关键词： Artificial Intelligence   Big Data   Case Study   Robotics   Universal Robots  

摘要： The skills of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics provide a wide window of job opportunities for the following professionals: Computer scientists, mechanical engineers, system engineers, computer engineers, biomedical engineers, and electrical engineers. Additionally, other professionals benefiting from AI and robotics’ job opportunities are information technologists, informatic engineers, electronic engineers, data scientists, industrial engineers, big data engineers, and related specialists in the dynamic field of engineering robotics. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to study the effort of teaching AI and robotics to undergraduate systems engineering students at the Polytechnic University Institute “Santiago Mariño” in Barinas, Venezuela. Consequently, the methodology used in this academic research was the case study approach, which included three phases, namely Initiation Phase, Fieldwork Phase, and Closing Phase. In that sense, the design of research adopted in this study was based on the development of an exploratory single case study method. As a result, the Theoretical Framework created as a cornerstone of this research highlighted the following three research variables: (1) Robotic Applications, (2) Mechanics of Robotic Manipulation and Computer Vision, and (3) Object-oriented Analysis and Design (OOAD) and Object-oriented (OO) High-level Programming Languages. In conclusion, two nondirectional null hypotheses were tested, leading to the positive answers of the following research questions: (1) “Can undergraduate systems engineering students apply OOAD and OO High-level Programming Languages to analyze, design, and develop Robotic Applications?” and (2) “Can undergraduate systems engineering students use Mechanics of Robotic Manipulation and Computer Vision to analyze, design, and develop Robotic Applications?” as stated in this case study. © 2019 MECS.

关键词： 机器人  

ISBN: (纸本)9787122332868

摘要： 本书根据编者多年机器人教学和指导比赛的经验, 以实例方式系统介绍了VEX IQ机器人套件的零件种类、规格以及特性, 列举了简单静态结构搭建实例, 讲解了机械传动的基本原理和搭建技巧, VEX IQ各种传感器的基本原理和应用, 典型VEX IQ机器人搭建与编程, 以及VEX机器人竞赛介绍和竞赛机器人的搭建步骤。

关键词： Early Childhood Education   Effect Size   Meta-Analysis   Robot Learning  

摘要： This meta-analysis examines the effects of learning with robots (r-learning) on young children and, on this basis, gives suggestions for using robotics in education for young children. A test of homogeneity was performed for 27 Korean studies done between 2008 and 2016 and a random effect model introduced to reveal the effect sizes. The overall effect size was medium to large at 0.72. After analyzing gaps in effect sizes with different categorical moderator variables, the authors found significant differences depending on platform type, activity type, dependent variables for r-learning effect, and age. The study also investigates relationships between effect size and continuous moderator variables such as treatment period and year of publication. The meta-regression model showed a significantly negative relationship between effect size and year of publication. Thus, effects of r-learning on a young child are generally beneficial, and r-learning also improves variables like a child's social nature, though conversely the effect on language development appears below average.

关键词： Rehabilitation robots   Function Approximation Technique   Active assistive motion   Human inverse kinematics  

摘要： Rehabilitation robots have shown a high potential for improving the patients' mobility, improving their functional movements and assisting in daily activities. However, this technology is still an emerging field and suffers from several challenges like compliance control and dynamic uncertain caused by the human-robot collaboration. The main challenge addressed in this paper is to ensure that the exoskeleton robot provides a suitable compliance control that allows it to cooperate perfectly with humans even if the dynamic model of the exoskeleton robot is uncertain. To achieve that, an adaptive tracking controller based on Modified Function Approximation Technique (FAT) is proposed to approximate the dynamic model of the exoskeleton robot. Unlike a conventional FAT, the required use of basis functions in estimations law of dynamic model and the acceleration feedback is eliminated in the proposed modified FAT. Additionally, the desired trajectory is designed based on the designer's prediction of the motion intention of the human, using the Damped Least Square method in order to reduce the error between the actual position of the robot and the motion intention of the human which help the subject move the exoskeleton arm easily in active rehabilitation tasks. The stability analysis is formulated and demonstrated based on Lyapunov function. An experimental physiotherapy session and comparison study with a healthy subject was performed to test the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed adaptive control. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

关键词： arthroplasty   replacement   knee   robotic surgery   surgical   instruments   patient-reported outcomes  

摘要： Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is a highly successful operation that improves patients' quality of life and functionality. Yet, up to 20% of TKA patients remain unsatisfied with their clinical result. Robotic TKA has gained increased attention and popularity as a means of improving patient satisfaction. The promise of robotic-assisted TKA is that it provides a surgeon with a tool that accurately executes bone cuts according to presurgical planning, as well as provides the surgeon with intraoperative feedback helpful for restoring knee kinematics and soft tissue balance. Several systems are now available, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Evidence that the use of robotics will lead to improved implant survival, function, and patient-reported outcomes is slowly being accumulated, but this has not been clearly proven to date. Recent literature does show that the use of robotics during TKA is not associated with increased surgical time or complications. The goal of this review is to provide an objective assessment of the evidence surrounding robotic technology for TKA.

关键词： Assistive robotics   Gait analysis   Unsupervised learning   Robotic walker  

摘要： In the medical field, rehabilitation of the lower limbs is a slow and continuous process, where healthcare professionals have to follow each patient over long periods of time. In conventional rehabilitation, the progression of a patient is assessed by a professional, who analyzes visual tracking data. This assessment is dependent on each professional's own experience. In this paper, we propose an approach to analyze tracking data, captured by our robotic walker's gait tracking system, to detect shifts in the gait pattern over time automatically. For this purpose, the system takes in gait tracking data and segments it into gait cycles (heel strike to heel strike). Then, our approach handles each gait cycle considering it as a group of gait parameters that define trajectories in that time frame. From each gait parameter within the cycle, spatiotemporal features are extracted and similarity rates are computed using autoencoders. These spatiotemporal features and similarity rates are fused in a feature space which is fed to a one-class support vector machine that constructs a model of the observable gait cycle. Each posterior observed gait cycle is checked for shifts, using a set of proposed novelty detection techniques. Experimental tests using a dataset captured using our robotic walker platform revealed a promising performance when detecting if a gait cycle is 'reference' or 'novel' when compared to a previously trained model of a unique 'reference' gait pattern.

关键词： Plant uncertain   Robot Manipulator   Learning   Controllers   Distribute   global connectivity   networks(communications)   learning control  

摘要： This paper studies the problem of composite synchronization and learning of multiple coordinated robot manipulators subject to heterogeneous nonlinear uncertain dynamics under the leader-follower framework. A new two-layer distributed adaptive learning control scheme is proposed, which consists of the first-layer distributed cooperative estimator and the second-layer decentralized deterministic learning controller. The first layer aims to enable each robotic agent to estimate the leader's information. The second layer is responsible for not only controlling each individual robotic agent to track over desired reference trajectory, but also accurately identifying/learning each robot's nonlinear uncertain dynamics. Design and implementation of this two-layer distributed controller can be carried out in a fully-distributed manner, which do not require any global information including global connectivity of the communication network. The Lyapunov method is applied to rigorously analyze stability and parameter convergence of the resulting closed-loop system. Numerical simulations on a team of two-degree-of-freedom robot manipulators have been conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed results. (C) 2019 The Franklin Institute. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

关键词： Discrete mechanical systems   Swarm robotics   Fracture  

摘要： In swarm robotics, just as for an animal swarm in nature, one of the aims is to reach and maintain a desired configuration. One of the possibilities for the team, to reach this aim, is to see what its neighbours are doing. This approach generates a rules system governing the movement of the single robot just by reference to neighbour's motion. The same approach is used in position-based dynamics to simulate behaviour of complex continuum materials under deformation. Therefore, in some previous works, we have considered a two-dimensional lattice of particles and calculated its time evolution by using a rules system derived from our experience in swarm robotics. The new position of a particle, like the element of a swarm, is determined by the spatial position of the other particles. No dynamic is considered, but it can be thought as being hidden in the behaviour rules. This method has given good results in some simple situations reproducing the behaviour of deformable bodies under imposed strain. In this paper we try to stress our model to highlight its limits and how they can be improved. Some other, more complex, examples are computed and discussed. Shear test, different lattices, different fracture mechanisms and ASTM shape sample behaviour have been investigated by the software tool we have developed.

关键词： Delay-free detections   Human tracking   Human detection   Person following by robot   "Follow-me" behavior  

摘要： In many robotic applications there is the need for detecting and tracking moving and/or static objects while the robot moves, in order to interact with them. High quality detection methods require considerable computational time when the number of objects to be detected is high, or when operating within dynamic, real-world environments. Then, when an object detection result is available, it is referred to a previous frame and not to the current one. A method for obtaining delay-free detections is introduced in this present article. It consists of projecting a delayed detection onto the current frame by using a set of feature tracks generated by using the KLT (Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi) tracker. The proposed method is shown to improve detection accuracy when the tracked object is moving with respect to the camera. In addition, the method is able to detect and manage false detections and occlusions using statistical classifiers (Support Vector Machine) and the Viterbi algorithm (Viterbi, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 13(2), 260-269 1967). The method is validated in a person-following task, and compared against a part-based HOG person detector, and four performant tracking methods (Meanshift, Compressive Tracking, Tracking-by-detection with Kernels and Kernelized Correlation Filter). Additionally, the method is validated in two additional tasks: face tracking and car tracking. In all reported experiments, the proposed method obtains the best performance among all compared methods.