A Review on the Application of Natural Computing in Environmental Informatics

Natural computing offers new opportunities to understand, model and analyze the complexity of the physical and human-created environment. This paper examines the application of natural computing in environmental informatics, by investigating related work in this research field. Various nature-inspired techniques are presented, which have been employed to solve different relevant problems. Advantages and disadvantages of these techniques are discussed, together with analysis of how natural computing is generally used in environmental research.Comment: Proc. of EnviroInfo 201

A reference architecture for managing variability among teleoperated service robots

Teleoperated robots are used to perform hazardous tasks that human operators cannot carry out. The purpose of this paper is to present a new architecture (ACROSET) for the development of these systems that takes into account the current advances in robotic architectures while adopting the component-oriented approach. ACROSET provides a common framework for developing this kind of robotized systems and for integrating intelligent components. The architecture is currently being used, tested and improved in the development of a family of robots, teleoperated cranes and vehicles which perform environmentally friendly cleaning of ship-hull surfaces (the EFTCoR project).The DSIE wishes to thank the Spanish Government (CICYT) and the Regional Government of Murcia (Seneca Programmes) for their support: TIC2003- 07804-C05-02 and PB/5/FS/02

An implemetation of a teleoperated robot control architecture on a PLC and field-bus based plarform

Teleoperated robots are used to perform hazardous tasks that human operators cannot carry out. The purpose of this paper is to present a new architecture (ACROSET) for the development of these systems that takes into account the current advances in robotic architectures while adopting the component-oriented approach. ACROSET provides a common framework for developing this kind of robotized systems and for integrating intelligent components. The architecture is currently being used, tested and improved in the development of a family of robots, teleoperated cranes and vehicles which perform environmentally friendly cleaning of ship-hull surfaces (the EFTCoR project). This paper summarises the features of this project and describes the implementation of ACROSET on a hardware platform based on a PLC (Programmed Logic Controller) SIEMENS SIMATIC S7-300 and the Field-Bus PROFIBUS DP

Reconfiguración Dinámica de Arquitecturas Software Aplicada a la Tolerancia a Fallos

En la actualidad, el desarrollo de sistemas software tolerante a fallos se realiza a un nivel dependiente de la tecnología, con lo que aumenta su complejidad y disminuye la reutilización. La mayoría de estrategias de tolerancia a fallos son estáticas: se basan en replicar elementos críticos para que, ante cualquier fallo, sus réplicas tomen el relevo. En este trabajo se describe cómo la reconfiguración dinámica de arquitecturas software puede aplicarse para desarrollar sistemas tolerantes a fallos. Las técnicas de reconfiguración dinámica permiten cambiar la configuración de sistemas software complejos en tiempo de ejecución, sin necesidad de detener el sistema. Este artículo describe cómo la reconfiguración dinámica es soportada a nivel de arquitecturas software y mediante aspectos, separando la funcionalidad de reconfiguración y las políticas de recuperación frente a fallos del resto de funcionalidades del sistema. Esto se ilustra mediante la definición de las políticas de recuperación del sistema de visión del Agrobot, un sistema robótico del ámbito agrícola

Design of service robots: Experiences using software engineering

This article relates our experiences over the last 15 years in the development of robotic applications within the field of service robotics, using the techniques proposed by software engineering. The process began with domain engineering and reference architectures, moved on to component-oriented development, and currently centered on model-driven design. One of the key problems in software development for robotic systems is that the possibilities of reusing software in new applications are frequently limited. This means that we are forced over and over to solve the same problems starting practically from zero every time. The possible causes of this include the following: 1) robotics specialists normally concentrate more on developing algorithms and the way to solve concrete problems than on organizing the software; 2) lack of good standards for the development of robotic software and implementations of these standards; 3) the case studies conducted to demonstrate the viability of software engineering techniques traditionally deal with information management systems; and 4) the robotics community see software engineering not as a solution but as another problem that adds complexity to already complex problems. This research has helped to demonstrate the viability of using software engineering techniques in real industrial applications, albeit using academic tools that cannot readily be accepted by industry.This work has been supported by EU and Spanish Government research programmes: 5th FP (GROWTH G3RD-CT-00794), CICYT-FEDER Program (MEDWSA, TIN2006-15175-C05- 02). Additional funds have been supplied by the Government of Murcia (Fundación Séneca) and the Spanish Ministry of Industry (PROFIT programs)

A cost-effective robotic solution for the cleaning of ships' hulls

Hull cleaning before repainting is a key operation in the maintenance of ships. For more than a decade, a means to improve this operation has been sought through robotization and the use of different techniques such as grit blasting and ultra high pressure water jetting. Despite this, it continues to be standard practice in shipyards that this process is carried out manually. This paper presents a family of robots that aims to offer important improvements to the process as well as satisfying, to a great extent, all the operative requirements of efficiency, security, and respect for the environment that shipyards nowadays demand. It is described the family of devices with emphasis on the mechanical design. This set consists of two vertical robotic towers and a robot climber. In addition, it is shown the control architecture of the global system. Finally, operative results are presented together with a comparison between the performance achieved in shipyards through the use of these robots and those obtained with a manual process.The work submitted here has been developed within the framework of the “EFTCoR: Environmentally Friendly and Cost-Effective Technology for Coating Removal (EFTCoR)” project, Fifth Frame Programme of the European Community (ref. GRD2-2001-50004). It has also received financing from the Spanish government (national plan of I + D + I, PET 2008-0131 and MEDWSA-TIN2006-5175-CO5-O2) and from the Government of the Region of Murcia (Séneca Foundation)

Review of Development Stages in the Conceptual Design of an Electro Hydrostatic Actuator for Robotics

The design of modern robotic devices faces numerous requirements and limitations which are related to optimization and robustness. Consequently, these stringent requirements have caused improvements in many engineering areas and lead to development of new optimization methods which better handle new complex products designed for application in industrial robots. One of the newly developed methods used in industrial robotics is the concept of a self-contained power device, an Electro-Hydrostatic Actuator (EHA). EHA devices were designed with a central idea, to avoid the possible drawbacks which were present in other types of actuators that are currently used in robotic systems. This paper is a review of the development phases of an EHA device for robotic applications. An overview of the advantages and disadvantages related to current EHA designs are presented, and finally possible ideas for future developments are suggested

Experiences Developing Safe and Fault-Tolerant Tele-Operated Service Robots. A Case Study in Shipyards

Human operators use tele-operated service robots for performing more or less hazardous operations (manipulation of heavy and/or dangerous products) in more or less hostile environments (nuclear reactors, space missions, warehouses, etc). Anyway, independently of the operation, the robot has to interact with both the environment it is working on and with human operators. Therefore, it is essential that the design (which include both software and hardware) of the robot involves no risk, or at least an acceptable level of risk, neither for the operators, nor for the environment nor for the robot itself. Nevertheless, it is not always possible to make a system free of failures in its design or operation. Apart from the risk inherent to the use of the mechanisms themselves, these systems work in hazardous environments, where the probability of the risk is higher than normal. Should a failure happen, its consequences could even involve the loss of human lives. (Neumann, 1994) documents many cases of computer-related failures, such as the Therac-25 (a radiation-therapy device), the missiles shield in Saudi Arabia, etc. Nevertheless, safety aspects are seldom included in the early phases of the system design process from the beginning, even though they are a critic aspect. Generally, safety has to conform and adapt to the already designed system and not vice versa, when it is widely known that safety involves not only the design of the software but also the hardware. Even more, a simple hardware solution can eliminate a hazard or simplify the software design in many situations.This research has been funded by the Spanish CICYT project MEDWSA (TIN2006-15175- C05-02) and the Regional Government of Murcia Séneca Program (02998-PI-05)

Customized vibration generator for state of health monitoring of prosthetic implants and pseudo-bionic machine-human feedbacks

Modern industrial, household and other equipment include sophisticated power mechanisms and complicated control solutions that require tighter human-machine-human interactions to form the structures known as cyber-physical-human systems. Their significant parts are human-machine command links and machine-human feedbacks. Such systems are found in medicine, e.g., in orthopedics, where they are important for the operation and functional abilities of orthopedic devices-wheelchair, prosthesis, rehabilitation units, etc. The mentioned feedbacks may be implemented based on the haptic perceptions that requires vibration actuators. In orthopedics, such actuators can be used also for diagnostic purposes. This research brings forward the idea of the use of 3D printing in conjunction with high quality permanent magnets. This allows for the achievement of better efficiency, smaller size, and the developing of actuators individually for particular circumstances. The obtained simulation, experimental data, and data about 3D manufacturing generally confirm the above hypothesis. In particular, the stiffness coefficient of the actuator's membrane and attached mass, which can be changed easily during 3D printing, affects the frequency of maximal power output. Secondly, the 3D manufacturing process is quick, tunable and rather cheap. Finally, an elaboration of the design of the actuator that allows for the real-time modification of stiffness and mass in a program way is planned for future workspublishersversionPeer reviewe