Advanced Strategies for Robot Manipulators

Amongst the robotic systems, robot manipulators have proven themselves to be of increasing importance and are widely adopted to substitute for human in repetitive and/or hazardous tasks. Modern manipulators are designed complicatedly and need to do more precise, crucial and critical tasks. So, the simple traditional control methods cannot be efficient, and advanced control strategies with considering special constraints are needed to establish. In spite of the fact that groundbreaking researches have been carried out in this realm until now, there are still many novel aspects which have to be explored

Experiential learning of robotics fundamentals based on a case study of robot-assisted stereotactic neurosurgery

Robotics has been playing an important role in modern surgery, especially in procedures that require extreme precision, such as neurosurgery. This paper addresses the challenge of teaching robotics to undergraduate engineering students, through an experiential learning project of robotics fundamentals based on a case study of robot-assisted stereotactic neurosurgery. The project was integrated into the curriculum of a Biomedical Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering program, but can also be integrated in related courses. First, students are given a presentation on the planning and execution of a stereotactic neurosurgery procedure, with special attention being paid to the concepts involved, namely spatial transformations, kinematics, and trajectory planning. Students are then taught to use a robotics simulation tool for robot-assisted stereotactic neurosurgery. They are shown how this can be used as a specialized control application, providing direct feedback on the robot's motion in a neurosurgery scenario. They are then required to select a robotic manipulator, and to develop and implement its control code to make it perform as a robot assistant in this surgical procedure. Project efficacy was evaluated through student self-report data (with dedicated anonymous surveys) and through the impact on academic and pedagogical results (by means of statistical inference). The results of the student surveys show that the robotics simulator for stereotactic neurosurgery is well suited to its role as an experiential learning tool since it enhances the understanding and application of several robotics concepts in an appealing manner. The positive impact of the project learning experience is supported by a comparison to earlier years of student grades, pass rates, and feedback from an institutional survey.This work was supported by the POPH/FSE program under Grant SFRH/BD/86499/2012, the Foundation for Science and Technology, and the NETTProjectunderGrantFP7-PEOPLE-2011-ITN-289146.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Assuming Data Integrity and Empirical Evidence to The Contrary

Background: Not all respondents to surveys apply their minds or understand the posed questions, and as such provide answers which lack coherence, and this threatens the integrity of the research. Casual inspection and limited research of the 10-item Big Five Inventory (BFI-10), included in the dataset of the World Values Survey (WVS), suggested that random responses may be common. Objective: To specify the percentage of cases in the BRI-10 which include incoherent or contradictory responses and to test the extent to which the removal of these cases will improve the quality of the dataset. Method: The WVS data on the BFI-10, measuring the Big Five Personality (B5P), in South Africa (N=3 531), was used. Incoherent or contradictory responses were removed. Then the cases from the cleaned-up dataset were analysed for their theoretical validity. Results: Only 1 612 (45.7%) cases were identified as not including incoherent or contradictory responses. The cleaned-up data did not mirror the B5P- structure, as was envisaged. The test for common method bias was negative. Conclusion: In most cases the responses were incoherent. Cleaning up the data did not improve the psychometric properties of the BFI-10. This raises concerns about the quality of the WVS data, the BFI-10, and the universality of B5P-theory. Given these results, it would be unwise to use the BFI-10 in South Africa. Researchers are alerted to do a proper assessment of the psychometric properties of instruments before they use it, particularly in a cross-cultural setting