algorithm then predicted individual clinical outcomes, which we compared with actual outcomes (Spearman's correlation/Fisher's exact tests). Finally, we identified five most relevant APMs adopted by the algorithm during predicting. The "Random Forest-50" (RF-50) algorithm had the best performance, reaching 87.2% accuracy in predicting LOS (73 cases as "pExp-LOS" and 5 cases as "pExt-LOS"). The "pExp-LOS" cases outperformed the "pExt-LOS" cases in surgery time (3.7 hours vs 4.6 hours, p = 0.007), LOS (2 days vs 4 days, p = 0.02), and Foley duration (9 days vs 14 days, p = 0.02). Patient outcomes predicted by the algorithm had significant association with the "ground truth" in surgery time (p algorithm in predicting, were largely related to camera manipulation. To our knowledge, ours is the first study to show that APMs and ML algorithms may help assess surgical RARP performance and predict clinical outcomes. With further accrual of clinical data (oncologic and functional data), this process will become increasingly relevant and valuable in surgical assessment and training.

Robotics in medicine

Science.gov (United States)

Kuznetsov, D. N.; Syryamkin, V. I.

2015-11-01

Modern technologies play a very important role in our lives. It is hard to imagine how people can get along without personal computers, and companies - without powerful computer centers. Nowadays, many devices make modern medicine more effective. Medicine is developing constantly, so introduction of robots in this sector is a very promising activity. Advances in technology have influenced medicine greatly. Robotic surgery is now actively developing worldwide. Scientists have been carrying out research and practical attempts to create robotic surgeons for more than 20 years, since the mid-80s of the last century. Robotic assistants play an important role in modern medicine. This industry is new enough and is at the early stage of development; despite this, some developments already have worldwide application; they function successfully and bring invaluable help to employees of medical institutions. Today, doctors can perform operations that seemed impossible a few years ago. Such progress in medicine is due to many factors. First, modern operating rooms are equipped with up-to-date equipment, allowing doctors to make operations more accurately and with less risk to the patient. Second, technology has enabled to improve the quality of doctors' training. Various types of robots exist now: assistants, military robots, space, household and medical, of course. Further, we should make a detailed analysis of existing types of robots and their application. The purpose of the article is to illustrate the most popular types of robots used in medicine.

Gesture-Based Extraction of Robot Skill Parameters for Intuitive Robot Programming

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Mikkel Rath; Krüger, Volker

2015-01-01

a working system capable of TbD would be ideal. Contrary to current TbD approaches, that generally aim to recognize both action and where it is applied, we propose a division of labor, where the operator manually specifies the action the robot should perform, while gestures are used for specifying...... the relevant action parameter (e.g. on which object to apply the action). Using this two-step method has the advantages that there is no uncertainty of which action the robot will perform, it takes into account that the environment changes, so objects do not need to be at predefined locations......, and the parameter specification is possible even for inexperienced users. Experiments with 24 people in 3 different environments verify that it is indeed intuitive, even for a robotics novice, to program a mobile manipulator using this method....

Human-friendly robotic manipulators: safety and performance issues in controller design

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tadele, T.S.

2014-01-01

Recent advances in robotics have spurred its adoption into new application areas such as medical, rescue, transportation, logistics, personal care and entertainment. In the personal care domain, robots are expected to operate in human-present environments and provide non-critical assistance.

Foot placement in robotic bipedal locomotion

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Boer, T.

2012-01-01

Human walking is remarkably robust, versatile and energy-efficient: humans have the ability to handle large unexpected disturbances, perform a wide variety of gaits and consume little energy. A bipedal walking robot that performs well on all of these aspects has not yet been developed. Some robots

Morphology Independent Learning in Modular Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, David Johan; Bordignon, Mirko; Schultz, Ulrik Pagh

2009-01-01

speed its modules independently and in parallel adjust their behavior based on a single global reward signal. In simulation, we study the learning strategy’s performance on different robot configurations. On the physical platform, we perform learning experiments with ATRON robots learning to move as fast...

Morphology Independent Learning in Modular Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, David Johan; Bordignon, Mirko; Schultz, Ulrik Pagh

2009-01-01

speed its modules independently and in parallel adjust their behavior based on a single global reward signal. In simulation, we study the learning strategy?s performance on different robot con?gurations. On the physical platform, we perform learning experiments with ATRON robots learning to move as fast...

Novel robotic systems and future directions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ki Don Chang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Robot-assistance is increasingly used in surgical practice. We performed a nonsystematic literature review using PubMed/MEDLINE and Google for robotic surgical systems and compiled information on their current status. We also used this information to predict future about the direction of robotic systems based on various robotic systems currently being developed. Currently, various modifications are being made in the consoles, robotic arms, cameras, handles and instruments, and other specific functions (haptic feedback and eye tracking that make up the robotic surgery system. In addition, research for automated surgery is actively being carried out. The development of future robots will be directed to decrease the number of incisions and improve precision. With the advent of artificial intelligence, a more practical form of robotic surgery system can be introduced and will ultimately lead to the development of automated robotic surgery system.

Human-Automation Allocations for Current Robotic Space Operations

Science.gov (United States)

Marquez, Jessica J.; Chang, Mai L.; Beard, Bettina L.; Kim, Yun Kyung; Karasinski, John A.

2018-01-01

Within the Human Research Program, one risk delineates the uncertainty surrounding crew working with automation and robotics in spaceflight. The Risk of Inadequate Design of Human and Automation/Robotic Integration (HARI) is concerned with the detrimental effects on crew performance due to ineffective user interfaces, system designs and/or functional task allocation, potentially compromising mission success and safety. Risk arises because we have limited experience with complex automation and robotics. One key gap within HARI, is the gap related to functional allocation. The gap states: We need to evaluate, develop, and validate methods and guidelines for identifying human-automation/robot task information needs, function allocation, and team composition for future long duration, long distance space missions. Allocations determine the human-system performance as it identifies the functions and performance levels required by the automation/robotic system, and in turn, what work the crew is expected to perform and the necessary human performance requirements. Allocations must take into account each of the human, automation, and robotic systems capabilities and limitations. Some functions may be intuitively assigned to the human versus the robot, but to optimize efficiency and effectiveness, purposeful role assignments will be required. The role of automation and robotics will significantly change in future exploration missions, particularly as crew becomes more autonomous from ground controllers. Thus, we must understand the suitability of existing function allocation methods within NASA as well as the existing allocations established by the few robotic systems that are operational in spaceflight. In order to evaluate future methods of robotic allocations, we must first benchmark the allocations and allocation methods that have been used. We will present 1) documentation of human-automation-robotic allocations in existing, operational spaceflight systems; and 2) To

Development of Inspection Robots for Bridge Cables

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hae-Bum Yun

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the bridge cable inspection robot developed in Korea. Two types of the cable inspection robots were developed for cable-suspension bridges and cable-stayed bridge. The design of the robot system and performance of the NDT techniques associated with the cable inspection robot are discussed. A review on recent advances in emerging robot-based inspection technologies for bridge cables and current bridge cable inspection methods is also presented.

Robotics

Science.gov (United States)

Popov, E. P.; Iurevich, E. I.

The history and the current status of robotics are reviewed, as are the design, operation, and principal applications of industrial robots. Attention is given to programmable robots, robots with adaptive control and elements of artificial intelligence, and remotely controlled robots. The applications of robots discussed include mechanical engineering, cargo handling during transportation and storage, mining, and metallurgy. The future prospects of robotics are briefly outlined.

Bearing Capacity of Floating Ice Sheets under Short-Term Loads: Over-Sea-Ice Traverse from McMurdo Station to Marble Point

Science.gov (United States)

2015-01-01

under Short-Term Loads Over-Sea-Ice Traverse from McMurdo Station to Marble Point Co ld R eg io ns R es ea rc h an d En gi ne er in g La bo ra...Traverse from McMurdo Station to Marble Point Jason C. Weale and Devinder S. Sodhi Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) U.S...Division of Polar Programs operates an over-sea-ice traverse from McMurdo Station to rou- tinely resupply Marble Point Camp. The traverse requires that

Robotics in general thoracic surgery procedures.

Science.gov (United States)

Latif, M Jawad; Park, Bernard J

2017-01-01

The use of robotic technology in general thoracic surgical practice continues to expand across various institutions and at this point many major common thoracic surgical procedures have been successfully performed by general thoracic surgeons using the robotic technology. These procedures include lung resections, excision of mediastinal masses, esophagectomy and reconstruction for malignant and benign esophageal pathologies. The success of robotic technology can be attributed to highly magnified 3-D visualization, dexterity afforded by 7 degrees of freedom that allow difficult dissections in narrow fields and the ease of reproducibility once the initial set up and instruments become familiar to the surgeon. As the application of robotic technology trickle downs from major academic centers to community hospitals, it becomes imperative that its role, limitations, learning curve and financial impact are understood by the novice robotic surgeon. In this article, we share our experience as it relates to the setup, common pitfalls and long term results for more commonly performed robotic assisted lung and thymic resections using the 4 arm da Vinci Xi robotic platform (Intuitive Surgical, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, USA) to help guide those who are interested in adopting this technology.

Robot Trajectories Comparison: A Statistical Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Ansuategui

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The task of planning a collision-free trajectory from a start to a goal position is fundamental for an autonomous mobile robot. Although path planning has been extensively investigated since the beginning of robotics, there is no agreement on how to measure the performance of a motion algorithm. This paper presents a new approach to perform robot trajectories comparison that could be applied to any kind of trajectories and in both simulated and real environments. Given an initial set of features, it automatically selects the most significant ones and performs a statistical comparison using them. Additionally, a graphical data visualization named polygraph which helps to better understand the obtained results is provided. The proposed method has been applied, as an example, to compare two different motion planners, FM2 and WaveFront, using different environments, robots, and local planners.

Robot Trajectories Comparison: A Statistical Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Ansuategui, A.; Arruti, A.; Susperregi, L.; Yurramendi, Y.; Jauregi, E.; Lazkano, E.; Sierra, B.

2014-01-01

The task of planning a collision-free trajectory from a start to a goal position is fundamental for an autonomous mobile robot. Although path planning has been extensively investigated since the beginning of robotics, there is no agreement on how to measure the performance of a motion algorithm. This paper presents a new approach to perform robot trajectories comparison that could be applied to any kind of trajectories and in both simulated and real environments. Given an initial set of features, it automatically selects the most significant ones and performs a statistical comparison using them. Additionally, a graphical data visualization named polygraph which helps to better understand the obtained results is provided. The proposed method has been applied, as an example, to compare two different motion planners, FM2 and WaveFront, using different environments, robots, and local planners. PMID:25525618

Pathological confirmation of nerve-sparing types performed during robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP).

Science.gov (United States)

Ko, Woo Jin; Hruby, Gregory W; Turk, Andrew T; Landman, Jaime; Badani, Ketan K

2013-03-01

WHAT'S KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT? AND WHAT DOES THE STUDY ADD?: Incremental nerve-sparing techniques (NSTs) improve postoperative erectile function after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP). However, there are no studies to date that histologically confirm the surgeon intended NST. Thus, in the present study, we histologically confirmed that the surgeon performed the nerve preservation as his intended NSTs during RARP. Also, we found that there was more variability in fascia width outcome on the left side compared with the right. Therefore, when performing nerve preservation on the surgeon's non-dominant side, we need to pay more close attention. To confirm that the surgeon achieved true intended histological nerve sparing during robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) by studying RP specimens. To aid the novice robotic surgeon to develop the skills of RARP. Between June 2008 and May 2009, 122 consecutive patients underwent RARP by a single surgeon (K.K.B.). The degree of nerve sparing (wide resection [WR], interfascial nerve sparing [ITE-NS], intrafascial nerve sparing [ITR-NS]) on both sides was recorded. The posterior sectors of RP specimens from distal, mid, and proximal parts were evaluated. Fascia width (FW) of each position in RP specimens were compared across nerve-sparing types (NSTs). FW was recorded at 15 ° intervals (3-9 o'clock position), measured as the distance between the outermost prostate gland and surgical margin. The slides were reviewed by an experienced uropathologist who was 'blinded' to the NST. In all, 93 men were included. The overall mean (sd) FW was the greatest in the order of WR, ITE-NS, and ITR-NS, at 2.42 (1.62), 1.71 (1.40) and 1.16 (1.08) mm, respectively (P ITE-NS, bilateral ITE-NS, ITE-NS/WR, and bilateral WR, respectively. To further validate and confirm these preliminary findings, additional studies involving multicentre cohorts would be required. The surgeon intended dissection and FW correlate, with ITR

FPGA-based High-Performance Collision Detection: An Enabling Technique for Image-Guided Robotic Surgery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhaorui Zhang

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Collision detection, which refers to the computational problem of finding the relative placement or con-figuration of two or more objects, is an essential component of many applications in computer graphics and robotics. In image-guided robotic surgery, real-time collision detection is critical for preserving healthy anatomical structures during the surgical procedure. However, the computational complexity of the problem usually results in algorithms that operate at low speed. In this paper, we present a fast and accurate algorithm for collision detection between Oriented-Bounding-Boxes (OBBs that is suitable for real-time implementation. Our proposed Sweep and Prune algorithm can perform a preliminary filtering to reduce the number of objects that need to be tested by the classical Separating Axis Test algorithm, while the OBB pairs of interest are preserved. These OBB pairs are re-checked by the Separating Axis Test algorithm to obtain accurate overlapping status between them. To accelerate the execution, our Sweep and Prune algorithm is tailor-made for the proposed method. Meanwhile, a high performance scalable hardware architecture is proposed by analyzing the intrinsic parallelism of our algorithm, and is implemented on FPGA platform. Results show that our hardware design on the FPGA platform can achieve around 8X higher running speed than the software design on a CPU platform. As a result, the proposed algorithm can achieve a collision frame rate of 1 KHz, and fulfill the requirement for the medical surgery scenario of Robot Assisted Laparoscopy.

On the reproducibility of expert-operated and robotic ultrasound acquisitions.

Science.gov (United States)

Kojcev, Risto; Khakzar, Ashkan; Fuerst, Bernhard; Zettinig, Oliver; Fahkry, Carole; DeJong, Robert; Richmon, Jeremy; Taylor, Russell; Sinibaldi, Edoardo; Navab, Nassir

2017-06-01

We present the evaluation of the reproducibility of measurements performed using robotic ultrasound imaging in comparison with expert-operated sonography. Robotic imaging for interventional procedures may be a valuable contribution, but requires reproducibility for its acceptance in clinical routine. We study this by comparing repeated measurements based on robotic and expert-operated ultrasound imaging. Robotic ultrasound acquisition is performed in three steps under user guidance: First, the patient is observed using a 3D camera on the robot end effector, and the user selects the region of interest. This allows for automatic planning of the robot trajectory. Next, the robot executes a sweeping motion following the planned trajectory, during which the ultrasound images and tracking data are recorded. As the robot is compliant, deviations from the path are possible, for instance due to patient motion. Finally, the ultrasound slices are compounded to create a volume. Repeated acquisitions can be performed automatically by comparing the previous and current patient surface. After repeated image acquisitions, the measurements based on acquisitions performed by the robotic system and expert are compared. Within our case series, the expert measured the anterior-posterior, longitudinal, transversal lengths of both of the left and right thyroid lobes on each of the 4 healthy volunteers 3 times, providing 72 measurements. Subsequently, the same procedure was performed using the robotic system resulting in a cumulative total of 144 clinically relevant measurements. Our results clearly indicated that robotic ultrasound enables more repeatable measurements. A robotic ultrasound platform leads to more reproducible data, which is of crucial importance for planning and executing interventions.

Biofeedback for robotic gait rehabilitation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Colombo Gery

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Development and increasing acceptance of rehabilitation robots as well as advances in technology allow new forms of therapy for patients with neurological disorders. Robot-assisted gait therapy can increase the training duration and the intensity for the patients while reducing the physical strain for the therapist. Optimal training effects during gait therapy generally depend on appropriate feedback about performance. Compared to manual treadmill therapy, there is a loss of physical interaction between therapist and patient with robotic gait retraining. Thus, it is difficult for the therapist to assess the necessary feedback and instructions. The aim of this study was to define a biofeedback system for a gait training robot and test its usability in subjects without neurological disorders. Methods To provide an overview of biofeedback and motivation methods applied in gait rehabilitation, previous publications and results from our own research are reviewed. A biofeedback method is presented showing how a rehabilitation robot can assess the patients' performance and deliver augmented feedback. For validation, three subjects without neurological disorders walked in a rehabilitation robot for treadmill training. Several training parameters, such as body weight support and treadmill speed, were varied to assess the robustness of the biofeedback calculation to confounding factors. Results The biofeedback values correlated well with the different activity levels of the subjects. Changes in body weight support and treadmill velocity had a minor effect on the biofeedback values. The synchronization of the robot and the treadmill affected the biofeedback values describing the stance phase. Conclusion Robot-aided assessment and feedback can extend and improve robot-aided training devices. The presented method estimates the patients' gait performance with the use of the robot's existing sensors, and displays the resulting biofeedback

Robot skills for manufacturing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Mikkel Rath; Nalpantidis, Lazaros; Andersen, Rasmus Skovgaard

2016-01-01

-asserting robot skills for manufacturing. We show how a relatively small set of skills are derived from current factory worker instructions, and how these can be transferred to industrial mobile manipulators. General robot skills can not only be implemented on these robots, but also be intuitively concatenated...... products are introduced by manufacturers. In order to compete on global markets, the factories of tomorrow need complete production lines, including automation technologies that can effortlessly be reconfigured or repurposed, when the need arises. In this paper we present the concept of general, self...... in running production facilities at an industrial partner. It follows from these experiments that the use of robot skills, and associated task-level programming framework, is a viable solution to introducing robots that can intuitively and on the fly be programmed to perform new tasks by factory workers....

Evolving self-assembly in autonomous homogeneous robots: experiments with two physical robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Ampatzis, Christos; Tuci, Elio; Trianni, Vito; Christensen, Anders Lyhne; Dorigo, Marco

2009-01-01

This research work illustrates an approach to the design of controllers for self-assembling robots in which the self-assembly is initiated and regulated by perceptual cues that are brought forth by the physical robots through their dynamical interactions. More specifically, we present a homogeneous control system that can achieve assembly between two modules (two fully autonomous robots) of a mobile self-reconfigurable system without a priori introduced behavioral or morphological heterogeneities. The controllers are dynamic neural networks evolved in simulation that directly control all the actuators of the two robots. The neurocontrollers cause the dynamic specialization of the robots by allocating roles between them based solely on their interaction. We show that the best evolved controller proves to be successful when tested on a real hardware platform, the swarm-bot. The performance achieved is similar to the one achieved by existing modular or behavior-based approaches, also due to the effect of an emergent recovery mechanism that was neither explicitly rewarded by the fitness function, nor observed during the evolutionary simulation. Our results suggest that direct access to the orientations or intentions of the other agents is not a necessary condition for robot coordination: Our robots coordinate without direct or explicit communication, contrary to what is assumed by most research works in collective robotics. This work also contributes to strengthening the evidence that evolutionary robotics is a design methodology that can tackle real-world tasks demanding fine sensory-motor coordination.

Robot 2015 : Second Iberian Robotics Conference : Advances in Robotics

CERN Document Server

Moreira, António; Lima, Pedro; Montano, Luis; Muñoz-Martinez, Victor

2016-01-01

This book contains a selection of papers accepted for presentation and discussion at ROBOT 2015: Second Iberian Robotics Conference, held in Lisbon, Portugal, November 19th-21th, 2015. ROBOT 2015 is part of a series of conferences that are a joint organization of SPR – “Sociedade Portuguesa de Robótica/ Portuguese Society for Robotics”, SEIDROB – Sociedad Española para la Investigación y Desarrollo de la Robótica/ Spanish Society for Research and Development in Robotics and CEA-GTRob – Grupo Temático de Robótica/ Robotics Thematic Group. The conference organization had also the collaboration of several universities and research institutes, including: University of Minho, University of Porto, University of Lisbon, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, University of Aveiro, University of Zaragoza, University of Malaga, LIACC, INESC-TEC and LARSyS. Robot 2015 was focussed on the Robotics scientific and technological activities in the Iberian Peninsula, although open to research and delegates from other...

Fractal gene regulatory networks for robust locomotion control of modular robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zahadat, Payam; Christensen, David Johan; Schultz, Ulrik Pagh

2010-01-01

Designing controllers for modular robots is difficult due to the distributed and dynamic nature of the robots. In this paper fractal gene regulatory networks are evolved to control modular robots in a distributed way. Experiments with different morphologies of modular robot are performed and the ......Designing controllers for modular robots is difficult due to the distributed and dynamic nature of the robots. In this paper fractal gene regulatory networks are evolved to control modular robots in a distributed way. Experiments with different morphologies of modular robot are performed...

Robotics and nuclear power. Report by the Technology Transfer Robotics Task Team

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1985-06-01

A task team was formed at the request of the Department of Energy to evaluate and assess technology development needed for advanced robotics in the nuclear industry. The mission of these technologies is to provide the nuclear industry with the support for the application of advanced robotics to reduce nuclear power generating costs and enhance the safety of the personnel in the industry. The investigation included robotic and teleoperated systems. A robotic system is defined as a reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move materials, parts, tools, or specialized devices through variable programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks. A teleoperated system includes an operator who remotely controls the system by direct viewing or through a vision system

Human-Robot Interaction Directed Research Project

Science.gov (United States)

Rochlis, Jennifer; Ezer, Neta; Sandor, Aniko

2011-01-01

Human-robot interaction (HRI) is about understanding and shaping the interactions between humans and robots (Goodrich & Schultz, 2007). It is important to evaluate how the design of interfaces and command modalities affect the human s ability to perform tasks accurately, efficiently, and effectively (Crandall, Goodrich, Olsen Jr., & Nielsen, 2005) It is also critical to evaluate the effects of human-robot interfaces and command modalities on operator mental workload (Sheridan, 1992) and situation awareness (Endsley, Bolt , & Jones, 2003). By understanding the effects of interface design on human performance, workload, and situation awareness, interfaces can be developed that support the human in performing tasks with minimal errors and with appropriate interaction time and effort. Thus, the results of research on human-robot interfaces have direct implications for design. Because the factors associated with interfaces and command modalities in HRI are too numerous to address in 3 years of research, the proposed research concentrates on three manageable areas applicable to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) robot systems. These topic areas emerged from the Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 work that included extensive literature reviews and observations of NASA systems. The three topic areas are: 1) video overlays, 2) camera views, and 3) command modalities. Each area is described in detail below, along with relevance to existing NASA human-robot systems. In addition to studies in these three topic areas, a workshop is proposed for FY12. The workshop will bring together experts in human-robot interaction and robotics to discuss the state of the practice as applicable to research in space robotics. Studies proposed in the area of video overlays consider two factors in the implementation of augmented reality (AR) for operator displays during teleoperation. The first of these factors is the type of navigational guidance provided by AR symbology. In the proposed

UGV Control Interoperability Profile (IOP), Version 0

Science.gov (United States)

2011-12-21

a tracked vehicle to climb stairs , traverse ditches/ruts, etc. The operator should be able to control the position of the flippers via the OCU and...Unclassified UGV Control Interoperability Profile (IOP) Version 0 Robotic Systems, Joint Project Office (RS JPO) SFAE-GCS-UGV MS...NUMBER 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) Robotic Systems, Joint Project Office (RS JPO),SFAE-GCS-UGV MS 266,6501 East 11 Mile Road

Salvage robotic radical prostatectomy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samuel D Kaffenberger

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Failure of non-surgical primary treatment for localized prostate cancer is a common occurrence, with rates of disease recurrence ranging from 20% to 60%. In a large proportion of patients, disease recurrence is clinically localized and therefore potentially curable. Unfortunately, due to the complex and potentially morbid nature of salvage treatment, radical salvage surgery is uncommonly performed. In an attempt to decrease the morbidity of salvage therapy without sacrificing oncologic efficacy, a number of experienced centers have utilized robotic assistance to perform minimally invasive salvage radical prostatectomy. Herein, we critically evaluate the existing literature on salvage robotic radical prostatectomy with a focus on patient selection, perioperative complications and functional and early oncologic outcomes. These results are compared with contemporary and historical open salvage radical prostatectomy series and supplemented with insights we have gained from our experience with salvage robotic radical prostatectomy. The body of evidence by which conclusions regarding the efficacy and safety of robotic salvage radical prostatectomy can be drawn comprises fewer than 200 patients with limited follow-up. Preliminary results are promising and some outcomes have been favorable when compared with contemporary open salvage prostatectomy series. Advantages of the robotic platform in the performance of salvage radical prostatectomy include decreased blood loss, short length of stay and improved visualization. Greater experience is required to confirm the long-term oncologic efficacy and functional outcomes as well as the generalizability of results achieved at experienced centers.

Tank-automotive robotics

Science.gov (United States)

Lane, Gerald R.

1999-07-01

To provide an overview of Tank-Automotive Robotics. The briefing will contain program overviews & inter-relationships and technology challenges of TARDEC managed unmanned and robotic ground vehicle programs. Specific emphasis will focus on technology developments/approaches to achieve semi- autonomous operation and inherent chassis mobility features. Programs to be discussed include: DemoIII Experimental Unmanned Vehicle (XUV), Tactical Mobile Robotics (TMR), Intelligent Mobility, Commanders Driver Testbed, Collision Avoidance, International Ground Robotics Competition (ICGRC). Specifically, the paper will discuss unique exterior/outdoor challenges facing the IGRC competing teams and the synergy created between the IGRC and ongoing DoD semi-autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicle and DoT Intelligent Transportation System programs. Sensor and chassis approaches to meet the IGRC challenges and obstacles will be shown and discussed. Shortfalls in performance to meet the IGRC challenges will be identified.

Robots that can adapt like animals.

Science.gov (United States)

Cully, Antoine; Clune, Jeff; Tarapore, Danesh; Mouret, Jean-Baptiste

2015-05-28

Robots have transformed many industries, most notably manufacturing, and have the power to deliver tremendous benefits to society, such as in search and rescue, disaster response, health care and transportation. They are also invaluable tools for scientific exploration in environments inaccessible to humans, from distant planets to deep oceans. A major obstacle to their widespread adoption in more complex environments outside factories is their fragility. Whereas animals can quickly adapt to injuries, current robots cannot 'think outside the box' to find a compensatory behaviour when they are damaged: they are limited to their pre-specified self-sensing abilities, can diagnose only anticipated failure modes, and require a pre-programmed contingency plan for every type of potential damage, an impracticality for complex robots. A promising approach to reducing robot fragility involves having robots learn appropriate behaviours in response to damage, but current techniques are slow even with small, constrained search spaces. Here we introduce an intelligent trial-and-error algorithm that allows robots to adapt to damage in less than two minutes in large search spaces without requiring self-diagnosis or pre-specified contingency plans. Before the robot is deployed, it uses a novel technique to create a detailed map of the space of high-performing behaviours. This map represents the robot's prior knowledge about what behaviours it can perform and their value. When the robot is damaged, it uses this prior knowledge to guide a trial-and-error learning algorithm that conducts intelligent experiments to rapidly discover a behaviour that compensates for the damage. Experiments reveal successful adaptations for a legged robot injured in five different ways, including damaged, broken, and missing legs, and for a robotic arm with joints broken in 14 different ways. This new algorithm will enable more robust, effective, autonomous robots, and may shed light on the principles

IMPROVED COMMUNICATION BETWEEN MANUFACTURING ROBOTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Stopforth

2012-01-01

Full Text Available

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Communication between manufacturing robots and autonomous vehicles in the industrial environment is important, sinceinstructions and information are crucial for communication between the control station and the robot station. Information is required between different manufacturing robots for optimal performance and dedication to industrial tasks within the environment. Failures in communication could cause robots to be a safety hazard or to perform tasks that are not required. This article shows how communication was improved with the use of the Robotics Communication Protocol (RCP and an extension of this protocol.

AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Kommunikasie tussen vervaardigingsrobotte en outonome voertuie in ‘n industriële omgewing is belangrik, aangesien opdragte en inligting krities is vir kommunikasie tussen die beheerstasie en die robotstasie. Inligting word benodig tussen verskillende vervaardigingsrobotte vir optimale werkverrigting en toewyding aan take in die omgewing. Mislukte kommunikasie mag veroorsaak dat robotte ‘n veiligheidsrisiko word of veroorsaak dat onnodige take verrig word. Hierdie artikel toon hoe kommunikasie verbeter is deur die gebruik van die “robotika-kommunikasie-protokol” en ‘n uitbreiding van die protokol.

Robotic single-site pelvic lymphadenectomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Tateo, Saverio; Nozza, Arrigo; Del Pezzo, Chiara; Mereu, Liliana

2014-09-01

To examine the feasibility of performing pelvic lymphadenectomy with robotic single site approach. Recent papers described the feasibility of robotic-single site hysterectomy [1-3] for benign and malign pathologies but only with the development of new single site 5mm instruments as the bipolar forceps, robotic single site platform can be safely utilized also for lymphadenectomy. A 65 year-old, multiparous patient with a body mass index of 22.5 and diagnosed with well differentiated adenocarcinoma of the endometrium underwent a robotic single-site peritoneal washing, total hysterectomy, bilateral adnexectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy. The procedure was performed using the da Vinci Si Surgical System (Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale, CA) through a single 2,5 cm umbilical incision, with a multi-channel system and two single site robotic 5mm instruments. A 3-dimensional, HD 8.5mm endoscope and a 5mm accessory instrument were also utilized. Type I lymphonodes dissection for external iliac and obturator regions was performed [4]. Total operative time was 210 min; incision, trocar placement and docking time occurring in 12 min. Total console time was 183 min, estimated blood loss was 50 ml, no intra-operative or post-operative complications occurred. Hospital discharge occurred on post operative day 2 and total number of lymphnodes removed was 33. Difficulties in term of instrument's clashing and awkward motions have been encountered. Robotic single-site pelvic lymphadenectomy using bipolar forceps and monopolar hook is feasible. New developments are needed to improve surgical ergonomics and additional studies should be performed to explore possible benefits of this procedure. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Training in urological robotic surgery. Future perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

El Sherbiny, Ahmed; Eissa, Ahmed; Ghaith, Ahmed; Morini, Elena; Marzotta, Lucilla; Sighinolfi, Maria Chiara; Micali, Salvatore; Bianchi, Giampaolo; Rocco, Bernardo

2018-01-01

As robotics are becoming more integrated into the medical field, robotic training is becoming more crucial in order to overcome the lack of experienced robotic surgeons. However, there are several obstacles facing the development of robotic training programs like the high cost of training and the increased operative time during the initial period of the learning curve, which, in turn increase the operative cost. Robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy is the most commonly performed robotic surgery. Moreover, robotic surgery is becoming more popular among urologic oncologists and pediatric urologists. The need for a standardized and validated robotic training curriculum was growing along with the increased number of urologic centers and institutes adopting the robotic technology. Robotic training includes proctorship, mentorship or fellowship, telementoring, simulators and video training. In this chapter, we are going to discuss the different training methods, how to evaluate robotic skills, the available robotic training curriculum, and the future perspectives.

Proficiency training on a virtual reality robotic surgical skills curriculum.

Science.gov (United States)

Bric, Justin; Connolly, Michael; Kastenmeier, Andrew; Goldblatt, Matthew; Gould, Jon C

2014-12-01

The clinical application of robotic surgery is increasing. The skills necessary to perform robotic surgery are unique from those required in open and laparoscopic surgery. A validated laparoscopic surgical skills curriculum (Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery or FLS™) has transformed the way surgeons acquire laparoscopic skills. There is a need for a similar skills training and assessment tool for robotic surgery. Our research group previously developed and validated a robotic training curriculum in a virtual reality (VR) simulator. We hypothesized that novice robotic surgeons could achieve proficiency levels defined by more experienced robotic surgeons on the VR robotic curriculum, and that this would result in improved performance on the actual daVinci Surgical System™. 25 medical students with no prior robotic surgery experience were recruited. Prior to VR training, subjects performed 2 FLS tasks 3 times each (Peg Transfer, Intracorporeal Knot Tying) using the daVinci Surgical System™ docked to a video trainer box. Task performance for the FLS tasks was scored objectively. Subjects then practiced on the VR simulator (daVinci Skills Simulator) until proficiency levels on all 5 tasks were achieved before completing a post-training assessment of the 2 FLS tasks on the daVinci Surgical System™ in the video trainer box. All subjects to complete the study (1 dropped out) reached proficiency levels on all VR tasks in an average of 71 (± 21.7) attempts, accumulating 164.3 (± 55.7) minutes of console training time. There was a significant improvement in performance on the robotic FLS tasks following completion of the VR training curriculum. Novice robotic surgeons are able to attain proficiency levels on a VR simulator. This leads to improved performance in the daVinci surgical platform on simulated tasks. Training to proficiency on a VR robotic surgery simulator is an efficient and viable method for acquiring robotic surgical skills.

Traversal-time distribution for a classical time-modulated barrier

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mateos, J.L.

1999-01-01

The classical problem of a time-modulated barrier, inspired by the Buettiker and Landauer model to study the tunneling times, is analyzed. We show that the traversal-time distribution of an ensemble of non-interacting particles that arrives at the oscillating barrier, obeys a distribution with a power-law tail. (Copyright (c) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam. All rights reserved.)

Extension versus Bending for Continuum Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

George Grimes

2008-11-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we analyze the capabilities of a novel class of continuous-backbone ("continuum" robots. These robots are inspired by biological "trunks, and tentacles". However, the capabilities of established continuum robot designs, which feature controlled bending but not extension, fall short of those of their biological counterparts. In this paper, we argue that the addition of controlled extension provides dual and complementary functionality, and correspondingly enhanced performance, in continuum robots. We present an interval-based analysis to show how the inclusion of controllable extension significantly enhances the workspace and capabilities of continuum robots.

A Study on Bipedal and Mobile Robot Behavior Through Modeling and Simulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nirmala Nirmala

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this work is to study and analyze mobile robot behavior. In performing this, a framework is adopted and developed for mobile and bipedal robot. The robots are design, build, and run as proceed from the development of mechanical structure, electronics and control integration, and control software application. The behavior of those robots are difficult to be observed and analyzed qualitatively. To evaluate the design and behavior quality, modeling and simulation of robot structure and its task capability is performed. The stepwise procedure to robot behavior study is explained. Behavior cases study are experimented to bipedal robots, transporter robot and Autonomous Guided Vehicle (AGV developed at our institution. The experimentation are conducted on those robots by adjusting their dynamic properties and/or surrounding environment. Validation is performed by comparing the simulation result and the real robot execution. The simulation gives a more idealistic behavior execution rather than realistic one. Adjustments are performed to fine tuning simulation's parameters to provide a more realistic performance.

Cultural Robotics: The Culture of Robotics and Robotics in Culture

OpenAIRE

Hooman Samani; Elham Saadatian; Natalie Pang; Doros Polydorou; Owen Noel Newton Fernando; Ryohei Nakatsu; Jeffrey Tzu Kwan Valino Koh

2013-01-01

In this paper, we have investigated the concept of “Cultural Robotics” with regard to the evolution of social into cultural robots in the 21st Century. By defining the concept of culture, the potential development of a culture between humans and robots is explored. Based on the cultural values of the robotics developers, and the learning ability of current robots, cultural attributes in this regard are in the process of being formed, which would define the new concept of cultural robotics. Ac...

Morphology Independent Learning in Modular Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, David Johan; Bordignon, Mirko; Schultz, Ulrik Pagh

2009-01-01

Hand-coding locomotion controllers for modular robots is difficult due to their polymorphic nature. Instead, we propose to use a simple and distributed reinforcement learning strategy. ATRON modules with identical controllers can be assembled in any configuration. To optimize the robot’s locomotion...... speed its modules independently and in parallel adjust their behavior based on a single global reward signal. In simulation, we study the learning strategy’s performance on different robot configurations. On the physical platform, we perform learning experiments with ATRON robots learning to move as fast...

Tele-operated service robots for household and care

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Osch, van M.P.W.J.; Bera, D.; Koks, Y.; Hee, van K.M.; Bronswijk, van J.E.M.H.; Maas, G.J.; Gassel, van F.J.M.

2012-01-01

Purpose: Service robots are a relatively new branch of robotics after the successful industry robots and the experimental humanoids. Service robots are supposed to perform tasks that normally are done by humans in particular daily life activities. However they do not have to do it in the same way as

Modelling cooperation of industrial robots as multi-agent systems

Science.gov (United States)

Hryniewicz, P.; Banas, W.; Foit, K.; Gwiazda, A.; Sekala, A.

2017-08-01

Nowadays, more and more often in a cell is more than one robot, there is also a dual arm robots, because of this cooperation of two robots in the same space becomes more and more important. Programming robotic cell consisting of two or more robots are currently performed separately for each element of the robot and the cell. It is performed only synchronization programs, but no robot movements. In such situations often placed industrial robots so they do not have common space so the robots are operated separately. When industrial robots are a common space this space can occupy only one robot the other one must be outside the common space. It is very difficult to find applications where two robots are in the same workspace. It was tested but one robot did not do of movement when moving the second and waited for permission to move from the second when it sent a permit - stop the move. Such programs are very difficult and require a lot of experience from the programmer and must be tested separately at the beginning and then very slowly under control. Ideally, the operator takes care of exactly one robot during the test and it is very important to take special care.

From Illusion to Reality: A Brief History of Robotic Surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Marino, Marco Vito; Shabat, Galyna; Gulotta, Gaspare; Komorowski, Andrzej Lech

2018-04-01

Robotic surgery is currently employed for many surgical procedures, yielding interesting results. We performed an historical review of robots and robotic surgery evaluating some critical phases of its evolution, analyzing its impact on our life and the steps completed that gave the robotics its current popularity. The origins of robotics can be traced back to Greek mythology. Different aspects of robotics have been explored by some of the greatest inventors like Leonardo da Vinci, Pierre Jaquet-Droz, and Wolfgang Von-Kempelen. Advances in many fields of science made possible the development of advanced surgical robots. Over 3000 da Vinci robotic platforms are installed worldwide, and more than 200 000 robotic procedures are performed every year. Despite some potential adverse events, robotic technology seems safe and feasible. It is strictly linked to our life, leading surgeons to a new concept of surgery and training.

Lessons Learned in Designing User-configurable Modular Robotics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lund, Henrik Hautop

2013-01-01

User-configurable robotics allows users to easily configure robotic systems to perform task-fulfilling behaviors as desired by the users. With a user configurable robotic system, the user can easily modify the physical and func-tional aspect in terms of hardware and software components of a robotic...... with the semi-autonomous com-ponents of the user-configurable robotic system in interaction with the given environment. Components constituting such a user-configurable robotic system can be characterized as modules in a modular robotic system. Several factors in the definition and implementation...

Concept design of robotic modules for needlescopic surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Sen, Shin; Harada, Kanako; Hewitt, Zackary; Susilo, Ekawahyu; Kobayashi, Etsuko; Sakuma, Ichiro

2017-08-01

Many minimally invasive surgical procedures and assisting robotic systems have been developed to further minimize the number and size of incisions in the body surface. This paper presents a new idea combining the advantages of modular robotic surgery, single incision laparoscopic surgery and needlescopic surgery. In the proposed concept, modules carrying therapeutic or diagnostic tools are inserted in the abdominal cavity from the navel as in single incision laparoscopic surgery and assembled to 3-mm needle shafts penetrating the abdominal wall. A three degree-of-freedom robotic module measuring 16 mm in diameter and 51 mm in length was designed and prototyped. The performance of the three connected robotic modules was evaluated. A new idea of modular robotic surgery was proposed, and demonstrated by prototyping a 3-DOF robotic module. The performance of the connected robotic modules was evaluated, and the challenges and future work were summarized.

Evaluation of robot performance: placement of rings with handles at ISIS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lefaure, C.; Seror, V.; Lochard, J.

1989-07-01

The first task performed by CEPN in the field of evaluating the robotics was to identify principal parameters to be taken into account for estimating the cost and the efficiency of such action. After this work, EDF-UTO demanded CEPN to develop a methodology for evaluating economic and dosimetry impacts of introducing robots or remote handling in operation and maintenance of PWR-900 and PWR-1300 plants. These operations are mostly originating from failures causing exposure of personnel. Objective of the first study presented in this report is to evaluate the value of replacing classic annual procedure of fixing the primary tubes of PWR steam generators by robot. Estimated value of collective dose was obtained by PANTHERE-RP and SEPTEN codes for dose calculation and DOSI-ANA for taking into account the duration of operation. It has been found that application of ISIS handle enable to reduce the collective dose approximately by a factor of 4 (5.2 H.rem for automated operation, compared to 23.5 H.rem for manual option) although the amount of work is increased by a factor of 3, meaning the work in the zone where exposure is significant (160 hours for automatized option compared to 59 hours of manual operation). Application od ISIS enable to decrease almost completely the exposure related to the phase of installing the support rings (0.3 H.rem with ISIS compared to 20 for the manual option). On the contrary, installation of ISIS cause additional collective exposure of 3 H.rem. This lead to a conclusion that application of ISIS can be justified if avoided doses are equal or more than 3 H.rem [fr

Evaluation of modular robot system for maintenance tasks in hot cell

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pagala, Prithvi Sekhar, E-mail: ps.pagala@upm.es [Centre for Automation and Robotics UPM-CSIC (Spain); Ferre, Manuel, E-mail: m.ferre@upm.es [Centre for Automation and Robotics UPM-CSIC (Spain); Orona, Luis, E-mail: l.orona@gsi.de [GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (Germany)

2014-10-15

Highlights: •Modular robot deployment inside hot cell for remote manipulation evaluated. •Flexible and adaptable system for variety of tasks presented. •Uses in large workspaces and evolving requirements shown. -- Abstract: This work assesses the use of a modular robot system to perform maintenance and inspection tasks such as, remote flexible inspection, manipulation and cooperation with deployed systems inside the hot cell. A flexible modular solution for the inclusion in maintenance operations is presented. The proposed heterogeneous modular robotic system is evaluated using simulations of the prototype across selected robot configuration to perform tasks. Results obtained show the advantages and ability of the modular robot to perform the necessary tasks as well as its ability to adapt and evolve depending on the need. The simulation test case inside hot cell shows modular robot configuration, a two modular arm to perform tele-operation tasks in the workspace and a wheeled platform for inspection collaborating to perform tasks. The advantage of using re-configurable modular robot over conventional robot platforms is shown.

Task Refinement for Autonomous Robots using Complementary Corrective Human Feedback

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cetin Mericli

2011-06-01

Full Text Available A robot can perform a given task through a policy that maps its sensed state to appropriate actions. We assume that a hand-coded controller can achieve such a mapping only for the basic cases of the task. Refining the controller becomes harder and gets more tedious and error prone as the complexity of the task increases. In this paper, we present a new learning from demonstration approach to improve the robot's performance through the use of corrective human feedback as a complement to an existing hand-coded algorithm. The human teacher observes the robot as it performs the task using the hand-coded algorithm and takes over the control to correct the behavior when the robot selects a wrong action to be executed. Corrections are captured as new state-action pairs and the default controller output is replaced by the demonstrated corrections during autonomous execution when the current state of the robot is decided to be similar to a previously corrected state in the correction database. The proposed approach is applied to a complex ball dribbling task performed against stationary defender robots in a robot soccer scenario, where physical Aldebaran Nao humanoid robots are used. The results of our experiments show an improvement in the robot's performance when the default hand-coded controller is augmented with corrective human demonstration.

Robotic anesthesia - A vision for the future of anesthesia

OpenAIRE

Hemmerling, Thomas M.; Taddei, Riccardo; Wehbe, Mohamad; Morse, Joshua; Cyr, Shantale; Zaouter, Cedrick

2011-01-01

Summary This narrative review describes a rationale for robotic anesthesia. It offers a first classification of robotic anesthesia by separating it into pharmacological robots and robots for aiding or replacing manual gestures. Developments in closed loop anesthesia are outlined. First attempts to perform manual tasks using robots are described. A critical analysis of the delayed development and introduction of robots in anesthesia is delivered.

Considerations for designing robotic upper limb rehabilitation devices

Science.gov (United States)

Nadas, I.; Vaida, C.; Gherman, B.; Pisla, D.; Carbone, G.

2017-12-01

The present study highlights the advantages of robotic systems for post-stroke rehabilitation of the upper limb. The latest demographic studies illustrate a continuous increase of the average life span, which leads to a continuous increase of stroke incidents and patients requiring rehabilitation. Some studies estimate that by 2030 the number of physical therapists will be insufficient for the patients requiring physical rehabilitation, imposing a shift in the current methodologies. A viable option is the implementation of robotic systems that assist the patient in performing rehabilitation exercises, the physical therapist role being to establish the therapeutic program for each patient and monitor their individual progress. Using a set of clinical measurements for the upper limb motions, the analysis of rehabilitation robotic systems provides a comparative study between the motions required by clinicians and the ones that robotic systems perform for different therapeutic exercises. A critical analysis of existing robots is performed using several classifications: mechanical design, assistance type, actuation and power transmission, control systems and human robot interaction (HRI) strategies. This classification will determine a set of pre-requirements for the definition of new concepts and efficient solutions for robotic assisted rehabilitation therapy.

Performance and Usability of Various Robotic Arm Control Modes from Human Force Signals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sébastien Mick

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Elaborating an efficient and usable mapping between input commands and output movements is still a key challenge for the design of robotic arm prostheses. In order to address this issue, we present and compare three different control modes, by assessing them in terms of performance as well as general usability. Using an isometric force transducer as the command device, these modes convert the force input signal into either a position or a velocity vector, whose magnitude is linearly or quadratically related to force input magnitude. With the robotic arm from the open source 3D-printed Poppy Humanoid platform simulating a mobile prosthesis, an experiment was carried out with eighteen able-bodied subjects performing a 3-D target-reaching task using each of the three modes. The subjects were given questionnaires to evaluate the quality of their experience with each mode, providing an assessment of their global usability in the context of the task. According to performance metrics and questionnaire results, velocity control modes were found to perform better than position control mode in terms of accuracy and quality of control as well as user satisfaction and comfort. Subjects also seemed to favor quadratic velocity control over linear (proportional velocity control, even if these two modes did not clearly distinguish from one another when it comes to performance and usability assessment. These results highlight the need to take into account user experience as one of the key criteria for the design of control modes intended to operate limb prostheses.

Cost analysis of robotic versus laparoscopic general surgery procedures.

Science.gov (United States)

Higgins, Rana M; Frelich, Matthew J; Bosler, Matthew E; Gould, Jon C

2017-01-01

Robotic surgical systems have been used at a rapidly increasing rate in general surgery. Many of these procedures have been performed laparoscopically for years. In a surgical encounter, a significant portion of the total costs is associated with consumable supplies. Our hospital system has invested in a software program that can track the costs of consumable surgical supplies. We sought to determine the differences in cost of consumables with elective laparoscopic and robotic procedures for our health care organization. De-identified procedural cost and equipment utilization data were collected from the Surgical Profitability Compass Procedure Cost Manager System (The Advisory Board Company, Washington, DC) for our health care system for laparoscopic and robotic cholecystectomy, fundoplication, and inguinal hernia between the years 2013 and 2015. Outcomes were length of stay, case duration, and supply cost. Statistical analysis was performed using a t-test for continuous variables, and statistical significance was defined as p robotic procedures. Length of stay did not differ for fundoplication or cholecystectomy. Length of stay was greater for robotic inguinal hernia repair. Case duration was similar for cholecystectomy (84.3 robotic and 75.5 min laparoscopic, p = 0.08), but significantly longer for robotic fundoplication (197.2 robotic and 162.1 min laparoscopic, p = 0.01) and inguinal hernia repair (124.0 robotic and 84.4 min laparoscopic, p = ≪0.01). We found a significantly increased cost of general surgery procedures for our health care system when cases commonly performed laparoscopically are instead performed robotically. Our analysis is limited by the fact that we only included costs associated with consumable surgical supplies. The initial acquisition cost (over $1 million for robotic surgical system), depreciation, and service contract for the robotic and laparoscopic systems were not included in this analysis.

To Err Is Robot: How Humans Assess and Act toward an Erroneous Social Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicole Mirnig

2017-05-01

Full Text Available We conducted a user study for which we purposefully programmed faulty behavior into a robot’s routine. It was our aim to explore if participants rate the faulty robot different from an error-free robot and which reactions people show in interaction with a faulty robot. The study was based on our previous research on robot errors where we detected typical error situations and the resulting social signals of our participants during social human–robot interaction. In contrast to our previous work, where we studied video material in which robot errors occurred unintentionally, in the herein reported user study, we purposefully elicited robot errors to further explore the human interaction partners’ social signals following a robot error. Our participants interacted with a human-like NAO, and the robot either performed faulty or free from error. First, the robot asked the participants a set of predefined questions and then it asked them to complete a couple of LEGO building tasks. After the interaction, we asked the participants to rate the robot’s anthropomorphism, likability, and perceived intelligence. We also interviewed the participants on their opinion about the interaction. Additionally, we video-coded the social signals the participants showed during their interaction with the robot as well as the answers they provided the robot with. Our results show that participants liked the faulty robot significantly better than the robot that interacted flawlessly. We did not find significant differences in people’s ratings of the robot’s anthropomorphism and perceived intelligence. The qualitative data confirmed the questionnaire results in showing that although the participants recognized the robot’s mistakes, they did not necessarily reject the erroneous robot. The annotations of the video data further showed that gaze shifts (e.g., from an object to the robot or vice versa and laughter are typical reactions to unexpected robot behavior

A Spatial Queuing-Based Algorithm for Multi-Robot Task Allocation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

William Lenagh

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Multi-robot task allocation (MRTA is an important area of research in autonomous multi-robot systems. The main problem in MRTA is to allocate a set of tasks to a set of robots so that the tasks can be completed by the robots while ensuring that a certain metric, such as the time required to complete all tasks, or the distance traveled, or the energy expended by the robots is reduced. We consider a scenario where tasks can appear dynamically and a task needs to be performed by multiple robots to be completed. We propose a new algorithm called SQ-MRTA (Spatial Queueing-MRTA that uses a spatial queue-based model to allocate tasks between robots in a distributed manner. We have implemented the SQ-MRTA algorithm on accurately simulated models of Corobot robots within the Webots simulator for different numbers of robots and tasks and compared its performance with other state-of-the-art MRTA algorithms. Our results show that the SQ-MRTA algorithm is able to scale up with the number of tasks and robots in the environment, and it either outperforms or performs comparably with respect to other distributed MRTA algorithms.

International Conference on Robot Ethics

CERN Document Server

Sequeira, Joao; Tokhi, Mohammad; Kadar, Endre; Virk, Gurvinder

2017-01-01

This book contains the Proceedings of the International Conference on Robot Ethics, held in Lisbon on October 23 and 24, 2015. The conference provided a multidisciplinary forum for discussing central and evolving issues concerning safety and ethics that have arisen in various contexts where robotic technologies are being applied. The papers are intended to promote the formulation of more precise safety standards and ethical frameworks for the rapidly changing field of robotic applications. The conference was held at Pavilhão do Conhecimento/Ciência Viva in Lisbon and brought together leading researchers and industry representatives, promoting a dialogue that combines different perspectives and experiences to arrive at viable solutions for ethical problems in the context of robotics. The conference topics included but were not limited to emerging ethical, safety, legal and societal problems in the following domains: • Service/Social Robots: Robots performing tasks in human environments and involving close ...

A Sit-to-Stand Training Robot and Its Performance Evaluation: Dynamic Analysis in Lower Limb Rehabilitation Activities

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Enguo; Inoue, Yoshio; Liu, Tao; Shibata, Kyoko

In many countries in which the phenomenon of population aging is being experienced, motor function recovery activities have aroused much interest. In this paper, a sit-to-stand rehabilitation robot utilizing a double-rope system was developed, and the performance of the robot was evaluated by analyzing the dynamic parameters of human lower limbs. For the robot control program, an impedance control method with a training game was developed to increase the effectiveness and frequency of rehabilitation activities, and a calculation method was developed for evaluating the joint moments of hip, knee, and ankle. Test experiments were designed, and four subjects were requested to stand up from a chair with assistance from the rehabilitation robot. In the experiments, body segment rotational angles, trunk movement trajectories, rope tensile forces, ground reaction forces (GRF) and centers of pressure (COP) were measured by sensors, and the moments of ankle, knee and hip joint were real-time calculated using the sensor-measured data. The experiment results showed that the sit-to-stand rehabilitation robot with impedance control method could maintain the comfortable training postures of users, decrease the moments of limb joints, and enhance training effectiveness. Furthermore, the game control method could encourage collaboration between the brain and limbs, and allow for an increase in the frequency and intensity of rehabilitation activities.

A Multi-Sensorial Hybrid Control for Robotic Manipulation in Human-Robot Workspaces

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Juan A. Corrales

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Autonomous manipulation in semi-structured environments where human operators can interact is an increasingly common task in robotic applications. This paper describes an intelligent multi-sensorial approach that solves this issue by providing a multi-robotic platform with a high degree of autonomy and the capability to perform complex tasks. The proposed sensorial system is composed of a hybrid visual servo control to efficiently guide the robot towards the object to be manipulated, an inertial motion capture system and an indoor localization system to avoid possible collisions between human operators and robots working in the same workspace, and a tactile sensor algorithm to correctly manipulate the object. The proposed controller employs the whole multi-sensorial system and combines the measurements of each one of the used sensors during two different phases considered in the robot task: a first phase where the robot approaches the object to be grasped, and a second phase of manipulation of the object. In both phases, the unexpected presence of humans is taken into account. This paper also presents the successful results obtained in several experimental setups which verify the validity of the proposed approach.

Learning Semantics of Gestural Instructions for Human-Robot Collaboration

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Shukla, Dadhichi; Erkent, Özgür; Piater, Justus

2018-01-01

Designed to work safely alongside humans, collaborative robots need to be capable partners in human-robot teams. Besides having key capabilities like detecting gestures, recognizing objects, grasping them, and handing them over, these robots need to seamlessly adapt their behavior for efficient human-robot collaboration. In this context we present the fast, supervised Proactive Incremental Learning (PIL) framework for learning associations between human hand gestures and the intended robotic manipulation actions. With the proactive aspect, the robot is competent to predict the human's intent and perform an action without waiting for an instruction. The incremental aspect enables the robot to learn associations on the fly while performing a task. It is a probabilistic, statistically-driven approach. As a proof of concept, we focus on a table assembly task where the robot assists its human partner. We investigate how the accuracy of gesture detection affects the number of interactions required to complete the task. We also conducted a human-robot interaction study with non-roboticist users comparing a proactive with a reactive robot that waits for instructions. PMID:29615888

Learning Semantics of Gestural Instructions for Human-Robot Collaboration.

Science.gov (United States)

Shukla, Dadhichi; Erkent, Özgür; Piater, Justus

2018-01-01

Designed to work safely alongside humans, collaborative robots need to be capable partners in human-robot teams. Besides having key capabilities like detecting gestures, recognizing objects, grasping them, and handing them over, these robots need to seamlessly adapt their behavior for efficient human-robot collaboration. In this context we present the fast, supervised Proactive Incremental Learning (PIL) framework for learning associations between human hand gestures and the intended robotic manipulation actions. With the proactive aspect, the robot is competent to predict the human's intent and perform an action without waiting for an instruction. The incremental aspect enables the robot to learn associations on the fly while performing a task. It is a probabilistic, statistically-driven approach. As a proof of concept, we focus on a table assembly task where the robot assists its human partner. We investigate how the accuracy of gesture detection affects the number of interactions required to complete the task. We also conducted a human-robot interaction study with non-roboticist users comparing a proactive with a reactive robot that waits for instructions.

Design of Piano -playing Robotic Hand

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Lin Jen-Chang

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Unlike the market slowdown of industrial robots, service & entertainment robots have been highly regarded by most robotics reseach and market research agencies. In this study we developed a music playing robot (which can also work as a service robot for public performance. The research is mainly focused on the mechanical and electrical control of piano-playing robot, the exploration of correlations among music theory, rhythm and piano keys, and eventually the research on playing skill of keyboard instrument. The piano-playing robot is capable of control linear motor, servo-motor and pneumatic devices in accordance with the notes and rhythm in order to drive the mechanical structure to proper positions for pressing the keys and generating music. The devices used for this robot are mainly crucial components produced by HIWIN Technology Corp. The design of robotic hand is based on the direction of anthropomorphic hand such that five fingers will be used for playing piano. The finger actuations include actions of finger rotation, finger pressing, and finger lifting; time required for these 3 stages must meet the requirement of rhythm. The purpose of entertainment robot can be achieved by playing electric piano with robotic hand, and we hope this research can contribute to the development of domestic entertainment music playing robots.

Laser speckle velocimetry for robot manufacturing

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Charrett, Thomas O. H.; Bandari, Yashwanth K.; Michel, Florent; Ding, Jialuo; Williams, Stewart W.; Tatam, Ralph P.

2017-06-01

A non-contact speckle correlation sensor for the measurement of robotic tool speed is presented for use in robotic manufacturing and is capable of measuring the in-plane relative velocities between a robot end-effector and the workpiece or other surface. The sensor performance was assessed in the laboratory with the sensor accuracies found to be better than 0:01 mm/s over a 70 mm/s velocity range. Finally an example of the sensors application to robotic manufacturing is presented where the sensor was applied to tool speed measurement for path planning in the wire and arc additive manufacturing process using a KUKA KR150 L110/2 industrial robot.

Is Ethics of Robotics about Robots? Philosophy of Robotics Beyond Realism and Individualilsm.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Coeckelbergh, Mark

2011-01-01

If we are doing ethics of robotics, what exactly is the object of our inquiry? This paper challenges 'individualist' robot ontology and 'individualist' social philosophy of robots. It is argued that ethics of robotics should not study and evaluate robotics exclusively in terms of individual

Robotics in percutaneous cardiovascular interventions.

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Pourdjabbar, Ali; Ang, Lawrence; Behnamfar, Omid; Patel, Mitul P; Reeves, Ryan R; Campbell, Paul T; Madder, Ryan D; Mahmud, Ehtisham

2017-11-01

The fundamental technique of performing percutaneous cardiovascular (CV) interventions has remained unchanged and requires operators to wear heavy lead aprons to minimize exposure to ionizing radiation. Robotic technology is now being utilized in interventional cardiology partially as a direct result of the increasing appreciation of the long-term occupational hazards of the field. This review was undertaken to report the clinical outcomes of percutaneous robotic coronary and peripheral vascular interventions. Areas covered: A systematic literature review of percutaneous robotic CV interventions was undertaken. The safety and feasibility of percutaneous robotically-assisted CV interventions has been validated in simple to complex coronary disease, and iliofemoral disease. Studies have shown that robotically-assisted PCI significantly reduces operator exposure to harmful ionizing radiation without compromising procedural success or clinical efficacy. In addition to the operator benefits, robotically-assisted intervention has the potential for patient advantages by allowing more accurate lesion length measurement, precise stent placement and lower patient radiation exposure. However, further investigation is required to fully elucidate these potential benefits. Expert commentary: Incremental improvement in robotic technology and telecommunications would enable treatment of an even broader patient population, and potentially provide remote robotic PCI.

Development of Methodologies, Metrics, and Tools for Investigating Human-Robot Interaction in Space Robotics

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Ezer, Neta; Zumbado, Jennifer Rochlis; Sandor, Aniko; Boyer, Jennifer

2011-01-01

Human-robot systems are expected to have a central role in future space exploration missions that extend beyond low-earth orbit [1]. As part of a directed research project funded by NASA s Human Research Program (HRP), researchers at the Johnson Space Center have started to use a variety of techniques, including literature reviews, case studies, knowledge capture, field studies, and experiments to understand critical human-robot interaction (HRI) variables for current and future systems. Activities accomplished to date include observations of the International Space Station s Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), Robonaut, and Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV), as well as interviews with robotics trainers, robot operators, and developers of gesture interfaces. A survey of methods and metrics used in HRI was completed to identify those most applicable to space robotics. These methods and metrics included techniques and tools associated with task performance, the quantification of human-robot interactions and communication, usability, human workload, and situation awareness. The need for more research in areas such as natural interfaces, compensations for loss of signal and poor video quality, psycho-physiological feedback, and common HRI testbeds were identified. The initial findings from these activities and planned future research are discussed. Human-robot systems are expected to have a central role in future space exploration missions that extend beyond low-earth orbit [1]. As part of a directed research project funded by NASA s Human Research Program (HRP), researchers at the Johnson Space Center have started to use a variety of techniques, including literature reviews, case studies, knowledge capture, field studies, and experiments to understand critical human-robot interaction (HRI) variables for current and future systems. Activities accomplished to date include observations of the International Space Station s Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator

Robotics: The next step?

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Broeders, Ivo A M J

2014-02-01

Robotic systems were introduced 15 years ago to support complex endoscopic procedures. The technology is increasingly used in gastro-intestinal surgery. In this article, literature on experimental- and clinical research is reviewed and ergonomic issues are discussed. literature review was based on Medline search using a large variety of search terms, including e.g. robot(ic), randomized, rectal, oesophageal, ergonomics. Review articles on relevant topics are discussed with preference. There is abundant evidence of supremacy in performing complex endoscopic surgery tasks when using the robot in an experimental setting. There is little high-level evidence so far on translation of these merits to clinical practice. Robotic systems may appear helpful in complex gastro-intestinal surgery. Moreover, dedicated computer based technology integrated in telepresence systems opens the way to integration of planning, diagnostics and therapy. The first high tech add-ons such as near infrared technology are under clinical evaluation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

ARIES NDA Robot operators' manual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scheer, N.L.; Nelson, D.C.

1998-05-01

The ARIES NDA Robot is an automation device for servicing the material movements for a suite of Non-destructive assay (NDA) instruments. This suite of instruments includes a calorimeter, a gamma isotopic system, a segmented gamma scanner (SGS), and a neutron coincidence counter (NCC). Objects moved by the robot include sample cans, standard cans, and instrument plugs. The robot computer has an RS-232 connection with the NDA Host computer, which coordinates robot movements and instrument measurements. The instruments are expected to perform measurements under the direction of the Host without operator intervention. This user's manual describes system startup, using the main menu, manual operation, and error recovery

Unibot, a Universal Agent Architecture for Robots

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Saša Mladenović

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Today there are numerous robots in different applications domains despite the fact that they still have limitations in perception, actuation and decision process. Consequently, robots usually have limited autonomy, they are domain specific or have difficulty to adapt on new environments. Learning is the property that makes an agent intelligent and the crucial property that a robot should have to proliferate into the human society. Embedding the learning ability into the robot may simplify the development of the robot control mechanism. The motivation for this research is to develop the agent architecture of the universal robot – Unibot. In our approach the agent is the robot i.e. Unibot that acts in the physical world and is capable of learning. The Unibot conducts several simultaneous simulations of a problem of interest like path-finding. The novelty in our approach is the Multi-Agent Decision Support System which is developed and integrated into the Unibot agent architecture in order to execute simultaneous simulations. Furthermore, the Unibot calculates and evaluates between multiple solutions, decides which action should be performed and performs the action. The prototype of the Unibot agent architecture is described and evaluated in the experiment supported by the Lego Mindstorms robot and the NetLogo.

Exploratorium: Robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Brand, Judith, Ed.

2002-01-01

This issue of Exploratorium Magazine focuses on the topic robotics. It explains how to make a vibrating robotic bug and features articles on robots. Contents include: (1) "Where Robot Mice and Robot Men Run Round in Robot Towns" (Ray Bradbury); (2) "Robots at Work" (Jake Widman); (3) "Make a Vibrating Robotic Bug" (Modesto Tamez); (4) "The Robot…

[Robotic splenectomy--a personal view].

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Vasilescu, C

2010-01-01

Until now 40 robotic splenectomies were performed in our department, the first case being done on February 25, 2008. Our data show that robotic splenectomy with the DaVinci surgical system is technically feasible and safe, with good results and without complications. The main advantages are a better tridimensional view and an increased versatility of the surgical instruments. The DaVinci system allows an accurate dissection around the splenic hilum and preservation of the splenic remnant vessels in partial splenectomy. Robotic splenectomy will probably not replace the laparoscopic splenectomy for the most common indications like ITP, hemolytic anemia. It may be a very useful surgical tool in difficult splenectomy: partial splenectomy, splenectomy in liver cirrhosis, splenic tumors or malignant hemopathies. In these cases the robotic approach may shorten the operative time, decrease the blood loss and the risk of remorrhagic complications during surgery and even make possible a minimally invasive splenectomy very difficult to be performed by classical laparoscopy.

Getting started with robotics in general surgery with cholecystectomy: the Canadian experience

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Jayaraman, Shiva; Davies, Ward; Schlachta, Christopher M.

2009-01-01

Background The value of robotics in general surgery may be for advanced minimally invasive procedures. Unlike other specialties, formal fellowship training opportunities for robotic general surgery are few. As a result, most surgeons currently develop robotic skills in practice. Our goal was to determine whether robotic cholecystectomy is a safe and effective bridge to advanced robotics in general surgery. Methods Before performing advanced robotic procedures, 2 surgeons completed the Intuitive Surgical da Vinci training course and agreed to work together on all procedures. Clinical surgery began with da Vinci cholecystectomy with a plan to begin advanced procedures after at least 10 cholecystectomies. We performed a retrospective review of our pilot series of robotic cholecystectomies and compared them with contemporaneous laparoscopic controls. The primary outcome was safety, and the secondary outcome was learning curve. Results There were 16 procedures in the robotics arm and 20 in the laparoscopic arm. Two complications (da Vinci port-site hernia, transient elevation of liver enzymes) occurred in the robotic arm, whereas only 1 laparoscopic patient (slow to awaken from anesthetic) experienced a complication. None was significant. The mean time required to perform robotic cholecystectomy was significantly longer than laparoscopic surgery (91 v. 41 min, p robotic procedures (14 v. 11 min, p = 0.015). We observed a trend showing longer mean anesthesia time for robotic procedures (23 v. 15 min). Regarding learning curve, the mean operative time needed for the first 3 robotic procedures was longer than for the last 3 (101 v. 80 min); however, this difference was not significant. Since this experience, the team has confidently gone on to perform robotic biliary, pancreatic, gastresophageal, intestinal and colorectal operations. Conclusion Robotic cholecystectomy can be performed reliably; however, owing to the significant increase in operating room resources, it

Getting started with robotics in general surgery with cholecystectomy: the Canadian experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Jayaraman, Shiva; Davies, Ward; Schlachta, Christopher M

2009-10-01

The value of robotics in general surgery may be for advanced minimally invasive procedures. Unlike other specialties, formal fellowship training opportunities for robotic general surgery are few. As a result, most surgeons currently develop robotic skills in practice. Our goal was to determine whether robotic cholecystectomy is a safe and effective bridge to advanced robotics in general surgery. Before performing advanced robotic procedures, 2 surgeons completed the Intuitive Surgical da Vinci training course and agreed to work together on all procedures. Clinical surgery began with da Vinci cholecystectomy with a plan to begin advanced procedures after at least 10 cholecystectomies. We performed a retrospective review of our pilot series of robotic cholecystectomies and compared them with contemporaneous laparoscopic controls. The primary outcome was safety, and the secondary outcome was learning curve. There were 16 procedures in the robotics arm and 20 in the laparoscopic arm. Two complications (da Vinci port-site hernia, transient elevation of liver enzymes) occurred in the robotic arm, whereas only 1 laparoscopic patient (slow to awaken from anesthetic) experienced a complication. None was significant. The mean time required to perform robotic cholecystectomy was significantly longer than laparoscopic surgery (91 v. 41 min, p robotic procedures (14 v. 11 min, p = 0.015). We observed a trend showing longer mean anesthesia time for robotic procedures (23 v. 15 min). Regarding learning curve, the mean operative time needed for the first 3 robotic procedures was longer than for the last 3 (101 v. 80 min); however, this difference was not significant. Since this experience, the team has confidently gone on to perform robotic biliary, pancreatic, gastresophageal, intestinal and colorectal operations. Robotic cholecystectomy can be performed reliably; however, owing to the significant increase in operating room resources, it cannot be justified for routine use. Our

Experience with the Surveyor mobile robot in radioactive work environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kniazewycz, B.G.; Darvish, A.R.; Irving, T.L.

1986-01-01

This paper summarizes the development and implementation history of the Surveyor mobile robotic device from November 1985 through August 1986. This two-tracked remotely controlled tetherless device is used to conduct surveillance and inspection and light maintenance missions in nuclear power plants. Surveyor's relatively light weight (<400 lb) can easily be transported manually from location to location. The total maximum payload of the device, which is able to climb 40-deg stairs, is up to 300 lb when transported on a level floor. Surveyor can traverse through 14 in. of water and over 9-in.-high obstacles. Standard accessories include radiation detector, humidity monitor, temperature measurement, sound detection and position/ranging, and a standard video or CCD camera having a wide angle and telephoto lens. These devices are mounted on a 3 degree-of-freedom articulated arm with halogen lights

Autonomous mobile robot teams

Science.gov (United States)

Agah, Arvin; Bekey, George A.

1994-01-01

This paper describes autonomous mobile robot teams performing tasks in unstructured environments. The behavior and the intelligence of the group is distributed, and the system does not include a central command base or leader. The novel concept of the Tropism-Based Cognitive Architecture is introduced, which is used by the robots in order to produce behavior transforming their sensory information to proper action. The results of a number of simulation experiments are presented. These experiments include worlds where the robot teams must locate, decompose, and gather objects, and defend themselves against hostile predators, while navigating around stationary and mobile obstacles.

The technical development of steerable catheter robot in performing interventional vascular surgery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

He Zhixiu; Qian Wei; Song Chengli

2011-01-01

Minimally invasive surgery is one of the primary means for the treatment of vascular diseases. The catheter is one of the main operating tools. As the vascular system is quite complicated and tiny, it is usually very difficult for the operator to accurately and bare-handily accomplish the whole intravascular procedure. Therefore, with the rapid development of minimally invasive surgeries the practical study related to the clinical employment of steerable catheter robot has attracted the researchers' attention. This paper aims to describe the emergence and development history of steerable catheter robot and also to introduce the main achievements as well as the up-to-date progress in the researches relevant to steerable catheter robot that the have been obtained by research workers all over the world so far. The prospects for the future development of steerable catheter robot are briefly discussed. (authors)

Robotic Services at Home: An Initialization System Based on Robots' Information and User Preferences in Unknown Environments

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Nor Nur Safwati Mohd

2014-07-01

Full Text Available One important issue in robotic services is the construction of the robotic system in the actual environment. In other words, robots must perform environment sensing or have information on real objects, such as location and 3D dimensions, in order to live together with humans. It is crucial to have a mechanism to create an actual robotic system (intelligent space such that there is no initialization framework for the objects in the environment, or we have to perform SLAM and object recognition as well as mapping to generate a useful environmental database. In intelligent space research, normally the objects are attached to various sensors in order to extract the necessary information. However, that approach will highly depend on sensor accuracy and the robotic system will be burdened if there are too many sensors in an environment. Therefore, in this paper we present a system in which a robot can obtain information about an object and even create the furniture layout map for an unknown environment. Our approach is intended to improve home-based robotic services by taking into account the user or individual preferences for the Intelligent Space (IS. With this information, we can create an informational map of the home-based environment for the realization of robot assistance of humans in their daily activities at home, especially for disabled people. The result shows the system design and development in our approach by using model-based system engineering.

Intracranial neurenteric cyst traversing the brainstem

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Jasmit Singh

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Neurenteric cysts (NECs, also called enterogenous cysts, are rare benign endodermal lesions of the central nervous system that probably result from separation failure of the notochord and upper gastrointestinal tract. Most frequently they are found in the lower cervical spine or the upper thoracic spine. Intracranial occurrence is rare and mostly confined to infratentorial compartment, in prepontine region [51%]. Other common locations are fourth ventricle and cerebellopontine angle. There are few reports of NEC in medulla or the cerebellum. Because of the rarity of the disease and common radiological findings, they are misinterpreted as arachnoid or simple cysts until the histopathological confirmation, unless suspected preoperatively. We herein report a rare yet interesting case of intracranial NEC traversing across the brainstem.

Using insects to drive mobile robots - hybrid robots bridge the gap between biological and artificial systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Ando, Noriyasu; Kanzaki, Ryohei

2017-09-01

The use of mobile robots is an effective method of validating sensory-motor models of animals in a real environment. The well-identified insect sensory-motor systems have been the major targets for modeling. Furthermore, mobile robots implemented with such insect models attract engineers who aim to avail advantages from organisms. However, directly comparing the robots with real insects is still difficult, even if we successfully model the biological systems, because of the physical differences between them. We developed a hybrid robot to bridge the gap. This hybrid robot is an insect-controlled robot, in which a tethered male silkmoth (Bombyx mori) drives the robot in order to localize an odor source. This robot has the following three advantages: 1) from a biomimetic perspective, the robot enables us to evaluate the potential performance of future insect-mimetic robots; 2) from a biological perspective, the robot enables us to manipulate the closed-loop of an onboard insect for further understanding of its sensory-motor system; and 3) the robot enables comparison with insect models as a reference biological system. In this paper, we review the recent works regarding insect-controlled robots and discuss the significance for both engineering and biology. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Robot-Aided Neurorehabilitation: A Pediatric Robot for Ankle Rehabilitation.

Science.gov (United States)

Michmizos, Konstantinos P; Rossi, Stefano; Castelli, Enrico; Cappa, Paolo; Krebs, Hermano Igo

2015-11-01

This paper presents the pediAnklebot, an impedance-controlled low-friction, backdriveable robotic device developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that trains the ankle of neurologically impaired children of ages 6-10 years old. The design attempts to overcome the known limitations of the lower extremity robotics and the unknown difficulties of what constitutes an appropriate therapeutic interaction with children. The robot's pilot clinical evaluation is on-going and it incorporates our recent findings on the ankle sensorimotor control in neurologically intact subjects, namely the speed-accuracy tradeoff, the deviation from an ideally smooth ankle trajectory, and the reaction time. We used these concepts to develop the kinematic and kinetic performance metrics that guided the ankle therapy in a similar fashion that we have done for our upper extremity devices. Here we report on the use of the device in at least nine training sessions for three neurologically impaired children. Results demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in the performance metrics assessing explicit and implicit motor learning. Based on these initial results, we are confident that the device will become an effective tool that harnesses plasticity to guide habilitation during childhood.

Robotic-assisted thermal ablation of liver tumours

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abdullah, Basri Johan Jeet; Yeong, Chai Hong; Goh, Khean Lee; Yoong, Boon Koon; Ho, Gwo Fuang; Yim, Carolyn Chue Wai; Kulkarni, Anjali

2015-01-01

This study aimed to assess the technical success, radiation dose, safety and performance level of liver thermal ablation using a computed tomography (CT)-guided robotic positioning system. Radiofrequency and microwave ablation of liver tumours were performed on 20 patients (40 lesions) with the assistance of a CT-guided robotic positioning system. The accuracy of probe placement, number of readjustments and total radiation dose to each patient were recorded. The performance level was evaluated on a five-point scale (5-1: excellent-poor). The radiation doses were compared against 30 patients with 48 lesions (control) treated without robotic assistance. Thermal ablation was successfully completed in 20 patients with 40 lesions and confirmed on multiphasic contrast-enhanced CT. No procedure related complications were noted in this study. The average number of needle readjustment was 0.8 ± 0.8. The total CT dose (DLP) for the entire robotic assisted thermal ablation was 1382 ± 536 mGy.cm, while the CT fluoroscopic dose (DLP) per lesion was 352 ± 228 mGy.cm. There was no statistically significant (p > 0.05) dose reduction found between the robotic-assisted versus the conventional method. This study revealed that robotic-assisted planning and needle placement appears to be safe, with high accuracy and a comparable radiation dose to patients. (orig.)

Robotic-assisted thermal ablation of liver tumours

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abdullah, Basri Johan Jeet; Yeong, Chai Hong [University of Malaya, Department of Biomedical Imaging and University of Malaya Research Imaging Centre, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); University of Malaya, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Goh, Khean Lee [University of Malaya, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Yoong, Boon Koon [University of Malaya, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Ho, Gwo Fuang [University of Malaya, Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Yim, Carolyn Chue Wai [University of Malaya, Department of Anesthesia, Faculty of Medicine, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Kulkarni, Anjali [Perfint Healthcare Corporation, Florence, OR (United States)

2015-01-15

This study aimed to assess the technical success, radiation dose, safety and performance level of liver thermal ablation using a computed tomography (CT)-guided robotic positioning system. Radiofrequency and microwave ablation of liver tumours were performed on 20 patients (40 lesions) with the assistance of a CT-guided robotic positioning system. The accuracy of probe placement, number of readjustments and total radiation dose to each patient were recorded. The performance level was evaluated on a five-point scale (5-1: excellent-poor). The radiation doses were compared against 30 patients with 48 lesions (control) treated without robotic assistance. Thermal ablation was successfully completed in 20 patients with 40 lesions and confirmed on multiphasic contrast-enhanced CT. No procedure related complications were noted in this study. The average number of needle readjustment was 0.8 ± 0.8. The total CT dose (DLP) for the entire robotic assisted thermal ablation was 1382 ± 536 mGy.cm, while the CT fluoroscopic dose (DLP) per lesion was 352 ± 228 mGy.cm. There was no statistically significant (p > 0.05) dose reduction found between the robotic-assisted versus the conventional method. This study revealed that robotic-assisted planning and needle placement appears to be safe, with high accuracy and a comparable radiation dose to patients. (orig.)

Uncertainty covariances in robotics applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, D.L.

1984-01-01

The application of uncertainty covariance matrices in the analysis of robot trajectory errors is explored. First, relevant statistical concepts are reviewed briefly. Then, a simple, hypothetical robot model is considered to illustrate methods for error propagation and performance test data evaluation. The importance of including error correlations is emphasized

Robotic Assisted Transanal Polypectomies: Is There Any Indication?

Science.gov (United States)

Gómez Ruiz, Marcos; Cagigas Fernández, Carmen; Alonso Martín, Joaquín; Cristobal Poch, Lidia; Manuel Palazuelos, Carlos; Barredo Cañibano, Francisco Javier; Gómez Fleitas, Manuel; Castillo Diego, Julio

2017-12-01

Robotic assisted transanal polipectomy may have advantages compared with the conventional transanal minimally invasive surgery technique. We evaluate the safety, feasibility and advantages of this technique. Between February 2014 and October 2015, 9patients underwent robotic transanal polypectomy. We performed a retrospective study in which we analyse prospectively collected data regarding patient and tumor characteristics, perioperative outcomes, pathological report, morbidity and mortality. A total of 5 male and 4 female patients underwent robotic TAMIS. Lesions were 6,22cm from the anal verge. Mean size was 15,8cm 2 . All procedures were performed in the lithotomy position. Closure of the defect was performed in all cases. Mean blood loss was 39,8ml. Mean operative time was 71,9min. No severe postoperative complications or readmissions occured. Median hospital stay was 2,5 days. Robotic TAMIS is useful to treat complex rectal lesions. Our transanal platform allowed a wider range of movements of the robotic arms and to perform all procedures in the lithotomy position. Copyright © 2017 AEC. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Robotics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scheide, A.W.

1983-01-01

This article reviews some of the technical areas and history associated with robotics, provides information relative to the formation of a Robotics Industry Committee within the Industry Applications Society (IAS), and describes how all activities relating to robotics will be coordinated within the IEEE. Industrial robots are being used for material handling, processes such as coating and arc welding, and some mechanical and electronics assembly. An industrial robot is defined as a programmable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools, or specialized devices through variable programmed motions for a variety of tasks. The initial focus of the Robotics Industry Committee will be on the application of robotics systems to the various industries that are represented within the IAS

Co-visualization of DNA damage and ion traversals in live mammalian cells using a fluorescent nuclear track detector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kodaira, Satoshi; Konishi, Teruaki; Kobayashi, Alisa

2015-01-01

The geometric locations of ion traversals in mammalian cells constitute important information in the study of heavy ion-induced biological effect. Single ion traversal through a cellular nucleus produces complex and massive DNA damage at a nanometer level, leading to cell inactivation, mutations and transformation. We present a novel approach that uses a fluorescent nuclear track detector (FNTD) for the simultaneous detection of the geometrical images of ion traversals and DNA damage in single cells using confocal microscopy. HT1080 or HT1080–53BP1-GFP cells were cultured on the surface of a FNTD and exposed to 5.1-MeV/n neon ions. The positions of the ion traversals were obtained as fluorescent images of a FNTD. Localized DNA damage in cells was identified as fluorescent spots of γ-H2AX or 53BP1-GFP. These track images and images of damaged DNA were obtained in a short time using a confocal laser scanning microscope. The geometrical distribution of DNA damage indicated by fluorescent γ-H2AX spots in fixed cells or fluorescent 53BP1-GFP spots in living cells was found to correlate well with the distribution of the ion traversals. This method will be useful for evaluating the number of ion hits on individual cells, not only for micro-beam but also for random-beam experiments. (author)

Future use of robots in the automotive industry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kelly, M P

1982-01-01

The future will see a dramatic increase in the number of robots used in the automotive industry. Well established applications, such as resistance spot welding, will continue to grow in the short term. Longer term, the much wider use of structural adhesives will supplant the spot welding process with robots applying the adhesives. Practical perception systems will enhance robot performance in arc welding, grinding, fettling, seam sealing and assembly operations, leading again to robot growth as vital elements of truly flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). A major robotic impact will be made in automotive paint shops as the need to conserve energy increases. The development of alternative painting materials, offering improved performance will add further impetus. Robotics of the future will progressively move to a CAD/CAM orientated data base, offering off-line programming capability, which together with essential inspection elements, will provide the means for totally automatic manufacture.

Informed Design to Robotic Production Systems; Developing Robotic 3D Printing System for Informed Material Deposition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mostafavi, S.; Bier, H.; Bodea, S.; Anton, A.M.

2015-01-01

This paper discusses the development of an informed Design-to-Robotic-Production (D2RP) system for additive manufacturing to achieve performative porosity in architecture at various scales. An extended series of experiments on materiality, fabrication and robotics were designed and carried out

A Preliminary Study of Peer-to-Peer Human-Robot Interaction

Science.gov (United States)

Fong, Terrence; Flueckiger, Lorenzo; Kunz, Clayton; Lees, David; Schreiner, John; Siegel, Michael; Hiatt, Laura M.; Nourbakhsh, Illah; Simmons, Reid; Ambrose, Robert

2006-01-01

The Peer-to-Peer Human-Robot Interaction (P2P-HRI) project is developing techniques to improve task coordination and collaboration between human and robot partners. Our work is motivated by the need to develop effective human-robot teams for space mission operations. A central element of our approach is creating dialogue and interaction tools that enable humans and robots to flexibly support one another. In order to understand how this approach can influence task performance, we recently conducted a series of tests simulating a lunar construction task with a human-robot team. In this paper, we describe the tests performed, discuss our initial results, and analyze the effect of intervention on task performance.

Controller design for Robotic hand through Electroencephalogram

OpenAIRE

Pandelidis P.; Kiriazis N.; Orgianelis K.; Koulios N.

2016-01-01

- This paper deals with the designing, the construction and the control of a robotic hand via an electroencephalogram sensor. First a robotic device that is able to mimic a real human hand is constructed. A PID controller is designed in order to improve the performance of the robotic arm for grabbing objects. Furthermore, a novel design approach is presented for controlling the motion of the robotic arm using signals produced from an innovative electroencephalogram sensor that detects the con...

Human-Robot Interaction

Science.gov (United States)

Rochlis-Zumbado, Jennifer; Sandor, Aniko; Ezer, Neta

2012-01-01

Risk of Inadequate Design of Human and Automation/Robotic Integration (HARI) is a new Human Research Program (HRP) risk. HRI is a research area that seeks to understand the complex relationship among variables that affect the way humans and robots work together to accomplish goals. The DRP addresses three major HRI study areas that will provide appropriate information for navigation guidance to a teleoperator of a robot system, and contribute to the closure of currently identified HRP gaps: (1) Overlays -- Use of overlays for teleoperation to augment the information available on the video feed (2) Camera views -- Type and arrangement of camera views for better task performance and awareness of surroundings (3) Command modalities -- Development of gesture and voice command vocabularies

Enabling Effective Human-Robot Interaction Using Perspective-Taking in Robots

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Trafton, J. G; Cassimatis, Nicholas L; Bugajska, Magdalena D; Brock, Derek P; Mintz, Farilee E; Schultz, Alan C

2005-01-01

...) and present a cognitive architecture for performing perspective-taking called Polyscheme. Finally, we show a fully integrated system that instantiates our theoretical framework within a working robot system...

Artificial heart for humanoid robot

Science.gov (United States)

Potnuru, Akshay; Wu, Lianjun; Tadesse, Yonas

2014-03-01

A soft robotic device inspired by the pumping action of a biological heart is presented in this study. Developing artificial heart to a humanoid robot enables us to make a better biomedical device for ultimate use in humans. As technology continues to become more advanced, the methods in which we implement high performance and biomimetic artificial organs is getting nearer each day. In this paper, we present the design and development of a soft artificial heart that can be used in a humanoid robot and simulate the functions of a human heart using shape memory alloy technology. The robotic heart is designed to pump a blood-like fluid to parts of the robot such as the face to simulate someone blushing or when someone is angry by the use of elastomeric substrates and certain features for the transport of fluids.

Increased performance in a bottom-up designed robot by experimentally guided redesign

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Jørgen Christian

2013-01-01

Purpose – Using a bottom-up, model-free approach when building robots is often seen as a less scientific way, compared to a top-down model-based approach, because the results are not easily generalizable to other systems. The authors, however, hypothesize that this problem may be addressed by using...... the bottom-up, mode-free approach, the authors used the robotic construction kit, LocoKit. This construction kit allows researchers to construct legged robots, without having a mathematical model beforehand. The authors used no specific mathematical model to design the robot, but instead used intuition...... solid experimental methods. The purpose of this paper is to show how well-known experimental methods from bio-mechanics are used to measure and locate weaknesses in a bottom-up, model-free implementation of a quadruped walker and come up with a better solution. Design/methodology/approach – To study...

An Ultralightweight and Living Legged Robot.

Science.gov (United States)

Vo Doan, Tat Thang; Tan, Melvin Y W; Bui, Xuan Hien; Sato, Hirotaka

2018-02-01

In this study, we describe the most ultralightweight living legged robot to date that makes it a strong candidate for a search and rescue mission. The robot is a living beetle with a wireless electronic backpack stimulator mounted on its thorax. Inheriting from the living insect, the robot employs a compliant body made of soft actuators, rigid exoskeletons, and flexure hinges. Such structure would allow the robot to easily adapt to any complex terrain due to the benefit of soft interface, self-balance, and self-adaptation of the insect without any complex controller. The antenna stimulation enables the robot to perform not only left/right turning but also backward walking and even cessation of walking. We were also able to grade the turning and backward walking speeds by changing the stimulation frequency. The power required to drive the robot is low as the power consumption of the antenna stimulation is in the order of hundreds of microwatts. In contrast to the traditional legged robots, this robot is of low cost, easy to construct, simple to control, and has ultralow power consumption.

Experiments on co-operating robot arms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arthaya, B.; De Schutter, J.

1994-01-01

When two robots manipulate a common object or perform a single task together, a closed-kinematic chain is formed. If both robots are controlled under position control only, at a certain phase during the manipulation, the interaction forces may become unacceptably high. The interaction forces are caused by the kinematic as well as the dynamic errors in the robot position controller. In order to avoid this problem, a synchronized motion between both robots has to be generated, not only by controlling the position (velocity) of the two end-effectors, but also by controlling the interaction forces between them. In order to generate a synchronized motion, the first robot controller continuously modifies the task frame velocity corresponding to the velocity of the other robot. This implies that the velocity of the other robot is used as feed-forward information in order to anticipate its motion. This approach results in a better tracking behaviour

Avoiding object by robot using neural network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prasetijo, D.W.

1997-01-01

A Self controlling robot is necessary in the robot application in which operator control is difficult. Serial method such as process on the computer of van newman is difficult to be applied for self controlling robot. In this research, Neural network system for robotic control system was developed by performance expanding at the SCARA. In this research, it was shown that SCARA with application at Neural network system can avoid blocking objects without influence by number and density of the blocking objects, also departure and destination paint. robot developed by this study also can control its moving by self

Transferring human impedance regulation skills to robots

CERN Document Server

Ajoudani, Arash

2016-01-01

This book introduces novel thinking and techniques to the control of robotic manipulation. In particular, the concept of teleimpedance control as an alternative method to bilateral force-reflecting teleoperation control for robotic manipulation is introduced. In teleimpedance control, a compound reference command is sent to the slave robot including both the desired motion trajectory and impedance profile, which are then realized by the remote controller. This concept forms a basis for the development of the controllers for a robotic arm, a dual-arm setup, a synergy-driven robotic hand, and a compliant exoskeleton for improved interaction performance.

Vision-Based Recognition of Activities by a Humanoid Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mounîm A. El-Yacoubi

2015-12-01

Full Text Available We present an autonomous assistive robotic system for human activity recognition from video sequences. Due to the large variability inherent to video capture from a non-fixed robot (as opposed to a fixed camera, as well as the robot's limited computing resources, implementation has been guided by robustness to this variability and by memory and computing speed efficiency. To accommodate motion speed variability across users, we encode motion using dense interest point trajectories. Our recognition model harnesses the dense interest point bag-of-words representation through an intersection kernel-based SVM that better accommodates the large intra-class variability stemming from a robot operating in different locations and conditions. To contextually assess the engine as implemented in the robot, we compare it with the most recent approaches of human action recognition performed on public datasets (non-robot-based, including a novel approach of our own that is based on a two-layer SVM-hidden conditional random field sequential recognition model. The latter's performance is among the best within the recent state of the art. We show that our robot-based recognition engine, while less accurate than the sequential model, nonetheless shows good performances, especially given the adverse test conditions of the robot, relative to those of a fixed camera.

Robotic laparoscopic surgery: cost and training.

Science.gov (United States)

Amodeo, A; Linares Quevedo, A; Joseph, J V; Belgrano, E; Patel, H R H

2009-06-01

The advantages of minimally invasive surgery are well accepted. Shorter hospital stays, decreased postoperative pain, rapid return to preoperative activity, decreased postoperative ileus, and preserved immune function are among the benefits of the laparoscopic approach. However, the instruments of laparoscopy afford surgeons limited precision and poor ergonomics, and their use is associated with a significant learning curve and the amount of time and energy necessary to develop and maintain such advanced laparoscopic skills is not insignificant. The robotic surgery allows all laparoscopists to perform advanced laparoscopic procedures with greater ease. The potential advantages of surgical robotic systems include making advanced laparoscopic surgical procedures accessible to surgeons who do not have advanced video endoscopic training and broadening the scope of surgical procedures that can be performed using the laparoscopic method. The wristed instruments, x10 magnifications, tremor filtering, scaling of movements and three-dimensional view allow the urologist to perform the intricate dissection and anastomosis with high precision. The robot is not, however, without significant disadvantages as compared with traditional laparoscopy. These include greater expense and consumption of operating room resources such as space and the availability of skilled technical staff, complete elimination of tactile feedback, and more limited options for trocar placement. The current cost of the da Vinci system is $ 1.2 million and annual maintenance is $ 138000. Many studies suggest that depreciation and maintenance costs can be minimised if the number of robotic cases is increased. The high cost of purchasing and maintaining the instruments of the robotic system is one of its many disadvantages. The availability of the robotic systems to only a limited number of centres reduces surgical training opportunities. Hospital administrators and surgeons must define the reasons for

Robotic system for glovebox size reduction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

KWOK, KWAN S.; MCDONALD, MICHAEL J.

2000-01-01

The Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center (ISRC) at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is developing technologies for glovebox size reduction in the DOE nuclear complex. A study was performed for Kaiser-Hill (KH) at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS) on the available technologies for size reducing the glovebox lines that require size reduction in place. Currently, the baseline approach to these glovebox lines is manual operations using conventional mechanical cutting methods. The study has been completed and resulted in a concept of the robotic system for in-situ size reduction. The concept makes use of commercially available robots that are used in the automotive industry. The commercially available industrial robots provide high reliability and availability that are required for environmental remediation in the DOE complex. Additionally, the costs of commercial robots are about one-fourth that of the custom made robots for environmental remediation. The reason for the lower costs and the higher reliability is that there are thousands of commercial robots made annually, whereas there are only a few custom robots made for environmental remediation every year. This paper will describe the engineering analysis approach used in the design of the robotic system for glovebox size reduction

Stress analysis for robot arm version 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anwar Abdul Rahman; Fikri, A.; Salleh, M. S.; Mohd Arif Hamzah; Azraf Azman; Rosli Darmawan; Mohd Rizal Mamat

2010-01-01

The design of a robot needs to be analyzed to ensure the specification and requirement by the user is full filled. Therefore, stress analysis has been performed on the robot arm version 2 after its complete fabrication. This paper discusses the result of the analysis and proposed measures to improve the future design of robot arm. (author)

Radical nephrectomy performed by open, laparoscopy with or without hand-assistance or robotic methods by the same surgeon produces comparable perioperative results

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tanya Nazemi

2006-02-01

Full Text Available PURPOSE: Radical nephrectomy can be performed using open or laparoscopic (with or without hand assistance methods, and most recently using the da Vinci Surgical Robotic System. We evaluated the perioperative outcomes using a contemporary cohort of patients undergoing radical nephrectomy by one of the above 4 methods performed by the same surgeon. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The relevant clinical information on 57 consecutive patients undergoing radical nephrectomy from September 2000 until July 2004 by a single surgeon was entered in a Microsoft Access DatabaseTM and queried. Following appropriate statistical analysis, p values < 0.05 were considered significant. RESULTS: Of 57 patients, the open, robotic, laparoscopy with or without hand assistance radical nephrectomy were performed in 18, 6, 21, and 12 patients, respectively. The age, sex, body mass index (BMI, incidence of malignancy, specimen and tumor size, tumor stage, Fuhrman grade, hospital stay, change in postoperative creatinine, drop in hemoglobin, and perioperative complications were not significantly different between the methods. While the estimated median blood loss, postoperative narcotic use for pain control, and hospital stay were significantly higher in the open surgery method (p < 0.05, the median operative time was significantly shorter compared to the robotic method (p = 0.02. Operating room costs were significantly higher in the robotic and laparoscopic groups; however, there was no significant difference in total hospital costs between the 4 groups. CONCLUSIONS: The study demonstrates that radical nephrectomy can be safely performed either by open, robotic, or laparoscopic with or without hand assistance methods without significant difference in perioperative complication rates. A larger cohort and longer follow up are needed to validate our findings and establish oncological outcomes.

Safety issues in robotic handling of nuclear weapon parts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Drotning, W.; Wapman, W.; Fahrenholtz, J.

1993-01-01

Robotic systems are being developed by the Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center at Sandia National Laboratories to perform automated handling tasks with radioactive weapon parts. These systems will reduce the occupational radiation exposure to workers by automating operations that are currently performed manually. The robotic systems at Sandia incorporate several levels of mechanical, electrical, and software safety for handling hazardous materials. For example, tooling used by the robot to handle radioactive parts has been designed with mechanical features that allow the robot to release its payload only at designated locations in the robotic workspace. In addition, software processes check for expected and unexpected situations throughout the operations. Incorporation of features such as these provides multiple levels of safety for handling hazardous or valuable payloads with automated intelligent systems

Sociable Robots Through Self-Maintained Energy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Trung Dung Ngo

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Research of autonomous mobile robots has mostly emphasized interaction and coordination that are natually inspired from biological behavior of birds, insects, and fish: flocking, foraging, collecting, and sharing. However, most research has been only focused on autonomous behaviors in order to perform robots like animals, whereas it is lacked of determinant to those behaviours: energy. Approaching to clusted amimal and the higher, collective and sharing food among individuals are major activity to keep society being. This paper issues an approach to sociable robots using self-maintained energy in cooperative mobile robots, which is dominantly inspired from swarm behavior of collecting and sharing food of honey-bee and ant. Autonomous mobile robots are usually equipped with a finite energy, thus they can operate in a finite time. To overcome the finitude, we describe practical deployment of mobile robots that are capable of carrying and exchanging fuel to other robots. Mechanism implementation including modular hardware and control architecture to demonstrate the capabicities of the approach is presented. Subsequently, the battery exchange algorithm basically based on probabilistic modeling of total energy on each robot located in its local vicinity is described. The paper is concluded with challenging works of chain of mobile robots, rescue, repair, and relation of heterogeneous robots.