122 research outputs found
Teaching humanoid robotics by means of human teleoperation through RGB-D sensors
This paper presents a graduate course project on humanoid robotics offered by the University of Padova. The target is to safely lift an object by teleoperating a small humanoid. Students have to map human limbs into robot joints, guarantee the robot stability during the motion, and teleoperate the robot to perform the correct movement. We introduce the following innovative aspects with respect to classical robotic classes: i) the use of humanoid robots as teaching tools; ii) the simplification of the stable locomotion problem by exploiting the potential of teleoperation; iii) the adoption of a Project-Based Learning constructivist approach as teaching methodology. The learning objectives of both course and project are introduced and compared with the students\u2019 background. Design and constraints students have to deal with are reported, together with the amount of time they and their instructors dedicated to solve tasks. A set of evaluation results are provided in order to validate the authors\u2019 purpose, including the students\u2019 personal feedback. A discussion about possible future improvements is reported, hoping to encourage further spread of educational robotics in schools at all levels
RUR53: an Unmanned Ground Vehicle for Navigation, Recognition and Manipulation
This paper proposes RUR53: an Unmanned Ground Vehicle able to autonomously
navigate through, identify, and reach areas of interest; and there recognize,
localize, and manipulate work tools to perform complex manipulation tasks. The
proposed contribution includes a modular software architecture where each
module solves specific sub-tasks and that can be easily enlarged to satisfy new
requirements. Included indoor and outdoor tests demonstrate the capability of
the proposed system to autonomously detect a target object (a panel) and
precisely dock in front of it while avoiding obstacles. They show it can
autonomously recognize and manipulate target work tools (i.e., wrenches and
valve stems) to accomplish complex tasks (i.e., use a wrench to rotate a valve
stem). A specific case study is described where the proposed modular
architecture lets easy switch to a semi-teleoperated mode. The paper
exhaustively describes description of both the hardware and software setup of
RUR53, its performance when tests at the 2017 Mohamed Bin Zayed International
Robotics Challenge, and the lessons we learned when participating at this
competition, where we ranked third in the Gran Challenge in collaboration with
the Czech Technical University in Prague, the University of Pennsylvania, and
the University of Lincoln (UK).Comment: This article has been accepted for publication in Advanced Robotics,
published by Taylor & Franci
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