Digital twin-and extended reality-based telepresence for collaborative robot programming in the 6G perspective

In the context of Industry 4.0,a paradigm shift from traditional industrial manipulators to Collaborative Robots(CRs)is ongoing,with the latter serving ever more closely humans as auxiliary tools in many production processes.In this scenario,continuous technological advancements offer new opportunities for further innovating robotics and other areas of next-generation industry.For example,6G could play a prominent role due to its human-centric view of the industrial domains.In particular,its expected dependability features will pave the way for new applications exploiting highly effective Digital Twin(DT)-and eXtended Reality(XR)-based telepresence.In this work,a novel application for the above technologies allowing two distant users to collaborate in the programming of a CR is proposed.The approach encompasses demanding data flows(e.g.,point cloud-based streaming of collaborating users and robotic environment),with network latency and bandwidth constraints.Results obtained by analyzing this approach from the viewpoint of network requirements in a setup designed to emulate 6G connectivity indicate that the expected performance of forthcoming mobile networks will make it fully feasible in principle.

Human-Robot Collaboration Framework Based on Impedance Control in Robotic Assembly

Human–robot(HR)collaboration(HRC)is an emerging research field because of the complementary advantages of humans and robots.An HRC framework for robotic assembly based on impedance control is proposed in this paper.In the HRC framework,the human is the decision maker,the robot acts as the executor,while the assembly environment provides constraints.The robot is the main executor to perform the assembly action,which has the position control,drag and drop,positive impedance control,and negative impedance control modes.To reveal the characteristics of the HRC framework,the switch condition map of different control modes and the stability analysis of the HR coupled system are discussed.In the end,HRC assembly experiments are conducted,where the HRC assembly task can be accomplished when the assembling tolerance is 0.08 mm or with the interference fit.Experiments show that the HRC assembly has the complementary advantages of humans and robots and is efficient in finishing complex assembly tasks.

Towards Collaborative Robotics in Top View Surveillance:A Framework for Multiple Object Tracking by Detection Using Deep Learning

Collaborative Robotics is one of the high-interest research topics in the area of academia and industry.It has been progressively utilized in numerous applications,particularly in intelligent surveillance systems.It allows the deployment of smart cameras or optical sensors with computer vision techniques,which may serve in several object detection and tracking tasks.These tasks have been considered challenging and high-level perceptual problems,frequently dominated by relative information about the environment,where main concerns such as occlusion,illumination,background,object deformation,and object class variations are commonplace.In order to show the importance of top view surveillance,a collaborative robotics framework has been presented.It can assist in the detection and tracking of multiple objects in top view surveillance.The framework consists of a smart robotic camera embedded with the visual processing unit.The existing pre-trained deep learning models named SSD and YOLO has been adopted for object detection and localization.The detection models are further combined with different tracking algorithms,including GOTURN,MEDIANFLOW,TLD,KCF,MIL,and BOOSTING.These algorithms,along with detection models,help to track and predict the trajectories of detected objects.The pre-trained models are employed;therefore,the generalization performance is also investigated through testing the models on various sequences of top view data set.The detection models achieved maximum True Detection Rate 93%to 90%with a maximum 0.6%False Detection Rate.The tracking results of different algorithms are nearly identical,with tracking accuracy ranging from 90%to 94%.Furthermore,a discussion has been carried out on output results along with future guidelines.

Behavior of Delivery Robot in Human-Robot Collaborative Spaces During Navigation

Navigation is an essential skill for robots.It becomes a cumbersome task for the robot in a human-populated environment,and Industry 5.0 is an emerging trend that focuses on the interaction between humans and robots.Robot behavior in a social setting is the key to human acceptance while ensuring human comfort and safety.With the advancement in robotics technology,the true use cases of robots in the tourism and hospitality industry are expanding in number.There are very few experimental studies focusing on how people perceive the navigation behavior of a delivery robot.A robotic platform named“PI”has been designed,which incorporates proximity and vision sensors.The robot utilizes a real-time object recognition algorithm based on the You Only Look Once(YOLO)algorithm to detect objects and humans during navigation.This study is aimed towards evaluating human experience,for which we conducted a study among 36 participants to explore the perceived social presence,role,and perception of a delivery robot exhibiting different behavior conditions while navigating in a hotel corridor.The participants’responses were collected and compared for different behavior conditions demonstrated by the robot and results show that humans prefer an assistant role of a robot enabled with audio and visual aids exhibiting social behavior.Further,this study can be useful for developers to gain insight into the expected behavior of a delivery robot.

Optimization and Design of Cloud-Edge-End Collaboration Computing for Autonomous Robot Control Using 5G and Beyond

Robots have important applications in industrial production, transportation, environmental monitoring and other fields, and multi-robot collaboration is a research hotspot in recent years. Multi-robot autonomous collaborative tasks are limited by communication, and there are problems such as poor resource allocation balance, slow response of the system to dynamic changes in the environment, and limited collaborative operation capabilities. The combination of 5G and beyond communication and edge computing can effectively reduce the transmission delay of task offloading and improve task processing efficiency. First, this paper designs a robot autonomous collaborative computing architecture based on 5G and beyond and mobile edge computing(MEC).Then, the robot cooperative computing optimization problem is studied according to the task characteristics of the robot swarm. Then, a reinforcement learning task offloading scheme based on Qlearning is further proposed, so that the overall energy consumption and delay of the robot cluster can be minimized. Finally, simulation experiments demonstrate that the method has significant performance advantages.

A Cognitive Model for Multi-Agent Collaboration

In multi-agent system, agents work together for solving complex tasks and reaching common goals. In this paper, we propose a cognitive model for multi-agent collaboration. Based on the cognitive model, an agent architecture will also be presented. This agent has BDI, awareness and policy driven mechanism concurrently. These approaches are integrated in one agent that will make multi-agent collaboration more practical in the real world.

MULTI-AGENT COLLABORATIVE DESIGN SYSTEM MODEL BASED ON THE INTERNET AND EXPERIMENTS

Development of complicated products is a project of system engineering It involves extensive and complicated knowledge,design methods and auxiliary technology Various factors affect each other So,modern product development is a typical group problem with distributed and dynamic features It is apparent superiority to solve this problem with a multi agent system representing various knowledge domains Distributed artificial intelligence knowledge being used,the multi agent collaborative design system concept and model based on Internet environment are put forward The realizing method of product developing agents,interactive process among multi agents,and organization and implementing of the design project of the multi agent collaborative design system are discussed in detail Application examples are also presented.

Intelligent learning technique based-on fuzzy logic for multi-robot path planning

Soccer robot system is a tremendously challenging intelligent system developed to mimic human soccer competition based on the multi discipline research: robotics, intelligent control, computer vision, etc. robot path planning strategy is a very important subject concerning to the performance and intelligence degree of the multi robot system. Therefore, this paper studies the path planning strategy of soccer system by using fuzzy logic. After setting up two fuzziers and two sorts of fuzzy rules for soccer system, fuzzy logic is applied to workspace partition and path revision. The experiment results show that this technique can well enhance the performance and intelligence degree of the system.

Trajectory Planning of High Precision Collaborative Robots

In order to satisfy the high efficiency and high precision of collaborative robots,this work presents a novel trajectory planning method.First,in Cartesian space,a novel velocity look-ahead control algorithm and a cubic polynomial are combined to construct the end-effector trajectory of robots.Then,the joint trajectories can be obtained through the inverse kinematics.In order to improve the smoothness and stability in joint space,the joint trajectories are further adjusted based on the velocity look-ahead control algorithm and quintic B-spline.Finally,the proposed trajectory planning method is tested on a 4-DOF serial collaborative robot.The experimental results indicate that the collaborative robot achieves the high efficiency and high precision,which validates the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Adaptive genetic algorithm for path planning of loosely coordinated multi-robot manipulators

Adaptive genetic algorithm A SA GA, a novel algorithm, which can dynamically modify the parameters of Genetic Algorithms in terms of simulated annealing mechanism, is proposed for path planning of loosely coordinated multi robot manipulators. Over the task space of a multi robot, a strategy of decoupled planning is also applied to the evolutionary process, which enables a multi robot to avoid falling into deadlock and calculating of composite C space. Finally, two representative tests are given to validate A SA GA and the strategy of decoupled planning.

A Research Platform of Multi-agent System Robot Soccer Game

A soccer robot system (HIT 1) was built to participate in MIROSOT_China99 held in Harbin Institute of Technology. Robot soccer game is a very complex robot application that incorporates real time vision system, robot control, wireless communication and control of multiple robots. In the paper, we present the design and the hardware architecture and software architecture of our distributed multiple robot system.

Multi-objective Optimization of a Parallel Ankle Rehabilitation Robot Using Modified Differential Evolution Algorithm

Dimensional synthesis is one of the most difficult issues in the field of parallel robots with actuation redundancy. To deal with the optimal design of a redundantly actuated parallel robot used for ankle rehabilitation, a methodology of dimensional synthesis based on multi-objective optimization is presented. First, the dimensional synthesis of the redundant parallel robot is formulated as a nonlinear constrained multi-objective optimization problem. Then four objective functions, separately reflecting occupied space, input/output transmission and torque performances, and multi-criteria constraints, such as dimension, interference and kinematics, are defined. In consideration of the passive exercise of plantar/dorsiflexion requiring large output moment, a torque index is proposed. To cope with the actuation redundancy of the parallel robot, a new output transmission index is defined as well. The multi-objective optimization problem is solved by using a modified Differential Evolution（DE） algorithm, which is characterized by new selection and mutation strategies. Meanwhile, a special penalty method is presented to tackle the multi-criteria constraints. Finally, numerical experiments for different optimization algorithms are implemented. The computation results show that the proposed indices of output transmission and torque, and constraint handling are effective for the redundant parallel robot; the modified DE algorithm is superior to the other tested algorithms, in terms of the ability of global search and the number of non-dominated solutions. The proposed methodology of multi-objective optimization can be also applied to the dimensional synthesis of other redundantly actuated parallel robots only with rotational movements.

Gini Coefficient-based Task Allocation for Multi-robot Systems With Limited Energy Resources

Nowadays, robots generally have a variety of capabilities, which often form a coalition replacing human to work in dangerous environment, such as rescue, exploration, etc. In these operating conditions, the energy supply of robots usually cannot be guaranteed. If the energy resources of some robots are consumed too fast, the number of the future tasks of the coalition will be affected. This paper will develop a novel task allocation method based on Gini coefficient to make full use of limited energy resources of multi-robot system to maximize the number of tasks. At the same time, considering resources consumption,we incorporate the market-based allocation mechanism into our Gini coefficient-based method and propose a hybrid method,which can flexibly optimize the task completion number and the resource consumption according to the application contexts.Experiments show that the multi-robot system with limited energy resources can accomplish more tasks by the proposed Gini coefficient-based method, and the hybrid method can be dynamically adaptive to changes of the work environment and realize the dual optimization goals.

A Survey of Multi-robot Regular and Adversarial Patrolling

Multi-robot systems can be applied to patrol a concerned environment for security purposes.According to different goals,this work reviews the existing researches in a multi-robot patrolling field from the perspectives of regular and adversarial patrolling.Regular patrolling requires robots to visit important locations as frequently as possible and a series of deterministic strategies are proposed,while adversarial one focuses on unpredictable robots’moving patterns to maximize adversary detection probability.Under each category,a systematic survey is done including problem statements and modeling,patrolling objectives and evaluation criteria,and representative patrolling strategies and approaches.Existing problems and open questions are presented accordingly.

Combinative Algorithms for the Multidisciplinary Collaborative Simulation of Complex Mechatronic Products Based on Major Step and Convergent Integration Step

Multidisciplinary collaborative simulation （MCS） is an important area of research in the domain of multidisciplinary design optimization （MDO）.Although previous research for MCS has to some extent addressed some issues like using of multiple tools,integration stability,control of step size,data synchronization,etc,further work is still necessary to study how to achieve improved precision.A theoretical model is formulated to describe and analyze the integration process of MCS.A basic algorithm with equal major steps is proposed based on the model,along with two methods of implementation for the model,namely the serial method and the parallel method.A further algorithm based on convergent integration step is proposed,which has a more flexible strategy for run-time integration.The influence of interpolation techniques on simulation performance is studied as well.Simulations of the performance of various algorithms with different interpolation techniques are performed for both a simple numerical example and a complex mechatronic product.The novel algorithm based on convergent integration step,when used with a high-order interpolation technique,has better performance in terms of precision and efficiency.The innovation of this paper is mainly on the validation of high precision of the proposed convergent integration step algorithm.

Multi-target Collaborative Combat Decision-Making by Improved Particle Swarm Optimizer

A decision-making problem of missile-target assignment with a novel particle swarm optimization algorithm is proposed when it comes to a multiple target collaborative combat situation.The threat function is established to describe air combat situation.Optimization function is used to find an optimal missile-target assignment.An improved particle swarm optimization algorithm is utilized to figure out the optimization function with less parameters,which is based on the adaptive random learning approach.According to the coordinated attack tactics,there are some adjustments to the assignment.Simulation example results show that it is an effective algorithm to handle with the decision-making problem of the missile-target assignment(MTA)in air combat.

Theory and Application of Multi-robot Service-oriented Architecture

In order to solve the problem of heterogeneity in multi-robot cooperation, a new service-oriented architecture is proposed for multi-robot cooperation. Service provision and energy consumption are the basic cooperative behaviors. A set of basic concepts of robot service are proposed. A layered multi-robot service-oriented architecture is designed. Finally, the experiments illustrate the superiority of the proposed architecture which makes robot's underlying functional components be transparently encapsulated and the services in upper layer be transparently invoked, which will effectively avoid the impact of heterogeneous characteristics in multi-robot cooperation and facilitate the system construction, expansion, restructuring and maintenance. © 2014 Chinese Association of Automation.

Motion Error Compensation of Multi-legged Walking Robots

Existing errors in the structure and kinematic parameters of multi-legged walking robots,the motion trajectory of robot will diverge from the ideal sports requirements in movement.Since the existing error compensation is usually used for control compensation of manipulator arm,the error compensation of multi-legged robots has seldom been explored.In order to reduce the kinematic error of robots,a motion error compensation method based on the feedforward for multi-legged mobile robots is proposed to improve motion precision of a mobile robot.The locus error of a robot body is measured,when robot moves along a given track.Error of driven joint variables is obtained by error calculation model in terms of the locus error of robot body.Error value is used to compensate driven joint variables and modify control model of robot,which can drive the robots following control model modified.The model of the relation between robot＇s locus errors and kinematic variables errors is set up to achieve the kinematic error compensation.On the basis of the inverse kinematics of a multi-legged walking robot,the relation between error of the motion trajectory and driven joint variables of robots is discussed.Moreover,the equation set is obtained,which expresses relation among error of driven joint variables,structure parameters and error of robot＇s locus.Take MiniQuad as an example,when the robot MiniQuad moves following beeline tread,motion error compensation is studied.The actual locus errors of the robot body are measured before and after compensation in the test.According to the test,variations of the actual coordinate value of the robot centroid in x-direction and z-direction are reduced more than one time.The kinematic errors of robot body are reduced effectively by the use of the motion error compensation method based on the feedforward.

Dynamical analysis and performance evaluation of a biped robot under multi-source random disturbances

During bipedal walking,it is critical to detect and adjust the robot postures by feedback control to maintain its normal state amidst multi-source random disturbances arising from some unavoidable uncertain factors.The radical basis function（RBF）neural network model of a five-link biped robot is established,and two certain disturbances and a randomly uncertain disturbance are then mixed with the optimal torques in the network model to study the performance of the biped robot by several evaluation indices and a specific Poincar′e map.In contrast with the simulations,the response varies as desired under optimal inputting while the output is fluctuating in the situation of disturbance driving.Simulation results from noise inputting also show that the dynamics of the robot is less sensitive to the disturbance of knee joint input of the swing leg than those of the other three joints,the response errors of the biped will be increasing with higher disturbance levels,and especially there are larger output fluctuations in the knee and hip joints of the swing leg.

Design of Drilling and Riveting Multi-functional End Effector for CFRP and Aluminum Components in Robotic Aircraft Assembly

To fulfill the demands for higher quality,efficiency and flexibility in aviation industry,a multi-functional end effector is designed to automate the drilling and riveting processes in assembling carbon fiber reinforced polymer(CFRP)and aluminum components for a robotic aircraft assembly system.To meet the specific functional requirements for blind rivet installation on CFRP and aluminum materials,additional modules are incorporated on the end effector aside of the basic processing modules for drilling.And all of these processing modules allow for a onestep-drilling-countersinking process,hole inspection,automatic rivet feed,rivet geometry check,sealant application,rivet insertion and installation.Besides,to guarantee the better quality of the hole drilled and joints riveted,several online detection and adjustment measures are applied to this end effector,including the reference detection and perpendicular calibration,which could effectively ensure the positioning precision and perpendicular accuracy as demanded.Finally,the test result shows that this end effector is capable of producing each hole to a positioning precision within ±0.5 mm,aperpendicular accuracy within 0.3°,a diameter tolerance of H8,and a countersink depth tolerance of±0.01 mm.Moreover,it could drill and rivet up to three joints per minute,with acceptable shearing and tensile strength.