Underwater image super-resolution using multi-stage information distillation networks

Recently, single image super-resolution (SISR) has been widely applied in the fields of underwater robot vision and obtained remarkable performance. However, most current methods generally suffered from the problem of a heavy burden on computational resources with large model sizes, which limited their real-world underwater robotic applications. In this paper, we introduce and tackle the super resolution (SR) problem for underwater robot vision and provide an efficient solution for near real-time applications. We present a novel lightweight multi-stage information distillation network, named MSIDN, for better balancing performance against applicability, which aggregates the local distilled features from different stages for more powerful feature representation. Moreover, a novel recursive residual feature distillation (RRFD) module is constructed to progressively extract useful features with a modest number of parameters in each stage. We also propose a channel interaction & distillation (CI&D) module that employs channel split operation on the preceding features to produce two-part features and utilizes the inter channel-wise interaction information between them to generate the distilled features, which can effectively extract the useful information of current stage without extra parameters. Besides, we present USR-2K dataset, a collection of over 1.6K samples for large-scale underwater image SR training, and a testset with an additional 400 samples for benchmark evaluation. Extensive experiments on several standard benchmark datasets show that the proposed MSIDN can provide state-of-the-art or even better performance in both quantitative and qualitative measurements.     

Bioinspired Triboelectric Soft Robot Driven by Mechanical Energy

A sustainable power source is a key technical challenge for practical applications of electrically responsive soft robots, especially the required voltage is over several thousand volts. Here, a practicable new technology, triboelectric soft robot (TESR) system with the primary characteristics of power source from mechanical energy, is developed. At its heart is TESR with bioinspired architectures made of soft-deformable body and two triboelectric adhesion feet, which is driven and accurately controlled through triboelectric effect, while reaching maximum crawling speeds of 14.9 mm s⁻¹ on the acrylic surface. The characteristics of the TESR, including displacement and force, are tested and simulated under the power of a rotary freestanding triboelectric nanogenerator (RF-TENG). Crawling of TESR is successfully realized on different materials surfaces and different angle slopes under the driven of RF-TENG. Furthermore, a real-time visual monitoring platform, in which TESR carries a micro camera to transmit images in a long narrow tunnel, is also achieved successfully, indicating that it can be used for fast diagnosis in an area inaccessible to human beings in the future. This study offers a new insight into the sustainable power source technologies suitable for electrically responsive soft robots and contributes to expanding the applicability of TENGs.     

A lightweight autonomous MAV for indoor search and rescue

Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) have great potentials to be applied for indoor search and rescue missions. In this paper, we propose a modular lightweight design of an autonomous MAV with integrated hardware and software. The MAV is equipped with the 2D laser scanner, camera, mission computer and flight controller, running all the computation onboard in real time. The onboard perception system includes a laser‐based SLAM module and a custom‐designed visual detection module. A dual Kalman filter design provides robust state estimation by multiple sensor fusion. Specifically, the fusion module provides robust altitude measurement in the circumstance of surface changing. In addition, indoor‐outdoor transition is explicitly handled by the fusion module. In order to efficiently navigate through obstacles and adapt to multiple tasks, a task tree‐based mission planning method is seamlessly integrated with path planning and control modules. The MAV is capable of searching and rescuing victims from unknown indoor environments effectively. It was validated by our award‐winning performance at the 2017 International Micro Air Vehicle Competition (IMAV 2017), held in Toulouse, France. The performance video is available on https://youtu.be/8H19ppS_VXM .     

基于深度分离卷积的情绪识别机器人即时交互研究

情绪识别是人工智能领域的研究热点,人机交互系统若能感知人类的情感行为并能表达情感,将会使机器人与人类的交互更加自然。人类主要通过面部表情、语义语调、肢体语言等几个方面获取情感信息。以拥有高自由度的NAO机器人为应用平台,设计了机器人面部情绪识别和肢体情感表达的人机交互系统。首先,引入深度分离卷积算法对人脸表情(生气、恐惧、伤心、高兴、惊讶和中性)进行特征提取和分类,结果表明通过训练得到的网络模型对FER2013人脸表情测试集的预测正确率可以达到0.711;其次,设计NAO机器人的肢体动作,对6种面部情感做出了分类;最后,对机器人实时表达使用者的情绪状态进行了测试,反馈时间均在2 s内,并对连续10帧预测结果进行了统计分析。     

一种大型复杂构件加工新模式及新装备探讨

大型复杂构件是航空航天、能源、船舶等领域装备的核心结构件，此类构件通常具有尺寸大、形状复杂、刚性弱等特点。传统“分体离线加工-在线检测”模式存在工艺不稳定、过程复杂、柔性差、周期长等问题，以龙门式多轴数控机床加工为代表的“包容式”加工模式，难以适应大型复杂构件的高效高质量加工制造需求。提出一种基于移动式和吸附式机器人的多机协同原位加工新模式，通过多机器人系统自主寻位、精确定位加工与加工质量原位检测，实现大型复杂构件多安装面并行铣削、制孔与打磨等作业。多机器人系统包括移动式混联机器人、吸附式并联机器人、移动式串联铣削机器人、移动式双臂加工机器人和移动式打磨机器人。构建多机协同原位加工模式，需要揭示多机器人协同原位加工行为与大型弱刚性结构件质量控制的交互机理，面临着本体、测量、工艺和集成四个方面的挑战，需要设计高灵活、高刚度的移动式和吸附式加工机器人，解决移动机器人自主准确寻位和超大结构件原位高精检测难题，攻克加工变形误差在线补偿和振动抑制技术，通过集成实现多机协同高效高精加工，为大型复杂构件的高效高质量制造提供创新技术及装备，并实现此类构件制造核心技术及装备自主可控。     

A multilevel sampled‐data approach for resilient navigation and control of autonomous systems

Autonomous systems are rapidly becoming an integrated part of the modern life. Safe and secure navigation and control of these systems present significant challenges in the presence of uncertainties, physical failures, and cyber attacks. In this paper, we formulate a navigation and control problem for autonomous systems using a multilevel control structure, in which the high‐level reference commands are limited by a saturation function, whereas the low‐level controller tracks the reference by compensating for disturbances and uncertainties. For this purpose, we consider a class of nested, uncertain, multiple‐input–multiple‐output systems subject to reference command saturation, possibly with nonminimum phase zeros. A multirate output‐feedback adaptive controller is developed as the low‐level controller. The sampled‐data (SD) design of this controller facilitates the direct implementation on digital computers, where the input/output signals are available at discrete time instances with different sampling rates. In addition, stealthy zero‐dynamics attacks become detectable by considering a multirate SD formulation. Robust stability and performance of the overall closed‐loop system with command saturation and multirate adaptive control are analyzed. Simulation scenarios for navigation and control of a fixed‐wing drone under failures/attacks are provided to validate the theoretical findings.     

Adaptive robust control of fully-constrained cable driven parallel robots

In this paper, adaptive robust control (ARC) of fully-constrained cable driven parallel robots is studied in detail. Since kinematic and dynamic models of the robot are partly structurally unknown in practice, in this paper an adaptive robust sliding mode controller is proposed based on the adaptation of the upper bound of the uncertainties. This approach does not require pre-knowledge of the uncertainties upper bounds and linear regression form of kinematic and dynamic models. Moreover, to ensure that all cables remain in tension, proposed control algorithm benefit the internal force concept in its structure. The proposed controller not only keeps all cables under tension for the whole workspace of the robot, it is chattering-free, computationally simple and it does not require measurement of the end-effector acceleration. The stability of the closed-loop system with proposed control algorithm is analyzed through Lyapunov second method and it is shown that the tracking error will remain uniformly ultimately bounded (UUB). Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm is examined through some experiments on a planar cable driven parallel robot and it is shown that the proposed controller is able to provide suitable tracking performance in practice.     

适应于自动驾驶的计算结构与平台综述

信息与通信技术领域的不断发展,推动了自动驾驶汽车的巨大进步。自动驾驶汽车有效解决了用户对出行日益提高的安全、便捷、舒适、高效等个性化需求,有着巨大的商业前景和应用价值。首先从自动驾驶的定义出发,对自动驾驶汽车计算任务进行了分类总结,阐述了自动驾驶汽车集移动端、边缘节点和云端一体的计算结构。然后分类讨论了目前自动驾驶汽车移动端计算平台,呈现出异构多核的特点,并对当前主流的底层计算平台进行了对比分析。最后,从性能与成本和信息安全两个方面总结目前自动驾驶汽车计算结构和平台遇到的问题与挑战。