Robots in machining

Robotic machining centers offer diverse advantages: large operation reach with large reorientation capability, and a low cost, to name a few. Many challenges have slowed down the adoption or sometimes inhibited the use of robots for machining tasks. This paper deals with the current usage and status of robots in machining, as well as the necessary modelling and identification for enabling optimization, process planning and process control. Recent research addressing deburring, milling, incremental forming, polishing or thin wall machining is presented. We discuss various processes in which robots need to deal with significant process forces while fulfilling their machining task

Pflegerobotik als Innovationstechnik in alternden Gesellschaften: eine Analyse der Einflussfaktoren auf die Entstehung eines Lead-Markets in Japan

Japan is an ideal country for studying the effects of demographic change and population ageing. This paper focuses on an ongoing market creation process for innovative technologies such as care robotics in Japan. The shortage on the Japanese care market is worsening, and this is why some creative inventors and entrepreneurs try to develop technologies that can (1) enable aged persons to continue living independently in their usual environment and (2) improve processes in care facilities. Combining lead market theory, stakeholder theory and the literature on market emergence, we analyse two case studies involving the most notable developments in care robotics in Japan: the HAL robot suit and the therapeutic robot Paro. We identify the stakeholders in the market creation process of Japanese care robots and evaluate the lead market potential of this developing sector. The acceptance of such robotic technologies will also be discussed with reference to the cultural specifics of Japan and other countries

A cross-cultural study: Effect of robot appearance and task

This study investigates the effects of culture, robot appearance and task on human-robot interaction. We propose a model with culture (Chinese, Korean and German), robot appearance (anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and machinelike) and task (teaching, guide, entertainment and security guard) as factors, and analyze these factors’ effects on the robot’s likeability, and people’s active response to, engagement with, trust in and satisfaction with the robot. We conducted a laboratory experiment with 108 participants to test the model and performed Repeated ANOVA and Kruskal Wallis Test on the data. The results show that cultural differences exist in participants’ perception of likeability, engagement, trust and satisfaction; a robot’s appearance affects its likeability, while the task affects participants’ active response and engagement. We found the participants expected the robot appearance to match its task only in the interview but not in the subjective ratings. Interaction between culture and task indicates that participants from low-context cultures may have significantly decreased engagement when the sociability of a task is lowered. We found strong and positive correlations between interaction performance (active response and engagement) and preference (likeability, trust and satisfaction) in the human-robot interaction