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The purpose of this paper is to present a serial produced industrial robot for thin‐type space solar cells (SSC), which is applied to perform the bonding process of SSC.

An optimized process of adhesive coating and bonding for SSC is designed, based on an analysis of hydromechanics model. In order to perform the process, a novel robot is developed, which mainly consists of a three‐axis Cartesian coordinates' motion platform, coating‐and‐bonding device, solar cell and glass cover orientation plate, control system, pneumatic system, constant temperature module, and industrial personal computer software. The coating and bonding operation is based on the three‐axis Cartesian coordinates' motion and the help of pneumatic system.

Compared with the experimental prototype and handwork, the robot is more effective and reliable for the bonding process of the thin‐type solar cells.

The robot is very useful to realize automatic production of SSC.

This paper aims to propose an automatic coating and fastening robot (ACFR) of space solar module (SSM) to solar panel substrate.

Describes the detailed manufacturing process of space solar cell arrays (SSCA), and gives an ACFR for SSM. Designs an automatic coating and fastening mechanism and a control system. Furthermore, establishes the “zigzag”, the “umbrella” and the Voronoi‐based “ring” path models of the coating path using syringes.

The robot is effective for the bubble‐free manufacture of SSCA in nonvacuum environment. The robot with three coating path models can control the thickness of adhesive layer on the back of SSM, and the fastening force to the solar panel substrate with high productivity. The experimental results have proved the validity of this robot in the SSCA's manufacture.

The robot as a novel industrial equipment can improve the product quality and the reliability of SSCA to a certain extent.

The robot has potential applications in the SSCA assembly. It will change the traditional handworking status in the future.

To develop an image processing approach for jigsaw puzzle assembly.

First, pixels are extracted from the jigsaw puzzle blocks to calculate their rotation angles and centre coordinates. Second, a template matching method is employed to recognise each block and its orientation.

A robot‐based jigsaw puzzle system is established; and an effective image processing approach for assembly is developed.

Automatic assembly lines that assemble parts with the same shape, but random position and angle, can employ the jigsaw puzzle assembly method.

An effective image processing method for jigsaw puzzle assembly is presented in this paper. The validity of the method is proved by analysis and experiment.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a new solution for wheel‐robot's adhesion and passing‐obstacles mechanism and the optimal design of magnetic adhesion unit with finite element methods. The new mechanism makes the robot have a simpler structure, finer passing obstacles and larger payload capabilities.

After researching literature and analyzing in detail the disadvantages and advantages of magnetic wheel and structure magnet mounted under the chassis of a robot, the structure magnet is selected as the robot's adhesion style. Then the paper introduces the robot's structure and locomotion mechanism, the design of the new mechanism and the optimization of structure parameters for magnetic adhesion unit are described in detail in this paper. The new design can lift the robot's wheel unit and change adhesion force using only a motor.

A prototype of robot has been developed and successful test results prove that the proposed technology is feasible. The climbing robot can overcome 70‐mm high obstacles and has a large enough payload capability while climbing on vertical surfaces.

The new design reduces the number of actuators used in the robot and increases the magnetic adhesion force.

Thanks to the excellent passing‐obstacles and payload capabilities, the climbing robot with the new mechanism has a widely applying prospect in the field of welding and inspecting large equipment.

The lifting mechanism can lift the wheel unit and change magnetic adhesion force using only one motor. This makes the robot have a simple structure as well as the large payload capability.

Wall climbing robots' volume is needed to be very small in fields that workspace is limited, such as anti‐terror scouting, industry pipe network inspecting and so on. The purpose of this paper is to design a miniature wall climbing robot with biomechanical suction cups actuated by shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators.

Based on characteristics of biologic suction apparatuses, the biomechanical suction cup is designed first. Theory analysis of the suction cup is made considering elastic plate's deflection and SMAs constitutive model. A triangular close linkage locomotion mechanism is chosen for the miniature robot because of its simple structure and control. The robot's gait, kinematics, and control system are all illustrated in this paper.

Experiments indicate that the suction cup can be used as an adhesion mechanism for miniature wall climbing robots, and the miniature robot prototype with biomechanical suction cups can move in straight line and turn with a fixed angle on an inclined glass wall.

This paper describes how a miniature wall climbing robot with biomechanical suction cups actuated by SMA without any air pump is designed.

Recently, service robots have been widely used in various fields. The purpose of this paper is to design a restaurant service robot which could be applicable to provide basic service, such as ordering, fetching and sending food, settlement and so on, for the customers in the robot restaurant.

Based on characteristics of wheeled mobile robots, the service robot with two manipulators is designed. Constrained by the DOF, the final positioning accuracy within ±3 cm must be guaranteed to successfully grasp the plate. Segmented positioning method is applied considering the positioning costs and accuracy requirement in the different stages, and the shape‐based matching tracking method is adopted to navigate the robot to the object.

Experiments indicate that the service robot could successfully grasp the plate, from wherever is its initial position; and the proposed algorithms could estimate the robot pose well and accurately evaluate the localization performance.

At present, the service robot could only work in an indoor environment where there is steady illumination.

The service robot is applicable to provide basic service for the customers in the robot restaurant.

The paper gives us a concept of a restaurant service robot and its localization and navigation algorithms. The service robot could provide its real‐time coordinates and arrive at the object with ±2 cm positioning precision, from wherever is its initial position.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss motion planning about crossing obstacles and welding trajectory for a new-model mobile obstacle-crossing welding robot system. The robot can cross the obstacle in this way that one of the three adhesion mobile parts is pulled off the ground in turn. An optimal obstacle-crossing approach needs to be studied to improve the welding efficiency.

According to the characteristics of this mobile welding robot, two methods for crossing obstacles are compared. A special method is used for obstacle-crossing and welding. The kinematic model is established. By the optimization method, the optimum parameters for crossing obstacles are calculated. The welding speed when the robot is crossing the obstacle is very important, so its value must be in a certain range. Finally, the tracks of the wheels when the robot is crossing the obstacle are analyzed in order to observe the obstacle-crossing process.

According to the analysis, the maximum speed of the vehicle in the obstacle-crossing is determined. When crossing the obstacle, the robot can do welding simultaneously. The welding speed cannot exceed a certain value. In the obstacle-crossing process, the tracks of the wheels can reflect the process. According to the obtained conclusion, the obstacle-crossing experiments are successfully completed, and the welding effect is good. The results can prove that the proposed method is feasible.

The speed of obstacle-crossing is not very large. It has some relationships with the lifting speed of the wheels, which is determined by the quality of drive motor. More efficient robot must be developed to meet the needs of industrial robot.

Based on the excellent obstacle-crossing and welding capabilities, the robot with the new mechanism has a widely applying prospect in the field of welding and inspecting large equipment.

The obstacle-crossing approach has certain innovation. The way that the robot can maintain continuous welding when crossing the obstacle is of a great significance.

This paper examines how the level of low-carbon awareness (LCA) affects the remanufacturing strategy in a supply chain with an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and an independent remanufacturer (IR) competing with each other.

Game theory and operations optimization.

The studies analytically characterize the threshold levels of the LCA in response to which the OEM and the IR will change their remanufacturing strategies from no remanufacturing to partial remanufacturing and then to full remanufacturing. In addition, the studies reveal that as compared with the OEM, the IR has more flexibility in terms of the market entry to remanufacturing with the level of LCA increasing. With the extended studies, it is exhibited that the above findings are robust to a good extent.

It can provide decision support for remanufacturing enterprises.