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A large number of novel path planning methods for a wide range of problems have been described in literature over the past few decades. These algorithms can often be configured using a set of parameters that greatly influence their performance. In a typical use case, these parameters are only very slightly tuned or even left untouched. Systematic approaches to tune parameters of path planning algorithms...
Simulation is a valuable tool for robotics research and development, and various simulation packages have been proposed. However, we are aware of no freely-available packages which implement the required fidelity to accurately model earth-moving robots that manipulate the terrain itself. The software which does exist for this is difficult if not impossible to run in real-time while achieving the desired...
Information technology has been advancing in many countries. In their daily lives, people encounter computerized systems in many situations and often take their operation for granted. If a system failure occurs temporarily, it is disadvantageous for the system operator and the user. The use of distributed and parallel processing systems has increased the prevalence of software failures due to resource...
Control systems for autonomous robots are concurrent, distributed, embedded, real-time and data intensive software systems. A real-world robot control system is composed of tens of software components. For each component providing robotic functionality, tens of different implementations may be available. The difficult challenge in robotic system engineering consists in selecting acoherent set of components,...
Complex situations and systems can be studied by using adequate models in simulation. An important aspect of models and the simulation software is the ability to use a wide range of possible input parameters. The simulation described in this paper is based on agile manufacturing by using transport robots and cheap reconfigurable production platforms, called equiplets. This setup makes agile manufacturing...
This paper reports on a pilot project of limited scopeto create a pipeline for the computer programming industry. It comes at a time when the demand for software programmers exceeds the dwindling supply of competent learners with suitable skills. This growing skills gap requires a bold intervention to turn this situation around. Preliminary results from a user questionnaire indicate a positive reaction...
The merging of networking and control fields has always brought interesting innovations but the tools and structures for proper and easy management of experiments still lag behind. Different solutions have been proposed to handle general control problems and, more in detail, for fine control of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) dynamics. They lack, however, an efficient and detailed network-side simulation,...
This paper presents an overview of some the issues concerning Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS), mostly with respect to the current state-of-the-art in the concerned areas of technology, but also — albeit to a somewhat lesser degree — in a more general context that will, perhaps, not be so easily invalidated by technological progress. When all is considered, the paper attempts to answer the...
Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) mix software, hardware, and physical aspects with equal importance. Typically, the use of models of such systems during run time has concentrated only on managing and controlling the cyber (software) aspects. However, to fully realize the goals of a CPS, physical models too have to be treated as first-class models. This approach gives rise to three main challenges: (a)...
We present HPP, a software designed for complex classes of motion planning problems, such as navigation among movable objects, manipulation, contact-rich multiped locomotion, or elastic rods in cluttered environments. HPP is an open-source answer to the lack of a standard framework for these important issues for robotics and graphics communities.
The aim of this paper is to summarize the Work in Progress related to the design of a Collaborative Robotic Educational Tool. This tool arises to improve STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) educational programs for school students. The design is intended to cover different specifications such as: scalability, modular capabilities, reconfiguration possibilities and compatibility with the...
Neck pain is amongst the leading causes of disability across all health conditions globally, and technologies such as movement analysis could represent valuable tools for supporting the assessment and rehabilitation of people with neck pain. In recent years there has been a proliferation of software for head tracking but applications in rehabilitation engineering have so far been limited, possibly...
This article presents the design and construction of the torso of a humanoid robot with 22 degrees of freedom (22 GDL) built by additive manufacturing, with the combination of an interactive graphical interface, especially designed for children to self-learn the language in basic sign Ecuador (ESL) through imitation. The interface is designed according to user requirements, should be easy and interactive,...
In this paper, we present the development of a graphical user interface for a commercially available humanoid robot to study its interaction with children. The interface has been designed to facilitate the overall operation of the robot, and ultimately improve the interaction with children. Four pilot cases are studied to investigate overall effectiveness of the developed robotic setup in interacting...
Hydro-Québec operates 63 hydroelectric power plants and owns 668 dams, as well as 98 control structures. In order to ensure their safety and proper operation, Hydro-Québec's Research Institute (IREQ) develops robotic technologies that can perform diagnosis and intervention tasks underwater. Over the last 20 years, several generations of underwater Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) have been developed...
Virtual Higher Education is in sharp focus lately with onslaught of Online Learning Platforms (MOOC, Coursera, Khan Academy, Udacity) offering Free Courses in every discipline. Originally targeted at populations in underdeveloped countries not otherwise able to offer a world-class education, these courses have become popular and mainstream in developed countries being free, online and caters to most...
Autonomous mobile robots require high-performance computation to meet variety of requirements of functions, such as sensing, intelligent image processing and controlling actuators. We focus on FPGA as a hardware platform for autonomous mobile robot system. However, a FPGA-based system is not effective in development cost, since it requires HDL-based design whose productivity is relatively low. In...
We often take Web connectivity for granted. This can be the case in our houses where we rely on more and more devices that connect to the Internet and exchange information with remote servers or other nearby devices around using cheap Wi-Fi radios. However, the world remains for the most part disconnected. There are still uncountable remote areas where connecting to the Internet is still a big challenge...
Unmanned Maritime Vehicles (UMVs) have been under development, especially with US Navy research funds, for decades. However, meaningful advances in the commercial sector have only been seen in the past 20 years. In 1997 Bluefin Robotics was formed out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sea Grant College Program Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Lab. Since then many other companies have developed...
Underwater communication and robot technologies have grown rapidly in the last decade. Systems made of underwater unmanned vehicles have moved from single vehicle deployments to systems comprising teams of assets. As of today the possibility to support cooperation and interoperability of heterogeneous platforms is a key issue. The objective of this paper is to present the SUNRISE [1] approach to overcome...
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