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Article
Publication date: 20 June 2016

Servet Soyguder and Tayfun Abut

This study attempts to control the movement of industrial robots with virtual and real-time variable time delay. The improved variable wave method was used for analyzing position…

Abstract

Purpose

This study attempts to control the movement of industrial robots with virtual and real-time variable time delay. The improved variable wave method was used for analyzing position tracking performance and stability of the system.

Design/methodology/approach

This study consists of both theoretical and real-time operations. Teleoperation systems that provide information about point or environment that people cannot reach and are one of the important robotic works that include the human–machine interaction technology were used to obtain the necessary data. Robots, as the simulated virtual environment to achieve real behaviors, were found to be important for the identification of damage that may occur during the tests performed by real robots and then in terms of prevention of errors identified in algorithm development stages.

Findings

The position and speed controls of the real–virtual–real robots consist of the teleoperation system. Also, in this study, the virtual environment was created; variable time delay motion control with teleoperation was performed and applied in the simulation and real-time environment; and the performance results were analyzed.

Originality/value

The teleoperation system created in the laboratory consists of a six-degree-of-freedom (dof) master robot, six-dof industrial robot and six-dof virtual robot. A visual interface is designed to provide visual feedback of the virtual robot’s movements to the user.

Details

Industrial Robot: An International Journal, vol. 43 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 July 2020

Yu Luo, Zewei Fang, Juzhi Guo, Hao Lu and Juan Li

This paper aims to improve the scene sense of a virtual scene, the welding model of a virtual reality system of riser automatic equipment was constructed using Unity3D and UG…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to improve the scene sense of a virtual scene, the welding model of a virtual reality system of riser automatic equipment was constructed using Unity3D and UG software, which mainly included a welding car, welding guide rail, welding power supply, virtual camera and other equipment and the model was rendered.

Design/methodology/approach

The human-computer interaction page and simulation test of the system was produced using the user interface GUI system for creating a human-computer interaction scene. The operator could capture the welding status of the physical equipment accurately and in real-time so the virtual reality technology was very suitable for the remote monitoring operation integrated with the welding system.

Findings

Human-computer interaction design and collision detection were realized. In addition, the system simulation experiment was accomplished. With the continuous improvement and development of virtual reality technology real-time virtual simulation and monitoring, technology will become the main development trend.

Research limitations/implications

Based on virtual reality, the monitoring system can capture the operation status of physical welding equipment in real-time and accurately, which is very suitable for remote monitoring operation integrated with the welding system and also conducive to improving the monitoring level of the welding process.

Practical implications

This technology is time-saving and money-saving, for the operators do not have to be in a real welding environment and therefore they can get away from dangerous places. Consequently, it can avoid unnecessary injuries and problems.

Social implications

This technology can replace people to enter the dangerous and extreme environment to carry out welding operation, so it becomes the most effective means of nuclear power plant maintenance, space structure construction and marine engineering construction. In addition, it is time-saving and money-saving.

Originality/value

With the rapid development of virtual reality technology in recent years, it is a new research direction to apply virtual reality technology to the remote welding operation. This technology is different from the traditional way of welding for the operators can stay away from the welding scene especially some dangerous places.

Details

Industrial Robot: the international journal of robotics research and application, vol. 48 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 January 2009

Zhen Zhang, Qixin Cao, Lei Zhang and Charles Lo

The purpose of this paper is to present a distributed multiple mobile robot system that provides a collaborative control and simulation environment.

4323

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a distributed multiple mobile robot system that provides a collaborative control and simulation environment.

Design/methodology/approach

A CORBA‐based cooperative system is designed to implement a robotic layered cooperative mechanism. The mechanism has three layers: mission, transport and execution. In order to realize a flexible and effective communication in the cooperative mechanism, an extended robot event service (federated event service) is proposed to improve the cooperative system's real time performance.

Findings

Experimentation has proved the validity and effectiveness of the system. The federated event service's latency is approximately 9 percent less than the standard event service latency when the CPU is determined.

Practical implications

The robotic modularized system includes the map‐building, path‐planning, robot task‐planning, simulation and actual robot control function modules, and uses CORBA to integrate the whole system. It is easy to implement a layered cooperative mechanism for multiple mobile robots. Given the problem on multiple robots cooperation latency, a useful extended robot event service is proposed.

Originality/value

The paper focuses on the distributed functional modular architecture, and the multiple robots cooperative layered mechanism. In the mechanism, an extended robot event service (federated event service) is proposed to reduce the cooperative system's real time latency. The conducted experiment validates the proposed system with a good performance for multiple mobile robots' cooperation.

Details

Industrial Robot: An International Journal, vol. 36 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 May 2011

Mohammad Hadi Amoozgar, Khalil Alipour and Seyed Hossein Sadati

This paper seeks to present a novel approach for formation control of non‐holonomic wheeled mobile robots (WMRs). The use of a general geometrical structure has led the considered…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to present a novel approach for formation control of non‐holonomic wheeled mobile robots (WMRs). The use of a general geometrical structure has led the considered robotic team form any desired configuration. Although various methodologies have been suggested for solving such formation control problem in the literature, the proposed kinematical method of the present investigation has several advantages in terms of its robustness, tracking performance, and superior energy consumption due to the fuzzy logic scheme developed.

Design/methodology/approach

In an attempt to make the follower robot to assume the proper orientation, a new concept is presented which defines an appropriate heading angle. This concept is based on the natural human behavior as corresponds to situations of tracking a certain trajectory. The proposed heading angle planner is based on a two‐stage fuzzy logic system, providing appropriate heading angles for the mobile robot at each instant. In order to adjust the linear/angular velocity of the robots then, two further fuzzy controllers are devised.

Findings

The results obtained from the computer simulation studies reveal the merits as well as effectiveness of the proposed method for formation control of a group of WMRs in the presence of usual control input constraints, noisy sensor data, and external disturbances.

Originality/value

A novel method based on a fuzzy leader‐follower method is presented for the formation control of a group of robots.

Details

Industrial Robot: An International Journal, vol. 38 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 28 March 2023

Adeyinka Tella and Oluchi Precious Ogbonna

The main purpose of this paper is to explore telepresence robots are being used in libraries to facilitate library services and also to explain the future trend in the application…

2062

Abstract

Purpose

The main purpose of this paper is to explore telepresence robots are being used in libraries to facilitate library services and also to explain the future trend in the application of robots in libraries.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a review of the literature, this paper analyzes various library websites and consults literature relating to the use of telepresence robots in libraries; the current application of robots in libraries has been highlighted along with case studies of libraries currently adopting telepresence robots.

Findings

The uses of telepresence technology in libraries help to enhance library services, reach new users and provide a more inclusive and accessible library experience. Telepresence robots enhance the quality and accessibility of library services, expand library outreach and provide new opportunities for virtual engagement and programming. The application of telepresence robots in libraries can offer many benefits, but there are also several challenges that libraries must address to ensure successful implementation.

Originality/value

This paper highlights how the application of telepresence robots in libraries improves service productivity in libraries and creates a more engaging environment for the user group. The benefits and challenges of using robots in the library and the future trend in the application of telepresence robots in libraries are also discussed.

Details

Library Hi Tech News, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0741-9058

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 October 2018

Dilong Chen, Qiang Lu, Dongliang Peng, Ke Yin, Chaoliang Zhong and Ting Shi

The purpose of this paper is to propose a receding horizon control approach for the problem of locating unknown wireless sensor networks by using a mobile robot.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose a receding horizon control approach for the problem of locating unknown wireless sensor networks by using a mobile robot.

Design/methodology/approach

A control framework is used and consists of two levels: one is a decision level, while the other is a control level. In the decision level, a spatiotemporal probability occupancy grid method is used to give the possible positions of all nodes in sensor networks, where the posterior probability distributions of sensor nodes are estimated by capturing the transient signals. In the control level, a virtual robot is designed to move along the edge of obstacles such that the problem of obstacle avoidance can be transformed into a coordination problem of multiple robots. On the basis of the possible positions of sensor nodes and virtual robots, a receding horizon control approach is proposed to control mobile robots to locate sensor nodes, where a temporary target position method is utilized to avoid several special obstacles.

Findings

When the number of obstacles increases, the average localization errors between the actual locations and the estimated locations significantly increase.

Originality/value

The proposed control approach can guide the mobile robot to avoid obstacles and deal with the corresponding dynamical events so as to locate all sensor nodes for an unknown wireless network.

Details

Assembly Automation, vol. 39 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-5154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 October 2021

Xiaojun Zhu, Yinghao Liang, Hanxu Sun, Xueqian Wang and Bin Ren

Most manufacturing plants choose the easy way of completely separating human operators from robots to prevent accidents, but as a result, it dramatically affects the overall…

Abstract

Purpose

Most manufacturing plants choose the easy way of completely separating human operators from robots to prevent accidents, but as a result, it dramatically affects the overall quality and speed that is expected from human–robot collaboration. It is not an easy task to ensure human safety when he/she has entered a robot’s workspace, and the unstructured nature of those working environments makes it even harder. The purpose of this paper is to propose a real-time robot collision avoidance method to alleviate this problem.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, a model is trained to learn the direct control commands from the raw depth images through self-supervised reinforcement learning algorithm. To reduce the effect of sample inefficiency and safety during initial training, a virtual reality platform is used to simulate a natural working environment and generate obstacle avoidance data for training. To ensure a smooth transfer to a real robot, the automatic domain randomization technique is used to generate randomly distributed environmental parameters through the obstacle avoidance simulation of virtual robots in the virtual environment, contributing to better performance in the natural environment.

Findings

The method has been tested in both simulations with a real UR3 robot for several practical applications. The results of this paper indicate that the proposed approach can effectively make the robot safety-aware and learn how to divert its trajectory to avoid accidents with humans within the workspace.

Research limitations/implications

The method has been tested in both simulations with a real UR3 robot in several practical applications. The results indicate that the proposed approach can effectively make the robot be aware of safety and learn how to change its trajectory to avoid accidents with persons within the workspace.

Originality/value

This paper provides a novel collision avoidance framework that allows robots to work alongside human operators in unstructured and complex environments. The method uses end-to-end policy training to directly extract the optimal path from the visual inputs for the scene.

Details

Industrial Robot: the international journal of robotics research and application, vol. 49 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1999

Susumu Tachi

Telexistence (tele‐existence) is technology which enables a human being to have a real time sensation of being at a remote location, while giving the person the ability to…

Abstract

Telexistence (tele‐existence) is technology which enables a human being to have a real time sensation of being at a remote location, while giving the person the ability to interact with the remote and/or virtual environments. He or she can “telexist” (tele‐exist) in a real environment where the robot exists or in a virtual environment that a computer has generated. It is also possible to telexist in a mixed environment of real and virtual, which is called augmented telexistence. The concept of telexistence, i.e. virtual existence in a remote or computer‐generated environment, has developed into a national R&D scheme called R‐Cubed (Real‐time Remote Robotics). Based on the scheme the National R&D Project of “Humanoid and Human Friendly Robotics”, Humanoid Robotics Project (HRP) in short, was launched in April 1998. This is an effort to integrate telerobotics, network technology and virtual reality into networked telexistence.

Details

Industrial Robot: An International Journal, vol. 26 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 August 2015

Ping Zhang, Bei Li and Guanglong Du

This paper aims to develop a wearable-based human-manipulator interface which integrates the interval Kalman filter (IKF), unscented Kalman filter (UKF), over damping method (ODM…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to develop a wearable-based human-manipulator interface which integrates the interval Kalman filter (IKF), unscented Kalman filter (UKF), over damping method (ODM) and adaptive multispace transformation (AMT) to perform immersive human-manipulator interaction by interacting the natural and continuous motion of the human operator’s hand with the robot manipulator.

Design/methodology/approach

The interface requires that a wearable watch is tightly worn on the operator’s hand to track the continuous movements of the operator’s hand. Nevertheless, the measurement errors generated by the sensor error and tracking failure signicantly occur several times, which means that the measurement is not determined with sufficient accuracy. Due to this fact, IKF and UKF are used to compensate for the noisy and incomplete measurements, and ODM is established to eliminate the influence of the error signals like data jitter. Furthermore, to be subject to the inherent perceptive limitations of the human operator and the motor, AMT that focuses on a secondary treatment is also introduced.

Findings

Experimental studies on the GOOGOL GRB3016 robot show that such a wearable-based interface that incorporates the feedback mechanism and hybrid filters can operate the robot manipulator more flexibly and advantageously even if the operator is nonprofessional; the feedback mechanism introduced here can successfully assist in improving the performance of the interface.

Originality/value

The interface uses one wearable watch to simultaneously track the orientation and position of the operator’s hand; it is not only avoids problems of occlusion, identification and limited operating space, but also realizes a kind of two-way human-manipulator interaction, a feedback mechanism can be triggered in the watch to reflect the system states in real time. Furthermore, the interface gets rid of the synchronization question in posture estimation, as hybrid filters work independently to compensate the noisy measurements respectively.

Article
Publication date: 15 May 2017

Tayfun Abut and Servet Soyguder

This paper aims to use the adaptive computed torque control (ACTC) method to eliminate the kinematic and dynamic uncertainties of master and slave robots and for the control of…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to use the adaptive computed torque control (ACTC) method to eliminate the kinematic and dynamic uncertainties of master and slave robots and for the control of the system in the presence of forces originating from human and environment interaction.

Design/methodology/approach

In case of uncertainties in the robot parameters that are utilized in teleoperation studies and when the environment where interactions take place is not known and when there is a time delay, very serious problems take place in system performance. An adaptation rule was created to update uncertain parameters. In addition to this, disturbance observer was designed for slave robot. Lyapunov function was used to analyze the system’s position tracking and stability. A visual interface was designed to ensure that the movements of the master robot provided a visual feedback to the user.

Findings

In this study, a visual interface was created, and position and velocity control was achieved utilizing teleoperation; the system’s position tracking and stability were analyzed using the Lyapunov method; a simulation was applied in a real-time environment, and the performance results were analyzed.

Originality/value

This study consisted of both simulation and real-time studies. The teleoperation system, which was created in a laboratory environment, consisted of six-degree-of-freedom (DOF) master robots, six-DOF industrial robots and six-DOF virtual robots.

Details

Industrial Robot: An International Journal, vol. 44 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

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