医院消杀机器人作业安全与交互设计策略

作业安全与设计质量对提高医院公共环境消杀机器人"人机系统"运行效率具有关键作用.以人因工程学、交互科学、认知科学理论为视角,探究医院消杀机器人作业安全与交互设计策略.采用层次任务与表格任务结合H TA-T分析法,构建消杀作业任务流程,剖析作业流程中典型安全事故及其致因逻辑,基于工作域分析法(WDA)对消杀作业约束条件进...     

Introduction to the special issue on Advances in intelligent nonlinear control for robotic systems

In the last two decades, robotic systems have achieved wide applications in every aspect of human society, including industrial manufacturing, automotive production, medical devices, and social lives. With the     

Review and reappraisal of human aspects in planning robotic systems

The social issues of worker displacement and worker retraining due to introduction of robotics are discussed and the impact of industrial robots on organization design and job design are reviewed and safety issues mentioned. The impact of human industrial work performance on designing robotics systems is reviewed with special reference to the range of human performance abilities; human information-processing, memory and decision making capabilities; paced-work; supervisory control of robotics systems; and, social and management impacts of robot diffusion.     

Human–robot interaction in industrial collaborative robotics: a literature review of the decade 2008–2017

ABSTRACT

Currently, a large number of industrial robots have been deployed to replace or assist humans to perform various repetitive and dangerous manufacturing tasks. However, based on current technological capabilities, such robotics field is rapidly evolving so that humans are not only sharing the same workspace with robots, but also are using robots as useful assistants. Consequently, due to this new type of emerging robotic systems, industrial collaborative robots or cobots, human and robot co-workers have been able to work side-by-side as collaborators to accomplish tasks in industrial environments. Therefore, new human–robot interaction systems have been developed for such systems to be able to utilize the capabilities of both humans and robots. Accordingly, this article presents a literature review of major recent works on human–robot interactions in industrial collaborative robots, conducted during the last decade (between 2008 and 2017). Additionally, the article proposes a tentative classification of the content of these works into several categories and sub-categories. Finally, this paper addresses some challenges of industrial collaborative robotics and explores future research issues.     

Human factors of industrial robots and robot safety management in Japan

Japan has the largest world market share of industrial robots and also two fatal accidents due to robots. Ergonomics points of view should be applied to robotics to prevent new types of accidents. The concern of this paper is to explain Japan's situation concerning the installation of robotics and current safety regulations. Three experiments about the possibility of unsafe behaviour are described, and the man-robot system failure is analysed based on Fault Tree Analysis and the actual data. The appropriate safety measures are compared in terms of their cost-effectiveness. Finally, ergonomics points of view are provided to prevent accidents due to industrial robots.     

The evolution of robotics research

This article surveys traditional research topics in industrial robotics and mobile robotics and then expands on new trends in robotics research that focus more on the interaction between human and robot. The new trends in robotics research have been denominated service robotics because of their general goal of getting robots closer to human social needs, and this article surveys research on service robotics such as medical robotics, rehabilitation robotics, underwater robotics, field robotics, construction robotics and humanoid robotics. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the evolution of research topics in robotics from classical motion control for industrial robots to modern intelligent control techniques and social learning paradigms, among other aspects     

Compliant skills acquisition and multi-optima policy search with EM-based reinforcement learning

The democratization of robotics technology and the development of new actuators progressively bring robots closer to humans. The applications that can now be envisaged drastically contrast with the requirements of industrial robots. In standard manufacturing settings, the criterions used to assess performance are usually related to the robot’s accuracy, repeatability, speed or stiffness. Learning a control policy to actuate such robots is characterized by the search of a single solution for the task, with a representation of the policy consisting of moving the robot through a set of points to follow a trajectory. With new environments such as homes and offices populated with humans, the reproduction performance is portrayed differently. These robots are expected to acquire rich motor skills that can be generalized to new situations, while behaving safely in the vicinity of users. Skills acquisition can no longer be guided by a single form of learning, and must instead combine different approaches to continuously create, adapt and refine policies. The family of search strategies based on expectation-maximization (EM) looks particularly promising to cope with these new requirements. The exploration can be performed directly in the policy parameters space, by refining the policy together with exploration parameters represented in the form of covariances. With this formulation, RL can be extended to a multi-optima search problem in which several policy alternatives can be considered. We present here two applications exploiting EM-based exploration strategies, by considering parameterized policies based on dynamical systems, and by using Gaussian mixture models for the search of multiple policy alternatives.     

Robots, insects and swarm intelligence

The aim of this paper is to consider the relationships between robots and insects. To this end, an overview is provided of the two main areas in which insects have been implicated in robotics research. First, robots have been used to provide working models of mechanisms underlying insect behaviour. Second, there are developments in robotics that have been inspired by our understanding of insect behaviour; in particular the approach of swarm robotics. In the final section of the paper, the possibility of achieving “strong swarm intelligence” is discussed. Two possible interpretations of strong swarm intelligence are raised: (1) the emergence of a group mind from a natural, or robot swarm, and (2) that behaviours could emerge from a swarm of artificial robots in the same way as they emerge from a biological swarm. Both interpretations are dismissed as being unachievable in principle. It is concluded that bio-robotic modelling and biological inspiration have made important contributions to both insect and robot research, but insects and robots remain separated by the divide between the living and the purely mechanical.     

AR-based interaction for human-robot collaborative manufacturing

Industrial standards define safety requirements for Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) in industrial manufacturing. The standards particularly require real-time monitoring and securing of the minimum protective distance between a robot and an operator. This paper proposes a depth-sensor based model for workspace monitoring and an interactive Augmented Reality (AR) User Interface (UI) for safe HRC. The AR UI is implemented on two different hardware: a projector-mirror setup and a wearable AR gear (HoloLens). The workspace model and UIs are evaluated in a realistic diesel engine assembly task. The AR-based interactive UIs provide 21–24% and 57–64% reduction in the task completion and robot idle time, respectively, as compared to a baseline without interaction and workspace sharing. However, user experience assessment reveal that HoloLens based AR is not yet suitable for industrial manufacturing while the projector-mirror setup shows clear improvements in safety and work ergonomics.     

Book reviews

Abstract

Industrial robots often operate at high speed, with unpredictable motion patterns and erratic idle times. Serious injuries and deaths have occurred due to operator misperception of these robot design and performance characteristics. The main objective of the research project was to study human perceptual aspects of hazardous robotics workstations. Two laboratory experiments were designed to investigate workers' perceptions of two industrial robots with different physical configurations and performance capabilities. Twenty-four subjects participated in the study. All subjects were chosen from local industries, and had had considerable exposure to robots and other automated equipment in their working experience. Experiment 1 investigated the maximum speed of robot arm motions that workers, who were experienced with operation of industrial robots, judged to be ‘safe’ for monitoring tasks. It was found that the selection of safe speed depends on the size of the robot and the speed with which the robot begins its operation. Speeds of less than 51 cm/s and 63cm/s for large and small robots, respectively, were perceived as safe, i.e., ones that did not result in workers feeling uneasy or endangered when working in close proximity to the robot and monitoring its actions. Experiment 2 investigated the minimum value of robot idle time (inactivity) perceived by industrial workers as system malfunction, and an indication of the ‘safe-to-approach’ condition. It was found that idle times of 41 s and 28 s or less for the small and large robots, respectively, were perceived by workers to be a result of system malfunction. About 20% of the workers waited only 10 s or less before deciding that the robot had stopped because of system malfunction. The idle times were affected by the subjects' prior exposure to a simulated robot accident. Further interpretations of the results and suggestions for operational limitations of robot systems are discussed.     

Perpetual Robot Swarm: Long-Term Autonomy of Mobile Robots Using On-the-fly Inductive Charging

Swarm robotics studies the intelligent collective behaviour emerging from long-term interactions of large number of simple robots. However, maintaining a large number of robots operational for long time periods requires significant battery capacity, which is an issue for small robots. Therefore, re-charging systems such as automated battery-swapping stations have been implemented. These systems require that the robots interrupt, albeit shortly, their activity, which influences the swarm behaviour. In this paper, a low-cost on-the-fly wireless charging system, composed of several charging cells, is proposed for use in swarm robotic research studies. To determine the system’s ability to support perpetual swarm operation, a probabilistic model that takes into account the swarm size, robot behaviour and charging area configuration, is outlined. Based on the model, a prototype system with 12 charging cells and a small mobile robot, Mona, was developed. A series of long-term experiments with different arenas and behavioural configurations indicated the model’s accuracy and demonstrated the system’s ability to support perpetual operation of multi-robotic system.     

Worker selection of safe speed and idle condition in simulated monitoring of two industrial robots

Industrial robots often operate at high speed, with unpredictable motion patterns and erratic idle times. Serious injuries and deaths have occurred due to operator misperception of these robot design and performance characteristics. The main objective of the research project was to study human perceptual aspects of hazardous robotics workstations. Two laboratory experiments were designed to investigate workers' perceptions of two industrial robots with different physical configurations and performance capabilities. Twenty-four subjects participated in the study. All subjects were chosen from local industries, and had had considerable exposure to robots and other automated equipment in their working experience. Experiment 1 investigated the maximum speed of robot arm motions that workers, who were experienced with operation of industrial robots, judged to be 'safe' for monitoring tasks. It was found that the selection of safe speed depends on the size of the robot and the speed with which the robot begins its operation. Speeds of less than 51 cm/s and 63 cm/s for large and small robots, respectively, were perceived as safe, i.e., ones that did not result in workers feeling uneasy or endangered when working in close proximity to the robot and monitoring its actions. Experiment 2 investigated the minimum value of robot idle time (inactivity) perceived by industrial workers as system malfunction, and an indication of the 'safe-to-approach' condition. It was found that idle times of 41 s and 28 s or less for the small and large robots, respectively, were perceived by workers to be a result of system malfunction. About 20% of the workers waited only 10 s or less before deciding that the robot had stopped because of system malfunction. The idle times were affected by the subjects' prior exposure to a simulated robot accident. Further interpretations of the results and suggestions for operational limitations of robot systems are discussed.     

The DLR-KUKA success story: robotics research improves industrial robots

This paper discusses the joint venture between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics and the German robot manufacturer, KUKA Robotics GmbH, for the successful transfer of the knowledge in robot dynamics and control, human robot interaction, and sensory feedback as originally developed for the remote control of space robots to industrial robotics. This technology transfer venture aims to promote more industrial sensory feedback applications with particular focus on the fusion of vision and force, while merging service and industrial robots into the future. As such, the aim is to transfer new robonaut technologies and ultra-lightweight, torque-controlled, kinematically redundant arms with multifingered articulated hands into the terrestrial robot industry.     

Vision-based remote control of cellular robots

This paper describes the development and design of a vision-based remote controlled cellular robot. Cellular robots have numerous applications in industrial problems where simple inexpensive robots can be used to perform different tasks that involve covering a large working space. As a methodology, the robots are controlled based on the visual input from one or more cameras that monitor the working area. As a result, a robust control of the robot trajectory is achieved without depending on the camera calibration. The remote user simply specifies a target point in the image to indicate the robot final position.

We describe the complete system at various levels: the visual information processing, the robot characteristics and the closed loop control system design, including the stability analysis when the camera location is unknown. Results are presented and discussed.

In our opinion, such a system may have a wide spectrum of applications in industrial robotics and may also serve as an educational testbed for advanced students in the fields of vision, robotics and control.     

Smooth transition for collision avoidance of redundant robots: An on-line polynomial approach

The presence of cooperation between robots and machines in the industrial environment improved the solution for several manufacturing problems. With cooperation, new challenges emerged, and among these stands out the collision avoidance between such robots and machines. Collision avoidance can be dealt with in several ways, taking into account the computational effort to make a decision and the quality of the calculated trajectory for the robots, evaluated, for instance, by smooth profiles avoiding sudden variations in joints’ velocities or acceleration. In these circumstances, the involved robots need to be redundant since new movements are necessary for avoiding collisions. The strategies for collision avoidance are offline (i.e., based on pre-programming the task), or online (i.e., implemented while the robot performs the main task). In online collision avoidance strategies, numerical performance must ensure the time requirements of the main task performed by the robot; so, numerically efficient solutions are the most appropriate. This paper presents a proposal for the collision avoidance treatment from fixed obstacles for redundant robots, based on polynomial functions. The proposed solution allows achieving smooth trajectories according to criteria based on the continuity of derivatives in trajectory curve transitions. When the robot is out of the imminent collision, it is proposed to solve the inverse kinematics through the Adaptive Extended Jacobians. Throughout the text, the mathematical developments based on polynomials are presented, and in the end, a case study graphically shows comparative results.     

Playing it safe [human-friendly robots]

We have presented a new actuation concept for human-friendly robot design, referred to as DM/sup 2/. The new concept of DM/sup 2/ was demonstrated on a two-degree-of-freedom prototype robot arm that we designed and built to validate our approach. The new actuation approach substantially reduces the impact loads associated with uncontrolled manipulator collision by relocating the major source of actuation effort from the joint to the base of the manipulator. The emerging field of human-centered robotics focuses on application such as medical robotics and service robotics, which require close interaction between robotic manipulation systems and human beings, including direct human-manipulator contact. As a result, this system must consider the requirements of safety. To achieve safety we must employ multiple strategies involving all aspects of manipulator design.     

Kick it with elasticity: Safety and performance in human–robot soccer

The RoboCup community has one definite goal [H. Kitano, M. Asada, RoboCup humanoid challenge: That’s one small step for a robot, one giant leap for mankind, in: IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS1998, Victoria, pp. 419–424, 1998]: winning against the human world soccer champion team by the year 2050. This implies real tackles and fouls between humans and robots, rising safety concerns for the robots and even more important for the human players. Nowadays, similar questions are discussed in the field of physical human–robot interaction (pHRI), but mainly in the context of industrial and service robotics applications.The first part of our paper is an attempt for a pHRI view on human–robot soccer. We take scenes from real soccer matches and discuss what could have happened if one of the teams consisted of robots instead of humans. The most important result is that elastic joints are needed to reduce the impact during collisions. The second and third part consider conversely, how the robot can handle the impact of kicking the ball and how it can reach the velocity of human-level soccer. Again joint elasticity is the key point.Overall, the paper analyzes a vision far ahead. However, all our conclusions are based on concrete simulations, experiments, derivations, or findings from sports science, forensics, and pHRI.     

Soft Robotics: Morphology and Morphology-inspired Motion Strategy

Robotics has aroused huge attention since the 1950s. Irrespective of the uniqueness that industrial applications exhibit, conventional rigid robots have displayed noticeable limitations, particularly in safe cooperation as well as with environmental adaption. Accordingly, scientists have shifted their focus on soft robotics to apply this type of robots more effectively in unstructured environments. For decades, they have been committed to exploring sub-fields of soft robotics (e.g., cutting-edge techniques in design and fabrication, accurate modeling, as well as advanced control algorithms). Although scientists have made many different efforts, they share the common goal of enhancing applicability. The presented paper aims to brief the progress of soft robotic research for readers interested in this field, and clarify how an appropriate control algorithm can be produced for soft robots with specific morphologies. This paper, instead of enumerating existing modeling or control methods of a certain soft robot prototype, interprets for the relationship between morphology and morphology-dependent motion strategy, attempts to delve into the common issues in a particular class of soft robots, and elucidates a generic solution to enhance their performance.      

Human-robot coexistence and interaction in open industrial cells

Recent research results on human–robot interaction and collaborative robotics are leaving behind the traditional paradigm of robots living in a separated space inside safety cages, allowing humans and robot to work together for completing an increasing number of complex industrial tasks. In this context, safety of the human operator is a main concern. In this paper, we present a framework for ensuring human safety in a robotic cell that allows human–robot coexistence and dependable interaction. The framework is based on a layered control architecture that exploits an effective algorithm for online monitoring of relative human–robot distance using depth sensors. This method allows to modify in real time the robot behavior depending on the user position, without limiting the operative robot workspace in a too conservative way. In order to guarantee redundancy and diversity at the safety level, additional certified laser scanners monitor human–robot proximity in the cell and safe communication protocols and logical units are used for the smooth integration with an industrial software for safe low-level robot control. The implemented concept includes a smart human-machine interface to support in-process collaborative activities and for a contactless interaction with gesture recognition of operator commands. Coexistence and interaction are illustrated and tested in an industrial cell, in which a robot moves a tool that measures the quality of a polished metallic part while the operator performs a close evaluation of the same workpiece.     

NAO机器人在自闭症干预中的应用

描述了自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患儿基于人形机器人NAO人机互动情况下和在普通课堂环境下的行为反应,并给出其在干预治疗及普通课堂环境下的评估结果。大量实验结果表明,基于NAO机器人的人机互动干预过程中患儿自闭症状行为较普通课堂大大减少,其症状得到有效控制。因此可得出结论：人形机器人NAO可以作为帮助自闭症谱系障碍患儿干预治疗的平台。