A systematic approach to developing safe tele-operated robots

Tele–operated service robots are used for extending human capabilities in hazardous and/or inaccessible environments. Their use is undergoing an exponential increase in our society, reason why it is of vital importance that their design, installation and operation follow the strictest possible process, so that the risk of accident could be minimised. However, there is no such process or methodology that guides the full process from identification, evaluation, proposal of solutions and reuse of safety requirements, although a hard work is being done, specially by the standardisation committees. It’s also very difficult to even find in the literature examples of safety requirements identification and use. This paper presents the engineering process we have followed to obtain the safety requirements in one of the robots of the EFTCoR1 project and the way this requirements have affected the architecture of the system, with a practical example: a crane robot for ship hull blasting.Financiado parcialmente por los programas programs CICYT, ANCLA (TIC2003-07804-C05-02), y parte de DYNAMICA (DYNamic and Aspect-Oriented Modeling for Integrated Component-based Architectures

Assistive trajectories for human-in-the-loop mobile robotic platforms

Autonomous and semi-autonomous smoothly interruptible trajectories are developed which are highly suitable for application in tele-operated mobile robots, operator on-board military mobile ground platforms, and other mobility assistance platforms. These trajectories will allow a navigational system to provide assistance to the operator in the loop, for purpose built robots or remotely operated platforms. This will allow the platform to function well beyond the line-of-sight of the operator, enabling remote operation inside a building, surveillance, or advanced observations whilst keeping the operator in a safe location. In addition, on-board operators can be assisted to navigate without collision when distracted, or under-fire, or when physically disabled by injury

Experiences Developing Safe and Fault-Tolerant Tele-Operated Service Robots. A Case Study in Shipyards

Human operators use tele-operated service robots for performing more or less hazardous operations (manipulation of heavy and/or dangerous products) in more or less hostile environments (nuclear reactors, space missions, warehouses, etc). Anyway, independently of the operation, the robot has to interact with both the environment it is working on and with human operators. Therefore, it is essential that the design (which include both software and hardware) of the robot involves no risk, or at least an acceptable level of risk, neither for the operators, nor for the environment nor for the robot itself. Nevertheless, it is not always possible to make a system free of failures in its design or operation. Apart from the risk inherent to the use of the mechanisms themselves, these systems work in hazardous environments, where the probability of the risk is higher than normal. Should a failure happen, its consequences could even involve the loss of human lives. (Neumann, 1994) documents many cases of computer-related failures, such as the Therac-25 (a radiation-therapy device), the missiles shield in Saudi Arabia, etc. Nevertheless, safety aspects are seldom included in the early phases of the system design process from the beginning, even though they are a critic aspect. Generally, safety has to conform and adapt to the already designed system and not vice versa, when it is widely known that safety involves not only the design of the software but also the hardware. Even more, a simple hardware solution can eliminate a hazard or simplify the software design in many situations.This research has been funded by the Spanish CICYT project MEDWSA (TIN2006-15175- C05-02) and the Regional Government of Murcia Séneca Program (02998-PI-05)

Prevalence of haptic feedback in robot-mediated surgery : a systematic review of literature

© 2017 Springer-Verlag. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Journal of Robotic Surgery. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11701-017-0763-4With the successful uptake and inclusion of robotic systems in minimally invasive surgery and with the increasing application of robotic surgery (RS) in numerous surgical specialities worldwide, there is now a need to develop and enhance the technology further. One such improvement is the implementation and amalgamation of haptic feedback technology into RS which will permit the operating surgeon on the console to receive haptic information on the type of tissue being operated on. The main advantage of using this is to allow the operating surgeon to feel and control the amount of force applied to different tissues during surgery thus minimising the risk of tissue damage due to both the direct and indirect effects of excessive tissue force or tension being applied during RS. We performed a two-rater systematic review to identify the latest developments and potential avenues of improving technology in the application and implementation of haptic feedback technology to the operating surgeon on the console during RS. This review provides a summary of technological enhancements in RS, considering different stages of work, from proof of concept to cadaver tissue testing, surgery in animals, and finally real implementation in surgical practice. We identify that at the time of this review, while there is a unanimous agreement regarding need for haptic and tactile feedback, there are no solutions or products available that address this need. There is a scope and need for new developments in haptic augmentation for robot-mediated surgery with the aim of improving patient care and robotic surgical technology further.Peer reviewe

Mapping Robots to Therapy and Educational Objectives for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The aim of this study was to increase knowledge on therapy and educational objectives professionals work on with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and to identify corresponding state of the art robots. Focus group sessions (n = 9) with ASD professionals (n = 53) from nine organisations were carried out to create an objectives overview, followed by a systematic literature study to identify state of the art robots matching these objectives. Professionals identified many ASD objectives (n = 74) in 9 different domains. State of the art robots addressed 24 of these objectives in 8 domains. Robots can potentially be applied to a large scope of objectives for children with ASD. This objectives overview functions as a base to guide development of robot interventions for these children

On the Integration of Adaptive and Interactive Robotic Smart Spaces

© 2015 Mauro Dragone et al.. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License. (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)Enabling robots to seamlessly operate as part of smart spaces is an important and extended challenge for robotics R&D and a key enabler for a range of advanced robotic applications, such as AmbientAssisted Living (AAL) and home automation. The integration of these technologies is currently being pursued from two largely distinct view-points: On the one hand, people-centred initiatives focus on improving the user’s acceptance by tackling human-robot interaction (HRI) issues, often adopting a social robotic approach, and by giving to the designer and - in a limited degree – to the final user(s), control on personalization and product customisation features. On the other hand, technologically-driven initiatives are building impersonal but intelligent systems that are able to pro-actively and autonomously adapt their operations to fit changing requirements and evolving users’ needs,but which largely ignore and do not leverage human-robot interaction and may thus lead to poor user experience and user acceptance. In order to inform the development of a new generation of smart robotic spaces, this paper analyses and compares different research strands with a view to proposing possible integrated solutions with both advanced HRI and online adaptation capabilities.Peer reviewe