Search results for " Rob"

Architecture to Serve Disabled and Elderly

2013

We propose an architecture (discussed in the context of a dressing and cleaning application for impaired and elderly persons) that combines a cognitive framework that generates motor commands with the MOSAIC architecture which selects the right motor command according to the proper context. The ambition is to have robots able to understand humans intentions (dressing or cleaning intentions), to learn new tasks only by observing humans, and to represent the world around it by using conceptual spaces. The cognitive framework implements the learning by demonstration paradigm and solves the related problem to map the observed movement into the robot motor system. Such framework is assumed to wo…

Investigating the effect of residual stress on hydrogen cracking in multi-pass robotic welding through process compatible non-destructive testing

2021

Abstract In this paper, the effect of Welding Residual Stress (WRS) on the size and morphology of hydrogen-induced cracks (HIC) is studied. Four samples were manufactured using a 6-axis welding robot and in two separate batches. The difference between the two batches was the clamping system used, which resulted in different amounts of welding deformation and WRS. The hydrogen cracks were intentionally manufactured in the samples using a localised water-quenching method, where water was sprayed over a specific weld pass in a predetermined position. The Phased-Array Ultrasonic Testing (PAUT) system was implemented during the welding process (high-temperature in-process method), to detect the …

Minimizing the cycle time in serial manufacturing systems with multiple dual-gripper robots

2006

Robots are being used more and more extensively as material-handling systems for automated manufacturing systems. This is especially true for dual-gripper robots whose in-process buffer (the robot's second gripper) constitutes a further element of flexibility. When the number of stations to be served is high and the set of activities the robot must execute is great, the system throughput may depend on robot capability rather than on process times. In such conditions, the use of several robots leads to an increase in system productivity. Obviously, the design and the management of such a handling system becomes more complex: the minimum number of robots required, the work stations to be serv…

LABCENTER. A remote laboratory system platform

2011

Abstract A web system server especially suited for remote laboratories has been developed. Typical e-learning systems do not offer the possibility to perform a remote laboratory where real experiments can be done online, accessing real hardware located at the University facilities. Allowing students to connect to hardware systems remotely provides them with additional knowledge about real devices; very often, real laboratory devices are time or space restricted. The proposed LABCENTER platform is a general frame designed for remote laboratories connection. The platform is designed to allow an authorized student to connect to hardware systems. As direct hardware systems allow only a single u…

The effect of genetic robustness on evolvability in digital organisms

2008

Abstract Background Recent work has revealed that many biological systems keep functioning in the face of mutations and therefore can be considered genetically robust. However, several issues related to robustness remain poorly understood, such as its implications for evolvability (the ability to produce adaptive evolutionary innovations). Results Here, we use the Avida digital evolution platform to explore the effects of genetic robustness on evolvability. First, we obtained digital organisms with varying levels of robustness by evolving them under combinations of mutation rates and population sizes previously shown to select for different levels of robustness. Then, we assessed the abilit…

Interlacing Christian and Classical Myths: Subversive Reworking of Myths of Rebirth in Michèle Roberts

2009

Dynamics of natural hemiboreal woodland in the Moricsala Reserve, Latvia: the studies of K. R. Kupffer revisited

2010

Abstract Karl Reinhold Kupffer (1872–1935), an outstanding botanist and plant ecologist, took the initiative that led to the establishment of the first nature reserve in Latvia, on Moricsala Island in 1912. The reserve provided an excellent reference area for natural hemiboreal woodland for future generations. There have been very few studies on the dynamics of natural broadleaved forest in Europe, probably owing to lack of primeval forests of this type. However, Kupffer produced a map of forest types in the reserve with accurate descriptions of the vegetation by layers, and his descriptions include interpretations of forest dynamics processes. This information, together with the present ag…

Haunted Bodies and Scientific Discourse in Neo-Victorian Fiction. The case of Roberts's in the red kitchen

2013

Learning to Approach a Moving Ball with a Simulated Two-Wheeled Robot

2006

We show how a two-wheeled robot can learn to approach a moving ball using Reinforcement Learning. The robot is controlled by setting the velocities of its two wheels. It has to reach the ball under certain conditions to be able to kick it towards a given target. In order to kick, the ball has to be in front of the robot. The robot also has to reach the ball at a certain angle in relation to the target, because the ball is always kicked in the direction from the center of the robot to the ball. The robot learns which velocity differences should be applied to the wheels: one of the wheels is set to the maximum velocity, the other one according to this difference. We apply a REINFORCE algorith…

Fuzzy EKF Control for Wheeled Nonholonomic Vehicles

2006

In this paper a new Fuzzy extended Kalman robust control system for position and orientation tracking of nonholonomic vehicles with two wheels actuated by two independent DC motors is presented. The problem of robustness and localization are solved simultaneously. About the robustness, some perturbations coming from the outside environment and depending on the contact between the wheels and the ground, involve violations of the nonholonomic constraints. The fuzzy controller of this work is able to obtain a dynamic term of robustness with respect to the perturbations above. However, by using encoders only, the measures of actual position and orientation of the vehicle are with Gaussian noise…