Comparing Innovation Performance in the EU and the USA: Lessons from Three ICT Sub-Sectors

The objective of the study is to document the existence of innovation gaps between the EU and its main competitors in specific ICT sub-sectors – namely web services, industrial robotics and display technologies –and to explore the role of government policies in Europe’s future needs for innovation in information and communication technologies (ICT) through a comparison with the USA and Asian countries. Our analysis shows that rather than there being a simple innovation gap with the EU lagging behind the USA, a more nuanced picture emerges in which firms in different countries have strengths in different sub-sectors and in different parts of the value chain. A key lesson from the analysis of the three subsectors is the critical importance of higher education, particularly elite university research, and of local networks as generated by clusters. Governments can also encourage innovation through appropriate intellectual property and competition laws and, more generally, through the development of a business environment conducive to innovation. Finally, Governments can have a very important role through the funding of early-stage innovationJRC.J.3-Information Societ

Space Science Opportunities Augmented by Exploration Telepresence

Since the end of the Apollo missions to the lunar surface in December 1972, humanity has exclusively conducted scientific studies on distant planetary surfaces using teleprogrammed robots. Operations and science return for all of these missions are constrained by two issues related to the great distances between terrestrial scientists and their exploration targets: high communication latencies and limited data bandwidth. Despite the proven successes of in-situ science being conducted using teleprogrammed robotic assets such as Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity rovers on the surface of Mars, future planetary field research may substantially overcome latency and bandwidth constraints by employing a variety of alternative strategies that could involve: 1) placing scientists/astronauts directly on planetary surfaces, as was done in the Apollo era; 2) developing fully autonomous robotic systems capable of conducting in-situ field science research; or 3) teleoperation of robotic assets by humans sufficiently proximal to the exploration targets to drastically reduce latencies and significantly increase bandwidth, thereby achieving effective human telepresence. This third strategy has been the focus of experts in telerobotics, telepresence, planetary science, and human spaceflight during two workshops held from October 3–7, 2016, and July 7–13, 2017, at the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS). Based on findings from these workshops, this document describes the conceptual and practical foundations of low-latency telepresence (LLT), opportunities for using derivative approaches for scientific exploration of planetary surfaces, and circumstances under which employing telepresence would be especially productive for planetary science. An important finding of these workshops is the conclusion that there has been limited study of the advantages of planetary science via LLT. A major recommendation from these workshops is that space agencies such as NASA should substantially increase science return with greater investments in this promising strategy for human conduct at distant exploration sites

Space Science Opportunities Augmented by Exploration Telepresence

Since the end of the Apollo missions to the lunar surface in December 1972, humanity has exclusively conducted scientific studies on distant planetary surfaces using teleprogrammed robots. Operations and science return for all of these missions are constrained by two issues related to the great distances between terrestrial scientists and their exploration targets: high communication latencies and limited data bandwidth. Despite the proven successes of in-situ science being conducted using teleprogrammed robotic assets such as Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity rovers on the surface of Mars, future planetary field research may substantially overcome latency and bandwidth constraints by employing a variety of alternative strategies that could involve: 1) placing scientists/astronauts directly on planetary surfaces, as was done in the Apollo era; 2) developing fully autonomous robotic systems capable of conducting in-situ field science research; or 3) teleoperation of robotic assets by humans sufficiently proximal to the exploration targets to drastically reduce latencies and significantly increase bandwidth, thereby achieving effective human telepresence. This third strategy has been the focus of experts in telerobotics, telepresence, planetary science, and human spaceflight during two workshops held from October 3–7, 2016, and July 7–13, 2017, at the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS). Based on findings from these workshops, this document describes the conceptual and practical foundations of low-latency telepresence (LLT), opportunities for using derivative approaches for scientific exploration of planetary surfaces, and circumstances under which employing telepresence would be especially productive for planetary science. An important finding of these workshops is the conclusion that there has been limited study of the advantages of planetary science via LLT. A major recommendation from these workshops is that space agencies such as NASA should substantially increase science return with greater investments in this promising strategy for human conduct at distant exploration sites

Long-Horizon Task Planning and Execution with Functional Object-Oriented Networks

Following work on joint object-action representation, functional object-oriented networks (FOON) were introduced as a knowledge representation for robots. A FOON contains symbolic (high-level) concepts useful to a robot's understanding of tasks and its environment for object-level planning. Prior to this work, little has been done to show how plans acquired from FOON can be executed by a robot, as the concepts in a FOON are too abstract for immediate execution. We propose a hierarchical task planning approach that translates a FOON graph into a PDDL-based representation of domain knowledge for task planning and execution. As a result of this process, a task plan can be acquired, which can be executed by a robot from start to end, leveraging the use of action contexts and skills as dynamic movement primitives (DMPs). We demonstrate the entire pipeline from planning to execution using CoppeliaSim and show how learned action contexts can be extended to never-before-seen scenarios.Comment: Preliminary Draft, 8 pages, IEEE Conference Forma

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

Passivity based nonlinear model predictive control (PNMPC) of multi-robot systems for space applications

In the past 2 decades, there has been increasing interest in autonomous multi-robot systems for space use. They can assemble space structures and provide services for other space assets. The utmost significance lies in the performance, stability, and robustness of these space operations. By considering system dynamics and constraints, the Model Predictive Control (MPC) framework optimizes performance. Unlike other methods, standard MPC can offer greater robustness due to its receding horizon nature. However, current literature on MPC application to space robotics primarily focuses on linear models, which is not suitable for highly non-linear multi-robot systems. Although Nonlinear MPC (NMPC) shows promise for free-floating space manipulators, current NMPC applications are limited to unconstrained non-linear systems and do not guarantee closed-loop stability. This paper introduces a novel approach to NMPC using the concept of passivity to multi-robot systems for space applications. By utilizing a passivity-based state constraint and a terminal storage function, the proposed PNMPC scheme ensures closed-loop stability and a superior performance. Therefore, this approach offers an alternative method to the control Lyapunov function for control of non-linear multi-robot space systems and applications, as stability and passivity exhibit a close relationship. Finally, this paper demonstrates that the benefits of passivity-based concepts and NMPC can be combined into a single NMPC scheme that maintains the advantages of each, including closed-loop stability through passivity and good performance through one-line optimization in NMPC

Automation strategies for sample preparation in life science applications

Automation is broadly applied in life science field, with robots playing critical roles. In this dissertation, a platform based on a Yaskawa industrial dual-arm robot (CSDA10F) is presented, which is to automate the sample preparation processes and to integrate analytical instruments. A user-friendly interface has been provided by integrating the platform with SAMI Workstation EX Software. For automating the sample preparation processes, the robot needs to use various commercial tools, including pipette, syringe, microplate, vial, thermo shaker, ultrasonic machine and so on

Management: A bibliography for NASA managers

This bibliography lists 731 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System in 1990. Items are selected and grouped according to their usefulness to the manager as manager. Citations are grouped into ten subject categories: human factors and personnel issues; management theory and techniques; industrial management and manufacturing; robotics and expert systems; computers and information management; research and development; economics, costs and markets; logistics and operations management; reliability and quality control; and legality, legislation, and policy

Multi-Robot Systems: Challenges, Trends and Applications

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue entitled “Multi-Robot Systems: Challenges, Trends, and Applications” that was published in Applied Sciences. This Special Issue collected seventeen high-quality papers that discuss the main challenges of multi-robot systems, present the trends to address these issues, and report various relevant applications. Some of the topics addressed by these papers are robot swarms, mission planning, robot teaming, machine learning, immersive technologies, search and rescue, and social robotics