A Low-cost Open Source 3D-Printable Dexterous Anthropomorphic Robotic Hand with a Parallel Spherical Joint Wrist for Sign Languages Reproduction

We present a novel open-source 3D-printable dexterous anthropomorphic robotic hand specifically designed to reproduce Sign Languages' hand poses for deaf and deaf-blind users. We improved the InMoov hand, enhancing dexterity by adding abduction/adduction degrees of freedom of three fingers (thumb, index and middle fingers) and a three-degrees-of-freedom parallel spherical joint wrist. A systematic kinematic analysis is provided. The proposed robotic hand is validated in the framework of the PARLOMA project. PARLOMA aims at developing a telecommunication system for deaf-blind people, enabling remote transmission of signs from tactile Sign Languages. Both hardware and software are provided online to promote further improvements from the community

PARLOMA – A Novel Human-Robot Interaction System for Deaf-blind Remote Communication

Deaf-blindness forces people to live in isolation. Up to now there is no existing technological solution enabling two (or many) Deaf-blind persons to communicate remotely among them in tactile Sign Language (t-SL). When resorting to t-SL, Deaf-blind persons can communicate only with persons physically present in the same place, because they are required to reciprocally explore their hands to exchange messages. We present a preliminary version of PARLOMA, a novel system to enable remote communication between Deaf-blind persons. It is composed of a low-cost depth sensor as the only input device, paired with a robotic hand as output device. Essentially, any user can perform handshapes in front of the depth sensor. The system is able to recognize a set of handshapes that are sent over the web and reproduced by an anthropomorphic robotic hand. PARLOMA can work as a “telephone” for Deaf-blind people. Hence, it will dramatically improve life quality of Deaf-blind persons. PARLOMA has been designed in strict collaboration with the main Italian Deaf-blind associations, in order to include end-users in the design phase

Il Futuro della Cybersecurity in Italia: Ambiti Progettuali Strategici

Il presente volume nasce come continuazione del precedente, con l’obiettivo di delineare un insieme di ambiti progettuali e di azioni che la comunità nazionale della ricerca ritiene essenziali a complemento e a supporto di quelli previsti nel DPCM Gentiloni in materia di sicurezza cibernetica, pubblicato nel febbraio del 2017. La lettura non richiede particolari conoscenze tecniche; il testo è fruibile da chiunque utilizzi strumenti informatici o navighi in rete. Nel volume vengono considerati molteplici aspetti della cybersecurity, che vanno dalla definizione di infrastrutture e centri necessari a organizzare la difesa alle azioni e alle tecnologie da sviluppare per essere protetti al meglio, dall’individuazione delle principali tecnologie da difendere alla proposta di un insieme di azioni orizzontali per la formazione, la sensibilizzazione e la gestione dei rischi. Gli ambiti progettuali e le azioni, che noi speriamo possano svilupparsi nei prossimi anni in Italia, sono poi accompagnate da una serie di raccomandazioni agli organi preposti per affrontare al meglio, e da Paese consapevole, la sfida della trasformazione digitale. Le raccomandazioni non intendono essere esaustive, ma vanno a toccare dei punti che riteniamo essenziali per una corretta implementazione di una politica di sicurezza cibernetica a livello nazionale. Politica che, per sua natura, dovrà necessariamente essere dinamica e in continua evoluzione in base ai cambiamenti tecnologici, normativi, sociali e geopolitici. All’interno del volume, sono riportati dei riquadri con sfondo violetto o grigio; i primi sono usati nel capitolo introduttivo e nelle conclusioni per mettere in evidenza alcuni concetti ritenuti importanti, i secondi sono usati negli altri capitoli per spiegare il significato di alcuni termini tecnici comunemente utilizzati dagli addetti ai lavori. In conclusione, ringraziamo tutti i colleghi che hanno contribuito a questo volume: un gruppo di oltre 120 ricercatori, provenienti da circa 40 tra Enti di Ricerca e Università, unico per numerosità ed eccellenza, che rappresenta il meglio della ricerca in Italia nel settore della cybersecurity. Un grazie speciale va a Gabriella Caramagno e ad Angela Miola che hanno contribuito a tutte le fasi di produzione del libro. Tra i ringraziamenti ci fa piacere aggiungere il supporto ottenuto dai partecipanti al progetto FILIERASICURA

Leveraging the Cloud to develop Service Robotics Applications

Cloud Robotics is a new research field in robotics. It was first introduced in 2010, and it aims at leveraging internet based technologies to open new possibilities in the development of service robotics applications. Thanks to the cloud, robots can offload part of their computation and storage resources remotely, or can share their knowledge and collaborate with other robots to perform tasks. Hence, Cloud Robotics can push the development of robotics applications to a new level of complexity, and it is a perfect technology to solve common issues in service robotics. However, the cloud introduces new open issues in real applications. This Ph.D. dissertation focuses on the design of general frameworks to enable the development of service robotics applications resorting on the cloud robotics paradigm. This work has been carried out at Politecnico di Torino, in collaboration with Telecom Italia S.p.A. We introduce a Cloud Robotics Platform developed by Telecom Italia, that aims at providing a full infrastructure to develop robotics applications. Then, we present two frameworks to support the development of service robotics applications. Finally, we apply those frameworks to develop two cloud robotics applications that have been tested in real contexts, namely, Robot@CED and PARLOMA. The Robot@CED project aims at developing an autonomous monitoring tool for data center environments, able to automatically inspect data centers rooms with an autonomous robotic platform and inform managers if thermal anomalies occur. On the other hand, PARLOMA aims at developing a telecommunication system for deafblind people, able to transmit information encoded in tactile Sing Languages. As demonstrated by the two applications developed in this work, the Cloud is an enabler for service robotics applications: it opens new technological possibilities to developers and, at the same time, allows producer to develop low cost and general porpoise robotic hardware

Towards A ROS-Based Autonomous Cloud Robotics Platform for Data Center Monitoring

Data-center monitoring has been a critical subject of research in recent years. In this paper we present a robotic system, based on the Robot Operating System (ROS), in which a mobile robot equipped with a laser range sensor and an IMU is able to autonomously navigate in a data-center room for accurate monitoring of critical measurements, such as servers’ external temperature, humidity and other physical quantities. The robot is able to autonomously create a map of a previously unknown room, localize therein and execute a list of measurements at different locations, which are provided by the user via a web Graphical User Interface (GUI). The application is based on a cloud robotics infrastructure which encloses the ROS nodes and exposes REST APIs to the user. We discuss our implementation choices with regards to the particular requirements of the scenario, both in terms of robot navigation and software infrastructure, and present some preliminary results in a real scenario

Sentirsi vivi al lavoro: L\u2019importanza del job crafting nei lavori a bassa autonomia

Nelle organizzazioni contemporanee la scarsa motivazione e il disimpegno sul posto di lavoro sono tra le problematiche che pi\uf9 di frequente spingono le persone a cambiare il proprio lavoro, generando elevati tassi di turnover. Il nostro studio evidenzia come in contesti caratterizzati da bassi stimoli i comportamenti di job crafting favoriscono il coinvolgimento nel lavoro e la ricerca di significato nella propria vita

Letter to E.Basse de Menorval from H.B. Stenzel on 1960-10-18

Jackson School of Geoscience

Towards A ROS-Based Autonomous Cloud Robotics Platform for Data Center Monitoring

Data-center monitoring has been a critical subject of research in recent years. In this paper we present a robotic system, based on the Robot Operating System (ROS), in which a mobile robot equipped with a laser range sensor and an IMU is able to autonomously navigate in a data-center room for accurate monitoring of critical measurements, such as servers’ external temperature, humidity and other physical quantities. The robot is able to autonomously create a map of a previously unknown room, localize therein and execute a list of measurements at different locations, which are provided by the user via a web Graphical User Interface (GUI). The application is based on a cloud robotics infrastructure which encloses the ROS nodes and exposes REST APIs to the user. We discuss our implementation choices with regards to the particular requirements of the scenario, both in terms of robot navigation and software infrastructure, and present some preliminary results in a real scenario