Real-time Robot-assisted Ergonomics

This paper describes a novel approach in human robot interaction driven by ergonomics. With a clear focus on optimising ergonomics, the approach proposed here continuously observes a human user's posture and by invoking appropriate cooperative robot movements, the user's posture is, whenever required, brought back to an ergonomic optimum. Effectively, the new protocol optimises the human-robot relative position and orientation as a function of human ergonomics. An RGB-D camera is used to calculate and monitor human joint angles in real-time and to determine the current ergonomics state. A total of 6 main causes of low ergonomic states are identified, leading to 6 universal robot responses to allow the human to return to an optimal ergonomics state. The algorithmic framework identifies these 6 causes and controls the cooperating robot to always adapt the environment (e.g. change the pose of the workpiece) in a way that is ergonomically most comfortable for the interacting user. Hence, human-robot interaction is continuously re-evaluated optimizing ergonomics states. The approach is validated through an experimental study, based on established ergonomic methods and their adaptation for real-time application. The study confirms improved ergonomics using the new approach.Comment: 6 pages, accepted and to be presented at IEEE ICRA 201

Worker-robot cooperation and integration into the manufacturing workcell via the holonic control architecture

Cooperative manufacturing is a new field of research, which addresses new challenges beyond the physical safety of the worker. Those new challenges appear due to the need to connect the worker and the cobot from the informatics point of view in one cooperative workcell. This requires developing an appropriate manufacturing control system, which fits the nature of both the worker and the cobot. Furthermore, the manufacturing control system must be able to understand the production variations, to guide the cooperation between worker and the cobot and adapt with the production variations.Die kooperative Fertigung ist ein neues Forschungsgebiet, das sich neuen Herausforderungen stellt. Diese neuen Herausforderungen ergeben sich aus der Notwendigkeit, den Arbeiter und den Cobot aus der Sicht der Informatik in einem kooperativen Arbeitsplatz zu verbinden. Dies erfordert die Entwicklung eines geeigneten Produktionskontrollsystems, das sowohl der Natur des Arbeiters als auch der des Cobots entspricht. Darüber hinaus muss die Fertigungssteuerung in der Lage sein, die Produktionsschwankungen zu verstehen, um die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Arbeiter und Cobot zu steuern

User-centered design of a dynamic-autonomy remote interaction concept for manipulation-capable robots to assist elderly people in the home

In this article, we describe the development of a human-robot interaction concept for service robots to assist elderly people in the home with physical tasks. Our approach is based on the insight that robots are not yet able to handle all tasks autonomously with sufficient reliability in the complex and heterogeneous environments of private homes. We therefore employ remote human operators to assist on tasks a robot cannot handle completely autonomously. Our development methodology was user-centric and iterative, with six user studies carried out at various stages involving a total of 241 participants. The concept is under implementation on the Care-O-bot 3 robotic platform. The main contributions of this article are (1) the results of a survey in form of a ranking of the demands of elderly people and informal caregivers for a range of 25 robot services, (2) the results of an ethnography investigating the suitability of emergency teleassistance and telemedical centers for incorporating robotic teleassistance, and (3) a user-validated human-robot interaction concept with three user roles and corresponding three user interfaces designed as a solution to the problem of engineering reliable service robots for home environments

Cybersecurity in Autonomous Systems: Evaluating the performance of hardening ROS

As robotic systems spread, cybersecurity emerges as major concern. Currently most research autonomous systems are built using the ROS framework, along with other commercial software. ROS is a distributed framework where nodes publish information that other nodes consume. This model simplifies data communication but poses a major threat because a malicious process could easily interfere the communications, read private messages or even supersede nodes. In this paper we propose that ROS communications should be encrypted. We also measure how encryption affects its performance.We have used 3DES cyphering algorithm and we have evaluated the performance of the system, both from the computing and the communications point of view. Preliminary results show that symmetric ciphers using private keys impose significant delay

UV-induced ligand exchange in MHC class I protein crystals

High-throughput structure determination of protein−ligand complexes is central in drug development and structural proteomics. To facilitate such high-throughput structure determination we designed an induced replacement strategy. Crystals of a protein complex bound to a photosensitive ligand are exposed to UV light, inducing the departure of the bound ligand, allowing a new ligand to soak in. We exemplify the approach for a class of protein complexes that is especially recalcitrant to high-throughput strategies: the MHC class I proteins. We developed a UV-sensitive, “conditional”, peptide ligand whose UV-induced cleavage in the crystals leads to the exchange of the low-affinity lytic fragments for full-length peptides introduced in the crystallant solution. This “in crystallo” exchange is monitored by the loss of seleno-methionine anomalous diffraction signal of the conditional peptide compared to the signal of labeled MHC β2m subunit. This method has the potential to facilitate high-throughput crystallography in various protein families

Becoming Human with Humanoid

Nowadays, our expectations of robots have been significantly increases. The robot, which was initially only doing simple jobs, is now expected to be smarter and more dynamic. People want a robot that resembles a human (humanoid) has and has emotional intelligence that can perform action-reaction interactions. This book consists of two sections. The first section focuses on emotional intelligence, while the second section discusses the control of robotics. The contents of the book reveal the outcomes of research conducted by scholars in robotics fields to accommodate needs of society and industry

Automated industrial inspection workbench for human machine interface (HMI) consoles

The actual moment of the industrial production is changing the way of production. Now the systems are adaptable to produce different items in the same production line with a very reduced time to setup the systems. In the same way, the quality control systems must be more adaptable and intelligent possible. The present work propose the creation of intelligent and adaptable inspection cell to inspect Human Machine Interface (HMI) consoles of different types. This cell is composed by an image acquisition system with controlled illumination, a force sensor installed on the robot tool to verify the buttons’ functionality. The force tests are processed and classified using decision three, k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification method. Besides, the Thin-Film Transistor (TFT) display uses Normalized Cross-Correlation (NCC) and Correlation Coefficients (CC) to check the display’s regions. To Liquid Cristal Display (LCD) is used the same method and also be used a Neural Network Classification (NNC). In the experimental tests, four different types of consoles prototypes are tested, one of them has a TFT display and buttons, others two have only buttons and one has only a LCD display. In the inspection workbench is created, all the hardware necessary to execute the inspection was installed successfully. Moreover, the inspection methods obtained a precision higher than 90% to the buttons and display inspection.O momento atual produção industrial está mudando a forma de produzir. Agora os sistemas são adaptativos para produzir diferentes itens na mesma linha de produção com tempo de mudança ou customização muito reduzido. No mesmo sentido, os sistemas de controle de qualidade devem ser o mais adaptativo e inteligente possível. O presente trabalho propõe o desenvolvimento de célula de inspeção inteligente e adaptativa para inspectionar consoles de Human Machine Interface (HMI) de diferentes tipos. Esta célula é composta por um sistema de aquisição de imagem com iluminação controlada, um sensor de força instalado na ferramenta de um manipulador para verificar a funcionalidade dos botões. Os testes de força são processados e classificados usando métodos de aprendizagem de máquina, nomeadamente, decision tree, k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM). Além disso,é utilizada a Nomalized Cross-Correlation e Correlation Coefficients para checar as regiões do display do tipo Thin-Film Transistor (TFT). Em displays do tipo Cristal Líquido (LCD) é utilizado o mesmo metodo, sendo também utilizada a classificação usando Rede Neurais. Nos testes experimentais, foram testados quatro tipos de consoles HMI, sendo que um deles possui um display de TFT e botões, outros dois possuem somente botões e um tem somente um display de LCD. Na bancada de inspeção criada, foi devidamente instalado todo o hardware necessário para execução da inspeção. Além do mais, obteve-se precisão acima de 90% para os métodos de inspeção dos botões e displays