Interoperability of Standards for Robotics in CIME

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kroszynski, Uri; Sørensen, Torben; Ludwig, Arnold

1997-01-01

Esprit Project 6457 "Interoperability of Standards for Robotics in CIME (InterRob)" belongs to the Subprogramme "Integration in Manufacturing" of Esprit, the European Specific Programme for Research and Development in Information Technology supported by the European Commision.The first main goal...... of InterRob was to close the information chain between product design, simulation, programming, and robot control by developing standardized interfaces and their software implementation for standards STEP (International Standard for the Exchange of Product model data, ISO 10303) and IRL (Industrial Robot...... Language, DIN 66312). This is a continuation of the previous Esprit projects CAD*I and NIRO, which developed substantial basics of STEP.The InterRob approach is based on standardized models for product geometry, kinematics, robotics, dynamics and control, hence on a coherent neutral information model...

Indiana Health Information Exchange

Science.gov (United States)

The Indiana Health Information Exchange is comprised of various Indiana health care institutions, established to help improve patient safety and is recognized as a best practice for health information exchange.

Exchange of Information in Tax Matters

OpenAIRE

Paweł Szwajdler

2017-01-01

The main aim of this paper is to present issues related to exchange of tax information. The author focuses on models of exchange of information and boundaries of obligations in reference to above-mentioned problems. Automatic exchange of information, spontaneous exchange of information and exchange of information on request are analysed in this work on the base of OECD Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, Council Directive 2011/16 and OECD Model Agreement on Exchange...

ESPRIT Project 6457: Interoperability of Standards for Robotics in CIME

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Haenisch, Jorchen; Kroszynski, Uri; Ludwig, Arnold

The groving need for accurate information about manufacturing data (models of robots and other mechanisms)in diverse industrial applications has initiated ESPRIT Project 6457 InterRob.This InterRob "Specification of a STEP Based Reference Model for Exchange of Robotics Models" act as a basis...

Advancing the Strategic Messages Affecting Robot Trust Effect: The Dynamic of User- and Robot-Generated Content on Human-Robot Trust and Interaction Outcomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Yuhua Jake; Lee, Seungcheol Austin

2016-09-01

Human-robot interaction (HRI) will soon transform and shift the communication landscape such that people exchange messages with robots. However, successful HRI requires people to trust robots, and, in turn, the trust affects the interaction. Although prior research has examined the determinants of human-robot trust (HRT) during HRI, no research has examined the messages that people received before interacting with robots and their effect on HRT. We conceptualize these messages as SMART (Strategic Messages Affecting Robot Trust). Moreover, we posit that SMART can ultimately affect actual HRI outcomes (i.e., robot evaluations, robot credibility, participant mood) by affording the persuasive influences from user-generated content (UGC) on participatory Web sites. In Study 1, participants were assigned to one of two conditions (UGC/control) in an original experiment of HRT. Compared with the control (descriptive information only), results showed that UGC moderated the correlation between HRT and interaction outcomes in a positive direction (average Δr = +0.39) for robots as media and robots as tools. In Study 2, we explored the effect of robot-generated content but did not find similar moderation effects. These findings point to an important empirical potential to employ SMART in future robot deployment.

Towards automatic exchange of information

OpenAIRE

Oberson, Xavier

2015-01-01

This article describes the various steps that led towards automatic exchange of information as the global standard and the issues that remain to be solved. First, the various competing models of exchange information, such as Double Tax Treaty (DTT), TIEA's, FATCA or UE Directives are described with a view to show how they interact between themselves. Second, the so-called Rubik Strategy is summarized and compared with an automatic exchange of information (AEOI). The third part then describes ...

Multiprocessor shared-memory information exchange

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Santoline, L.L.; Bowers, M.D.; Crew, A.W.; Roslund, C.J.; Ghrist, W.D. III

1989-01-01

In distributed microprocessor-based instrumentation and control systems, the inter-and intra-subsystem communication requirements ultimately form the basis for the overall system architecture. This paper describes a software protocol which addresses the intra-subsystem communications problem. Specifically the protocol allows for multiple processors to exchange information via a shared-memory interface. The authors primary goal is to provide a reliable means for information to be exchanged between central application processor boards (masters) and dedicated function processor boards (slaves) in a single computer chassis. The resultant Multiprocessor Shared-Memory Information Exchange (MSMIE) protocol, a standard master-slave shared-memory interface suitable for use in nuclear safety systems, is designed to pass unidirectional buffers of information between the processors while providing a minimum, deterministic cycle time for this data exchange

47 CFR 90.555 - Information exchange.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Information exchange. 90.555 Section 90.555...-805 MHz Bands § 90.555 Information exchange. (a) Prior notification. Public safety licensees... Safety Information Exchange. (1) Upon request by a 746-757, 758-763, 776-787, or 788-793 MHz band...

On the Efficiency of Local and Global Communication in Modular Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Garcia, Ricardo Franco Mendoza; Schultz, Ulrik Pagh; Støy, Kasper

2009-01-01

use parameters to describe the topology of modular robots, develop a probabilistic model of local communication using these parameters and, using a model of global communication from literature, compare the transmission times of local and global communication in different robots. Based on our results......As exchange of information is essential to modular robots, deciding between local or global communication is a common design choice. This choice, however, still lacks theoretical support. In this paper we analyse the efficiency of local and global communication in modular robots. To this end, we...

Control method for biped locomotion robots based on ZMP information

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kume, Etsuo

1994-01-01

The Human Acts Simulation Program (HASP) started as a ten year program of Computing and Information Systems Center (CISC) at Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) in 1987. A mechanical design study of biped locomotion robots for patrol and inspection in nuclear facilities is being performed as an item of the research scope. One of the goals of our research is to design a biped locomotion robot for practical use in nuclear facilities. So far, we have been studying for several dynamic walking patterns. In conventional control methods for biped locomotion robots, the program control is used based on preset walking patterns, so it dose not have the robustness such as a dynamic change of walking pattern. Therefore, a real-time control method based on dynamic information of the robot states is necessary for the high performance of walking. In this study a new control method based on Zero Moment Point (ZMP) information is proposed as one of real-time control methods. The proposed method is discussed and validated based on the numerical simulation. (author)

Towards Real-Time Distributed Planning in Multi-Robot Systems

KAUST Repository

Abdelkader, Mohamed

2018-01-01

of extensive information exchange (communication). The extensive communication between robots can result in decision delays because of which distributed architecture is often impractical for systems with strict real-time constraints, e.g. when decisions have

47 CFR 90.675 - Information exchange.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Information exchange. 90.675 Section 90.675... exchange. (a) Prior coordination. Public safety/CII licensees may notify an ESMR or part 22 Cellular... cell is activated. (c) Public safety information exchange. (1) Upon request by an ESMR or part 22...

International information exchange in fusion research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strickler, C.S.

1979-01-01

Formal and informal agreements exist between the US and several other countries, assuring the unrestricted exchange of magnetic fusion information. The Fusion Energy Library at Oak Ridge National Laboratory uses the US Department of Energy standard distribution system and exchange agreements to ensure the receipt of current reports. Selective dissemination of information, computer networks, and exchange programs are additional means for information gathering. The importance of these means as they relate to the fusion program in the US and specifically at ORNL is discussed

Service Robotics in Healthcare: A Perspective for Information Systems Researchers?

OpenAIRE

Garmann-Johnsen, Niels Frederik; Mettler, Tobias; Sprenger, Michaela

2014-01-01

Recent advances in electronics and telecommunication have paved the way for service robots to enter the clinical world. While service robotics has long been a core research theme in computer science and other engineering-related fields, it has attracted little interest of Information Systems (IS) researchers so far. We argue that service robotics represents an interesting area of investigation, especially for healthcare, since current research lacks a thorough examination of socio-technical p...

Exchanging information

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1971-01-01

The Agency has a statutory mandate to foster 'the exchange of scientific and technical information on the peaceful uses of atomic energy'. The prime responsibility for this work within the Agency lies with the Division of Scientific and Technical Information, a part of the Department of Technical Operations. The Division accomplishes its task by holding conferences and symposia (Scientific Conferences Section), through the Agency Library, by publishing scientific journals, and through the International Nuclear Information System (INIS). The Computer Section of the Division, which offers services to the Agency as a whole, provides resources for the automation of data storage and retrieval. (author)

Evaluation of unimodal and multimodal communication cues for attracting attention in human–robot interaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Torta, E.; van Heumen, J.; Piunti, F.; Romeo, L.; Cuijpers, R.H.

2015-01-01

One of the most common tasks of a robot companion in the home is communication. In order to initiate an information exchange with its human partner, the robot needs to attract the attention of the human. This paper presents results of two user studies ( N=12 ) to evaluate the effectiveness of

An Informationally Structured Room for Robotic Assistance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tokuo Tsuji

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The application of assistive technologies for elderly people is one of the most promising and interesting scenarios for intelligent technologies in the present and near future. Moreover, the improvement of the quality of life for the elderly is one of the first priorities in modern countries and societies. In this work, we present an informationally structured room that is aimed at supporting the daily life activities of elderly people. This room integrates different sensor modalities in a natural and non-invasive way inside the environment. The information gathered by the sensors is processed and sent to a centralized management system, which makes it available to a service robot assisting the people. One important restriction of our intelligent room is reducing as much as possible any interference with daily activities. Finally, this paper presents several experiments and situations using our intelligent environment in cooperation with our service robot.

75 FR 36456 - Channel America Television Network, Inc., EquiMed, Inc., Kore Holdings, Inc., Robotic Vision...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-06-25

... SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION [File No. 500-1] Channel America Television Network, Inc., EquiMed, Inc., Kore Holdings, Inc., Robotic Vision Systems, Inc. (n/k/a Acuity Cimatrix, Inc.), Security... accurate information concerning the securities of Robotic Vision Systems, Inc. (n/k/a Acuity Cimatrix, Inc...

47 CFR 22.880 - Information exchange.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Information exchange. 22.880 Section 22.880 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) COMMON CARRIER SERVICES PUBLIC MOBILE SERVICES Air-Ground Radiotelephone Service Commercial Aviation Air-Ground Systems § 22.880 Information exchange. (a...

47 CFR 22.973 - Information exchange.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Information exchange. 22.973 Section 22.973 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) COMMON CARRIER SERVICES PUBLIC MOBILE SERVICES Cellular Radiotelephone Service § 22.973 Information exchange. (a) Prior notification. Public safety/CII...

4th International Conference on Advanced Robotics

CERN Document Server

1989-01-01

The Fourth International Conference on Advanced Robotics was held in Columbus, Ohio, U. S. A. on June 13th to 15th, 1989. The first two conferences in this series were held in Tokyo. The third was held in Versailles, France in October 1987. The International Conference on Advanced Robotics is affiliated with the International Federation of Robotics. This conference was sponsored by The Ohio State University. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers was a cooperating co-sponsor. The objective of the International Conference on Advanced Robotics is to provide an international exchange of information on the topic of advanced robotics. This was adopted as one of the themes for international research cooperation at a meeting of representatives of seven industrialized countries held in Williamsburg, U. S. A. in May 1983. The present conference is truly international in character with contributions from authors of twelve countries. (Bulgaria, Canada, France, Great Britain, India, Italy, Japan, Peoples Republic o...

40 CFR 22.52 - Information exchange and discovery.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... Procedure Act § 22.52 Information exchange and discovery. Respondent's information exchange pursuant to § 22.19(a) shall include information on any economic benefit resulting from any activity or failure to act... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Information exchange and discovery. 22...

INFORMATION EXCHANGE AND SUPPLY CHAIN PERFORMANCE

OpenAIRE

T. RAMAYAH; ROAIMAH OMAR

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of operational and strategic information exchange on supply chain performance and the moderating role of information quality in relation to both operational and strategic information exchange. The study was conducted using manufacturing companies located in the Northern region of Malaysia. Hierarchical multiple regressions were applied to test the hypotheses developed for the study. It was found that operational and strategic information exc...

Information theory and robotics meet to study predator-prey interactions

Science.gov (United States)

Neri, Daniele; Ruberto, Tommaso; Cord-Cruz, Gabrielle; Porfiri, Maurizio

2017-07-01

Transfer entropy holds promise to advance our understanding of animal behavior, by affording the identification of causal relationships that underlie animal interactions. A critical step toward the reliable implementation of this powerful information-theoretic concept entails the design of experiments in which causal relationships could be systematically controlled. Here, we put forward a robotics-based experimental approach to test the validity of transfer entropy in the study of predator-prey interactions. We investigate the behavioral response of zebrafish to a fear-evoking robotic stimulus, designed after the morpho-physiology of the red tiger oscar and actuated along preprogrammed trajectories. From the time series of the positions of the zebrafish and the robotic stimulus, we demonstrate that transfer entropy correctly identifies the influence of the stimulus on the focal subject. Building on this evidence, we apply transfer entropy to study the interactions between zebrafish and a live red tiger oscar. The analysis of transfer entropy reveals a change in the direction of the information flow, suggesting a mutual influence between the predator and the prey, where the predator adapts its strategy as a function of the movement of the prey, which, in turn, adjusts its escape as a function of the predator motion. Through the integration of information theory and robotics, this study posits a new approach to study predator-prey interactions in freshwater fish.

Information Engineering in Autonomous Robot Software

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ziafati, P.

2015-01-01

In order to engage and help in our daily life, autonomous robots are to operate in dynamic and unstructured environments and interact with people. As the robot's environment and its behaviour are getting more complex, so are the robot's software and the knowledge that the robot needs to carry out

Trend of development of robots for nuclear facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maki, Hideo; Sasaki, Masayoshi

1984-01-01

Robot technology becomes more and more important in the field of atomic energy industries. Hitachi Ltd. has energetically engaged in the development of the robot technology for nuclear facilities, recognizing these situations. The course of the development of robot technology and the robots for nuclear facilities is described. As the practical examples of the robots for nuclear facilities, there have been automatic fuel exchangers, the remotely operated automatic exchangers for control rod driving mechanism, automatic and semi-automatic ultrasonic flaw detectors and so on. As the robots for nuclear facilities under development, control rod driving mechanism disassembling and cleaning system, the volume reduction device for spent fuel channel boxes and control rods and others are reported. (Kako, I.)

Construction Operations Building Information Exchange (COBIE)

Science.gov (United States)

2007-06-01

Swalley U.S. Department of State, Overseas Buildings Operations Toby Wilson U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers, Engineer R&D Center Jeff Wix AEC3 The...exchanged in COBIE. To map those information exchanges to the IFC model, the Information Delivery Manual (IDM) process [ Wix 2007] was also used. The...Folksonomy. Wikimedia Foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy/, accessed 3 August 2007. Wix , Jeffrey. 2007. Information Delivery Manual

Health Information Exchange: What do patients want?

Science.gov (United States)

Medford-Davis, Laura N; Chang, Lawrence; Rhodes, Karin V

2017-12-01

To determine whether emergency department patients want to share their medical records across health systems through Health Information Exchange and if so, whether they prefer to sign consent or share their records automatically, 982 adult patients presenting to an emergency department participated in a questionnaire-based interview. The majority (N = 906; 92.3%) were willing to share their data in a Health Information Exchange. Half (N = 490; 49.9%) reported routinely getting healthcare outside the system and 78.6 percent reported having records in other systems. Of those who were willing to share their data in a Health Information Exchange, 54.3 percent wanted to sign consent but 90 percent of those would waive consent in the case of an emergency. Privacy and security were primary concerns of patients not willing to participate in Health Information Exchange and preferring to sign consent. Improved privacy and security protections could increase participation, and findings support consideration of "break-the-glass" provider access to Health Information Exchange records in an emergent situation.

Hierarchical Spatial Concept Formation Based on Multimodal Information for Human Support Robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Hagiwara, Yoshinobu; Inoue, Masakazu; Kobayashi, Hiroyoshi; Taniguchi, Tadahiro

2018-01-01

In this paper, we propose a hierarchical spatial concept formation method based on the Bayesian generative model with multimodal information e.g., vision, position and word information. Since humans have the ability to select an appropriate level of abstraction according to the situation and describe their position linguistically, e.g., "I am in my home" and "I am in front of the table," a hierarchical structure of spatial concepts is necessary in order for human support robots to communicate smoothly with users. The proposed method enables a robot to form hierarchical spatial concepts by categorizing multimodal information using hierarchical multimodal latent Dirichlet allocation (hMLDA). Object recognition results using convolutional neural network (CNN), hierarchical k-means clustering result of self-position estimated by Monte Carlo localization (MCL), and a set of location names are used, respectively, as features in vision, position, and word information. Experiments in forming hierarchical spatial concepts and evaluating how the proposed method can predict unobserved location names and position categories are performed using a robot in the real world. Results verify that, relative to comparable baseline methods, the proposed method enables a robot to predict location names and position categories closer to predictions made by humans. As an application example of the proposed method in a home environment, a demonstration in which a human support robot moves to an instructed place based on human speech instructions is achieved based on the formed hierarchical spatial concept.

Hierarchical Spatial Concept Formation Based on Multimodal Information for Human Support Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yoshinobu Hagiwara

2018-03-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we propose a hierarchical spatial concept formation method based on the Bayesian generative model with multimodal information e.g., vision, position and word information. Since humans have the ability to select an appropriate level of abstraction according to the situation and describe their position linguistically, e.g., “I am in my home” and “I am in front of the table,” a hierarchical structure of spatial concepts is necessary in order for human support robots to communicate smoothly with users. The proposed method enables a robot to form hierarchical spatial concepts by categorizing multimodal information using hierarchical multimodal latent Dirichlet allocation (hMLDA. Object recognition results using convolutional neural network (CNN, hierarchical k-means clustering result of self-position estimated by Monte Carlo localization (MCL, and a set of location names are used, respectively, as features in vision, position, and word information. Experiments in forming hierarchical spatial concepts and evaluating how the proposed method can predict unobserved location names and position categories are performed using a robot in the real world. Results verify that, relative to comparable baseline methods, the proposed method enables a robot to predict location names and position categories closer to predictions made by humans. As an application example of the proposed method in a home environment, a demonstration in which a human support robot moves to an instructed place based on human speech instructions is achieved based on the formed hierarchical spatial concept.

Interaction between Task Oriented and Affective Information Processing in Cognitive Robotics

Science.gov (United States)

Haazebroek, Pascal; van Dantzig, Saskia; Hommel, Bernhard

There is an increasing interest in endowing robots with emotions. Robot control however is still often very task oriented. We present a cognitive architecture that allows the combination of and interaction between task representations and affective information processing. Our model is validated by comparing simulation results with empirical data from experimental psychology.

Development of the Research Platform of Small Autonomous Blimp Robot

Science.gov (United States)

Takaya, Toshihiko; Kawamura, Hidenori; Yamamoto, Masahito; Ohuchi, Azuma

A blimp robot is attractive as an small flight robot and can float in the air by buoyancy and realize safe to the crash small flight with low energy and can movement for a long time compared with other flight robots with low energy and can movement for a long time compared with other flight robots. However, control of an airplane robot is difficult for the nonlinear characteristic exposed to inertia by the air flow in response to influence. Therefore, the applied research which carried out the maximum use of such in recent years a blimp robot's feature is prosperous. In this paper, we realized development of blimp robot for research which can be used general-purpose by carrying out clue division of the blimp robot body at a unit, and constituting and building for research of blimp robot, and application development. On the other hand, by developing a general-purpose blimp robot research platform, improvement in the research efficiency of many researchers can be attained, and further, research start of blimp robot becomes easy and contributes to development of research. We performed the experiments for the above-mentioned proof. 1. Checked basic keeping position performance and that various orbital operation was possible. And the unit exchange ease of software unit was checked by the experiment which exchanges the control layer of software for learning control from PID control, and carries out comparison of operation. 2. In order to check the exchange ease of hardware unit, the sensor was exchanged for the microphon from the camera, and control of operation was checked. 3. For the unit addition ease, the microphon which carries out sound detection with the picture detection with a camera was added, and control of operation was verified. 4. The unit exchange was carried out for the check of a function addition and the topological map generation experiment by addition of an ultrasonic sensor was conducted. Developed blimp robot for research mounted the exchange ease

A Human-Robot Co-Manipulation Approach Based on Human Sensorimotor Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Peternel, Luka; Tsagarakis, Nikos; Ajoudani, Arash

2017-07-01

This paper aims to improve the interaction and coordination between the human and the robot in cooperative execution of complex, powerful, and dynamic tasks. We propose a novel approach that integrates online information about the human motor function and manipulability properties into the hybrid controller of the assistive robot. Through this human-in-the-loop framework, the robot can adapt to the human motor behavior and provide the appropriate assistive response in different phases of the cooperative task. We experimentally evaluate the proposed approach in two human-robot co-manipulation tasks that require specific complementary behavior from the two agents. Results suggest that the proposed technique, which relies on a minimum degree of task-level pre-programming, can achieve an enhanced physical human-robot interaction performance and deliver appropriate level of assistance to the human operator.

“Robots in Space” Multiagent Problem: Complexity, Information and Cryptographic Aspects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Yu. Bernstein

2013-01-01

Full Text Available We study a multiagent algorithmic problem that we call Robot in Space (RinS: There are n ≥ 2 autonomous robots, that need to agree without outside interference on distribution of shelters, so that straight pathes to the shelters will not intersect. The problem is closely related to the assignment problem in Graph Theory, to the convex hull problem in Combinatorial Geometry, or to the path-planning problem in Artificial Intelligence. Our algorithm grew up from a local search solution of the problem suggested by E.W. Dijkstra. We present a multiagent anonymous and scalable algorithm (protocol solving the problem, give an upper bound for the algorithm, prove (manually its correctness, and examine two communication aspects of the RinS problem — the informational and cryptographic. We proved that (1 there is no protocol that solves the RinS, which transfers a bounded number of bits, and (2 suggested the protocol that allows robots to check whether their paths intersect, without revealing additional information about their relative positions (with respect to shelters. The present paper continues the research presented in Mars Robot Puzzle (a Multiagent Approach to the Dijkstra Problem (by E.V. Bodin, N.O. Garanina, and N.V. Shilov, published in Modeling and analysis of information systems, 18(2, 2011.

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.

Sociable Robots through Self-maintained Energy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Henrik Schioler

2008-11-01

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.

Experimental Robot Model Adjustments Based on Force–Torque Sensor Information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Santiago Martinez

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The computational complexity of humanoid robot balance control is reduced through the application of simplified kinematics and dynamics models. However, these simplifications lead to the introduction of errors that add to other inherent electro-mechanic inaccuracies and affect the robotic system. Linear control systems deal with these inaccuracies if they operate around a specific working point but are less precise if they do not. This work presents a model improvement based on the Linear Inverted Pendulum Model (LIPM to be applied in a non-linear control system. The aim is to minimize the control error and reduce robot oscillations for multiple working points. The new model, named the Dynamic LIPM (DLIPM, is used to plan the robot behavior with respect to changes in the balance status denoted by the zero moment point (ZMP. Thanks to the use of information from force–torque sensors, an experimental procedure has been applied to characterize the inaccuracies and introduce them into the new model. The experiments consist of balance perturbations similar to those of push-recovery trials, in which step-shaped ZMP variations are produced. The results show that the responses of the robot with respect to balance perturbations are more precise and the mechanical oscillations are reduced without comprising robot dynamics.

Towards Real-Time Distributed Planning in Multi-Robot Systems

KAUST Repository

Abdelkader, Mohamed

2018-04-01

Recently, there has been an increasing interest in robotics related to multi-robot applications. Such systems can be involved in several tasks such as collaborative search and rescue, aerial transportation, surveillance, and monitoring, to name a few. There are two possible architectures for the autonomous control of multi-robot systems. In the centralized architecture, a master controller communicates with all the robots to collect information. It uses this information to make decisions for the entire system and then sends commands to each robot. In contrast, in the distributed architecture, each robot makes its own decision independent from a central authority. While distributed architecture is a more portable solution, it comes at the expense of extensive information exchange (communication). The extensive communication between robots can result in decision delays because of which distributed architecture is often impractical for systems with strict real-time constraints, e.g. when decisions have to be taken in the order of milliseconds. In this thesis, we propose a distributed framework that strikes a balance between limited communicated information and reasonable system-wide performance while running in real-time. We implement the proposed approach in a game setting of two competing teams of drones, defenders and attackers. Defending drones execute a proposed linear program algorithm (using only onboard computing modules) to obstruct attackers from infiltrating a defense zone while having minimal local message passing. Another main contribution is that we developed a realistic simulation environment as well as lab and outdoor hardware setups of customized drones for testing the system in realistic scenarios. Our software is completely open-source and fully integrated with the well-known Robot Operating System (ROS) in hopes to make our work easily reproducible and for rapid future improvements.

SatisFactory Common Information Data Exchange Model

OpenAIRE

CERTH

2016-01-01

This deliverable defines the Common Information Data Exchange Model (CIDEM). The aim of CIDEM is to provide a model of information elements (e.g. concepts, even, relations, interfaces) used for information exchange between components as well as for modelling work performed by other tasks (e.g. knowledge models to support human resources optimization). The CIDEM definition is considered as a shared vocabulary that enables to address the information needs for the SatisFactory framework components.

Information driven self-organization of complex robotic behaviors.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Georg Martius

Full Text Available Information theory is a powerful tool to express principles to drive autonomous systems because it is domain invariant and allows for an intuitive interpretation. This paper studies the use of the predictive information (PI, also called excess entropy or effective measure complexity, of the sensorimotor process as a driving force to generate behavior. We study nonlinear and nonstationary systems and introduce the time-local predicting information (TiPI which allows us to derive exact results together with explicit update rules for the parameters of the controller in the dynamical systems framework. In this way the information principle, formulated at the level of behavior, is translated to the dynamics of the synapses. We underpin our results with a number of case studies with high-dimensional robotic systems. We show the spontaneous cooperativity in a complex physical system with decentralized control. Moreover, a jointly controlled humanoid robot develops a high behavioral variety depending on its physics and the environment it is dynamically embedded into. The behavior can be decomposed into a succession of low-dimensional modes that increasingly explore the behavior space. This is a promising way to avoid the curse of dimensionality which hinders learning systems to scale well.

Energy-based and biomimetic robotics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Folkertsma, Gerrit Adriaan

2017-01-01

All physical systems interact by exchanging power, or energy. This energy can be explicitly taken into account when designing robotic systems, in dynamic models of systems and controllers, leading to more insight in energy-related effects. In this thesis, a biomimetic cheetah robot is developed, by

Robotics in near-earth space

Science.gov (United States)

Card, Michael E.

1991-01-01

The areas of space exploration in which robotic devices will play a part are identified, and progress to date in the space agency plans to acquire this capability is briefly reviewed. Roles and functions on orbit for robotic devices include well known activities, such as inspection and maintenance, assembly, docking, berthing, deployment, retrieval, materials handling, orbital replacement unit exchange, and repairs. Missions that could benefit from a robotic capability are discussed.

On the Efficiency of Local and Global Communication in Modular Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Garcia, Ricardo Franco Mendoza; Schultz, Ulrik Pagh; Støy, Kasper

2009-01-01

, we conclude that global communication is convenient for centralized control approaches and local communication is convenient for distributed control approaches. In addition, we conclude that global is in general convenient for low-connectivity configurations, such as chains, trees or limbs......As exchange of information is essential to modular robots, deciding between local or global communication is a common design choice. This choice, however, still lacks theoretical support. In this paper we analyse the efficiency of local and global communication in modular robots. To this end, we...... use parameters to describe the topology of modular robots, develop a probabilistic model of local communication using these parameters and, using a model of global communication from literature, compare the transmission times of local and global communication in different robots. Based on our results...

International exchange of safety and licensing information

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lafleur, J.D. Jr.; Hauber, R.D.; Chenier, D.M.

1977-01-01

A network of formal and informal bilateral arrangements for the exchange of nuclear safety information is being established by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. For developing countries, such arrangements can provide ready access to the extensive, fully documented safety analyses and safety research results that NRC has accumulated. NRC has been receiving foreign visitors at a rate of about 500 per year, largely for discussions of safety and licensing questions related to light water reactors. Exchanges also are taking place on the safety of advanced reactors. A special interest of the NRC is in providing for reciprocal communicaion, at the earliest possible time, of important problems, decisions and other actions on nuclear safety matters. For example, it is essential that a newly-discovered problem in a nuclear reactor be brought immediately to the attention of other governments which are responsible for the safety of similar reactors. Definite progress has been made in the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. Certain exchanges have taken place on this basis. Experience in the establishment and operation of NRC's bilateral exchange arrangements is summarized. A typical exchange with the regulatory authority of country building its first power reactor is described

International exchange of safety and licensing information

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lafleur, J.D. Jr.; Hauber, R.D.; Chenier, D.M.

1977-01-01

A network of formal and informal bilateral arrangements for the exchange of nuclear safety information is being established by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. For developing countries such arrangements can provide ready access to the extensive, fully documented safety analyses and safety research results that USNRC has accumulated. USNRC has been receiving foreign visitors at a rate of about 500 per year, largely for discussions of safety and licensing questions related to light water reactors. Exchanges also are taking place on the safety of advanced reactors. A special interest of the USNRC is in providing for reciprocal communication, at the earliest possible time, of important problems, decisions and other actions on nuclear safety matters. For example, it is essential that a newly discovered problem in a nuclear reactor be brought immediately to the attention of other governments that are responsible for the safety of similar reactors. Definite progress has been made in the USA in defining categories of information that USNRC can receive in confidence from foreign countries, and can protect from disclosure under the US Freedom of Information Act. Certain exchanges have taken place on this basis. Experience in the establishment and operation of USNRC's bilateral exchange arrangements is summarized. A typical exchange with the regulatory authority of a country building its first power reactor is described. (author)

Health information exchange: national and international approaches.

Science.gov (United States)

Vest, Joshua R

2012-01-01

Health information exchange (HIE), the process of electronically moving patient-level information between different organizations, is viewed as a solution to the fragmentation of data in health care. This review provides a description of the current state of HIE in seven nations, as well was three international HIE efforts, with a particular focus on the relation of exchange efforts to national health care systems, common challenges, and the implications of cross-border information sharing. National and international efforts highlighted in English language informatics journals, professional associations, and government reports are described. Fully functioning HIE is not yet a common phenomenon worldwide. However, multiple nations see the potential benefits of HIE and that has led to national and international efforts of varying scope, scale, and purview. National efforts continue to work to overcome the challenges of interoperability, record linking, insufficient infrastructures, governance, and interorganizational relationships, but have created architectural strategies, oversight agencies, and incentives to foster exchange. The three international HIE efforts reviewed represent very different approaches to the same problem of ensuring the availability of health information across borders. The potential of HIE to address many cost and quality issues will ensure HIE remains on many national agendas. In many instances, health care executives and leaders have opportunities to work within national programs to help shape local exchange governance and decide technology partners. Furthermore, HIE raises policy questions concerning the role of centralized planning, national identifiers, standards, and types of information exchanged, each of which are vital issues to individual health organizations and worthy of their attention.

Applications of health information exchange information to public health practice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kierkegaard, Patrick; Kaushal, Rainu; Vest, Joshua R.

2014-01-01

Health information exchange (HIE) can support several aspects of public health practice by increasing the availability, timeliness, and comprehensiveness individual-level patient information. The potential benefits to disease monitoring, disaster response, and other public health activities served...... as an important justification for the US’ investments in HIE. After several years of HIE implementation and funding, we sought to determine if any of the anticipated benefits of exchange participation were accruing to state and local public health practitioners participating in five different exchanges. Using...... qualitative interviews and template analyses, we identified public health efforts and activities that were improved by participation in HIE. We derived the codes for the template analysis through a literature review. HIE supported public health activities consistent with expectations in the literature...

Information exchange in virtual communities: a typology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gary Burnett

2000-01-01

Full Text Available While there is wide agreement that virtual communities - and other phenomena utilizing CMC technologies - have the capability to provide both interpersonal and informational interactions, the degree to which they can be seen as specifically information-oriented social spaces has been open to some question. Drawing upon theoretical and empirical work that emphasizes an environmental model of human information behaviour, a foundation is developed for a model of information exchange in virtual communities, and a typology of the varieties of information behaviour to be found in virtual communities is proposed. This typology will provide a mechanism for assessing the characteristics of virtual communities in terms of their support for information exchange, and has the potential to enhance our understanding of virtual communities as information environments.

Double Taxation, Tax Credits and the Information Exchange Puzzle

OpenAIRE

Wolfgang Eggert

2003-01-01

This paper analyzes the choice of taxes and international information exchange by governments in a capital tax competition model. We explain situations where countries can choose tax rates on tax savings income and exchange information about the domestic savings of foreigners, implying that the decentralized equilibrium is efficient. However, we also identify situations with adverse welfare properties in which information exchange is compatible with zero taxes on capital income. The model hel...

Report: Information Meeting / Awareness of Actors on the Chemical Information Exchange Network (CIEN)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Senghor, Cheikh

2015-01-01

As part of the implementation of the Stockholm Convention, Senegal has established a Chemical Information Exchange Network. The overall objective of this meeting was to identify the various actors involved in the management of chemicals information and to study the modalities for the implementation of the chemical information exchange network in Senegal.

Applications of health information exchange information to public health practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Kierkegaard, Patrick; Kaushal, Rainu; Vest, Joshua R

2014-01-01

Increased information availability, timeliness, and comprehensiveness through health information exchange (HIE) can support public health practice. The potential benefits to disease monitoring, disaster response, and other public health activities served as an important justification for the US' investments in HIE. After several years of HIE implementation and funding, we sought to determine if any of the anticipated benefits of exchange participation were accruing to state and local public health practitioners participating in five different exchanges. Using qualitative interviews and template analyses, we identified public health efforts and activities that were improved by participation in HIE. HIE supported public health activities consistent with expectations in the literature. However, no single department realized all the potential benefits of HIE identified. These findings suggest ways to improve HIE usage in public health.

Distributed Fault Detection and Isolation for Flocking in a Multi-robot System with Imperfect Communication

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shao Shiliang

2014-06-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we focus on distributed fault detection and isolation (FDI for a multi-robot system where multiple robots execute a flocking task. Firstly, we propose a fault detection method based on the local-information-exchange and sensor-measurement technologies to cover cases of both perfect communication and imperfect communication. The two detection technologies can be adaptively selected according to the packet loss rate (PLR. Secondly, we design a fault isolation method, considering a situation in which faulty robots still influence the behaviours of other robots. Finally, a complete FDI scheme, based on the proposed detection and isolation methods, is simulated in various scenarios. The results demonstrate that our FDI scheme is effective.

Sharing open hardware through ROP, the robotic open platform

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lunenburg, J.; Soetens, R.P.T.; Schoenmakers, F.; Metsemakers, P.M.G.; van de Molengraft, M.J.G.; Steinbuch, M.; Behnke, S.; Veloso, M.; Visser, A.; Xiong, R.

2014-01-01

The robot open source software community, in particular ROS, drastically boosted robotics research. However, a centralized place to exchange open hardware designs does not exist. Therefore we launched the Robotic Open Platform (ROP). A place to share and discuss open hardware designs. Among others

Sharing open hardware through ROP, the Robotic Open Platform

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lunenburg, J.J.M.; Soetens, R.P.T.; Schoenmakers, Ferry; Metsemakers, P.M.G.; Molengraft, van de M.J.G.; Steinbuch, M.

2013-01-01

The robot open source software community, in particular ROS, drastically boosted robotics research. However, a centralized place to exchange open hardware designs does not exist. Therefore we launched the Robotic Open Platform (ROP). A place to share and discuss open hardware designs. Among others

The Development of a Radiation Hardened Robot for Nuclear Facilities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jung, Seung Ho; Kim, Chang Hoi; Seo, Yong Chil (and others)

2007-04-15

We has been developed two remotely controlled robotic systems. One is a underwater vehicle for inspection of the internal structures of PWRs and retrieving foreign stubs in the reactor pressure vessels and reactor coolant pipes. The other robotic system consists of a articulated-type mobile robot capable of recovering the failure of the fuel exchange machine and a mini modular mobile robot for inspection of feeder pipes with ultrasonic array sensors in PHWRs. The underwater robot has been designed by considering radiation effect, underwater condition, and accessibility to the working area. The size of underwater robot is designed to enter the cold legs. A extendable manipulator is mounted on the mobile robot, which can restore nuclear fuel exchange machine. The mini modular mobile robot is composed of dual inch worm mechanisms, which are constructed by two gripper bodies that can fix the robot body on to the pipe and move along the longitudinal and to rotate in a circumferential direction to access all of the outer surfaces of the pipe.

Radio Controlled Fish Robot RR-9

OpenAIRE

Cifanskis, S; Vība, J; Jakuševičs, V

2015-01-01

A remote-controlled underwater robot fish is described. For motion control three actuator drives are used: one actuator is for tail frequency exchange, the second actuator is for the left or right turnings and the third actuator provides neutral swimming or up and down diving. From the robot's center of mass motion theorem (according to the given total mass of robot) the proportional distribution of massesof structural elements is found. Experimental indoor and out...

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

International exchange of radiological information in emergency conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Cort, M.; De Vries, G.; Breitenbach, L.; Fraser, G.; Vade, S.

1998-01-01

Description of the current system, experience gained, and expected future developments is given for the ECURIE system and, in particular, the EURDEP European-wide radiological information exchange system. It is concluded that the existing situation continues to be inhomogeneous. Although EURDEP foresees a common format for data exchange, which has been successfully implemented in 9 European countries, and regular exercises for data have been performed for a few years, important efforts will still have to be made to come to a more homogeneous and consistent European system for radiological information exchange. (P.A.)

Physician capability to electronically exchange clinical information, 2011.

Science.gov (United States)

Patel, Vaishali; Swain, Matthew J; King, Jennifer; Furukawa, Michael F

2013-10-01

To provide national estimates of physician capability to electronically share clinical information with other providers and to describe variation in exchange capability across states and electronic health record (EHR) vendors using the 2011 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey Electronic Medical Record Supplement. Survey of a nationally representative sample of nonfederal office-based physicians who provide direct patient care. The survey was administered by mail with telephone follow-up and had a 61% weighted response rate. The overall sample consisted of 4326 respondents. We calculated estimates of electronic exchange capability at the national and state levels, and applied multivariate analyses to examine the association between the capability to exchange different types of clinical information and physician and practice characteristics. In 2011, 55% of physicians had computerized capability to send prescriptions electronically; 67% had the capability to view lab results electronically; 42% were able to incorporate lab results into their EHR; 35% were able to send lab orders electronically; and, 31% exchanged patient clinical summaries with other providers. The strongest predictor of exchange capability is adoption of an EHR. However, substantial variation exists across geography and EHR vendors in exchange capability, especially electronic exchange of clinical summaries. In 2011, a majority of office-based physicians could exchange lab and medication data, and approximately one-third could exchange clinical summaries with patients or other providers. EHRs serve as a key mechanism by which physicians can exchange clinical data, though physicians' capability to exchange varies by vendor and by state.

HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN EXCHANGE OF HEALTH INFORMATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jordan Deliversky

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Health information technology involves the exchange of health information in an electronic environment. Data protection is comprised of many elements, including where the data resides, how it is used, and who has access to it. Individually identifiable health information should be protected with reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to ensure its confidentiality, integrity, and availability and to prevent unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. Health records are among the most sensitive records available containing information concerning an individual. The unauthorized disclosure of a medical condition or diagnosis could negatively impact an individual’s personal and professional life.

Modelling of industrial robot in LabView Robotics

Science.gov (United States)

Banas, W.; Cwikła, G.; Foit, K.; Gwiazda, A.; Monica, Z.; Sekala, A.

2017-08-01

Currently can find many models of industrial systems including robots. These models differ from each other not only by the accuracy representation parameters, but the representation range. For example, CAD models describe the geometry of the robot and some even designate a mass parameters as mass, center of gravity, moment of inertia, etc. These models are used in the design of robotic lines and sockets. Also systems for off-line programming use these models and many of them can be exported to CAD. It is important to note that models for off-line programming describe not only the geometry but contain the information necessary to create a program for the robot. Exports from CAD to off-line programming system requires additional information. These models are used for static determination of reachability points, and testing collision. It’s enough to generate a program for the robot, and even check the interaction of elements of the production line, or robotic cell. Mathematical models allow robots to study the properties of kinematic and dynamic of robot movement. In these models the geometry is not so important, so are used only selected parameters such as the length of the robot arm, the center of gravity, moment of inertia. These parameters are introduced into the equations of motion of the robot and motion parameters are determined.

The on-line European Community urgent radiological information exchange (ECURIE) information system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Cort, M.; Breitenbach, L.; De Vries, G.

1998-01-01

Immediately after the accident at the Chernobyl NPP, both the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Commission of the European Communities (CEC) set up a system to meet the requirements for early warning and exchange of information. The Environment Institute of the CEC JRC-Ispra provides technical assistance for the European community Urgent Radiological Information Exchange system (ECURIE). By this system, Member State contact points can exchange information in a coded format. In order to facilitate the use and to assure the data quality, a Coding-Decoding Software (CDS) was developed in collaboration with the I.A.E.A. A new version, called CoDecS, is under development. An ECURIE data bank is under construction, which will automatically recognize and store incoming ECURIE messages. Further on, query and reporting software will be developed. The background objectives and the conceptual basis for the structure of the on-line information system is described. (author)

Augmented Robotics Dialog System for Enhancing Human–Robot Interaction

Science.gov (United States)

Alonso-Martín, Fernando; Castro-González, Aívaro; de Gorostiza Luengo, Francisco Javier Fernandez; Salichs, Miguel Ángel

2015-01-01

Augmented reality, augmented television and second screen are cutting edge technologies that provide end users extra and enhanced information related to certain events in real time. This enriched information helps users better understand such events, at the same time providing a more satisfactory experience. In the present paper, we apply this main idea to human–robot interaction (HRI), to how users and robots interchange information. The ultimate goal of this paper is to improve the quality of HRI, developing a new dialog manager system that incorporates enriched information from the semantic web. This work presents the augmented robotic dialog system (ARDS), which uses natural language understanding mechanisms to provide two features: (i) a non-grammar multimodal input (verbal and/or written) text; and (ii) a contextualization of the information conveyed in the interaction. This contextualization is achieved by information enrichment techniques that link the extracted information from the dialog with extra information about the world available in semantic knowledge bases. This enriched or contextualized information (information enrichment, semantic enhancement or contextualized information are used interchangeably in the rest of this paper) offers many possibilities in terms of HRI. For instance, it can enhance the robot's pro-activeness during a human–robot dialog (the enriched information can be used to propose new topics during the dialog, while ensuring a coherent interaction). Another possibility is to display additional multimedia content related to the enriched information on a visual device. This paper describes the ARDS and shows a proof of concept of its applications. PMID:26151202

Data Exchange Management Information System (DEMIS)

Data.gov (United States)

Social Security Administration — DEMIS combines a database (Operational Data Store - ODS) of data exchange-related Management Information (MI) with the agency's querying and reporting utility, the...

Structural optimization for materially informed design to robotic production processes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bier, H.H.; Mostafavi, S.

2015-01-01

Hyperbody’s materially informed Design-to-Robotic-Production (D2RP) processes for additive and subtractive manufacturing aim to achieve performative porosity in architecture at various scales. An extended series of D2RP experiments aiming to produce prototypes at 1:1 scale wherein design materiality

Revenue Sharing and Information Exchange under Non-Discriminatory Taxation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Keen, M.; Ligthart, J.E.

2005-01-01

The international exchange of tax information, and its merits compared to withholding taxes, is the central topic in current debates in international tax policy.The purpose of this paper is to characterize and compare the tax regimes that emerge with and without information exchange, under the

A flexible, computer-integrated robotic transfer system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewis, W.I. III; Taylor, R.M.

1987-01-01

This paper reviews a robotic system used to transport materials across a radiation control zone and into a row of shielded cells. The robot used is a five-axis GCA 600 industrial robot mounted on a 50-ft ESAB welding track. Custom software incorporates the track as the sixth axis of motion. An IBM-PC integrates robot control, force sensing, and the operator interface. Multiple end-effectors and a quick exchange mechanism are used to handle a variety of materials and tasks. Automatic error detection and recovery is a key aspect of this system

Long-term knowledge acquisition using contextual information in a memory-inspired robot architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Pratama, Ferdian; Mastrogiovanni, Fulvio; Lee, Soon Geul; Chong, Nak Young

2017-03-01

In this paper, we present a novel cognitive framework allowing a robot to form memories of relevant traits of its perceptions and to recall them when necessary. The framework is based on two main principles: on the one hand, we propose an architecture inspired by current knowledge in human memory organisation; on the other hand, we integrate such an architecture with the notion of context, which is used to modulate the knowledge acquisition process when consolidating memories and forming new ones, as well as with the notion of familiarity, which is employed to retrieve proper memories given relevant cues. Although much research has been carried out, which exploits Machine Learning approaches to provide robots with internal models of their environment (including objects and occurring events therein), we argue that such approaches may not be the right direction to follow if a long-term, continuous knowledge acquisition is to be achieved. As a case study scenario, we focus on both robot-environment and human-robot interaction processes. In case of robot-environment interaction, a robot performs pick and place movements using the objects in the workspace, at the same time observing their displacement on a table in front of it, and progressively forms memories defined as relevant cues (e.g. colour, shape or relative position) in a context-aware fashion. As far as human-robot interaction is concerned, the robot can recall specific snapshots representing past events using both sensory information and contextual cues upon request by humans.

Sociable mobile robots through self-maintained energy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ngo, Trung Dung; Schiøler, Henrik

2006-01-01

society, collecting and sharing are experimentally recognized as the highest property. This paper issues an approach to sociable robots using self-maintained energy in robot society, which is naturally inspired from swarm behavior of honey-bee and ant. Typically, autonomous mobile robots are usually......Research of sociable robots has emphasized interaction and coordination of mobile robots with inspiration from natural behavior of birds, insects, and fish: flocking, foraging, collecting, sharing and so forth. However, the animal behaviors are looking for food towards survival. In an animal...... equipped with a finite energy, thus they can operate in a finite time. To overcome the limitation, we describe practical deployment of a group of mobile robot with the possibility of carrying and exchanging fuel, e.g. battery to other robots. Early implementation that includes modular hardware and control...

Practical design for robot operating in radiation condition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oomichi, Takeo; Isozaki, Yoshifumi

2002-01-01

It is proposed systematic design for radiation resistance robot based on irradiation test and estimating damage lifetime by reliable technology. Reducing design time and cost, key device IC is classified to non-exchange, no use and use after radiation test by analyzing robot function and IC function. Since the damage lifetime verified normal distribution under radiation test of IC, the proposed design method is effective for practical radiation resistance robot. (author)

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.

Energy in Robotics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Folkertsma, Gerrit A.; Stramigioli, Stefano

2017-01-01

Energy and energy exchange govern interactions in the physical world. By explicitly considering the energy and power in a robotic system, many control and design problems become easier or more insightful than in a purely signal-based view. We show the application of these energy considerations to

Generic robot architecture

Science.gov (United States)

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

2010-09-21

The present invention provides methods, computer readable media, and apparatuses for a generic robot architecture providing a framework that is easily portable to a variety of robot platforms and is configured to provide hardware abstractions, abstractions for generic robot attributes, environment abstractions, and robot behaviors. The generic robot architecture includes a hardware abstraction level and a robot abstraction level. The hardware abstraction level is configured for developing hardware abstractions that define, monitor, and control hardware modules available on a robot platform. The robot abstraction level is configured for defining robot attributes and provides a software framework for building robot behaviors from the robot attributes. Each of the robot attributes includes hardware information from at least one hardware abstraction. In addition, each robot attribute is configured to substantially isolate the robot behaviors from the at least one hardware abstraction.

Standardized structure of electronic records for information exchange

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Galabova, Sevdalina; Trencheva, Tereza; Trenchev, Ivan

2009-01-01

In the paper is presented the structure of the electronic record whose form is standardized in ISO 2709:2008. This International Standard describes a generalized structure, a framework designed specially for communications between data processing systems and not for use as a processing format within systems.Basic terms are defined as follows: character, data field, directory, directory map, field, field separator etc. It’s presented the general structure of a record. The application analysis of this structure shows the effective information exchange in the widest range.The purpose of this research is to find out advantages and structure of the information exchange format standardized in ISO 2709:2008. Key words: Standardized structure, electronic records, exchange formats, data field, directory, directory map, indicators, identifiers

Neuro-robotics from brain machine interfaces to rehabilitation robotics

CERN Document Server

Artemiadis

2014-01-01

Neuro-robotics is one of the most multidisciplinary fields of the last decades, fusing information and knowledge from neuroscience, engineering and computer science. This book focuses on the results from the strategic alliance between Neuroscience and Robotics that help the scientific community to better understand the brain as well as design robotic devices and algorithms for interfacing humans and robots. The first part of the book introduces the idea of neuro-robotics, by presenting state-of-the-art bio-inspired devices. The second part of the book focuses on human-machine interfaces for pe

Utility/Manufacturers Robots Users Group: a partnership promoting the applications of robots in all utility industries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meieran, H.B.; Roman, H.T.

1988-01-01

The purpose of this presentation is to describe the roles and the goals of the recently established Utility/Manufacturers Robots Users Group (U/M RUG), an organization which is dedicated to promoting the employment of robots in all utility facilities. This group is composed of volunteer representatives from the utilities, robot manufacturers, service organizations/consulting groups, academia, national and non-government funding agencies, and national laboratories. Although the Group primarily serves as a forum and a guide for technology transfer, exchanging ideas, and promoting philosophies of applications among its members, it also provides this type of assistance to external groups and agencies. (author)

Speeding decisions. Social security's information exchange program.

Science.gov (United States)

Winter, Kitt; Hastings, Bob

2011-05-01

The Social Security Administration has plenty of reasons to streamline its records request process-more than 15 million reasons each year, in fact. That's why it has been pioneering information exchange projects with the private sector, including use of the Nationwide Health Information Network.

Business Information Exchange System with Security, Privacy, and Anonymity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sead Muftic

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Business Information Exchange is an Internet Secure Portal for secure management, distribution, sharing, and use of business e-mails, documents, and messages. It has three applications supporting three major types of information exchange systems: secure e-mail, secure instant messaging, and secure sharing of business documents. In addition to standard security services for e-mail letters, which are also applied to instant messages and documents, the system provides innovative features of privacy and full anonymity of users and their locations, actions, transactions, and exchanged resources. In this paper we describe design, implementation, and use of the system.

CALINX (California Information Exchange): a multi-stakeholder statewide initiative to improve healthcare information flows.

Science.gov (United States)

Hopkins, D S; Oswald, N; McCaffrey, K; Bressler, S; Davidson, N; Vela, L

2000-01-01

Given the diffusion of responsibilities for gathering and reporting healthcare information in a managed care environment, California stakeholders are taking concrete steps to break the deadlock on data and information flows that has characterized the industry for some time. The California Information Exchange (CALINX) was established to facilitate the implementation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) standards in California and to create trust for data exchange between trading partners, without which data exchange still will not occur. Strategic directions are set by the chief executives of key associations and organizations representing purchasers, plans, providers, and consumers. Multi-stakeholder workgroups have produced detailed data guidelines for the HIPAA standards along with rules for exchange of key data sets between trading partners. These rules address frequency, timeliness, and accuracy of data submission. Both the data guidelines and the rules have been tested in live demonstration projects, and the results of these projects have been reported to substantiate the business case for implementation. Further incentives are being built into contracts between purchasers and plans, and between plans and providers. CALINX is currently promoting widespread adoption of the data guidelines and rules for exchange with all members of the industry.

COG: information exchange. The new initiatives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guiry, C.

2000-01-01

The CANDU Owners Group (COG) is dedicated to providing programs for cooperation, mutual assistance and exchange of information for the successful support, development, operation, maintenance and economics of CANDU Technology. This paper summarises the COG Mission, COG Vision and COG Values

Group Awareness and Self-Presentation in Computer-Supported Information Exchange

Science.gov (United States)

Kimmerle, Joachim; Cress, Ulrike

2008-01-01

A common challenge in many situations of computer-supported collaborative learning is increasing the willingness of those involved to share their knowledge with other group members. As a prototypical situation of computer-supported information exchange, a shared-database setting was chosen for the current study. This information-exchange situation…

A Model for Trading the Foreign Exchange Market

African Journals Online (AJOL)

PROF. OLIVER OSUAGWA

inflation rates, etc. have significant impacts on the exchange rate fluctuation. Existing foreign exchange ... Keywords: FOREX, marcov chain, model, neural network, trading robot. Introduction .... Support Vector Machine (SVM). Regression ...

Securing the smart grid information exchange

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fries, Steffen; Falk, Rainer [Siemens AG, Corporate Technology, Muenchen (Germany)

2012-07-01

The smart grid is based on information exchange between various stakeholders using open communication technologies, to control the physical electric grid through the information grid. Protection against cyber attacks is essential to ensure a reliable operation of the smart grid. This challenge is addressed by various regulatory, standardization, and research activities. After giving an overview of the security demand of a smart grid, existing and appearing standardization activities are described. (orig.)

A Plug and Produce Framework for Industrial Collaborative Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schou, Casper; Madsen, Ole

2017-01-01

Collaborative robots are today ever more interesting in response to the increasing need for agile manufacturing equipment. Contrary to traditional industrial robots, collaborative robots are intended for working in dynamic environments alongside the production staff. To cope with the dynamic...... environment and workflow, new configuration and control methods are needed compared to those of traditional industrial robots. The new methods should enable shop floor operators to reconfigure the robot. This article presents a plug and produce framework for industrial collaborative robots. The article...... focuses on the control framework enabling quick and easy exchange of hardware modules as an approach to achieving plug and produce. To solve this, an agent-based system is proposed building on top of the robot operating system. The framework enables robot operating system packages to be adapted...

Robot off-line programming and simulation as a true CIME-subsystem

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, L.F; Trostmann, S; Trostmann, Erik

1992-01-01

A robot off-line programming and real-time simulation system, ROPSIM, which is based on the neutral interface concept and features simulation of the dynamics of both the controller and robot arm, has been developed. To avoid dependency on dedicated robot models, ROPSIM is based on generic models...... describing the robot controller, robot arm geometry, and the robot and arm kinetics. The software was developed using the C++ programming language. The key modules are discussed. The system is a true computer-integrated manufacturing and engineering subsystem which facilitates the exchange and reuse of robot...... model definition data and robot program definition data with systems of other origin or different functionality...

An Exponential Increase in Regional Health Information Exchange With Collaborative Policies and Technologies.

Science.gov (United States)

Downing, N Lance; Lane, Steven; Eisenberg, Mathew; Sharp, Christopher; Palma, Jonathan; Longhurst, Christopher

2015-01-01

In the United States, the ability to securely exchange health information between organization has been limited by technical interoperability, patient identity matching, and variable institutional policies. Here, we examine the regional experience in a national health information exchange network by examining clinical data sharing between eleven Northern California organizations using the same health information exchange (HIE) platform between 2013-2014. We identify key policies and technologies that have led to a dramatic increase in health information exchange.

Usage of industrial robots in nuclear power industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matsuo, Yoshio; Hamada, Kenjiro

1982-01-01

Japan is now at the top level in the world in robot technology.Its application to nuclear power field is one of the most expected. However, their usage spreads over various types of nuclear power plants, their manufacture and operation, and other areas such as fuel reprocessing plants and reactor plant decommissioning. The robots as used for the operation of BWR nuclear power plants, already developed and under development, are described: features in the nuclear-power usage of robots, the robots used currently for automatic fuel exchange, the replacement of control rod drives and in-service inspection; the robots under development for travelling inspection device and the inspection of main steam-relief safety valves, future development of robots. By robot usage, necessary personnel, work period and radiation exposure can be greatly reduced, and safety and reliability are also raised. (Mori, K.)

Map Specifications and Exchange of Geographical Information

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Frederiksen, Poul

1999-01-01

Specifications for Technical Maps 1993 – 99 are described giving an overview of the specification structure including the object description of the latest version: TK99.The technical map specifications are related to the standards for topographical maps - especially the TOP10DK standard. Common...... object definitions are essential for the standards. Technical as well as topographical map information is exchangeable through the Danish developed “Standard for Exchange of Digital Map Information”, known as the DSFL-format....

Multi-robot control interface

Science.gov (United States)

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

2011-12-06

Methods and systems for controlling a plurality of robots through a single user interface include at least one robot display window for each of the plurality of robots with the at least one robot display window illustrating one or more conditions of a respective one of the plurality of robots. The user interface further includes at least one robot control window for each of the plurality of robots with the at least one robot control window configured to receive one or more commands for sending to the respective one of the plurality of robots. The user interface further includes a multi-robot common window comprised of information received from each of the plurality of robots.

Tax Information Exchange with Developing Countries and Tax Havens

OpenAIRE

Braun, Julia; Zagler, Martin

2015-01-01

The exchange of tax information has received ample attention recently, due to a number of recent headlines on aggressive tax planning and tax evasion. Whilst both participating tax authorities will gain when foreign investments (FDI) are bilateral, we demonstrate that FDI receiving nations will lose in asymmetric situations. We solve a bargaining model that proves that tax information exchange will only happen voluntarily with compensation for this loss. We then present empirical evidence in ...

A Memory-based Robot Architecture based on Contextual Information

OpenAIRE

Pratama, Ferdian; Mastrogiovanni, Fulvio; Chong, Nak Young

2014-01-01

In this paper, we present a preliminary conceptual design for a robot long-term memory architecture based on the notion of context. Contextual information is used to organize the data flow between Working Memory (including Perceptual Memory) and Long-Term Memory components. We discuss the major influence of the notion of context within Episodic Memory on Semantic and Procedural Memory, respectively. We address how the occurrence of specific object-related events in time impacts on the semanti...

Reactive Path Planning Approach for Docking Robots in Unknown Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peng Cui

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Autonomous robots need to be recharged and exchange information with the host through docking in the long-distance tasks. Therefore, feasible path is required in the docking process to guide the robot and adjust its pose. However, when there are unknown obstacles in the work area, it becomes difficult to determine the feasible path for docking. This paper presents a reactive path planning approach named Dubins-APF (DAPF to solve the path planning problem for docking in unknown environment with obstacles. In this proposed approach the Dubins curves are combined with the designed obstacle avoidance potential field to plan the feasible path. Firstly, an initial path is planned and followed according to the configurations of the robot and the docking station. Then when the followed path is evaluated to be infeasible, the intermediate configuration is calculated as well as the replanned path based on the obstacle avoidance potential field. The robot will be navigated to the docking station with proper pose eventually via the DAPF approach. The proposed DAPF approach is efficient and does not require the prior knowledge about the environment. Simulation results are given to validate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed approach.

1st AAU Workshop on Human-Centered Robotics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

The 2012 AAU Workshop on Human-Centered Robotics took place on 15 Nov. 2012, at Aalborg University, Aalborg. The workshop provides a platform for robotics researchers, including professors, PhD and Master students to exchange their ideas and latest results. The objective is to foster closer...... interaction among researchers from multiple relevant disciplines in the human-centered robotics, and consequently, to promote collaborations across departments of all faculties towards making our center a center of excellence in robotics. The workshop becomes a great success, with 13 presentations, attracting...... more than 45 participants from AAU, SDU, DTI and industrial companies as well. The proceedings contain 7 full papers selected out from the full papers submitted afterwards on the basis of workshop abstracts. The papers represent major research development of robotics at AAU, including medical robots...

Turn-Taking Based on Information Flow for Fluent Human-Robot Interaction

OpenAIRE

Thomaz, Andrea L.; Chao, Crystal

2011-01-01

Turn-taking is a fundamental part of human communication. Our goal is to devise a turn-taking framework for human-robot interaction that, like the human skill, represents something fundamental about interaction, generic to context or domain. We propose a model of turn-taking, and conduct an experiment with human subjects to inform this model. Our findings from this study suggest that information flow is an integral part of human floor-passing behavior. Following this, we implement autonomous ...

System model the processing of heterogeneous sensory information in robotized complex

Science.gov (United States)

Nikolaev, V.; Titov, V.; Syryamkin, V.

2018-05-01

Analyzed the scope and the types of robotic systems consisting of subsystems of the form "a heterogeneous sensors data processing subsystem". On the basis of the Queuing theory model is developed taking into account the unevenness of the intensity of information flow from the sensors to the subsystem of information processing. Analytical solution to assess the relationship of subsystem performance and uneven flows. The research of the obtained solution in the range of parameter values of practical interest.

A 2.5D Map-Based Mobile Robot Localization via Cooperation of Aerial and Ground Robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Nam, Tae Hyeon; Shim, Jae Hong; Cho, Young Im

2017-11-25

Recently, there has been increasing interest in studying the task coordination of aerial and ground robots. When a robot begins navigation in an unknown area, it has no information about the surrounding environment. Accordingly, for robots to perform tasks based on location information, they need a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) process that uses sensor information to draw a map of the environment, while simultaneously estimating the current location of the robot on the map. This paper aims to present a localization method based in cooperation between aerial and ground robots in an indoor environment. The proposed method allows a ground robot to reach accurate destination by using a 2.5D elevation map built by a low-cost RGB-D (Red Green and Blue-Depth) sensor and 2D Laser sensor attached onto an aerial robot. A 2.5D elevation map is formed by projecting height information of an obstacle using depth information obtained by the RGB-D sensor onto a grid map, which is generated by using the 2D Laser sensor and scan matching. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for its accuracy in location recognition and computing speed.

A 2.5D Map-Based Mobile Robot Localization via Cooperation of Aerial and Ground Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tae Hyeon Nam

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Recently, there has been increasing interest in studying the task coordination of aerial and ground robots. When a robot begins navigation in an unknown area, it has no information about the surrounding environment. Accordingly, for robots to perform tasks based on location information, they need a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM process that uses sensor information to draw a map of the environment, while simultaneously estimating the current location of the robot on the map. This paper aims to present a localization method based in cooperation between aerial and ground robots in an indoor environment. The proposed method allows a ground robot to reach accurate destination by using a 2.5D elevation map built by a low-cost RGB-D (Red Green and Blue-Depth sensor and 2D Laser sensor attached onto an aerial robot. A 2.5D elevation map is formed by projecting height information of an obstacle using depth information obtained by the RGB-D sensor onto a grid map, which is generated by using the 2D Laser sensor and scan matching. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for its accuracy in location recognition and computing speed.

Quantum secret information equal exchange protocol based on dense coding

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Ying-Hua; Zhang, Shi-Bin; Dai, Jin-Qiao; Shi, Zhi-Ping

2018-04-01

In this paper, we design a novel quantum secret information equal exchange protocol, which implements the equal exchange of secret information between the two parties with the help of semi-trusted third party (TP). In the protocol, EPR pairs prepared by the TP are, respectively, distributed to both the communication parties. Then, the two parties perform Pauli operation on each particle and return the new particles to TP, respectively. TP measures each new pair with Bell basis and announces the measurement results. Both parties deduce the secret information of each other according to the result of announcement by TP. Finally, the security analysis shows that this protocol solves the problem about equal exchange of secret information between two parties and verifies the security of semi-trusted TPs. It proves that the protocol can effectively resist glitch attacks, intercept retransmission attacks and entanglement attack.

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

Facilitators on networks reveal optimal interplay between information exchange and reciprocity.

Science.gov (United States)

Szolnoki, Attila; Perc, Matjaž; Mobilia, Mauro

2014-04-01

Reciprocity is firmly established as an important mechanism that promotes cooperation. An efficient information exchange is likewise important, especially on structured populations, where interactions between players are limited. Motivated by these two facts, we explore the role of facilitators in social dilemmas on networks. Facilitators are here mirrors to their neighbors-they cooperate with cooperators and defect with defectors-but they do not participate in the exchange of strategies. As such, in addition to introducing direct reciprocity, they also obstruct information exchange. In well-mixed populations, facilitators favor the replacement and invasion of defection by cooperation as long as their number exceeds a critical value. In structured populations, on the other hand, there exists a delicate balance between the benefits of reciprocity and the deterioration of information exchange. Extensive Monte Carlo simulations of social dilemmas on various interaction networks reveal that there exists an optimal interplay between reciprocity and information exchange, which sets in only when a small number of facilitators occupy the main hubs of the scale-free network. The drawbacks of missing cooperative hubs are more than compensated for by reciprocity and, at the same time, the compromised information exchange is routed via the auxiliary hubs with only marginal losses in effectivity. These results indicate that it is not always optimal for the main hubs to become leaders of the masses, but rather to exploit their highly connected state to promote tit-for-tat-like behavior.

Robots of the Future

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

two main types of robots: industrial robots, and autonomous robots. .... position); it also has a virtual CPU with two stacks and three registers that hold 32-bit strings. Each item ..... just like we can aggregate images, text, and information from.

Automatic exchange of information: towards a new global standard of tax transparency

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miguel Eduardo Pecho Trigueros

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Tax authorities are increasingly relying on mutual cooperation with their foreign peers to enforce more effectively their internal tax laws. After the banking scandals of 2008 and the subsequent global financial crisis, the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for TaxPurposes has proposed the exchange of information upon request as the fiscal transparency standard. However, some measures adopted by the European Union, previous initiatives from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD and, above all, the introduction of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca by the United States in 2010 have promoted the need to adopt the automatic exchange of information as the new fiscal transparency standard. Automatic exchange of information allows home countries to verify whether their taxpayers have correctly included foreign income, allowing tax authorities to have early warning of possible noncompliance cases. In February 2014, the OECD published its proposal for a new global model of automatic exchange of financial account information. The new global model contains the necessary legal instruments and due diligence and reporting procedures, mainly for financial institutions.

Fabrication of gas diffusion layer based on x-y robotic spraying technique for proton exchange membrane fuel cell application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sitanggang, Ramli; Mohamad, Abu Bakar; Daud, Wan Ramli Wan; Kadhum, Abdul Amir H.; Iyuke, S.E.

2009-01-01

The x-y robotic spraying technique developed in the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia is capable of fabricating various sizes of thickness and porosity of gas diffusion layer (GDL) used in the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). These parameters are obtained by varying the characteristic spray numbers of the robotic spraying machine. This investigation results were adequately represented with mathematical equations for hydrogen gas distribution in GDL. Volumetric modulus (M) parameter is used to determine the value of current density produced on the electrode of a single cell PEMFC. Thus the M parameter can be employed as indicator for a successful GDL fabrication. GDL type 4 has three variables of layer design that can be optimized to function as gas distributor, gas storage, flooding preventer on GDL surface, to evacuate water from the electrode and to control the electrical conductivity. The gas distribution in GDL was mathematically represented with average error of 15.5%. The M value of GDL type 4 according to the model was 0.22 cm 3 /s and yielded a current density of 750 A/m 2 .

Willingness to Exchange Health Information via Mobile Devices: Findings From a Population-Based Survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Serrano, Katrina J; Yu, Mandi; Riley, William T; Patel, Vaishali; Hughes, Penelope; Marchesini, Kathryn; Atienza, Audie A

2016-01-01

The rapid proliferation of mobile devices offers unprecedented opportunities for patients and health care professionals to exchange health information electronically, but little is known about patients' willingness to exchange various types of health information using these devices. We examined willingness to exchange different types of health information via mobile devices, and assessed whether sociodemographic characteristics and trust in clinicians were associated with willingness in a nationally representative sample. We analyzed data for 3,165 patients captured in the 2013 Health Information National Trends Survey. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was conducted to test differences in willingness. Ordinal logistic regression analysis assessed correlates of willingness to exchange 9 types of information separately. Participants were very willing to exchange appointment reminders (odds ratio [OR] = 6.66; 95% CI, 5.68-7.81), general health tips (OR = 2.03; 95% CI, 1.74-2.38), medication reminders (OR = 2.73; 95% CI, 2.35-3.19), laboratory/test results (OR = 1.76; 95% CI, 1.62-1.92), vital signs (OR = 1.63; 95% CI, 1.48-1.80), lifestyle behaviors (OR = 1.40; 95% CI, 1.24-1.58), and symptoms (OR = 1.62; 95% CI, 1.46-1.79) as compared with diagnostic information. Older adults had lower odds of being more willing to exchange any type of information. Education, income, and trust in health care professional information correlated with willingness to exchange certain types of information. Respondents were less willing to exchange via mobile devices information that may be considered sensitive or complex. Age, socioeconomic factors, and trust in professional information were associated with willingness to engage in mobile health information exchange. Both information type and demographic group should be considered when developing and tailoring mobile technologies for patient-clinician communication. © 2016 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.

Information Exchange Automation in Maritime Transport

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zbigniew Pietrzykowski

2014-06-01

Full Text Available To ensure the safety of maritime transport the access to information must be provided through a commonly used services. However, an equally important task is to determine or agree on interpretation of incoming data and assessment of a current and predicted navigational situation and, in further step, intentions of the participants in the transport process. Thanks to the standardization of information format, automatic information exchange gets increasingly wider. Another step ahead is automatic interpretation of information and automation of negotiation processes - intelligent communication. Rapid development of IT and ICT technologies creates such opportunities. This article presents the results of research on a system of automatic communication and co-operation in maritime transport.

Automatic Battery Swap System for Home Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan Wu

2012-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the design and implementation of an automatic battery swap system for the prolonged activities of home robots. A battery swap station is proposed to implement battery off-line recharging and on-line exchanging functions. It consists of a loading and unloading mechanism, a shifting mechanism, a locking device and a shell. The home robot is a palm-sized wheeled robot with an onboard camera and a removable battery case in the front. It communicates with the battery swap station wirelessly through ZigBee. The influences of battery case deflection and robot docking deflection on the battery swap operations have been investigated. The experimental results show that it takes an average time of 84.2s to complete the battery swap operations. The home robot does not have to wait several hours for the batteries to be fully charged. The proposed battery swap system is proved to be efficient in home robot applications that need the robots to work continuously over a long period.

Exchange of information in the EU and counteraction of tax avoiding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert Draba

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an assessment of selected European Union legislation of the exchange of information between EU countries in context of preventing tax avoiding. The primary tool to prevent tax avoidance within the EU is information exchanging between EU countries and between EU countires and other countries.

A trend of robotics in nuclear facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakayama, Ryoichi

1993-01-01

In order to operate stably nuclear power stations, the periodic inspection determined by the law has been carried out once every year in Japan. For reducing the radiation exposure of workers and improving work efficiency and work quality, the automation and the use of robots have been promoted. Also in fuel reprocessing plants and the facilities for storing radioactive wastes, the remotely operated devices for handling uranium and plutonium are indispensable. The course of the development of the robots for nuclear power plants classified by ages is shown. The research and development have been advanced from special automatic machines of first generation since 1965, through versatile robots of second generation since 1980 to intellectual robots of third generation since 1985. Automatic fuel exchanger, control rod moving mechanism and the ultrasonic flaw detector for pipings are those of first generation. As those of second generation, various movable inspection robots and the manipulators for them were developed. The ultimate working robot completed in 1990 is that of third generation. As the trend of the practical use, monorail type inspection robots and underwater inspection robots and various manipulators are reported. (K.I.)

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.

Robots: An Impact on Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Blaesi, LaVon; Maness, Marion

1984-01-01

Provides background information on robotics and robots, considering impact of robots on the workplace and concerns of the work force. Discusses incorporating robotics into the educational system at all levels, exploring industry-education partnerships to fund introduction of new technology into the curriculum. New funding sources and funding…

An Architecture for Health Information Exchange in Pervasive Healthcare Environment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cardoso de Moraes, J.L.; Lopes de Souza, Wanderley; Ferreira Pires, Luis; Francisco do Prado, Antonio; Hammoudi, S.; Cordeiro, J.; Maciaszek, L.A.; Filipe, J.

2014-01-01

This paper presents an architecture for health information exchange in pervasive healthcare environments meant to be generally applicable to different applications in the healthcare domain. Our architecture has been designed for message exchange by integrating ubiquitous computing technologies,

Physicians' opinions of a health information exchange.

Science.gov (United States)

Hincapie, Ana Lucia; Warholak, Terri L; Murcko, Anita C; Slack, Marion; Malone, Daniel C

2011-01-01

Arizona Medicaid developed a Health Information Exchange (HIE) system called the Arizona Medical Information Exchange (AMIE). To evaluate physicians' perceptions regarding AMIE's impact on health outcomes and healthcare costs. A focus-group guide was developed and included five domains: perceived impact of AMIE on (1) quality of care; (2) workflow and efficiency; (3) healthcare costs; (4) system usability; and (5) AMIE data content. Qualitative data were analyzed using analytical coding. A total of 29 clinicians participated in the study. The attendance rate was 66% (N=19) for the first and last month of focus-group meetings and 52% (N=15) for the focus group meetings conducted during the second month. The benefits most frequently mentioned during the focus groups included: (1) identification of "doctor shopping"; (2) averting duplicative testing; and (3) increased efficiency of clinical information gathering. The most frequent disadvantage mentioned was the limited availability of data in the AMIE system. Respondents reported that AMIE had the potential to improve care, but they felt that AMIE impact was limited due to the data available.

Social Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Social robotics is a cutting edge research area gathering researchers and stakeholders from various disciplines and organizations. The transformational potential that these machines, in the form of, for example, caregiving, entertainment or partner robots, pose to our societies and to us as indiv......Social robotics is a cutting edge research area gathering researchers and stakeholders from various disciplines and organizations. The transformational potential that these machines, in the form of, for example, caregiving, entertainment or partner robots, pose to our societies and to us...... as individuals seems to be limited by our technical limitations and phantasy alone. This collection contributes to the field of social robotics by exploring its boundaries from a philosophically informed standpoint. It constructively outlines central potentials and challenges and thereby also provides a stable...

Towards a multi-agent system for regulated information exchange in crime investigations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dijkstra, Pieter; Prakken, H.; Vey Mestdagh, C.N.J. de

2005-01-01

This paper outlines a multi-agent architecture for regulated information exchange of crime investigation data between police forces. Interactions between police officers about information exchange are analysed as negotiation dialogues with embedded persuasion dialogues. An architecture is then

The Role of Modular Robotics in Mediating Nonverbal Social Exchanges

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marti, P; Giusti, L; Lund, Henrik Hautop

2009-01-01

This paper outlines the use of modular robotics to encourage and facilitate nonverbal communication during therapeutic intervention in dementia care. A set of new socially interactive modular robotic devices called rolling pins (RPs) has been designed and developed to assist the therapist...... is that they are able to communicate with each other or with other devices equipped with the same radio communication technology. The RPs are usually used in pairs, as the local feedback of an RP can be set depending not only on its own speed and orientation but also on the speed and the orientation of the peer RP...

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.

Beyond Speculative Robot Ethics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Smits, M.; Van der Plas, A.

2010-01-01

In this article we develop a dialogue model for robot technology experts and designated users to discuss visions on the future of robotics in long-term care. Our vision assessment study aims for more distinguished and more informed visions on future robots. Surprisingly, our experiment also lead to

Information exchange - DOE oversight programs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tubbs, D.C.; Field, H.C.

1988-01-01

Oversight programs are conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy to review activities carried out by field and contractor organizations. Two of these oversight programs focus on safeguards and security and on safety and health activities. These two programs are independent, but share many common objectives and review techniques. The mutual potential benefit was recognized from an exchange of information on review techniques. The first step in this exchange was the participation by an Office of Security Evaluations (OSE) staff member with the Office of Nuclear Safety (ONS) during their planning, conduct and reporting of a Technical Safety Appraisal (TSA). This paper briefly describes the OSE and ONS programs. It also identifies and analyzes the similarities and differences of the two programs. The purpose of this paper is to provide perspectives on the approach taken, the techniques used and the differences between two oversight programs conducted by the Department of Energy

National Information Exchange Model (NIEM): DoD Adoption and Implications for C2 (Briefing Charts)

Science.gov (United States)

2014-06-18

Application Data Consumers Information Exchange Package ( IEP ) the data exchanged at runtime Data Producers IES defines Information Exchange...Specification (IES) build-time description of the data to be exchanged Developers System / Application System / Application IEP | 9 | Data...Exchange Package ( IEP ) the data exchanged at runtime Data Producers System / Application System / Application IEP Consumer’s Understanding

Information Exchange, Market Transparency and Dynamic Oligopoly

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Overgaard, Per Baltzer; Møllgaard, Peter

2005-01-01

In the economics literature, various views on the likely (efficiency) effects of information exchange,communication between firms and market transparency present themselves. Often these views oninformation flows are highly conflicting. On the one hand, it is argued that increased...... informationdissemination improves firm planning to the benefit of society (including customers) and/or allowspotential customers to make the right decisions given their preferences. On the other hand, theliterature also suggests that increased information dissemination can have significant coordinating orcollusive......, where informational issues have played a significant role....

Information retrieval pathways for health information exchange in multiple care settings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kierkegaard, Patrick; Kaushal, Rainu; Vest, Joshua R.

2014-01-01

Objectives To determine which health information exchange (HIE) technologies and information retrieval pathways healthcare professionals relied on to meet their information needs in the context of laboratory test results, radiological images and reports, and medication histories. Study Design...... The study reveals that healthcare professionals used a complex combination of information retrieval pathways for HIE to obtain clinical information from external organizations. The choice for each approach was setting- and information-specific, but was also highly dynamic across users and their information...... needs. Conclusions Our findings about the complex nature of information sharing in healthcare provide insights for informatics professionals about the usage of information; indicate the need for managerial support within each organization; and suggest approaches to improve systems for organizations...

Taxpayers' confidentiality and privacy rights in the international exchange of tax information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anđelković Mileva

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The exchange of tax information is a distinctive feature of international tax cooperation processes. The trend of intensive communication between the national tax administrations has been a political priority in economically developed countries. This area of international tax law has been subject to significant changes in the past few years. Countries are prompted to pursue the automatic exchange of tax information by entering into multilateral treaties on the exchange of tax information rather than engage in international exchange of tax information upon request by entering into bilateral agreements. These processes are promptly expedited owing to the incredible development of information and communication technologies. These developments are basically aimed at preventing different forms of international tax fraud which generate significant financial losses in the circumstances of current economic crisis. Such efforts may be justifiable regarding the interests of the countries of residence; but, what about the legal status of ordinary taxpayers who are now subject to a comprehensive and far-reaching control? The new concept may be appropriate for tracking tax fraud or embezzlement but what are its implications for law-abiding taxpayers? The national legislatures are obliged to provide for the protection of confidentiality of exchanged tax information but many states have not fully recognized the importance of providing adequate legal protection of sensitive personal and financial data. There are only a few countries whose legislations explicitly prescribe the taxpayers' right to be informed, the right to consult tax administration and the right to seek tax administration intervention as a form of legal protection in international exchange of tax information. The Serbian tax legislation does not envisage the obligation of tax authorities to notify the taxpayers about the request submitted by foreign tax authorities to provide some tax

The IAEA's role in international information exchange

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brittinger, M.T.M.; Selling, H.A.

1993-01-01

The International Atomic Energy Agency strives to foster the exchange of scientific and technical information in the transport safety area through a dual work programme covering the development and maintenance of the Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material, on the one hand, and their implementation, on the other. Under the implementation aspect of its transport safety programme the IAEA takes advantage of the increased availability of mass storage media and the equipment to access them to use databases for information exchange. Information is collected on the identification of national competent authorities, package approval certificates, events in radioactive material transport, research and development, shipments, and exposure data. Data on national competent authorities and the package approval certificates that they issue is updated and disseminated annually to all Member States. Research in progress is described in a document that is published every two years. Databases on events, shipments and radiation exposure are in the development phase. Member States experience difficulty in obtaining the appropriate information and thus, the reporting periods for these subject areas are extended. Information gathered through these activities serve as regulatory aids to the national competent authorities responsible in the Member States for the transport of radioactive material, both internationally and nationally. In addition, it is useful in support of the continuous review and revision process of the transport Regulations and their supporting documents. (J.P.N.)

Barriers and facilitators to exchanging health information: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Eden, Karen B; Totten, Annette M; Kassakian, Steven Z; Gorman, Paul N; McDonagh, Marian S; Devine, Beth; Pappas, Miranda; Daeges, Monica; Woods, Susan; Hersh, William R

2016-04-01

We conducted a systematic review of studies assessing facilitators and barriers to use of health information exchange (HIE). We searched MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Library databases between January 1990 and February 2015 using terms related to HIE. English-language studies that identified barriers and facilitators of actual HIE were included. Data on study design, risk of bias, setting, geographic location, characteristics of the HIE, perceived barriers and facilitators to use were extracted and confirmed. Ten cross-sectional, seven multiple-site case studies, and two before-after studies that included data from several sources (surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observations of users) evaluated perceived barriers and facilitators to HIE use. The most commonly cited barriers to HIE use were incomplete information, inefficient workflow, and reports that the exchanged information that did not meet the needs of users. The review identified several facilitators to use. Incomplete patient information was consistently mentioned in the studies conducted in the US but not mentioned in the few studies conducted outside of the US that take a collective approach toward healthcare. Individual patients and practices in the US may exercise the right to participate (or not) in HIE which effects the completeness of patient information available to be exchanged. Workflow structure and user roles are key but understudied. We identified several facilitators in the studies that showed promise in promoting electronic health data exchange: obtaining more complete patient information; thoughtful workflow that folds in HIE; and inclusion of users early in implementation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bargaining over Tax Information Exchange

OpenAIRE

May Elsayyad

2012-01-01

This paper empirically studies recent treaty signings between tax havens and OECD countries as the outcome of a bargaining process over treaty form. Havens can decide not to sign an agreement, to sign a tax information exchange agreement or to sign a double taxation convention. We use a highly stylized bargaining model to develop testable hypotheses with regards to the type of agreement signed. We show that the main determinants of treaty signing are a haven's bargaining power and good govern...

ORGANIZATIONAL, LEGAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF HEALTH INFORMATION EXCHANGE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. A. Karasev

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The article discusses organizational and legal aspects of electronic health information exchange in developed countries, particularly, introduction of electronic medical records in the United States and Europe, as well as topical issues related to standardization of information technologies in health care. We briefly describe the most popular standards used in e-medicine, such as Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM, openEHR and HL7. The questions of syntactic and semantic interoperability in the exchange of electronic medical records and some aspects of the digital signature use are also considered. We suggest mechanisms for implementation of electronic document management and sharing of digital medical information, as one of the most important directions of information technologies in health care. It is noted that today, the main limiting factor in providing the digital exchange of health information in Russian Federation is unresolved legal issues, i.e. the absence of a legal framework of electronic medical records share. At the same time, the level of IT development in our country is quite sufficient to meet current challenges. It is stated that, despite the unresolved number of problems (for example, completeness of medical data on a patient, given to relatives in critical situations, the adoption of a single electronic card is able to bring medical care to a new level, especially in emergency and urgent medicine.

10th FSR (Field and Service Robotics)

CERN Document Server

Barfoot, Timothy

2016-01-01

This book contains the proceedings of the 10th FSR, (Field and Service Robotics) which is the leading single-track conference on applications of robotics in challenging environments. The 10th FSR was held in Toronto, Canada from 23-26 June 2015. The book contains 42 full-length, peer-reviewed papers organized into a variety of topics: Aquatic, Vision, Planetary, Aerial, Underground, and Systems. The goal of the book and the conference is to report and encourage the development and experimental evaluation of field and service robots, and to generate a vibrant exchange and discussion in the community. Field robots are non-factory robots, typically mobile, that operate in complex and dynamic environments: on the ground (Earth or other planets), under the ground, underwater, in the air or in space. Service robots are those that work closely with humans to help them with their lives. The first FSR was held in Canberra, Australia, in 1997. Since that first meeting, FSR has been held roughly every two years, cycling...

Information Exchange of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan with Nuclear Societies Worldwide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Masao Hori; Yasushi Tomita

2000-01-01

This paper describes committees of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan (AESJ) related to information exchange, AESJ publications, AESJ Internet applications, and means for future information exchange between nuclear societies

An Early Model for Value and Sustainability in Health Information Exchanges: Qualitative Study

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

Background The primary value relative to health information exchange has been seen in terms of cost savings relative to laboratory and radiology testing, emergency department expenditures, and admissions. However, models are needed to statistically quantify value and sustainability and better understand the dependent and mediating factors that contribute to value and sustainability. Objective The purpose of this study was to provide a basis for early model development for health information exchange value and sustainability. Methods A qualitative study was conducted with 21 interviews of eHealth Exchange participants across 10 organizations. Using a grounded theory approach and 3.0 as a relative frequency threshold, 5 main categories and 16 subcategories emerged. Results This study identifies 3 core current perceived value factors and 5 potential perceived value factors—how interviewees predict health information exchanges may evolve as there are more participants. These value factors were used as the foundation for early model development for sustainability of health information exchange. Conclusions Using the value factors from the interviews, the study provides the basis for early model development for health information exchange value and sustainability. This basis includes factors from the research: fostering consumer engagement; establishing a provider directory; quantifying use, cost, and clinical outcomes; ensuring data integrity through patient matching; and increasing awareness, usefulness, interoperability, and sustainability of eHealth Exchange. PMID:29712623

An Early Model for Value and Sustainability in Health Information Exchanges: Qualitative Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Feldman, Sue S

2018-04-30

The primary value relative to health information exchange has been seen in terms of cost savings relative to laboratory and radiology testing, emergency department expenditures, and admissions. However, models are needed to statistically quantify value and sustainability and better understand the dependent and mediating factors that contribute to value and sustainability. The purpose of this study was to provide a basis for early model development for health information exchange value and sustainability. A qualitative study was conducted with 21 interviews of eHealth Exchange participants across 10 organizations. Using a grounded theory approach and 3.0 as a relative frequency threshold, 5 main categories and 16 subcategories emerged. This study identifies 3 core current perceived value factors and 5 potential perceived value factors-how interviewees predict health information exchanges may evolve as there are more participants. These value factors were used as the foundation for early model development for sustainability of health information exchange. Using the value factors from the interviews, the study provides the basis for early model development for health information exchange value and sustainability. This basis includes factors from the research: fostering consumer engagement; establishing a provider directory; quantifying use, cost, and clinical outcomes; ensuring data integrity through patient matching; and increasing awareness, usefulness, interoperability, and sustainability of eHealth Exchange. ©Sue S Feldman. Originally published in JMIR Medical Informatics (http://medinform.jmir.org), 30.04.2018.

Incentives and Information Exchange in International Taxation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Keen, M.; Ligthart, J.E.

2004-01-01

The exchange of taxpayer-specific information between national tax authorities has recently emerged as a key and controversial topic in international tax policy discussions, most notably with the OECD s harmful tax practices project and the EU s savings tax initiative.This paper analyses the effects

Process Control Security in the Cybercrime Information Exchange NICC

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Luiijf, H.A.M.

2009-01-01

Detecting, investigating and prosecuting cybercrime? Extremely important, but not really the solution for the problem. Prevention is better! The sectors that have joined the Cybercrime Information Exchange have accepted the challenge of ensuring the effectiveness of the (information) security of

The unfolding of discursive struggles in the context of Health Information Exchange

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pluut, B.

2017-01-01

Projects that aim to improve Health Information Exchange (HIE) are often hampered by long, drawn-out discussions. Among other things, there is considerable debate on the role patients should have in the process of exchanging health information. The argument of this doctoral thesis is that it is

Specification of an integrated information architecture for a mobile teleoperated robot for home telecare.

Science.gov (United States)

Iannuzzi, David; Grant, Andrew; Corriveau, Hélène; Boissy, Patrick; Michaud, Francois

2016-12-01

The objective of this study was to design effectively integrated information architecture for a mobile teleoperated robot in remote assistance to the delivery of home health care. Three role classes were identified related to the deployment of a telerobot, namely, engineer, technology integrator, and health professional. Patients and natural caregivers were indirectly considered, this being a component of future field studies. Interviewing representatives of each class provided the functions, and information content and flows for each function. Interview transcripts enabled the formulation of UML (Universal Modeling Language) diagrams for feedback from participants. The proposed information architecture was validated with a use-case scenario. The integrated information architecture incorporates progressive design, ergonomic integration, and the home care needs from medical specialist, nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and social worker care perspectives. The integrated architecture iterative process promoted insight among participants. The use-case scenario evaluation showed the design's robustness. Complex innovation such as a telerobot must coherently mesh with health-care service delivery needs. The deployment of integrated information architecture bridging development, with specialist and home care applications, is necessary for home care technology innovation. It enables continuing evolution of robot and novel health information design in the same integrated architecture, while accounting for patient ecological need.

Associations between perceived crisis mode work climate and poor information exchange within hospitals.

Science.gov (United States)

Patterson, Mark E; Bogart, Miller S; Starr, Kathleen R

2015-03-01

Because hospital units operating in crisis mode could create unsafe transitions of care due to miscommunication, our objective was to estimate associations between perceived crisis mode work climate and patient information exchange problems within hospitals. Self-reported data from 247,140 hospital staff members across 884 hospitals were obtained from the 2010 Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. Presence of a crisis mode work climate was defined as respondents agreeing that the hospital unit in which they work tries to do too much too quickly. Presence of patient information exchange problems was defined as respondents agreeing that problems often occur in exchanging patient information across hospital units. Multivariable ordinal regressions estimated the likelihood of perceived problems in exchanging patient information across hospital units, controlling for perceived levels of crisis mode work climate, skill levels, work climate, and hospital infrastructure. Compared to those disagreeing, hospital staff members agreeing that the hospital unit in which they work tries to do too much too quickly were 1.6 times more likely to perceive problems in exchanging patient information across hospital units (odds ratio: 1.6, 95% confidence interval: 1.58-1.65). Hospital staff members perceiving crisis mode work climates within their hospital unit are more likely to perceive problems in exchanging patient information across units, underscoring the need to improve communication during transitions of care. © 2014 Society of Hospital Medicine.

11th International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems

CERN Document Server

Chirikjian, Gregory

2014-01-01

Distributed robotics is a rapidly growing and maturing interdisciplinary research area lying at the intersection of computer science, network science, control theory, and electrical and mechanical engineering. The goal of the Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS) is to exchange and stimulate research ideas to realize advanced distributed robotic systems. This volume of proceedings includes 31 original contributions presented at the 2012 International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS 2012) held in November 2012 at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD USA. The selected papers in this volume are authored by leading researchers from Asia, Europa, and the Americas, thereby providing a broad coverage and perspective of the state-of-the-art technologies, algorithms, system architectures, and applications in distributed robotic systems. The book is organized into five parts, representative of critical long-term and emerging research thrusts in the multi-robot com...

Closed Loop Brain Model of Neocortical Information Based Exchange

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James eKozloski

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Here we describe an information based exchange' model of brain function that ascribes to neocortex, basal ganglia, and thalamus distinct network functions. The model allows us to analyze whole brain system set point measures, such as the rate and heterogeneity of transitions in striatum and neocortex, in the context of neuromodulation and other perturbations. Our closed-loop model is grounded in neuroanatomical observations, proposing a novel Grand Loop through neocortex, and invokes different forms of plasticity at specific tissue interfaces and their principle cell synapses to achieve these transitions. By implementing a system for maximum information based exchange of action potentials between modeled neocortical areas, we observe changes to these measures in simulation. We hypothesize that similar dynamic set points and modulations exist in the brain's resting state activity, and that different modifications to information based exchange may shift the risk profile of different component tissues, resulting in different neurodegenerative diseases. This model is targeted for further development using IBM's Neural Tissue Simulator, which allows scalable elaboration of networks, tissues, and their neural and synaptic components towards ever greater complexity and biological realism.

9th International Conference on Field and Service Robotics

CERN Document Server

Corke, Peter; Roberts, Jonathan

2015-01-01

FSR, the International Conference on Field and Service Robotics, is a robotics Symposium which has established over the past ten years the latest research and practical results towards the use of field and service robotics in the community with particular focus on proven technology. The first meeting was held in Canberra, Australia, in 1997. Since then the meeting has been held every two years in the pattern Asia, America, Europe.   Field robots are non-factory robots, typically mobile, that operate in complex, and dynamic environments; on the ground (of earth or planets), under the ground, underwater, in the air or in space. Service robots are those that work closely with humans to help them with their lives. This book present the results of the ninth edition of Field and Service Robotics, FSR13, held in Brisbane, Australia on 9th-11th December 2013. The conference provided a forum for researchers, professionals, and robot manufactures to exchange up-to-date technical knowledge and experience. This book off...

Simulation Suggests that medical group mergers won't undermine the potential utility of health information exchanges.

Science.gov (United States)

Rudin, Robert S; Schneider, Eric C; Volk, Lynn A; Szolovits, Peter; Salzberg, Claudia A; Simon, Steven R; Bates, David W

2012-03-01

Federal and state agencies are investing substantial resources in the creation of community health information exchanges, which are consortia that enable independent health care organizations to exchange clinical data. However, under pressure to form accountable care organizations, medical groups may merge and support private health information exchanges. Such activity could reduce the potential utility of community exchanges-that is, the exchanges' capacity to share patient data across hospitals and physician practices that are independent. Simulations of care transitions based on data from ten Massachusetts communities suggest that there would have to be many such mergers to undermine the potential utility of health information exchanges. At the same time, because hospitals and the largest medical groups account for only 10-20 percent of care transitions in a community, information exchanges will still need to recruit a large proportion of the medical groups in a given community for the exchanges to maintain their usefulness in fostering information exchange across independent providers.

The Secure Information Exchange (SIX) Project at the OPCW

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gulay, M.; Milenkovic, G.

2015-01-01

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) entered into force in 1997 and the member states of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have obligations for making declarations under various articles of the convention. These declarations could contain confidential information and until recently the only mechanism to submit confidential information to the OPCW Technical Secretariat was through physical delivery by the permanent representatives of the member states which introduced delays in the exchange of information in general. In 2012, the Technical Secretariat initiated a strategic project to establish a secure electronic transmission channel that could be used as an alternative option for the exchange of information between the Technical Secretariat and the member states. The Secure Information Exchange (SIX) Project has been given priority by the Director-General and it received support from the member states. A core project team comprising representatives of the main business unit, the office of legal affairs, IT security and implementation teams were established. Following a feasibility study and with continuous communication with the representatives of the member states, the pilot phase of the project was completed successfully in 2013. In the near future, the project will go live and the member states and the Technical Secretariat will benefit from this key initiative. This paper aims to provide an overview of the project: the solution approach, data gathered in order to assess the delays in communication through traditional means, IT security and implementation issues as well as the legal considerations. (author)

Information Exchange Architecture for Integrating Unmanned Vehicles into Maritime Missions

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Woolsey, Aaron

2004-01-01

.... The focus of this study is to analyze the structure of information flow for unmanned systems and suggest an exchange architecture to successfully inform and build decision maker understanding based...

Smart Questions : Context-dependent mobile information exchange for military operations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Streefkerk, J.W.; Heuvelink, A.

2014-01-01

During military mISSIOns, mobile devices allow information exchange between distributed groups of soldiers. As the context of use changes frequently and more (unstructured) information becomes available during missions, the challenge is to ensure that the right information reaches the right

Exchanging Medical Information with Eastern Europe through the Internet.

Science.gov (United States)

Daniels, Julie K.; Cronje, Ruth J.; Sokolowski, Beth C.

1998-01-01

Interviews foreign Information Coordinators who facilitate exchange of medical information over the Internet between healthcare providers in America and eastern Europe to learn how Internet technologies are being introduced, disseminated, and adopted in their institutions. Applies diffusion of innovations theory for interpretation. Shows technical…

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…

Construction Operations Building Information Exchange (COBIE): Requirements Definition and Pilot Implementation Standard

Science.gov (United States)

2007-06-01

Swalley U.S. Department of State, Overseas Buildings Operations Toby Wilson U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers, Engineer R&D Center Jeff Wix AEC3 The...exchanged in COBIE. To map those information exchanges to the IFC model, the Information Delivery Manual (IDM) process [ Wix 2007] was also used. The...Folksonomy. Wikimedia Foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy/, accessed 3 August 2007. Wix , Jeffrey. 2007. Information Delivery Manual

Experientally guided robots. [for planet exploration

Science.gov (United States)

Merriam, E. W.; Becker, J. D.

1974-01-01

This paper argues that an experientally guided robot is necessary to successfully explore far-away planets. Such a robot is characterized as having sense organs which receive sensory information from its environment and motor systems which allow it to interact with that environment. The sensori-motor information which it receives is organized into an experiential knowledge structure and this knowledge in turn is used to guide the robot's future actions. A summary is presented of a problem solving system which is being used as a test bed for developing such a robot. The robot currently engages in the behaviors of visual tracking, focusing down, and looking around in a simulated Martian landscape. Finally, some unsolved problems are outlined whose solutions are necessary before an experientally guided robot can be produced. These problems center around organizing the motivational and memory structure of the robot and understanding its high-level control mechanisms.

Hydro-Quebec inspection robot RIT-LRG

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Champagne, D.; Rinfret, F.; Bourgault, Y.G.

2008-01-01

Hydro Quebec's Research Centre (IREQ), has developed a variety of inspection tools over the years. The Metar bracelet for the feeder tubes, the REC robot for the heat exchanger and the RIT robot for the Delayed Neutron system just to name a few. This paper discusses with the successful deployment of the Camera Probe Positioning robot for Visual Inspection of the sample lines of the delayed neutron system of CANDU power plants. This RIT robot has three possible configurations (Face, Cabinet and LRG configurations) and has remained a prototype version although it has been used over the years in many outage inspection campaigns since 1997. The main advantages of using this robot are: the significant reduction in radiation exposure, the high quality of the data collected and the archiving of inspection data for further analysis and reports. In 2007, Gentilly-2 (G-2), decided to industrialize the LRG configuration of the RIT robot and to designate it the standard tool for the inspection of the Delayed Neutron System. An improved RIT-LRG robot, along with its control box and command station was developed. The software had to be rewritten requiring an ergonomics analysis of user tasks, work station and interface display. These issues included both physical and cognitive requirements aspects. The two principal topics of this paper will be on the Inspection Robot Technology developed and highlights of the 2008 outage inspection campaign. (author)

Hydro-Quebec inspection robot RIT-LRG

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Champagne, D., E-mail: champagne.dominique@ireq.ca [Inst. de recherche d' Hydro-Quebec, Quebec (Canada); Rinfret, F.; Bourgault, Y.G., E-mail: rinfret.francois@hydro.qc.ca, E-mail: bourgault.yves.g@hydro.qc.ca [Hydro-Quebec, Becancour, Quebec (Canada)

2008-07-01

Hydro Quebec's Research Centre (IREQ), has developed a variety of inspection tools over the years. The Metar bracelet for the feeder tubes, the REC robot for the heat exchanger and the RIT robot for the Delayed Neutron system just to name a few. This paper discusses with the successful deployment of the Camera Probe Positioning robot for Visual Inspection of the sample lines of the delayed neutron system of CANDU power plants. This RIT robot has three possible configurations (Face, Cabinet and LRG configurations) and has remained a prototype version although it has been used over the years in many outage inspection campaigns since 1997. The main advantages of using this robot are: the significant reduction in radiation exposure, the high quality of the data collected and the archiving of inspection data for further analysis and reports. In 2007, Gentilly-2 (G-2), decided to industrialize the LRG configuration of the RIT robot and to designate it the standard tool for the inspection of the Delayed Neutron System. An improved RIT-LRG robot, along with its control box and command station was developed. The software had to be rewritten requiring an ergonomics analysis of user tasks, work station and interface display. These issues included both physical and cognitive requirements aspects. The two principal topics of this paper will be on the Inspection Robot Technology developed and highlights of the 2008 outage inspection campaign. (author)

International exchange of radiological information in the event of a nuclear accident - future perspectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De-Cort, M.; De-Vries, G.; Breitenbach, L.; Leeb, H.; Weiss, W.

1996-01-01

Immediately after the Chernobyl accident most European countries established or enhanced their national radioactivity monitoring and information systems. The large transboundary effect of the radioactive release also triggered the need for bilateral and international agreements on the exchange of radiological information in case of a nuclear accident. Based on the experiences gained from existing bi- and multilateral data exchange the Commission of the European Communities has made provision for and is developing technical systems to exchange information of common interest. Firstly the existing national systems and systems based on bilateral agreements are summarized. The objectives and technical realizations of the EC international information exchange systems ECURIE and EURDEP, are described. The experiences gained over the past few years and the concepts for the future, in which central and eastern European countries will be included, are discussed. The benefits that would result from improving the international exchange of radiological information in the event of a future nuclear accident are further being described

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.

The Influence of Organizational Systems on Information Exchange in Long-Term Care Facilities: An Institutional Ethnography.

Science.gov (United States)

Caspar, Sienna; Ratner, Pamela A; Phinney, Alison; MacKinnon, Karen

2016-06-01

Person-centered care is heavily dependent on effective information exchange among health care team members. We explored the organizational systems that influence resident care attendants' (RCAs) access to care information in long-term care (LTC) settings. We conducted an institutional ethnography in three LTC facilities. Investigative methods included naturalistic observations, in-depth interviews, and textual analysis. Practical access to texts containing individualized care-related information (e.g., care plans) was dependent on job classification. Regulated health care professionals accessed these texts daily. RCAs lacked practical access to these texts and primarily received and shared information orally. Microsystems of care, based on information exchange formats, emerged. Organizational systems mandated written exchange of information and did not formally support an oral exchange. Thus, oral information exchanges were largely dependent on the quality of workplace relationships. Formal systems are needed to support structured oral information exchange within and between the microsystems of care found in LTC. © The Author(s) 2016.

Augmented reality for industrial robot programmers: Workload analysis for task-based, augmented reality-supported robot control

OpenAIRE

Stadler, S.; Kain, K.; Giuliani, M.; Mirnig, N.; Stollnberger, G.; Tscheligi, M. ed

2016-01-01

Augmented reality (AR) can serve as a tool to provide helpful information in a direct way to industrial robot programmers throughout the teaching process. It seems obvious that AR support eases the programming process and increases the programmer's productivity and programming accuracy. However, additional information can also potentially increase the programmer's perceived workload. To explore the impact of augmented reality on robot teaching, as a first step we have chosen a Sphero robot co...

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

Artificial intelligence and information-control systems of robots - 87

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Plander, I.

1987-01-01

Independent research areas of artificial intelligence represent the following problems: automatic problem solving and new knowledge discovering, automatic program synthesis, natural language, picture and scene recognition and understanding, intelligent control systems of robots equipped with sensoric subsystems, dialogue of two knowledge systems, as well as studying and modelling higher artificial intelligence attributes, such as emotionality and personality. The 4th Conference draws on the problems treated at the preceding Conferences, and presents the most recent knowledge on the following topics: theoretical problems of artificial intelligence, knowledge-based systems, expert systems, perception and pattern recognition, robotics, intelligent computer-aided design, special-purpose computer systems for artificial intelligence and robotics

Attitudinal Change in Elderly Citizens Toward Social Robots: The Role of Personality Traits and Beliefs About Robot Functionality.

Science.gov (United States)

Damholdt, Malene F; Nørskov, Marco; Yamazaki, Ryuji; Hakli, Raul; Hansen, Catharina Vesterager; Vestergaard, Christina; Seibt, Johanna

2015-01-01

Attitudes toward robots influence the tendency to accept or reject robotic devices. Thus it is important to investigate whether and how attitudes toward robots can change. In this pilot study we investigate attitudinal changes in elderly citizens toward a tele-operated robot in relation to three parameters: (i) the information provided about robot functionality, (ii) the number of encounters, (iii) personality type. Fourteen elderly residents at a rehabilitation center participated. Pre-encounter attitudes toward robots, anthropomorphic thinking, and personality were assessed. Thereafter the participants interacted with a tele-operated robot (Telenoid) during their lunch (c. 30 min.) for up to 3 days. Half of the participants were informed that the robot was tele-operated (IC) whilst the other half were naïve to its functioning (UC). Post-encounter assessments of attitudes toward robots and anthropomorphic thinking were undertaken to assess change. Attitudes toward robots were assessed with a new generic 35-items questionnaire (attitudes toward social robots scale: ASOR-5), offering a differentiated conceptualization of the conditions for social interaction. There was no significant difference between the IC and UC groups in attitude change toward robots though trends were observed. Personality was correlated with some tendencies for attitude changes; Extraversion correlated with positive attitude changes to intimate-personal relatedness with the robot (r = 0.619) and to psychological relatedness (r = 0.581) whilst Neuroticism correlated negatively (r = -0.582) with mental relatedness with the robot. The results tentatively suggest that neither information about functionality nor direct repeated encounters are pivotal in changing attitudes toward robots in elderly citizens. This may reflect a cognitive congruence bias where the robot is experienced in congruence with initial attitudes, or it may support action-based explanations of cognitive dissonance reductions

Attitudinal change in elderly citizens towards social robots: the role of personality traits and beliefs about robot functionality.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Malene Flensborg Damholdt

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Attitudes towards robots influence the tendency to accept or reject robotic devices. Thus it is important to investigate whether and how attitudes towards robots can change. In this pilot study we investigate attitudinal changes in elderly citizens toward a tele-operated robot in relation to three parameters: (i the information provided about robot functionality, (ii the number of encounters, (iii personality type. Fourteen elderly residents at a rehabilitation centre participated. Pre-encounter attitudes towards robots, anthropomorphic thinking, and personality were assessed. Thereafter the participants interacted with a tele-operated robot (Telenoid during their lunch (c. 30 min. for up to three days. Half of the participants were informed that the robot was tele-operated (IC whilst the other half were naïve to its functioning (UC. Post-encounter assessments of attitudes towards robots and anthropomorphic thinking were undertaken to assess change. Attitudes towards robots were assessed with a new generic 35-item questionnaire (Attitudes towards social robots scale: ASOR-5, offering a differentiated conceptualization of the conditions for social interaction.There was no significant difference between the IC and UC groups in attitude change towards robots though trends were observed. Personality was correlated with some tendencies for attitude changes; Extraversion correlated with positive attitude changes to intimate-personal relatedness with the robot (r=.619 and to psychological relatedness (r=.581 whilst Neuroticism correlated negatively (r=-.582 with mental relatedness with the robot. The results tentatively suggest that neither information about functionality nor direct repeated encounters are pivotal in changing attitudes towards robots in elderly citizens. This may reflect a cognitive congruence bias where the robot is experienced in congruence with initial attitudes, or it may support action-based explanations of cognitive dissonance

Beyond speculative robot ethics: A vision assessment study on the future of the robotic caretaker

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Plas, A.P. van der; Smits, M.; Wehrmann, C.

2010-01-01

In this article we develop a dialogue model for robot technology experts and designated users to discuss visions on the future of robotics in long-term care. Our vision assessment study aims for more distinguished and more informed visions on future robots. Surprisingly, our experiment also led to

A platform independent prototype for data and information exchange between decision support systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carle, B.; Baig, S.

2003-01-01

Full text: A survey amongst participants in the Decision Support System network (DSSNET) community showed that the organization dealing with the Information exchange between participants and stakeholders in nuclear emergency is too disparate to be defined in one well defined procedure or analysis. Looking at the organization of the national emergency response organizations, and especially when modelling the information flow, diversity is the most striking finding: originators of the information are different, decision making organisation can be different, the approval and publishing of information to press and wider public is dealt with in different ways and the responsibilities for the information flow to other authorities differ as well. Moreover, the place of decision support systems (DSS) in the emergency response organization varies for the different countries. This variation can be found in the way one of the 'big three' (RODOS, ARGOS and RECASS) systems is implemented, and even more in the way other, often country-specific systems, are in use and function more integrated with the particular emergency response organization of the country. Hence we can conclude that there is a need to structure the information exchange system, but this has to be flexible enough to work with the above described variety of existing organizations and procedures. Though it may not be feasible to agree on all specifications of information to be exchanged, we can define at least a minimal set. A prototype for data and information exchange is being developed under the EC project MODEM (Monitoring data and Information exchange among decision support systems). It establishes links between the decision support systems RODOS, ARGOS and RECASS. For setting up this data exchange, the use of xml-based data specifications allows a flexible integration with existing applications. The power to include metadata in a structured way allows the use of automated transformation tools and limits the

Raspberry Pi robotics projects

CERN Document Server

Grimmett, Richard

2015-01-01

This book is for enthusiasts who want to use the Raspberry Pi to build complex robotics projects. With the aid of the step-by-step instructions in this book, you can construct complex robotics projects that can move, talk, listen, see, swim, or fly. No previous Raspberry Pi robotics experience is assumed, but even experts will find unexpected and interesting information in this invaluable guide.

The Role of Private Information in Short-term Fluctuations of Won/Dollar Exchange Rates

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haesik Park

1999-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we have examined the short-run movement of the won/dollar exchange rate using information obtained from the inter-bank market in Korea. First, we constructed the hourly measure of excess demand for dollar and used it as a proxy for the trading pattern of market participants. To construct this time series, we relied on the bid and ask won/dollar exchange rates collected on the two-minute interval. We then estimated the structural VAR model consisting of the actually observed won/dollar exchange rate and the proxied trading pattern of market participants to see if private information, as opposed to public information, is relevant for explaining the hourly movement of the won/dollar exchange rate. Private information is found to account for more 30% of hourly variations of the won/dollar exchange rate. Next, we constructed the trading pattern of market participants on a daily basis using the same data set employed to build the hourly measure. We then examined whether private information is useful for predicting the daily won/dollar exchange rate movement. We found that the forecast model using both private and public information reduces out-of-sample forecast errors of an alternative model relying only on public information by 20~25%. Also, the out-of-sample forecast of the model using both private and public information is found to be more accurate than the random walk model.

Robot-Assisted Antegrade In-Situ Fenestrated Stent Grafting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Riga, Celia V.; Bicknell, Colin D.; Wallace, Daniel; Hamady, Mohamad; Cheshire, Nicholas

2009-01-01

To determine the technical feasibility of a novel approach of in-situ fenestration of aortic stent grafts by using a remotely controlled robotic steerable catheter system in the porcine model. A 65-kg pig underwent robot-assisted bilateral antegrade in-situ renal fenestration of an abdominal aortic stent graft with subsequent successful deployment of a bare metal stent into the right renal artery. A 16-mm iliac extension covered stent served as the porcine aortic endograft. Under fluoroscopic guidance, the graft was punctured with a 20-G customized diathermy needle that was introduced and kept in place by the robotic arm. The needle was exchanged for a 4 x 20 mm cutting balloon before successful deployment of the renal stent. Robot-assisted antegrade in-situ fenestration is technically feasible in a large mammalian model. The robotic system enables precise manipulation, stable positioning, and minimum instrumentation of the aorta and its branches while minimizing radiation exposure.

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.

Achievement report for fiscal 2000 on research and development of human cooperating and coexisting robot system. Research and development of rationalization in oil refining system; 2000 nendo ningen kyocho kyozongata robot system kenkyu kaihatsu seika hokokusho. Sekiyu seisei system gorika kenkyu kaihatsu

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2001-06-01

It is intended to develop a human cooperating and coexisting robot system that can move around freely during operation and shutdown of a oil refining plant to perform different works. This paper describes the achievements in fiscal 2000. With regard to the navigation and maintenance work functions, design was made on the robot induction system and its conception to perform the works after the robot has reached a place of the work. The specifications required for the robot supporting agent were made clear, and the constituting modules were designed to exchange information with the robot. Specifications were compiled for a portable remote operation device intended of operating different vehicles. Investigations were carried out on such protection technologies as interference check and shock absorbing materials to protect the robot platform. A method was developed to acquire posture and motion patterns of a human demonstrator, using only the upper half of the body, from the images captured by a head-mounted camera. Discussions were given on the specifications, systems and image processing algorithms required for vision-navigated autonomous walking, whose practicability was verified. Autonomous walking by means of map-based guidance, and hand operating technologies were also discussed. (NEDO)

Solar-based navigation for robotic explorers

Science.gov (United States)

Shillcutt, Kimberly Jo

2000-12-01

This thesis introduces the application of solar position and shadowing information to robotic exploration. Power is a critical resource for robots with remote, long-term missions, so this research focuses on the power generation capabilities of robotic explorers during navigational tasks, in addition to power consumption. Solar power is primarily considered, with the possibility of wind power also contemplated. Information about the environment, including the solar ephemeris, terrain features, time of day, and surface location, is incorporated into a planning structure, allowing robots to accurately predict shadowing and thus potential costs and gains during navigational tasks. By evaluating its potential to generate and expend power, a robot can extend its lifetime and accomplishments. The primary tasks studied are coverage patterns, with a variety of plans developed for this research. The use of sun, terrain and temporal information also enables new capabilities of identifying and following sun-synchronous and sun-seeking paths. Digital elevation maps are combined with an ephemeris algorithm to calculate the altitude and azimuth of the sun from surface locations, and to identify and map shadows. Solar navigation path simulators use this information to perform searches through two-dimensional space, while considering temporal changes. Step by step simulations of coverage patterns also incorporate time in addition to location. Evaluations of solar and wind power generation, power consumption, area coverage, area overlap, and time are generated for sets of coverage patterns, with on-board environmental information linked to the simulations. This research is implemented on the Nomad robot for the Robotic Antarctic Meteorite Search. Simulators have been developed for coverage pattern tests, as well as for sun-synchronous and sun-seeking path searches. Results of field work and simulations are reported and analyzed, with demonstrated improvements in efficiency

Locomotor Sub-functions for Control of Assistive Wearable Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maziar A. Sharbafi

2017-09-01

Full Text Available A primary goal of comparative biomechanics is to understand the fundamental physics of locomotion within an evolutionary context. Such an understanding of legged locomotion results in a transition from copying nature to borrowing strategies for interacting with the physical world regarding design and control of bio-inspired legged robots or robotic assistive devices. Inspired from nature, legged locomotion can be composed of three locomotor sub-functions, which are intrinsically interrelated: Stance: redirecting the center of mass by exerting forces on the ground. Swing: cycling the legs between ground contacts. Balance: maintaining body posture. With these three sub-functions, one can understand, design and control legged locomotory systems with formulating them in simpler separated tasks. Coordination between locomotor sub-functions in a harmonized manner appears then as an additional problem when considering legged locomotion. However, biological locomotion shows that appropriate design and control of each sub-function simplifies coordination. It means that only limited exchange of sensory information between the different locomotor sub-function controllers is required enabling the envisioned modular architecture of the locomotion control system. In this paper, we present different studies on implementing different locomotor sub-function controllers on models, robots, and an exoskeleton in addition to demonstrating their abilities in explaining humans' control strategies.

Locomotor Sub-functions for Control of Assistive Wearable Robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Sharbafi, Maziar A; Seyfarth, Andre; Zhao, Guoping

2017-01-01

A primary goal of comparative biomechanics is to understand the fundamental physics of locomotion within an evolutionary context. Such an understanding of legged locomotion results in a transition from copying nature to borrowing strategies for interacting with the physical world regarding design and control of bio-inspired legged robots or robotic assistive devices. Inspired from nature, legged locomotion can be composed of three locomotor sub-functions, which are intrinsically interrelated: Stance : redirecting the center of mass by exerting forces on the ground. Swing : cycling the legs between ground contacts. Balance : maintaining body posture. With these three sub-functions, one can understand, design and control legged locomotory systems with formulating them in simpler separated tasks. Coordination between locomotor sub-functions in a harmonized manner appears then as an additional problem when considering legged locomotion. However, biological locomotion shows that appropriate design and control of each sub-function simplifies coordination. It means that only limited exchange of sensory information between the different locomotor sub-function controllers is required enabling the envisioned modular architecture of the locomotion control system. In this paper, we present different studies on implementing different locomotor sub-function controllers on models, robots, and an exoskeleton in addition to demonstrating their abilities in explaining humans' control strategies.

Optical Flow based Robot Obstacle Avoidance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kahlouche Souhila

2008-11-01

Full Text Available In this paper we try to develop an algorithm for visual obstacle avoidance of autonomous mobile robot. The input of the algorithm is an image sequence grabbed by an embedded camera on the B21r robot in motion. Then, the optical flow information is extracted from the image sequence in order to be used in the navigation algorithm. The optical flow provides very important information about the robot environment, like: the obstacles disposition, the robot heading, the time to collision and the depth. The strategy consists in balancing the amount of left and right side flow to avoid obstacles, this technique allows robot navigation without any collision with obstacles. The robustness of the algorithm will be showed by some examples.

Information retrieval pathways for health information exchange in multiple care settings.

Science.gov (United States)

Kierkegaard, Patrick; Kaushal, Rainu; Vest, Joshua R

2014-11-01

To determine which health information exchange (HIE) technologies and information retrieval pathways healthcare professionals relied on to meet their information needs in the context of laboratory test results, radiological images and reports, and medication histories. Primary data was collected over a 2-month period across 3 emergency departments, 7 primary care practices, and 2 public health clinics in New York state. Qualitative research methods were used to collect and analyze data from semi-structured interviews and participant observation. The study reveals that healthcare professionals used a complex combination of information retrieval pathways for HIE to obtain clinical information from external organizations. The choice for each approach was setting- and information-specific, but was also highly dynamic across users and their information needs. Our findings about the complex nature of information sharing in healthcare provide insights for informatics professionals about the usage of information; indicate the need for managerial support within each organization; and suggest approaches to improve systems for organizations and agencies working to expand HIE adoption.

Information Exchange, Market Transparency and Dynamic Oligopoly

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Møllgaard, H. Peter; Overgaard, Per Baltzer

Economic literature often offers conflicting views on the likely efficiency effects of information exchanges, communication between firms, and market transparency. On the one hand, it is argued that increased information dissemination improves firm planning to the benefit of society (including...... buyers) and allows potential buyers to make correct decisions given their preferences. On the other hand, economic literature also shows that increased information dissemination can raise prices through tacit or explicit collusion to the benefit of firms but at the expense of society at large....... This chapter provides a general analytical framework to reconcile these views and presents some basic conclusions for antitrust practice. In addition, the chapter reviews cases from both sides of the Atlantic where informational issues have played a significant role....

Achievement goals and interpersonal behaviour: How mastery and performance goals shape information exchange

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Poortvliet, P.M.; Janssen, O.; Van Yperen, N.W.; Van de Vliert, E.

2007-01-01

The present research examines the impact of achievement goals on task-related information exchange. Studies 1 and 2 reveal that relative to those with mastery goals or no goal, individuals pursuing performance goals were less open in their information giving to exchange partners. Study 2 further

The influence of approach speed and functional noise on users' perception of a robot

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lohse, M.; van Berkel, Niels; van Dijk, Elisabeth M.A.G.; Joosse, M.P.; Karreman, Daphne Eleonora; Evers, Vanessa

2013-01-01

How a robot approaches a person greatly determines the interaction that follows. This is particularly relevant when the person has never interacted with the robot before. In human communication, we exchange a multitude of multimodal signals to communicate our intent while we approach others.

Technology of disaster response robot and issues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tadokoro, Satoshi

2013-01-01

The needs, function structure , ability of disaster response robot are stated. Robots are classified by move mode such as Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV), Legged Robots, Exoskeleton, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), Wall Climbing Robots, robots for narrow space. Quince, disaster response robot, collected at first information in the building of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Functions of rescue robots and technical problems under disaster conditions, shape and characteristics of robots and TRL, PackBot, Pelican, Quince, scope camera, and three-dimensional map made by Quince are illustrated. (S.Y.)

Compensating for telecommunication delays during robotic telerehabilitation.

Science.gov (United States)

Consoni, Leonardo J; Siqueira, Adriano A G; Krebs, Hermano I

2017-07-01

Rehabilitation robotic systems may afford better care and telerehabilitation may extend the use and benefits of robotic therapy to the home. Data transmissions over distance are bound by intrinsic communication delays which can be significant enough to deem the activity unfeasible. Here we describe an approach that combines unilateral robotic telerehabilitation and serious games. This approach has a modular and distributed design that permits different types of robots to interact without substantial code changes. We demonstrate the approach through an online multiplayer game. Two users can remotely interact with each other with no force exchanges, while a smoothing and prediction algorithm compensates motions for the delay in the Internet connection. We demonstrate that this approach can successfully compensate for data transmission delays, even when testing between the United States and Brazil. This paper presents the initial experimental results, which highlight the performance degradation with increasing delays as well as improvements provided by the proposed algorithm, and discusses planned future developments.

Process Control Security in the Cybercrime Information Exchange NICC

OpenAIRE

Luiijf, H.A.M.

2009-01-01

Detecting, investigating and prosecuting cybercrime? Extremely important, but not really the solution for the problem. Prevention is better! The sectors that have joined the Cybercrime Information Exchange have accepted the challenge of ensuring the effectiveness of the (information) security of process control systems (PCS), including SCADA. This publication makes it clear why it is vital that organizations establish and maintain control over the security of the information and communication...

Fiscal 2000 report on result of R and D on robot system cooperating and coexisting with human beings. Development for putting new power generating technology to practical use; 2000 nendo ningen kyocho kyozongata robot system kenkyu kaihatsu seika hokokusho. Shinhatsuden gijutsu jitsuyoka kaihatsu

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2001-06-01

A highly safe and reliable robot is being developed capable of cooperating and coexisting with human beings to carry out complicated operations in a dangerous site such as a plant, power station maintenance, construction, disaster relief, etc. This paper describes the fiscal 2000 results. In the research for navigated walking functions, the capabilities were extracted for walking straight, turning around and going up and down stairs, with a virtual platform simulated and examined. In the development of remote operation for proxy drive, a method was investigated for instructing change in posture and cooperative movement of the arms and legs. In the evaluation of proxy drive operations for industrial vehicles, a type of operating machine was specified for driving in a standing posture applicable to a robot. In the development of information forming technology supporting remote operations, a basic design was made for the simulator technology of compensating information. Server/client remote control technology was investigated, while a plurality of bi-directional interface means were reviewed for the purpose of efficient information exchange between a robot and an operator. A system for assembling a wall panel was evaluated as an outdoor man-machine cooperative operation. Adaptability to complicated environment such as unprepared ground was also studied, as well as the control of movement of a humanoid robot. (NEDO)

Emergency exercises and information exchange. Does practice make perfect? Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Naadland Holo, E

1999-09-01

This project has covered a series of exercises and exercise like activities, in addition to a survey of scenario development tools and development of a suggestion for a Nordic system for data and information exchange. The results from the activities are presented in this report in a methodical perspective. The results reveal three similar components in almost all exercise activities: tools and methods to be used in an emergency situation need further development, systems for communication and information exchange should be developed and implemented, and the format and content of the information to be exchanged in an emergency situation should be agreed upon. Recommendations for future tasks regarding Nordic exercises are given according to this methodical approach. A major aspect here is to develop strategies for the over-all emergency planning. Such strategies should include the use of systematically chosen exercise types to improve the emergency response in a systematic way. (au)

Models of information exchange between radio interfaces of Wi-Fi group of standards

Science.gov (United States)

Litvinskaya, O. S.

2018-05-01

This paper offers models of information exchange between radio interfaces of the Wi-Fi group of standards by the example of a real facility management system for the oil and gas industry. Interaction between the MU-MIMO and MIMO technologies is analyzed. An optimal variant of information exchange is proposed.

CISM Course on Basics of Robotics : Theory and Components of Manipulators and Robots

CERN Document Server

Knapczyk, Józef

1999-01-01

This volume contains the basic concepts of modern robotics, basic definitions, systematics of robots in industry, service, medicine and underwater activity. Important information on walking and mili-walking machines are included as well as possible applications of microrobots in medicine, agriculture, underwater activity.

Exchange of Information in Tax Matters

OpenAIRE

Szwajdler, Paweł

2017-01-01

Szwajdler Paweł. Exchange of Information in Tax Matters. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2017;7(1):556-570. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.893161 http://ojs.ukw.edu.pl/index.php/johs/article/view/4828 https://pbn.nauka.gov.pl/sedno-webapp/works/831606 The journal has had 7 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education parametric evaluation. Part B item 754 (09.12.2016). 754 Journal of Education, Health and Sport...

HEALTH RECORDS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN SUPPORT OF EXCHANGE OF HEALTH INFORMATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jordan Deliversky

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The exchange of health information in conditions directly related to electronic environment is referred as health information technology. Usually the protection of personal health related data is comprised of various elements such as ways of information usage and access to sensitive health information. The protection of individually identifiable health information is possible with combination of measures. Protective measures include administrative, technical and physical elements. Through such protective measures is possible to ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability of the information, while at the same time could be guaranteed the prevention of unauthorized access. Sensitive records usually contain personal health information. Personal medical data requires high level of protection, as its content includes medical condition or diagnosis, where unauthorized access could have negative impact on one’s personal and professional life.

Prolegomena to a theory of nuclear information exchange

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Nuffelen, Dominique

1997-01-01

From the researcher's point of view, the communications with the agricultural populations in case of radiological emergency can not be anything else but the application of a theory of nuclear information exchange among social groups. Consequently, it is essentially necessary to work out such a theory, the prolegomena of which are exposed in this paper. It describes an experiment conducted at 'Service de protection contre les radiations ionisantes' - Belgium (SPRI), and proposes an investigation within the scientific knowledge in this matter. The available empirical and theoretical data allow formulating pragmatic recommendations, among which the principal one is the necessity of creating in normal radiological situation of a number of scenarios of messages adapted to the agricultural populations. The author points out that in order to be perfectly adapted these scenarios must been negotiated between the emitter and receiver. If this condition is satisfied the information in case of nuclear emergency will really be an exchange of knowledge between experts and the agricultural population i.e. a 'communication'

Multi-Robot FastSLAM for Large Domains

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Koperski, Choyong G

2007-01-01

For a robot to build a map of its surrounding area, it must have accurate position information within the area, and to obtain accurate position information within the area, the robot needs to have an...

Beyond speculative robot ethics: a vision assessment study on the future of the robotic caretaker.

Science.gov (United States)

van der Plas, Arjanna; Smits, Martijntje; Wehrmann, Caroline

2010-11-01

In this article we develop a dialogue model for robot technology experts and designated users to discuss visions on the future of robotics in long-term care. Our vision assessment study aims for more distinguished and more informed visions on future robots. Surprisingly, our experiment also led to some promising co-designed robot concepts in which jointly articulated moral guidelines are embedded. With our model, we think to have designed an interesting response on a recent call for a less speculative ethics of technology by encouraging discussions about the quality of positive and negative visions on the future of robotics.

Robotic synthesis of [carbon-11]methionine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Korsakov, M.V.; Kisselev, M.Y.; Solovyov, D.; Horti, A.G.; Vasilev, A.; Nilsson, L.E.; Ulin, J.

1992-01-01

[ 11 C]Methionine was prepared in a fully automated robotic synthesis, using the SCANDITRONIX robotic system starting from [ 11 C]I and homocysteine thiolactone. The product was purified using solid phase extraction on anionic exchange cartridges. The decay corrected yield was 60% based on CH 3 I and 16 min synthesis time. The radiochemical purity was 98-99% and the chemical impurities were: homocysteine 0.05-0.07 mg/ml, homocystine 0.005 mg/ml, 'cold' methionine 0.03-0.05 mg/ml, and homocysteine thiolactone 0.0008-0.002 mg/ml. The total procedure takes 30 min from EOB. (author) 6 figs., 3 tabs

Full autonomous microline trace robot

Science.gov (United States)

Yi, Deer; Lu, Si; Yan, Yingbai; Jin, Guofan

2000-10-01

Optoelectric inspection may find applications in robotic system. In micro robotic system, smaller optoelectric inspection system is preferred. However, as miniaturizing the size of the robot, the number of the optoelectric detector becomes lack. And lack of the information makes the micro robot difficult to acquire its status. In our lab, a micro line trace robot has been designed, which autonomous acts based on its optoelectric detection. It has been programmed to follow a black line printed on the white colored ground. Besides the optoelectric inspection, logical algorithm in the microprocessor is also important. In this paper, we propose a simply logical algorithm to realize robot's intelligence. The robot's intelligence is based on a AT89C2051 microcontroller which controls its movement. The technical details of the micro robot are as follow: dimension: 30mm*25mm*35*mm; velocity: 60mm/s.

Geography of community health information organization activity in the United States: Implications for the effectiveness of health information exchange.

Science.gov (United States)

Vest, Joshua R

The United States has invested nearly a billion dollars in creating community health information organizations (HIOs) to foster health information exchange. Community HIOs provide exchange services to health care organizations within a distinct geographic area. While geography is a key organizing principle for community HIOs, it is unclear if geography is an effective method for organization or what challenges are created by a geography-based approach to health information exchange. This study describes the extent of reported community HIO coverage in the United States and explores the practical and policy implications of overlaps and gaps in HIO service areas. Furthermore, because self-reported service areas may not accurately reflect the true extent of HIOs activities, this study maps the actual markets for health services included in each HIO. An inventory of operational community HIOs that included self-reported geographic markets and participating organizations was face-validated using a crowd-sourcing approach. Aggregation of the participating hospitals' individual health care markets provided the total geographic market served by each community HIO. Mapping and overlay analyses using geographic information system methods described the extent of community HIO activity in the United States. Evidence suggests that community HIOs may be inefficiently distributed. Parts of the United States have multiple, overlapping HIOs, while others do not have any providing health information exchange services. In markets served by multiple community HIOs, 45% of hospitals were participants of only one HIO. The current geography of community HIO activity does not provide comprehensive patient information to providers, nor community-wide information for public health agencies. The discord between the self-reported and market geography of community HIOs raises concerns about the potential effectiveness of health information exchange, illustrates the limitations of geography as

Information-Fusion Methods Based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping for Robot Adapting to Search and Rescue Postdisaster Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hongling Wang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The first application of utilizing unique information-fusion SLAM (IF-SLAM methods is developed for mobile robots performing simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM adapting to search and rescue (SAR environments in this paper. Several fusion approaches, parallel measurements filtering, exploration trajectories fusing, and combination sensors’ measurements and mobile robots’ trajectories, are proposed. The novel integration particle filter (IPF and optimal improved EKF (IEKF algorithms are derived for information-fusion systems to perform SLAM task in SAR scenarios. The information-fusion architecture consists of multirobots and multisensors (MAM; multiple robots mount on-board laser range finder (LRF sensors, localization sonars, gyro odometry, Kinect-sensor, RGB-D camera, and other proprioceptive sensors. This information-fusion SLAM (IF-SLAM is compared with conventional methods, which indicates that fusion trajectory is more consistent with estimated trajectories and real observation trajectories. The simulations and experiments of SLAM process are conducted in both cluttered indoor environment and outdoor collapsed unstructured scenario, and experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed information-fusion methods in improving SLAM performances adapting to SAR scenarios.

Robot Games for Elderly

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Søren Tranberg

2011-01-01

improve a person’s overall health, and this thesis investigates how games based on an autonomous, mobile robot platform, can be used to motivate elderly to move physically while playing. The focus of the investigation is on the development of games for an autonomous, mobile robot based on algorithms using...... spatio-temporal information about player behaviour - more specifically, I investigate three types of games each using a different control strategy. The first game is based on basic robot control which allows the robot to detect and follow a person. A field study in a rehabilitation centre and a nursing....... The robot facilitates interaction, and the study suggests that robot based games potentially can be used for training balance and orientation. The second game consists in an adaptive game algorithm which gradually adjusts the game challenge to the mobility skills of the player based on spatio...

Automatic exchange of information: towards a new global standard of tax transparency

OpenAIRE

Miguel Eduardo Pecho Trigueros

2014-01-01

Tax authorities are increasingly relying on mutual cooperation with their foreign peers to enforce more effectively their internal tax laws. After the banking scandals of 2008 and the subsequent global financial crisis, the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for TaxPurposes has proposed the exchange of information upon request as the fiscal transparency standard. However, some measures adopted by the European Union, previous initiatives from the Organization for Economic...

Robots in mining

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Green, J

2010-09-01

Full Text Available ? • FOG – Fall of ground • Who is at risk? • What is the cost of incident? • What can we do about it? The Robot Potential • Technology • Conclusion © CSIR 2010 Slide 3 Yes Robots can improve mine safety Robot patrols unoccupied areas Generates a... risk map Additional tool Inform miners in making safe © CSIR 2010 Slide 4 Miner Safety Statistics • from DME (2010/03) • March 2010 • 490 000 employed • 400 000 suppliers1 • 9 died, 7 in rockfall incidents 2 • Prior year- March 2010 • 152...

Fast Grasp Contact Computation for a Serial Robot

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Jianying (Inventor); Hargrave, Brian (Inventor); Diftler, Myron A. (Inventor)

2015-01-01

A system includes a controller and a serial robot having links that are interconnected by a joint, wherein the robot can grasp a three-dimensional (3D) object in response to a commanded grasp pose. The controller receives input information, including the commanded grasp pose, a first set of information describing the kinematics of the robot, and a second set of information describing the position of the object to be grasped. The controller also calculates, in a two-dimensional (2D) plane, a set of contact points between the serial robot and a surface of the 3D object needed for the serial robot to achieve the commanded grasp pose. A required joint angle is then calculated in the 2D plane between the pair of links using the set of contact points. A control action is then executed with respect to the motion of the serial robot using the required joint angle.

Selection of rendezvous points for multi-robot exploration in dynamic environments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Hoog, J.; Cameron, S.; Visser, A.; Visser, U.; Asadi, S.; Laue, T.; Mayer, N.M.

2010-01-01

For many robotics applications (such as robotic search and rescue), information about the environment must be gathered by a team of robots and returned to a single, specific location. Coordination of robots and sharing of information is vital, and when environments have severe communication

Minutes of the 28th Annual Plutonium Sample Exchange Meeting. Part II: metal sample exchange

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1984-01-01

Contents of this publication include the following list of participating laboratories; agenda; attendees; minutes of October 25 and 26 meeting; and handout materials supplied by speakers. The handout materials cover the following: statistics and reporting; plutonium - chemical assay 100% minus impurities; americium neptunium, uranium, carbon and iron data; emission spectroscopy data; plutonium metal sample exchange; the calorimetry sample exchange; chlorine determination in plutonium metal using phyrohydrolysis; spectrophotometric determination of 238-plutonium in oxide; plutonium measurement capabilities at the Savannah River Plant; and robotics in radiochemical laboratory

System and method for seamless task-directed autonomy for robots

Science.gov (United States)

Nielsen, Curtis; Bruemmer, David; Few, Douglas; Walton, Miles

2012-09-18

Systems, methods, and user interfaces are used for controlling a robot. An environment map and a robot designator are presented to a user. The user may place, move, and modify task designators on the environment map. The task designators indicate a position in the environment map and indicate a task for the robot to achieve. A control intermediary links task designators with robot instructions issued to the robot. The control intermediary analyzes a relative position between the task designators and the robot. The control intermediary uses the analysis to determine a task-oriented autonomy level for the robot and communicates target achievement information to the robot. The target achievement information may include instructions for directly guiding the robot if the task-oriented autonomy level indicates low robot initiative and may include instructions for directing the robot to determine a robot plan for achieving the task if the task-oriented autonomy level indicates high robot initiative.

Biomimetic vibrissal sensing for robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Pearson, Martin J; Mitchinson, Ben; Sullivan, J Charles; Pipe, Anthony G; Prescott, Tony J

2011-11-12

Active vibrissal touch can be used to replace or to supplement sensory systems such as computer vision and, therefore, improve the sensory capacity of mobile robots. This paper describes how arrays of whisker-like touch sensors have been incorporated onto mobile robot platforms taking inspiration from biology for their morphology and control. There were two motivations for this work: first, to build a physical platform on which to model, and therefore test, recent neuroethological hypotheses about vibrissal touch; second, to exploit the control strategies and morphology observed in the biological analogue to maximize the quality and quantity of tactile sensory information derived from the artificial whisker array. We describe the design of a new whiskered robot, Shrewbot, endowed with a biomimetic array of individually controlled whiskers and a neuroethologically inspired whisking pattern generation mechanism. We then present results showing how the morphology of the whisker array shapes the sensory surface surrounding the robot's head, and demonstrate the impact of active touch control on the sensory information that can be acquired by the robot. We show that adopting bio-inspired, low latency motor control of the rhythmic motion of the whiskers in response to contact-induced stimuli usefully constrains the sensory range, while also maximizing the number of whisker contacts. The robot experiments also demonstrate that the sensory consequences of active touch control can be usefully investigated in biomimetic robots.

Robotic systems in spine surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Onen, Mehmet Resid; Naderi, Sait

2014-01-01

Surgical robotic systems have been available for almost twenty years. The first surgical robotic systems were designed as supportive systems for laparoscopic approaches in general surgery (the first procedure was a cholecystectomy in 1987). The da Vinci Robotic System is the most common system used for robotic surgery today. This system is widely used in urology, gynecology and other surgical disciplines, and recently there have been initial reports of its use in spine surgery, for transoral access and anterior approaches for lumbar inter-body fusion interventions. SpineAssist, which is widely used in spine surgery, and Renaissance Robotic Systems, which are considered the next generation of robotic systems, are now FDA approved. These robotic systems are designed for use as guidance systems in spine instrumentation, cement augmentations and biopsies. The aim is to increase surgical accuracy while reducing the intra-operative exposure to harmful radiation to the patient and operating team personnel during the intervention. We offer a review of the published literature related to the use of robotic systems in spine surgery and provide information on using robotic systems.

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.

Household of care in electronic health information exchange systems

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Sibiya, Mhlupheki G

2017-09-01

Full Text Available by the organisation have presented the protocols and message profiles that can be used for communication among the systems within Electronic Health Information Exchange (HIE)[17, 6]. HIE “allows doctors, nurses, pharmacists, other healthcare providers and patients...

Towards Light‐guided Micro‐robotics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Glückstad, Jesper

‐dimensional microstructures. Furthermore, we exploit the light shaping capabilities available in the workstation to demonstrate a new strategy for controlling microstructures that goes beyond the typical refractive light deflections that are exploited in conventional optical trapping and manipulation e.g. of micro......Robotics in the macro‐scale typically uses light for carrying information in machine vision for monitoring and feedback in intelligent robotic guidance systems. With light’s miniscule momentum, shrinking robots down to the micro‐scale regime creates opportunities for exploiting optical forces...... and torques in micro‐robotic actuation and control. Indeed, the literature on optical trapping and micro‐manipulation attests to the possibilities for optical micro‐robotics. Advancing light‐driven micro‐robotics requires the optimization of optical force and optical torque that, in turn, requires...

Designing Modular Robotic Playware

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lund, Henrik Hautop; Marti, Patrizia

2009-01-01

In this paper, we explore the design of modular robotic objects that may enhance playful experiences. The approach builds upon the development of modular robotics to create a kind of playware, which is flexible in both set-up and activity building for the end-user to allow easy creation of games....... Key features of this design approach are modularity, flexibility, and construction, immediate feedback to stimulate engagement, activity design by end-users, and creative exploration of play activities. These features permit the use of such modular playware by a vast array of users, including disabled...... children who often could be prevented from using and taking benefits from modern technologies. The objective is to get any children moving, exchanging, experimenting and having fun, regardless of their cognitive or physical ability levels. The paper describes two prototype systems developed as modular...

Proceedings of information and opinion exchange conference on geoscientific study, 2007

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nishio, Kazuhisa; Iyatomi, Yosuke; Ogata, Nobuhisa

2008-05-01

The Tono Geoscience Center (TGC) of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has been conducting a geoscientific studies in order to establish a scientific and technological basis for the geological disposal of HLW. Information and Opinion Exchange Conference on Geoscientific Study has been held by TGC annually. The conference provides technical information and an opportunity for peer review and exchange of opinions on the geoscientific studies conducted at TGC. Research specialists and engineers from Japanese universities, research organizations and private companies usually participate the conference. This document compiles research presentations, posters of the conference on October 19th, 2007 at Mizunami. (author)

Proceedings of information and opinion exchange conference on geoscientific study, 2009

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nishio, Kazuhisa; Iyatomi, Yosuke; Shimada, Akiomi

2010-02-01

The Tono Geoscience Center (TGC) of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has been conducting a geoscientific studies in order to establish a scientific and technological basis for the geological disposal of HLW. Information and Opinion Exchange Conference on Geoscientific Study has been held by TGC annually. The conference provides technical information and an opportunity for peer review and exchange of opinions on the geoscientific studies conducted at TGC. Research specialists and engineers from Japanese universities, research organizations and private companies usually participate the conference. This document compiles research presentations, posters of the conference on October 27th, 2009 at Mizunami. (author)

Facilitating the Information Exchange Using a Modular Electronic Discharge Summary.

Science.gov (United States)

Denecke, Kerstin; Dittli, Pascal A; Kanagarasa, Niveadha; Nüssli, Stephan

2018-01-01

Discharge summaries are a standard communication tool delivering important clinical information from inpatient to ambulatory care. To ensure a high quality, correctness and completeness, the generation process is time consuming. It requires also contributions of multiple persons. This is problematic since the primary care provider needs the information from the discharge summary for continuing the intended treatment. To address this challenge, we developed a concept for exchanging a modular electronic discharge summary. Through a literature review and interviews with multiple stakeholders, we analysed existing processes and derived requirements for an improved communication of the discharge summary. In this paper, we suggest a concept of a modular electronic discharge summary that is exchanged through the electronic patient dossier in CDA CH level 2 documents. Until 2020, all Swiss hospitals are obliged to connect to the electronic patient dossier. Our concept allows to access already completed modules of the discharge summary from the primary care side, before the entire report is entirely finalised. The data is automatically merged with the local patient record on the physician side and prepared for data integration into the practice information system. Our concept offers the opportunity not only to improve the information exchange between hospital and primary care, but it also provides a potential use case and demonstrates a benefit of the electronic patient dossier for primary care providers who are so far not obliged to connect to the patient dossier in Switzerland.

Smart health community: the hidden value of health information exchange.

Science.gov (United States)

Ciriello, James N; Kulatilaka, Nalin

2010-12-01

Investments in health information technology are accelerating the digitization of medicine. The value from these investments, however, can grow beyond efficiencies by filling the information gaps between the various stakeholders. New work processes, governance structures, and relationships are needed for the coevolution of healthcare markets and business models. But coevolution is slow, hindered by the scarcity of incentives for legacy delivery systems and constrained by the prevailing patient-healthcare paradigm. The greater opportunity lies in wellness for individuals, families, communities, and society at large: a consumer-community paradigm. Capturing new value from this opportunity can start with investment in health information exchange and the creation of Smart Health Communities. By shifting the focus of exchange from public servant to value-added service provider, these communities can serve as a platform for a wider array of wellness services from consumer care, traditional healthcare, and research.

Information exchange examined : an interpersonal account of achievement goals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Poortvliet, P.M.

2008-01-01

In this thesis it is argued and demonstrated, that the achievement goals that individuals pursue in achievement situations may crucially influence how they perceive and act in information exchange situations. Notably, whether people are striving to improve their own performance, as compared with

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

Piezoelectrically Actuated Robotic System for MRI-Guided Prostate Percutaneous Therapy

Science.gov (United States)

Su, Hao; Shang, Weijian; Cole, Gregory; Li, Gang; Harrington, Kevin; Camilo, Alexander; Tokuda, Junichi; Tempany, Clare M.; Hata, Nobuhiko; Fischer, Gregory S.

2014-01-01

This paper presents a fully-actuated robotic system for percutaneous prostate therapy under continuously acquired live magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) guidance. The system is composed of modular hardware and software to support the surgical workflow of intra-operative MRI-guided surgical procedures. We present the development of a 6-degree-of-freedom (DOF) needle placement robot for transperineal prostate interventions. The robot consists of a 3-DOF needle driver module and a 3-DOF Cartesian motion module. The needle driver provides needle cannula translation and rotation (2-DOF) and stylet translation (1-DOF). A custom robot controller consisting of multiple piezoelectric motor drivers provides precision closed-loop control of piezoelectric motors and enables simultaneous robot motion and MR imaging. The developed modular robot control interface software performs image-based registration, kinematics calculation, and exchanges robot commands and coordinates between the navigation software and the robot controller with a new implementation of the open network communication protocol OpenIGTLink. Comprehensive compatibility of the robot is evaluated inside a 3-Tesla MRI scanner using standard imaging sequences and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) loss is limited to 15%. The image deterioration due to the present and motion of robot demonstrates unobservable image interference. Twenty-five targeted needle placements inside gelatin phantoms utilizing an 18-gauge ceramic needle demonstrated 0.87 mm root mean square (RMS) error in 3D Euclidean distance based on MRI volume segmentation of the image-guided robotic needle placement procedure. PMID:26412962

Architecture for robot intelligence

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, II, Richard Alan (Inventor)

2004-01-01

An architecture for robot intelligence enables a robot to learn new behaviors and create new behavior sequences autonomously and interact with a dynamically changing environment. Sensory information is mapped onto a Sensory Ego-Sphere (SES) that rapidly identifies important changes in the environment and functions much like short term memory. Behaviors are stored in a DBAM that creates an active map from the robot's current state to a goal state and functions much like long term memory. A dream state converts recent activities stored in the SES and creates or modifies behaviors in the DBAM.

Site overview of robotics and automation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Byrd, J.S.

1985-01-01

This paper summarizes the robotics and automation activities at the Savannah River Laboratory and the Savannah River Plant. The purpose is to provide an overview to facilitate the exchange of technology between various sites involved in development and production work for the Department of Energy. Throughout the paper references are made to assigned project engineers so that they may be contacted directly

78 FR 39644 - Information Reporting for Affordable Insurance Exchanges

Science.gov (United States)

2013-07-02

... Federal Register. Drafting Information The principal authors of these proposed regulations are Shareen S. Pflanz and Stephen J. Toomey of the Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Income Tax and Accounting... required contribution for self-only coverage and the Exchange's determination of whether the employer...

Stable Formation Control of Multi-Robot System with Communication Delay

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Limei Jiang

2012-03-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a distributed formation control algorithm with delayed information exchange is discussed. The algorithm, which is derived from the flocking behaviour of birds and consensus theory, enables robots to move in formation at a desired velocity. After a series of orthogonal transformations to the original formation system, the upper bound tolerable delay is obtained by using matrix theory and the Nyquist criterion. According to the results, the upper bound tolerable delay depends on the control parameters and eigenvalues of the Laplacian matrix. Therefore, the effect of the parameters on the maximum tolerable delay is analysed, obtaining the following conclusions: the upper bound tolerable delay is proportional to the parameters associated with the velocity, inversely proportional to the parameters associated with the position, and inversely proportional to the difference between the eigenvalue of Laplacian matrix and 1. The simulation results of a four-robot formation system with different communication delays verify the effectiveness of the formation control algorithm and the correctness of the theoretical analysis.

Proceedings of information and opinion exchange conference on geoscientific study, 2006

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nishio, Kazuhisa; Iyatomi, Yosuke; Ogata, Nobuhisa

2008-03-01

The Tono Geoscience Center (TGC) of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has been conducting a geoscientific studies in order to establish a scientific and technological basis for the geological disposal of HLW. Information and Opinion Exchange Conference on Geoscientific Study has been held by TGC annually. The conference provides technical information and an opportunity for peer review and exchange of opinions on the geoscientific studies conducted at TGC. Research specialists and engineers from Japanese universities, research organizations and private companies usually participate the conference. This document collects research presentations, posters of the conference on October 19th to 20th, 2006 at Mizunami. (author)

Direct-to-consumer Internet promotion of robotic prostatectomy exhibits varying quality of information.

Science.gov (United States)

Mirkin, Joshua N; Lowrance, William T; Feifer, Andrew H; Mulhall, John P; Eastham, James E; Elkin, Elena B

2012-04-01

Robotic surgery to remove a cancerous prostate has become a popular treatment. Internet marketing of this surgery provides an intriguing case study of direct-to-consumer promotions of medical devices, which are more loosely regulated than pharmaceutical promotions. We investigated whether the claims made in online promotions of robotic prostatectomy were consistent with evidence from comparative effectiveness studies. After performing a search and cross-sectional analysis of websites that mentioned the procedure, we found that many sites claimed benefits that were unsupported by evidence and that 42 percent of the sites failed to mention risks. Most sites were published by hospitals and physicians, which the public may regard as more objective than pages published by manufacturers. Unbalanced information may inappropriately raise patients' expectations. Increasing enforcement and regulation of online promotions may be beyond the capabilities of federal authorities. Thus, the most feasible solution may be for the government and medical societies to promote the production of balanced educational material.

Direct-To-Consumer Internet Promotion Of Robotic Prostatectomy Exhibits Varying Quality Of Information

Science.gov (United States)

Mirkin, Joshua N.; Lowrance, William T.; Feifer, Andrew H.; Mulhall, John P.; Eastham, James E.; Elkin, Elena B.

2013-01-01

Robotic surgery to remove a cancerous prostate has become a popular treatment. Internet marketing of this surgery provides an intriguing case study of direct-to-consumer promotions of medical devices, which are more loosely regulated than pharmaceutical promotions. We investigated whether the claims made in online promotions of robotic prostatectomy were consistent with evidence from comparative effectiveness studies. After performing a search and crosssectional analysis of websites that mentioned the procedure, we found that many sites claimed benefits that were unsupported by evidence and that 42 percent of the sites failed to mention risks. Most sites were published by hospitals and physicians, which the public may regard as more objective than pages published by manufacturers. Unbalanced information may inappropriately raise patients’ expectations. Increasing enforcement and regulation of online promotions may be beyond the capabilities of federal authorities. Thus, the most feasible solution may be for the government and medical societies to promote the production of balanced educational material. PMID:22492893

Mechatronics Design of an Autonomous Pipe-Inspection Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdellatif Mohamed

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Pipelines require periodical inspection to detect corrosion, deformation and congestion with obstacles in the network. Autonomous mobile robots are good solutions for this task. Visual information from the pipe interior associated with a location stamp is needed for inspection. In this paper, the previous designs of autonomous robots are reviewed and a new robot is developed to ensure simple design and smooth motion. Images are processed online to detect irregularity in pipe and then start capturing high resolution pictures to conserve the limited memory size. The new robot moves in pipes and provides video stream of pipe interior with location stamp. The visual information can later be processed offline to extract more information of pipeline condition to make maintenance decisions.

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.

Towards a Sociological Understanding of Robots as Compagnions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Oost, Elizabeth C.J.; Reed, Darren; Lamers, Maarten H.; Verbeek, Fons J.

2011-01-01

While Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have, in the past, primarily mediated or facilitated emotional bonding between humans, contemporary robot technologies are increasingly making the bond between human and robots the core issue. Thinking of robots as companions is not only a

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.

Does exchange of information between tax authorities influence multinationals' use of tax havens?

OpenAIRE

Braun, Julia; Weichenrieder, Alfons

2015-01-01

Since the mid-1990s, countries offering tax systems that facilitate international tax avoidance and evasion have been facing growing political pressure to comply with the internationally agreed standards of exchange of tax information. Using data of German investments in tax havens, we find evidence that the conclusion of a bilateral tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) is associated with fewer operations in tax havens and the number of German affiliates has on average ...

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)

Intelligent robots for nuclear power plant inspection and surveillance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miyazawa, Tatsuo; Suzuki, Kazumi; Fujie, Hideo; Fujii, Masaaki; Asai, Takashi; Sugimoto, Hiroshi.

1986-01-01

Recently, the research and development of robotizing the patrol and works in nuclear power plants have been actively carried out since the TMI-2 accident in March, 1979. In this paper, among these robots, six examples of the movable robots, of which the working and movement were intellectualized by using information processing techniques and others, are reported, and their intellectualization is concretely discussed. In Japan, the development of the supporting system for nuclear power generation was carried out for five years from fiscal year 1980 as the project subsidized by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, and during this period, the inspection robots for LWR plants were developed. The development of the robots for ultimate working as the large scale project of the Agency of Industrial Science and Technology aiming at further heightening the function is in progress as the eight-year project from fiscal year 1983. Monorail type automatic surveillance robots, system maintenance robots 'AMOOTY', variable crawler type intelligent movable robots, hybrid running type intelligent movable robots, monorail running type small checkup robots, and floor running type checkup and light work robots are reported. Sense information processing control and a robot language processor for expanding the function of autonomous control are outlined. (Kako, I.)

Understanding information exchange during disaster response: Methodological insights from infocentric analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Toddi A. Steelman; Branda Nowell; Deena. Bayoumi; Sarah. McCaffrey

2014-01-01

We leverage economic theory, network theory, and social network analytical techniques to bring greater conceptual and methodological rigor to understand how information is exchanged during disasters. We ask, "How can information relationships be evaluated more systematically during a disaster response?" "Infocentric analysis"—a term and...

Social robots from a human perspective

CERN Document Server

Taipale, Sakari; Sapio, Bartolomeo; Lugano, Giuseppe; Fortunati, Leopoldina

2015-01-01

Addressing several issues that explore the human side of social robots, this book asks from a social and human scientific perspective what a social robot is and how we might come to think about social robots in the different areas of everyday life. Organized around three sections that deal with Perceptions and Attitudes to Social Robots, Human Interaction with Social Robots, and Social Robots in Everyday Life, the book explores the idea that even if technical problems related to robot technologies can be continuously solved from a machine perspective, what kind of machine do we want to have and use in our daily lives? Experiences from previously widely adopted technologies, such smartphones, hint that robot technologies could potentially be absorbed into the everyday lives of humans in such a way that it is the human that determines the human-machine interaction. In a similar way to how today’s information and communication technologies were first designed for professional/industrial use, but which soon wer...

Information Asymmetry and Financing Decisions: Evidence from Iran Stock Exchange

OpenAIRE

Mehdi Elhaei Sahar; Seyed Ali Vaez

2013-01-01

This study aims to investigate the relations of information asymmetry and financing decisions in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) during 2009 to 2011. Our statistical simple consist 170 firms and stepwise regression method has been used. We found that the relationship between information asymmetry and stock issuing is negative. Other results refer to positive relation between financing deficit and stock issuing.

Privacy and Confidentiality in Exchange of Information Procedures : Some Uncertainties, Many Issues, but Few Solutions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Debelva, F.; Mosquera, Valderrama I.J.

2017-01-01

The overall aim of this article is to analyse the taxpayers’ rights to confidentiality and privacy in exchange of information including the new global standard of automatic exchange of information. Section 2 will analyse the state of the art regarding the right to privacy and confidentiality in

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.

Attitudinal Change in Elderly Citizens Toward Social Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Damholdt, Malene Flensborg; Nørskov, Marco; Yamazaki, Ryuji

2015-01-01

Attitudes toward robots influence the tendency to accept or reject robotic devices. Thus it is important to investigate whether and how attitudes toward robots can change. In this pilot study we investigate attitudinal changes in elderly citizens toward a tele-operated robot in relation to three...... relatedness (r = 0.581) whilst Neuroticism correlated negatively (r = -0.582) with mental relatedness with the robot. The results tentatively suggest that neither information about functionality nor direct repeated encounters are pivotal in changing attitudes toward robots in elderly citizens. This may...

Robotics: A Bridge for Education and Technology.

Science.gov (United States)

Warnat, Winifred I.

Robotics (robot usage) is discussed from a historical perspective with regard to its role in employment and education. Part 1 examines the transition from an industrial to an information society and speculates what the future might hold, particularly in terms of employment. Part 2 gives a historical overview of the robotics industry and discusses…

Mission Reliability Estimation for Repairable Robot Teams

Science.gov (United States)

Trebi-Ollennu, Ashitey; Dolan, John; Stancliff, Stephen

2010-01-01

A mission reliability estimation method has been designed to translate mission requirements into choices of robot modules in order to configure a multi-robot team to have high reliability at minimal cost. In order to build cost-effective robot teams for long-term missions, one must be able to compare alternative design paradigms in a principled way by comparing the reliability of different robot models and robot team configurations. Core modules have been created including: a probabilistic module with reliability-cost characteristics, a method for combining the characteristics of multiple modules to determine an overall reliability-cost characteristic, and a method for the generation of legitimate module combinations based on mission specifications and the selection of the best of the resulting combinations from a cost-reliability standpoint. The developed methodology can be used to predict the probability of a mission being completed, given information about the components used to build the robots, as well as information about the mission tasks. In the research for this innovation, sample robot missions were examined and compared to the performance of robot teams with different numbers of robots and different numbers of spare components. Data that a mission designer would need was factored in, such as whether it would be better to have a spare robot versus an equivalent number of spare parts, or if mission cost can be reduced while maintaining reliability using spares. This analytical model was applied to an example robot mission, examining the cost-reliability tradeoffs among different team configurations. Particularly scrutinized were teams using either redundancy (spare robots) or repairability (spare components). Using conservative estimates of the cost-reliability relationship, results show that it is possible to significantly reduce the cost of a robotic mission by using cheaper, lower-reliability components and providing spares. This suggests that the

Integration of a Robotic Arm with the Surgical Assistant Workstation Software Framework

OpenAIRE

Young, J.; Elhawary, H.; Popovic, A.

2012-01-01

We have integrated the Philips Research robot arm with the Johns Hopkins University cisst library, an open-source platform for computerassisted surgical intervention. The development of a Matlab to C++ wrapper to abstract away servo-level details facilitates the rapid development of a component-based framework with “plug and play” features. This allows the user to easily exchange the robot with an alternative manipulator while maintaining the same overall functionality.

Robots in Action - Proffesional Contest 2014

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul Ciprian Patic

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Information Technology Faculty, "Valahia" University of Targoviste, together with the Robotics Society of Romania, Targoviste subsidiary and the Students League, held the 7th edition of the Professional Contest "ROBOTS IN ACTION" on June 5th 2014, starting from 12.00h, in the Faculty hall. Students and teams of students participated, exposing 10 practical applications in the fields of robotics and mechatronics.

State Estimation for Tensegrity Robots

Science.gov (United States)

Caluwaerts, Ken; Bruce, Jonathan; Friesen, Jeffrey M.; Sunspiral, Vytas

2016-01-01

Tensegrity robots are a class of compliant robots that have many desirable traits when designing mass efficient systems that must interact with uncertain environments. Various promising control approaches have been proposed for tensegrity systems in simulation. Unfortunately, state estimation methods for tensegrity robots have not yet been thoroughly studied. In this paper, we present the design and evaluation of a state estimator for tensegrity robots. This state estimator will enable existing and future control algorithms to transfer from simulation to hardware. Our approach is based on the unscented Kalman filter (UKF) and combines inertial measurements, ultra wideband time-of-flight ranging measurements, and actuator state information. We evaluate the effectiveness of our method on the SUPERball, a tensegrity based planetary exploration robotic prototype. In particular, we conduct tests for evaluating both the robot's success in estimating global position in relation to fixed ranging base stations during rolling maneuvers as well as local behavior due to small-amplitude deformations induced by cable actuation.

Medical robotics.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrigno, Giancarlo; Baroni, Guido; Casolo, Federico; De Momi, Elena; Gini, Giuseppina; Matteucci, Matteo; Pedrocchi, Alessandra

2011-01-01

Information and communication technology (ICT) and mechatronics play a basic role in medical robotics and computer-aided therapy. In the last three decades, in fact, ICT technology has strongly entered the health-care field, bringing in new techniques to support therapy and rehabilitation. In this frame, medical robotics is an expansion of the service and professional robotics as well as other technologies, as surgical navigation has been introduced especially in minimally invasive surgery. Localization systems also provide treatments in radiotherapy and radiosurgery with high precision. Virtual or augmented reality plays a role for both surgical training and planning and for safe rehabilitation in the first stage of the recovery from neurological diseases. Also, in the chronic phase of motor diseases, robotics helps with special assistive devices and prostheses. Although, in the past, the actual need and advantage of navigation, localization, and robotics in surgery and therapy has been in doubt, today, the availability of better hardware (e.g., microrobots) and more sophisticated algorithms(e.g., machine learning and other cognitive approaches)has largely increased the field of applications of these technologies,making it more likely that, in the near future, their presence will be dramatically increased, taking advantage of the generational change of the end users and the increasing request of quality in health-care delivery and management.

26 CFR 1.6045-1T - Returns of information of brokers and barter exchanges (temporary).

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 26 Internal Revenue 13 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Returns of information of brokers and barter exchanges (temporary). 1.6045-1T Section 1.6045-1T Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... of information of brokers and barter exchanges (temporary). (a)-(k) [Reserved] For further guidance...

Factors Influencing Electronic Clinical Information Exchange in Small Medical Group Practices

Science.gov (United States)

Kralewski, John E.; Zink, Therese; Boyle, Raymond

2012-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the organizational factors that influence electronic health information exchange (HIE) by medical group practices in rural areas. Methods: A purposive sample of 8 small medical group practices in 3 experimental HIE regions were interviewed to determine the extent of clinical information exchange…

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.

Exoskeletons, Robots and System Software: Tools for the Warfighter

Science.gov (United States)

2012-04-24

Exoskeletons , Robots and System Software: Tools for the Warfighter? Paul Flanagan, Tuesday, April 24, 2012 11:15 am– 12:00 pm 1 “The views...Emerging technologies such as exoskeletons , robots , drones, and the underlying software are and will change the face of the battlefield. Warfighters will...global hub for educating, informing, and connecting Information Age leaders.” What is an exoskeleton ? An exoskeleton is a wearable robot suit that

Advances in Autonomous Mini Robots : Proceedings of the 6-th AMiRE Symposium

CERN Document Server

Joaquin, Sitte; Felix, Werner

2012-01-01

Autonomous robots must carry out useful tasks all by themselves relying entirely on their own perceptions of their environment. The cognitive abilities required for autonomous action are largely independent of robot size, which makes mini robots attractive as artefacts for research, education and entertainment. Autonomous mini robots must be small enough for experimentation on a desktop or a small laboratory.  They must be easy to carry and safe for interaction with humans. They must not be expensive. Mini robot designers have to work at the leading edge of technology so that their creations can carry out purposeful autonomic action under these constraints. Since 2001 researchers have met every two years for an international symposium to report on the advances achieved in Autonomous Mini  Robots for Research and Edutainment (AMiRE). The AMiRE Symposium is a single track conference that offers ample opportunities for discussion and exchange of ideas. This volume contains the contributed papers of the 2011 AM...

Consumer-Mediated Health Information Exchanges: The 2012 ACMI Debate

Science.gov (United States)

Cimino, James J.; Frisse, Mark; Halamka, John; Sweeney, Latanya; Yasnoff, William

2017-01-01

The American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) sponsors periodic debates during the American Medical Informatics Fall Symposium to highlight important informatics issues of broad interest. In 2012, a panel debated the following topic: “Resolved: Health Information Exchange Organizations Should Shift Their Principal Focus to Consumer-Mediated Exchange in Order to Facilitate the Rapid Development of Effective, Scalable, and Sustainable Health Information Infrastructure.” Those supporting the proposition emphasized the need for consumer-controlled community repositories of electronic health records (health record banks) to address privacy, stakeholder cooperation, scalability, and sustainability. Those opposing the proposition emphasized that the current healthcare environment is so complex that development of consumer control will take time and that even then, consumers may not be able to mediate their information effectively. While privately, each discussant recognizes that there are many sides to this complex issue, each followed the debater’s tradition of taking an extreme position in order emphasize some of the polarizing aspects in the short time allotted them. In preparing this summary, we sought to convey the substance and spirit of the debate in printed form. Transcripts of the actual debate were edited for clarity, and appropriate supporting citations were added for the further edification of the reader. PMID:24561078

Consumer-mediated health information exchanges: the 2012 ACMI debate.

Science.gov (United States)

Cimino, James J; Frisse, Mark E; Halamka, John; Sweeney, Latanya; Yasnoff, William

2014-04-01

The American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) sponsors periodic debates during the American Medical Informatics Fall Symposium to highlight important informatics issues of broad interest. In 2012, a panel debated the following topic: "Resolved: Health Information Exchange Organizations Should Shift Their Principal Focus to Consumer-Mediated Exchange in Order to Facilitate the Rapid Development of Effective, Scalable, and Sustainable Health Information Infrastructure." Those supporting the proposition emphasized the need for consumer-controlled community repositories of electronic health records (health record banks) to address privacy, stakeholder cooperation, scalability, and sustainability. Those opposing the proposition emphasized that the current healthcare environment is so complex that development of consumer control will take time and that even then, consumers may not be able to mediate their information effectively. While privately each discussant recognizes that there are many sides to this complex issue, each followed the debater's tradition of taking an extreme position in order emphasize some of the polarizing aspects in the short time allotted them. In preparing this summary, we sought to convey the substance and spirit of the debate in printed form. Transcripts of the actual debate were edited for clarity, and appropriate supporting citations were added for the further edification of the reader. Published by Elsevier Inc.

The Advantage of Hiding Both Hands : Foreign Exchange Intervention, Ambiguity and Private Information

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Eijffinger, S.C.W.; Verhagen, W.H.

1997-01-01

This paper analyzes a dynamic exchange rate policy game in which the central bank has private information about its short-term exchange rate target, on the one hand, and in which the market is faced with a certain degree of ambiguity concerning the actual intervention volume, on the other.

Robots in Elderly Care

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alessandro Vercelli

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Low birth rate and the long life expectancy represent an explosive mixture, resulting in the rapid aging of population. The costs of healthcare in the grey society are increasing dramatically, and soon there will be not enough resources and people for care. This context requires conceptually new elderly care solutions progressively reducing the percentages of the human-based care. Research on robot-based solutions for elderly care and active ageing aims to answer these needs. From a general perspective, robotics has the power to completely reshape the landscape of healthcare both in its structure and its operation. In fact, the long-term sustainability of healthcare systems could be addressed by automation powered by digital health technologies, such as artificial intelligence, 3D-printing or robotics. The latter could take over monotonous work from healthcare workers, which would allow them to focus more on patients and to have lesser workload. Robots might be used in elder care with several different aims. (i Robots may act as caregivers, i.e. assist the elderly, (ii they can provide remainders and instructions for activities of daily life and safety, and/or assist their carers in daily tasks; (iii they can help monitor their behaviour and health; and (iv provide companionship, including entertainment and hobbies, reminiscence and social contact. The use of Robots with human subjects/patients raise several sensitive questions. First of all, robots may represent information hubs, and can collect an incredible amount of data about the subjects and their environment. In fact, they record habits such as sleeping, exercising, third persons entering in the house, appointments. Communications may be continuously recorded. Moreover, by connecting with medical devices, they can store medical data. On one hand, this represents a very powerful tool to collect information about the single subject (precision medicine, about disease (thus eventually finding

Management of laboratory data and information exchange in the electronic health record.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkerson, Myra L; Henricks, Walter H; Castellani, William J; Whitsitt, Mark S; Sinard, John H

2015-03-01

In the era of the electronic health record, the success of laboratories and pathologists will depend on effective presentation and management of laboratory information, including test orders and results, and effective exchange of data between the laboratory information system and the electronic health record. In this third paper of a series that explores empowerment of pathology in the era of the electronic health record, we review key elements of managing laboratory information within the electronic health record and examine functional issues pertinent to pathologists and laboratories in the exchange of laboratory information between electronic health records and both anatomic and clinical pathology laboratory information systems. Issues with electronic order-entry and results-reporting interfaces are described, and considerations for setting up these interfaces are detailed in tables. The role of the laboratory medical director as mandated by the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 and the impacts of discordance between laboratory results and their display in the electronic health record are also discussed.

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...

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

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.

Untethered Recyclable Tubular Actuators with Versatile Locomotion for Soft Continuum Robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Qian, Xiaojie; Chen, Qiaomei; Yang, Yang; Xu, Yanshuang; Li, Zhen; Wang, Zhenhua; Wu, Yahe; Wei, Yen; Ji, Yan

2018-05-27

Stimuli-responsive materials offer a distinguished platform to build tether-free compact soft robots, which can combine sensing and actuation without a linked power supply. In the past, tubular soft robots have to be made by multiple components with various internal channels or complex cavities assembled together. Moreover, robust processing, complex locomotion, simple structure, and easy recyclability represent major challenges in this area. Here, it is shown that those challenges can be tackled by liquid crystalline elastomers with allyl sulfide functional groups. The light-controlled exchange reaction between allyl sulfide groups allows flexible processing of tubular soft robots/actuators, which does not need any assisting materials. Complex locomotion demonstrated here includes reversible simultaneous bending and elongation; reversible diameter expansion; and omnidirectional bending via remote infrared light control. Different modes of actuation can be programmed into the same tube without the routine assembly of multiple tubes as used in the past. In addition, the exchange reaction also makes it possible to use the same single tube repeatedly to perform different functions by erasing and reprogramming. © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

The Usage of Informational Gateways for Data Exchange between Personal Data Systems of Different Classes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. I. Goncharov

2010-03-01

Full Text Available When personal data exchange between informational systems takes place, one must guarantee the systems are not integrating but just interacting. This task can not be accomplished by using traditional tools such as firewalls, cryptography and so on. To solve the problem we suggest deploying of informational gateway in personal data exchange process.

Robots in Action - Professional Contest 2016

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul Ciprian Patic

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The organizers of the 9th edition of the Professional Contest "ROBOTS IN ACTION" were, as usual, the Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Information Technology Faculty, "Valahia" University of Targoviste, together with the Robotics Society of Romania, Targoviste subsidiary and the Students League.

Integrated sensors for robotic laser welding

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Iakovou, D.; Aarts, Ronald G.K.M.; Meijer, J.; Beyer, E.; Dausinger, F; Ostendorf, A; Otto, A.

2005-01-01

A welding head is under development with integrated sensory systems for robotic laser welding applications. Robotic laser welding requires sensory systems that are capable to accurately guide the welding head over a seam in three-dimensional space and provide information about the welding process as

Error Made in Conversation by Indonesian Learners Learning English Based on Syntax and Exchanging Information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melania Wiannastiti

2014-10-01

Full Text Available In learning a second language or foreign language (L2, learners should master the competences. Normally, L2 learners first should master the linguistic competence which includes the mastery of vocabularies, pronunciation, and grammar. The study is to find out the syntax error made by L2 learners in conversation as well as to find out the exchanging information. The data were the recording conversation of Visual Communication Design students first semester of Binus University joining English Entrant. Error analysis was used to analyze the data. There are two points of view to analyze the data: syntax from taxonomy and exchanging information. Taxonomy employs the error in omission, addition, misinformation, and mis-ordering. Exchanging information point of view employs the error in finite element and mood. The result shows that L2 learners made some errors in grammar and exchanging information because they are influenced by the L1. They tend to transfer from L1 to L2 rather than thinking to create the utterances in L2. 

Neighbourhood Book Exchanges: Localising Information Practices

Science.gov (United States)

Webster, Tenny; Gollner, Kathleen; Nathan, Lisa

2015-01-01

Introduction: Through this paper we report on an exploratory study into the design and use of neighbourhood book exchanges in North America. We identify dominant media framings of these book exchanges in North America, along with claims made concerning the influence of the exchanges. We compare the media claims with insights from interviews with…

Digital privacy in the marketplace perspectives on the information exchange

CERN Document Server

Milne, George

2015-01-01

Digital Privacy in the Marketplace focuses on the data ex-changes between marketers and consumers, with special ttention to the privacy challenges that are brought about by new information technologies. The purpose of this book is to provide a background source to help the reader think more deeply about the impact of privacy issues on both consumers and marketers. It covers topics such as: why privacy is needed, the technological, historical and academic theories of privacy, how market exchange af-fects privacy, what are the privacy harms and protections available, and what is the likely future of privacy.

Store-Carry and Forward-Type M2M Communication Protocol Enabling Guide Robots to Work together and the Method of Identifying Malfunctioning Robots Using the Byzantine Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yoshio Suga

2016-11-01

Full Text Available This paper concerns a service in which multiple guide robots in an area display arrows to guide individual users to their destinations. It proposes a method of identifying malfunctioning robots and robots that give wrong directions to users. In this method, users’ mobile terminals and robots form a store-carry and forward-type M2M communication network, and a distributed cooperative protocol is used to enable robots to share information and identify malfunctioning robots using the Byzantine algorithm. The robots do not directly communicate with each other, but through users’ mobile terminals. We have introduced the concept of the quasi-synchronous number, so whether a certain robot is malfunctioning can be determined even when items of information held by all of the robots are not synchronized. Using simulation, we have evaluated the proposed method in terms of the rate of identifying malfunctioning robots, the rate of reaching the destination and the average length of time to reach the destination.

Medication errors in residential aged care facilities: a distributed cognition analysis of the information exchange process.

Science.gov (United States)

Tariq, Amina; Georgiou, Andrew; Westbrook, Johanna

2013-05-01

Medication safety is a pressing concern for residential aged care facilities (RACFs). Retrospective studies in RACF settings identify inadequate communication between RACFs, doctors, hospitals and community pharmacies as the major cause of medication errors. Existing literature offers limited insight about the gaps in the existing information exchange process that may lead to medication errors. The aim of this research was to explicate the cognitive distribution that underlies RACF medication ordering and delivery to identify gaps in medication-related information exchange which lead to medication errors in RACFs. The study was undertaken in three RACFs in Sydney, Australia. Data were generated through ethnographic field work over a period of five months (May-September 2011). Triangulated analysis of data primarily focused on examining the transformation and exchange of information between different media across the process. The findings of this study highlight the extensive scope and intense nature of information exchange in RACF medication ordering and delivery. Rather than attributing error to individual care providers, the explication of distributed cognition processes enabled the identification of gaps in three information exchange dimensions which potentially contribute to the occurrence of medication errors namely: (1) design of medication charts which complicates order processing and record keeping (2) lack of coordination mechanisms between participants which results in misalignment of local practices (3) reliance on restricted communication bandwidth channels mainly telephone and fax which complicates the information processing requirements. The study demonstrates how the identification of these gaps enhances understanding of medication errors in RACFs. Application of the theoretical lens of distributed cognition can assist in enhancing our understanding of medication errors in RACFs through identification of gaps in information exchange. Understanding

Affordances for robots: a brief survey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas E. Horton

2012-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we consider the influence of Gibson's affordance theory on the design of robotic agents. Affordance theory (and the ecological approach to agent design in general has in many cases contributed to the development of successful robotic systems; we provide a brief survey of AI research in this area. However, there remain significant issues that complicate discussions on this topic, particularly in the exchange of ideas between researchers in artificial intelligence and ecological psychology. We identify some of these issues, specifically the lack of a generally accepted definition of "affordance" and fundamental differences in the current approaches taken in AI and ecological psychology. While we consider reconciliation between these fields to be possible and mutually beneficial, it will require some flexibility on the issue of direct perception.

Negotiation of Meaning in Required and Optional Information Exchange Tasks: Discourse Issues

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zohre Mohamadi

2015-01-01

Full Text Available It is widely argued that different types of tasks facilitate the acquisition of communicative language to different degrees through providing different contexts for the occurrence of negotiation of meaning which is believed to have facilitative role in language acquisition. Although task based instruction provides a medium for acquiring the communicative language, it suffers from a number of oversimplifications.  The potentials of each task type in creating such a medium were not investigated in exhaustive detail, and it is left as a potentially interesting topic for further research.  This paper reports the analysis of the negotiation of meaning produced by eight intermediate EFL students engaged in required and optional information exchange tasks in dyads.  The results show that pushed output has different quality in these different task types meaning whereas required information exchange task provided a medium for more incidence of negotiation work, optional information exchange tasks engaged participants more with discourse work and led to more incidence of the clarification request as an interactional move that has a facilitative role in pushed output. Test constructors and materials developers need to take principled decisions in what to be included in the tests and texts.

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...

Afterword: Robot Conceptualizations Between Continuity and Innovation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leopoldina Fortunati

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this afterword is to discuss a topic that links all the papers presented in this special issue. This transversal topic is the forms of social robots. Firstly, social robots form is discussed in light of the forms of robotics we have inherited from the past. This includes the models of society that each of them embodied, as well as the social logic of the emotions connected to them. Secondly, social robots form is analyzed in light of the arrival in a new area for robotics, that of robots in the domestic sphere. Here, the system of filters created by the mass appropriation of information and communication technologies in the last two decades, has set the premise for a change of the social contract that has made social robot penetration possible. Whilst exploring the models and the meanings of social robots in the domestic sphere it emerges that robotics is following two different paths: one addressing the material part of housework (more traditional robotics and the other addressing the immaterial part of reproduction work (more innovative robotics. Finally, the paper analyzes the dematerialization process of social robotics that is still taking place, a practice that is defined herein as “ubiquitous social roboting.”

I Show You How I Like You: Emotional Human-Robot Interaction through Facial Expression and Tactile Stimulation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Canamero, Dolores; Fredslund, Jacob

2001-01-01

We report work on a LEGO robot that displays different emotional expressions in response to physical stimulation, for the purpose of social interaction with humans. This is a first step toward our longer-term goal of exploring believable emotional exchanges to achieve plausible interaction...... with a simple robot. Drawing inspiration from theories of human basic emotions, we implemented several prototypical expressions in the robot's caricatured face and conducted experiments to assess the recognizability of these expressions...

Leader-Member Exchange Relationships in Health Information Management

OpenAIRE

Hunt, T.J.

2014-01-01

This article seeks to raise awareness of the leader-member exchange (LMX) theory of leadership and its potential benefit to the health information management (HIM) profession. A literature review that was conducted identified a leadership challenge for HIM practitioners. The review also provides examples of leadership definitions, and potential benefits of LMX to HIM professionals in leading people and influencing leaders in their organizations. The LMX concept may be an avenue to investigate...

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...

Analysis of flat terrain for the Atlas robot

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Waard, M.; Inja, M.; Visser, A.; Mousakhani, M.; Ataei, M.; Jamzad, M.

2013-01-01

This paper gives a description of an approach to analyze the sensor information of the surroundings to select places where the foot of a humanoid can be placed. This will allow apply such robot in a rescue scenario, as foreseen in the DARPA Robotics Challenge, where a robot is forced to traverse

Robotics & artificial intelligence : The future of surgeons & surgery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K I Mathai

2016-01-01

Robots have evolved as dextrous, fatigue and tremor free surgical tools. The data crunching capability of computers is improving in speed and in capability for machine learning. Human surgical maturity on the other hand is attained and matures through phases of information assimilation, knowledge consolidation and attainment of surgical wisdom. Human surgeons at the helm will, in this decade harness robotic capabilities and information template paradigms to fine tune many procedures and to augment surgical reach. Quantum leaps and paradigm shifts towards robotic surgical autonomy may be neither desirable nor practical.

Patient privacy, consent, and identity management in health information exchange

CERN Document Server

Hosek, Susan D

2013-01-01

As a step toward improving its health information technology (IT) interoperability, the Military Health System is seeking to develop a research roadmap to better coordinate health IT research efforts, address IT capability gaps, and reduce programmatic risk for its enterprise projects. This report identifies gaps in research, policy, and practice involving patient privacy, consent, and identity management that need to be addressed to improve the quality and efficiency of care through health information exchange.

Multi-robots to micro-surgery: Selected robotic applications at Sandia National Laboratories

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bennett, P.C. [Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States). Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center

1996-11-01

The Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center (ISRC) at Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program organization, pursuing research, development and applications in a wide range of field. Activities range from large-scale applications such as nuclear facility dismantlement for the US Department of Energy (DOE), to aircraft inspection and refurbishment, to automated script and program generation for robotic manufacturing and assembly, to miniature robotic devices and sensors for remote sensing and micro-surgery. This paper describes six activities in the large and small scale that are underway and either nearing technology transfer stage or seeking industrial partners to continue application development. The topics of the applications include multiple arm coordination for intuitively maneuvering large, ungainly work pieces; simulation, analysis and graphical training capability for CP-5 research reactor dismantlement; miniature robots with volumes of 16 cubic centimeters and less developed for inspection and sensor deployment; and biomedical sensors to enhance automated prosthetic device production and fill laparoscopic surgery information gap.

An Anesthesia Preinduction Checklist to Improve Information Exchange, Knowledge of Critical Information, Perception of Safety, and Possibly Perception of Teamwork in Anesthesia Teams.

Science.gov (United States)

Tscholl, David W; Weiss, Mona; Kolbe, Michaela; Staender, Sven; Seifert, Burkhardt; Landert, Daniel; Grande, Bastian; Spahn, Donat R; Noethiger, Christoph B

2015-10-01

An anesthesia preinduction checklist (APIC) to be performed before anesthesia induction was introduced and evaluated with respect to 5 team-level outcomes, each being a surrogate end point for patient safety: information exchange (the percentage of checklist items exchanged by a team, out of 12 total items); knowledge of critical information (the percentage of critical information items out of 5 total items such as allergies, reported as known by the members of a team); team members' perceptions of safety (the median scores given by the members of a team on a continuous rating scale); their perception of teamwork (the median scores given by the members of a team on a continuous rating scale); and clinical performance (the percentage of completed items out of 14 required tasks, e.g., suction device checked). A prospective interventional study comparing anesthesia teams using the APIC with a control group not using the APIC was performed using a multimethod design. Trained observers rated information exchange and clinical performance during on-site observations of anesthesia inductions. After the observations, each team member indicated the critical information items they knew and their perceptions of safety and teamwork. One hundred five teams using the APIC were compared with 100 teams not doing so. The medians of the team-level outcome scores in the APIC group versus the control group were as follows: information exchange: 100% vs 33% (P safety: 91% vs 84% (P improves information exchange, knowledge of critical information, and perception of safety in anesthesia teams-all parameters contributing to patient safety. There was a trend indicating improved perception of teamwork.

Affect in Human-Robot Interaction

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Werry, I., Rae, J., Dickerson, P., Stribling, P., & Ogden, B. (2002). Robotic Playmates: Analysing Interactive Competencies of Children with Autism ...WE-4RII. IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Edmonton, Canada. 35. Moravec, H. (1988). Mind Children : The Future of...and if so when and where? • What approaches, theories , representations, and experimental methods inform affective HRI research? Report Documentation

Information technologies, mechatronics and robotics as a basis of an interdisciplinary approach to engineering and medical education

OpenAIRE

Ovsyanitskaya, L. Y.; Yurasova, E. V.; Овсяницкая, Л. Ю.; Юрасова, Е. В.

2015-01-01

Information technologies, robotics and mechatronics play an important role in modern medicine. The article shows that the use of information technology is an essential part of any activity of a specialist healthcare. The main goal of the medical technique development is the high accuracy and quality of service, efficiency of treatment, reducing the risk of harm to human health. However, despite advances in engineering and technology, health care professionals are not always aware of them, ...

A strategic gaming model for health information exchange markets.

Science.gov (United States)

Martinez, Diego A; Feijoo, Felipe; Zayas-Castro, Jose L; Levin, Scott; Das, Tapas K

2018-03-01

Current market conditions create incentives for some providers to exercise control over patient data in ways that unreasonably limit its availability and use. Here we develop a game theoretic model for estimating the willingness of healthcare organizations to join a health information exchange (HIE) network and demonstrate its use in HIE policy design. We formulated the model as a bi-level integer program. A quasi-Newton method is proposed to obtain a strategy Nash equilibrium. We applied our modeling and solution technique to 1,093,177 encounters for exchanging information over a 7.5-year period in 9 hospitals located within a three-county region in Florida. Under a set of assumptions, we found that a proposed federal penalty of up to $2,000,000 has a higher impact on increasing HIE adoption than current federal monetary incentives. Medium-sized hospitals were more reticent to adopt HIE than large-sized hospitals. In the presence of collusion among multiple hospitals to not adopt HIE, neither federal incentives nor proposed penalties increase hospitals' willingness to adopt. Hospitals' apathy toward HIE adoption may threaten the value of inter-connectivity even with federal incentives in place. Competition among hospitals, coupled with volume-based payment systems, creates no incentives for smaller hospitals to exchange data with competitors. Medium-sized hospitals need targeted actions (e.g., outside technological assistance, group purchasing arrangements) to mitigate market incentives to not adopt HIE. Strategic game theoretic models help to clarify HIE adoption decisions under market conditions at play in an extremely complex technology environment.

Effective transfer entropy approach to information flow between exchange rates and stock markets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sensoy, Ahmet; Sobaci, Cihat; Sensoy, Sadri; Alali, Fatih

2014-01-01

We investigate the strength and direction of information flow between exchange rates and stock prices in several emerging countries by the novel concept of effective transfer entropy (an alternative non-linear causality measure) with symbolic encoding methodology. Analysis shows that before the 2008 crisis, only low level interaction exists between these two variables and exchange rates dominate stock prices in general. During crisis, strong bidirectional interaction arises. In the post-crisis period, the strong interaction continues to exist and in general stock prices dominate exchange rates

Consumer perceptions of electronic health information exchange.

Science.gov (United States)

Ancker, Jessica S; Edwards, Alison M; Miller, Melissa C; Kaushal, Rainu

2012-07-01

Public support will be critical to the success and long-term sustainability of electronic health information exchange (HIE) initiatives currently promoted by federal policy. The goal of this study was to assess consumer perceptions of HIE in a state (New York) with a 6-year history of successful HIE organizations. The Empire State Poll is a random-digit-dial telephone survey of adult New York State residents conducted annually by the Survey Research Institute at Cornell University. In 2011, it contained 77 items. The survey was conducted and data were analyzed in 2011. Eight hundred respondents participated (71% response rate). Large majorities supported HIE among healthcare providers (69%); thought it would improve quality of care (68%); and supported "break the glass" access to HIE data without need for consent in emergencies (90%). Support was lower among people who rated large corporations as less trustworthy. Privacy and security concerns were expressed by 68%. Respondents were supportive whether the architecture involved a physician sending data to another physician, a physician sending data to a patient who could send it to other physicians, or a physician accessing data from other institutions. In New York, public support for HIE is strong. Policy and outreach pertaining to this type of exchange may be most effective if it clarifies the roles and responsibilities of large businesses involved in different aspects of the exchange, and privacy and security controls. Differing architectures received similar levels of support. Copyright © 2012 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Impact of Health Information Exchange on Emergency Medicine Clinical Decision Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Gordon, Bradley D; Bernard, Kyle; Salzman, Josh; Whitebird, Robin R

2015-12-01

The objective of the study was to understand the immediate utility of health information exchange (HIE) on emergency department (ED) providers by interviewing them shortly after the information was retrieved. Prior studies of physician perceptions regarding HIE have only been performed outside of the care environment. Trained research assistants interviewed resident physicians, physician assistants and attending physicians using a semi-structured questionnaire within two hours of making a HIE request. The responses were recorded, then transcribed for qualitative analysis. The transcribed interviews were analyzed for emerging qualitative themes. We analyzed 40 interviews obtained from 29 providers. Primary qualitative themes discovered included the following: drivers for requests for outside information; the importance of unexpected information; historical lab values as reference points; providing context when determining whether to admit or discharge a patient; the importance of information in refining disposition; improved confidence of provider; and changes in decisions for diagnostic imaging. ED providers are driven to use HIE when they're missing a known piece of information. This study finds two additional impacts not previously reported. First, providers sometimes find additional unanticipated useful information, supporting a workflow that lowers the threshold to request external information. Second, providers sometimes report utility when no changes to their existing plan are made as their confidence is increased based on external records. Our findings are concordant with previous studies in finding exchanged information is useful to provide context for interpreting lab results, making admission decisions, and prevents repeat diagnostic imaging.

[Information exchange via internet--possibilities, limits, future].

Science.gov (United States)

Schmiedl, S; Geishauser, M; Klöppel, M; Biemer, E

1998-01-01

Today, the exchange of information in the Internet is dominated by the WWW and e-mail. Discussion groups like mailing lists and newsgroups also permit communication in groups. Information retrieval becomes a crucial challenge in using the Internet. In the field of medicine, three more aspects are of special importance: privacy, legal requirements, and the necessity of transferring large amounts of data. For these problems, today's Internet doesn't provide a sufficient solution yet. Future developments will not only improve the existing services, but also lead to fundamental changes in the transfer technologies: Safer data transfer is to be ensured by new encrypting software together with the planned transfer protocol IPv6. Introducing the new transfer mode ATM will lead to better and resource saving transmission. Computer, telephone and TV networks will grow together, resulting in convergence of media.

Semantic Framework for Social Robot Self-Configuration

Science.gov (United States)

Azkune, Gorka; Orduña, Pablo; Laiseca, Xabier; Castillejo, Eduardo; López-de-Ipiña, Diego; Loitxate, Miguel; Azpiazu, Jon

2013-01-01

Healthcare environments, as many other real world environments, present many changing and unpredictable situations. In order to use a social robot in such an environment, the robot has to be prepared to deal with all the changing situations. This paper presents a robot self-configuration approach to overcome suitably the commented problems. The approach is based on the integration of a semantic framework, where a reasoner can take decisions about the configuration of robot services and resources. An ontology has been designed to model the robot and the relevant context information. Besides rules are used to encode human knowledge and serve as policies for the reasoner. The approach has been successfully implemented in a mobile robot, which showed to be more capable of solving situations not pre-designed. PMID:23760085

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

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

Tactile surface classification for limbed robots using a pressure sensitive robot skin

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shill, Jacob J; Collins Jr, Emmanuel G; Coyle, Eric; Clark, Jonathan

2015-01-01

This paper describes an approach to terrain identification based on pressure images generated through direct surface contact using a robot skin constructed around a high-resolution pressure sensing array. Terrain signatures for classification are formulated from the magnitude frequency responses of the pressure images. The initial experimental results for statically obtained images show that the approach yields classification accuracies >98%. The methodology is extended to accommodate the dynamic pressure images anticipated when a robot is walking or running. Experiments with a one-legged hopping robot yield similar identification accuracies ≈99%. In addition, the accuracies are independent with respect to changing robot dynamics (i.e., when using different leg gaits). The paper further shows that the high-resolution capabilities of the sensor enables similarly textured surfaces to be distinguished. A correcting filter is developed to accommodate for failures or faults that inevitably occur within the sensing array with continued use. Experimental results show using the correcting filter can extend the effective operational lifespan of a high-resolution sensing array over 6x in the presence of sensor damage. The results presented suggest this methodology can be extended to autonomous field robots, providing a robot with crucial information about the environment that can be used to aid stable and efficient mobility over rough and varying terrains. (paper)

Interactions through the network - understanding the myths to create new ways of information exchange

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zakharov, I.V.

1996-01-01

The introduction of open data networks in the former Soviet Union, even concerning nuclear matters, collided with Soviet myths of, for example, nuclear secrets, information prohibition and dangers of international communication. Moreover, it was considered very complicated. These myths share many of the features with perception of radiation risk, such as dread, fear and misunderstanding. The new opportunities for information exchange, created by modern telecommunications and computer networks, can dispel these myths and perceptions concerning radiation risk, provided proper consideration of the myths' origins is taken. New ways of information exchange, such as creating extensive, international information infrastructures, based on Internet, can create new conditions for presenting the social conditions related to radiation risk. (author)

User localization during human-robot interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Alonso-Martín, F; Gorostiza, Javi F; Malfaz, María; Salichs, Miguel A

2012-01-01

This paper presents a user localization system based on the fusion of visual information and sound source localization, implemented on a social robot called Maggie. One of the main requisites to obtain a natural interaction between human-human and human-robot is an adequate spatial situation between the interlocutors, that is, to be orientated and situated at the right distance during the conversation in order to have a satisfactory communicative process. Our social robot uses a complete multimodal dialog system which manages the user-robot interaction during the communicative process. One of its main components is the presented user localization system. To determine the most suitable allocation of the robot in relation to the user, a proxemic study of the human-robot interaction is required, which is described in this paper. The study has been made with two groups of users: children, aged between 8 and 17, and adults. Finally, at the end of the paper, experimental results with the proposed multimodal dialog system are presented.

Agents Based e-Commerce and Securing Exchanged Information

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Jaljouli, Raja; Abawajy, Jemal

Mobile agents have been implemented in e-Commerce to search and filter information of interest from electronic markets. When the information is very sensitive and critical, it is important to develop a novel security protocol that can efficiently protect the information from malicious tampering as well as unauthorized disclosure or at least detect any malicious act of intruders. In this chapter, we describe robust security techniques that ensure a sound security of information gathered throughout agent’s itinerary against various security attacks, as well as truncation attacks. A sound security protocol is described, which implements the various security techniques that would jointly prevent or at least detect any malicious act of intruders. We reason about the soundness of the protocol usingSymbolic Trace Analyzer (STA), a formal verification tool that is based on symbolic techniques. We analyze the protocol in key configurations and show that it is free of flaws. We also show that the protocol fulfils the various security requirements of exchanged information in MAS, including data-integrity, data-confidentiality, data-authenticity, origin confidentiality and data non-repudiability.

Expert robots in nuclear plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Byrd, J.S.; Fisher, J.J.; DeVries, K.R.; Martin, T.P.

1987-01-01

Expert robots enhance a safety and operations in nuclear plants. E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Savannah River Laboratory, is developing expert mobile robots for deployment in nuclear applications at the Savannah River Plant. Knowledge-based expert systems are being evaluated to simplify operator control, to assist in navigation and manipulation functions, and to analyze sensory information. Development work using two research vehicles is underway to demonstrate semiautonomous, intelligence, expert robot system operation in process areas. A description of the mechanical equipment, control systems, and operating modes is presented, including the integration of onboard sensors. A control hierarchy that uses modest computational methods is being used to allow mobile robots to autonomously navigate and perform tasks in known environments without the need for large computer systems

Expert robots in nuclear plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Byrd, J.S.; Fisher, J.J.; DeVries, K.R.; Martin, T.P.

1987-01-01

Expert robots will enhance safety and operations in nuclear plants. E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Savannah River Laboratory, is developing expert mobile robots for deployment in nuclear applications at the Savannah River Plant. Knowledge-based expert systems are being evaluated to simplify operator control, to assist in navigation and manipulation functions, and to analyze sensory information. Development work using two research vehicles is underway to demonstrate semiautonomous, intelligent, expert robot system operation in process areas. A description of the mechanical equipment, control systems, and operating modes is presented, including the integration of onboard sensors. A control hierarchy that uses modest computational methods is being used to allow mobile robots to autonomously navigate and perform tasks in known environments without the need for large computer systems

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…

Interoperability of Standards for Robotics in CIME

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Torben

1996-01-01

geometry, kinematics, robotics, dynamics, and control, hence on a coherent neutral information model of the process chain from design to manufacturing. The second main goal was to increase the accuracy of off-line programmed robots. The results were demonstrated in industrial applications....

Robots in Action - Professional Contest 2017

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul Ciprian Patic

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The Robotics Society of Romania, Targoviste subsidiary, together with the Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Information Technology Faculty, "Valahia" University of Targoviste, held on May 30th 2017, starting from 11.00h, in the Rotonda of Engineering Faculties, the tenth edition of the professional students contest "ROBOTS IN ACTION".

Developing maintenance technologies for FBR's heat exchanger units by advanced laser processing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nishimura, Akihiko; Shimada, Yukihiro

2011-01-01

Laser processing technologies were developed for the purpose of maintenance of FBR's heat exchanger units. Ultrashort laser processing fabricated fiber Bragg grating sensor for seismic monitoring. Fiber laser welding with a newly developed robot system repair cracks on inner wall of heat exchanger tubes. Safety operation of the heat exchanger units will be improved by the advanced laser processing technologies. These technologies are expected to be applied to the maintenance for the next generation FBRs. (author)

Information technologies, mechatronics and robotics as a basis of an interdisciplinary approach to engineering and medical education

OpenAIRE

OVSYANITSKAYA L.Y.; YURASOVA E.V.

2015-01-01

Information technologies, robotics and mechatronics play an important role in modern medicine. The article shows that the use of information technology is an essential part of any activity of a specialist healthcare. The main goal of the medical technique development is the high accuracy and quality of service, efficiency of treatment, reducing the risk of harm to human health. However, despite advances in engineering and technology, health care professionals are not always aware of them, and...

Practical indoor mobile robot navigation using hybrid maps

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Özkil, Ali Gürcan; Fan, Zhun; Xiao, Jizhong

2011-01-01

This paper presents a practical navigation scheme for indoor mobile robots using hybrid maps. The method makes use of metric maps for local navigation and a topological map for global path planning. Metric maps are generated as 2D occupancy grids by a range sensor to represent local information...... about partial areas. The global topological map is used to indicate the connectivity of the 'places-of-interests' in the environment and the interconnectivity of the local maps. Visual tags on the ceiling to be detected by the robot provide valuable information and contribute to reliable localization...... robot and evaluated in a hospital environment....

WaterML, an Information Standard for the Exchange of in-situ hydrological observations

Science.gov (United States)

Valentine, D.; Taylor, P.; Zaslavsky, I.

2012-04-01

The WaterML 2.0 Standards Working Group (SWG), working within the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and in cooperation with the joint OGC-World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Hydrology Domain Working Group (HDWG), has developed an open standard for the exchange of water observation data; WaterML 2.0. The focus of the standard is time-series data, commonly generated from in-situ style monitoring. This is high value data for hydrological applications such as flood forecasting, environmental reporting and supporting hydrological infrastructure (e.g. dams, supply systems), which is commonly exchanged, but a lack of standards inhibits efficient reuse and automation. The process of developing WaterML required doing a harmonization analysis of existing standards to identify overlapping concepts and come to agreement on a harmonized definition. Generally the formats captured similar requirements, all with subtle differences, such as how time-series point metadata was handled. The in-progress standard WaterML 2.0 incorporates the semantics of the hydrologic information: location, procedure, and observations, and is implemented as an application schema of the Geography Markup Language version 3.2.1, making use of the OGC Observations & Measurements standards. WaterML2.0 is designed as an extensible schema to allow encoding of data to be used in a variety of exchange scenarios. Example areas of usage are: exchange of data for operational hydrological monitoring programs; supporting operation of infrastructure (e.g. dams, supply systems); cross-border exchange of observational data; release of data for public dissemination; enhancing disaster management through data exchange; and exchange in support of national reporting The first phase of WaterML2.0 focused on structural definitions allowing for the transfer of time-series, with less work on harmonization of vocabulary items such as quality codes. Vocabularies from various organizations tend to be specific and take time to

Light robotics: a new field of research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Engay, Einstom; Chouliara, Manto; Bañas, Andrew

2018-01-01

After years of working on light-driven trapping and manipulation, we can see that a confluence of developments is now ripe for the emergence of a new area that can contribute to nanobiophotonics - Light Robotics - which combines advances in microfabrication and optical micromanipulation together...... with intelligent control ideas from robotics, wavefront engineering and information optics. In the Summer 2017 we are publishing a 482 pages edited Elsevier book volume covering the fundamental aspects needed for Light Robotics including optical trapping systems, microfabrication and microassembly as well...... as underlying theoretical principles and experimental illustrations for optimizing optical forces and torques for Light Robotics...

A Novel Robot System Integrating Biological and Mechanical Intelligence Based on Dissociated Neural Network-Controlled Closed-Loop Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yongcheng; Sun, Rong; Wang, Yuechao; Li, Hongyi; Zheng, Xiongfei

2016-01-01

We propose the architecture of a novel robot system merging biological and artificial intelligence based on a neural controller connected to an external agent. We initially built a framework that connected the dissociated neural network to a mobile robot system to implement a realistic vehicle. The mobile robot system characterized by a camera and two-wheeled robot was designed to execute the target-searching task. We modified a software architecture and developed a home-made stimulation generator to build a bi-directional connection between the biological and the artificial components via simple binomial coding/decoding schemes. In this paper, we utilized a specific hierarchical dissociated neural network for the first time as the neural controller. Based on our work, neural cultures were successfully employed to control an artificial agent resulting in high performance. Surprisingly, under the tetanus stimulus training, the robot performed better and better with the increasement of training cycle because of the short-term plasticity of neural network (a kind of reinforced learning). Comparing to the work previously reported, we adopted an effective experimental proposal (i.e. increasing the training cycle) to make sure of the occurrence of the short-term plasticity, and preliminarily demonstrated that the improvement of the robot's performance could be caused independently by the plasticity development of dissociated neural network. This new framework may provide some possible solutions for the learning abilities of intelligent robots by the engineering application of the plasticity processing of neural networks, also for the development of theoretical inspiration for the next generation neuro-prostheses on the basis of the bi-directional exchange of information within the hierarchical neural networks.

A Novel Robot System Integrating Biological and Mechanical Intelligence Based on Dissociated Neural Network-Controlled Closed-Loop Environment.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yongcheng Li

Full Text Available We propose the architecture of a novel robot system merging biological and artificial intelligence based on a neural controller connected to an external agent. We initially built a framework that connected the dissociated neural network to a mobile robot system to implement a realistic vehicle. The mobile robot system characterized by a camera and two-wheeled robot was designed to execute the target-searching task. We modified a software architecture and developed a home-made stimulation generator to build a bi-directional connection between the biological and the artificial components via simple binomial coding/decoding schemes. In this paper, we utilized a specific hierarchical dissociated neural network for the first time as the neural controller. Based on our work, neural cultures were successfully employed to control an artificial agent resulting in high performance. Surprisingly, under the tetanus stimulus training, the robot performed better and better with the increasement of training cycle because of the short-term plasticity of neural network (a kind of reinforced learning. Comparing to the work previously reported, we adopted an effective experimental proposal (i.e. increasing the training cycle to make sure of the occurrence of the short-term plasticity, and preliminarily demonstrated that the improvement of the robot's performance could be caused independently by the plasticity development of dissociated neural network. This new framework may provide some possible solutions for the learning abilities of intelligent robots by the engineering application of the plasticity processing of neural networks, also for the development of theoretical inspiration for the next generation neuro-prostheses on the basis of the bi-directional exchange of information within the hierarchical neural networks.

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

Medical robots in cardiac surgery - application and perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Kroczek, Karolina; Kroczek, Piotr; Nawrat, Zbigniew

2017-03-01

Medical robots offer new standards and opportunities for treatment. This paper presents a review of the literature and market information on the current situation and future perspectives for the applications of robots in cardiac surgery. Currently in the United States, only 10% of thoracic surgical procedures are conducted using robots, while globally this value remains below 1%. Cardiac and thoracic surgeons use robotic surgical systems increasingly often. The goal is to perform more than one hundred thousand minimally invasive robotic surgical procedures every year. A surgical robot can be used by surgical teams on a rotational basis. The market of surgical robots used for cardiovascular and lung surgery was worth 72.2 million dollars in 2014 and is anticipated to reach 2.2 billion dollars by 2021. The analysis shows that Poland should have more than 30 surgical robots. Moreover, Polish medical teams are ready for the introduction of several robots into the field of cardiac surgery. We hope that this market will accommodate the Polish Robin Heart robots as well.

Gharibi_FaceCard for Contacts and Easy Personal - Information Exchange

OpenAIRE

Gharibi, Wajeb; Gharibi, Gharib

2014-01-01

In this paper, we discuss a new contact way for exchanging personal information using mobile phones. The idea of this invention depends on allocating a special code called Gharibi Code (GC) for each personal mobile and creating a personal information file called Gharibi Face Card (GFC), which has all specified personal data of the mobile phone user. When you request someone's GC code, the other party's phone will send you the GFC of that person. We think that this approach will facilitate the...

76 FR 8804 - 30-Day Notice of Proposed Information Collection: Form DS-3097, Exchange Visitor Program Annual...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-02-15

... DS-3097, Exchange Visitor Program Annual Report, OMB Control Number 1405-0151 ACTION: Notice of... Department of State has submitted the following information collection request to the Office of Management... Information Collection: Exchange Visitor Program Annual Report. OMB Control Number: 1405-0151. Type of Request...

77 FR 20687 - 30-Day Notice of Proposed Information Collection: Form DS-3097, Exchange Visitor Program Annual...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-04-05

...-3097, Exchange Visitor Program Annual Report, OMB Control Number 1405-0151 ACTION: Notice of request... Department of State has submitted the following information collection request to the Office of Management... Information Collection: Exchange Visitor Program Annual Report. OMB Control Number: 1405-0151. Type of Request...

Summary of JRC activities related to European-wide exchange of radiological information during nuclear emergencies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Court, M.; Vries de, G.; Galmarini, S.

2003-01-01

Full text: The large transboundary effects of the radioactive release during the Chernobyl accident evidenced the need for international provisions for data and Information exchange. The JRC, in its EC support activity to DG TREN H.4, called REM (Radioactivity Environmental Monitoring), has more than 10 years experience in developing systems to make early notification and reliable radiological information exchange available to the EU member states in case of nuclear accidents. The aim and status of these systems are described: 1.)ECURIE: The legal basis for the EC systems is the Council Decision 87/600 of 14 December 1987. It resulted in the ECURIE network which allows the EU Member States and Switzerland to notify an accident and to subsequently exchange the radiological information as required by this Council decision. The underlying information exchange code (C.1. structure) does not only provide radiological measurements, but also predicted values, site meteorological data and decisions taken. Software was developed to facilitate coding and decoding of the messages. Initially the messages were transmitted by telex. The latest software (CoDecS, in use since the beginning of 2001) uses ISDN and Internet for the Information exchange. lt runs an the Windows NT and 2000 platforms. Regular exercises test the communication system and the software. In view of improving the efficiency of data and Information transfer for their common Member States, the IAEA and the EC are harmonizing ECURIE and the ENATOM early notification system. A first result has been the definition of an enhanced CIS format. Modifications will be made to the CoDecs software and to the IAEA - ENAC website so that information can be exchanged between the two systems in an automated manner. The EC wishes to extend the ECURIE network to the EU candidate countries. The official agreements are in an advanced state and participation of many candidate countries is foreseen by the end of 2003. It is

The Need for Systematic Naming Software Tools for Exchange of Chemical Information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrey Yerin

1999-09-01

Full Text Available The availability of systematic names can enable the simple textual exchange of chemical structure information. The exchange of molecular structures in graphical format or connection tables has become well established in the field of cheminformatics and many structure drawing tools exist to enable this exchange. However, even with the availability of systematic naming rules, software tools to allow the generation of names from structures, and hopefully the reversal of these systematic names back to the original chemical structure, have been sorely lacking in capability and quality. Here we review the need for systematic naming as well as some of the tools and approaches being taken today in this area.

U.S. Department of Energy national technology information exchange workshops

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Daub, G.J.; Earle, S.D.; Smibert, A.M.; Wight, E.H.

1994-01-01

The U.S. Department of Energy National Technology Information Exchange (TIE) Workshops bring together environmental restoration and technology development personnel to exchange and share problems, needs, technological solutions, ideas, and successes and failures from lessons learned at DOE sites. The success of this forum is measured by the knowledge gained, contacts made, and program dollars saved by the people who actually do the work in the field. TIE is a unique opportunity to unite the DOE community and allow individuals to listen and to learn about each others' problems and solutions. By using today's technologies better, the National TIE Workshops help identify and implement cost-effective and appropriate technologies to meet the needs of the DOE environmental restoration program

POLICE OFFICE MODEL IMPROVEMENT FOR SECURITY OF SWARM ROBOTIC SYSTEMS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. A. Zikratov

2014-09-01

Full Text Available This paper focuses on aspects of information security for group of mobile robotic systems with swarm intellect. The ways for hidden attacks realization by the opposing party on swarm algorithm are discussed. We have fulfilled numerical modeling of potentially destructive information influence on the ant shortest path algorithm. We have demonstrated the consequences of attacks on the ant algorithm with different concentration in a swarm of subversive robots. Approaches are suggested for information security mechanisms in swarm robotic systems, based on the principles of centralized security management for mobile agents. We have developed the method of forming a self-organizing information security management system for robotic agents in swarm groups implementing POM (Police Office Model – a security model based on police offices, to provide information security in multi-agent systems. The method is based on the usage of police station network in the graph nodes, which have functions of identification and authentication of agents, identifying subversive robots by both their formal characteristics and their behavior in the swarm. We have suggested a list of software and hardware components for police stations, consisting of: communication channels between the robots in police office, nodes register, a database of robotic agents, a database of encryption and decryption module. We have suggested the variants of logic for the mechanism of information security in swarm systems with different temporary diagrams of data communication between police stations. We present comparative analysis of implementation of protected swarm systems depending on the functioning logic of police offices, integrated in swarm system. It is shown that the security model saves the ability to operate in noisy environments, when the duration of the interference is comparable to the time necessary for the agent to overcome the path between police stations.

Self-protection Method for Flying Robots to Avoid Collision

OpenAIRE

Guosheng Wu; Luning Wang; Changyuan Fan; Xi Zhu

2008-01-01

This paper provides a new approach to solve the motion planning problems of flying robots in uncertain 3D dynamic environments. The robots controlled by this method can adaptively choose the fast way to avoid collision without information about the shapes and trajectories of obstacles. Based on sphere coordinates the new method accomplishes collision avoidance of flying robots without any other auxiliary positioning systems. The Self-protection System gives robots self-protection abilities to...

Wireless Power System Design for Mobile Robots used in Nuclear Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, S. Y.; Yoo, S. J.; Lee, Kun J.; Rim, C. T.

2012-01-01

The robots used in nuclear power plants (NPP) have received much attention in recent years due to the Fukushima nuclear accident, which is considered as one of the worst nuclear disasters. In general, the NPP robots can play important roles in fuel exchange, repair work, radiation monitoring, rescue, and scouting out NPP. Under these conditions, human access to NPP during normal and emergency operations is strictly restricted due to the risks of high level radiation and contamination. However, in practice, robots have not been widely used in NPP because of the following limitations. First, the NPP robots cannot be of multi-purpose use because of their mission complexity and uniqueness. Second, the demand of the NPP robots is low due to the limited number of NPP over the world. Third, the NPP robots developed so far have no enough confidence in spite of the improvement of robot technology. Lastly, the NPP robots cannot carry on their mission continuously due to the limited energy capacity of the battery: mobile robots should stop working every two hours to recharge their batteries and spend least twenty minutes. As the solutions for this 'energy hungry' problem, high capacity batteries, quick battery chargers, power cables, and internal combustion engines were proposed; however, they still have the problems such as limited mission time and range, frequent recharging, or exhausting emission and noise. In this paper, the wireless power transfer systems (WPTS) for NPP robots are proposed. This technology can let NPP robots free from mission time and range limits, and exhausting emission. The requirements for the NPP robots are newly proposed, and two types of WPTS, roaming and railway, are suggested in this paper

RoboDB: an application of Semantic Web Technologies to robotics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Juarez, Alex; Hu, J.; Feijs, L.M.G.

2011-01-01

RoboDB is a knowledge acquisition system that gathers information about robots. RoboDB uses Semantic Web technologies and tools to help the user in creating semantic descriptions of robot embodiments and their capabilities, as well as in building an ontology of robotics projects, research

Visual perception system and method for a humanoid robot

Science.gov (United States)

Wells, James W. (Inventor); Mc Kay, Neil David (Inventor); Chelian, Suhas E. (Inventor); Linn, Douglas Martin (Inventor); Wampler, II, Charles W. (Inventor); Bridgwater, Lyndon (Inventor)

2012-01-01

A robotic system includes a humanoid robot with robotic joints each moveable using an actuator(s), and a distributed controller for controlling the movement of each of the robotic joints. The controller includes a visual perception module (VPM) for visually identifying and tracking an object in the field of view of the robot under threshold lighting conditions. The VPM includes optical devices for collecting an image of the object, a positional extraction device, and a host machine having an algorithm for processing the image and positional information. The algorithm visually identifies and tracks the object, and automatically adapts an exposure time of the optical devices to prevent feature data loss of the image under the threshold lighting conditions. A method of identifying and tracking the object includes collecting the image, extracting positional information of the object, and automatically adapting the exposure time to thereby prevent feature data loss of the image.

Towards Versatile Robots Through Open Heterogeneous Modular Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lyder, Andreas

arises, a new robot can be assembled rapidly from the existing modules, in contrast to conventional robots, which require a time consuming and expensive development process. In this thesis we define a modular robot to be a robot consisting of dynamically reconfigurable modules. The goal of this thesis......Robots are important tools in our everyday life. Both in industry and at the consumer level they serve the purpose of increasing our scope and extending our capabilities. Modular robots take the next step, allowing us to easily create and build various robots from a set of modules. If a problem...... is to increase the versatility and practical usability of modular robots by introducing new conceptual designs. Until now modular robots have been based on a pre-specified set of modules, and thus, their functionality is limited. We propose an open heterogeneous design concept, which allows a modular robot...

Autonomous Deployment and Restoration of Sensor Network using Mobile Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tsuyoshi Suzuki

2010-09-01

Full Text Available This paper describes an autonomous deployment and restoration of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN using mobile robots. The authors have been developing an information-gathering system using mobile robots and WSNs in underground spaces in post-disaster environments. In our system, mobile robots carry wireless sensor nodes (SN and deploy them into the environment while measuring Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI values to ensure communication, thereby enabling the WSN to be deployed and restored autonomously. If the WSN is disrupted, mobile robots restore the communication route by deploying additional or alternate SNs to suitable positions. Utilizing the proposed method, a mobile robot can deploy a WSN and gather environmental information via the WSN. Experimental results using a verification system equipped with a SN deployment and retrieval mechanism are presented.

Autonomous Deployment and Restoration of Sensor Network using Mobile Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tsuyoshi Suzuki

2010-06-01

Full Text Available This paper describes an autonomous deployment and restoration of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN using mobile robots. The authors have been developing an information-gathering system using mobile robots and WSNs in underground spaces in post-disaster environments. In our system, mobile robots carry wireless sensor nodes (SN and deploy them into the environment while measuring Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI values to ensure communication, thereby enabling the WSN to be deployed and restored autonomously. If the WSN is disrupted, mobile robots restore the communication route by deploying additional or alternate SNs to suitable positions. Utilizing the proposed method, a mobile robot can deploy a WSN and gather environmental information via the WSN. Experimental results using a verification system equipped with a SN deployment and retrieval mechanism are presented.

An Intelligent Agent-Controlled and Robot-Based Disassembly Assistant

Science.gov (United States)

Jungbluth, Jan; Gerke, Wolfgang; Plapper, Peter

2017-09-01

One key for successful and fluent human-robot-collaboration in disassembly processes is equipping the robot system with higher autonomy and intelligence. In this paper, we present an informed software agent that controls the robot behavior to form an intelligent robot assistant for disassembly purposes. While the disassembly process first depends on the product structure, we inform the agent using a generic approach through product models. The product model is then transformed to a directed graph and used to build, share and define a coarse disassembly plan. To refine the workflow, we formulate “the problem of loosening a connection and the distribution of the work” as a search problem. The created detailed plan consists of a sequence of actions that are used to call, parametrize and execute robot programs for the fulfillment of the assistance. The aim of this research is to equip robot systems with knowledge and skills to allow them to be autonomous in the performance of their assistance to finally improve the ergonomics of disassembly workstations.

Environmental restoration and waste management: Robotics technology development program: Robotics 5-year program plan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-01-01

In FY 1990 Robotics Technology Development Program (RTDP) planning teams visited five DOE sites. These sites were selected by the Office of Technology Development to provide a needs basis for developing a 5-Year Plan. Visits to five DOE sites provided identification of needs for robotics technology development to support Environmental Restoration and Waste Management (ER ampersand WM) projects at those sites. Additional site visits will be conducted in the future to expand the planning basis. This volume summarizes both the results of the site visits and the needs and requirements of the priority ER ampersand WM activities at the sites, including potential needs for robotics and remote systems technology. It also discusses hazards associated with the site activities and any problems or technical uncertainties associated with dealing with the hazards in the performance of the ER ampersand WM work. Robotic or remote systems currently under development for remediation projects or waste operations are also discussed. The information in this document is organized principally by site, activity, and priority. Section 2.0, Site Needs, is based on information from the site visit reports and provides a summary which focuses on the site needs and requirements for each priority activity. Section 2.0 also records evaluations and discussions by the RTDP team following the site visit. Section 3.0, Commonality Assessment, documents similar site needs where common, or cross-cutting, robotics technology might be applied to several activities. Section 4.0 contains a summary of the site needs and requirements in tabular form. 1 tab

High-throughput mouse genotyping using robotics automation.

Science.gov (United States)

Linask, Kaari L; Lo, Cecilia W

2005-02-01

The use of mouse models is rapidly expanding in biomedical research. This has dictated the need for the rapid genotyping of mutant mouse colonies for more efficient utilization of animal holding space. We have established a high-throughput protocol for mouse genotyping using two robotics workstations: a liquid-handling robot to assemble PCR and a microfluidics electrophoresis robot for PCR product analysis. This dual-robotics setup incurs lower start-up costs than a fully automated system while still minimizing human intervention. Essential to this automation scheme is the construction of a database containing customized scripts for programming the robotics workstations. Using these scripts and the robotics systems, multiple combinations of genotyping reactions can be assembled simultaneously, allowing even complex genotyping data to be generated rapidly with consistency and accuracy. A detailed protocol, database, scripts, and additional background information are available at http://dir.nhlbi.nih.gov/labs/ldb-chd/autogene/.

Robotics in reproductive surgery: strengths and limitations.

Science.gov (United States)

Catenacci, M; Flyckt, R L; Falcone, T

2011-09-01

Minimally invasive surgical techniques are becoming increasingly common in gynecologic surgery. However, traditional laparoscopy can be challenging. A robotic surgical system gives several advantages over traditional laparoscopy and has been incorporated into reproductive gynecological surgeries. The objective of this article is to review recent publications on robotically-assisted laparoscopy for reproductive surgery. Recent clinical research supports robotic surgery as resulting in less post-operative pain, shorter hospital stays, faster return to normal activities, and decreased blood loss. Reproductive outcomes appear similar to alternative approaches. Drawbacks of robotic surgery include longer operating room times, the need for specialized training, and increased cost. Larger prospective studies comparing robotic approaches with laparoscopy and conventional open surgery have been initiated and information regarding long-term outcomes after robotic surgery will be important in determining the ultimate utility of these procedures. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Simple Nod of the Head: The Effect of Minimal Robot Movements on Children's Perception of a Low-Anthropomorphic Robot

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zaga, Cristina; de Vries, Roelof A.J.; Li, Jamy; Truong, Khiet P.; Evers, Vanessa

In this note, we present minimal robot movements for robotic technology for children. Two types of minimal gaze movements were designed: social-gaze movements to communicate social engagement and deictic-gaze movements to communicate task-related referential information. In a two (social-gaze

Interoperability of CAD Standards and Robotics in CIME

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Torben

The research presented in this dissertation concerns the identification of problems and provision of solutions for increasing the degree of interoperability between CAD, CACSD (Computer Aided Control Systems Design) and CAR (Computer Aided Robotics) in Computer Integrated Manufacturing and Engine......The research presented in this dissertation concerns the identification of problems and provision of solutions for increasing the degree of interoperability between CAD, CACSD (Computer Aided Control Systems Design) and CAR (Computer Aided Robotics) in Computer Integrated Manufacturing......· The development of a STEP based interface for general control system data and functions, especially related to robot motion control for interoperability of CAD, CACSD, and CAR systems for the extension of the inter-system communication capabilities beyond the stage achieved up to now.This interface development...... comprehends the following work:· The definition of the concepts of 'information' and 'information model', and the selection of a proper information modeling methodology within the STEP methodologies.· The elaboration of a general function model of a generic robot motion controller in IDEF0 for interface...

Socially intelligent robots: dimensions of human-robot interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Dautenhahn, Kerstin

2007-04-29

Social intelligence in robots has a quite recent history in artificial intelligence and robotics. However, it has become increasingly apparent that social and interactive skills are necessary requirements in many application areas and contexts where robots need to interact and collaborate with other robots or humans. Research on human-robot interaction (HRI) poses many challenges regarding the nature of interactivity and 'social behaviour' in robot and humans. The first part of this paper addresses dimensions of HRI, discussing requirements on social skills for robots and introducing the conceptual space of HRI studies. In order to illustrate these concepts, two examples of HRI research are presented. First, research is surveyed which investigates the development of a cognitive robot companion. The aim of this work is to develop social rules for robot behaviour (a 'robotiquette') that is comfortable and acceptable to humans. Second, robots are discussed as possible educational or therapeutic toys for children with autism. The concept of interactive emergence in human-child interactions is highlighted. Different types of play among children are discussed in the light of their potential investigation in human-robot experiments. The paper concludes by examining different paradigms regarding 'social relationships' of robots and people interacting with them.

Control of compliant anthropomimetic robot joint

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Svetozarević Bratislav

2011-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper we propose a control strategy for a robot joint which fully mimics the typical human joint structure. The joint drive is based on two actuators (dc motors, agonist and antagonist, acting through compliant tendons and forming a nonlinear multi-input multi-output (MIMO system. At any time, we consider one actuator, the puller, as being responsible for motion control, while the role of the other is to keep its tendon force at some appropriate low level. This human-like and energetically efficient approach requires the control of 'switching', or exchanging roles between actuators. Moreover, an algorithm based on adaptive force reference is used to solve a problem of slacken tendons during the switching and to increase the energy efficiency. This approach was developed and evaluated on increasingly complex robot joint configurations, starting with simple and noncompliant system, and finishing with nonlinear and compliant system.

Robotic surgery claims on United States hospital websites.

Science.gov (United States)

Jin, Linda X; Ibrahim, Andrew M; Newman, Naeem A; Makarov, Danil V; Pronovost, Peter J; Makary, Martin A

2011-11-01

To examine the prevalence and content of robotic surgery information presented on websites of U.S. hospitals. We completed a systematic analysis of 400 randomly selected U.S. hospital websites in June of 2010. Data were collected on the presence and location of robotic surgery information on a hospital's website; use of images or text provided by the manufacturer; use of direct link to manufacturer website; statements of clinical superiority; statements of improved cancer outcome; mention of a comparison group for a statement; citation of supporting data and mention of specific risks. Forty-one percent of hospital websites described robotic surgery. Among these, 37% percent presented robotic surgery on their homepage, 73% used manufacturer-provided stock images or text, and 33% linked to a manufacturer website. Statements of clinical superiority were made on 86% of websites, with 32% describing improved cancer control, and 2% described a reference group. No hospital website mentioned risks. Materials provided by hospitals regarding the surgical robot overestimate benefits, largely ignore risks and are strongly influenced by the manufacturer. © 2011 National Association for Healthcare Quality.

Analyzing Cyber-Physical Threats on Robotic Platforms.

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmad Yousef, Khalil M; AlMajali, Anas; Ghalyon, Salah Abu; Dweik, Waleed; Mohd, Bassam J

2018-05-21

Robots are increasingly involved in our daily lives. Fundamental to robots are the communication link (or stream) and the applications that connect the robots to their clients or users. Such communication link and applications are usually supported through client/server network connection. This networking system is amenable of being attacked and vulnerable to the security threats. Ensuring security and privacy for robotic platforms is thus critical, as failures and attacks could have devastating consequences. In this paper, we examine several cyber-physical security threats that are unique to the robotic platforms; specifically the communication link and the applications. Threats target integrity, availability and confidential security requirements of the robotic platforms, which use MobileEyes/arnlServer client/server applications. A robot attack tool (RAT) was developed to perform specific security attacks. An impact-oriented approach was adopted to analyze the assessment results of the attacks. Tests and experiments of attacks were conducted in simulation environment and physically on the robot. The simulation environment was based on MobileSim; a software tool for simulating, debugging and experimenting on MobileRobots/ActivMedia platforms and their environments. The robot platform PeopleBot TM was used for physical experiments. The analysis and testing results show that certain attacks were successful at breaching the robot security. Integrity attacks modified commands and manipulated the robot behavior. Availability attacks were able to cause Denial-of-Service (DoS) and the robot was not responsive to MobileEyes commands. Integrity and availability attacks caused sensitive information on the robot to be hijacked. To mitigate security threats, we provide possible mitigation techniques and suggestions to raise awareness of threats on the robotic platforms, especially when the robots are involved in critical missions or applications.

Analyzing Cyber-Physical Threats on Robotic Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khalil M. Ahmad Yousef

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Robots are increasingly involved in our daily lives. Fundamental to robots are the communication link (or stream and the applications that connect the robots to their clients or users. Such communication link and applications are usually supported through client/server network connection. This networking system is amenable of being attacked and vulnerable to the security threats. Ensuring security and privacy for robotic platforms is thus critical, as failures and attacks could have devastating consequences. In this paper, we examine several cyber-physical security threats that are unique to the robotic platforms; specifically the communication link and the applications. Threats target integrity, availability and confidential security requirements of the robotic platforms, which use MobileEyes/arnlServer client/server applications. A robot attack tool (RAT was developed to perform specific security attacks. An impact-oriented approach was adopted to analyze the assessment results of the attacks. Tests and experiments of attacks were conducted in simulation environment and physically on the robot. The simulation environment was based on MobileSim; a software tool for simulating, debugging and experimenting on MobileRobots/ActivMedia platforms and their environments. The robot platform PeopleBotTM was used for physical experiments. The analysis and testing results show that certain attacks were successful at breaching the robot security. Integrity attacks modified commands and manipulated the robot behavior. Availability attacks were able to cause Denial-of-Service (DoS and the robot was not responsive to MobileEyes commands. Integrity and availability attacks caused sensitive information on the robot to be hijacked. To mitigate security threats, we provide possible mitigation techniques and suggestions to raise awareness of threats on the robotic platforms, especially when the robots are involved in critical missions or applications.

Firm handling; the information exchange interaction by parents in paediatric care – An observational study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carina Berterö

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Information exchange is fundamental in the paediatric care encounter. Health care professionals need further background knowledge to encounter the parents/guardians from their perspective in their minors’ paediatric care. The parents’/guardians’ ability to manage the situation is dependent on their receiving optimal information, which is why it is important to study how information is exchanged.Aim: The aim of this study was to identify, describe and conceptualize how parents/guardians resolved their main concern ininformation exchange with health care professionals in paediatric care situations involving their minors.Methodology: Glaser’s grounded theory method was used and all data were analysed using constant comparative analysis. The observational study took place at three paediatric outpatient units at a university hospital and 24 parents/guardians participated. Data sources were field notes from 37 observations of paediatric care situations and five adherent excerpts from the minors’ medical records. Grounded theory is a method of conceptualising behaviour, which is why an observational study of parents’/guardians’ information exchange and social interaction in the context of nursing care is relevant as research design.Results: Firm handling was revealed as the way the parents/guardians resolved their main concerns when they were exchanging information about their minors’ paediatric care. Firm handling is built on five inter-related categories: representative advocating, collaborating, aim sharing, supportive resourcing and minor bypassing.Conclusions: This knowledge suggests possible ways for health care professionals to design paediatric care that supports, facilitates, strengthens and improves the parents’/guardians’ firm handling. The key issue is to find ways to support parents/guardians and minors so they can participate in health care encounters according to their preferences. Firm handling gives an

Robot engineering

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jung, Seul

2006-02-15

This book deals with robot engineering, giving descriptions of robot's history, current tendency of robot field, work and characteristic of industrial robot, essential merit and vector, application of matrix, analysis of basic vector, expression of Denavit-Hartenberg, robot kinematics such as forward kinematics, inverse kinematics, cases of MATLAB program, and motion kinematics, robot kinetics like moment of inertia, centrifugal force and coriolis power, and Euler-Lagrangian equation course plan, SIMULINK position control of robots.

Robot engineering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jung, Seul

2006-02-01

This book deals with robot engineering, giving descriptions of robot's history, current tendency of robot field, work and characteristic of industrial robot, essential merit and vector, application of matrix, analysis of basic vector, expression of Denavit-Hartenberg, robot kinematics such as forward kinematics, inverse kinematics, cases of MATLAB program, and motion kinematics, robot kinetics like moment of inertia, centrifugal force and coriolis power, and Euler-Lagrangian equation course plan, SIMULINK position control of robots.

Architecture for Multiple Interacting Robot Intelligences

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, Richard Alan, II (Inventor)

2008-01-01

An architecture for robot intelligence enables a robot to learn new behaviors and create new behavior sequences autonomously and interact with a dynamically changing environment. Sensory information is mapped onto a Sensory Ego-Sphere (SES) that rapidly identifies important changes in the environment and functions much like short term memory. Behaviors are stored in a database associative memory (DBAM) that creates an active map from the robot's current state to a goal state and functions much like long term memory. A dream state converts recent activities stored in the SES and creates or modifies behaviors in the DBAM.

Automated robotic workcell for waste characterization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dougan, A.D.; Gustaveson, D.K.; Alvarez, R.A.; Holliday, M.

1993-01-01

The authors have successfully demonstrated an automated multisensor-based robotic workcell for hazardous waste characterization. The robot within this workcell uses feedback from radiation sensors, a metal detector, object profile scanners, and a 2D vision system to automatically segregate objects based on their measured properties. The multisensor information is used to make segregation decisions of waste items and to facilitate the grasping of objects with a robotic arm. The authors used both sodium iodide and high purity germanium detectors as a two-step process to maximize throughput. For metal identification and discrimination, the authors are investigating the use of neutron interrogation techniques

Wireless Power System Design for Mobile Robots used in Nuclear Power Plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Choi, S. Y.; Yoo, S. J.; Lee, Kun J.; Rim, C. T. [Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2012-05-15

The robots used in nuclear power plants (NPP) have received much attention in recent years due to the Fukushima nuclear accident, which is considered as one of the worst nuclear disasters. In general, the NPP robots can play important roles in fuel exchange, repair work, radiation monitoring, rescue, and scouting out NPP. Under these conditions, human access to NPP during normal and emergency operations is strictly restricted due to the risks of high level radiation and contamination. However, in practice, robots have not been widely used in NPP because of the following limitations. First, the NPP robots cannot be of multi-purpose use because of their mission complexity and uniqueness. Second, the demand of the NPP robots is low due to the limited number of NPP over the world. Third, the NPP robots developed so far have no enough confidence in spite of the improvement of robot technology. Lastly, the NPP robots cannot carry on their mission continuously due to the limited energy capacity of the battery: mobile robots should stop working every two hours to recharge their batteries and spend least twenty minutes. As the solutions for this 'energy hungry' problem, high capacity batteries, quick battery chargers, power cables, and internal combustion engines were proposed; however, they still have the problems such as limited mission time and range, frequent recharging, or exhausting emission and noise. In this paper, the wireless power transfer systems (WPTS) for NPP robots are proposed. This technology can let NPP robots free from mission time and range limits, and exhausting emission. The requirements for the NPP robots are newly proposed, and two types of WPTS, roaming and railway, are suggested in this paper

The local exchange network in the information age - The need for new policy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fons, J.P. (Ausley, McMullen, McGehee, Carothers and Proctor, Tallahassee, FL (USA))

1990-01-18

This article is an analysis of a conventional belief that the local exchange telephone networks are bottleneck monopolies. It also examines the alleged bases for excluding the local exchange telephone companies from participating directly in existing and developing technologies and markets other than those of a telephone service, or dial-tone. The author concludes that adherence to the current policy in the face of a demand for information age technology and services, and the availability of competing systems, will condemn the local exchange networks to the technological junk heap - and at the same time deprive the public of some of its best opportunities for new and enhanced services.

Calibration of Robot Reference Frames for Enhanced Robot Positioning Accuracy

OpenAIRE

Cheng, Frank Shaopeng

2008-01-01

This chapter discussed the importance and methods of conducting robot workcell calibration for enhancing the accuracy of the robot TCP positions in industrial robot applications. It shows that the robot frame transformations define the robot geometric parameters such as joint position variables, link dimensions, and joint offsets in an industrial robot system. The D-H representation allows the robot designer to model the robot motion geometry with the four standard D-H parameters. The robot k...

Development of automatic inspection robot for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamada, K.; Suzuki, K.; Saitoh, K.; Sakaki, T.; Ohe, Y.; Mizutani, T.; Segawa, M.; Kubo, K.

1987-01-01

This robot system has been developed for automatic inspection of nuclear power plants. The system configuration is composed of vehicle that runs on monorail, the sensors on the vehicle, an image processer that processes the image information from the sensors, a computer that creates the inspection planning of the robot and an operation panel. This system has two main features, the first is the robot control system. The vehicle and the sensors are controlled by the output data calculated in the computer with the three dimensional plant data. The malfunction is recognized by the combination of the results of image processing, information from the microphone and infrared camera. Tests for a prototype automatic inspection robot system have been performed in the simulated main steam piping room of a nuclear power plant

Including communication success in the estimation of information gain for multi-robot exploration

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Visser, A.; Slamet, B.A.

2008-01-01

This article investigates the effect of incorporating knowledge about the communication possibilities in an exploration algorithm used to map an unknown environment. The mission is to explore a hypothetical disaster site with a small team of robots. The challenge faced by the robot team is to

Interactional Features of Repair Negotiation in NS-NNS Interaction on Two Task Types: Information Gap and Personal Information Exchange

Science.gov (United States)

Kitajima, Ryu

2013-01-01

The studies in task-based approaches in second language acquisition claim that controlled and goal convergent tasks such as information gap tasks surpass open-ended conversations such as personal information exchange tasks for the development of the learner's interlanguage, in that the formers promote more repair negotiation. And yet, few studies…

On Estimation Of The Orientation Of Mobile Robots Using Turning Functions And SONAR Information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dorel AIORDACHIOAIE

2003-12-01

Full Text Available SONAR systems are widely used by some artificial objects, e.g. robots, and by animals, e.g. bats, for navigation and pattern recognition. The objective of this paper is to present a solution on the estimation of the orientation in the environment of mobile robots, in the context of navigation, using the turning function approach. The results are shown to be accurate and can be used further in the design of navigation strategies of mobile robots.

Third International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation for Space 1994

Science.gov (United States)

1994-01-01

The Third International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation for Space (i-SAIRAS 94), held October 18-20, 1994, in Pasadena, California, was jointly sponsored by NASA, ESA, and Japan's National Space Development Agency, and was hosted by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the California Institute of Technology. i-SAIRAS 94 featured presentations covering a variety of technical and programmatic topics, ranging from underlying basic technology to specific applications of artificial intelligence and robotics to space missions. i-SAIRAS 94 featured a special workshop on planning and scheduling and provided scientists, engineers, and managers with the opportunity to exchange theoretical ideas, practical results, and program plans in such areas as space mission control, space vehicle processing, data analysis, autonomous spacecraft, space robots and rovers, satellite servicing, and intelligent instruments.

Task-space sensory feedback control of robot manipulators

CERN Document Server

Cheah, Chien Chern

2015-01-01

This book presents recent advances in robot control theory on task space sensory feedback control of robot manipulators. By using sensory feedback information, the robot control systems are robust to various uncertainties in modelling and calibration errors of the sensors. Several sensory task space control methods that do not require exact knowledge of either kinematics or dynamics of robots, are presented. Some useful methods such as approximate Jacobian control, adaptive Jacobian control, region control and multiple task space regional feedback are included. These formulations and methods give robots a high degree of flexibility in dealing with unforeseen changes and uncertainties in its kinematics and dynamics, which is similar to human reaching movements and tool manipulation. It also leads to the solution of several long-standing problems and open issues in robot control, such as force control with constraint uncertainty, control of multi-fingered robot hand with uncertain contact points, singularity i...

Robotic Oncological Surgery: Technology That's Here to Stay?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

HRH Patel

2009-09-01

Full Text Available A robot functioning in an environment may exhibit various forms of behavior emerge from the interaction with its environment through sense, control and plan activities. Hence, this paper introduces a behaviour selection based navigation and obstacle avoidance algorithm with effective method for adapting robotic behavior according to the environment conditions and the navigated terrain. The developed algorithm enable the robot to select the suitable behavior in real-time to avoid obstacles based on sensory information through visual and ultrasonic sensors utilizing the robot's ability to step over obstacles, and move between surfaces of different heights. In addition, it allows the robot to react in appropriate manner to the changing conditions either by fine-tuning of behaviors or by selecting different set of behaviors to increase the efficiency of the robot over time. The presented approach has been demonstrated on quadruped robot in several different experimental environments and the paper provides an analysis of its performance.

An Aerial-Ground Robotic System for Navigation and Obstacle Mapping in Large Outdoor Areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Zapata

2013-01-01

Full Text Available There are many outdoor robotic applications where a robot must reach a goal position or explore an area without previous knowledge of the environment around it. Additionally, other applications (like path planning require the use of known maps or previous information of the environment. This work presents a system composed by a terrestrial and an aerial robot that cooperate and share sensor information in order to address those requirements. The ground robot is able to navigate in an unknown large environment aided by visual feedback from a camera on board the aerial robot. At the same time, the obstacles are mapped in real-time by putting together the information from the camera and the positioning system of the ground robot. A set of experiments were carried out with the purpose of verifying the system applicability. The experiments were performed in a simulation environment and outdoor with a medium-sized ground robot and a mini quad-rotor. The proposed robotic system shows outstanding results in simultaneous navigation and mapping applications in large outdoor environments.

Bilateral communication and information exchange, an attempt relating to mandate 8 of the Dutch-German commission (NDKK)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salfeld, H.Ch.; Hable, K.; Kok, Y.S.; Reinen, H.A.J.M.

2003-01-01

Full text: According to a memorandum of understanding between Germany and the Netherlands, the NDKK has to review the existing communication methods. Proceeding from this review proposals have to be developed to improve the bilateral communication and data exchange in case of events near the German-Dutch border and more generally for every event involving nuclear facilities. The NDKK has established a working group for reviewing and working out the proposals. Members of the working group are federal institutions resp. state institutions. Within their scope of duties are emergency management and communication, data collection and communication and expert advice to stakeholders. On the Dutch side the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) takes part, on the German side, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) and the Lower Saxony State Agency for Ecology (NLOE) are involved. At international level, the ECURIE (European Community Urgent Radiological Information Exchange, system of the EU) and EMERCON (Emergency Convention, system of the IAEA) are used for early notification and subsequent messaging. The designated contact points and competent authorities are VROM (Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment) and BMU (German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety). According to a bilateral agreement, there is an additional direct communication for emergency notification between BMU and VROM. For the exchange of radiological measurement data the EURDEP standard (European Radiological Data Exchange Platform) is applied. In addition to the multinational procedure, it has been decided to exchange data directly in order to make the exchange faster and redundant. Presently, data are exchanged on a weekly basis by ftp, using EURDEP 2.0 format. The only NPP located near the Dutch-German border is the German NPP Emsland (KKE) close to the town of Lingen. Other nuclear facilities in this area

Data Leakage Prevention for Secure Cross-Domain Information Exchange

OpenAIRE

Nordbotten, Nils Agne; Engelstad, Paal E.; Kongsgård, Kyrre Wahl; Haakseth, Raymond; Mancini, Federico

2017-01-01

Cross-domain information exchange is an increasingly important capability for conducting efficient and secure operations, both within coalitions and within single nations. A data guard is a common cross-domain sharing solution that inspects the security labels of exported data objects and validates that they are such that they can be released according to policy. While we see that guard solutions can be implemented with high assurance, we find that obtaining an equivalent level of assurance i...

Finite-Time Approach to Microeconomic and Information Exchange Processes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Serghey A. Amelkin

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Finite-time approach allows one to optimize regimes of processes in macrosystems when duration of the processes is restricted. Driving force of the processes is difference of intensive variables: temperatures in thermodynamics, values in economics, etc. In microeconomic systems two counterflow fluxes appear due to the only driving force. They are goods and money fluxes. Another possible case is two fluxes with the same direction. The processes of information exchange can be described by this formalism.

Molecular Robots Obeying Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaminka, Gal A; Spokoini-Stern, Rachel; Amir, Yaniv; Agmon, Noa; Bachelet, Ido

2017-01-01

Asimov's three laws of robotics, which were shaped in the literary work of Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) and others, define a crucial code of behavior that fictional autonomous robots must obey as a condition for their integration into human society. While, general implementation of these laws in robots is widely considered impractical, limited-scope versions have been demonstrated and have proven useful in spurring scientific debate on aspects of safety and autonomy in robots and intelligent systems. In this work, we use Asimov's laws to examine these notions in molecular robots fabricated from DNA origami. We successfully programmed these robots to obey, by means of interactions between individual robots in a large population, an appropriately scoped variant of Asimov's laws, and even emulate the key scenario from Asimov's story "Runaround," in which a fictional robot gets into trouble despite adhering to the laws. Our findings show that abstract, complex notions can be encoded and implemented at the molecular scale, when we understand robots on this scale on the basis of their interactions.

Outer navigation of a inspection robot by means of feedback of global guidance; Navegacion exterior de un robot de inspeccion mediante retroalimentacion de la orientacion global

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Segovia de los R, A.; Bucio V, F. [ININ, 52750 La Marquesa, Estado de Mexico (Mexico); Garduno G, M. [Instituto Tecnologico de Toluca, Av. Instituto Tecnologico s/n, Metepec, Estado de Mexico 52140 (Mexico)]. e-mail: asegovia@nuclear.inin.mx

2008-07-01

The objective of this article is the presentation of an inspection system to mobile robot navigating in exteriors by means of the employment of a feedback of instantaneous guidance with respect to a global reference throughout moment of the displacement. The robot evolves obeying the commands coming from the one tele operator which indicates the diverse addresses by means of the operation console that the robot should take using for it information provided by an electronic compass. The mobile robot employee in the experimentations is a Pioneer 3-AT, which counts with a sensor series required to obtain an operation of more autonomy. The electronic compass offers geographical information coded in a format SPI, reason for which a micro controller ({mu}C) economic of general use has been an employee for to transfer the information to the format RS-232, originally used by the Pioneer 3-AT. The orientation information received by the robot by means of their serial port RS-232 secondary it is forwarded to the computer hostess in the one which a program Java is used to generate the commands for the robot navigation control and to deploy one graphic interface user utilized to receive the order of the operator. This research is part of an ambitious project in which it is tried to count on an inspection system and monitoring of sites in which risks of high radiation levels could exist, thus a navigation systems in exteriors could be very useful. The complete system will count besides the own sensors of the robot, with certain numbers of agree sensors to the variables that are desired to monitor. The resulting values of such measurements will be visualized in real time in the graphic interface user, thanks to a bidirectional wireless communication among the station of operation and the mobile robot. (Author)

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.

A Meta-Analysis of Factors Affecting Trust in Human-Robot Interaction

Science.gov (United States)

2011-10-01

directly affects the willingness of people to accept robot -produced information, follow robots ’ suggestions, and thus benefit from the advantages inherent...perceived complexity of operation). Consequently, if the perceived risk of using the robot exceeds its perceived benefit , practical operators almost...necessary presence of a human caregiver (Graf, Hans, & Schraft, 2004). Other robotic devices, such as wheelchairs (Yanco, 2001) and exoskeletons (e.g

Legal and ethical issues in robotic surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Mavroforou, A; Michalodimitrakis, E; Hatzitheo-Filou, C; Giannoukas, A

2010-02-01

With the rapid introduction of revolutionary technologies in surgical practice, such as computer-enhanced robotic surgery, the complexity in various aspects, including medical, legal and ethical, will increase exponentially. Our aim was to highlight important legal and ethical implications emerged from the application of robotic surgery. Search of the pertinent medical and legal literature. Robotic surgery may open new avenues in the near future in surgical practice. However, in robotic surgery, special training and experience along with high quality assessment are required in order to provide normal conscientious care and state-of-the-art treatment. While the legal basis for professional liability remains exactly the same, litigation with the use of robotic surgery may be complex. In case of an undesirable outcome, in addition to physician and hospital, the manufacturer of the robotic system may be sued. In respect to ethical issues in robotic surgery, equipment safety and reliability, provision of adequate information, and maintenance of confidentiality are all of paramount importance. Also, the cost of robotic surgery and the lack of such systems in most of the public hospitals may restrict the majority from the benefits offered by the new technology. While surgical robotics will have a significant impact on surgical practice, it presents challenges so much in the realm of law and ethics as of medicine and health care.

Electronic tools for health information exchange: an evidence-based analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

As patients experience transitions in care, there is a need to share information between care providers in an accurate and timely manner. With the push towards electronic medical records and other electronic tools (eTools) (and away from paper-based health records) for health information exchange, there remains uncertainty around the impact of eTools as a form of communication. To examine the impact of eTools for health information exchange in the context of care coordination for individuals with chronic disease in the community. A literature search was performed on April 26, 2012, using OVID MEDLINE, OVID MEDLINE In-Process and Other Non-Indexed Citations, OVID EMBASE, EBSCO Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), the Wiley Cochrane Library, and the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination database, for studies published until April 26, 2012 (no start date limit was applied). A systematic literature search was conducted, and meta-analysis conducted where appropriate. Outcomes of interest fell into 4 categories: health services utilization, disease-specific clinical outcomes, process-of-care indicators, and measures of efficiency. The quality of the evidence was assessed individually for each outcome. Expert panels were assembled for stakeholder engagement and contextualization. Eleven articles were identified (4 randomized controlled trials and 7 observational studies). There was moderate quality evidence of a reduction in hospitalizations, hospital length of stay, and emergency department visits following the implementation of an electronically generated laboratory report with recommendations based on clinical guidelines. The evidence showed no difference in disease-specific outcomes; there was no evidence of a positive impact on process-of-care indicators or measures of efficiency. A limited body of research specifically examined eTools for health information exchange in the population and setting of interest. This evidence included a

A study on an autonomous pipeline maintenance robot, 8

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fukuda, Toshio; Hosokai, Hidemi; Niitsu, Shunichi; Kaneshige, Masanori; Iwasaki, Shinnosuke.

1990-01-01

This paper deals with the path planning and sensing planning expert system with learning functions for the pipeline inspection and maintenance robot, Mark IV. The robot can carry out inspection tasks to autonomously detect malfunctions in a plant pipeline system. Furthermore, the robot becomes more intelligent by adding the following functions: (1) the robot, Mark IV, is capable of inspecting surfaces of storage tanks as well as pipeline outer surfaces; (2) in path planning, the robot has a learning function using information generated in the past such as a moving path, task level and control commands of the robot; (3) in inspecting a pipeline system with plant equipment such as valves, franges, T- and L-joints, the robot is capable of inspecting continuous surfaces in pipeline. Thus, together with the improved path planning expert system (PPES) and the sensing planning expert system (SPES), the Mark IV robot becomes intelligent enough to automatically carry out given inspection tasks. (author)

Building a Relationship between Robot Characteristics and Teleoperation User Interfaces.

Science.gov (United States)

Mortimer, Michael; Horan, Ben; Seyedmahmoudian, Mehdi

2017-03-14

The Robot Operating System (ROS) provides roboticists with a standardized and distributed framework for real-time communication between robotic systems using a microkernel environment. This paper looks at how ROS metadata, Unified Robot Description Format (URDF), Semantic Robot Description Format (SRDF), and its message description language, can be used to identify key robot characteristics to inform User Interface (UI) design for the teleoperation of heterogeneous robot teams. Logical relationships between UI components and robot characteristics are defined by a set of relationship rules created using relevant and available information including developer expertise and ROS metadata. This provides a significant opportunity to move towards a rule-driven approach for generating the designs of teleoperation UIs; in particular the reduction of the number of different UI configurations required to teleoperate each individual robot within a heterogeneous robot team. This approach is based on using an underlying rule set identifying robots that can be teleoperated using the same UI configuration due to having the same or similar robot characteristics. Aside from reducing the number of different UI configurations an operator needs to be familiar with, this approach also supports consistency in UI configurations when a teleoperator is periodically switching between different robots. To achieve this aim, a Matlab toolbox is developed providing users with the ability to define rules specifying the relationship between robot characteristics and UI components. Once rules are defined, selections that best describe the characteristics of the robot type within a particular heterogeneous robot team can be made. A main advantage of this approach is that rather than specifying discrete robots comprising the team, the user can specify characteristics of the team more generally allowing the system to deal with slight variations that may occur in the future. In fact, by using the

Building a Relationship between Robot Characteristics and Teleoperation User Interfaces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Mortimer

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The Robot Operating System (ROS provides roboticists with a standardized and distributed framework for real-time communication between robotic systems using a microkernel environment. This paper looks at how ROS metadata, Unified Robot Description Format (URDF, Semantic Robot Description Format (SRDF, and its message description language, can be used to identify key robot characteristics to inform User Interface (UI design for the teleoperation of heterogeneous robot teams. Logical relationships between UI components and robot characteristics are defined by a set of relationship rules created using relevant and available information including developer expertise and ROS metadata. This provides a significant opportunity to move towards a rule-driven approach for generating the designs of teleoperation UIs; in particular the reduction of the number of different UI configurations required to teleoperate each individual robot within a heterogeneous robot team. This approach is based on using an underlying rule set identifying robots that can be teleoperated using the same UI configuration due to having the same or similar robot characteristics. Aside from reducing the number of different UI configurations an operator needs to be familiar with, this approach also supports consistency in UI configurations when a teleoperator is periodically switching between different robots. To achieve this aim, a Matlab toolbox is developed providing users with the ability to define rules specifying the relationship between robot characteristics and UI components. Once rules are defined, selections that best describe the characteristics of the robot type within a particular heterogeneous robot team can be made. A main advantage of this approach is that rather than specifying discrete robots comprising the team, the user can specify characteristics of the team more generally allowing the system to deal with slight variations that may occur in the future. In fact, by

Autonomous mobile robot for radiologic surveys

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dudar, A.M.; Wagner, D.G.; Teese, G.D.

1994-01-01

An apparatus is described for conducting radiologic surveys. The apparatus comprises in the main a robot capable of following a preprogrammed path through an area, a radiation monitor adapted to receive input from a radiation detector assembly, ultrasonic transducers for navigation and collision avoidance, and an on-board computer system including an integrator for interfacing the radiation monitor and the robot. Front and rear bumpers are attached to the robot by bumper mounts. The robot may be equipped with memory boards for the collection and storage of radiation survey information. The on-board computer system is connected to a remote host computer via a UHF radio link. The apparatus is powered by a rechargeable 24-volt DC battery, and is stored at a docking station when not in use and/or for recharging. A remote host computer contains a stored database defining paths between points in the area where the robot is to operate, including but not limited to the locations of walls, doors, stationary furniture and equipment, and sonic markers if used. When a program consisting of a series of paths is downloaded to the on-board computer system, the robot conducts a floor survey autonomously at any preselected rate. When the radiation monitor detects contamination, the robot resurveys the area at reduced speed and resumes its preprogrammed path if the contamination is not confirmed. If the contamination is confirmed, the robot stops and sounds an alarm. 5 figures

Vision-based mapping with cooperative robots

Science.gov (United States)

Little, James J.; Jennings, Cullen; Murray, Don

1998-10-01

Two stereo-vision-based mobile robots navigate and autonomously explore their environment safely while building occupancy grid maps of the environment. The robots maintain position estimates within a global coordinate frame using landmark recognition. This allows them to build a common map by sharing position information and stereo data. Stereo vision processing and map updates are done at 3 Hz and the robots move at speeds of 200 cm/s. Cooperative mapping is achieved through autonomous exploration of unstructured and dynamic environments. The map is constructed conservatively, so as to be useful for collision-free path planning. Each robot maintains a separate copy of a shared map, and then posts updates to the common map when it returns to observe a landmark at home base. Issues include synchronization, mutual localization, navigation, exploration, registration of maps, merging repeated views (fusion), centralized vs decentralized maps.

Robot Evolutionary Localization Based on Attentive Visual Short-Term Memory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eduardo Perdices

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Cameras are one of the most relevant sensors in autonomous robots. However, two of their challenges are to extract useful information from captured images, and to manage the small field of view of regular cameras. This paper proposes implementing a dynamic visual memory to store the information gathered from a moving camera on board a robot, followed by an attention system to choose where to look with this mobile camera, and a visual localization algorithm that incorporates this visual memory. The visual memory is a collection of relevant task-oriented objects and 3D segments, and its scope is wider than the current camera field of view. The attention module takes into account the need to reobserve objects in the visual memory and the need to explore new areas. The visual memory is useful also in localization tasks, as it provides more information about robot surroundings than the current instantaneous image. This visual system is intended as underlying technology for service robot applications in real people’s homes. Several experiments have been carried out, both with simulated and real Pioneer and Nao robots, to validate the system and each of its components in office scenarios.

Robot Evolutionary Localization Based on Attentive Visual Short-Term Memory

Science.gov (United States)

Vega, Julio; Perdices, Eduardo; Cañas, José M.

2013-01-01

Cameras are one of the most relevant sensors in autonomous robots. However, two of their challenges are to extract useful information from captured images, and to manage the small field of view of regular cameras. This paper proposes implementing a dynamic visual memory to store the information gathered from a moving camera on board a robot, followed by an attention system to choose where to look with this mobile camera, and a visual localization algorithm that incorporates this visual memory. The visual memory is a collection of relevant task-oriented objects and 3D segments, and its scope is wider than the current camera field of view. The attention module takes into account the need to reobserve objects in the visual memory and the need to explore new areas. The visual memory is useful also in localization tasks, as it provides more information about robot surroundings than the current instantaneous image. This visual system is intended as underlying technology for service robot applications in real people's homes. Several experiments have been carried out, both with simulated and real Pioneer and Nao robots, to validate the system and each of its components in office scenarios. PMID:23337333

The contaminant analysis automation robot implementation for the automated laboratory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Younkin, J.R.; Igou, R.E.; Urenda, T.D.

1995-01-01

The Contaminant Analysis Automation (CAA) project defines the automated laboratory as a series of standard laboratory modules (SLM) serviced by a robotic standard support module (SSM). These SLMs are designed to allow plug-and-play integration into automated systems that perform standard analysis methods (SAM). While the SLMs are autonomous in the execution of their particular chemical processing task, the SAM concept relies on a high-level task sequence controller (TSC) to coordinate the robotic delivery of materials requisite for SLM operations, initiate an SLM operation with the chemical method dependent operating parameters, and coordinate the robotic removal of materials from the SLM when its commands and events has been established to allow ready them for transport operations as well as performing the Supervisor and Subsystems (GENISAS) software governs events from the SLMs and robot. The Intelligent System Operating Environment (ISOE) enables the inter-process communications used by GENISAS. CAA selected the Hewlett-Packard Optimized Robot for Chemical Analysis (ORCA) and its associated Windows based Methods Development Software (MDS) as the robot SSM. The MDS software is used to teach the robot each SLM position and required material port motions. To allow the TSC to command these SLM motions, a hardware and software implementation was required that allowed message passing between different operating systems. This implementation involved the use of a Virtual Memory Extended (VME) rack with a Force CPU-30 computer running VxWorks; a real-time multitasking operating system, and a Radiuses PC compatible VME computer running MDS. A GENISAS server on The Force computer accepts a transport command from the TSC, a GENISAS supervisor, over Ethernet and notifies software on the RadiSys PC of the pending command through VMEbus shared memory. The command is then delivered to the MDS robot control software using a Windows Dynamic Data Exchange conversation

Investing in International Information Exchange Activities to Improve the Safety, Cost Effectiveness and Schedule of Cleanup - 13281

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seed, Ian; James, Paula; Mathieson, John; Judd, Laurie; Elmetti-Ramirez, Rosa; Han, Ana

2013-01-01

With decreasing budgets and increasing pressure on completing cleanup missions as quickly, safely and cost-effectively as possible, there is significant benefit to be gained from collaboration and joint efforts between organizations facing similar issues. With this in mind, the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) have formally agreed to share information on lessons learned on the development and application of new technologies and approaches to improve the safety, cost effectiveness and schedule of the cleanup legacy wastes. To facilitate information exchange a range of tools and methodologies were established. These included tacit knowledge exchange through facilitated meetings, conference calls and Site visits as well as explicit knowledge exchange through document sharing and newsletters. A DOE web-based portal has been established to capture these exchanges and add to them via discussion boards. The information exchange is operating at the Government-to-Government strategic level as well as at the Site Contractor level to address both technical and managerial topic areas. This effort has resulted in opening a dialogue and building working relationships. In some areas joint programs of work have been initiated thus saving resource and enabling the parties to leverage off one another activities. The potential benefits of high quality information exchange are significant, ranging from cost avoidance through identification of an approach to a problem that has been proven elsewhere to cost sharing and joint development of a new technology to address a common problem. The benefits in outcomes significantly outweigh the costs of the process. The applicability of the tools and methods along with the lessons learned regarding some key issues is of use to any organization that wants to improve value for money. In the waste management marketplace, there are a multitude of challenges being addressed by multiple organizations and

Investing in International Information Exchange Activities to Improve the Safety, Cost Effectiveness and Schedule of Cleanup - 13281

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Seed, Ian; James, Paula [Cogentus Consulting (United States); Mathieson, John [NDA United Kingdom (United Kingdom); Judd, Laurie [NuVision Engineering, Inc. (United States); Elmetti-Ramirez, Rosa; Han, Ana [US DOE (United States)

2013-07-01

With decreasing budgets and increasing pressure on completing cleanup missions as quickly, safely and cost-effectively as possible, there is significant benefit to be gained from collaboration and joint efforts between organizations facing similar issues. With this in mind, the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) have formally agreed to share information on lessons learned on the development and application of new technologies and approaches to improve the safety, cost effectiveness and schedule of the cleanup legacy wastes. To facilitate information exchange a range of tools and methodologies were established. These included tacit knowledge exchange through facilitated meetings, conference calls and Site visits as well as explicit knowledge exchange through document sharing and newsletters. A DOE web-based portal has been established to capture these exchanges and add to them via discussion boards. The information exchange is operating at the Government-to-Government strategic level as well as at the Site Contractor level to address both technical and managerial topic areas. This effort has resulted in opening a dialogue and building working relationships. In some areas joint programs of work have been initiated thus saving resource and enabling the parties to leverage off one another activities. The potential benefits of high quality information exchange are significant, ranging from cost avoidance through identification of an approach to a problem that has been proven elsewhere to cost sharing and joint development of a new technology to address a common problem. The benefits in outcomes significantly outweigh the costs of the process. The applicability of the tools and methods along with the lessons learned regarding some key issues is of use to any organization that wants to improve value for money. In the waste management marketplace, there are a multitude of challenges being addressed by multiple organizations and

Micro intelligence robot

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jeon, Yon Ho

1991-07-01

This book gives descriptions of micro robot about conception of robots and micro robot, match rules of conference of micro robots, search methods of mazes, and future and prospect of robots. It also explains making and design of 8 beat robot like making technique, software, sensor board circuit, and stepping motor catalog, speedy 3, Mr. Black and Mr. White, making and design of 16 beat robot, such as micro robot artist, Jerry 2 and magic art of shortening distances algorithm of robot simulation.

SMARBot: a modular miniature mobile robot platform

Science.gov (United States)

Meng, Yan; Johnson, Kerry; Simms, Brian; Conforth, Matthew

2008-04-01

Miniature robots have many advantages over their larger counterparts, such as low cost, low power, and easy to build a large scale team for complex tasks. Heterogeneous multi miniature robots could provide powerful situation awareness capability due to different locomotion capabilities and sensor information. However, it would be expensive and time consuming to develop specific embedded system for different type of robots. In this paper, we propose a generic modular embedded system architecture called SMARbot (Stevens Modular Autonomous Robot), which consists of a set of hardware and software modules that can be configured to construct various types of robot systems. These modules include a high performance microprocessor, a reconfigurable hardware component, wireless communication, and diverse sensor and actuator interfaces. The design of all the modules in electrical subsystem, the selection criteria for module components, and the real-time operating system are described. Some proofs of concept experimental results are also presented.

Robotic Tactile Sensing Technologies and System

CERN Document Server

Dahiya, Ravinder S

2013-01-01

Future robots are expected to work closely and interact safely with real-world objects and humans alike. Sense of touch is important in this context, as it helps estimate properties such as shape, texture, hardness, material type and many more; provides action related information, such as slip detection; and helps carrying out actions such as rolling an object between fingers without dropping it. This book presents an in-depth description of the solutions available for gathering tactile data, obtaining aforementioned tactile information from the data and effectively using the same in various robotic tasks. Better integration of tactile sensors on a robot’s body is prerequisite for the effective utilization of tactile data. For this reason, the hardware, software and application related issues (and resulting trade-offs) that must be considered to make tactile sensing an effective component of robotic platforms are discussed in-depth.To this end, human touch sensing has also been explored. The design hints co...

A novel method of range measuring for a mobile robot based on multi-sensor information fusion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Yi; Luo Yuan; Wang Jifeng

2005-01-01

The traditional measuring range for a mobile robot is based on a sonar sensor. Because of different working environments, it is very difficult to obtain high precision by using just one single method of range measurement. So, a hybrid sonar sensor and laser scanner method is put forward to overcome these shortcomings. A novel fusion model is proposed based on basic theory and a method of information fusion. An optimal measurement result has been obtained with information fusion from different sensors. After large numbers of experiments and performance analysis, a conclusion can be drawn that the laser scanner and sonar sensor method with multi-sensor information fusion have a higher precision than the single method of sonar. It can also be the same with different environments

Analyzing Cyber-Physical Threats on Robotic Platforms †

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

Robots are increasingly involved in our daily lives. Fundamental to robots are the communication link (or stream) and the applications that connect the robots to their clients or users. Such communication link and applications are usually supported through client/server network connection. This networking system is amenable of being attacked and vulnerable to the security threats. Ensuring security and privacy for robotic platforms is thus critical, as failures and attacks could have devastating consequences. In this paper, we examine several cyber-physical security threats that are unique to the robotic platforms; specifically the communication link and the applications. Threats target integrity, availability and confidential security requirements of the robotic platforms, which use MobileEyes/arnlServer client/server applications. A robot attack tool (RAT) was developed to perform specific security attacks. An impact-oriented approach was adopted to analyze the assessment results of the attacks. Tests and experiments of attacks were conducted in simulation environment and physically on the robot. The simulation environment was based on MobileSim; a software tool for simulating, debugging and experimenting on MobileRobots/ActivMedia platforms and their environments. The robot platform PeopleBotTM was used for physical experiments. The analysis and testing results show that certain attacks were successful at breaching the robot security. Integrity attacks modified commands and manipulated the robot behavior. Availability attacks were able to cause Denial-of-Service (DoS) and the robot was not responsive to MobileEyes commands. Integrity and availability attacks caused sensitive information on the robot to be hijacked. To mitigate security threats, we provide possible mitigation techniques and suggestions to raise awareness of threats on the robotic platforms, especially when the robots are involved in critical missions or applications. PMID:29883403

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.

Path Planning and Navigation for Mobile Robots in a Hybrid Sensor Network without Prior Location Information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zheng Zhang

2013-03-01

Full Text Available In a hybrid wireless sensor network with mobile and static nodes, which have no prior geographical knowledge, successful navigation for mobile robots is one of the main challenges. In this paper, we propose two novel navigation algorithms for outdoor environments, which permit robots to travel from one static node to another along a planned path in the sensor field, namely the RAC and the IMAP algorithms. Using this, the robot can navigate without the help of a map, GPS or extra sensor modules, only using the received signal strength indication (RSSI and odometry. Therefore, our algorithms have the advantage of being cost-effective. In addition, a path planning algorithm to schedule mobile robots' travelling paths is presented, which focuses on shorter distances and robust paths for robots by considering the RSSI-Distance characteristics. The simulations and experiments conducted with an autonomous mobile robot show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms in an outdoor environment.

International Conference on Wearable Sensors and Robots 2015

CERN Document Server

Virk, G; Yang, Huayong

2017-01-01

These proceedings present the latest information on regulations and standards for medical and non-medical devices, including wearable robots for gait training and support, design of exoskeletons for the elderly, innovations in assistive robotics, and analysis of human–machine interactions taking into account ergonomic considerations. The rapid development of key mechatronics technologies in recent years has shown that human living standards have significantly improved, and the International Conference on Wearable Sensor and Robot was held in Hangzhou, China from October 16 to 18, 2015, to present research mainly focused on personal-care robots and medical devices. The aim of the conference was to bring together academics, researchers, engineers and students from across the world to discuss state-of-the-art technologies related to various aspects of wearable sensors and robots. .

VIP - A Framework-Based Approach to Robot Vision

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gerd Mayer

2008-11-01

Full Text Available For robot perception, video cameras are very valuable sensors, but the computer vision methods applied to extract information from camera images are usually computationally expensive. Integrating computer vision methods into a robot control architecture requires to balance exploitation of camera images with the need to preserve reactivity and robustness. We claim that better software support is needed in order to facilitate and simplify the application of computer vision and image processing methods on autonomous mobile robots. In particular, such support must address a simplified specification of image processing architectures, control and synchronization issues of image processing steps, and the integration of the image processing machinery into the overall robot control architecture. This paper introduces the video image processing (VIP framework, a software framework for multithreaded control flow modeling in robot vision.

VIP - A Framework-Based Approach to Robot Vision

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hans Utz

2006-03-01

Full Text Available For robot perception, video cameras are very valuable sensors, but the computer vision methods applied to extract information from camera images are usually computationally expensive. Integrating computer vision methods into a robot control architecture requires to balance exploitation of camera images with the need to preserve reactivity and robustness. We claim that better software support is needed in order to facilitate and simplify the application of computer vision and image processing methods on autonomous mobile robots. In particular, such support must address a simplified specification of image processing architectures, control and synchronization issues of image processing steps, and the integration of the image processing machinery into the overall robot control architecture. This paper introduces the video image processing (VIP framework, a software framework for multithreaded control flow modeling in robot vision.

Towards Sociable Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ngo, Trung Dung

This thesis studies aspects of self-sufficient energy (energy autonomy) for truly autonomous robots and towards sociable robots. Over sixty years of history of robotics through three developmental ages containing single robot, multi-robot systems, and social (sociable) robots, the main objective...... of roboticists mostly focuses on how to make a robotic system function autonomously and further, socially. However, such approaches mostly emphasize behavioural autonomy, rather than energy autonomy which is the key factor for not only any living machine, but for life on the earth. Consequently, self......-sufficient energy is one of the challenges for not only single robot or multi-robot systems, but also social and sociable robots. This thesis is to deal with energy autonomy for multi-robot systems through energy sharing (trophallaxis) in which each robot is equipped with two capabilities: self-refueling energy...

Biomass feeds vegetarian robot; Biomassa voedt vegetarische robot

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Van den Brandt, M. [Office for Science and Technology, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Washington (United States)

2009-09-15

This brief article addresses the EATR robot (Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot) that was developed by Cyclone Power and uses biomass as primary source of energy for propulsion. [Dutch] Een kort artikel over de door Cyclone Power ontwikkelde EATR-robot (Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot) die voor de voortdrijving biomassa gebruikt als primaire energiebron.

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....

Soft Robotics Week

CERN Document Server

Rossiter, Jonathan; Iida, Fumiya; Cianchetti, Matteo; Margheri, Laura

2017-01-01

This book offers a comprehensive, timely snapshot of current research, technologies and applications of soft robotics. The different chapters, written by international experts across multiple fields of soft robotics, cover innovative systems and technologies for soft robot legged locomotion, soft robot manipulation, underwater soft robotics, biomimetic soft robotic platforms, plant-inspired soft robots, flying soft robots, soft robotics in surgery, as well as methods for their modeling and control. Based on the results of the second edition of the Soft Robotics Week, held on April 25 – 30, 2016, in Livorno, Italy, the book reports on the major research lines and novel technologies presented and discussed during the event.

Towards Versatile Robots Through Open Heterogeneous Modular Robots

OpenAIRE

Lyder, Andreas

2010-01-01

Robots are important tools in our everyday life. Both in industry and at the consumer level they serve the purpose of increasing our scope and extending our capabilities. Modular robots take the next step, allowing us to easily create and build various robots from a set of modules. If a problem arises, a new robot can be assembled rapidly from the existing modules, in contrast to conventional robots, which require a time consuming and expensive development process. In this thesis we define a ...

Robotic architectures

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Mtshali, M

2010-01-01

Full Text Available In the development of mobile robotic systems, a robotic architecture plays a crucial role in interconnecting all the sub-systems and controlling the system. The design of robotic architectures for mobile autonomous robots is a challenging...

Investigation of the Impact of Extracting and Exchanging Health Information by Using Internet and Social Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Pistolis, John; Zimeras, Stelios; Chardalias, Kostas; Roupa, Zoe; Fildisis, George; Diomidous, Marianna

2016-06-01

Social networks (1) have been embedded in our daily life for a long time. They constitute a powerful tool used nowadays for both searching and exchanging information on different issues by using Internet searching engines (Google, Bing, etc.) and Social Networks (Facebook, Twitter etc.). In this paper, are presented the results of a research based on the frequency and the type of the usage of the Internet and the Social Networks by the general public and the health professionals. The objectives of the research were focused on the investigation of the frequency of seeking and meticulously searching for health information in the social media by both individuals and health practitioners. The exchanging of information is a procedure that involves the issues of reliability and quality of information. In this research, by using advanced statistical techniques an effort is made to investigate the participant's profile in using social networks for searching and exchanging information on health issues. Based on the answers 93 % of the people, use the Internet to find information on health-subjects. Considering principal component analysis, the most important health subjects were nutrition (0.719 %), respiratory issues (0.79 %), cardiological issues (0.777%), psychological issues (0.667%) and total (73.8%). The research results, based on different statistical techniques revealed that the 61.2% of the males and 56.4% of the females intended to use the social networks for searching medical information. Based on the principal components analysis, the most important sources that the participants mentioned, were the use of the Internet and social networks for exchanging information on health issues. These sources proved to be of paramount importance to the participants of the study. The same holds for nursing, medical and administrative staff in hospitals.

Nuclear analysis via internet based on robocom, a robotic computing environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, J.H.; Liu, J.; Foung, R.

1997-01-01

Nuclear engineers can resume the pioneering role the authors once played in network computing. The authors can transform Internet World Wide Web from offering information to offering analysis capabilities in the form of software robots that are capable of processing information of their own. Pooling such transmittable robots by the nuclear analysis community would represent a collaborative effort to automate nuclear engineering analysis. Samples of HTML files for a web site, a robot and its corresponding schematics are included to demonstrate the ease of implementation

Research and development of service robot platform based on artificial psychology

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Xueyuan; Wang, Zhiliang; Wang, Fenhua; Nagai, Masatake

2007-12-01

Some related works about the control architecture of robot system are briefly summarized. According to the discussions above, this paper proposes control architecture of service robot based on artificial psychology. In this control architecture, the robot can obtain the cognition of environment through sensors, and then be handled with intelligent model, affective model and learning model, and finally express the reaction to the outside stimulation through its behavior. For better understanding the architecture, hierarchical structure is also discussed. The control system of robot can be divided into five layers, namely physical layer, drives layer, information-processing and behavior-programming layer, application layer and system inspection and control layer. This paper shows how to achieve system integration from hardware modules, software interface and fault diagnosis. Embedded system GENE-8310 is selected as the PC platform of robot APROS-I, and its primary memory media is CF card. The arms and body of the robot are constituted by 13 motors and some connecting fittings. Besides, the robot has a robot head with emotional facial expression, and the head has 13 DOFs. The emotional and intelligent model is one of the most important parts in human-machine interaction. In order to better simulate human emotion, an emotional interaction model for robot is proposed according to the theory of need levels of Maslom and mood information of Siminov. This architecture has already been used in our intelligent service robot.

Force feedback facilitates multisensory integration during robotic tool use

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sengül, A.; Rognini, G.; van Elk, M.; Aspell, J.E.; Bleuler, H.; Blanke, O.

2013-01-01

The present study investigated the effects of force feedback in relation to tool use on the multisensory integration of visuo-tactile information. Participants learned to control a robotic tool through a surgical robotic interface. Following tool-use training, participants performed a crossmodal

Reference trajectory tracking for a multi-DOF robot arm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Krasňanský Róbert

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the problem of tracking the generated reference trajectory by the simulation model of a multi-DOF robot arm. The kinematic transformation between task space and joint configuration coordinates is nonlinear and configuration dependent. To obtain the solution of the forward kinematics problem, the homogeneous transformation matrix is used. A solution to the inverse kinematics is a vector of joint configuration coordinates calculated using of pseudoinverse Jacobian technique. These coordinates correspond to a set of task space coordinates. The algorithm is presented which uses iterative solution and is simplified by considering stepper motors in robot arm joints. The reference trajectory in Cartesian coordinate system is generated on-line by the signal generator previously developed in MS Excel. Dynamic Data Exchange communication protocol allows sharing data with Matlab-Simulink. These data represent the reference tracking trajectory of the end effector. Matlab-Simulink software is used to calculate the representative joint rotations. The proposed algorithm is demonstrated experimentally on the model of 7-DOF robot arm system.

Soft Robotics.

Science.gov (United States)

Whitesides, George M

2018-04-09

This description of "soft robotics" is not intended to be a conventional review, in the sense of a comprehensive technical summary of a developing field. Rather, its objective is to describe soft robotics as a new field-one that offers opportunities to chemists and materials scientists who like to make "things" and to work with macroscopic objects that move and exert force. It will give one (personal) view of what soft actuators and robots are, and how this class of soft devices fits into the more highly developed field of conventional "hard" robotics. It will also suggest how and why soft robotics is more than simply a minor technical "tweak" on hard robotics and propose a unique role for chemistry, and materials science, in this field. Soft robotics is, at its core, intellectually and technologically different from hard robotics, both because it has different objectives and uses and because it relies on the properties of materials to assume many of the roles played by sensors, actuators, and controllers in hard robotics. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Wireless transmission of power and information through one high frequency resonant AC link inverter for robot manipulator applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kawamura, Atsuo; Ishioka, Kazuaki; Hirai, Junji.

1995-01-01

A contact-less decentralized power supply is proposed with communication capability through only one transformer. A prototype of wireless transmission system of power and information (WTPI system) was built, and the two axis position control for servo motors was achieved by transferring the power and signal through one rotatable high frequency transformer. The proposed concept can be applied for robotics and NC machines

Chairman's report. Report on the IEA round table on information exchange and co-operation in R and D

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doucet, G.

1997-01-01

In contrast to the parallel Workshops, the Round Table was designed to stimulate simultaneous discussion among panelists and interaction with the audience. The task of the Round Table and Information Exchange and Co-operation in R and D was to answer six key questions: what are then more recent prospects or opportunities for natural gas utilisation which justify major commitments to information exchange and R and D? How have government social or economic goals affected funding for R and D in North America, Europe and Asia? Is the move to energy service and, in some key markets, deregulation forcing natural gas companies to reassess private commitments to R and D? How well do natural gas companies or centres of excellence around the world exchange information and promote technology transfer compared with coal and electricity interests? What is the future role of governments, universities, laboratories and international agencies like IEA to eliminate duplication and to foster funding partnerships? Are there useful models of information exchange using state-of-the-art electronic data which optimise linkages among key production and consumption markets? (R.P.)

Temporal logic motion planning in robotics

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Seotsanyana, M

2012-08-01

Full Text Available ) transport-related applications such as intra-logistics, automated parking garages and autonomous vehicles: (ii) mining-related applications such as automated mine vehicles and mine sensing; (iii) defence force-related applications such as autonomous... vehicles and (iv) hospital-related applications such as surgical procedures. In such applications, any failure of a robotic system may result in more than just a mere inconvenience, such as incorrect information by a robotic receptionist, loss of time...

Using conceptual spaces to fuse knowledge from heterogeneous robot platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Kira, Zsolt

2010-04-01

As robots become more common, it becomes increasingly useful for many applications to use them in teams that sense the world in a distributed manner. In such situations, the robots or a central control center must communicate and fuse information received from multiple sources. A key challenge for this problem is perceptual heterogeneity, where the sensors, perceptual representations, and training instances used by the robots differ dramatically. In this paper, we use Gärdenfors' conceptual spaces, a geometric representation with strong roots in cognitive science and psychology, in order to represent the appearance of objects and show how the problem of heterogeneity can be intuitively explored by looking at the situation where multiple robots differ in their conceptual spaces at different levels. To bridge low-level sensory differences, we abstract raw sensory data into properties (such as color or texture categories), represented as Gaussian Mixture Models, and demonstrate that this facilitates both individual learning and the fusion of concepts between robots. Concepts (e.g. objects) are represented as a fuzzy mixture of these properties. We then treat the problem where the conceptual spaces of two robots differ and they only share a subset of these properties. In this case, we use joint interaction and statistical metrics to determine which properties are shared. Finally, we show how conceptual spaces can handle the combination of such missing properties when fusing concepts received from different robots. We demonstrate the fusion of information in real-robot experiments with a Mobile Robots Amigobot and Pioneer 2DX with significantly different cameras and (on one robot) a SICK lidar.ÿÿÿÿ

A remote assessment system with a vision robot and wearable sensors.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Tong; Wang, Jue; Ren, Yumiao; Li, Jianjun

2004-01-01

This paper describes an ongoing researched remote rehabilitation assessment system that has a 6-freedom double-eyes vision robot to catch vision information, and a group of wearable sensors to acquire biomechanical signals. A server computer is fixed on the robot, to provide services to the robot's controller and all the sensors. The robot is connected to Internet by wireless channel, and so do the sensors to the robot. Rehabilitation professionals can semi-automatically practise an assessment program via Internet. The preliminary results show that the smart device, including the robot and the sensors, can improve the quality of remote assessment, and reduce the complexity of operation at a distance.

Health information exchange implementation: lessons learned and critical success factors from a case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Feldman, Sue S; Schooley, Benjamin L; Bhavsar, Grishma P

2014-08-15

Much attention has been given to the proposition that the exchange of health information as an act, and health information exchange (HIE), as an entity, are critical components of a framework for health care change, yet little has been studied to understand the value proposition of implementing HIE with a statewide HIE. Such an organization facilitates the exchange of health information across disparate systems, thus following patients as they move across different care settings and encounters, whether or not they share an organizational affiliation. A sociotechnical systems approach and an interorganizational systems framework were used to examine implementation of a health system electronic medical record (EMR) system onto a statewide HIE, under a cooperative agreement with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, and its collaborating organizations. The objective of the study was to focus on the implementation of a health system onto a statewide HIE; provide insight into the technical, organizational, and governance aspects of a large private health system and the Virginia statewide HIE (organizations with the shared goal of exchanging health information); and to understand the organizational motivations and value propositions apparent during HIE implementation. We used a formative evaluation methodology to investigate the first implementation of a health system onto the statewide HIE. Qualitative methods (direct observation, 36 hours), informal information gathering, semistructured interviews (N=12), and document analysis were used to gather data between August 12, 2012 and June 24, 2013. Derived from sociotechnical concepts, a Blended Value Collaboration Enactment Framework guided the data gathering and analysis to understand organizational stakeholders' perspectives across technical, organizational, and governance dimensions. Several challenges, successes, and lessons learned during the implementation of a health system to the

Mobile Robot Navigation in a Corridor Using Visual Odometry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bayramoglu, Enis; Andersen, Nils Axel; Poulsen, Niels Kjølstad

2009-01-01

Incorporation of computer vision into mobile robot localization is studied in this work. It includes the generation of localization information from raw images and its fusion with the odometric pose estimation. The technique is then implemented on a small mobile robot operating at a corridor...

The determinants of home healthcare robots adoption: an empirical investigation.

Science.gov (United States)

Alaiad, Ahmad; Zhou, Lina

2014-11-01

Home healthcare robots promise to make clinical information available at the right place and time, thereby reducing error and increasing safety and quality. However, it has been frequently reported that more than 40% of previous information technology (IT) developments have failed or been abandoned due to the lack of understanding of the sociotechnical aspects of IT. Previous home healthcare robots research has focused on technology development and clinical applications. There has been little discussion of associated social, technical and managerial issues that are arguably of equal importance for robot success. To fill this knowledge gap, this research aims to understand the determinants of home healthcare robots adoption from these aspects by applying technology acceptance theories. We employed both qualitative and quantitative methods. The participants were recruited from home healthcare agencies located in the U.S. (n=108), which included both patients and healthcare professionals. We collected data via a survey study to test a research model. The usage intention of home healthcare robots is a function of social influence, performance expectancy, trust, privacy concerns, ethical concerns and facilitating conditions. Among them, social influence is the strongest predictor. Monitoring vital signs and facilitating communication with family and medication reminders are the most preferable tasks and applications for robots. Sociotechnical factors play a powerful role in explaining the adoption intention for home healthcare robots. The findings provide insights on how home healthcare service providers and robot designers may improve the success of robot technologies. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Construction Tele-Robotics System with AR Presentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ootsubo, K; Kawamura, T; Yamada, H

2013-01-01

Tele-Robotics system using bilateral control is an effective tool for task in disaster scenes, and also in extreme environments. The conventional systems are equipped with a few color video cameras captures view of the task field, and their video images are sent to the operator via some network. Usually, the images are captured only from some fixed angles. So the operator cannot obtain intuitively 3D-sense of the task field. In our previous study, we proposed a construction tele-robotics system based on VR presentation. The operator intuits the geometrical states of the robot presented by CG, but the information of the surrounding environment is not included like a video image. So we thought that the task efficiency could be improved by appending the CG image to the video image. In this study, we developed a new presentation system based on augmented reality (AR). In this system, the CG image, which represents 3D geometric information for the task, is overlaid on the video image. In this study, we confirmed the effectiveness of the system experimentally. Additionally, we verified its usefulness to reduction of the communication delay associated with a tele-robotics system.

Optimization of Power Utilization in Multimobile Robot Foraging Behavior Inspired by Honeybees System

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmad, Faisul Arif; Ramli, Abd Rahman; Samsudin, Khairulmizam; Hashim, Shaiful Jahari

2014-01-01

Deploying large numbers of mobile robots which can interact with each other produces swarm intelligent behavior. However, mobile robots are normally running with finite energy resource, supplied from finite battery. The limitation of energy resource required human intervention for recharging the batteries. The sharing information among the mobile robots would be one of the potentials to overcome the limitation on previously recharging system. A new approach is proposed based on integrated intelligent system inspired by foraging of honeybees applied to multimobile robot scenario. This integrated approach caters for both working and foraging stages for known/unknown power station locations. Swarm mobile robot inspired by honeybee is simulated to explore and identify the power station for battery recharging. The mobile robots will share the location information of the power station with each other. The result showed that mobile robots consume less energy and less time when they are cooperating with each other for foraging process. The optimizing of foraging behavior would result in the mobile robots spending more time to do real work. PMID:24949491

Visual Control of Robots Using Range Images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fernando Torres

2010-08-01

Full Text Available In the last years, 3D-vision systems based on the time-of-flight (ToF principle have gained more importance in order to obtain 3D information from the workspace. In this paper, an analysis of the use of 3D ToF cameras to guide a robot arm is performed. To do so, an adaptive method to simultaneous visual servo control and camera calibration is presented. Using this method a robot arm is guided by using range information obtained from a ToF camera. Furthermore, the self-calibration method obtains the adequate integration time to be used by the range camera in order to precisely determine the depth information.

Experiments on mobile robot stereo vision system calibration under hardware imperfection