Kinematic analysis of a novel 2-d.o.f. orientation device

This paper presents the development of a new parallel robot designed for helping with bone milling surgeries. The robot is a small modular wrist with 2 active degrees of freedom, and it is proposed to be used as an orientation device located at the end of a robotic arm designed for bone milling processes. A generic kinematic geometry is proposed for this device. This first article shows the developments on the workspace optimization and the analysis of the force field required to complete a reconstruction of the inferior jawbone. The singularities of the mechanism are analyzed, and the actuator selection is justified with the torque requirements and the study of the force space. The results obtained by the simulations allow building a first prototype using linear motors. Bone milling experiment video is shown as additional material

A comparative study on the performance of neural networks in visual guidance and feedback applications

Vision-based systems increase the flexibility of industrial automation applications by providing non-touching sensory information for processing and feedback. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) help such conformities through prediction in overcoming nonlinear computational spaces. They transform multiple possibilities of outcomes or regions of uncertainty posed by the system components towards solution spaces. Trained networks impart a certain level of intelligence to robotic systems. This paper discusses two applications of machine vision. The 3 degrees of freedom (DOF) robotic assembly provides an accurate cutting of soft materials with visual guidance using pixel elimination. The 6-DOF robot combines visual guidance from a supervisory camera and visual feedback from an attached camera. Using a switching approach in the control strategy, pick and place applications are carried out. With the inclusion of ANN to make the strategies intelligent, both the systems performed better with regard to computational time and convergence. The networks make use of the extracted image features from the scene for different applications. Simulation and experimental results validate the proposed schemes and show the effectiveness of ANN in machine vision applications