46,299 research outputs found
Analysis and Observations from the First Amazon Picking Challenge
This paper presents a overview of the inaugural Amazon Picking Challenge
along with a summary of a survey conducted among the 26 participating teams.
The challenge goal was to design an autonomous robot to pick items from a
warehouse shelf. This task is currently performed by human workers, and there
is hope that robots can someday help increase efficiency and throughput while
lowering cost. We report on a 28-question survey posed to the teams to learn
about each team's background, mechanism design, perception apparatus, planning
and control approach. We identify trends in this data, correlate it with each
team's success in the competition, and discuss observations and lessons learned
based on survey results and the authors' personal experiences during the
challenge
Design of an Anthropomorphic, Compliant, and Lightweight Dual Arm for Aerial Manipulation
This paper presents an anthropomorphic, compliant and lightweight dual arm manipulator designed and developed for aerial manipulation applications with multi-rotor platforms. Each arm provides four degrees of freedom in a human-like kinematic configuration for end effector positioning: shoulder pitch, roll and yaw, and elbow pitch. The dual arm, weighting 1.3 kg in total, employs smart servo actuators and a customized and carefully designed aluminum frame structure manufactured by laser cut. The proposed
design reduces the manufacturing cost as no computer numerical control machined part is used. Mechanical joint compliance is provided in all the joints, introducing a compact spring-lever transmission mechanism between the servo shaft and the links, integrating a potentiometer for measuring the deflection of the joints.
The servo actuators are partially or fully isolated against impacts and overloads thanks to the ange bearings attached to the frame structure that support the rotation of the links and the deflection of the joints. This simple mechanism increases the robustness of the arms and safety in the physical interactions between the aerial
robot and the environment. The developed manipulator has been validated through different experiments in fixed base test-bench and in outdoor flight tests.UniĂłn Europea H2020-ICT-2014- 644271Ministerio de EconomĂa y Competitividad DPI2015-71524-RMinisterio de EconomĂa y Competitividad DPI2017-89790-
Ground Robotic Hand Applications for the Space Program study (GRASP)
This document reports on a NASA-STDP effort to address research interests of the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) through a study entitled, Ground Robotic-Hand Applications for the Space Program (GRASP). The primary objective of the GRASP study was to identify beneficial applications of specialized end-effectors and robotic hand devices for automating any ground operations which are performed at the Kennedy Space Center. Thus, operations for expendable vehicles, the Space Shuttle and its components, and all payloads were included in the study. Typical benefits of automating operations, or augmenting human operators performing physical tasks, include: reduced costs; enhanced safety and reliability; and reduced processing turnaround time
Applying SDBC in the Cultural-Heritage Sector
An actual cultural-heritage-related problem is how to effectively manage the global distribution of digitized
cultural and scientific information, taking into account that such a global distribution is only doable through
the Internet. Hence, adequately designing software applications realizing brokerage functionality in the
global space, particularly concerning digitized cultural/scientific information, is to be considered as an
essential cultural-heritage-related task. However, due to its great complexity, the usage of the existing
popular modelling instrumentarium seems insufficiently useful; this is mainly because the realization of a
satisfactory cultural-heritage brokering requires a deep understanding and consideration of the original
business reality. Inspired by this challenge, we have aimed at exploring relevant strengths of the SDBC
approach which is currently being developed. SDBC’s being capable of properly aligning business process
modelling and software specification, allowing for re-use and being consistent with the latest software
design standards, are among the facts in support of the claim that SDBC could bring value concerning the
design of cultural-heritage-related brokerage applications. Hence, in this paper we motivate and illustrate
the usefulness of SDBC for the cultural-heritage sector
Idealization and Many Aims
In this paper, I first outline the view developed in my recent book on the role of idealization in scientific understanding. I discuss how this view leads to the recognition of a number of kinds of variability among scientific representations, including variability introduced by the many different aims of scientific projects. I then argue that the role of idealization in securing understanding distances understanding from truth, but that this understanding nonetheless gives rise to scientific knowledge. This discussion will clarify how my view relates to three other recent books on understanding by Henk de Regt, Catherine Elgin, and Kareem Khalifa
Multi-Modal Human-Machine Communication for Instructing Robot Grasping Tasks
A major challenge for the realization of intelligent robots is to supply them
with cognitive abilities in order to allow ordinary users to program them
easily and intuitively. One way of such programming is teaching work tasks by
interactive demonstration. To make this effective and convenient for the user,
the machine must be capable to establish a common focus of attention and be
able to use and integrate spoken instructions, visual perceptions, and
non-verbal clues like gestural commands. We report progress in building a
hybrid architecture that combines statistical methods, neural networks, and
finite state machines into an integrated system for instructing grasping tasks
by man-machine interaction. The system combines the GRAVIS-robot for visual
attention and gestural instruction with an intelligent interface for speech
recognition and linguistic interpretation, and an modality fusion module to
allow multi-modal task-oriented man-machine communication with respect to
dextrous robot manipulation of objects.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure
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