49 research outputs found
Application of a mobile robot to spatial mapping of radioactive substances in indoor environment
Nuclear medicine requires the use of radioactive substances that can contaminate critical
areas (dangerous or hazardous) where the presence of a human must be reduced or avoided.
The present work uses a mobile robot in real environment and 3D simulation to develop
a method to realize spatial mapping of radioactive substances. The robot should visit all
the waypoints arranged in a grid of connectivity that represents the environment. The
work presents the methodology to perform the path planning, control and estimation
of the robot location. For path planning two methods are approached, one a heuristic
method based on observation of problem and another one was carried out an adaptation
in the operations of the genetic algorithm. The control of the actuators was based on two
methodologies, being the first to follow points and the second to follow trajectories. To
locate the real mobile robot, the extended Kalman filter was used to fuse an ultra-wide
band sensor with odometry, thus estimating the position and orientation of the mobile
agent. The validation of the obtained results occurred using a low cost system with a
laser range finder.A medicina nuclear requer o uso de substâncias radioativas que pode vir a contaminar
áreas críticas, onde a presença de um ser humano deve ser reduzida ou evitada. O presente
trabalho utiliza um robô móvel em ambiente real e em simulação 3D para desenvolver um
método para o mapeamento espacial de substâncias radioativas. O robô deve visitar todos
os waypoinst dispostos em uma grelha de conectividade que representa o ambiente. O trabalho
apresenta a metodologia para realizar o planejamento de rota, controle e estimação
da localização do robô. Para o planejamento de rota são abordados dois métodos, um
baseado na heurística ao observar o problema e ou outro foi realizado uma adaptação nas
operações do algoritmo genético. O controle dos atuadores foi baseado em duas metodologias,
sendo a primeira para seguir de pontos e a segunda seguir trajetórias. Para localizar
o robô móvel real foi utilizado o filtro de Kalman extendido para a fusão entre um sensor
ultra-wide band e odometria, estimando assim a posição e orientação do agente móvel. A
validação dos resultados obtidos ocorreu utilizando um sistema de baixo custo com um
laser range finder
Fault-tolerance in cyber-physical systems: literature review and challenges
Modern industry demands techniques that ensure
the operability of its processes, and even though the exponential
technological advance in the last two decades in the manufacturing
field, failures, waste, and unexpected interruptions are still
present in this sector’s daily routine. Within the Industry 4.0
context, fault-tolerant (FT) production systems remain a complex
issue and sometimes represent a vulnerable aspect. Faulttolerance
techniques dedicated to autonomous and distributed
systems, in a cyber-physical system (CPS) perspective, need to be
investigated to follow the evolutionary pace of the manufacturing
scenarios. This paper overviews these concepts and analyses the
current situation in developing FT for CPS systems through a
systematic literature review. The paper also discusses the research
challenges in this new kind of FT systems due to new distributed
architectures and emerging technologies, matching the several
fault-tolerance phases.This work has been supported by FCT - Fundação
para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope:
UIDB/05757/2020. This work has been partially supported by
the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through
the Interreg Spain-Portugal V-A Program (POCTEP) under
grant 0677 DISRUPTIVE 2 E (Intensifying the activity of
Digital Innovation Hubs within the PocTep region to boost the
development of disruptive and last generation ICTs through
cross-border cooperation).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Multi-mobile robot and avoidance obstacle to spatial mapping in indoor environment
The advancement of technology and techniques applied to robotics contributes to increasing the quality of life
and safety of humanity. One of the most widespread applications of mobile robotics is related to monitoring
indoor environments. However, due to factors such as the size of the environment impacting the monitoring
response, battery autonomy, and autonomous navigation in environments with unknown obstacles, they are
still significant challenges in the diffusion of mobile robotics in these areas. Strategy adopting multiple robots
can overcome these challenges. This work presents an approach to use multi-robots in hazardous environments
with gas leakage to perform spatial mapping of the gas concentration. Obstacles arranged in the environment
are unknown to robots, then a fuzzy control approach is used to avoid the collision. As a result of this paper,
spatial mapping of an indoor environment was carried out with multi-robots that reactively react to unknown
obstacles considering a point gas leak with Gaussian dispersion.This work has been supported by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope:
UIDB/05757/2020. Additionally, this work was supported in part by the National Counsel of Technological
and Scientific Development of Brazil (CNPq), in part by the Coordination for the Improvement of
Higher Level People (CAPES).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Learning emergent digital technologies: the experience in the internet of things course unit
Industry 4.0 is re-shaping the way companies and
individuals operate, but it is also introducing strong demands
in education processes to train professionals with adequate
competencies in emergent digital technologies, e.g., Internet of
Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence and collaborative robotics. In
the last decade, innovative educational methods are being applied,
e.g., problem-based learning and project-based learning, to move
the traditional education approach into a more student-centric
process where the student has a more active role. Recent studies
point out that the combination of such educational methods
is beneficial, each one selected according to the particularities
of the learning subject and objective. Having this in mind,
this paper describes the application of a learning methodology
that combines different educational methods, namely face-toface,
problem-based learning and project-based learning, in a
teaching course unit focusing on IoT technologies. The achieved
results show an increase of the student’s assessment performance,
motivation and satisfaction, and the opportunity to consolidate
their acquired knowledge with hands-on practice. This approach
also stimulates the acquisition of soft skills, mainly teamwork,
communication, creativity and critical thinking.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science
and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support
through national funds FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to CeDRI
(UIDB/05757/2020 and UIDP/05757/2020) and SusTEC
(LA/P/0007/2021).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Development of a dynamic path for a toxic substances mapping mobile robot in industry environment
Some industries have critical areas (dangerous or hazardous) where the presence of a human must be reduced or avoided. In some cases, there are areas where humans should be replaced by robots. The present work uses a robot with differential drive to scan an environment with known and unknown obstacles, defined in 3D simulation. It is important that the robot be able to make the right decisions about its way without the need of an operator. A solution to this challenge will be presented in this paper. The control application and its communication module with a simulator or a real robot are proposed. The robot can perform the scan, passing through all the waypoints arranged in a grid. The results are presented, showcasing the robot’s capacity to perform a viable trajectory without human intervention.Project ”TEC4Growth - Pervasive Intelligence, Enhancers and Proofs of Concept with Industrial Impact/NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000020” is financed by the North Portugal Regional Operational. Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, and through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
This work is also financed by the ERDF European Regional Development
Fund through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation - COMPETE 2020 Programme within project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006961, and by National Funds through the FCT Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) as part of project UID/EEA/50014/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Hardware-in-the-loop simulation approach for the robot at factory lite competition proposal
Mobile robotic applications are increasing in several
areas not only in industries but also service robots. The Industry
4.0 promoted even more the digitalization of factories that opened
space for smart-factories implementation. Robotic competitions
are a key to improve research and to motivate learning. This
paper addresses a new competition proposal, the Robot@Factory
Lite, in the scope of the Portuguese Robotics Open. Beyond the
competition, a reference robot with all its components is proposed
and a simulation environment is also provided. To minimize
the gap between the simulation and the real implementation,
an Hardware-in-the-loop technique is proposed that allows to
control the simulation with a real Arduino board. Results show
the same code, and hardware, can control both simulation model
and real robot.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Multi-robot preemptive task scheduling with fault recovery: a novel approach to automatic logistics of smart factories
This paper presents a novel approach for Multi-Robot Task Allocation (MRTA) that introduces
priority policies on preemptive task scheduling and considers dependencies between tasks, and
tolerates faults. The approach is referred to as Multi-Robot Preemptive Task Scheduling with Fault
Recovery (MRPF). It considers the interaction between running processes and their tasks for management
at each new event, prioritizing the more relevant tasks without idleness and latency. The benefit
of this approach is the optimization of production in smart factories, where autonomous robots are
being employed to improve efficiency and increase flexibility. The evaluation of MRPF is performed
through experimentation in small-scale warehouse logistics, referred to as Augmented Reality to
Enhanced Experimentation in Smart Warehouses (ARENA). An analysis of priority scheduling, task
preemption, and fault recovery is presented to show the benefits of the proposed approach.This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de
Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES)—Finance Code 001 and in part by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento
Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Bio-inspired distributed sensors to autonomous search of gas leak source
This work presents multiple small robots in an unhealthy industrial environment responsible for detecting harmful gases to humans, avoiding possible harmful effects on the body. Mixed reality is widely used, considering that the environment and gases are virtual and real small robots. Essential components for the experiments are virtual, such as gases and BioCyber-Sensors. The results establish the great potential for applications in several areas, such as industrial, biomedical, and services. The entire system was developed based on ROS (Robot Operating System), thus the ease in diversifying different applications and approaches with multiple agents. The main objective of small robots is to guaranty a healthy work environment.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Improving the mobile robots indoor localization system by combining SLAM with fiducial markers
Autonomous mobile robots applications require a
robust navigation system, which ensures the proper movement
of the robot while performing their tasks. The key challenge
in the navigation system is related to the indoor localization.
Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) techniques
combined with Adaptive Monte Carlo Localization (AMCL)
are widely used to localize robots. However, this approach is
susceptible to errors, especially in dynamic environments and
in presence of obstacles and objects. This paper presents an
approach to improve the estimation of the indoor pose of
a wheeled mobile robot in an environment. To this end, the
proposed localization system integrates the AMCL algorithm
with the position updates and corrections based on the artificial
vision detection of fiducial markers scattered throughout the
environment to reduce the errors accumulated by the AMCL
position estimation. The proposed approach is based on Robot
Operating System (ROS), and tested and validated in a simulation
environment. As a result, an improvement in the trajectory
performed by the robot was identified using the SLAM system
combined with traditional AMCL corrected with the detection,
by artificial vision, of fiducial markers.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
DepthLiDAR: active segmentation of environment depth map into mobile sensors
This paper presents a novel approach for creating
virtual LiDAR scanners through the active segmentation
of point clouds. The method employs top-view point cloud
segmentation in virtual LiDAR sensors that can be applied to
the intelligent behavior of autonomous agents. Segmentation
is correlated with the visual tracking of the agent for localization
in the environmentand point cloud. Virtual LiDARsensors
with different characteristicsand positions can then be generated.
Thismethod is referred to as the DepthLiDAR approach,
and is rigorously evaluated to quantify its performance and
determine its advantages and limitations. An extensive set
of experiments is conducted using real and virtual LiDAR
sensors to compare both approaches. The objective is to
propose a novel method to incorporate spatial perception in warehouses, aiming to achieve Industry 4.0. Thus, it is
tested in a low-scale warehouse to incorporate realistic features. The analysis of the experiments shows a measurement
improvement of 52.24% compared to the conventional LiDAR.This work was supported in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de
Pessoal de Nível Superior-Brasil (CAPES)–Finance Code 001 and in part
by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
(CNPq).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio