Comparative Study of Indoor Navigation Systems for Autonomous Flight

Recently, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have attracted the society and researchers due to the capability to perform in economic, scientific and emergency scenarios, and are being employed in large number of applications especially during the hostile environments. They can operate autonomously for both indoor and outdoor applications mainly including search and rescue, manufacturing, forest fire tracking, remote sensing etc. For both environments, precise localization plays a critical role in order to achieve high performance flight and interacting with the surrounding objects. However, for indoor areas with degraded or denied Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) situation, it becomes challenging to control UAV autonomously especially where obstacles are unidentified. A large number of techniques by using various technologies are proposed to get rid of these limits. This paper provides a comparison of such existing solutions and technologies available for this purpose with their strengths and limitations. Further, a summary of current research status with unresolved issues and opportunities is provided that would provide research directions to the researchers of the similar interests

Analysis and Observations from the First Amazon Picking Challenge

This paper presents a overview of the inaugural Amazon Picking Challenge along with a summary of a survey conducted among the 26 participating teams. The challenge goal was to design an autonomous robot to pick items from a warehouse shelf. This task is currently performed by human workers, and there is hope that robots can someday help increase efficiency and throughput while lowering cost. We report on a 28-question survey posed to the teams to learn about each team's background, mechanism design, perception apparatus, planning and control approach. We identify trends in this data, correlate it with each team's success in the competition, and discuss observations and lessons learned based on survey results and the authors' personal experiences during the challenge

A Comprehensive Review on Autonomous Navigation

The field of autonomous mobile robots has undergone dramatic advancements over the past decades. Despite achieving important milestones, several challenges are yet to be addressed. Aggregating the achievements of the robotic community as survey papers is vital to keep the track of current state-of-the-art and the challenges that must be tackled in the future. This paper tries to provide a comprehensive review of autonomous mobile robots covering topics such as sensor types, mobile robot platforms, simulation tools, path planning and following, sensor fusion methods, obstacle avoidance, and SLAM. The urge to present a survey paper is twofold. First, autonomous navigation field evolves fast so writing survey papers regularly is crucial to keep the research community well-aware of the current status of this field. Second, deep learning methods have revolutionized many fields including autonomous navigation. Therefore, it is necessary to give an appropriate treatment of the role of deep learning in autonomous navigation as well which is covered in this paper. Future works and research gaps will also be discussed

Augmented Reality and Robotics: A Survey and Taxonomy for AR-enhanced Human-Robot Interaction and Robotic Interfaces

This paper contributes to a taxonomy of augmented reality and robotics based on a survey of 460 research papers. Augmented and mixed reality (AR/MR) have emerged as a new way to enhance human-robot interaction (HRI) and robotic interfaces (e.g., actuated and shape-changing interfaces). Recently, an increasing number of studies in HCI, HRI, and robotics have demonstrated how AR enables better interactions between people and robots. However, often research remains focused on individual explorations and key design strategies, and research questions are rarely analyzed systematically. In this paper, we synthesize and categorize this research field in the following dimensions: 1) approaches to augmenting reality; 2) characteristics of robots; 3) purposes and benefits; 4) classification of presented information; 5) design components and strategies for visual augmentation; 6) interaction techniques and modalities; 7) application domains; and 8) evaluation strategies. We formulate key challenges and opportunities to guide and inform future research in AR and robotics

An Evaluation of Three Distance Measurement Technologies for Flying Light Specks

This study evaluates the accuracy of three different types of time-of-flight sensors to measure distance. We envision the possible use of these sensors to localize swarms of flying light specks (FLSs) to illuminate objects and avatars of a metaverse. An FLS is a miniature-sized drone configured with RGB light sources. It is unable to illuminate a point cloud by itself. However, the inter-FLS relationship effect of an organizational framework will compensate for the simplicity of each individual FLS, enabling a swarm of cooperating FLSs to illuminate complex shapes and render haptic interactions. Distance between FLSs is an important criterion of the inter-FLS relationship. We consider sensors that use radio frequency (UWB), infrared light (IR), and sound (ultrasonic) to quantify this metric. Obtained results show only one sensor is able to measure distances as small as 1 cm with a high accuracy. A sensor may require a calibration process that impacts its accuracy in measuring distance.Comment: In International Conference on Intelligent Metaverse Technologies and Applications (iMETA2023), Tartu, Estonia, September 18-20, 202

Sistema de Simulación de la Iluminación Abdominal Basado en Mini Robots

Introduction: This document shows a system that simulates the illumination of the abdominal scene in laparoscopic operations using mini robots. The mini robots would be magnetically tied to the abdominal cavity and manipulated by an external robot arm. Two algorithms are tested in this system: one that moves the mini robot according to the movement of the endoscope, and another that moves from an analysis of the image captured by the scene.  Objective: To contribute to the illumination of the surgical scene by means of mini robots attached magnetically to the abdominal cavity. Methodology: A software tool was developed using Unity3D, which simulates the interior of the abdomen in laparoscopic operations, adding a new lighting: a mini light-type robot magnetically anchored to the abdominal wall. The mini robot has two different movements to illuminate the scene, one depends on the movement of the endoscope and the other on the image analysis performed. Results: Tests were performed with a representation of the real environment comparing it with the tests in the built tool, obtaining similar results and showing the potential of a mini robot to provide additional lighting to the surgeon if necessary. Conclusions: The designed algorithm allows a mini robot that is magnetically anchored in the abdominal wall to move to low-light areas following two options: a geometric relationship or movement as a result of image analysis.  Introducción: Este documento muestra un sistema que simula la iluminación de la escena abdominal en operaciones de laparoscopia utilizando mini robots. Los mini robots estarían atados magnéticamente a la cavidad abdominal y serían manipulados por un brazo robot externo. Dos algoritmos son probados en este sistema: uno que mueve al mini robot de acuerdo al movimiento del endoscopio, y otro que lo mueve a partir de un análisis de la imagen captada por la escena. Objetivo: Contribuir a la iluminación de la escena quirúrgica por medio de mini robots atados magnéticamente a la cavidad abdominal. Metodología: Se desarrolló una herramienta software por medio de Unity3D, la cual simula el interior del abdomen en operaciones de laparoscopia, agregándosele una nueva iluminación: un mini robot tipo luz anclado magnéticamente a la pared abdominal. El mini robot tiene dos movimientos diferentes para iluminar la escena, uno depende del movimiento del endoscopio y otro del análisis de imagen realizado.  Resultados: Se realizaron pruebas con una representación del entorno real comparándola con las pruebas en la herramienta construida, obteniéndose resultados similares y mostrando el potencial que tiene un mini robot para proporcionar una iluminación adicional al cirujano en caso de ser necesario.   Conclusiones: El algoritmo diseñado permite que un mini robot que estaría anclado magnéticamente a la pared abdominal, se mueva a zonas de baja iluminación siguiendo dos opciones: una relación geométrica o un movimiento como resultado de un análisis de imagen