6,531 research outputs found

    Design and Quantitative Assessment of Teleoperation-Based Human–Robot Collaboration Method for Robot-Assisted Sonography

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    Tele-echography has emerged as a promising and effective solution, leveraging the expertise of sonographers and the autonomy of robots to perform ultrasound scanning for patients residing in remote areas, without the need for in-person visits by the sonographer. Designing effective and natural human-robot interfaces for tele-echography remains challenging, with patient safety being a critical concern. In this article, we develop a teleoperation system for robot-assisted sonography with two different interfaces, a haptic device-based interface and a low-cost 3D Mouse-based interface, which can achieve continuous and intuitive telemanipulation by a leader device with a small workspace. To achieve compliant interaction with patients, we design impedance controllers in Cartesian space to track the desired position and orientation for these two teleoperation interfaces. We also propose comprehensive evaluation metrics of robot-assisted sonography, including subjective and objective evaluation, to evaluate tele-echography interfaces and control performance. We evaluate the ergonomic performance based on the estimated muscle fatigue and the acquired ultrasound image quality. We conduct user studies based on the NASA Task Load Index to evaluate the performance of these two human-robot interfaces. The tracking performance and the quantitative comparison of these two teleoperation interfaces are conducted by the Franka Emika Panda robot. The results and findings provide guidance on human-robot collaboration design and implementation for robot-assisted sonography. Note to Practitioners —Robot-assisted sonography has demonstrated efficacy in medical diagnosis during clinical trials. However, deploying fully autonomous robots for ultrasound scanning remains challenging due to various constraints in practice, such as patient safety, dynamic tasks, and environmental uncertainties. Semi-autonomous or teleoperation-based robot sonography represents a promising approach for practical deployment. Previous work has produced various expensive teleoperation interfaces but lacks user studies to guide teleoperation interface selection. In this article, we present two typical teleoperation interfaces and implement a continuous and intuitive teleoperation control system. We also propose a comprehensive evaluation metric for assessing their performance. Our findings show that the haptic device outperforms the 3D Mouse, based on operators’ feedback and acquired image quality. However, the haptic device requires more learning time and effort in the training stage. Furthermore, the developed teleoperation system offers a solution for shared control and human-robot skill transfer. Our results provide valuable guidance for designing and implementing human-robot interfaces for robot-assisted sonography in practice

    RoboCrane: a system for providing a power and a communication link between lunar surface and lunar caves for exploring robots

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    Lava caves are the result of a geological process related to the cooling of basaltic lava flows. On the Moon, this process may lead to caves several kilometers long and diameters of hundreds of meters. Access to lava tubes can be granted through skylights, a vertical pit between the lava tube and the lunar surface. This represents an outstanding opportunity for long-term missions, for future permanent human settlements, and for accessing pristine samples of lava, secondary minerals and volatiles. Given this, the ESA launched a campaign through the Open Space Innovation Platform calling for ideas that would tackle the many challenges of exploring lava pits. Five projects, including Robocrane, were selected. Solar light and direct line of sight (for communications) with the lunar surface are not available inside lava tubes. This is a problem for any robot (or swarm of robots) exploring the lava tubes. Robocrane tackles both problems by deploying an element (called the Charging head, or CH) at the bottom of the skylight by means of a crane. This CH behaves as a battery charger and a communication relay for the exploring robots. The required energy is extracted from the crane’s solar panel (on the surface) and driven to the bottom of the skylight through an electrical wire running in parallel to the crane hoisting wire. Using a crane allows the system to deal with unstable terrain around the skylight rim and protect the wires from abrasion from the rocky surface and the pit rim. The charger in the CH is wireless so that the charging process can begin as soon as any of the robots get close enough to the CH. This avoids complex and time-consuming docking operations, aggravated by the skylight floor orography. The crane infrastructure can also be used to deploy the exploring robots inside the pit, reducing their design constraints and mass budget, as the robots do not need to implement their own self-deployment system. Finally, RoboCrane includes all the sensors and actuators for remote operation from a ground station. RoboCrane has been designed in a parametric tool so it can be dynamically and rapidly adjusted to input-variable changes, such as the number of exploring robots, their electrical characteristics, and crane reach, etc.Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. RTI2018-099682-A-I0

    Southern Adventist University Undergraduate Catalog 2023-2024

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    Southern Adventist University\u27s undergraduate catalog for the academic year 2023-2024.https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/undergrad_catalog/1123/thumbnail.jp

    Multidisciplinary perspectives on Artificial Intelligence and the law

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    This open access book presents an interdisciplinary, multi-authored, edited collection of chapters on Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’) and the Law. AI technology has come to play a central role in the modern data economy. Through a combination of increased computing power, the growing availability of data and the advancement of algorithms, AI has now become an umbrella term for some of the most transformational technological breakthroughs of this age. The importance of AI stems from both the opportunities that it offers and the challenges that it entails. While AI applications hold the promise of economic growth and efficiency gains, they also create significant risks and uncertainty. The potential and perils of AI have thus come to dominate modern discussions of technology and ethics – and although AI was initially allowed to largely develop without guidelines or rules, few would deny that the law is set to play a fundamental role in shaping the future of AI. As the debate over AI is far from over, the need for rigorous analysis has never been greater. This book thus brings together contributors from different fields and backgrounds to explore how the law might provide answers to some of the most pressing questions raised by AI. An outcome of the Católica Research Centre for the Future of Law and its interdisciplinary working group on Law and Artificial Intelligence, it includes contributions by leading scholars in the fields of technology, ethics and the law.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Current status and future application of electrically controlled micro/nanorobots in biomedicine

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    Using micro/nanorobots (MNRs) for targeted therapy within the human body is an emerging research direction in biomedical science. These nanoscale to microscale miniature robots possess specificity and precision that are lacking in most traditional treatment modalities. Currently, research on electrically controlled micro/nanorobots is still in its early stages, with researchers primarily focusing on the fabrication and manipulation of these robots to meet complex clinical demands. This review aims to compare the fabrication, powering, and locomotion of various electrically controlled micro/nanorobots, and explore their advantages, disadvantages, and potential applications

    Sizing the Actuators for a Dragon Fly Prototype

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    In order to improve the design of the actuators of a Dragon Fly prototype, we study the loads applied to the actuators in operation. Both external and inertial forces are taken into account, as well as internal loads, for the purposes of evaluating the influence of the compliance of the arms on that of the "end-effector". We have shown many inadequacies of the arms regarding the stiffness needed to meet the initial design requirements. In order to reduce these inadequacies, a careful structural analysis of the stiffness of the actuators is carried out with a FEM technique, aimed at identifying the design methodology necessary to identify the mechanical elements of the arms to be stiffened. As an example, the design of the actuators is presented, with the aim of proposing an indirect calibration strategy. We have shown that the performances of the Dragon Fly prototype can be improved by developing and including in the control system a suitable module to compensate the incoming errors. By implementing our model in some practical simulations, with a maximum load on the actuators, and internal stresses, we have shown the efficiency of our model by collected experimental data. A FEM analysis is carried out on each actuator to identify the critical elements to be stiffened, and a calibration strategy is used to evaluate and compensate the expected kinematic errors due to gravity and external loads. The obtained results are used to assess the size of the actuators. The sensitivity analysis on the effects of global compliance within the structure enables us to identify and stiffen the critical elements (typically the extremities of the actuators). The worst loading conditions have been evaluated, by considering the internal loads in the critical points of the machine structure results in enabling us the sizing of the actuators. So that the Dragon fly prototype project has been set up, and the first optimal design of the arms has been performed by means of FEM analysis

    Decentralised State Feedback Tracking Control for Large-Scale Interconnected Systems Using Sliding Mode Techniques

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    A class of large-scale interconnected systems with matched and unmatched uncertainties is studied in this thesis, with the objective of proposing a controller based on diffeomorphisms and some techniques to deal with the tracking problem of the system. The main research developed in this thesis includes: 1. Large-scale interconnected system is a complex system consisting of several semi-independent subsystems, which are typically located in distinct geographic or logical locations. In this situation, decentralised control which only collects the local information is the practical method to deal with large-scale interconnected systems. The decentralised methodology is utilised throughout this thesis, guaranteeing that systems exhibit essential robustness against uncertainty. 2. Sliding mode technique is involved in the process of controller design. By introducing a nonsingular local diffeomorphism, the large-scale system can be transformed into a system with a specific regular form, where the matched uncertainty is completely absent from the subspace spanned by the sliding mode dynamics. The sliding mode based controller is proposed in this thesis to successfully achieve high robustness of the closed-loop interconnected systems with some particular uncertainties. 3. The considered large-scale interconnected systems can always track the smooth desired signals in a finite time. Each subsystem can track its own ideal signal or all subsystems can track the same ideal signal. Both situations are discussed in this thesis and the results are mathematically proven by introducing the Lyapunov theory, even when operating under the presence of disturbances. At the end of each chapter, some simulation examples, like a coupled inverted pendulums system, a river pollution system and a high-speed train system, are presented to verify the correctness of the proposed theory. At the conclusion of this thesis, a brief summary of the research findings has been provided, along with a mention of potential future research directions in tracking control of large-scale systems, like more general boundedness of interconnections, possibilities of distributed control, collaboration with intelligent control and so on. Some mathematical theories involved and simulation code are included in the appendix section

    LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volume

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    LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volum

    Control of unstable systems using a 7 DoF robotic manipulator

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    Robotic manipulators are widely used in industrial applications, and their rigidity and flexibility are very important factors during their deployment. However, their usage is not limited to repetitive point-to-point tasks and can be used for more real-time control of various processes. This paper uses a 7-degrees-of-freedom manipulator to control an unstable system (Ball and Plate) as a proof of concept. The Ball and Plate system is widely used for testing algorithms designed for unstable systems, and many recent works have dealt with robotic manipulators as a control motion system. Robots are not usually used to control unstable systems, but bipedal robots are an exception. This paper aims to design a controller capable of stabilizing an unstable system with solid robustness while keeping actuator action values as low as possible because these robots will be indented to work for a prolonged time. An algorithm for an LQ polynomial controller is described and designed, and the whole setup is tested for ball stabilization in the center. The results show that the designed controller stabilizes the ball even with large external and internal disturbances while keeping the controller effort as low as possible
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