Micro inspection robot for 1-in pipes

A micro inspection robot for 1-in pipes has been developed. The robot is 23 mm in diameter and 110 mm in length and is equipped with a high-quality micro charge-coupled device (CCD) camera and a dual hand for manipulating small objects in pipes. It can travel through both vertical pipes and curved sections, making possible inspections that would be difficult with conventional endoscopes. Its rate of travel is 6 mm/s and it has a load-pulling power of 1 N. To realize this microrobot, the authors have specially designed and developed several micro devices and micromechanisms: a novel micromechanism called a planetary wheel mechanism for robot drive; a micro electromagnetic motor with a micro planetary reduction gear to drive the planetary wheel mechanism; a micro pneumatic rubber actuator that acts as a hand; a micro CCD camera with high resolution; and a pneumatic wobble motor for rotating the camera and hands. In the paper, the design and performance of these micro devices are reported, the performance of the robot as a whole is described, and an application example is given     

Robot and its living space: A roadmap for robot development based on the view of living space

Robots, as the creation of humans, became an irreplaceable component in human society. With the advancement of technologies, robots have become more and more intelligent and have been widely used in many fields, such as disease diagnosis, customer services, healthcare for the older people, and so on. As robots made our lives much more convenient than ever before, they also brought many potential risks and challenges in technology, security, and ethic. To better understand the development of robots, we proposed a concept of a robot’s living space and analyzed the role of robots in our society. In this paper, we focus on setting a theoretical framework of the robot’s living space to further understand the human-robot relationship. The research in this paper contains three central aspects. First, we interpret the concept of the robot’s living space and the functions of each space. Second, we analyze and summarize the relative technologies which support robots living well in each space. Finally, we provide advice and improvement measures based on a discussion of potential problems caused by the developments of robots. With the trend of robots humanization and human-robot society integration, we should seriously consider how to collaborate with intelligent robots to achieve hybrid intelligence. To build a harmonious human-robot integrated society, studying the robot’s living space and its relationship with humans is the pre-requisite and roadmap.     

基于ATmega32的遥控采摘机器人设计

针对机器视觉采摘机器存在的技术不成熟,成本过高等不足,提出采用人工操控的半自动采摘技术,并进行了探索研究。设计了一款模拟采摘机器人,机器人以履带底盘为基座,三自由度机械臂,红外遥控操作。硬件电路以ATmega32为系统控制核心,采摘机器人的动作采用BL35P12为核心红外遥控控制。系统软件基于AVR Studio4开发环境,实现对机械臂运动的全方位精确控制。采摘机器人采用模块化设计,抓取速度快,成本低,易于实现,可扩展性强。     

Auditory displays in human-machine interfaces

Auditory displays are described for several application domains: transportation, industrial processes, health care, operation theaters, and service sectors. Several types of auditory displays are compared, such as warning, state, and intent displays. Also, the importance for blind people in a visualized world is considered with suitable approaches. The service robot domain has been chosen as an example for the future use of auditory displays within multimedia process supervision and control applications in industrial, transportation, and medical systems. The design of directional sounds and of additional sounds for robot states, as well as the design of more complicated robot sound tracks, are explained. Basic musical elements and robot movement sounds have been combined. Two exploratory experimental studies, one on the understandability of the directional sounds and the robot state sounds as well as another on the auditory perception of intended robot trajectories in a simulated supermarket scenario, are described. Subjective evaluations of sound characteristics such as urgency, expressiveness, and annoyance have been carried out by nonmusicians and musicians. These experimental results are briefly compared with time-frequency analyses.     

对基于虚拟现实技术的机器人仿真设计的几点探讨

机器人仿真技术在未来的智能生产行业中具有十分重要的作用,利用虚拟现实技术能够对机器人的运动轨迹进行模拟,从而使得机器人在虚拟空间运动与操作者的指令相一致,通过利用Open GL对机器人的运动建模进行分析,从而力觉、视觉、听觉等方面对工业机器人的运动状态进行模拟,探究了虚拟现实环境下机器人仿真设计的具体应用场景。     

Application of rubber artificial muscle manipulator as arehabilitation robot

The application of a robot to rehabilitation has become a matter of great concern. This paper deals with functional recovery therapy, one important aspect of physical rehabilitation. Single-joint therapy machines have already been achieved. However, for more efficient therapy, multjoint robots are necessary to achieve more realistic motion patterns. This kind of robot must have a high level of safety for humans. A pneumatic actuator may be available for such a robot, because of the compliance of compressed air. A pneumatic rubber artificial muscle manipulator has been applied to construct a therapy robot with two degrees of freedom (DOF). Also, an impedance control strategy is employed to realize various motion modes for the physical therapy modes. Further, for efficient rehabilitation, it is desirable to comprehend the physical condition of the patient. Thus, the mechanical impedance of the human arm is used as an objective evaluation of recovery, and an estimation method is proposed. Experiments show the suitability of the proposed rehabilitation robot system     

Gesture-based interaction with voice feedback for a tour-guide robot

Any service robot should possess some kind of human–robot interaction to communicate with users. In this paper we present a tour-guide robot able to recognize hand gestures and provide voice feedback. A user can communicate with the robot using hand movements, but also through virtual buttons which are shown in a augmented reality environment in the robot’s screen. Moreover, the user continuously receives feedback from the robot’s screen or by means of voice messages. The result is a robot that understands the users’ needs and which keeps them informed about what it senses, which increases the usefulness of our robot. Finally, to measure the quality in use, we have conducted two user studies, which we have used to reveal and correct the weakness of the robot. The guide robot was successfully tested in several real world environments.     

基于ARM自主避障机器鱼设计

研究设计了基于ARM芯片和LINUX嵌入式系统具有自主避障功能的机器鱼。首先搭建了基于ARM芯片的硬件平台．然后对图像采集、图像显示和红外测距进行实现。通过红外传感器实现机器鱼的自主避障的功能。实验表明基于该方案设计的机器鱼能流畅地进行实时自主避障与图像显示。可以作为后续机器鱼的自主视觉功能开发的基础,提高了机器鱼的智能度。     

Properties and applications of reflective-array devices

The use of reflective arrays in surface-wave devices has yielded new devices such as resonators in addition to an enlarged parameter range for devices such as radar pulse expanders and compressors. A number of different grating geometries, substrates, and types of reflectors have been employed in resonators, band-pass filters, filter banks, oscillators, and dispersive delay lines. Simple, yet accurate, models have been developed for design and analysis of reflection gratings in these applications. The major application of reflective arrays has been in radar pulse compressors wherein low spurious levels and precise phase and amplitude response have been achieved in devices with time-bandwidth products as large as 10⁴. Other signal-processing applications such as chirp-z transforms can exploit the large time-bandwidth products available in reflective-array devices.     

Calibrated depth and color cameras for accurate 3D interaction in a stereoscopic augmented reality environment

A Human–machine interaction system requires precise information about the user’s body position, in order to allow a natural 3D interaction in stereoscopic augmented reality environments, where real and virtual objects should coherently coexist. The diffusion of RGB-D sensors seems to provide an effective solution to such a problem. Nevertheless, the interaction with stereoscopic 3D environments, in particular in peripersonal space, requires a higher degree of precision. To this end, a reliable calibration of such sensors and an accurate estimation of the relative pose of different RGB-D and visualization devices are crucial. Here, robust and straightforward procedures to calibrate a RGB-D camera, to improve the accuracy of its 3D measurements, and to co-register different calibrated devices are proposed. Quantitative measures validate the proposed approach. Moreover, calibrated devices have been used in an augmented reality system, based on a dynamic stereoscopic rendering technique that needs accurate information about the observer’s eyes position.     

Design and Development of Android Based Mobile Application for Specially Abled People

Technology has been advancing day by day and smart phones are providing challenges for the development of latest and sophisticated mobile applications. Talkback feature of Android makes it easy to access touch screen devices, but specially abled people are facing various problems in existing mobile applications. All mobile applications are not following the feature of Talkback and there is a lack of tactile feature. Considering these points, the present study is an attempt to develop a mobile application based on voice and gestures to provide communication services to specially abled people. The mobile application has been developed with the help of android studio and a special mobile case. The mobile case designed to help the beginners of developed mobile application. Color combination technique of green computing has been used to design the layout of mobile application for saving power. Four edge method has also been used in the designing part of mobile application’s layout to make it more accessible. The findings of the study revealed that the developed mobile application helps the end user to access features of mobile phone such as call, message, date, time etc. The developed mobile application assists the specially abled people having visual impairment or totally blind. The paper elaborates the design and development phase of mobile application in detail. Furthermore, applications of developed mobile applications have also been highlighted.

     

Towards a methodology for user experience assessment of serious games with children with cochlear implants

Information technology is transforming different areas, such as rehabilitation, in such a way that serious games are finding a use as an alternative in hearing therapies for children with cochlear implants, creating a motivating experience in children. As a result, the design of products oriented to children depends on the skills they have to interact, because if they have a better user experience they may have a better learning experience. Most existing methods of assessment are aimed at adults, although some have been adapted for children with special needs, including children with cochlear implants. This article presents a methodology for User Experience Assessment (UXA), that provides support for following the necessary guidelines and choosing techniques adapted to the characteristics of the child with cochlear implant. The methodology has been applied in a case study with 23 children with cochlear implants in the Institute for Blind and Deaf Children in Colombia, where different methods have been used and adapted to assess the user experience.     

Solving a generalized constrained optimization problem with bothlogic AND and OR relationships by a mathematical transformation and itsapplication to robot motion planning

The logic relationship among the equality and inequality constraints in a standard constrained optimization problem (SCOP) is the logical AND. Various efficient, convergent and robust algorithms have been developed for such a SCOP. Motivated by a practical application, a more general constrained optimization problem (GCOP) with not only logic AND but also OR relationships is proposed in this paper. In order to solve such a generalized problem, a mathematical transformation which can transfer a set of inequalities with logic OR into one inequality is developed. This transformation provides a necessary and sufficient condition which enables us to use the algorithms developed for SCOPs to solve the generalized optimization problems. The research is motivated by the requirements of developing an efficient, robust, and reliable navigation algorithm for a mobile robot such as an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). The original contributions of the paper include threefold: first, from the viewpoint of optimization theory, this paper, to the authors' best knowledge, is the first one to propose such a GCOP. Second, a method is developed to solve such a GCOP. Third, from the viewpoint of robot path planning, this paper presents a new way of using classical optimization approach to solve robot path planning     

Resonator systems for klystrons of millimeter and submillimeter wave bands

Design problems of resonator systems for klystrons of millimeter and submillimeter wave bands are considered. It has been shown that, for efficient interaction of the resonator’s field and the electron beam in such devices, it is necessary to use resonators with high wave impedance. A quality factor, which allows one to compare resonators having different shapes, has been introduced. Different means of increasing the resonator’s wave impedance and circuits coupling resonators to input and output transmission lines have been investigated.     

5-Link model based gait trajectory adaption control strategies of the gait rehabilitation exoskeleton for post-stroke patients

Many 4-DOF exoskeleton type robot devices have been widely developed for the gait rehabilitation of post-stroke patients. However, most systems run with purely position control not allowing voluntary active movements of the subject. The lack of intelligent control strategies for variable gait patterns has been a clinical concern of such kind exoskeleton man–machine systems. In this work, we establish a 5-link model for the usual 4-DOF gait rehabilitation exoskeleton type man–machine system and propose a gait trajectory adaption control strategy. A 4-DOF gait rehabilitation exoskeleton prototype is developed as a platform for the evaluation of design concepts and control strategies in the view of improved physical human–robot interaction. The experimental results with eight healthy volunteers and three stroke patients are encouraging.     

Mobile Web-Based System for Remote-Controlled Electronic Devices and Smart Objects

Nowadays there are many intelligent electronic devices in the everyday environments: appliances, industrial machinery, devices for service providers in the cities, etc. These electronic devices usually communicate with other devices and people in order to perform tasks or provide services. The most common form of interaction between people and devices is using the device interfaces (buttons, touch screens, etc.). However, there are other ways of interacting such as Smartphone’s, which are used to communicate users with electronic devices. Normally, the user selects the commands or actions from an application installed on the Smartphone. This application uses the Smartphone communication hardware elements (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi) to send the selected commands to the electronic device. Native mobile applications are platform-dependent (Android, Symbian, etc.) and are developed for multiple platform usually have high development costs. We present a proposal that allows web applications to access the device communication hardware elements, making possible the communication with physical devices.     

智能制造与机器人应用关键技术研究

伴随时代的迈进,科学技术不断更新。近些年,我国全面拉开信息时代的序幕,数字化与智能化技术开始得到广泛的应用,为人们的生活、生产提供了便利。智能制造为信息通信与制造技术结合后诞生的产物,也指明了未来制造技术迈进的方向。而机器人则是智能制造实现的重要载体,有其重要性和特殊性。智能制造与机器人的应用,不单单能推进制造业更快发展,还能重构制造新业态。文章基于此,先概述智能制造应用技术,再分析机器人应用关键技术,给相关工作者以参考。     

铌酸锂量子器件研究进展

量子信息科技的进步, 在很大程度上依赖于传统材料的成熟与发展。近年来, 铌酸锂成为量子器件的重要基础材料, 在量子科技领域具有巨大的应用潜力。梳理了基于铌酸锂材料制备的量子光源、量子中继器件、单光子探测器件等各类铌酸锂量子器件的技术进展, 总结了它们的优缺点并展望了其未来主要的发展趋势, 对基于铌酸锂材料制备的量子器件在量子信息科技的实用化具有很好的指导作用。     

A dynamic model for tail-actuated robotic fish with drag coefficient adaptation

In this paper we present a dynamic model for a tail-actuated robotic fish by merging rigid-body dynamics with Lighthill’s large-amplitude elongated-body theory. The model is validated with extensive experiments conducted on a robotic fish prototype. We investigate the role of incorporating the body motion in evaluating the tail-generated hydrodynamic force, and show that ignoring the body motion (as often done in the literature) results in significant overestimate of the thrust force and robot speed. By exploiting the strong correlation between the angle of attack and the tail-beat bias, a computationally efficient approach is further proposed to adapt the drag coefficients of the robotic fish, and its effectiveness is supported by experimental results.