In the field of mobile robotics, the study of multi-robot systems (MRSs) has grown significantly in size and importance in recent years. Having made great progress in the development of the basic problems concerning single-robot control, many researchers shifted their focus to the study of multi-robot coordination. This paper presents a systematic survey and analysis of the existing literature on coordination, especially in multiple mobile robot systems (MMRSs). A series of related problems have been reviewed, which include a communication mechanism, a planning strategy and a decision-making structure. A brief conclusion and further research perspectives are given at the end of the paper.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.5772/57313

A Survey and Analysis of Multi-Robot Coordination

As robotics technology evolves, we believe that personal social robots will be one of the next big expansions in the robotics sector. Based on the accelerated advances in this multidisciplinary domain and the growing number of use cases, we can posit that robots will play key roles in everyday life and will soon coexist with us, leading all people to a smarter, safer, healthier, and happier existence.

/pdf/a-mass-produced-sociable-humanoid-robot-pepper-the-first-1xtcj1ylha.pdf

A Mass-Produced Sociable Humanoid Robot: Pepper: The First Machine of Its Kind

For robots to interact effectively with human users they must be capable of coordinated, timely behavior in response to social context. The Adaptive Strategies for Sustainable Long-Term Social Interaction (ALIZ-E) project focuses on the design of long-term, adaptive social interaction between robots and child users in real-world settings. In this paper, we report on the iterative approach taken to scientific and technical developments toward this goal: advancing individual technical competencies and integrating them to form an autonomous robotic system for evaluation "in the wild." The first evaluation iterations have shown the potential of this methodology in terms of adaptation of the robot to the interactant and the resulting influences on engagement. This sets the foundation for an ongoing research program that seeks to develop technologies for social robot companions.

/pdf/multimodal-child-robot-interaction-building-social-bonds-kk2ui32cku.pdf

Multimodal child-robot interaction: building social bonds

In this paper, we present Choregraphe: a graphical environment developed by Aldebaran Robotics for programming its humanoid robot, Nao. Choregraphe is a very powerful tool that allows macroscopic connection of high level behaviors to easily develop complex software for this 25 degrees of freedom robot. But it offers as well the ability to perform fine tuning of complex joint or Cartesian motions. At the lowest level, Choregraphe allows programming in Python.

Choregraphe: a graphical tool for humanoid robot programming

The brain-computer interface (BCI) technique is a novel control interface to translate human intentions into appropriate motion commands for robotic systems. The aim of this study is to apply an asynchronous direct-control system for humanoid robot navigation using an electroencephalograph (EEG), based active BCI. The experimental procedures consist of offline training, online feedback testing, and real-time control sessions. The amplitude features from EEGs are extracted using power spectral analysis, while informative feature components are selected based on the Fisher ratio. The two classifiers are hierarchically structured to identify human intentions and trained to build an asynchronous BCI system. For the performance test, five healthy subjects controlled a humanoid robot navigation to reach a target goal in an indoor maze by using their EEGs based on real-time images obtained from a camera on the head of the robot. The experimental results showed that the subjects successfully controlled the humanoid robot in the indoor maze and reached the goal by using the proposed asynchronous EEG-based active BCI system.

Toward Brain-Actuated Humanoid Robots: Asynchronous Direct Control Using an EEG-Based BCI

This article presents the mechatronic design of the autonomous humanoid robot called NAO that is built by the French company Aldebaran-Robotics. With its height of 0.57 m and its weight about 4.5 kg, this innovative robot is lightweight and compact. It distinguishes itself from existing humanoids thanks to its pelvis kinematics design, its proprietary actuation system based on brush DC motors, its electronic, computer and distributed software architectures. This robot has been designed to be affordable without sacrificing quality and performance. It is an open and easy-to-handle platform. The comprehensive and functional design is one of the reasons that helped select NAO to replace the AIBO quadrupeds in the 2008 RoboCup standard league.

Mechatronic design of NAO humanoid

This article presents the design of the autonomous humanoid robot called NAO that is built by the French company Aldebaran-Robotics. With its height of 0.57 m and its weight about 4.5 kg, this innovative robot is lightweight and compact. It distinguishes itself from its existing Japanese, American, and other counterparts thanks to its pelvis kinematics design, its proprietary actuation system based on brush DC motors, its electronic, computer and distributed software architectures. This robot has been designed to be affordable without sacrificing quality and performance. It is an open and easy-to-handle platform where the user can change all the embedded system software or just add some applications to make the robot adopt specific behaviours. The robot's head and forearms are modular and can be changed to promote further evolution. The comprehensive and functional design is one of the reasons that helped select NAO to replace the AIBO quadrupeds in the 2008 RoboCup standard league.

The NAO humanoid: a combination of performance and affordability

The present invention applies to a mobile robot which can have a human appearance and sophisticated functions enabling it to execute missions. To enable communications internal to the robot to be optimized and allow for a versatility that is both physical (possible substitution of parts of the robot) and software (replacement of programs to adapt it to new missions), an architecture with three computer levels is provided. The highest level comprises the intelligence of the robot which generates commands which are transmitted by an intermediate computer to low-level cards which control the sensors and actuators. Communication between the intermediate computer and the low-level cards is managed by at least one specific secure communication protocol.

Control-command architecture for a mobile robot using articulated limbs

La presente invention s'applique a un robot mobile qui peut avoir apparence humaine et des fonctions elaborees lui permettant d'executer des missions. Pour permettre une optimisation des communications internes au robot et une versatilite a la fois physique (substitution possible de parties du robot) et logicielle (remplacement de programmes pour l'adapter a de nouvelles missions), une architecture a trois niveaux de calculateurs est prevue. Le niveau le plus haut comprend l'intelligence du robot qui elabore des commandes qui sont transmises par un calculateur intermediaire a des cartes de bas niveau qui controle les capteurs et actionneurs. La communication entre le calculateur intermediaire et les cartes de bas niveau est geree par au moins un protocole de communication securise specifique.

Brice Marnier

Papers

Mechatronic design of NAO humanoid

The NAO humanoid: a combination of performance and affordability

Control-command architecture for a mobile robot using articulated limbs

Architecture de controle - commande d'un robot mobile utilisant des membres articules