关键词： Educational robotics   Teacher training   Improving classroom teaching   Digital technologies  

摘要： The emergence of Educational Robotics (ER) and its rapid spread across all levels of education in recent years has drawn attention to the need for further training in this discipline. In this study we discuss the panorama of teacher training research in ER and make recommendations for institutions that intend to implement ER teacher training programs. We explore three databases that include publications in ER teacher training and select 38 publications for analysis. We discuss these publications with special emphasis on requirements, durations, trainer and trainee profiles, pedagogical approaches and best practices. Our main findings are the lack of uniformity regarding the duration and requirements of training programs and the fact that information on trainer and trainee profiles is not always documented. ER teacher training programs are often not founded on theory. When they are based on pedagogical principles, however, these are usually constructivism/constructionism, inquiry-based learning or project-based learning. The most prominent best practices for ER teacher training fall into five categories: collaboration, materials, pedagogy, practice and feedback/support. Our recommendations will help to improve the content, structure and implementation of future ER teacher training programs and the reliability and generalizability of research results and design.

关键词： camouflage skins   imperceptible robotics   soft robotics   transparent soft actuators   transparent soft sensors  

摘要： The advent of soft robotics has led to great advancements in robots, wearables, and even manufacturing processes by employing entirely soft-bodied systems that interact safely with any random surfaces while providing great mechanical compliance. Moreover, recent developments in soft robotics involve advances in transparent soft actuators and sensors that have made it possible to construct robots that can function in a visually and mechanically unobstructed manner, assisting the operations of robots and creating more applications in various fields. In this aspect, imperceptible soft robotics that mainly consist of optically transparent imperceptible hardware components is expected to constitute a new research focus in the forthcoming era of soft robotics. Here, the recent progress regarding extended imperceptible soft robotics is provided, including imperceptible transparent soft robotics (transparent soft actuators/sensors) and imperceptible nontransparent camouflage skins. Their principles, materials selections, and working mechanisms are discussed so that key challenges and perspectives in imperceptible soft robotic systems can be explored.

关键词： barriers to innovation   assistive robotics   market barriers   healthcare innovation  

摘要： Demographic changes are putting the healthcare industry under pressure. However, while other industries have been able to automate their operation through robotic and autonomous systems, the healthcare sector is still reluctant to change. What makes robotic innovation in healthcare so difficult? Despite offering more efficient, and consumer-friendly care, the assistive robotics market has lacked penetration. To answer this question, we have broken down the development process, taking a market transformation perspective. By interviewing assistive robotics companies at different business stages from France and the UK, this paper identifies new insight into the main barriers of the assistive robotics market that are inhibiting the sector. Their impact is analysed during the different stages of the development, exploring how these barriers affect the planning, conceptualisation and adoption of these solutions. This research presents a foundation for understanding innovation barriers that high-tech ventures face in the healthcare industry, and the need for public policy measures to support these technology-based firms.

关键词： grasping and manipulation of soft objects   soft robotics   soft gripper   pneumatic gripper   jamming gripper   passive gripper  

摘要： Soft grippers have experienced a growing interest due to their considerable flexibility that allows them to grasp a variety of objects, in contrast to hard grippers, which are designed for a specific item. One of their most remarkable characteristics is the ability to manipulate soft objects without damaging them. This, together with their wide range of applications and the use of novels materials and technologies, renders them a very robust device. In this paper, we present a comparison of different technologies for soft robotics grippers. We fabricated and tested four grippers. Two use pneumatic actuation (the gripper with chambered fingers and the jamming gripper), while the other two employ electromechanical actuation (the tendon driver gripper and the gripper with passive structure). For the experiments, a group of twelve objects with different mechanical and geometrical properties have been selected. Furthermore, we analyzed the effect of the environmental conditions on the grippers, by testing each object in three different environments: normal, humid, and dusty. The aim of this comparative study is to show the different performances of different grippers tested under the same conditions. Our findings indicate that we can highlight that the mechanical gripper with a passive structure shows greater robustness.

关键词： Military robotics systems   drone warfare   targeted killing   legitimacy   global governance  

摘要： The purpose of this review article is to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a recent special issue of Small Wars & Insurgencies, "The impacts of robotics and autonomous systems (RAS) across the conflict spectrum," as it relates to the case of drone warfare. The special issue both reinforces and expands on the preceding "three waves" of drone warfare literature. Specifically, contributing authors further explain the proliferation of drones among states, problematize their effectiveness, and unpack the normative implications of their use. The authors also raise important questions regarding the proliferation of drones to non-state actors, the social-psychology of leaders' use of drones, and scholars' inconsistent understanding of the rightful conduct of drone strikes by states in regional and global contexts. The special issue, therefore, constitutes an important inflection point in the extant literature on drone warfare. It sets the conditions for a future research agenda that requires scholars to better link the competing logics that inform states' use of drone strikes to the trade-offs imposed on global order, as well as the managerial recourses that are available to member states of international society.

关键词： 双分裂   四轮机器人   分层递推   动力学建模   模型仿真  

摘要： 电力机器人服役于超高压强电磁特种作业环境下,机器人动力学模型是机器人机械结构设计、电气系统设计及控制器设计的关键,且动力学模型的精确度和复杂度直接影响机器人控制性能和机器人的运行速度。针对高压双分裂输电线路四轮移动带电作业机器人常规动力学建模方法计算量大、复杂、不利于机器人机构和控制器设计的问题,提出了一种基于分层递推结构的机器人动力学建模方法。通过分解作业过程中机械臂的运动,利用拉格朗日动力学建模方法对机器人的机械臂基本动作进行了动力学建模,得到了机械臂基本动作的统一动力学模型,通过递推得出了四轮移动机器人的完整动力学模型,最后,通过机器人作业现场获取的关节电机实时数据,在MATLAB软件中进行仿真实验,结果验证了本文机器人动力学模型的正确性,为机器人物理样机开发、控制器和关节驱动机构的设计与选型提供了理论依据。

关键词： robotic systems   collaborative robotics  

摘要： Collaborative robotics is an umbrella term that conveys the general idea of proximity between machines and humans for some useful tasks in a shared space, with a range of options for timing (continuously, synchronously, alternately, etc.). While this type of human robot interaction is fairly common in many fields of robotics, this survey is dedicated to the technology and situations that are typical of industrial applications. The current state-of-the-art in collaborative robotics for industrial applications is the result of a long legacy of research and development in actuation principles and mechanisms from 2000s onward, together with an abundant literature about improving control performances, intuitive interaction modes, and perception with sensors. Safety technology and standardization is discussed according to the principles of risk estimation and the typical strategies for risk reduction that are suitable for different classes of robot systems are used in collaborative applications. The organization of applications (planning, role assignment, optimization of resources) has a major impact on both the quality and the safety of collaborative robotics solutions, with most of the literature focused on investigating those performance metrics that combine human factors and production figures. The survey is intended to delineate an interpretation key for the design of collaborative robotics solution that explains the relationship among all relevant factors: actuation, control, safety, physical interaction, usability, and productivity.

关键词： 连续体机器人   动力学模型   传动摩擦   凯恩方法  

摘要： 针对连续体机器人因自身的柔顺性及自由度的冗余性所带来的运动建模复杂和控制精度较低等问题,提出了一种考虑非线性摩擦的绳驱动连续体机器人动力学建模方法。基于凯恩方法构建了包含惯性力、弹性力、重力及驱动力作用的动力学模型,并根据改进的Capstan方程对绳-轮传动系统的力传递特性进行分析,提出了一种基于非线性摩擦补偿的前馈控制策略,最后通过对单节连续体机器人进行仿真和运动实验来验证所建模型的正确性。结果表明,所建立的运动模型和控制策略能够较为准确地描述连续体机器人的变形特性。

关键词： Mobile robotics   Visual information   Artificial intelligence   Mapping   Localization   Navigation   SLAM   Exploration  

摘要： Nowadays, the field of mobile robotics has experienced an important evolution and these robots are more commonly proposed to solve different tasks autonomously. The use of visual sensors has played an important role in mobile robotics tasks during the past few years due to the advances in computer vision hardware and algorithms. It is worth remarking the use of AI tools to solve a variety of problems in mobile robotics based on the use of images either as the only source of information or combining them with other sensors such as laser or GPS. The improvement of the autonomy of mobile robots has attracted the attention of the scientific community. A considerable amount of works have been proposed over the past few years, leading to an extensive variety of approaches. Building a robust model of the environment (mapping), estimating the position within the model (localization) and controlling the movement of the robot from one place to another (navigation) are important abilities that any mobile robot must have. Considering this, this review focuses on analyzing these problems;how researchers have addressed them by means of AI tools and visual information;and how these approaches have evolved in recent years. This topic is currently open and a large number of works can be found in the related literature. Therefore, it can be of interest making an analysis of the current state of the topic. From this review, we can conclude that AI has provided robust solutions to some specific tasks in mobile robotics, such as information retrieval from scenes, mapping, localization and exploration. However, it is worth continuing to develop this line of research to find more integral solutions to the navigation problem so that mobile robots can increase their autonomy in large, complex and heterogeneous environments.

关键词： 球形机器人   动力学模型   拉格朗日方程   仿真  

摘要： 针对用于电缆通道环境监测的双轮驱动球形机器人,基于拉格朗日方程实现其动力学建模。通过驱动车轮的转角、球形机器人两自由度位置坐标、驱动车体的姿态角直观的计算出系统的动能和势能;考虑球形机器人位置坐标、驱动车体姿态角、球形机器人运动方向角和左右驱动车轮的转角的约束关系,选择左右驱动车轮的转角、球形机器人的移动距离、驱动车体的姿态角作为广义坐标;考虑驱动车轮和球壳、球壳与地面的摩擦得到系统的广义力和耗散能量,建立了能够描述双轮驱动球形机器人在二维水平面运动、驱动车体姿态的多体动力学。最后,在Matlab/Simulink环境中开展了模型的仿真分析,仿真结果表明所建模型的有效性。