Development of new intelligent autonomous robotic assistant for hospitals

Continuous technological development in modern societies has increased the quality of life and average life-span of people. This imposes an extra burden on the current healthcare infrastructure, which also creates the opportunity for developing new, autonomous, assistive robots to help alleviate this extra workload. The research question explored the extent to which a prototypical robotic platform can be created and how it may be implemented in a hospital environment with the aim to assist the hospital staff with daily tasks, such as guiding patients and visitors, following patients to ensure safety, and making deliveries to and from rooms and workstations. In terms of major contributions, this thesis outlines five domains of the development of an actual robotic assistant prototype. Firstly, a comprehensive schematic design is presented in which mechanical, electrical, motor control and kinematics solutions have been examined in detail. Next, a new method has been proposed for assessing the intrinsic properties of different flooring-types using machine learning to classify mechanical vibrations. Thirdly, the technical challenge of enabling the robot to simultaneously map and localise itself in a dynamic environment has been addressed, whereby leg detection is introduced to ensure that, whilst mapping, the robot is able to distinguish between people and the background. The fourth contribution is geometric collision prediction into stabilised dynamic navigation methods, thus optimising the navigation ability to update real-time path planning in a dynamic environment. Lastly, the problem of detecting gaze at long distances has been addressed by means of a new eye-tracking hardware solution which combines infra-red eye tracking and depth sensing. The research serves both to provide a template for the development of comprehensive mobile assistive-robot solutions, and to address some of the inherent challenges currently present in introducing autonomous assistive robots in hospital environments.Open Acces

Towards a framework for socially interactive robots

250 p.En las últimas décadas, la investigación en el campo de la robótica social ha crecido considerablemente. El desarrollo de diferentes tipos de robots y sus roles dentro de la sociedad se están expandiendo poco a poco. Los robots dotados de habilidades sociales pretenden ser utilizados para diferentes aplicaciones; por ejemplo, como profesores interactivos y asistentes educativos, para apoyar el manejo de la diabetes en niños, para ayudar a personas mayores con necesidades especiales, como actores interactivos en el teatro o incluso como asistentes en hoteles y centros comerciales.El equipo de investigación RSAIT ha estado trabajando en varias áreas de la robótica, en particular,en arquitecturas de control, exploración y navegación de robots, aprendizaje automático y visión por computador. El trabajo presentado en este trabajo de investigación tiene como objetivo añadir una nueva capa al desarrollo anterior, la capa de interacción humano-robot que se centra en las capacidades sociales que un robot debe mostrar al interactuar con personas, como expresar y percibir emociones, mostrar un alto nivel de diálogo, aprender modelos de otros agentes, establecer y mantener relaciones sociales, usar medios naturales de comunicación (mirada, gestos, etc.),mostrar personalidad y carácter distintivos y aprender competencias sociales.En esta tesis doctoral, tratamos de aportar nuestro grano de arena a las preguntas básicas que surgen cuando pensamos en robots sociales: (1) ¿Cómo nos comunicamos (u operamos) los humanos con los robots sociales?; y (2) ¿Cómo actúan los robots sociales con nosotros? En esa línea, el trabajo se ha desarrollado en dos fases: en la primera, nos hemos centrado en explorar desde un punto de vista práctico varias formas que los humanos utilizan para comunicarse con los robots de una maneranatural. En la segunda además, hemos investigado cómo los robots sociales deben actuar con el usuario.Con respecto a la primera fase, hemos desarrollado tres interfaces de usuario naturales que pretenden hacer que la interacción con los robots sociales sea más natural. Para probar tales interfaces se han desarrollado dos aplicaciones de diferente uso: robots guía y un sistema de controlde robot humanoides con fines de entretenimiento. Trabajar en esas aplicaciones nos ha permitido dotar a nuestros robots con algunas habilidades básicas, como la navegación, la comunicación entre robots y el reconocimiento de voz y las capacidades de comprensión.Por otro lado, en la segunda fase nos hemos centrado en la identificación y el desarrollo de los módulos básicos de comportamiento que este tipo de robots necesitan para ser socialmente creíbles y confiables mientras actúan como agentes sociales. Se ha desarrollado una arquitectura(framework) para robots socialmente interactivos que permite a los robots expresar diferentes tipos de emociones y mostrar un lenguaje corporal natural similar al humano según la tarea a realizar y lascondiciones ambientales.La validación de los diferentes estados de desarrollo de nuestros robots sociales se ha realizado mediante representaciones públicas. La exposición de nuestros robots al público en esas actuaciones se ha convertido en una herramienta esencial para medir cualitativamente la aceptación social de los prototipos que estamos desarrollando. De la misma manera que los robots necesitan un cuerpo físico para interactuar con el entorno y convertirse en inteligentes, los robots sociales necesitan participar socialmente en tareas reales para las que han sido desarrollados, para así poder mejorar su sociabilida

Autonomous navigation and mapping of mobile robots based on 2D/3D cameras combination

Aufgrund der tendenziell zunehmenden Nachfrage an Systemen zur Unterstützung des alltäglichen Lebens gibt es derzeit ein großes Interesse an autonomen Systemen. Autonome Systeme werden in Häusern, Büros, Museen sowie in Fabriken eingesetzt. Sie können verschiedene Aufgaben erledigen, beispielsweise beim Reinigen, als Helfer im Haushalt, im Bereich der Sicherheit und Bildung, im Supermarkt sowie im Empfang als Auskunft, weil sie dazu verwendet werden können, die Verarbeitungszeit zu kontrollieren und präzise, zuverlässige Ergebnisse zu liefern. Ein Forschungsgebiet autonomer Systeme ist die Navigation und Kartenerstellung. Das heißt, mobile Roboter sollen selbständig ihre Aufgaben erledigen und zugleich eine Karte der Umgebung erstellen, um navigieren zu können. Das Hauptproblem besteht darin, dass der mobile Roboter in einer unbekannten Umgebung, in der keine zusätzlichen Bezugsinformationen vorhanden sind, das Gelände erkunden und eine dreidimensionale Karte davon erstellen muss. Der Roboter muss seine Positionen innerhalb der Karte bestimmen. Es ist notwendig, ein unterscheidbares Objekt zu finden. Daher spielen die ausgewählten Sensoren und der Register-Algorithmus eine relevante Rolle. Die Sensoren, die sowohl Tiefen- als auch Bilddaten liefern können, sind noch unzureichend. Der neue 3D-Sensor, nämlich der "Photonic Mixer Device" (PMD), erzeugt mit hoher Bildwiederholfrequenz eine Echtzeitvolumenerfassung des umliegenden Szenarios und liefert Tiefen- und Graustufendaten. Allerdings erfordert die höhere Qualität der dreidimensionalen Erkundung der Umgebung Details und Strukturen der Oberflächen, die man nur mit einer hochauflösenden CCD-Kamera erhalten kann. Die vorliegende Arbeit präsentiert somit eine Exploration eines mobilen Roboters mit Hilfe der Kombination einer CCD- und PMD-Kamera, um eine dreidimensionale Karte der Umgebung zu erstellen. Außerdem wird ein Hochleistungsalgorithmus zur Erstellung von 3D Karten und zur Poseschätzung in Echtzeit unter Verwendung des "Simultaneous Localization and Mapping" (SLAM) Verfahrens präsentiert. Der autonom arbeitende, mobile Roboter soll ferner Aufgaben übernehmen, wie z.B. die Erkennung von Objekten in ihrer Umgebung, um verschiedene praktische Aufgaben zu lösen. Die visuellen Daten der CCD-Kamera liefern nicht nur eine hohe Auflösung der Textur-Daten für die Tiefendaten, sondern werden auch für die Objekterkennung verwendet. Der "Iterative Closest Point" (ICP) Algorithmus benutzt zwei Punktwolken, um den Bewegungsvektor zu bestimmen. Schließlich sind die Auswertung der Korrespondenzen und die Rekonstruktion der Karte, um die reale Umgebung abzubilden, in dieser Arbeit enthalten.Presently, intelligent autonomous systems have to perform very interesting tasks due to trendy increases in support demands of human living. Autonomous systems have been used in various applications like houses, offices, museums as well as in factories. They are able to operate in several kinds of applications such as cleaning, household assistance, transportation, security, education and shop assistance because they can be used to control the processing time, and to provide precise and reliable output. One research field of autonomous systems is mobile robot navigation and map generation. That means the mobile robot should work autonomously while generating a map, which the robot follows. The main issue is that the mobile robot has to explore an unknown environment and to generate a three dimensional map of an unknown environment in case that there is not any further reference information. The mobile robot has to estimate its position and pose. It is required to find distinguishable objects. Therefore, the selected sensors and registered algorithms are significant. The sensors, which can provide both, depth as well as image data are still deficient. A new 3D sensor, namely the Photonic Mixer Device (PMD), generates a high rate output in real-time capturing the surrounding scenario as well as the depth and gray scale data. However, a higher quality of three dimension explorations requires details and textures of surfaces, which can be obtained from a high resolution CCD camera. This work hence presents the mobile robot exploration using the integration of CCD and PMD camera in order to create a three dimensional map. In addition, a high performance algorithm for 3D mapping and pose estimation of the locomotion in real time, using the "Simultaneous Localization and Mapping" (SLAM) technique is proposed. The flawlessly mobile robot should also handle the tasks, such as the recognition of objects in its environment, in order to achieve various practical missions. Visual input from the CCD camera not only delivers high resolution texture data on depth volume, but is also used for object recognition. The “Iterative Closest Point” (ICP) algorithm is using two sets of points to find out the translation and rotation vector between two scans. Finally, the evaluation of the correspondences and the reconstruction of the map to resemble the real environment are included in this thesis

Mobile Robots Navigation

Mobile robots navigation includes different interrelated activities: (i) perception, as obtaining and interpreting sensory information; (ii) exploration, as the strategy that guides the robot to select the next direction to go; (iii) mapping, involving the construction of a spatial representation by using the sensory information perceived; (iv) localization, as the strategy to estimate the robot position within the spatial map; (v) path planning, as the strategy to find a path towards a goal location being optimal or not; and (vi) path execution, where motor actions are determined and adapted to environmental changes. The book addresses those activities by integrating results from the research work of several authors all over the world. Research cases are documented in 32 chapters organized within 7 categories next described

Proceedings of the European Conference on Agricultural Engineering AgEng2021

This proceedings book results from the AgEng2021 Agricultural Engineering Conference under auspices of the European Society of Agricultural Engineers, held in an online format based on the University of Évora, Portugal, from 4 to 8 July 2021. This book contains the full papers of a selection of abstracts that were the base for the oral presentations and posters presented at the conference. Presentations were distributed in eleven thematic areas: Artificial Intelligence, data processing and management; Automation, robotics and sensor technology; Circular Economy; Education and Rural development; Energy and bioenergy; Integrated and sustainable Farming systems; New application technologies and mechanisation; Post-harvest technologies; Smart farming / Precision agriculture; Soil, land and water engineering; Sustainable production in Farm buildings

Intelligent technologies for the aging brain: opportunities and challenges

Intelligent computing is rapidly reshaping healthcare. In light of the global burden of population aging and neurological disorders, dementia and elderly care are among the healthcare sectors that are most likely to benefit from this technological revolution. Trends in artificial intelligence, robotics, ubiquitous computing, neurotechnology and other branches of biomedical engineering are progressively enabling novel opportunities for technology-enhanced care. These Intelligent Assistive Technologies (IATs) open the prospects of supporting older adults with neurocognitive disabilities, maintain their independence, reduce the burden on caregivers and delay the need for long-term care (1, 2). While technology develops fast, yet little knowledge is available to patients and health professionals about the current availability, applicability, and capability of existing IATs. This thesis proposes a state-of-the-art analysis of IATs in dementia and elderly care. Our findings indicate that advances in intelligent technology are resulting in a rapidly expanding number and variety of assistive solutions for older adults and people with neurocognitive disabilities. However, our analysis identifies a number of challenges that negatively affect the optimal deployment and uptake of IATs among target users and care institutions. These include design issues, sub-optimal approaches to product development, translational barriers between lab and clinics, lack of adequate validation and implementation, as well as data security and cyber-risk weaknesses. Additionally, in virtue of their technological novelty, intelligent technologies raise a number of Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI). Therefore, a significant portion of this thesis is devoted to providing an early ethical Technology Assessment (eTA) of intelligent technology, hence contributing to preparing the terrain for its safe and ethically responsible adoption. This assessment is primarily focused on intelligent technologies at the human-machine interface, as these applications enable an unprecedented exposure of the intimate dimension of individuals to the digital infosphere. Issues of privacy, integrity, equality, and dual-use were addressed at the level of stakeholder analysis, normative ethics and human-rights law. Finally, this thesis is aimed at providing evidence-based recommendations for guiding participatory and responsible development in intelligent technology, and delineating governance strategies that maximize the clinical benefits of IATs for the aging world, while minimizing unintended risks

Underwater Vehicles

For the latest twenty to thirty years, a significant number of AUVs has been created for the solving of wide spectrum of scientific and applied tasks of ocean development and research. For the short time period the AUVs have shown the efficiency at performance of complex search and inspection works and opened a number of new important applications. Initially the information about AUVs had mainly review-advertising character but now more attention is paid to practical achievements, problems and systems technologies. AUVs are losing their prototype status and have become a fully operational, reliable and effective tool and modern multi-purpose AUVs represent the new class of underwater robotic objects with inherent tasks and practical applications, particular features of technology, systems structure and functional properties