Search Results (17)

Soft robotics represents a transformative approach to automation, focusing on the development of robots constructed from flexible, compliant materials that mimic biological systems. Being different from traditional rigid robots, soft robots are engineered to adapt and operate efficiently in complex, unstructured environments, making them highly appropriate for applications that require delicate manipulation, safe human–robot interaction, and mobility on unstable terrain. The key principles, materials, and fabrication techniques of soft robotics are explored in this study, highlighting their versatility in industries such as healthcare, agriculture, and search-and-rescue operations. The essence of soft robotic systems lies in their ability to deform and respond to environmental stimuli. The system enables new paradigms in automation for tasks that demand flexibility, such as handling fragile objects, navigating narrow spaces, or interacting with humans. Emerging materials, such as elastomers, hydrogels, and shape-memory alloys, are driving innovations in actuation and sensing mechanisms, expanding the capabilities of soft robots in applications. We also examine the challenges associated with the control and energy efficiency of soft robots, as well as opportunities for integrating artificial intelligence and advanced sensing to enhance autonomous decision-making. Through case studies and experimental data, the potential of soft robotics is reviewed to revolutionize sectors requiring adaptive automation, ultimately contributing to safer, more efficient, and sustainable technological advancements than present robots. Full article

The automotive industry is one of the most automatized industries, employing more than one million robots worldwide. Although several steps in car production are completely automated, many steps are still carried out by operators, especially in tasks requiring high dexterity. Additionally, customization and deployability are still pending issues in this industry, where a real collaboration between robots and operators would increase the reconfigurability of the assembly lines. This paper presents an innovative robotic cell focused on the motor and gearbox assembly, including collaborative industrial robots and autonomous mobile manipulators along the different assembly stations. The design also incorporates a human-centered approach, with an enhanced human interface to facilitate the interaction with operators with the complete robotic cell. The proposed approach has been deployed and validated on a real automotive industrial scenario, obtaining promising metrics and results. Full article

This review paper addresses the escalating operation and maintenance costs of nuclear power plants, primarily attributed to rising labor costs and intensified competition from renewable energy sources. The paper proposes a paradigm shift towards a technology-centric approach, leveraging mobile and automated robots for physical security, aiming to replace labor-intensive methods. Focusing on the human–robot interaction principle, the review conducts a state-of-the-art analysis of dog robots’ potential in infrastructure security and remote inspection within human–robot shared environments. Additionally, this paper surveys research on the capabilities of mobile robots, exploring their applications in various industries, including disaster response, exploration, surveillance, and environmental conservation. This study emphasizes the crucial role of autonomous mobility and manipulation in robots for diverse tasks, and discusses the formalization of problems, performance assessment criteria, and operational capabilities. It provides a comprehensive comparison of three prominent robotic platforms (SPOT, Ghost Robotics, and ANYmal Robotics) across various parameters, shedding light on their suitability for different applications. This review culminates in a research roadmap, delineating experiments and parameters for assessing dog robots’ performance in safeguarding nuclear power plants, offering a structured approach for future research endeavors. Full article

Inspection and repair interventions play vital roles in the asset management of railways. Autonomous mobile manipulators possess considerable potential to replace humans in many hazardous railway track maintenance tasks with high efficiency. This paper investigates the prospects of the use of mobile manipulators in track maintenance tasks. The current state of railway track inspection and repair technologies is initially reviewed, revealing that very few mobile manipulators are in the railways. Of note, the technologies are analytically scrutinized to ascertain advantages, unique capabilities, and potential use in the deployment of mobile manipulators for inspection and repair tasks across various industries. Most mobile manipulators in maintenance use ground robots, while other applications use aerial, underwater, or space robots. Power transmission lines, the nuclear industry, and space are the most extensive application areas. Clearly, the railways infrastructure managers can benefit from the adaptation of best practices from these diversified designs and their broad deployment, leading to enhanced human safety and optimized asset digitalization. A case study is presented to show the potential use of mobile manipulators in railway track maintenance tasks. Moreover, the benefits of the mobile manipulator are discussed based on previous research. Finally, challenges and requirements are reviewed to provide insights into future research. Full article

A digital twin for a multifunctional technology for flexible manufacturing on an assembly, disassembly, and repair mechatronics line (A/D/RML), assisted by a complex autonomous system (CAS), is presented in the paper. The hardware architecture consists of the A/D/RML and a six-workstation (WS) mechatronics line (ML) connected to a flexible cell (FC) and equipped with a six-degree of freedom (DOF) industrial robotic manipulator (IRM). The CAS has in its structure two driving wheels and one free wheel (2DW/1FW)-wheeled mobile robot (WMR) equipped with a 7-DOF robotic manipulator (RM). On the end effector of the RM, a mobile visual servoing system (eye-in-hand MVSS) is mounted. The multifunctionality is provided by the three actions, assembly, disassembly, and repair, while the flexibility is due to the assembly of different products. After disassembly or repair, CAS picks up the disassembled components and transports them to the appropriate storage depots for reuse. Disassembling or repairing starts after assembling, and the final assembled product fails the quality test. The virtual world that serves as the digital counterpart consists of tasks assignment, planning and synchronization of A/D/RML with integrated robotic systems, IRM, and CAS. Additionally, the virtual world includes hybrid modeling with synchronized hybrid Petri nets (SHPN), simulation of the SHPN models, modeling of the MVSS, and simulation of the trajectory-tracking sliding-mode control (TTSMC) of the CAS. The real world, as counterpart of the digital twin, consists of communication, synchronization, and control of A/D/RML and CAS. In addition, the real world includes control of the MVSS, the inverse kinematic control (IKC) of the RM and graphic user interface (GUI) for monitoring and real-time control of the whole system. The “Digital twin” approach has been designed to meet all the requirements and attributes of Industry 4.0 and beyond towards Industry 5.0, the target being a closer collaboration between the human operator and the production line. Full article

This paper aims to describe modeling and control in what concerns advanced manufacturing technology running on a flexible assembly, disassembly and repair on a mechatronic line (A/D/RML) assisted by an Autonomous Robotic System (ARS), two robotic manipulators (RM) and visual servoing system (VSS). The A/D/RML consists of a six workstations (WS) mechatronics line (ML) connected to a flexible cell (FC) equipped with a 6-DOF ABB industrial robotic manipulator (IRM) and an ARS used for manipulation and transport. A hybrid communication and control based on programmable logic controller (PLC) architecture is used, which consists of two interconnected systems that feature both distributed and centralized topology, with specific tasks for all the manufacturing stages. Profinet communication link is used to interconnect and control FC and A/D/RML. The paper also discusses how to synchronize data between different field equipment used in the industry and the control systems. Synchronization signals between the master PLC and ARS is performed by means of Modbus TCP protocol and OPC UA. The structure of the ARS consists of a wheeled mobile robot (WMR) with two driving wheels and one free wheel (2DW/1FW) equipped with a 7-DOF RM. Trajectory tracking sliding-mode control (TTSMC) is used to control WMR. The end effector of the ARS RM is equipped with a mobile eye-in-hand VSS technology for the precise positioning of RM to pick and place the workparts in the desired location. Technology operates synchronously with signals from sensors and from the VSS HD camera. If the workpiece does not pass the quality test, the process handles it by transporting back from the end storage unit to the flexible cell where it will be considered for reprocessing, repair or disassembling with the recovery of the dismantled parts. The recovered or replaced components are taken over by the ARS from disassembling location and transported back to the dedicated storage warehouses to be reused in the further assembly processes. Full article

Composite structures in aeroplanes are often thin-walled and lightweight, resulting in significant compliance, which presents a handling and assembly challenge due to the associated part deformations. In order to counteract these deformations, the parts are held in their specified geometry using stiff and correspondingly heavy fixtures or jigs. Mobile industrial robots are very versatile and widely used in industrial volume production, but they are limited in their payload capacity. High-rate production of large aerospace modules requires highly automated flexible assembly processes. The approach presented in this paper is to combine mobile units with lightweight assembly jigs that have the capability of deformation compensation. The subject of the study is a high-rate assembly process for flap modules using an Autonomous Industrial Mobile Manipulator (AIMM) and a lightweight end effector. The end effector has a shape compensation function, implemented by an integrated Stewart platform, which enables the compensation of manufacturing tolerances as well as gravity effects. The compensation function is used in a closed loop and counteracts shape deviations by appropriate fixture shape adjustments. The paper reports on the conceptual design of the assembly scenario, the design of the end effector, its realization and the successful experimental demonstration at 1:1 scale. Full article

Robotic systems for research and development of factory automation are complex and unavailable for broad deployment in robotic laboratory settings. The usual robotic factory automation setup consists of series of sensors, robotic arms and mobile robots integrated and orchestrated by a central information system. Cloud-based integration has been gaining traction in recent years. In order to build such a system in a laboratory environment, there are several practical challenges that have to be resolved to come to a point when such a system can become operational. In this paper, we present the development of one such system composed of (i) a cloud-based system built on top of open platform for innovation in logistics, (ii) a prototyped mobile robot with a forklift to manipulate pallets in a “factory” floor, and (iii) industrial robot ABB IRB 140 with a customized gripper and various sensors. A mobile robot is designed as an autonomous four Mecanum wheels system with on-board LiDAR and RGB-D sensor for simultaneous localization and mapping. The paper shows a use case of the overall system and highlights the advantages of having a laboratory setting with real robots for the research of factory automation in a laboratory environment. Moreover, the proposed solution could be scaled and replicated in real factory automation applications. Full article

This paper presents the usage of holonomic mobile humanoid manipulators to carry out autonomous tasks in industrial environments, according to the smart factory concept and the Industry 4.0 philosophy. The problem of transporting lengthy objects, taking into account mechanical limitations, the conditions for avoiding collisions, as well as the dexterity of the manipulator arms was considered. The primary problem was divided into three phases, leading to three different types of robotic tasks. In the proposed approach, the pseudoinverse Jacobian method at the acceleration level to solve each of the tasks was used. The redundant degrees of freedom were used to satisfy secondary objectives such as robot kinetic energy, the maximization of the manipulability measure, and the fulfillment mechanical and collision-avoidance limitations. A computer example involving a mobile humanoid manipulator, operating in an industrial environment, illustrated the effectiveness of the proposed method. Full article

This paper presents a mobile manipulation platform designed for autonomous depalletizing tasks. The proposed solution integrates machine vision, control and mechanical components to increase flexibility and ease of deployment in industrial environments such as warehouses. A collaborative robot mounted on a mobile base is proposed, equipped with a simple manipulation tool and a 3D in-hand vision system that detects parcel boxes on a pallet, and that pulls them one by one on the mobile base for transportation. The robot setup allows to avoid the cumbersome implementation of pick-and-place operations, since it does not require lifting the boxes. The 3D vision system is used to provide an initial estimation of the pose of the boxes on the top layer of the pallet, and to accurately detect the separation between the boxes for manipulation. Force measurement provided by the robot together with admittance control are exploited to verify the correct execution of the manipulation task. The proposed system was implemented and tested in a simplified laboratory scenario and the results of experimental trials are reported. Full article

In modern industry there are still a large number of low added-value processes that can be automated or semi-automated with safe cooperation between robot and human operators. The European SHERLOCK project aims to integrate an autonomous industrial mobile manipulator (AIMM) to perform cooperative tasks between a robot and a human. To be able to do this, AIMMs need to have a variety of advanced cognitive skills like autonomous navigation, smart perception and task management. In this paper, we report the project’s tackle in a paradigmatic industrial application combining accurate autonomous navigation with deep learning-based 3D perception for pose estimation to locate and manipulate different industrial objects in an unstructured environment. The proposed method presents a combination of different technologies fused in an AIMM that achieve the proposed objective with a success rate of 83.33% in tests carried out in a real environment. Full article

A communication and control architecture of a multifunctional technology for flexible manufacturing on an assembly, disassembly, and repair mechatronics line (A/D/RML), assisted by a complex autonomous system (CAS), is presented in the paper. A/D/RML consists of a six-work station (WS) mechatronics line (ML) connected to a flexible cell (FC) equipped with a six-degree of freedom (DOF) industrial robotic manipulator (IRM). The CAS has in its structure two driving wheels and one free wheel (2 DW/1 FW)-wheeled mobile robot (WMR) equipped with a 7-DOF robotic manipulator (RM). On the end effector of the RM, a mobile visual servoing system (eye-in-hand VSS) is mounted. The multifunctionality is provided by the three actions, assembly, disassembly, and repair, while the flexibility is due to the assembly of different products. After disassembly or repair, CAS picks up the disassembled components and transports them to the appropriate storage depots for reuse. Technology operates synchronously with signals from sensors and eye-in-hand VSS. Disassembling or repairing starts after assembling and the final assembled product fails the quality test. Due to the diversity of communication and control equipment such as PLCs, robots, sensors or actuators, the presented technology, although it works on a laboratory structure, has applications in the real world and meets the specific requirements of Industry 4.0. Full article

Perception capability assumes significant importance for human–robot interaction. The forthcoming industrial environments will require a high level of automation to be flexible and adaptive enough to comply with the increasingly faster and low-cost market demands. Autonomous and collaborative robots able to adapt to varying and dynamic conditions of the environment, including the presence of human beings, will have an ever-greater role in this context. However, if the robot is not aware of the human position and intention, a shared workspace between robots and humans may decrease productivity and lead to human safety issues. This paper presents a survey on sensory equipment useful for human detection and action recognition in industrial environments. An overview of different sensors and perception techniques is presented. Various types of robotic systems commonly used in industry, such as fixed-base manipulators, collaborative robots, mobile robots and mobile manipulators, are considered, analyzing the most useful sensors and methods to perceive and react to the presence of human operators in industrial cooperative and collaborative applications. The paper also introduces two proofs of concept, developed by the authors for future collaborative robotic applications that benefit from enhanced capabilities of human perception and interaction. The first one concerns fixed-base collaborative robots, and proposes a solution for human safety in tasks requiring human collision avoidance or moving obstacles detection. The second one proposes a collaborative behavior implementable upon autonomous mobile robots, pursuing assigned tasks within an industrial space shared with human operators. Full article

Flexible production is a key element in modern industrial manufacturing. Autonomous mobile manipulators can be used to execute various tasks: from logistics, to pick and place, or handling. Therefore, autonomous robotic systems can even increase the flexibility of existing production environments. However, the application of robotic systems is challenging due to their complexity and safety concerns. This paper addresses the design and implementation of the autonomous mobile manipulator OMNIVIL. A holonomic kinematic design provides high maneuverability and the implemented sensor setup with the underlying localization strategies are robust against typical static and dynamic uncertainties in industrial environments. For a safe and efficient human–robot collaboration (HRC), a novel workspace monitoring system (WMS) is developed to detect human co-workers and other objects in the workspace. The multilayer sensor setup and the parallel data analyzing capability provide superior accuracy and reliability. An intuitive zone-based navigation concept is implemented, based on the workspace monitoring system. Preventive behaviors are predefined for a conflict-free interaction with human co-workers. A workspace analyzing tool is implemented for adaptive manipulation, which significantly simplifies the determination of suitable platform positions for a manipulation task. Full article

There is a paradigm shift in current manufacturing needs that is causing a change from the current mass-production-based approach to a mass customization approach where production volumes are smaller and more variable. Current processes are very adapted to the previous paradigm and lack the required flexibility to adapt to the new production needs. To solve this problem, an innovative industrial mobile manipulator is presented. The robot is equipped with a variety of sensors that allow it to perceive its surroundings and perform complex tasks in dynamic environments. Following the current needs of the industry, the robot is capable of autonomous navigation, safely avoiding obstacles. It is flexible enough to be able to perform a wide variety of tasks, being the change between tasks done easily thanks to skills-based programming and the ability to change tools autonomously. In addition, its security systems allow it to share the workspace with human operators. This prototype has been developed as part of THOMAS European project, and it has been tested and demonstrated in real-world manufacturing use cases. Full article