Try to Start It! The Challenge of Reusing Code in Robotics Research

This letter reviews the source code published with the papers of a flagship robotics research conference, 2017 International Conference on Robotics and Automation. The aim is to investigate whether the code is actually useful, i.e., can be reused by an interested reader without much effort. The interest is twofold: for one side, it makes possible to replicate and validate the results of the research; for another side, it facilitates new progress on the field, since researchers can build new systems on top of existing work. Unfortunately, reusing code is not as straightforward as it could seem, and there is a need for tools that alleviate the effort for integrating someone else's code into the own user's system. We propose the use of Docker, a Linux container technology, to turn the source code repositories into executable images, that can be run and tested locally, in an isolated environment, without the need of a costly integration with the host system

ROSLab Sharing ROS Code Interactively With Docker and JupyterLab

The success of the Robot Operating System (ROS) and the advance of open source ideas have radically changed and improved the experience of sharing software among members of the robotics community. Yet the lack of a suitable workflow for continuous integration and verification in robotics represents a significant obstacle to developing software that can be run by independent users for testing and reusing purposes

El convertidor Q-ZSI. Aplicaciones, modelización y simulación

Treball final de Grau en Enginyeria Elèctrica. Codi: EE1045. Curs acadèmic: 2019/2020Este trabajo final de grado se trabajará con el convertidor q-ZSI empezando por el análisis del mismo, el estudio del control para el convertidor y la utilización del convertidor en aplicaciones, ingeniando tipos de control para las aplicaciones y la implementación del convertidor q-ZSI en dichas aplicaciones. El software que se utilizará durante el transcurso del trabajo es PSIM, este software se utilizará para la simulación de los circuitos y los controles de los mismos circuitos. PSIM es un paquete de software de simulación de circuito electrónico, diseñado específicamente para uso en electrónica de potencia y simulaciones de motores, pero también puede usarse para simular cualquier circuito electrónico

Reseñas de libros [Revista de Historia Económica, Año VIII, Invierno 1990, n. 1]

Hernández Andreu, Juan. Economía política de la transición en España (1973-1980) (Por Enric Morellá), pp. 599-601 .-- López Morell, Miguel Ángel. La casa Rothschild en España (Por Yolanda Blasco Martel), pp. 601-604 .-- Menudo, José Manuel (ed.). Gonzalo de Luna. Un vallisoletano en los albores de la ciencia económica (Por Pablo Cervera Ferri), pp. 604-606.Publicad

Política forestal y evolución de los bosques en Cataluña desde el siglo XIX hasta la actualidad

Ofrecemos un esbozo de las grandes tendencias de la política forestal española, confrontándolas con los datos disponibles de la superficie forestal en Cataluña del siglo XIX a la actualidad. En algunos períodos las motivaciones de las leyes o normas, y los conflictos que provocaron, son la única fuente supralocal para acercarnos al estado del bosque. Cuando es posible contrastarlas con datos sobre la superficie arbórea, podemos juzgar su efectividad, que por lo general fue muy limitada. La información reunida dibuja una transición socioecológica desde una etapa de contracción de la superficie forestal y un incremento sustancial de las extracciones hasta mediados del siglo XX, a otra etapa que llega hasta hoy donde el abandono rural ha provocado un incremento de las áreas forestales y las cubiertas arbóreas hasta superar probablemente las iniciales. La máxima presión se alcanzó entre la Primera Guerra Mundial y los años 40 de autarquía franquista

An Omnidirectional Platform for Education and Research in Cooperative Robotics

In this paper we present a new, affordable, omnidirectional robot platform which is suitable for research and education in cooperative robotics. We design and implement the platform for the purpose of multi-agent object manipulation and transportation. The design consists of three omnidirectional wheels with two additional traction wheels, making multirobot object manipulation possible. It is validated by performing simple experiments using a setup with one robot and one target object. The execution flow of a simple task (Approach–Press–Lift–Hold–Set) is studied. In addition, we experiment to find the limits of the applied pressure and object orientation under certain conditions. The experiments demonstrate the significance of our inexpensive platform for research and education by proving its feasibility of use in topics such as collaborative robotics, physical interaction, and mobile manipulation

A Practical Approach for Picking Items in an Online Shopping Warehouse

Commercially viable automated picking in unstructured environments by a robot arm remains a difficult challenge. The problem of robot grasp planning has long been around but the existing solutions tend to be limited when it comes to deploy them in open-ended realistic scenarios. Practical picking systems are called for that can handle the different properties of the objects to be manipulated, as well as the problems arising from occlusions and constrained accessibility. This paper presents a practical solution to the problem of robot picking in an online shopping warehouse by means of a novel approach that integrates a carefully selected method with a new strategy, the centroid normal approach (CNA), on a cost-effective dual-arm robotic system with two grippers specifically designed for this purpose: a two-finger gripper and a vacuum gripper. Objects identified in the scene point cloud are matched to the grasping techniques and grippers to maximize success. Extensive experimentation provides clues as to what are the reasons for success and failure. We chose as benchmark the scenario proposed by the 2017 Amazon Robotics Challenge, since it represents a realistic description of a retail shopping warehouse case; it includes many challenging constraints, such as a wide variety of different product items with a diversity of properties, which are also presented with restricted visibility and accessibility.This paper describes research conducted at the UJI Robotic Intelligence Laboratory. Support for this laboratory is provided in part by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (DPI2015-69041-R, DPI2017-89910-R), by Universitat Jaume I (P1-1B2014-52) and by Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO/2020/034). The first author was recipient of an Erasmus Mundus scholarship by the European Commission for the EMARO+ Master Program

Telerobotic radiation protection tasks in the Super Proton Synchrotron using mobile robots

Ponència presentada en la 19th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics. 14-16 de juliol de 2022, Lisboa, Portugal.In this paper a complete robotic solution is presented, which allows the teleoperation of the radiation survey in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) accelerator at CERN. Firstly, an introduction to radiation protection is given. Subsequently, the execution of the radiation survey in person is described and the potential of robotic solutions for such missions is outlined. After providing a brief state of the art on the subject, the development of the robot base, as well as its component selection and design is shown. Hereafter, the software implementation is explained. The test procedure of this project includes the most important requirements for a correct execution of the survey, as well as the operational steps and data treatment in detail. The results underline the correct execution of the mission, and show the advantages of the teleoperated robotic solution, such as the improved and unified measurement conditions. Thus, this robotic system will allow to significantly reduce the radiation dose of the radiation protection staff. For further development, the automation of this task is planned, which presupposes the gradual autonomization of the robotic system from assisting the user to the self-reliant execution of the survey

CompaRob: the shopping cart assistance robot

Technology has recently been developed which offers an excellent opportunity to design systems with the ability to help people in their own houses. In particular, assisting elderly people in their environments is something that can significantly improve their quality of life. However, helping elderly people outside their usual environment is also necessary, to help them to carry out daily tasks like shopping. In this paper we present a person-following shopping cart assistance robot, capable of helping elderly people to carry products in a supermarket. First of all, the paper presents a survey of related systems that perform this task, using different approaches, such as attachable modules and computer vision. After that, the paper describes in detail the proposed system and its main features. The cart uses ultrasonic sensors and radio signals to provide a simple and effective person localization and following method. Moreover, the cart can be connected to a portable device like a smartphone or tablet, thus providing ease of use to the end user. The prototype has been tested in a grocery store, while simulations have been done to analyse its scalability in larger spaces where multiple robots could coexist.This work was partly supported by Spanish Ministry under Grant DPI2014-57746-C3 (MERBOTS Project) and by Universitat Jaume I Grants P1-1B2015-68 and PID2010-12