Search results for "Robotic"
showing 10 items of 636 documents
An Auto-Operated Telepresence System for the Nao Humanoid Robot
2013
International audience; This paper presents the development process of an auto-operated telepresence system for the Nao humanoid robot with the main functionality of directing the robot autonomously to an operator-defined target location within a static workspace. The workspace is observed by an array of top-view cameras, which are used to localize the robot by means of a color-based marker detection technique. The system is accessible world-wide to the remote operator through any Internet-capable device via a web-based control interface. The web server responsible for coordinating the communication between system and operator is hosted on a cloud-based infrastructure online. The system was…
Gradient-based time to contact on paracatadioptric camera
2013
International audience; The problem of time to contact or time to collision (TTC) estimation is largely discussed in perspective images. However, a few works have dealt with images of catadioptric sensors despite of their utility in robotics applications. The objective of this paper is to develop a novel model for estimating TTC with catadioptric images relative to a planar surface, and to demonstrate that TTC can be estimated only with derivative brightness and image coordinates. This model, called "gradient based time to contact", does not need high processing such as explicit estimation of optical flow and feature detection/or tracking. The proposed method allows to estimate TTC and give…
Fast ultrasonic phased array inspection of complex geometries delivered through robotic manipulators and high speed data acquisition instrumentation
2016
Performance of modern robotic manipulators has enabled research and development of fast automated non-destructive testing (NDT) systems for complex geometries. This paper presents recent outcomes of work aimed at removing the bottleneck due to data acquisition rates, to fully exploit the scanning speed of modern 6-DoF manipulators. State of the art ultrasonic instrumentation has been integrated into a large robot cell to enable fast data acquisition, high scan resolutions and accurate positional encoding. A fibre optic connection between the ultrasonic instrument and the server computer enables data transfer rates up to 1.6GB/s. Multiple data collection methods are compared. Performance of …
Design and Calibration of a Specialized Polydioptric Camera Rig
2017
International audience; It has been observed in the nature that all creatures have evolved highly exclusive sensory organs depending on their habitat and the form of resources availability for their survival. In this project, a novel omnidirectional camera rig, inspired from natural vision sensors, is proposed. It is exclusively designed to operate for highly specified tasks in the field of mobile robotics. Navigation problems on uneven terrains and detection of the moving objects while the robot is itself in motion are the core problems that omnidirectional systems tackle. The proposed omnidirectional system is a compact and a rigid vision system with dioptric cameras that provide a 360° f…
Me, My Bot and His Other (Robot) Woman? Keeping Your Robot Satisfied in the Age of Artificial Emotion
2018
With a backdrop of action and science fiction movie horrors of the dystopian relationship between humans and robots, surprisingly to date-with the exception of ethical discussions-the relationship aspect of humans and sex robots has seemed relatively unproblematic. The attraction to sex robots perhaps is the promise of unproblematic affectionate and sexual interactions, without the need to consider the other&rsquo
A flexible robotic cell for in-process inspection of multi-pass welds
2020
Welds are currently only inspected after all the passes are complete and after allowing sufficient time for any hydrogen cracking to develop, typically over several days. Any defects introduced between passes are therefore unreported until fully buried, greatly complicating rework and also delaying early corrections to the weld process parameters. In-process inspection can provide early intervention but involves many challenges, including operation at high temperatures with significant gradients affecting acoustic velocities and, hence, beam directions. Reflections from the incomplete parts of the weld would also be flagged as lack-of-fusion defects, requiring the region of interest (ROI) t…
The Active Inference Approach to Ecological Perception: General Information Dynamics for Natural and Artificial Embodied Cognition
2018
The emerging neurocomputational vision of humans as embodied, ecologically embedded, social agents – who shape and are shaped by their environment – offers a golden opportunity to revisit and revise ideas about the physical and information-theoretic underpinnings of life, mind, and consciousness itself. In particular, the active inference framework (AIF) makes it possible to bridge connections from computational neuroscience and robotics/AI to ecological psychology and phenomenology, revealing common underpinnings and overcoming key limitations. AIF opposes the mechanistic to the reductive, while staying fully grounded in a naturalistic and information theoretic foundation, using the princi…
In Situ Representations and Access Consciousness in Neural Blackboard or Workspace Architectures
2018
Phenomenal theories of consciousness assert that consciousness is based on specific neural correlates in the brain, which can be separated from all cognitive functions we can perform. If so, the search for robot consciousness seems to be doomed. By contrast, theories of functional or access consciousness assert that consciousness can be studied only with forms of cognitive access, given by cognitive processes. Consequently, consciousness and cognitive access cannot be fully dissociated. Here, the global features of cognitive access of consciousness are discussed based on neural blackboard or (global) workspace architectures, combined with content addressable or "in situ" representations as …
An android architecture for bio-inspired honest signalling in Human-Humanoid Interaction
2017
Abstract This paper outlines an augmented robotic architecture to study the conditions of successful Human-Humanoid Interaction (HHI). The architecture is designed as a testable model generator for interaction centred on the ability to emit, display and detect honest signals. First we overview the biological theory in which the concept of honest signals has been put forward in order to assess its explanatory power. We reconstruct the application of the concept of honest signalling in accounting for interaction in strategic contexts and in laying bare the foundation for an automated social metrics. We describe the modules of the architecture, which is intended to implement the concept of hon…
A Basic Architecture of an Autonomous Adaptive System With Conscious-Like Function for a Humanoid Robot.
2018
In developing a humanoid robot, there are two major objectives. One is developing a physical robot having body, hands, and feet resembling those of human beings and being able to similarly control them. The other is to develop a control system that works similarly to our brain, to feel, think, act, and learn like ours. In this article, an architecture of a control system with a brain-oriented logical structure for the second objective is proposed. The proposed system autonomously adapts to the environment and implements a clearly defined “consciousness” function, through which both habitual behavior and goal-directed behavior are realized. Consciousness is regarded as a function for effecti…