关键词： Computer-assisted surgery   surgical robots   navigation   surgical planning  

摘要： Off-the-shelf industrial robotic technologies have achieved significant advancements in the past several decades in terms of mechanics and automation performances. We are expecting to take advantage of the industrial robots for assisting surgeons in surgeries and quick prototyping a robotic surgery system. In precise computer-assisted surgeries (CASs), such as pelvic-acetabular surgery, eye surgery, or neurosurgery, it is extremely important to position the tools accurately and precisely for surgical operations. Some of the industrial robotics arms are able to achieve good repeatability and dexterity while positioning the surgical tools. To enable the application of industrial robots in the surgical rooms, there are several other essential modules to be integrated to the robotic surgery systems, such as real-time navigation system, surgical planning system, and surgeon-guidance system. In this paper, we review the existing studies on the medical robots including the ones using industrial robots, and then investigate the essentials for using industrial robots in computer-integrated surgery.

关键词： Evolutionary robotics   Speciation   Behavioral space  

摘要： In Evolutionary Robotics, population-based evolutionary computation is used to design robot neurocontrollers that produce behaviors which allow the robot to fulfill a user-defined task. However, the standard approach is to use canonical evolutionary algorithms, where the search tends to make the evolving population converge towards a single behavioral solution, even if the high-level task could be accomplished by structurally different behaviors. In this work, we present an approach that preserves behavioral diversity within the population in order to produce a diverse set of structurally different behaviors that the robot can use. In order to achieve this, we employ the concept of speciation, where the population is dynamically subdivided into sub-groups, or species, each one characterized by a particular behavioral structure that all individuals within that species share. Speciation is achieved by describing each neurocontroller using a representations that we call a behavior signature, these are descriptors that characterize the traversed path of the robot within the environment. Behavior signatures are coded using character strings, this allows us to compare them using a string similarity measure, and three measures are tested. The proposed behavior-based speciation is compared with canonical evolution and a method that speciates based on network topology. Experimental tests were carried out using two robot tasks (navigation and homing behavior), several training environments, and two different robots (Khepera and Pioneer), both real and simulated. Results indicate that behavior-based speciation increases the diversity of the behaviors based on their structure, without sacrificing performance. Moreover, the evolved controllers exhibit good robustness when the robot is placed within environments that were not used during training. In conclusion, the speciation method presented in this work allows an evolutionary algorithm to produce several robot behaviors that a

关键词： Robotic gynecologic surgery   Cost   Postoperative pain  

摘要： Objective. The purpose of this study is to compare postoperative pain management and costs in endometrial cancer patients who had a robotic-assisted or laparoscopic-assisted hysterectomy. Methods. This is a retrospective cohort study of all endometrial cancer patients from 9/2005 to 6/2010 who had a completed robotic-assisted or laparoscopic-assisted hysterectomy. All surgeries were performed by gynecologic oncologists on the da Vinci S surgical system. Demographic data, patient-recorded pain scores, pain-management interventions, and postoperative pain medication costs were compared. Data was analyzed using Student's t-tests and Pearson's chi(2) tests in SPSS. Results. Two-hundred fifteen (101 robotic and 114 laparoscopic) patients met the inclusion criteria. There were no significant differences between the groups in age, BMI, clinical stage, comorbidities, lymph nodes retrieved, and the number of narcotic vs. non-narcotic drug interventions administered. Robotic patients had a lower number of initial drug interventions (21 vs. 52;P<.001) and total drug interventions (162 vs. 219;P<.001) than laparoscopic patients. Robotics had a lower initial pain score (2.1 vs. 3.0;P = .012). There was a 50% reduction in the pain medication cost on the day of surgery for robotic patients ($12.24 vs. $24.45;P < .01), and a 56% cost reduction for the rest of their length of stay ($3.63 vs. $8.17;P < .01). Conclusion. Endometrial cancer patients who have robotic surgery experience less initial postoperative pain and have fewer drug interventions. The cost associated for their pain management represents a savings of greater than 50%. These factors demonstrate the value of robotic surgery in regard to postoperative pain management by delivering higher quality care at a lower cost. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

关键词： body   design   gesture   human-robot interaction   laboratory   social agency   social robotics   spatial organization  

摘要： Social roboticists design their robots to function as social agents in interaction with humans and other robots. Although we do not deny that the robot's design features are crucial for attaining this aim, we point to the relevance of spatial organization and coordination between the robot and the humans who interact with it. We recover these interactions through an observational study of a social robotics laboratory and examine them by applying a multimodal interactional analysis to two moments of robotics practice. We describe the vital role of roboticists and of the group of preverbal infants, who are involved in a robot's design activity, and we argue that the robot's social character is intrinsically related to the subtleties of human interactional moves in laboratories of social robotics. This human involvement in the robot's social agency is not simply controlled by individual will. Instead, the human-machine couplings are demanded by the situational dynamics in which the robot is lodged.

关键词： ROBOTICS   HIGH school students -- Attitudes   SCIENCE   CONTESTS   EDUCATION  

摘要： This study was designed to examine the impact of participating in an after-school robotics competition on high school students' attitudes toward science. Specifically, this study used the Test of Science-Related Attitude to measure students' social implications of science, normality of scientists, attitude toward scientific inquiry, adoption of scientific attitudes, enjoyment of science lessons, leisure interest in science, and career interest in science. Results indicated that students who participated in a robotic competition had a more positive attitude toward science and science-related areas in four of the seven categories examined: social implications of science, normality of scientists, attitude toward scientific inquiry, and adoption of scientific attitudes. Implications of results on students' attitudes are discussed.

关键词： Swarm robotics   Statistical error detection   Adaptive error detection  

摘要： Swarm robotics is an example of a complex system with interactions among distributed autonomous robots as well with the environment. Within the swarm there is no centralised control, behaviour emerges from interactions between agents within the swarm. Agents within the swarm exhibit time varying behaviour in dynamic environments, and are subject to a variety of possible anomalies. The focus within our work is on specific faults in individual robots that can affect the global performance of the robotic swarm. We argue that classical approaches for achieving tolerance through implicit redundancy is insufficient in some cases and additional measures should be explored. Our contribution is to demonstrate that tolerance through explicit detection with statistical techniques works well and is suitable due to its lightweight computation. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

关键词： 机器人教育   中小学   现状   信息技术教育   综合运用能力   机器人教学   机器人竞赛   团队合作  

摘要： 中小学机器人教育主要包括机器人教学、机器人项目实践和机器人竞赛等内容。它极大地丰富了信息技术教育的内涵，并且机器人项目的挑战性、操作性、创新性以及团队合作等特点，完全符合青少年的自我价值需求，学生的多学科综合运用能力、

关键词： 柔性并联机器人   弹性动力学   有限元法   动力学建模   模态综合法  

摘要： 针对一般柔性并联机器人动力学模型,提出了一种精确而简单的动力学建模方法。根据并联机器人结构特点,将其划分为若个刚性子结构和弹性子结构,形成一个刚柔结合的系统。静平台和动平台相对其他构件变形较小,将它们作为刚性子结构,各个支链作为弹性子结构。分别建立各子结构的动力学方程,弹性子结构采用有限元法和模态综合法建立其动力学方程;考虑各个柔性支链弹性变形对刚性子结构的影响,建立刚性子结构动力学方程;推导出相邻的刚性子结构和弹性子结构之间的几何约束关系。通过相邻子结构的协调矩阵,将各个子结构的方程进行装配形成系统的弹性动力学方程。通过一种高速并联机械手的动力学特性比较分析,表明该方法的正确性和可行性。由于引入刚性子结构和采用了模态综合法,减少了系统自由度数,从而简化了计算模型,为柔性并联机器人提供一种实用的建模方法。

关键词： 奥林匹克竞赛   选拔赛   机器人   中国   世界   综合体育馆   清华大学   大学城  

摘要： WRO世界机器人奥林匹克竞赛中国区选拔赛在2011年10月15日拉开了帷幕，此次选拔赛为期两天，赛场地分别设在北京清华大学综合体育馆、上海松江大学城体育馆、深圳宝安区科技馆、重庆十八中学，共4个赛区。

关键词： 机器人竞赛   教育部   信息技术教学   中小学校   现状   中学   选修课程   人工智能  

摘要： 2003年，教育部把“人工智能基础”课程作为信息技术教学的技术选修模块引入中小学选修课程后，中国的人T智能教育在大众化和普及化层面上进入了一个新的阶段。智能机器人作为人工智能的重要应用领域，在中小学获得了迅速发展。截至目前，全国已经有近百所中小学成为机器人教学实验学校。目前，机器人教育正借着机器人发展的这股势头在全球大中小学校迅速崛起。