RoboTalk - Prototyping a Humanoid Robot as Speech-to-Sign Language Translator

Information science mostly focused on sign language recognition. The current study instead examines whether humanoid robots might be fruitful avatars for sign language translation. After a review of research into sign language technologies, a survey of 50 deaf participants regarding their preferences for potential reveals that humanoid robots represent a promising option. The authors also 3D-printed two arms of a humanoid robot, InMoov, with special joints for the index finger and thumb that would provide it with additional degrees of freedom to express sign language. They programmed the robotic arms with German sign language and integrated it with a voice recognition system. Thus this study provides insights into human–robot interactions in the context of sign language translation; it also contributes ideas for enhanced inclusion of deaf people into society

Robi: a visual programming language for educational robotics

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia InformáticaThis document presents a Master’s thesis with researches focused on the teaching of computational thinking and present the development details of Robi, a block-based visual programming language that is able to program a robot built with an Arduino Uno. These researches had the purpose of evaluating if the development of Robi, a block-based program ming language that communicates with Arduino, would really be needed. The researches have proved that from the popular programming environments that exist in the market, that were investigated, none have the requirements that Robi requires. The platform will be used to teach computational think through a block-based programming environment and educational robotics. Robi development is motivated by the intersection between the costs of educational robotics kits and the existing block-based programming language, in which simplicity and intuitiveness could be improved, so children with learning difficulties or even younger children, in the context of educational robotics, can leverage the learning benefits that the Robi environment can bring. The educational robotics kit used with the block-based programming environment developed, is the one based on Arduino Uno, a microcontroller board that, together with electronic components, can be considered cheaper than some of the famous educational robotics kits. The main goal of this project is to provide a simpler and more intuitive visual programming language platform to program a robot based on Arduino Uno.Este documento apresenta uma tese de Mestrado com investigações voltadas ao ensino do pensamento computacional e apresenta os detalhes do desenvolvimento de Robi, uma linguagem de programação visual baseada em blocos, que é possível programar um robô construído com um Arduino Uno. Essas investigações tiveram o objetivo de avaliar se o desenvolvimento de Robi, uma linguagem de programação baseada em blocos que se comunica com o Arduino, seria realmente necessário. As investigações comprovaram que dos ambientes de programação populares existentes no mercado, que foram investigados, nenhum possui os requisitos que Robi exige. A plataforma será utilizada para ensinar pensamento computacional por meio de um ambiente de programação baseado em blocos e robótica educacional. O desenvolvimento de Robi é motivado pela combinação entre os custos dos kits de robótica educacional existentes no mercado e linguagens de programação baseada em blocos existentes, em que simplicidade e intuitividade poderiam ser aprimoradas, para assim, crianças com dificuldades de aprendizagem ou até crianças mais novas, no contexto da robótica educacional, poderiam fazer proveito dos benefícios da aprendizagem que o ambiente Robi pode trazer. O kit de robótica educacional utilizado com o ambiente de programação baseado em blocos desenvolvido é um kit com o Arduino Uno, uma placa de microcontrolador que, junto com componentes eletrônicos, pode ser considerada mais barata que alguns dos famosos kits de robótica educacional. O objetivo principal deste projeto é fornecer uma plataforma de linguagem de programação visual mais simples e intuitiva para programar um robô baseado em Arduino Uno

Remote Programming of Multirobot Systems within the UPC-UJI Telelaboratories: System Architecture and Agent-Based Multirobot Control

One of the areas that needs further improvement within E-Learning environments via Internet (A big effort is required in this area if progress is to be made) is allowing students to access and practice real experiments in a real laboratory, instead of using simulations [1]. Real laboratories allow students to acquire methods, skills and experience related to real equipment, in a manner that is very close to the way they are being used in industry. The purpose of the project is the study, development and implementation of an E-Learning environment to allow undergraduate students to practice subjects related to Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. The system, which is now at a preliminary stage, will allow the remote experimentation with real robotic devices (i.e. robots, cameras, etc.). It will enable the student to learn in a collaborative manner (remote participation with other students) where it will be possible to combine the onsite activities (performed “in-situ” within the real lab during the normal practical sessions), with the “on-line” one (performed remotely from home via the Internet). Moreover, the remote experiments within the E-Laboratory to control the real robots can be performed by both, students and even scientist. This project is under development and it is carried out jointly by two Universities (UPC and UJI). In this article we present the system architecture and the way students and researchers have been able to perform a Remote Programming of Multirobot Systems via web

Automatization of the code generation for different industrial robots

Tese de doutoramento em Informática (ramo de conhecimento em Compiladores, Geração de Código e Robótica Industrial)This document presents GIRo (Grafcet - Industrial Robots), that is a generic environment for programming industrial robots off-line, that includes: a truly high-level and declarative language (Grafcet); an easy-to-use front-end (Paintgraf); an intermediate representation (InteRGIRo); the translators from Paintgraf to InteRGIRo; the generic compiler, that translates InteRGIRo to the robot target code; and the editor for the robot language inputs (to obtain the necessary information about the robot target language, to allow the generation of code to such robot). GIRo focus on the modelling of the system, based on the Grafcet specification diagram, rather than on the robot details, improving the programming and maintenance tasks, allowing the reuse of source code, once this source code will be machine independent. GIRo also allows the programmer to write programs in the robot language, if he is familiarized with the robot commands. With GIRo: – the user can program robots in a high or low level; – the portability for the source code is granted; – the reuse of source code for different robots is allowed; – the programming and maintaining tasks are facilitated. GIRo is easy-to-use. So, GIRo is "giro1"!Este documento apresenta um ambiente genérico de desenvolvimento de programas off-line para robôs industriais chamado GIRo (Grafcet - Industrial Robots). GIRo contém com os seguintes componentes: uma linguagem declarativa e de alto-nível (Grafcet); um front-end amigável (Paintgraf); uma representação intermédia (InteRGIRo); os tradutores para a InteRGIRo, a partir do diagrama Grafcet desenhado no Paintgraf; um compilador genérico de codígo que traduz a InteRGIRo para a linguagem de programação do robô destino; e um editor, utilizado para juntar as características e instruções da linguagem de programação do robô destino, a fim de permitir a geração de código para este robô. GIRo foca na modelação do sistema, baseado no diagrama de especificação de automa tismos Grafcet, ao invés das características físicas do robô. Desta forma, melhora-se as tarefas de desenvolvimento e manutenção de programas, uma vez que é permitido a reuti lização de código fonte, já que este é independente de plataforma. Giro também permite que o programador escreva os seus programas na linguagem do robô, caso o mesmo esteja familiarizado com os seus comandos. Com o GIRo: – a programação de robôs pode ser feita em alto nível (Grafcet) ou em baixo nível (linguagem do robô); – a portabilidade do código fonte é garantida; – a reutilização do codigo fonte para robôs diversos é permitido; – as tarefas de programação e manutenção são facilitadas. GIRo é fácil de utilizar. GIRo é "giro"!Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Unit testing for domain-specific languages, in

Abstract. Domain-specific languages (DSLs) offer several advantages by providing idioms that are similar to the abstractions found in a specific problem domain. However, a challenge is that tool support for DSLs is lacking when compared to the capabilities offered in general-purpose languages (GPLs), such as Java and C++. For example, support for unit testing a DSL program is absent and debuggers for DSLs are rare. This limits the ability of a developer to discover the existence of software errors and to locate them in a DSL program. Currently, software developers using a DSL are generally forced to test and debug their DSL programs using available GPL tools, rather than tools that are informed by the domain abstractions at the DSL level. This reduces the utility of DSL adoption and minimizes the benefits of working with higher abstractions, which can bring into question the suitability of using DSLs in the development process. This paper introduces our initial investigation into a unit testing framework that can be customized for specific DSLs through a reusable mapping of GPL testing tool functionality. We provide examples from two different DSL categories that serve as case studies demonstrating the possibilities of a unit testing engine for DSLs

LearnBlock: A Robot-Agnostic Educational Programming Tool

Education is evolving to prepare students for the current sociotechnical changes. An increasing effort to introduce programming and other STEM-related subjects into the core curriculum of primary and secondary education is taking place around the world. The use of robots stands out among STEM initiatives, since robots are proving to be an engaging tool for learning programming and other STEM-related contents. Block-based programming is the option chosen for most educational robotic platforms. However, many robotics kits include their own software tools, as well as their own set of programming blocks. LearnBlock, a new educational programming tool, is proposed here. Its major novelty is its loosely coupled software architecture which makes it, to the best of our knowledge, the first robot-agnostic educational tool. Robot-agnosticism is provided not only in block code, but also in generated code, unifying the translation from blocks to the final programming language. The set of blocks can be easily extended implementing additional Python functions, without modifying the core code of the tool. Moreover, LearnBlock provides an integrated educational programming environment that facilitates a progressive transition from a visual to a general-purpose programming language. To evaluate LearnBlock and demonstrate that it is platform-agnostic, several tests were conducted. Each of them consists of a program implementing a robot behaviour. The block code of each test can run on several educational robots without changes

A Graphical Web Tool with DL-based Reasoning Support over Orthogonal Variability Models

Variability Management is one of the most challenging tasks in a Software Product Line (SPL) development. This is reflected in the way software is developed, maintained and extended. Therefore, automatic variability analysis has emerged in order to validate models in early development stages, avoiding affecting derived products quality. In this work, we present crowd-variability, a novel graphical tool designed for modelling and validating Orthogonal Variability Models (OVM) using Description Logics (DL)-based reasoning services. We describe the tool and demonstrate the usage of the first prototype along with examples of use. Currently, we are working to release the first beta version of crowd-variability.X Workshop Innovación en Sistemas de Software (WISS)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

A Graphical Web Tool with DL-based Reasoning Support over Orthogonal Variability Models

Variability Management is one of the most challenging tasks in a Software Product Line (SPL) development. This is reflected in the way software is developed, maintained and extended. Therefore, automatic variability analysis has emerged in order to validate models in early development stages, avoiding affecting derived products quality. In this work, we present crowd-variability, a novel graphical tool designed for modelling and validating Orthogonal Variability Models (OVM) using Description Logics (DL)-based reasoning services. We describe the tool and demonstrate the usage of the first prototype along with examples of use. Currently, we are working to release the first beta version of crowd-variability.X Workshop Innovación en Sistemas de Software (WISS)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI