关键词： ROBOTICS conferences   ROBOTICS research   MEETINGS  

摘要： A call for papers for the International Symposium on Robotics Research ISRR 2013, to be organized by the International Symposium on Robotics Research (ISRR) organization in Singapore from December 16-19, 2013.

关键词： Computer programming   Early childhood   Kindergarten   Robotics   Sequencing   STEM  

摘要： This paper examines the impact of programming robots on sequencing ability during a 1-week intensive robotics workshop at an early childhood STEM magnet school in the Harlem area of New York City. Children participated in computer programming activities using a developmentally appropriate tangible programming language CHERP, specifically designed to program a robot's behaviors. The study assessed 27 participants' sequencing skills before and after the programming and robotics curricular intervention using a picture-story sequencing task and compared those skills to a control group. Pre-test and post-test scores were compared using a paired sample t test. The group of children who participated in the 1-week robotics and programming workshop experienced significant increases in post-test compared to pre-test sequencing scores.

关键词： robotics  

摘要： Are robots and automation destroying more jobs than they are creating?

关键词： bio-inspiration   biomimetics   electric fish   mechanics   robotics   sensing  

摘要： Weakly electric knifefish have intrigued both biologists and engineers for decades with their unique electrosensory system and agile swimming mechanics. Study of these fish has resulted in models that illuminate the principles behind their electrosensory system and unique swimming abilities. These models have uncovered the mechanisms by which knifefish generate thrust for swimming forward and backward, hovering, and heaving dorsally using a ventral elongated median fin. Engineered active electrosensory models inspired by electric fish allow for close-range sensing in turbid waters where other sensing modalities fail. Artificial electrosense is capable of aiding navigation, detection and discrimination of objects, and mapping the environment, all tasks for which the fish use electrosense extensively. While robotic ribbon fin and artificial electrosense research has been pursued separately to reduce complications that arise when they are combined, electric fish have succeeded in their ecological niche through close coupling of their sensing and mechanical systems. Future integration of electrosense and ribbon fin technology into a knifefish robot should likewise result in a vehicle capable of navigating complex 3D geometries unreachable with current underwater vehicles, as well as provide insights into how to design mobile robots that integrate high bandwidth sensing with highly responsive multidirectional movement.

关键词： ROBOTICS   HIGH school contests   HIGH school students   COMPETITIONS  

摘要： The article discusses the First Robotics Championship competition which was held in April 2013 in St. Louis, Missouri wherein an alliance of three teams of students from Toronto, Mississauga, Ontario, and The Woodlands have served as the winners.

关键词： Women engineers   Gender biases   Gender gap   State-of-the-art methods   Robotics  

摘要： In recent history, information and communications technologies (ICTs) have been radically advanced and largely infiltrated daily routine. Additionally, modern educational methods encourage the use of ICTs in the learning processes. Especially in the education of hard sciences like Physics, the use of ICTs is favored because the students can more easily understand the natural laws and observe in real time the results of the experimental process. Women engineers approach this kind of educational process better as they combine a variety of traits due to their feminine nature that gives them precedence. It is widely accepted that females outperform males in verbal ability, are raised to be more sensitive, have maternal instincts, and can be extremely supportive not only to same sex peers but also to both genders. These inherent genetic traits result in women’s ability to be naturally tuned into the world around them. In a man’s world - more importantly when ICTs are concerned - women are often discouraged and need to work a lot harder than men to achieve a favorable situation. This pressure makes women more active and persistent. According to the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research report for 2010 to 2011, only 3.7% of the entrepreneurs between 18 and 64 years old are women (Ioannidis and Chatzichristou http://***/***?a_id=853 , 2012). In the last two decades, the field of robotics has been advancing more radically than ever. Many distinctive robotic mechanisms have been implemented due to the innovative ideas and the outburst of technology. During author MT’s PhD research, she noticed that few women participate actively in state-of-the-art educational methods including ICTs. More distinctively, women involved in robotics seem to have been excluded from the productive or research process. The absence of contributions by women engineers in robotics and in the assistive educational tools it provides has led to a more masculine approach in the fie

关键词： Pain management   Vaccination   Immunization   Pediatric   Robotics   Human-robot interaction  

摘要： Objective: Millions of children in North America receive an annual flu vaccination, many of whom are at risk of experiencing severe distress. Millions of children also use technologically advanced devices such as computers and cell phones. Based on this familiarity, we introduced another sophisticated device - a humanoid robot - to interact with children during their vaccination. We hypothesized that these children would experience less pain and distress than children who did not have this interaction. Method: This was a randomized controlled study in which 57 children (30 male;age, mean +/- SD: 6.87 +/- 1.34 years) were randomly assigned to a vaccination session with a nurse who used standard administration procedures, or with a robot who was programmed to use cognitive-behavioral strategies with them while a nurse administered the vaccination. Measures of pain and distress were completed by children, parents, nurses, and researchers. Results: Multivariate analyses of variance indicated that interaction with a robot during flu vaccination resulted in significantly less pain and distress in children according to parent, child, nurse, and researcher ratings with effect sizes in the moderate to high range (Cohen's d = 0.49-0.90). Conclusion: This is the first study to examine the effectiveness of child-robot interaction for reducing children's pain and distress during a medical procedure. All measures of reduction were significant. These findings suggest that further research on robotics at the bedside is warranted to determine how they can effectively help children manage painful medical procedures. Crown Copyright (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

关键词： 双框架蒙皮检测机器人   动力学建模   切换系统   反步镇定控制   非完整约束   牛顿-欧拉法  

摘要： 研究了双层架构蒙皮检测机器人在切换运动方式下的动力学问题.首先分析了蒙皮检测机器人的结构和受力情况;然后建立了非完整约束方程,进而基于牛顿-欧拉法分别建立了蒙皮检测机器人内外框架两个子系统的动力学模型,并建立了双层架构状态空间表达式;最后设计了反步切换控制算法.通过仿真实验验证了切换控制算法的有效性和可行性.

关键词： 工业机械人   瞬态变化   刚柔耦合动力学模型   振动分析  

摘要： 为适应工业机器人高速、重载、高精度的要求,以工业机械臂的瞬变过程为研究对象,提出以末端执行器的振幅判断机器人在瞬变过程中的动态性能,利用多体动力学和有限元的方法建立刚柔耦合模型,对工业机器人在整个作业过程中的动态特性进行描述和分析,仿真计算工业机器人在振幅最大时刻的应力分布及危险区域节点的应力变化,为机器人的动态性能评估、疲劳强度分析和寿命预测提供了依据。