Abstract

Purpose - This paper aims to provide a technical description of the robots that have been deployed in space, primarily on the Moon and Mars. Design/methodology/approach - Following an introduction, this paper describes the robotic devices that have been deployed on the Moon and Mars. It also considers the latest Mars robot mission, the humanoid robot recently deployed on the International Space Station and robotic developments for use during proposed future planetary missions. It concludes with a brief consideration of the impact of space robots on terrestrial robotic technology. Findings - This shows that robots have been developed which can withstand the hostile environment of space. They have made a significant contribution to lunar and Martian science and some of the technology has had an impact on terrestrial robots. Originality/value - This paper provides a technical insight into the robots that have operated on the surfaces of the Moon and Mars.

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Purpose - Review of some of the recent innovations in robotics for a wide range of medically related applicationsDesign/methodology/approach - In-depth interviews with developers of medical application related robots and review of recent writings and technical papers on the topic.Findings - Robots are finding all kinds of application in the medical field from surgery to logistics to patient care and more. The future will surely see even more medical robot developmentsPractical implications - Managers and medical personal will learn how rapidly the medical robotics field is growing with successful applications appearing frequentlyOriginality/value - The medical field will see how robotic technology is addressing needs, reducing costs and improving patient care and will learn where to turn for medical robotic answers

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Purpose - Review of the PackExpo Show (packaging technology) with emphasis on the new robot innovations and applications to packaging on display.Design/methodology/approach - In-depth interviews with exhibitors of robots of all types and integrators of robots at the PackExpo Show.Findings - Robots are addressing the packaging needs for faster robots as well as robots that are smarter and can operate more autonomously than in the past.Practical implications - Packaging customers now have robot innovations to address packaging requirements with faster and smarter product handling technologies to increase productivity and decrease packaging costs.Originality/value - For packaging customers who could not attend PackExpo, they now have an opportunity to see and learn about some of robot innovations that were on display.

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Purpose - The paper addresses the use of passive RFID technology for the development of an autonomous surveillance robot. Passive RFID tags can be used for labelling both valued objects and goal-positions that the robot has to reach in order to inspect the surroundings. In addition, the robot can use RFID tags for navigational purposes, such as to keep track of its pose in the environment. Automatic tag position estimation is, therefore, a fundamental task in this context.Design/methodology/approach - The paper proposes a supervised fuzzy inference system to learn the RFID sensor model. Then the obtained model is used by the tag localization algorithm. Each tag position is estimated as the most likely among a set of candidate locations.Findings - The paper proves the feasibility of RFID technology in mobile robotics context. The development of a RFID sensor model is first required in order to provide a functional relationship between the spatial attitude of the device and its responses. Then, the RFID device provided with this model can be successfully integrated in mobile robotics applications such as navigation, mapping and surveillance just to mention a few.Originality/value - The paper presents a novel approach to RFID sensor modelling using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference. The model uses both Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) and tag detection event in order to achieve better accuracy. In addition, a method for global tag localization is proposed. Experimental results prove the robustness and reliability of the proposed approach.

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Purpose - Stereo vision technique simulates the function of the human eyes to observe the world, which can be used to compute the spatial information of weld seam in the robot welding field. It is a typical kind of application to fix two cameras on the end effector of robot when stereo vision is used in intelligent robot welding. In order to analyse the effect of vision system configuration on vision computing, an accuracy analysis model of vision computing is constructed, which is a good guide for the construction and application of stereo vision system in welding robot field. Design/methodology/approach - A typical stereo vision system fixed on welding robot is designed and constructed to compute the position information of spatial seam. A simplified error analysis model of the two arbitrary putting cameras is built to analyze the effect of sensors? structural parameter on vision computing accuracy. The methodology of model analysis and experimental verification are used in the research. And experiments realted with image extraction, robot movement accuarcy is also designed to analyze the effect of equipment accuracy and realted processed procedure in vision technology. Findings - Effect of repeatability positioning accuracy and TCP calibration error of welding robot for visual computing are also analyzed and tested. The results show that effect of the repeatability on computing accuracy is not bigger than 0.3mm. However, TCP affected the computing accuracy greatly, when the calibrated error of TCP is bigger than 0.5, the re-calibration is very necessary. The accuracy analysis and experimental technique in this paper can guide the research of three-dimensional information computing by stereo vision and improve the computed accuracy.Originality/value - The accuracy of seam position information is affected by many inteactional factors, the systematic experiments and a simplified error analysis model are designed and established, the main factors such as the sensor?s configurable parameters, the accuracy of arc welding robot and the accuracy of image recognition, are included in the model and experiments. The model and experimental method are significant for design of visual sensor and improvement of computing accuracy.

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Purpose - Reducing energy consumption in walking robots is an issue of great importance in field applications such as humanitarian demining so as to increase mission time for a given power supply. This paper addresses the problem of improving energy efficiency in statically stable walking machines by comparing two leg, insect and mammal, configurations on the hexapod robotic platform SILO6.Design/methodology/approach - Dynamic simulation of this hexapod is used to develop a set of rules that optimize energy expenditure in both configurations. Later, through a theoretical analysis of energy consumption and experimental measurements in the real platform SILO6, a configuration is chosen.Findings - It is widely accepted that the mammal configuration in statically stable walking machines is better for upporting high loads, while the insect one is considered to be better for improving mobility. However, taking into account the leg dynamics and not only the body weight, different results are obtained. In a mammal configuration, supporting body weight accounts for 5% of power consumption while leg dynamics accounts for 31%. Originality/value - As this paper demonstrates, the energy expended when the robot walks along a straight and horizontal line is the same for both, insect and mammal, configurations, while power consumption during crab walking in an insect configuration exceeds power consumption in the mammal one.

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Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present a control system for a heavy duty industrial robot, including both the control structure and algorithm, was designed and testedDesign/methodology/approach - An industrial PC with TwinCAT real-time system is chosen as the motion control unit, EtherCAT is used for command transmission. The whole system has a decoupled and centralized control structure. A novel optimal motion generation algorithm based on modified cubic spline interpolation is illustrated. The execution time and work were chosen as the objective function. The constraints are the limits of torque, velocity and jerk. The motion commands were smooth enough throughout the execution period. By using the Lagangue equation and assumed modes methods, a dynamic model of heavy duty industrial robots is built considering the elastic of both joints and links. After that a compound control algorithm based on singular perturbation theory was designed for the servo control loop. Findings - The final experimental results showed that the control commands and algorithms could easily be calculated and transmitted in one sample unit. Both the motion generation and servo control algorithm greatly improved the control performance of the robot.Research limitations/implications - All parts of the control algorithm can be computed on-line except the optimal motion generation part, The motion generation part is time consuming (about 2.5 seconds), which can only be performed off-line. Hence future work will focus on improving the efficiency of this algorithm; therefore it could be performed online, increasing the robot?s overall robustness and adaptability.Originality/value - Aiming at the Internal and external causes that limits the dynamic performance of heavy duty industrial robots, this paper proposed a realizable scheme of control system, includes both the control structure and algorithms. And a novel optimal motion generation algorithm is presented.

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Purpose - Precision aluminium moulding makes possible the production of large-size complex and high-technology cast parts. However, industrial requirements linked to economic and safety reasons call into question the manual performance of finishing operations. This study aims to enhance industrial robot applications by using vision and redundancy optimization to improve their capability.Design/methodology/approach - After having presented the concepts associated with machine and kinematics capability, the paper first describes the finishing constraints related to the process and the study of inaccuracy factors. Adjusting the trajectory by vision minimize some inaccuracy factors but does not take into account the structure loading. Therefore, we present the optimization, kinematics and precision criteria as well as the multi-objective method developed by integrating the loading aspect. This method has been verified by simulation and the results validated on industrial parts.Findings - The paper presents an improvement in machine capacities based on redundancy and an optical 3D measurement system. It develops the strategies, sensors and cell architecture to perform finishing operations. Research limitations/implications - The finishing of high-technology structural cast parts requires the completion of the machining and polishing processes adapted each part. The choice was made to develop a robotic cell dedicated to integrating specific features, in contrast to machine tools.Practical implications - This study was carried out within the framework of the Eureka SANDCAST project in cooperation with the Alcan group, specialized in high-technology moulded aluminum parts.Originality/value - The robotic cell is dedicated to finishing operations, by machining and polishing large cast aluminum parts. The objectives are to improve machine capability and kinematics capacity with vision and redundancy management.

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Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to describe a calibration method developed to improve the absolute accuracy of a novel three degrees-of-freedom planar parallel robot. The robot is designed for the precise alignment of semiconductor wafers and, even though its complete workspace is slightly larger, the accuracy improvements are performed within a target workspace, in which the positions are on a disc of 170 mm in diameter and the orientations are in the range ±17°.Design/methodology/approach - The calibration method makes use of a single optimization model, based on the direct kinematic calibration approach, while the experimental data are collected from two sources. The first source is a measurement arm from FARO Technologies, and the second is a Mitutoyo coordinate measurement machine (CMM). The two sets of calibration results are compared.Findings - Simulation confirmed that the model proposed is not sensitive to measurement noise. An experimental validation on the CMM shows that the absolute accuracy inside the target workspace was improved, by reducing the maximum position and orientation errors from 1.432 mm and 0.107°, respectively, to 0.044 mm and 0.009°.Originality/value - This paper presents a calibration method which makes it possible to accurately identify the actual robot?s base frame (base frame calibration), at the same time as identifying and compensating for geometric errors, actuator offsets, and even screw lead errors. The proposed calibration method is applied on a novel planar robot, and its absolute accuracy was found to improve to 0.044 mm.