Robotics (Computer Science)

Controlling SCARA using Virtual Open Sourced Teach Pendant and provide a unique HMI

by Rushabh Doshi

published in IWAMA 2012, SFI Norman, Norway

Develop a unique Virtual Teach Pendant using LabVIEW for eliminating the need of a hard wired Teach Pendant genreally... more Develop a unique Virtual Teach Pendant using LabVIEW for eliminating the need of a hard wired Teach Pendant genreally present in an Industrial Manipulator System. This Teach Pendant vi has 3 modes and is open sourced and can be programmed according to the need of the application for the system, so by just changing the software on the teach pendant we can make the Robotic system perform versatile operations like pick-place, painting, welding, cutting, etc

Birth of the object: Detection of objectness and extraction of object shape through object action complexes

by Nicolas Pugeault

Against the flow: A Braitenberg controller for a fish robot

by Maarja Kruusmaa

T. Salumäe, I. Rano, O. Akanyeti, M. Kruusmaa, "Against the flow: A Braitenberg controller for a fish robot", IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, St. Paul, USA, May 14-18, 2012, to appear

Underwater vehicles do not localise or navigate with respect to the flow, an ability needed for many underwater tasks.... more Underwater vehicles do not localise or navigate with respect to the flow, an ability needed for many underwater tasks. In this paper we implement rheotaxis behaviour in a fish robot, a behaviour common to many aquatic species. We use two pressure sensors on the head of the robot to identify the pressure differences on the left and right side and control the heading of the fish robot by turning a servo-motor actuated tail. The controller is inspired by the Braitenberg vehicle 2b, a simple biological model of tropotaxis, that has been used in many robotic applications. The experiments, conducted in a flow pipe with a uniform flow, show that the robot is able to orient itself, and keep the orientation, to the incoming current. Our results demonstrate that guidance of a fish robot relative to a flow can be implemented as a simple rheotaxis behaviour using two sensors and a Braitenberg 2b controller.

Heidegger Among the Robots

by Alistair Welchman

Forthcoming in Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy (draft only)

Cognitive science and artificial intelligence have undergone some revolutionary changes in the past two decades. From... more Cognitive science and artificial intelligence have undergone some revolutionary changes in the past two decades. From an emphasis on disembodied cognitive functions like chess and logic, they now foreground the embodied and environmentally embedded nature of intelligent action. Some—both philosophers of cognitive science and practitioners—have sought to explain this shift in terms of a Heideggerian critique of the residually Cartesian assumptions of the traditional picture of disembodied cognition. I support the opening up of new areas of research practice formally closed off by tacit and unjustified theoretical presuppositions, but argue that these changes are and have been warranted by biological and information-theoretic concerns and not phenomenological ones derived from Heidegger’s thought.

3D Scan Matching for Mobile Robots with Application to Mine Mapping

by Martin Magnusson

Appearance-based loop detection from 3D laser data using the normal distributions transform

by Martin Magnusson

Registration of colored 3D point clouds with a kernel-based extension to the Normal Distributions Transform

by Martin Magnusson

Ev Guvenlik Robotu Tasarimi ve Gerceklenmesi

by Özdemir Öztürk

Bachelor Thesis

Bu çalısmada, günümüz ev güvenlik sistemlerinin, gelisen robotik teknolojisine uygulanarak bir güvenlik robotu... more Bu çalısmada, günümüz ev güvenlik sistemlerinin, gelisen robotik teknolojisine uygulanarak bir güvenlik robotu tasarımı ve bu tasarımın gerçeklenmesi amaçlanmıstır.

WPAN networku kullanılarak uzaktan kumanda vasıtası ile veya bilgisayar üzerinden LAN, WAN vasıtası ile kontrol edilebilinen bir domestik güvenlik robotu tasarlanmıs ve gerçeklestirilmistir.

Sistem en basit biçimiyle, iki ana baslıktan olusmaktadır. Bunlar; çogunlukla yazılımsal haberlesme sistemini ve GUI’i içeren “Bilgisayar Kontrol Sistemi” ve yazılım, donanımsal tasarımlardan olusan “Robot Sistemi” dir. Donanımsal tasarımlar, mikrodenetleyici ve çevre elemanları, sensörler, motor sürücü
kartı ve robotun bilgisayar sistemi ile haberlesmesini saglayan haberlesme sistemi, robotun sahip oldugu ve robota hareket kabiliyetini veren motorlar, bu motorların ve sistemin ihtiyaç duydugu gücü saglamak için gerekli güç kaynagı, son olarak bütün sistemi bir arada tutan sasi tasarımlarından ve seçimlerinden olusmaktadır. Robot, mikrodenetleyici kartı olarak bir Arduino Mega 2560 Board’u barındırmaktadır.

Robota ait yazılımsal tasarım ise robottan projenin amacına yönelik yapması istenen görevleri robota anlatmak, programlamak amacıyla yapılmıstır. Yazılım gelistirme asamasında Arduino’ya ait IDE ve C dili kullanılmıstır.

Bilgisayar Kontrol Sistemi, robotun bilgisayar ile uzaktan kontrol edilebilmesi amacıyla gerekli olan, donanımsal tasarımı ve komutların kullanıcı tarafından verilebilmesi için gerekli olan yazılımsal GUI tasarımından olusmaktadır.

Bilgisayar Kontrol Sitemine ait donanımsal tasarım, BilgiBilgisayar Kontrol Sistemi ile Robot Sistemi arasındaki iletisimi digi firmasının ticari olarak satısa sundugu RF
Transreceiver modülleri olan Xbee Pro Series 2.5 saglamaktadır. Bu modüller 2.4 GHZ frekans bandında çalısmakta ve dâhili özellikleri sayesinde PtP, Mesh gibi network yapısının kurulumuna izin vermektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Robot, Güvenlik, Arduino, Güvenlik Robotu

A reinforcement learning model of reaching integrating kinematic and dynamic control in a simulated arm robot

by Anna Borghi

A Critical Evaluation of the Legal and Ethical Issues Surrounding Military Robotics

by Katherine Fielding

The following paper gives an insight into the robotics industry, concentrating on robots in the military. It shows how... more The following paper gives an insight into the robotics industry, concentrating on robots in the military. It shows how the work in robotics is slow, partly due to the complexity of creating an intelligent being but also due to the implications of the public domain. The paper also discusses legality and ethical issues, with how a robot may be able to be classified as an entity in itself, with no affiliations to outside sources and so responsible for its own actions. These legal issues are highly contested, with arguments on who should be responsible if the robot malfunctions and whether if an intelligent robot could ever be legally or ethically the same as an intelligent human, free to make educated decisions based on its surroundings.

Sequencing of parts and robot moves in a robotic cell

by Suresh Sethi

Output-Sensitive Computation of Force-Closure Grasps of a Semi-Algebraic Object

by Heinrich Kruger

Co-authored with Jae-Sook Cheong and A.F. van der Stappen. Published in IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, Volume 8 Issue:3, pages 495 - 505, July 2011.

We propose a technique which significantly simplifies the computation of frictionless force-closure grasps of a curved... more We propose a technique which significantly simplifies the computation of frictionless force-closure grasps of a curved planar part P. We use a coloured projection scheme from the three-dimensional wrench space to two-dimensional screens, which allows us to reduce the problem of identifying combinations of arcs and concave vertices of P that admit frictionless force-closure grasps, to coloured intersection searching problems in the screens. We show how to combine this technique with existing intersection searching algorithms to obtain efficient, output-sensitive algorithms to compute all force-closure grasps of P where at most four hard, frictionless point contacts exert exactly four wrenches on P. If the boundary of P consists of n algebraic arcs of constant complexity and m concave vertices, we show how to compute all force-closure grasps with:
• four contacts along four arcs in O(n^{8/3}log^{1/3}n + K) time,
• four contacts along three arcs in O(n^{5/2+epsilon} + K) time,
• one contact at a concave vertex and two contacts along two arcs in O(n²m^{1/2+epsilon} + K) time,
• one contact at a concave vertex and two contacts along a single arc in O(nm) or
O(n^{3/2+epsilon} + K) time (depending on the size of m),
where epsilon is an arbitrarily small positive constant and K is the output size — that is, the number of combinations of arcs and vertices of each type, that actually admit frictionless force-closure grasps.

Partial Closure Grasps: Metrics and Computation

by Heinrich Kruger

Co-authored with A. F. van der Stappen; published at IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Shanghai, China, May 2011.

We extend the notion of grasp metrics to partial force-closure grasps. We describe two metrics which measure the... more We extend the notion of grasp metrics to partial force-closure grasps. We describe two metrics which measure the maximum and sum, respectively, of the forces that need to be applied at the contacts involved in a grasp, in order to exert some given unit wrench on the grasped object. For a given object P of complexity O(n) and a pure force T, we describe efficient algorithms which compute all combinations of m features (edges of polygons or facets of polyhedra) that admit grasps capable of exerting T such that the value of our metric is greater than some threshold. In particular, we show that if P is a polygon, all pairs of edges that admit frictionless two-finger grasps capable of exerting T can be computed in O(nlog²n+K) time, where K is the number of pairs of edges in the output. Also, all two-finger grasps with friction of a polyhedral object can be computed in O(n^{3/2+epsilon} + K') time and all frictionless three-finger grasps of a polyhedron can be computed in O(n^{5/2+epsilon} + K') time, where K' is the number of pairs or triples of facets that satisfy some slightly weaker condition and epsilon is some arbitrarily small, positive constant.

Monte Carlo Value Iteration for Continuous-State POMDPs

by Haoyu Bai

A design process for lovotics

by Jeffrey Tzu kwan Valino Koh

We refer to human-robot relationships as Lovotics. In this paper a design process for Lovotics is presented. In order... more We refer to human-robot relationships as Lovotics. In this paper a design process for Lovotics is presented. In order to invoke these relationships, technological solutions can only take us so far. Design played an important role in order to engage users to explore the possibilities of bi-directional, human-robot love. We conducted a user-centric study in order to understand these factors and incorporate them into our design. The key issues of design for developing a strong emotional connection between robots and humans are investigated. A questionnaire is proposed and based on the results of this a robot with minimal design is developed.

ROBADOM: The Impact of a Domestic Robot on the Psychological and Cognitive State of the Elderly with Mild Cognitive Impairment

by Jade Le Maitre

MiRA—Mixed Reality Agents

by Thomas Holz

Thomas Holz, Abraham G. Campbell, Gregory M.P. O’Hare, John W. Stafford, Alan Martin and Mauro Dragone, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Volume 69, Issue 4, April 2011, Pages 251-268

In recent years, an increasing number of Mixed Reality (MR) applications have been developed using agent technology —... more In recent years, an increasing number of Mixed Reality (MR) applications have been developed using agent technology — both for the underlying software and as an interface metaphor. However, no unifying field or theory currently exists that can act as a common frame of reference for these varied works. As a result, much duplication of research is evidenced in the literature. This paper seeks to fill this important gap by outlining “for the first time” a formal field of research that has hitherto gone unacknowledged, namely the field of Mixed Reality Agents (MiRAs), which are defined as agents embodied in a Mixed Reality environment.

Based on this definition, a taxonomy is offered that classifies MiRAs along three axes: agency, based on the weak and strong notions outlined by Wooldridge and Jennings (1995); corporeal presence, which describes the degree of virtual or physical representation (body) of a MiRA; and interactive capacity, which characterises its ability to sense and act on the virtual and physical environment.

Furthermore, this paper offers the first comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-art of MiRA research and places each project within the proposed taxonomy. Finally, common trends and future directions for MiRA research are discussed.

By defining Mixed Reality Agents as a formal field, establishing a common taxonomy, and retrospectively placing existing MiRA projects within it, future researchers can effectively position their research within this landscape, thereby avoiding duplication and fostering reuse and interoperability.

Nature versus Nurture in Evolutionary Computation: Balancing the Roles of the Training Environment and the Fitness Function in Producing Behavior

by Jordan Wales

by J. J. Wales, J. P. Wells, and L. A. Meeden. Late Breaking Papers, The 2000 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference.

Tekkotsu: Cognitive Robotics on the Sony AIBO

by Jordan Wales

by Ethan J. Tira-Thompson, Neil S. Halelamien, Jordan J. Wales, David S. Touretzky. Proceedings of the 2004 International Conference on Cognitive Modeling.

Dual-Coding Representations for Robot Vision Programming in Tekkotsu

by Jordan Wales

by David. S. Touretzky, Neil. S. Halelamien, Jordan. J. Wales. Autonomous Robots 22:4 (2007): 425–435.