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A new round of technological revolution is impacting various aspects of society. However, the importance of technology adoption in fostering firm innovation is underexplored. Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether robot adoption affects technological innovation and how human capital plays a role in this relationship in the era of circular economy.

Based on the robot adoption data from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) and panel data of China's listed manufacturing firms from 2011 to 2020, this study uses regression models to test the impact of industrial robots on firm innovation and the mediating role of human capital.

The results demonstrate that the adoption of industrial robots can significantly promote high-quality innovation. Specifically, a one-unit increase in the number of robots per 100 employees is associated with a 13.52% increase in the number of invention patent applications in the following year. The mechanism tests show that industrial robots drive firm innovation by accumulating more highly educated workers and allocating more workers to R&D jobs. The findings are more significant for firms in industries with low market concentration, in labor-intensive industries and in regions with a shortage of high-end talent.

Due to data limitations, the sample of this study is limited to listed manufacturing firms, so the impact of industrial robots on promoting innovation may be underestimated. In addition, this study cannot observe the dynamic process of human capital management by firms after adopting robots.

The Chinese government should continue to promote the intelligent upgrading of the manufacturing industry and facilitate the promotion of robots in innovation. This implication can also be applied to developing countries that hope to learn from China's experience. In addition, this study emphasizes the role of human capital in the innovation-promoting process of robots. This highlights the importance of firms to strengthen employee education and training.

The adoption of industrial robots has profoundly influenced the production and lifestyle of human society. This study finds that the adoption of robots contributes to firm innovation, which helps people gain a deeper understanding of the positive impacts brought about by industrial intelligence.

By exploring the impact of industrial robots on firm innovation, this study offers crucial evidence at the firm level to comprehend the economic implications of robot adoption based on circular economy and human perspectives. Moreover, this study reveals that human capital is an important factor in how industrial robots affect firm innovation, providing an important complement to previous studies.

Robotics is a topic that rarely appears in Library and Information Science literature as it is mainly explored in the field of computer science. It is also a very complex topic that covers various forms of technical solutions that have varying degrees of complexity; these are conventionally referred to as robots. The aim of this article is to present an overview of the applied solutions from the field of robotics in libraries and a discussion of the future prospects for their use in various areas of library activity.

The article is based on a literature review. Systematic comparative searches were made in the Scopus and Web of Science databases and the popular Google Scholar search engine. Publications in English related to the use of robots in libraries were sought in the 2010–2021 period. The results were subjected to qualitative analysis in order to define the main directions of reflection.

The conducted analyses showed that the topic of the use of robots in libraries is relatively rarely mentioned in LIS literature as the main topic of considerations. In practice, however, many interesting examples of the use of robots in libraries can be found, mainly in the area of educational and popularizing activities.

The paper is based on a systematic literature review. However, it is based on selected information sources and covers a specific chronological range, therefore it does not reflect all publications in the field of using robots in libraries. The second limitation concerns the examples of library activities mentioned in the text. For obvious reasons, it is not possible to describe all interesting initiatives, so a selection was made to illustrate the main trends.

Robots have a wide practical application in library activities, as evidenced by the examples described in this paper. Systematized reflection on this topic may promote the popularization of the practical implementation of robots in libraries.

Robotics is a topic that, due to a lack of reliable knowledge, is often of great concern and social controversy. Disseminating knowledge about the usability of robots may foster a peaceful social debate on this topic.

Robotics-related topics are still rarely discussed in the LIS subject literature. In particular, there are no entry-level review articles that would familiarize a reader with the most important findings on the practical aspects of implementing robots in libraries and provide a starting point for reading more detailed publications on specific technologies or implementations.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the barriers militating against the adoption of robotics in the construction industry.

Robotics implementation barriers were obtained from the previous studies and then through questionnaire survey construction stakeholders in Nigeria evaluate these barriers. Consequently, these barriers were examined via the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) technique. Furthermore, a model of these barriers was implemented by means of a partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The EFA results showed that these barriers could be categorized into two: cost and technology. Results obtained from the proposed model showed that platform tools were crucial tools for implementing cloud computing.

The novelty of this research work will be provided a solid foundation for critically assessing and appreciating the different barriers affecting the adoption of robotics.

Despite the proven evidence of ever-growing productivity gains in the manufacturing industry as a result of years of research and investment in advanced technologies, such as robotics, the adoption of robots in construction is still lagging. The existing literature lacks technical frameworks and guidelines that account for the one-of-a-kind nature of construction projects and the myriad of materials and dimensional components in construction activities. This study seeks to address existing technical uncertainty and productivity issues associated with the application of robotics in the assembly-type manufacturing of industrialized construction.

To facilitate the selection of suitable robotic arms for industrialized construction activities, primarily assembly-type manufacturing tasks of offsite production processes, an activity-based ranking system based on axiomatic design principles is proposed. The proposed ranking system utilizes five functional requirements derived from robot characteristics—speed, payload, reach, degrees of freedom and position repeatability—to evaluate robot performance in an industrialized construction task using simulations of a framing station.

Based on design parameters obtained from activity-based simulations, seventy six robotic arms suitable for the framing task were scored and ranked. According to the sensitivity analysis of proposed functional requirements, speed is the key functional requirement that has a notable effect on productivity of a framing station and is thus the determinant in robot performance assessment for framing tasks.

The proposed ranking system is expected to augment automation in construction and serve as a preliminary guideline to help construction professionals in making informed decisions regarding the adoption of robotic arms.

The connection between digital manufacturing technologies (Industry 4.0) and the environment has sparked discussions on firms' disclosure of negative information on pollutant emissions and the pursuit of positive environmental outcomes. However, very few studies explore how it relates to a firm's robot usage and its mechanism. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of robot penetration on firms' environmental governance in China.

The ordered probit model (and probit model) are employed and empirically tested with a sample of 1,579 Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2019.

The study reveals a negative relationship between robot usage and the disclosure of negative indicators and a U-shaped relationship between robot usage and positive environmental outcomes. Among the sample, nonstate-owned enterprises (SOEs) display unsatisfactory performance, while heavily polluting industries disclose more information on pollutant emissions. The robot–environmental governance nexus is conditional on firm size, capital intensity and local economic development.

The study proposes a fresh view of corporate environmental governance to assess the environmental implications of robot adoption. It also contributes to identifying the curvilinear, moderating and heterogenous effects in the robot–environment nexus. The results provide rich policy implications for the development of industrial intelligence and corporate environmental governance in the circular economy (CE) context.

The study aims to equip robots with the ability to precisely maintain interaction forces, which is crucial for tasks such as polishing in highly dynamic environments with unknown and varying stiffness and geometry, including those found in airplane wings or thin, soft materials. The purpose of this study is to develop a novel adaptive force-tracking admittance control scheme aimed at achieving a faster response rate with higher tracking accuracy for robot force control.

In the proposed method, the traditional admittance model is improved by introducing a pre-proportional-derivative controller to accelerate parameter convergence. Subsequently, the authors design an adaptive law based on fuzzy logic systems (FLS) to compensate for uncertainties in the unknown environment. Stability conditions are established for the proposed method through Lyapunov analysis, which ensures the force tracking accuracy and the stability of the coupled system consisting of the robot and the interaction environment. Furthermore, the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control algorithm are demonstrated by simulation and experiment.

A variety of unstructured simulations and experimental scenarios are designed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in force control. The outcomes demonstrate that this control strategy excels in providing fast response, precise tracking accuracy and robust performance.

In real-world applications spanning industrial, service and medical fields where accurate force control by robots is essential, the proposed method stands out as both practical and straightforward, delivering consistently satisfactory performance across various scenarios.

This research introduces a novel adaptive force-tracking admittance controller based on FLS and validated through both simulations and experiments. The proposed controller demonstrates exceptional performance in force control within environments characterized by unknown and varying.

The main aim of this study is to understand the role of smart technologies and show the rankings of various smart technologies in collection and classification of electronic waste (e-waste).

This study presents a framework integrating the concepts of collection and classification mechanisms and smart technologies. The criteria set includes three main, which are economic, social and environmental criteria, including a total of 15 subcriteria. Smart technologies identified in this study were robotics, multiagent systems, autonomous tools, smart vehicles, data-driven technologies, Internet of things (IOT), cloud computing and big data analytics. The weights of all criteria were found using fuzzy analytic network process (ANP), and the scores of smart technologies which were useful for collection and classification of e-waste were calculated using fuzzy VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR).

The most important criterion was found as collection cost, followed by pollution prevention and control, storage/holding cost and greenhouse gas emissions in collection and classification of e-waste. Autonomous tools were found as the best smart technology for collection and classification of e-waste, followed by robotics and smart vehicles.

The originality of the study is to propose a framework, which integrates the collection and classification of e-waste and smart technologies.

To provide high torques needed to move a robot’s links, electric actuators are followed by a transmission system with a high transmission rate. For instance, gear ratios of 100:1 are often used in the joints of a robotic manipulator. This results into an actuator with large mechanical impedance (also known as nonback-drivable actuator). This in turn generates high contact forces when collision of the robotic mechanism occur and can cause humans’ injury. Another disadvantage of electric actuators is that they can exhibit overheating when constant torques have to be provided. Comparing to electric actuators, pneumatic actuators have promising properties for robotic applications, due to their low weight, simple mechanical design, low cost and good power-to-weight ratio. Electropneumatically actuated robots usually have better friction properties. Moreover, because of low mechanical impedance, pneumatic robots can provide moderate interaction forces which is important for robotic surgery and rehabilitation tasks. Pneumatic actuators are also well suited for exoskeleton robots. Actuation in exoskeletons should have a fast and accurate response. While electric motors come against high mechanical impedance and the risk of causing injuries, pneumatic actuators exhibit forces and torques which stay within moderate variation ranges. Besides, unlike direct current electric motors, pneumatic actuators have an improved weight-to-power ratio and avoid overheating problems.

The aim of this paper is to analyze a nonlinear optimal control method for electropneumatically actuated robots. A two-link robotic exoskeleton with electropneumatic actuators is considered as a case study. The associated nonlinear and multivariable state-space model is formulated and its differential flatness properties are proven. The dynamic model of the electropneumatic robot is linearized at each sampling instance with the use of first-order Taylor series expansion and through the computation of the associated Jacobian matrices. Within each sampling period, the time-varying linearization point is defined by the present value of the robot’s state vector and by the last sampled value of the control inputs vector. An H-infinity controller is designed for the linearized model of the robot aiming at solving the related optimal control problem under model uncertainties and external perturbations. An algebraic Riccati equation is solved at each time-step of the control method to obtain the stabilizing feedback gains of the H-infinity controller. Through Lyapunov stability analysis, it is proven that the robot’s control scheme satisfies the H-infinity tracking performance conditions which indicate the robustness properties of the control method. Moreover, global asymptotic stability is proven for the control loop. The method achieves fast convergence of the robot’s state variables to the associated reference trajectories, and despite strong nonlinearities in the robot’s dynamics, it keeps moderate the variations of the control inputs.

In this paper, a novel solution has been proposed for the nonlinear optimal control problem of robotic exoskeletons with electropneumatic actuators. As a case study, the dynamic model of a two-link lower-limb robotic exoskeleton with electropneumatic actuators has been considered. The dynamic model of this robotic system undergoes first approximate linearization at each iteration of the control algorithm around a temporary operating point. Within each sampling period, this linearization point is defined by the present value of the robot’s state vector and by the last sampled value of the control inputs vector. The linearization process relies on first-order Taylor series expansion and on the computation of the associated Jacobian matrices. The modeling error which is due to the truncation of higher-order terms from the Taylor series is considered to be a perturbation which is asymptotically compensated by the robustness of the control algorithm. To stabilize the dynamics of the electropneumatically actuated robot and to achieve precise tracking of reference setpoints, an H-infinity (optimal) feedback controller is designed. Actually, the proposed H-infinity controller for the model of the two-link electropneumatically actuated exoskeleton achieves the solution of the associated optimal control problem under model uncertainty and external disturbances. This controller implements a min-max differential game taking place between: (i) the control inputs which try to minimize a cost function which comprises a quadratic term of the state vector’s tracking error and (ii) the model uncertainty and perturbation inputs which try to maximize this cost function. To select the stabilizing feedback gains of this H-infinity controller, an algebraic Riccati equation is being repetitively solved at each time-step of the control method. The global stability properties of the H-infinity control scheme are proven through Lyapunov analysis.

Pneumatic actuators are characterized by high nonlinearities which are due to air compressibility, thermodynamics and valves behavior and thus pneumatic robots require elaborated nonlinear control schemes to ensure their fast and precise positioning. Among the control methods which have been applied to pneumatic robots, one can distinguish differential geometric approaches (Lie algebra-based control, differential flatness theory-based control, nonlinear model predictive control [NMPC], sliding-mode control, backstepping control and multiple models-based fuzzy control). Treating nonlinearities and fault tolerance issues in the control problem of robotic manipulators with electropneumatic actuators has been a nontrivial task.

The novelty of the proposed control method is outlined as follows: preceding results on the use of H-infinity control to nonlinear dynamical systems were limited to the case of affine-in-the-input systems with drift-only dynamics. These results considered that the control inputs gain matrix is not dependent on the values of the system’s state vector. Moreover, in these approaches the linearization was performed around points of the desirable trajectory, whereas in the present paper’s control method the linearization points are related with the value of the state vector at each sampling instance as well as with the last sampled value of the control inputs vector. The Riccati equation which has been proposed for computing the feedback gains of the controller is novel, so is the presented global stability proof through Lyapunov analysis. This paper’s scientific contribution is summarized as follows: (i) the presented nonlinear optimal control method has improved or equally satisfactory performance when compared against other nonlinear control schemes that one can consider for the dynamic model of robots with electropneumatic actuators (such as Lie algebra-based control, differential flatness theory-based control, nonlinear model-based predictive control, sliding-mode control and backstepping control), (ii) it achieves fast and accurate tracking of all reference setpoints, (iii) despite strong nonlinearities in the dynamic model of the robot, it keeps moderate the variations of the control inputs and (iv) unlike the aforementioned alternative control approaches, this paper’s method is the only one that achieves solution of the optimal control problem for electropneumatic robots.

The use of electropneumatic actuation in robots exhibits certain advantages. These can be the improved weight-to-power ratio, the lower mechanical impedance and the avoidance of overheating. At the same time, precise positioning and accurate execution of tasks by electropneumatic robots requires the application of elaborated nonlinear control methods. In this paper, a new nonlinear optimal control method has been developed for electropneumatically actuated robots and has been specifically applied to the dynamic model of a two-link robotic exoskeleton. The benefit from using this paper’s results in industrial and biomedical applications is apparent.

A comparison of the proposed nonlinear optimal (H-infinity) control method against other linear and nonlinear control schemes for electropneumatically actuated robots shows the following: (1) Unlike global linearization-based control approaches, such as Lie algebra-based control and differential flatness theory-based control, the optimal control approach does not rely on complicated transformations (diffeomorphisms) of the system’s state variables. Besides, the computed control inputs are applied directly on the initial nonlinear model of the electropneumatic robot and not on its linearized equivalent. The inverse transformations which are met in global linearization-based control are avoided and consequently one does not come against the related singularity problems. (2) Unlike model predictive control (MPC) and NMPC, the proposed control method is of proven global stability. It is known that MPC is a linear control approach that if applied to the nonlinear dynamics of the electropneumatic robot, the stability of the control loop will be lost. Besides, in NMPC the convergence of its iterative search for an optimum depends on initialization and parameter values selection and consequently the global stability of this control method cannot be always assured. (3) Unlike sliding-mode control and backstepping control, the proposed optimal control method does not require the state-space description of the system to be found in a specific form. About sliding-mode control, it is known that when the controlled system is not found in the input-output linearized form the definition of the sliding surface can be an intuitive procedure. About backstepping control, it is known that it cannot be directly applied to a dynamical system if the related state-space model is not found in the triangular (backstepping integral) form. (4) Unlike PID control, the proposed nonlinear optimal control method is of proven global stability, the selection of the controller’s parameters does not rely on a heuristic tuning procedure, and the stability of the control loop is assured in the case of changes of operating points. (5) Unlike multiple local models-based control, the nonlinear optimal control method uses only one linearization point and needs the solution of only one Riccati equation so as to compute the stabilizing feedback gains of the controller. Consequently, in terms of computation load the proposed control method for the electropneumatic actuator’s dynamics is much more efficient.

The purpose of the article is to contribute to the body of research on digital transformation among members of the supply chain operating in an emerging economy. This paper researches the digital transformation trends happening across Vietnamese supply chains, by investigating the current adoption rates, predicted impact levels and financial investments being made in key Industry 4.0 technologies.

By using a semi-structured online survey, the experiences of 281 supply chain professionals in Vietnam were captured. Subsequently, statistical techniques examining variances in means, regression analysis and Monte Carlo simulation were applied.

The findings of this study offer a comprehensive understanding of Industry 4.0 technology in Vietnam, highlighting the prevalent technologies being prioritized. Big data analytics and the Internet of things are expected to have the most substantial impact on businesses over the next 5–10 years and have received the most financial investment. Conversely, Blockchain is perceived as having less potential for future investment. The study further identifies several technological synergies, such as combining advanced robotics, artificial intelligence and the Internet of things to build effective and flexible factories, that can lead to more comprehensive solutions. It also extends diffusion of innovation theory, encompassing investment and impact considerations.

This study offers valuable insights into the impact and financial investment in Industry 4.0 technologies by Vietnamese supply chain firms. It provides a theoretical contribution via an extension of the diffusion of innovation theory and contributes toward a better understanding of the current Industry 4.0 landscape in developing economies. The findings have significant implications for future managerial decision-making, on the impact, viability and resourcing needs when undertaking digital transformation.

Parallelogram linkages are used to increase the stiffness of manipulators and allow precise control of end-effectors. They help maintain the orientation of connected links when the manipulator changes its position. They are implemented in many palletizing robots connected with binary, ternary and quaternary links through both active and passive joints. This limits the motion of some joints and hence results in relative and negative joint angles when assigning coordinate axes. This study aims to provide a simplified accurate model for manipulators built with parllelogram linkages to ease the kinematics calculations.

This study introduces a simplified model, replacing each parallelogram linkage with a single (binary) link with an active and a passive joint at the ends. This replacement facilitates countering motion while preserving subsequent link orientations. Validation of kinematics is performed on palletizing manipulators from five different OEMs. The validation of Dobot Magician and ABB IRB1410 was carried out in real time and in their control software. Other robots from ABB, Yaskawa, Kuka and Fanuc were validated using control environments and simulators.

The proposed model enables the straightforward derivation of forward kinematics and transforms hybrid robots into equivalent serial-link robots. The model demonstrates high accuracy streamlining the derivation of kinematics.

The proposed model facilitates the use of classical methods like the Denavit–Hartenberg procedure with ease. It not only simplifies kinematics derivation but it also helps in robot control and motion planning within the workspace. The approach can also be implemented to simplify the parallelogram linkages of robots with higher degrees of freedom such as the IRB1410.