Design of service robots: Experiences using software engineering

This article relates our experiences over the last 15 years in the development of robotic applications within the field of service robotics, using the techniques proposed by software engineering. The process began with domain engineering and reference architectures, moved on to component-oriented development, and currently centered on model-driven design. One of the key problems in software development for robotic systems is that the possibilities of reusing software in new applications are frequently limited. This means that we are forced over and over to solve the same problems starting practically from zero every time. The possible causes of this include the following: 1) robotics specialists normally concentrate more on developing algorithms and the way to solve concrete problems than on organizing the software; 2) lack of good standards for the development of robotic software and implementations of these standards; 3) the case studies conducted to demonstrate the viability of software engineering techniques traditionally deal with information management systems; and 4) the robotics community see software engineering not as a solution but as another problem that adds complexity to already complex problems. This research has helped to demonstrate the viability of using software engineering techniques in real industrial applications, albeit using academic tools that cannot readily be accepted by industry.This work has been supported by EU and Spanish Government research programmes: 5th FP (GROWTH G3RD-CT-00794), CICYT-FEDER Program (MEDWSA, TIN2006-15175-C05- 02). Additional funds have been supplied by the Government of Murcia (Fundación Séneca) and the Spanish Ministry of Industry (PROFIT programs)

Design of an autonomous trash-picking service robot focussed on human-robot interaction

The design of service robots is typically treated as a mechatronic design problem aimed at implementation of its core technical functionalities. Intuitive operation and usability are ignored. We developed a trash-picking service robot with a strong focus on human-robot interaction (HRI) using the double diamond framework. The HRI-focussed hardware features were successfully implemented and tested. The results were shown to satisfy the ease of operation and usability requirements set as development goals for the robot

Acoustic event characterization for service robot using convolutional networks

This paper presents and discusses the creation of a sound event classification model using deep learning. In the design of service robots, it is necessary to include routines that improve the response of both the robot and the human being throughout the interaction. These types of tasks are critical when the robot is taking care of children, the elderly, or people in vulnerable situations. Certain dangerous situations are difficult to identify and assess by an autonomous system, and yet, the life of the users may depend on these robots. Acoustic signals correspond to events that can be detected at a great distance, are usually present in risky situations, and can be continuously sensed without incurring privacy risks. For the creation of the model, a customized database is structured with seven categories that allow to categorize a problem, and eventually allow the robot to provide the necessary help. These audio signals are processed to produce graphical representations consistent with human acoustic identification. These images are then used to train three convolutional models identified as high-performing in this type of problem. The three models are evaluated with specific metrics to identify the best-performing model. Finally, the results of this evaluation are discussed and analyzed

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Professor Named Outstanding Engineering Educato

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Professor Named Outstanding Engineering Educato

Instrument Development for R-Service Quality: A Literature Review

Motivated by a paucity of knowledge on the measurement of robotic service (r-service) quality, the current study strives to review the existing literature on r-service quality, with a focus on the potential methodological issues of developing measurement instruments and identifying the dimensionality of r-service quality. With a content analysis of 55 articles, this study identifies several methodological limitations of existing studies in developing measurement scales of r-service quality. This review reveals that dimensions of r-service quality are prone to be contingent on specific con-texts of service industry and service type. Several common dimensions regarding evaluating r-service are identified, including tangibility, responsiveness, reliability, empathy, assurance, ease of use/usability, usefulness, anthropomorphism, perceived intelligence, and social presence. This study is the first systematic literature review on r-service quality dimensionality

A systematic review of applying modern software engineering techniques to developing robotic systems

Robots have become collaborators in our daily life. While robotic systems become more and more complex, the need to engineer their software development grows as well. The traditional approaches used in developing these software systems are reaching their limits; currently used methodologies and tools fall short of addressing the needs of such complex software development. Separating robotics knowledge from shortcycled implementation technologies is essential to foster reuse and maintenance. This paper presents a systematic review (SLR) of the current use of modern software engineering techniques for developing robotic software systems and their actual automation level. The survey was aimed at summarizing existing evidence concerning applying such technologies to the field of robotic systems to identify any gaps in current research to suggest areas for further investigation and provide a background for positioning new research activities.Los robots se han convertido en colaboradores habituales de nuestra vida diaria. Los sistemas robóticos son cada vez más complejos y, como consecuencia, crece la necesidad de aplicar nuevas técnicas ingenieriles a su proceso de desarrollo. Los enfoques tradicionales que se utilizan en el proceso de desarrollo de estos sistemas de software están alcanzando sus límites; las metodologías utilizadas actualmente y las herramientas de soporte no alcanzan para atender las necesidades de estos procesos complejos. Para fomentar la reutilización y el mantenimiento de código es esencial separar el conocimiento estable del dominio de robótica en las tecnologías de implementación, que varían rápidamente. Este artículo presenta una revisión sistemática de la utilización actual de técnicas modernas de ingeniería de software en el desarrollo de sistemas robóticos y su nivel de automatización. El objetivo del estudio es el de resumir la evidencia existente respecto a la aplicación de dichas tecnologías en el campo de los sistemas robóticos para identificar carencias en la investigación actual con el fin de sugerir áreas en futuras propuestas y proporcionar las bases para posicionar adecuadamente nuevas actividades de investigación

Revisión sistemática de la aplicación de técnicas modernas de ingeniería de software al desarrollo de sistemas robóticos

Los robots se han convertido en colaboradores habituales de nuestra vida diaria. Los sistemas robóticos son cada vez más complejos y, como consecuencia, crece la necesidad de aplicar nuevas técnicas ingenieriles a su proceso de desarrollo. Los enfoques tradicionales que se utilizan en el proceso de desarrollo de estos sistemas de software están alcanzando sus límites; las metodologías utilizadas actualmente y las herramientas de soporte no alcanzan para atender las necesidades de estos procesos complejos. Para fomentar la reutilización y el mantenimiento de código es esencial separar el conocimiento estable del dominio de robótica en las tecnologías de implementación, que varían rápidamente. Este artículo presenta una revisión sistemática de la utilización actual de técnicas modernas de ingeniería de software en el desarrollo de sistemas robóticos y su nivel de automatización. El objetivo del estudio es el de resumir la evidencia existente respecto a la aplicación de dichas tecnologías en el campo de los sistemas robóticos para identificar carencias en la investigación actual con el fin de sugerir áreas en futuras propuestas y proporcionar las bases para posicionar adecuadamente nuevas actividades de investigación.Robots have become collaborators in our daily life. While robotic systems become more and more complex, the need to engineer their software development grows as well. The traditional approaches used in developing these software systems are reaching their limits; currently used methodologies and tools fall short of addressing the needs of such complex software development. Separating robotics knowledge from shortcycled implementation technologies is essential to foster reuse and maintenance. This paper presents a systematic review (SLR) of the current use of modern software engineering techniques for developing robotic software systems and their actual automation level. The survey was aimed at summarizing existing evidence concerning applying such technologies to the field of robotic systems to identify any gaps in current research to suggest areas for further investigation and provide a background for positioning new research activities.Facultad de Informátic

Towards the definition of a pattern sequence for real-time applications using a model-driven engineering approach

Real-Time (RT) systems exhibit specific characteristics that make them particularly sensitive to architectural decissions. Design patterns help integrating the desired timing behaviour with the rest of the elements of the application architecture. This paper reports a pattern story that shows how a component-based design has been implemented using periodic concurrent tasks with RT requirements. This work has been done in the context of the development of robotic applications using a Model-Driven Software Development (MDSD) approach. In this context the model-to-code transformations are designed taking into account both the system requirements and the patterns that satisfy them. MDSD provides the conceptual technology for implementing a pattern-guided transition from component-based models to object-oriented implementations. The results of applying the described story of patterns are shown by an application that initializes, configures and schedules the execution of platform-specific components.This work has been partially supported by the Spanish CICYT Project EXPLORE (ref. TIN2009-08572), and the Fundación Séneca Regional Project COMPAS-R (ref. 11994/PI/09)

A Comparison of Type-1 and Type-2 Fuzzy Logic Controllers in Robotics: A review

Most real world applications face high levels of uncertainties that can affect the operations of such applications. Hence, there is a need to develop different approaches that can handle the available uncertainties and reduce their effects on the given application. To date, Type-1 Fuzzy Logic Controllers (FLCs) have been applied with great success to many different real world applications. The traditional type-1 FLC which uses crisp type-1 fuzzy sets cannot handle high levels of uncertainties appropriately. Nevertheless it has been shown that a type-2 FLC using type-2 fuzzy sets can handle such uncertainties better and thus produce a better performance. As such, type-2 FLCs are considered to have the potential to overcome the limitations of type-1 FLCs and produce a new generation of fuzzy controllers with improved performance for many applications which require handling high levels of uncertainty. This paper will briefly introduce the interval type-2 FLC and its benefits. We will also present briefly some of the type-2 FLC real world applications