RoadCompass: following rural roads with vision + ladar using vanishing point tracking

We present a vision- and ladar-based approach to autonomous driving on rural and desert roads that has been tested extensively in a closed-loop system. The vision component uses Gabor wavelet filters for texture analysis to find ruts and tracks from which the road vanishing point can be inferred via Hough-style voting, yielding a direction estimate for steering control. The ladar component projects detected obstacles along the road direction onto the plane of the front of the vehicle and tracks the 1-D obstacle “gap” presumed due to the road to yield a lateral offset estimate. Several image- and state-based tests to detect failure conditions such as off-road poses (i.e., there is no road to follow) and poor lighting due to sun glare or distracting shadows are also explained. The system’s efficacy is demonstrated with analysis of diverse logged data including from the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, as well as tests with full control of a vehicle over 15 km of difficult roads at up to 37 km/h with no waypoints.

An autonomous educational mobile robot mediator

So far, most of the applications of robotic technology to education have mainly focused on supporting the teaching of subjects that are closely related to the Robotics field, such as robot programming, robot construction, or mechatronics. Moreover, most of the applications have used the robot as an end or a passive tool of the learning activity, where the robot has been constructed or programmed. In this paper, we present a novel application of robotic technologies to education, where we use the real world situatedness of a robot to teach non-robotic related subjects, such as math and physics. Furthermore, we also provide the robot with a suitable degree of autonomy to actively guide and mediate in the development of the educational activity. We present our approach as an educational framework based on a collaborative and constructivist learning environment, where the robot is able to act as an interaction mediator capable of managing the interactions occurring among the working students. We illustrate the use of this framework by a 4-step methodology that is used to implement two educational activities. These activities were tested at local schools with encouraging results. Accordingly, the main contributions of this work are: i) A novel use of a mobile robot to illustrate and teach relevant concepts and properties of the real world; ii) A novel use of robots as mediators that autonomously guide an educational activity using a collaborative and constructivist learning approach; iii) The implementation and testing of these ideas in a real scenario, working with students at local schools.

基于GPS／GPRS／ASP．NET的大冶铁矿滑坡监测系统的实现

由于大冶铁矿具有落差极大的高陡边坡、特殊的地质构造以及特定的生产环境等特点,滑坡灾害发生十分频繁,传统的有线通信方式的监测系统也很难实现。为了减少滑坡灾害所带来的损失,提出了一种基于GPS／GPRS／ASP．NET技术的．将远程监测和应急救援功能相结合的滑坡监测系统,为矿区监测开辟了一条新思路。     

一个足球机器人视频跟踪算法

随着机器人和人工智能技术的发展,在复杂环境中特别是足球机器人的实时比赛的环境进行识别和跟踪已是一个挑战性的课题,提出了一个基于投影的目标跟踪算法,该算法首先把比赛场地分成了若干区域,在这些区域内搜索一个种子点,然后以此点为起点沿垂直或水平方向在目标区域搜索,计算该点的投影值,根据这些投影值识别出目标的一个顶点(或小球的球心),进而识别出目标;最后,提取出7个运动目标的位置和方向,实验结果表明,该算法与其他方法相比有计算量少、图像处理速度快和易于实现等优点。同时,该算法在仿真系统中得到了检验。     

基于GSM／SMS与Internet的小区智能监控紧急救护系统

本文通过系统规划、构建系统体系架构和系统实现的关键要素,提出基于GSM（Global System for Mobile Communicadon,全球移动通讯系统）短消息业务SMS和Intemet的小区智能监控紧急救护系统的设计与实现,系统采用B／S体系架构实现。     

A Visible and Near-Infrared Light-Fueled Omnidirectional Twist-Bend Crawling Robot

In recent years, although light-driven soft actuators have attracted intense scientific attention and achieved remarkable progress, the design and construction of an intelligent robotic system with maneuverability, self-adaptability, untethered control, and greater freedom of action, in particular the omnidirectional motion capability on a plane, remains challenging. Herein, four types of photo-thermal fillers and an unprecedented twist-bend actuation mode is introduced into a liquid crystal elastomer-based soft robot. The obtained twist-bend crawling robot not only exhibits in situ rotation, four-way turning, and four-way linear motion under light irradiation with four wavelength bands (520, 655, 808, and 980 nm), but also demonstrates the ability to avoid obstacles in complex geographical environments. This work may bring a new perspective for fabrication and development of soft robots that can adapt to dynamic and complex environmental conditions.     

Obstacle avoidance tracking control with antiswing and tracking errors constraint for underactuated automated lifting robots with load hoisting/lowering

The existing automated lifting robot technology focuses merely on motion control and ignores the surrounding environment. In practice, obstacles inevitably exist in the movement path of the automated lifting robot, which affects construction safety. Furthermore, due to the underactuated characteristics of the automated lifting robot, the load can be difficult to control when it swings violently, which undoubtedly poses huge challenges to obstacle avoidance trajectory planning and controller design. In this paper, an obstacle avoidance trajectory and its tracking controller with antiswing and tracking errors constraint are proposed. To ensure accurate load positioning and effective obstacle avoidance, the proposed control method introduces a four-segment polynomial trajectory interpolation curve to construct an obstacle avoidance trajectory based on analyzing the geometric relationship between variables. To improve the transient coupling control performance of the system, combined with the passive analysis of the automated lifting robot system, this method constructs a potential function that limits the tracking error and a coupling signal that enhances the coupling relationship between the system variables. Barbalat's lemma and Lyapunov techniques are used to analyze the stability of the system. Simulation and experimental results show that the proposed control method can significantly suppress or even eliminate load oscillation, accurately locate the load, avoid obstacles, improve the safety and efficiency of the working automated lifting robot, and have strong robustness to changes in system parameters and the addition of external disturbances.     

基于三阶超螺旋滑模观测器算法的机器人力矩估计方法

本文研究了六自由度(6-DOF)机器人关节力矩估计问题.为了提高机器人关节力矩估计精度,本文设计了一种三阶超螺旋滑模关节力矩观测器.在对观测器系统进行稳定性分析时,本文设计了一种新的Lyapunov函数证明了观测器闭环系统的稳定性.与已有的机器人力矩观测器结果不同,该力矩观测器仅以机器人关节角度作为观测器输入信号,减少了对机器人系统信息的依赖.最后,以6-DOF工业机器人为对象,开展实验验证.实验结果表明,与传统线性力矩观测器相比,本文提出的滑模力矩观测器估计误差小,验证理论的正确性.     

融合深度学习与成像模型的水下图像增强算法

水下机器人的视觉感知功能因受到水下环境因素的影响,面临着图像质量降低的挑战,如图像颜色畸变、整体色调偏绿、偏蓝、对比度较低、细节较为模糊等。提出一种结合深度学习方法与物理成像模型的新型水下图像增强算法,通过构建包含扩张卷积和带参数激活函数的神经网络,进行背景散射光和直接传输映射的估计,并结合成像模型的数学表达进行重建运算得到增强后图像。实验结果表明,与UDCP、IBLA、GLNet等典型图像增强算法相比,该算法具有更快的运算速度,且能够消除水下环境因素带来的影响,丰富图像色彩的同时能增强各类细节,在峰值信噪比指标和结构相似度指标上取得了较大值。此外,增强后的图像在特征点匹配实验中获得了更好的匹配效果。     

地下管道检测移动机器人的发展现状

简要介绍了管道检测移动机器人的发展状况,并对管道检测移动机器人的发展趋势及关键技术进行了探讨。