Touch sensing is among the most important sensing capabilities of a human, and the same is true for smart robotics. Current research on tactile sensors is mainly concentrated on electronic skin (e-skin), but e-skin is prone to be easily dirtied, damaged, and disturbed after repeated usage, which greatly limits its practical applications in robotics. Here, by mimicking the way that animals explore the environment using hair-based sensors, a bendable biomimetic whisker mechanoreceptor (BWMR) is designed for robotic tactile sensing. Owing to the advantages of triboelectric nanogenerator technology, the BWMR can convert external mechanical stimuli into electrical signals without a power supply, which is conducive to its widespread applications in robots. Because of the leverage effect of the whisker, the BWMR can distinguish an exciting force of 1.129 μN by amplifying external weak signals, which can be further improved by increasing the whisker length. Real-time sensing is demonstrated using a BWMR, exhibiting its potential for robotic tactile systems.

Biomimetic Hairy Whiskers for Robotic Skin Tactility.

VFH*TDT (VFH* with Time Dependent Tree)

Purpose – The purpose of the following work was to work out the dependency to allow for the determination of the repeatability positioning error value of the robot at any given point in its workspace, without the necessity of conducting time-consuming measurements while routing a precise surface of repeatability positioning. Design/methodology/approach – The presented dependency permits for the possibility to determine, even at the planning phase, the optimal connection point in the workspace, ensuring the best parameters for the process of machine assembly, without needless overestimation of precision of the utilized equipment. To solve the task the sequential quadratic programming (SQP) method implemented in the MATLAB(R) environment was used. To verify the hypothesis of the compatibility of the empirical distribution with the hypothetical distribution of the robot’s positioning error, the Kolmogorov test was used. Findings – In this paper, it has been demonstrated theoretically and experimentally that ...

The repeatability positioning analysis of the industrial robot arm

Adaptation of Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems for Industrial Assembly – Review of Flexibility Paradigms, Concepts, and Outlook☆

Large scale operational areas often require multiple service robots for coverage and task parallelism. In such scenarios, each robot keeps its individual map of the environment and serves specific areas of the map at different times. We propose a knowledge sharing mechanism for multiple robots in which one robot can inform other robots about the changes in map, like path blockage, or new static obstacles, encountered at specific areas of the map. This symbiotic information sharing allows the robots to update remote areas of the map without having to explicitly navigate those areas, and plan efficient paths. A node representation of paths is presented for seamless sharing of blocked path information. The transience of obstacles is modeled to track obstacles which might have been removed. A lazy information update scheme is presented in which only relevant information affecting the current task is updated for efficiency. The advantages of the proposed method for path planning are discussed against traditional method with experimental results in both simulation and real environments.

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Symbiotic Navigation in Multi-Robot Systems with Remote Obstacle Knowledge Sharing.

The article deal about the development in the field of robotic research. The introduction suggests and summarizes actual development in robotics, which is heavily focused on the service and humanoid field in many applications. Next section of contribution is dealed to the development and is referred to its fundamental properties, which has current industrial robots.

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The View to the Current State of Robotics

In this analysis, we present results from measurements performed to determine the stability of a hand tracking system and the accuracy of the detected palm and finger's position. Measurements were performed for the evaluation of the sensor for an application in an industrial robot-assisted assembly scenario. Human-robot interaction is a relevant topic in collaborative robotics. Intuitive and straightforward control tools for robot navigation and program flow control are essential for effective utilisation in production scenarios without unnecessary slowdowns caused by the operator. For the hand tracking and gesture-based control, it is necessary to know the sensor's accuracy. For gesture recognition with a moving target, the sensor must provide stable tracking results. This paper evaluates the sensor's real-world performance by measuring the localisation deviations of the hand being tracked as it moves in the workspace.

Analysis of Precision and Stability of Hand Tracking with Leap Motion Sensor.

The article describes the concept of a locomotive construction for a robot moving along an urbanized or unstructured natural terrain. The most suitable variant was the development of a hybrid leg-w...

Conceptual design of a leg-wheel chassis for rescue operations:

The paper clarifies the reasons leading to the creation of a new class of manufacturing system from a global perspective, focusing on the market environment. It describes the needs for reconfigurable manufacturing systems, which allows coping with market requirements and changes quickly and costing effectively. The article provides the approach to the design of the reconfigurable manufacturing systems from system, machine and control level point of view.

Manufacturing Systems Suitable for Globalized Market

This paper describes the proposal of welding fixtures which achieves pre-arrangement of individual parts of fixture based on suitable modules. Also is focused on methodological process of their design using modularity principle and reconfigurability. Describe procedure of designing fixture with emphasis to specific requirements for welding fixtures in robotic welding. Take advantages of simple substitution of individual modules welding fixtures by database compatible with modules in 3D environment. Optimization and control of collision status is realized in simulation environment ABB Robot Studio.

Rudolf Jánoš

Papers

The View to the Current State of Robotics

Analysis of Precision and Stability of Hand Tracking with Leap Motion Sensor.

Conceptual design of a leg-wheel chassis for rescue operations:

Manufacturing Systems Suitable for Globalized Market

Modular Welding Fixtures for Robotic Cells