An Overview of Calibration Technology of Industrial Robots

With the continuous improvement of automation,industrial robots have become an indispensable part of automated production lines.They widely used in a number of industrial production activities,such as spraying,welding,handling,etc.,and have a great role in these sectors.Recently,the robotic technology is developing towards high precision,high intelligence.Robot calibration technology has a great significance to improve the accuracy of robot.However,it has much work to be done in the identification of robot parameters.The parameter identification work of existing serial and parallel robots is introduced.On the one hand,it summarizes the methods for parameter calibration and discusses their advantages and disadvantages.On the other hand,the application of parameter identification is introduced.This overview has a great reference value for robot manufacturers to choose proper identification method,points further research areas for researchers.Finally,this paper analyzes the existing problems in robot calibration,which may be worth researching in the future.

Development of Gesture-Changeable under-actuated Humanoid Robotic Finger

Robotic fingers, which are the key parts of robot hand, are divided into two main kinds： dexterous fingers and under-actuated fingers. Although dexterous fingers are agile, they are too expensive. Under-actuated fingers can grasp objects self-adaptively, which makes them easy to control and low cost, on the contrary, under-actuated function makes fingers feel hard to grasp things agilely enough and make many gestures. For the purpose of designing a new finger which can grasp things dexterously, perform many gestures and feel easy to control and maintain, a concept called ＂gesture-changeable under-actuated＂ （GCUA） function is put forward. The GCUA function combines the advantages of dexterous fingers and under-actuated fingers： a pre-bending function is embedded into the under-actuated finger. The GCUA finger can not only perform self-adaptive grasping function, but also actively bend the middle joint of the finger. On the basis of the concept, a GCUA finger with 2 joints is designed, which is realized by the coordination of screw-nut transmission mechanism, flexible drawstring constraint and pulley-belt under-actuated mechanism. Principle analyses of its grasping and the design optimization of the GCUA finger are given. An important problem of how to stably grasp an object which is easy to glide is discussed. The force analysis on gliding object in grasping process is introduced in detail. A GCUA finger with 3 joints is developed. Many experiments of grasping different objects by of the finger were carried out. The experimental results show that the GCUA finger can effectively realize functions of pre-bending and self-adaptive grasping, the grasping processes are stable. The GCUA finger excels under-actuated fingers in dexterity and gesture actions and it is easier to control and cheaper than dexterous hands, becomes the third kinds of finger.

Research and development of electric vehicles for clean transportation

This article presents the research and development of an electric vehicle（EV） in Department of Human-Robotics Saitama Institute of Technology,Japan.Electric mobile systems developed in our laboratory include a converted electric automobile,electric wheelchair and personal mobile robot.These mobile systems contribute to realize clean transportation since energy sources and devices from all vehicles,i.e.,batteries and electric motors,does not deteriorate the environment.To drive motors for vehicle traveling,robotic technologies were applied.

DEVELOP SERIES PRODUCTS OF ROBOTS TO PROMOTE THE TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT OF THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

As a typical representative and main technicalmeans of advanced manufacturing technology,robotic technology plays an important role in raisingan enterpse’s engineering level, improving its prod-uct quality and productivity, and realizing civilizedproduction. Currently, there are nearly one millionrobots of various kinds, which are employed widelyin different fields of manufacturing industry. Robot-ics is now one of the high technologies, which arecompetitively developed by the developed coun-

Trajectory tracking control of robotic transcranial magnetic stimulation

Purpose–Transcranial magnetic stimulation(TMS)is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique.Based on the unique functions of TMS,it has been widely used in clinical,scientific research and other fields.Nowadays,the robot-assisted automatic TMS has become the trend.In order to simplify the operation procedures of robotic TMS and reduce the costs,the purpose of this paper is to apply the marker-based augmented-reality technology to robotic TMS system.Design/methodology/approach–By using the marker of ARToolKitPlus library and monocular camera,the patient’s head is positioned in real time.Furthermore,the force control is applied to keep contact between the coil and subject’s head.Findings–The authors fuse with visual positioning which is based on augmented-reality and force-control technologies to track the movements of the patient’s head,bring the coil closer to the stimulation site and increase treatment effects.Experimental results indicate that the trajectory tracking control of robotic TMS system designed in this paper is practical and flexible.Originality/value–This paper provides a trajectory tracking control method for the robotic TMS.The marker-based augmented-reality technology is implemented which simplifies the operation procedures of robotic TMS as well as reduce the costs.During the treatment process,the patients would wear an AR glasses,which can help patients relax through virtual scenes and reduce the uncomfortableness produce by treatment.

Application of intelligent rehabilitation equipment in occupational therapy for enhancing upper limb function of patients in the whole phase of stroke

Stroke was one of the leading causes of death in the Chinese population in 2017.Most stroke survivors may suffer from different levels of disabilities,which prevents them from returning to their daily activities.The decreased upper limb function is considered as the principal factor that makes the patients have less access to their activities of daily livings.Occupational therapy(OT),aiming to enhance patients'functional performances and improve the participation in daily activities is usually applied from the onset of stroke.However,conventional OT intervention still has several problems that need to be solved,such as the inefficient use of human resources,inadequate upper limb functional training and non-continuous OT services.To address these difficulties and improve the patients'functional outcomes,intelligent rehabilitation equipment is combined with OT through evaluation and intervention.Based on this combination,OT can be provided in health care facilities,home,and community for patients with all phases of stroke.This combination promotes the transition of OT to digitization,intelligence and homogenization.