Robotics, Volume 12, Issue 1

Socially assistive robots have been proposed to help people with dementia to conduct activities of daily living, facilitate therapeutic interventions or address problematic symptoms associated with the disease. Psychological symptoms of dementia, suc...

Robots equipped with legs have significant potential for real-world applications. Many industries, including those concerned with instruction, aid, security, and surveillance, have shown interest in legged robots. However, these robots are typically...

Stroke, cerebral palsy, and spinal cord injuries represent the most common leading causes of upper limb impairment. In recent years, rehabilitation robotics has progressed toward developing wearable technologies to promote the portability of assistiv...

While several lower-limb exoskeletons have been designed for adult patients, there remains a lack of pediatric-oriented devices. This paper presented a human factor assessment of an adjustable pediatric lower-limb exoskeleton for childhood gait assis...

This article is focused on the problematics of path planning, which means finding the optimal path between two points in a known environment with obstacles. The proposed path-planning method uses the wavefront algorithm, and two modifications are imp...

A generic reasoning approach for autonomous unmanned vehicle (UxV) mission execution is presented. The system distinguishes (a) mission planning and (b) mission execution, treating these as separate but closely interdependent stages. The context of t...

Virtual remote laboratories have already been successfully implemented in educational centers for practical learning of mechatronics and robotic systems. This article presents the development of a virtual articulated UR-type robot, designed as an edu...

Methods for solving planar dyads and triads in kinematic synthesis are scattered throughout the literature. A review of and a new compilation of the complex number synthesis method for planar dyads and triads is presented. The motivation of this pape...

To aid physicians in the precision diagnosis of ailments in the cranial region, we propose an overhead collapsible origami-based mount (Over-COM) with the advantages of being mountable, compact, lightweight, portable, and easy-to-use. The Over-COM ca...

Holistic local visual homing based on warping of panoramic images relies on some simplifying assumptions about the images and the environment to make the problem more tractable. One of these assumptions is that images are captured on flat ground with...

This paper presents a validation methodology for a remote system with its objective focused on a social robot. The research process starts with the customization of an application for smartphones, achieving a simple method of connection and attachmen...

The optimal design and the experimental validation of a cable-driven parallel robot is discussed in this paper. This novel device is intended for assisting therapists in the rehabilitation of the head–neck joint. First, the motion of the head&n...

In order to reduce the impact of the leg joint motors and body electric devices of a falling robot, active flexible control based on force and velocity is proposed. A velocity planning buffer method based on a virtual model is proposed. We establishe...

This paper presents a novel wheelchair–exoskeleton hybrid robot that can transform between sitting and walking modes. The lower-limb exoskeleton uses planetary-geared motors to support the hip and knee joints. Meanwhile, the ankle joints are pa...

Bin picking is a challenging task involving many research domains within the perception and grasping fields, for which there are no perfect and reliable solutions available that are applicable to a wide range of unstructured and cluttered environment...

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Powertrain electrification in the agricultural vehicles is still in the initial stages. This article analyzes the energy behavior of a Photovoltaic/Fuel Cell Agricultural Mobile Robot (PV/FCAMR) as the preliminary step before development. This concep...

The majority of robots in factories today are operated with conventional control strategies that require individual programming on a task-by-task basis, with no margin for error. As an alternative to the rudimentary operation planning and task-progra...

This paper models an extensible catheter with an embedded magnet at its distal tip subject to an external magnetic field. We implement a control method coined observed control to perform model-based predictive control of the catheter using a Kalman s...

Robotic arms are widely used in sectors such as automotive or assembly logistics due to their flexibility and cost. Other manufacturing sectors would like to take advantage of this technology, however, higher accuracy is required for their purposes....

For older adults, regular exercises can provide both physical and mental benefits, increase their independence, and reduce the risks of diseases associated with aging. However, only a small portion of older adults regularly engage in physical activit...

The main goal of this paper was to design and construct a hybrid autonomous underwater glider (HAUG) with a torpedo shape, a size of 230 cm in length and 24 cm in diameter. The control, navigation, and guidance system were executed simultaneously usi...

Flexibility combined with the ability to consider external constraints comprises the main advantages of nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC). Applied as a motion controller, NMPC enables applications in varying and disturbed environments, but re...

Model predictive control (MPC) approaches are widely used in robotics, because they guarantee feasibility and allow the computation of updated trajectories while the robot is moving. They generally require heuristic references for the tracking terms...

Recent technological advances enable gripper-equipped robots to perform many tasks traditionally associated with the human hand, allowing the use of grippers in a wide range of applications. Depending on the application, an ideal gripper design shoul...

How good is a robot? Three challenges arise from this question: first, defining performance from the robot’s observable behavior; second, quantifying performance with an index that is obtainable through direct measurement or computation, and re...

From teaching technical skills to telling bedtime stories, social robots support various edutainment tasks that require smooth communication. Previous studies often emphasized the importance of the autonomy of social robots for those tasks. However,...

Stiffness-adjustable snake-like robots have been proposed for various applications, including minimally invasive surgery. Based on a variable neutral-line mechanism, previous works proposed a class of snake-like robots that can adjust their stiffness...

Background: This article provides a scoping review on the current status of Image-Guided Navigation with various forms of digital technologies, including Extended Reality, Augmented Reality Head-Mounted Displays (AR–HMDs) and Robot-Assisted Sur...