Robots in Industry. Past,present and future of a growing collaboration with humans

Robots have been part of automation systems for a very long time, and in public perception, they are often synonymous with automation and industrial revolution perse. Fueled by Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things (IoT) concepts as well as by new software technologies, the field of robotics in industry is currently undergoing a revolution on its own. This article gives an overview of the evolution of robotics from its beginnings to recent trends like collaborative robotics, autonomous robots, and human- robot interaction. Particular attention is devoted to the deep changes of the last decades, from the traditional industrial scenario based on isolated robotic cells up to the most recent coworking and collaborative robots. The role of robotics in the Industry 4.0 framework is analyzed, and the relationships with industrial communications and software technologies are also discussed. Some future directions for robotics are envisaged, focusing on the contributions coming from new materials, sensors, actuators, and technologies. Open issues are highlighted as well as the main barriers that currently limit the deployment of industrial robots in the small and medium enterprise (SME) world

An overview of artificial intelligence and robotics. Volume 2: Robotics

This report provides an overview of the rapidly changing field of robotics. The report incorporates definitions of the various types of robots, a summary of the basic concepts, utilized in each of the many technical areas, review of the state of the art and statistics of robot manufacture and usage. Particular attention is paid to the status of robot development, the organizations involved, their activities, and their funding

Robotics handbook. Version 1: For the interested party and professional

This publication covers several categories of information about robotics. The first section provides a brief overview of the field of Robotics. The next section provides a reasonably detailed look at the NASA Robotics program. The third section features a listing of companies and organization engaging in robotics or robotic-related activities; followed by a listing of associations involved in the field; followed by a listing of publications and periodicals which cover elements of robotics or related fields. The final section is an abbreviated abstract of referred journal material and other reference material relevant to the technology and science of robotics, including such allied fields as vision perception; three-space axis orientation and measurement systems and associated inertial reference technology and algorithms; and physical and mechanical science and technology related to robotics

Reference Model for Interoperability of Autonomous Systems

This thesis proposes a reference model to describe the components of an Un-manned Air, Ground, Surface, or Underwater System (UxS), and the use of a single Interoperability Building Block to command, control, and get feedback from such vehicles. The importance and advantages of such a reference model, with a standard nomenclature and taxonomy, is shown. We overview the concepts of interoperability and some efforts to achieve common refer-ence models in other areas. We then present an overview of existing un-manned systems, their history, characteristics, classification, and missions. The concept of Interoperability Building Blocks (IBB) is introduced to describe standards, protocols, data models, and frameworks, and a large set of these are analyzed. A new and powerful reference model for UxS, named RAMP, is proposed, that describes the various components that a UxS may have. It is a hierarchical model with four levels, that describes the vehicle components, the datalink, and the ground segment. The reference model is validated by showing how it can be applied in various projects the author worked on. An example is given on how a single standard was capable of controlling a set of heterogeneous UAVs, USVs, and UGVs

The Federal Conference on Intelligent Processing Equipment

Research and development projects involving intelligent processing equipment within the following U.S. agencies are addressed: Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency, NASA, National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation

Autonomous Pick-and-Place Procedure with an Industrial Robot Using Multiple 3D Sensors for Object Detection and Obstacle Avoidance

Master's thesis in Mechatronics (MAS500)This thesis proposes a full pipeline autonomous pick-and-place procedure, integrating perception, planning, grasping and control for execution of tasks towards long term industrial automation. Within perception, we demonstrate the detection of a large object (target) including position and orientation (pose) estimation in 3D world. Further on, obstacles in the work area are mapped with proposed filtering prior to motion planning and navigation of an industrial robot to the target’s pose. The target is then picked using a custom built motorized 3D printed end gripper, and placed at a desired location in the robot’s reachable environment. Point cloud based model-free obstacle avoidance is performed throughout the whole process. The complete pipeline is targeted towards typical tasks in various industries including offshore, logistics and warehouse domain with scanning of the scene, picking and placing of a bulky object from one position to another without or with minimal human intervention

A distributed framework for the control and cooperation of heterogeneous mobile robots in smart factories.

Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.The present consumer market is driven by the mass customisation of products. Manufacturers are now challenged with the problem of not being able to capture market share and gain higher profits by producing large volumes of the same product to a mass market. Some businesses have implemented mass customisation manufacturing (MCM) techniques as a solution to this problem, where customised products are produced rapidly while keeping the costs at a mass production level. In addition to this, the arrival of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) enables the possibility of establishing the decentralised intelligence of embedded devices to detect and respond to real-time variations in the MCM factory. One of the key pillars in the Industry 4.0, smart factory concept is Advanced Robotics. This includes cooperation and control within multiple heterogeneous robot networks, which increases flexibility in the smart factory and enables the ability to rapidly reconfigure systems to adapt to variations in consumer product demand. Another benefit in these systems is the reduction of production bottleneck conditions where robot services must be coordinated efficiently so that high levels of productivity are maintained. This study focuses on the research, design and development of a distributed framework that would aid researchers in implementing algorithms for controlling the task goals of heterogeneous mobile robots, to achieve robot cooperation and reduce bottlenecks in a production environment. The framework can be used as a toolkit by the end-user for developing advanced algorithms that can be simulated before being deployed in an actual system, thereby fast prototyping the system integration process. Keywords: Cooperation, heterogeneity, multiple mobile robots, Industry 4.0, smart factory, manufacturing, middleware, ROS, OPC, framework

Ten golden lessons from Republic of China (Taiwan), the best country to save lives during 300 days battle against Covid-19

Almost 1.81 million lives were officially lost by Covid-19 (WORLDOMETERS, 2020) until last 31thDecember 2020. It was one year with intense global battle against the pandemic, with most countries eagle to learn from benchmark nations able to save lives. A new methodology developed by Silva (2020b), with fifteen phases, showed that among 108 well-evaluated countries, the top six benchmark countries are from Asia with emphasis on Vietnam, Taiwan and Thailand. To complement Silva (2020b) study, this article aims to investigate the performance and the best management practices adopted in Taiwan to save lives, during the first 300 days facing the pandemic. The research is descriptive, uses an online questionnaire with bibliographic and documentary approaches. The Fatality Total Index (FTI) developed by Silva (2020b p. 563) was used to compare Taiwan performance against 43 finalist countries. Some results are: 1) Taiwan`s FTI300 is the lowest (0,0020), confirming that the National Government has learned from the past, and is able to integrate and support main actors of the nation to prevent, prepare and fight against the Covid-19; 2) for 109 respondents living in Taiwan, the ten main policy measures adopted by the National Government that saved lives against the virus are: international travel control (78%), effective public-private collaboration (61%), public information campaigns (52%), integration with mass media (51%), increase the medical and personal equipment capacity (49%), combat fake news (47%), public event cancellations (45%), improve intensive care unit structure (28%), support the expansion of the testing system (20%), and schools closures (16%). At the final, ten golden lessons are described, most of them from the 225 policies, measures, programs, projects, strategies, and innovative products or services identified in Taiwan, with the majority led by Public Sector (56%), Corporations (29%), followed by Others (6%), Start Up (4%) and Universities (4%)