Implementation of explosion safety regulations in design of a mobile robot for coal mines

The article focuses on specific challenges of the design of a reconnaissance mobile robotic system aimed for inspection in underground coal mine areas after a catastrophic event. Systems that are designated for these conditions must meet specific standards and regulations. In this paper is discussed primarily the main conception of meeting explosion safety regulations of European Union 2014/34/EU (also called ATEX-from French "Appareils destines a etre utilises en ATmospheres Explosives") for Group I (equipment intended for use in underground mines) and Category M1 (equipment designed for operation in the presence of an explosive atmosphere). An example of a practical solution is described on main subsystems of the mobile robot TeleRescuera teleoperated robot with autonomy functions, a sensory subsystem with multiple cameras, three-dimensional (3D) mapping and sensors for measurement of gas concentration, airflow, relative humidity, and temperatures. Explosion safety is ensured according to the Technical Report CLC/TR 60079-33 "s" by two main independent protections-mechanical protection (flameproof enclosure) and electrical protection (automatic methane detector that disconnects power when methane breaches the enclosure and gets inside the robot body).Web of Science811art. no. 230

Design and implementation of a real-time autonomous navigation system applied to lego robots

Teaching theoretical concepts of a real-time autonomous robot system may be a challenging task without real hardware support. The paper discusses the application of the Lego Robot for teaching multi interdisciplinary subjects to Mechatronics students. A real-time mobile robot system with perception using sensors, path planning algorithm, PID controller is used as the case to demonstrate the teaching methodology. The novelties are introduced compared to classical robotic classes: (i) the adoption of a project-based learning approach as teaching methodology; (ii) an effective real-time autonomous navigation approach for the mobile robot. However, the extendibility and applicability of the presented approach are not limited to only the educational purpose

Interactive semantic mapping: Experimental evaluation

Robots that are launched in the consumer market need to provide more effective human robot interaction, and, in particular, spoken language interfaces. However, in order to support the execution of high level commands as they are specified in natural language, a semantic map is required. Such a map is a representation that enables the robot to ground the commands into the actual places and objects located in the environment. In this paper, we present the experimental evaluation of a system specifically designed to build semantically rich maps, through the interaction with the user. The results of the experiments not only provide the basis for a discussion of the features of the proposed approach, but also highlight the manifold issues that arise in the evaluation of semantic mapping

Simple environments fail as illustrations of intelligence: A review of R. Pfeifer and C. Scheier

The field of cognitive science has always supported a variety of modes of research, often polarised into those seeking high-level explanations of intelligence and those seeking low-level, perhaps even neuro-physiological, explanations. Each of these research directions permits, at least in part, a similar methodology based around the construction of detailed computational models, which justify their explanatory claims by matching behavioural data. We are fortunate at this time to witness the culmination of several decades of work from each of these research directions, and hopefully to find within them the basic ideas behind a complete theory of human intelligence. It is in this spirit that Rolf Pfeifer and Christian Scheier have written their book Understanding Intelligence. However, their aim is manifestly not to present an overview of all prior work in this field, but instead to argue forcefully for one particular interpretation – a synthetic approach, based around the explicit construction of autonomous agents. This approach is characterised by the Embodiment Hypothesis, which is presented as a complete framework for investigating intelligence, and exemplified by a number of computational models and robots to illustrate just how the field of cognitive science might develop in the future. We first provide an overview of their book, before describing some of our reservations about its contribution towards an understanding of intelligence