关键词： Construction robot   Digitization   3D printing   Precision and assessment   Planning and control  

摘要： Robotics and 3D printing are becoming more widely used in the field of construction industry. This paper reviews the work focused on the robotics technologies that aided for 3D printing in construction. Several aspects of them can be summarized as follows: (1) system composition and information flow, (2) robot workspace and motion planning, (3) control system and optimization of control strategy, (4) precision measurement and optimization, (5) quality assessment of 3D printing, (6) others, such as stability and interoperability. The challenge of every aspect is analyzed, and the correspondingly technical characteristics and methods are discussed in detail. The differences between robotics and construction mechanisms for 3D printing are analyzed and compared. Also, the robotics are further classified based on the workpiece size and their configurations. Finally, a brief description of future work to the robotics that suitable for 3D printing in construction is prospected.

关键词： competition   cooperative learning   coopetition   pair learning   robotics education  

摘要： Background Although some researchers have applied both cooperation and competition in the practice of robotics education, most of these practices were not systematic, and there was no integration design for intra-group cooperation and inter-group competition. Objectives The study aims to examine the effects of different coopetition designs on students' intragroup cooperation and intergroup competition. Methods A two-stage study was conducted in two elementary schools. In the pilot study, two coopetition designs were developed by combining rewarded and unrewarded competition. In the follow-up study, three coopetition designs (i.e., zero-sum with real-time reward, zero-sum with delayed reward, and social-comparison) were examined. Results and Conclusions The study showed that both social-comparison coopetition and zero-sum real-time reward coopetition can be more effective than zero-sum delayed reward coopetition in teaching knowledge and skills in robotics education. Social comparison coopetition turned out to have a larger effect on affective outcome than the zero-sum delayed reward coopetition. Implications Social comparison coopetition seems to be a more advantages method for both cognitive and affective learning. However, more research is needed to confirm the difference in effectiveness between the three models of coopetition.

关键词： underwater gripper   ROV gripper   underwater manipulation   underwater end-effector   robotic underwater hands   marine biological sampling   taxonomy of actions  

摘要： In order to develop a gripping system or control strategy that improves scientific sampling procedures, knowledge of the process and the consequent definition of requirements is fundamental. Nevertheless, factors influencing sampling procedures have not been extensively described, and selected strategies mostly depend on pilots' and researchers' experience. We interviewed 17 researchers and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) technical operators, through a formal questionnaire or in-person interviews, to collect evidence of sampling procedures based on their direct field experience. We methodologically analyzed sampling procedures to extract single basic actions (called atomic manipulations). Available equipment, environment and species-specific features strongly influenced the manipulative choices. We identified a list of functional and technical requirements for the development of novel end-effectors for marine sampling. Our results indicate that the unstructured and highly variable deep-sea environment requires a versatile system, capable of robust interactions with hard surfaces such as pushing or scraping, precise tuning of gripping force for tasks such as pulling delicate organisms away from hard and soft substrates, and rigid holding, as well as a mechanism for rapidly switching among external tools.

摘要： Compared with the original Takens prediction algorithm, the prediction angle obtained by the improved prediction PSO-Takens algorithm was more closely related to the actual motion angle data of the human body, with a smaller error rate and smooth features. [...]a shoulder passive torque prediction method based on a backpropagation neural network (BPANN) was proposed to expand the shoulder passive torque-angle relationship by S. Li et al. In this paper, the forward kinematic analysis of the mechanism, the simulation of the centering effect, the development of the physical prototype, and related experimental research were presented. [...]this special issue presents the most recent advances in modeling, design, analysis, control, implementation, and therapeutic testing of the human assistive rehabilitation systems, bioinspired prosthesis, manipulators, surgical robots, and sensing systems.

关键词： soft robotics   additive manufacturing   support bath   freeform fabrication   gripper   embedded sensors  

摘要： Freeform liquid three-dimensional printing (FL-3DP) is a promising new additive manufacturing process that uses a yield stress gel as a temporary support, enabling the processing of a broader class of inks into complex geometries, including those with low viscosities or long solidification kinetics that were previously not processable. However, the full exploitation of these advantages for the fabrication of complex multilateral structures has been hindered by difficulties in controlling the interfaces between inks and supports. In this work, an in-depth study of the rheological properties and interfacial stabilities between a nanoclay-modified support and silicone-based inks enabled a better understanding of the impact printing parameters have on the extruded filament morphology, and thus on printing resolutions. With these improvements, the fabrication of functional multimaterial pneumatic components applied to soft robotics could be demonstrated, exhibiting superior capabilities compared to casting or traditional extrusion-based additive manufacturing in terms of geometric freedom (overhanging and multimaterial structures), tunability of the component's functionality, and robustness between different phases. Overall, the full exploitation of FL-3DP advantages enables a broader design space for features and functionalities in soft robotic components that require complex and robust combinations of materials.

关键词： Cognitive robot   information generalization   active sensing   prediction   language communication  

摘要： Social demand for robots to be our partners in daily life has been rapidly increasing. Cognitive robotics should play a major role in making robots our partners. To discuss the role of cognitive robotics, we organized the round table in December 2020. This review paper aimed at clarifying the role of cognitive robotics summarizing the discussion in the round table. The round table noted that the existence of uncertainty in the continuous control loop is a source of the need for cognitive robots and is the key factor that distinguishes cognitive robotics from the cognitive system in other fields. This paper summarized the discussion focusing on the creation of several cognitive functions without stopping even if the robots face novel uncertainty in daily life. We discussed information generalization, active sensing, prediction, and language communication as the necessary functions for future cognitive robots. One of the conclusions of the discussion is the importance of setting primitive but concrete targets for cognitive robotics research as cognitive robotics problems. We should continue to discuss the setting of these targets as a grand challenge for cognitive robotics.

关键词： Social emotion   emotional robotics   emotion model   developmental robotics   survey paper  

摘要： This paper presents a review of available research concerning social emotions in robotics. In robotics, the study of emotions has been pursued since a long time. The popular research endeavors in robotics concern the study of robotic recognition, expression, and computational modeling of the basic mechanisms that underlie them. The advancements in research relevant to this domain are in accordance with well-known psychological findings obtained using the category and dimension theories. Many studies are based on these basic theories, which exclusively address the basic emotions. However, social emotions, also referred to as high-level emotions, have been investigated in psychology. We believe that these high-level emotions are worth investigating for the development of next-generation robotic systems - socially aware robots. This paper summarizes the findings concerning social emotions reported through psychology and neuroscience research endeavors along with a survey of studies concerning social emotions in robotics conducted to date. Moreover, this paper discusses future research directions to facilitate the implementation of social emotions in robots.

关键词： Tethered underwater robot   Control equipment   Hydrodynamic performance   Six-degrees-of-freedom model   Cnoidal wave  

摘要： This paper investigates the manoeuvrability and hydrodynamic performance of a tethered underwater robot with control equipment, considering the cnoidal wave effect. A tethered underwater robot installed with two hydrofoils and ducted propellers is proposed to investigate the related phenomena. The numerical experiment is based on combining a variety of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques, such as overlapping grids, sliding meshes, and six-degrees-of-freedom models. The reliability of the numerical method is verified by the experiment with the tethered underwater robot. The numerical results show that the hydrodynamic performance of the tethered underwater robot in shallow water conditions is significantly influenced by the cnoidal wave. The control effect of the control equipment is also significantly affected by the cnoidal wave.

关键词： Stochastic optimal control   Soft robotics   Infinite dimensional systems   Spatio-temporal dynamics   Optimization  

摘要： Correlated with the trend of increasing degrees of freedom in robotic systems is a similar trend of rising interest in spatio-temporal systems described by partial differential equations (PDEs) among the robotics and control communities. These systems often exhibit dramatic under-actuation, high dimensionality, bifurcations, and multimodal instabilities. Their control represents many of the current-day challenges facing the robotics and automation communities. Not only are these systems challenging to control, but the design of their actuation is an NP-hard problem on its own. Recent methods either discretize the space before optimization, or apply tools from linear systems theory under restrictive linearity assumptions in order to arrive at a control solution. This manuscript provides a novel sampling-based stochastic optimization framework based entirely in Hilbert spaces suitable for the general class of semi-linear SPDEs which describes many systems in robotics and applied physics. This framework is utilized for simultaneous policy optimization and actuator co-design optimization. The resulting algorithm is based on variational optimization, and performs joint episodic optimization of the feedback control law and the actuation design over episodes. We study first and second order systems, and in doing so, extend several results to the case of second order SPDEs. Finally, we demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach with several simulated experiments on a variety of SPDEs in robotics and applied physics including an infinite degree-of-freedom soft robotic manipulator.

关键词： underwater gripper   ROV gripper   underwater manipulation   underwater end-effector   robotic underwater hands   marine biological sampling  

摘要： The collection of delicate deep-sea specimens of biological interest with remotely operated vehicle (ROV) industrial grippers and tools is a long and expensive procedure. Industrial grippers were originally designed for heavy manipulation tasks, while sampling specimens requires dexterity and precision. We describe the grippers and tools commonly used in underwater sampling for scientific purposes, systematically review the state of the art of research in underwater gripping technologies, and identify design trends. We discuss the possibility of executing typical manipulations of sampling procedures with commonly used grippers and research prototypes. Our results indicate that commonly used grippers ensure that the basic actions either of gripping or caging are possible, and their functionality is extended by holding proper tools. Moreover, the approach of the research status seems to have changed its focus in recent years: from the demonstration of the validity of a specific technology (actuation, transmission, sensing) for marine applications, to the solution of specific needs of underwater manipulation. Finally, we summarize the environmental and operational requirements that should be considered in the design of an underwater gripper.