Service Robots in Catering Applications: A Review and Future Challenges.

“Hello, I’m the TERMINATOR, and I’ll be your server today”. Diners might soon be feeling this greeting, with Optimus Prime in the kitchen and Wall-E then sending your order to C-3PO. In our daily lives, a version of that future is already showing up. Robotics companies are designing robots to handle tasks, including serving, interacting, collaborating, and helping. These service robots are intended to coexist with humans and engage in relationships that lead them to a better quality of life in our society. Their constant evolution and the arising of new challenges lead to an update of the existing systems. This update provides a generic vision of two questions: the advance of service robots, and more importantly, how these robots are applied in society (professional and personal) based on the market application. In this update, a new category is proposed: catering robotics. This proposal is based on the technological advances that generate new multidisciplinary application fields and challenges. Waiter robots is an example of the catering robotics. These robotic platforms might have social capacities to interact with the consumer and other robots, and at the same time, might have physical skills to perform complex tasks in professional environments such as restaurants. This paper explains the guidelines to develop a waiter robot, considering aspects such as architecture, interaction, planning, and executionpost-print13305 K

Integration of Dual-Arm Manipulation in a Passivity Based Whole-Body Controller for Torque-Controlled Humanoid Robots

This work presents an extension of balance control for torque-controlled humanoid robots. Within a non-strict task hierarchy, the controller allows the robot to use the feet endeffectors to balance, while the remaining hand end-effectors can be used to perform Dual-Arm manipulation. The controller generates a passive and compliance behaviour to regulate the location of the centre of mass (CoM), the orientation of the hip and the poses of each end-effector assigned to the task of interaction (in this case bi-manipulation). Then, an appropriate wrench (force and torque) is applied to each of the end-effectors employed for the task to achieve this purpose. Now, in this new controller, the essential requirement focuses on the fact that the desired wrench in the CoM is computed through the sum of the balancing and bi-manipulation wrenches. The bimanipulation wrenches are obtained through a new dynamic model that allows executing tasks of approaching the grip and manipulation of large objects compliantly. On the other hand, the feedback controller has been maintained but in combination with a bi-manipulation-oriented feedforward control to improve the performance in the object trajectory tracking. This controller is tested in different experiments with the robot TORO

Humanoid Robots

For many years, the human being has been trying, in all ways, to recreate the complex mechanisms that form the human body. Such task is extremely complicated and the results are not totally satisfactory. However, with increasing technological advances based on theoretical and experimental researches, man gets, in a way, to copy or to imitate some systems of the human body. These researches not only intended to create humanoid robots, great part of them constituting autonomous systems, but also, in some way, to offer a higher knowledge of the systems that form the human body, objectifying possible applications in the technology of rehabilitation of human beings, gathering in a whole studies related not only to Robotics, but also to Biomechanics, Biomimmetics, Cybernetics, among other areas. This book presents a series of researches inspired by this ideal, carried through by various researchers worldwide, looking for to analyze and to discuss diverse subjects related to humanoid robots. The presented contributions explore aspects about robotic hands, learning, language, vision and locomotion

Aplicación de algoritmos bioinspirados basados en visión por computador para la detección de equilibrio de robots humanoides

Existen gran cantidad de estudios que señalan la importancia de la visión en seres humanos para el control del equilibrio. El objeto de este proyecto es sentar las bases y analizar la viabilidad de la utilización de sistemas bioinspirados basados en visión por computador como herramienta para el control del equilibrio de robots humanoides. El presente proyecto realiza una revisión del estado del arte y analiza qué algoritmos existentes y disponibles utilizados para la obtención de la posición en tiempo real mediante visión por computador resultan interesantes de cara a ser implementados para control del equilibrio. Optándose por implementar el algoritmo Fovis de odometría visual y el método iterativo de resolución del problema “Perspective-n-Point”. Se han realizado una serie de pruebas con el robot humanoide TEO de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Los resultados obtenidos por ambos algoritmos fueron comparados entre ellos y con los obtenidos por el sensor inercial actualmente utilizado por TEO para tareas de control de equilibrio. Los resultados obtenidos por Fovis en las pruebas llevan a concluir que la odometría visual representa una opción a tener en cuenta para el control del equilibrio de robots humanoides, abriendo una vía a futuros trabajos. Este trabajo forma parte de un proyecto más amplio que busca utilizar el robot humanoide TEO para imitar el comportamiento de un camarero, para lo cual el control de la postura corporal y el equilibrio son factores de gran relevancia.There exist many studies that evidence the important role that vision plays on balance control in human beings. The aim of this project is to lay the groundwork and analyze the viability of using bioinspired systems based on computer vision in order to control balance on humanoid robots. This Project makes an state of art revission and analyzes wich of the existant and available real time pose estimation algorithms fit for being used on balance control tasks on humanoid robots. Odometry visual algorithm Fovis and iterative “Perspective-n-Point” problem solver were chosen to be implemented. Several tests were done in humanoid robot TEO of University Carlos III of Madrid. A comparission between both method’s results was done and also with current inertial sensor used by TEO for balance control tasks. The results obtained by Fovis lead to conclude that visual odometry represents a good option for balance control tasks on humanoid robots, laying the ground for further work. This work is carried out within the framework of a bigger project that looks for using humanoid robot TEO to imitate a waiter’s behavior, for that objective pose and balance control are quite relevant issues.Ingeniería Electrónica Industrial y Automátic

Design and Development of Assistive Robots for Close Interaction with People with Disabilities

People with mobility and manipulation impairments wish to live and perform tasks as independently as possible; however, for many tasks, compensatory technology does not exist, to do so. Assistive robots have the potential to address this need. This work describes various aspects of the development of three novel assistive robots: the Personal Mobility and Manipulation Appliance (PerMMA), the Robotic Assisted Transfer Device (RATD), and the Mobility Enhancement Robotic Wheelchair (MEBot). PerMMA integrates mobility with advanced bi-manual manipulation to assist people with both upper and lower extremity impairments. The RATD is a wheelchair mounted robotic arm that can lift higher payloads and its primary aim is to assist caregivers of people who cannot independently transfer from their electric powered wheelchair to other surfaces such as a shower bench or toilet. MEBot is a wheeled robot that has highly reconfigurable kinematics, which allow it to negotiate challenging terrain, such as steep ramps, gravel, or stairs. A risk analysis was performed on all three robots which included a Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) and a Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) to identify potential risks and inform strategies to mitigate them. Identified risks or PerMMA include dropping sharp or hot objects. Critical risks identified for RATD included tip over, crush hazard, and getting stranded mid-transfer, and risks for MEBot include getting stranded on obstacles and tip over. Lastly, several critical factors, such as early involvement of people with disabilities, to guide future assistive robot design are presented

Proceedings of the ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics 2015

This volume contains the full papers accepted for presentation at the ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics 2015 held in the Barcelona School of Industrial Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, on June 29 - July 2, 2015. The ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics is an international meeting held once every two years in a European country. Continuing the very successful series of past conferences that have been organized in Lisbon (2003), Madrid (2005), Milan (2007), Warsaw (2009), Brussels (2011) and Zagreb (2013); this edition will once again serve as a meeting point for the international researchers, scientists and experts from academia, research laboratories and industry working in the area of multibody dynamics. Applications are related to many fields of contemporary engineering, such as vehicle and railway systems, aeronautical and space vehicles, robotic manipulators, mechatronic and autonomous systems, smart structures, biomechanical systems and nanotechnologies. The topics of the conference include, but are not restricted to: ● Formulations and Numerical Methods ● Efficient Methods and Real-Time Applications ● Flexible Multibody Dynamics ● Contact Dynamics and Constraints ● Multiphysics and Coupled Problems ● Control and Optimization ● Software Development and Computer Technology ● Aerospace and Maritime Applications ● Biomechanics ● Railroad Vehicle Dynamics ● Road Vehicle Dynamics ● Robotics ● Benchmark ProblemsPostprint (published version

Multibody dynamics 2015

This volume contains the full papers accepted for presentation at the ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics 2015 held in the Barcelona School of Industrial Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, on June 29 - July 2, 2015. The ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics is an international meeting held once every two years in a European country. Continuing the very successful series of past conferences that have been organized in Lisbon (2003), Madrid (2005), Milan (2007), Warsaw (2009), Brussels (2011) and Zagreb (2013); this edition will once again serve as a meeting point for the international researchers, scientists and experts from academia, research laboratories and industry working in the area of multibody dynamics. Applications are related to many fields of contemporary engineering, such as vehicle and railway systems, aeronautical and space vehicles, robotic manipulators, mechatronic and autonomous systems, smart structures, biomechanical systems and nanotechnologies. The topics of the conference include, but are not restricted to: Formulations and Numerical Methods, Efficient Methods and Real-Time Applications, Flexible Multibody Dynamics, Contact Dynamics and Constraints, Multiphysics and Coupled Problems, Control and Optimization, Software Development and Computer Technology, Aerospace and Maritime Applications, Biomechanics, Railroad Vehicle Dynamics, Road Vehicle Dynamics, Robotics, Benchmark Problems. The conference is organized by the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona. The organizers would like to thank the authors for submitting their contributions, the keynote lecturers for accepting the invitation and for the quality of their talks, the awards and scientific committees for their support to the organization of the conference, and finally the topic organizers for reviewing all extended abstracts and selecting the awards nominees.Postprint (published version

Design and Experimental Evaluation of a Hybrid Wheeled-Leg Exploration Rover in the Context of Multi-Robot Systems

With this dissertation, the electromechanic design, implementation, locomotion control, and experimental evaluation of a novel type of hybrid wheeled-leg exploration rover are presented. The actively articulated suspension system of the rover is the basis for advanced locomotive capabilities of a mobile exploration robot. The developed locomotion control system abstracts the complex kinematics of the suspension system and provides platform control inputs usable by autonomous behaviors or human remote control. Design and control of the suspension system as well as experimentation with the resulting rover are in the focus of this thesis. The rover is part of a heterogeneous modular multi-robot exploration system with an aspired sample return mission to the lunar south pole or currently hard-to-access regions on Mars. The multi-robot system pursues a modular and reconfigurable design methodology. It combines heterogeneous robots with different locomotion capabilities for enhanced overall performance. Consequently, the design of the multi-robot system is presented as the frame of the rover developments. The requirements for the rover design originating from the deployment in a modular multi-robot system are accentuated and summarized in this thesis

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