Article
Robotics
Kourosh Darvish, Enrico Simetti, Fulvio Mastrogiovanni, Giuseppe Casalino
Summary: FlexHRC+ is a hierarchical human-robot cooperation architecture designed to provide collaborative robots with extended autonomy, including three levels for perception, representation, and action. The key features include a decision-making process for collaborative robots' operations and a representation level with behavior formally specified using first-order logic.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ROBOTICS
(2021)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Xingwei Zhao, Bo Tao, Han Ding
Summary: This article proposes a novel work pattern for large-scale workpiece machining called multimobile robot cluster machining. It utilizes distributed coordination control to link multiple robots into a cluster system, where they move synchronously under a common leader. The article introduces two topological structures, the N-chain and close-loop topologies, to describe the communication networks of the cluster system. The convergence rate and resistance index of different topological structures are analyzed and the applications of different topologies in varied machining scenarios are discussed. Two experiments are conducted on the multimobile robot system, demonstrating the performance and application of the cluster machining system.
IEEE-ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS
(2022)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Zixiang Nie, Kwang-Cheng Chen
Summary: This article addresses the challenges brought by frequent production flow adjustment in smart factories by proposing an innovative real-time multirobot task allocation method. By using a hypergraph MRS model and a hypergraph search algorithm, the coordination of a heterogeneous MRS is achieved to fulfill production demands and optimize productivity and energy efficiency.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL INFORMATICS
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Mechanical
Angelica Ginnante, Enrico Simetti, Stephane Caro, Francois Leborne
Summary: This paper presents a new design optimization method for kinematic redundant robot manipulators based on their applications. The method employs a task priority control algorithm to perform a task oriented robot design optimization. The design parameters are replaced by controllable prismatic or revolute virtual joints and controlled by the algorithm to accomplish the desired tasks. The method finds an optimal robot design for a set of tasks taking advantage of the robot kinematic redundancy and is evaluated on a highly kinematic redundant manipulator.
MECHANISM AND MACHINE THEORY
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Xun Zhao, Austin Chang, Justin Li, Jing Xu, John Hollister, Ziyuan Che, Xiao Wan, Junyi Yin, Shaolei Wang, Shinyoung Lee, Pirouz Kavehpour, Jun Chen
Summary: Advances in wearable bioelectronics have the potential to transform healthcare from reactive to proactive by focusing on disease prevention and health promotion. This study presents the development of an air-permeable textile (APT) bioelectronics that utilizes a liquid metal electrode encapsulated between layers of electrospun Polycaprolactone textile. The APT bioelectronics demonstrates stable performance, producing an open-circuit voltage of 12 V and a short-circuit current of 0.12 mA. With a drying rate of 5.07% min(-1), the APT bioelectronics offers improved breathability and wearing comfort compared to conventional fabrics.
ADVANCED MATERIALS TECHNOLOGIES
(2023)
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Long Chen, Jigang Wu, Jun Zhang, Hong-Ning Dai, Xin Long, Mianyang Yao
Summary: This study proposes a dependency-aware offloading scheme in MEC with edge-cloud cooperation under task dependency constraints. By dividing the offloading problem into two sub-problems and designing greedy algorithms, it achieves near-optimal performance and improved application finishing time. The simulation results and real-world experiments validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CLOUD COMPUTING
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Zongkang Li, Jeonghun Yun, Xiaoya Li, Moobum Kim, Jia Li, Donghoon Lee, Angyin Wu, Seok Woo Lee
Summary: Recent advancements in wearable devices have made noninvasive healthcare monitoring possible. This study introduces a power-free smart contact lens that can detect glucose levels through color changes of multiple electrochromic electrodes, eliminating the need for external wireless systems. The device demonstrates high accuracy and reproducibility, making it a potential tool for daily health monitoring without additional power supply or devices.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Wenbo Wang, Tiantian Hu, Jinan Gu
Summary: This paper proposes an edge-cloud cooperation driven self-adaptive exception control method for smart factories. By applying industrial Internet of things and embedded edge-computing technologies, the identification and optimization of production exceptions are improved, which can greatly enhance the reliability and productivity of smart manufacturing systems.
ADVANCED ENGINEERING INFORMATICS
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Theory & Methods
Luke Antonyshyn, Jefferson Silveira, Sidney Givigi, Joshua Marshall
Summary: With recent advances in mobile robotics, autonomous systems, and artificial intelligence, there is a growing expectation for robots to solve complex problems, particularly in multi-robot systems. Many recent works in the field of combined task and motion planning for multiple mobile robots have integrated task and motion planning to address these complex tasks. By categorizing works based on their underlying problem representations, the authors survey the recent contributions and propose a taxonomy for task and motion planning applicable to both multi-robot and single-robot systems.
ACM COMPUTING SURVEYS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Zhen Liang, Dongquan Zhang, Guanghua Xu, Fangting Xie, Hui Cai, Hao Guo, Jingyuan Cheng
Summary: Tactile sensation is crucial for human beings. To understand force distribution on the body, a pressure-sensing garment with high temporal coverage and population coverage was designed. It focuses on wearability, durability, and affordability.
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Deshuai Zheng, Jin Yan, Tao Xue, Yong Liu
Summary: Task planning is essential for robot multi-task manipulations. Language-based methods provide practicality in receiving commands from humans and require low-cost labeled data. To overcome the limitations of existing methods, we propose a knowledge-based approach called Recurrent Graph Convolutional Network (RGCN) that leverages knowledge graph data and historical predictions. Our approach achieves a task planning success rate of 95.7%, surpassing the best baseline method significantly.
COMPLEX & INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Md Rejwanul Haque, Md Rafi Islam, Zahra Bassiri, Edward Sazonov, Dario Martelli, Xiangrong Shen
Summary: The Smart Lacelock is a shoe-mounted sensor that provides valuable information about human locomotion through reliable motion measurement and force sensing.
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
(2022)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Shuang Wu, Zheng Cui, G. Langston Baker, Siddarth Mahendran, Ziyang Xie, Yong Zhu
Summary: Wearable heaters based on AgNW composite materials have been developed, showing constant performance under large tensile strain and successful application in thermotherapy on curved surfaces such as knees.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2021)
Review
Chemistry, Analytical
Xianyou Sun, Yanchi Zhang, Chiyu Ma, Qunchen Yuan, Xinyi Wang, Hao Wan, Ping Wang
Summary: Chronic wounds can cause physical pain and high medical costs. Traditional wound care methods are not accurate and may cause secondary damage. Flexible wearable sensors, using materials science and smart sensing technology, can accurately detect physiological markers in wounds and provide necessary information for treatment decisions.
Article
Engineering, Mechanical
Peng Cai, Xiaokui Yue, Mingming Wang, Yao Cui
Summary: This paper addresses the motion planning problem for a free-floating redundant space robotic system at the acceleration level considering strict task priority. It proposes a novel algorithm combining the task priority matrix method and the active-set method, and designs a new velocity-related dynamic potential function to achieve smoother motion. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed motion planning strategy on a dual-arm space robot.
NONLINEAR DYNAMICS
(2022)
Article
Robotics
Linda Battistuzzi, Chris Papadopoulos, Tetiana Hill, Nina Castro, Barbara Bruno, Antonio Sgorbissa
Summary: Research on socially assistive robots (SARs) in elder care requires attention to ethical issues and researchers should receive research ethics training. The CARESSES project developed a research ethics training module for project researchers, largely based on case-based learning.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL ROBOTICS
(2021)
Article
Robotics
Antony Thomas, Fulvio Mastrogiovanni, Marco Baglietto
Summary: This study presents a novel approach to incorporate uncertainties in robot state estimation and compute collision probability. Analysis of the collision probability expression, proving its convergence, derivation of an upper bound for truncation error, and evaluation in simulation domains demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.
INTELLIGENT SERVICE ROBOTICS
(2021)
Article
Robotics
Kourosh Darvish, Enrico Simetti, Fulvio Mastrogiovanni, Giuseppe Casalino
Summary: FlexHRC+ is a hierarchical human-robot cooperation architecture designed to provide collaborative robots with extended autonomy, including three levels for perception, representation, and action. The key features include a decision-making process for collaborative robots' operations and a representation level with behavior formally specified using first-order logic.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ROBOTICS
(2021)
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Si-ao Wang, Alessandro Albini, Perla Maiolino, Fulvio Mastrogiovanni, Giorgio Cannata
Summary: This paper studies the classification of fabric textures using tactile perception. By conducting sliding experiments and feature extraction, accurate classification of fabric textures can be achieved with a classification accuracy of up to 96%. The analysis of the feature space also suggests a potential parametric representation of textures for better classification performance.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROROBOTICS
(2022)
Article
Robotics
Antony Thomas, Fulvio Mastrogiovanni, Marco Baglietto
Summary: This paper presents an approach for computing collision probability, taking into account the shapes of the robot and obstacles approximated as ellipsoids. Unlike previous methods, the authors provide a method for computing the exact collision probability and offer a faster computation of the upper bound during online planning. The proposed method is evaluated through simulation under various configurations and numbers of obstacles.
IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Software Engineering
Luca Buoncompagni, Syed Yusha Kareem, Fulvio Mastrogiovanni
Summary: OWLOOP is an API that allows the use of the OWL language through Object-Oriented Programming. It addresses the issue of boilerplate code and provides a general-purpose interface between OWL axioms and modular OOP objects.
Article
Education & Educational Research
Laila El-Hamamsy, Maria Zapata-Caceres, Estefania Martin Barroso, Francesco Mondada, Jessica Dehler Zufferey, Barbara Bruno
Summary: This study presents and validates an unplugged Computational Thinking (CT) test for 7-9 year-old students, which demonstrates good validity and reliability. Through expert evaluation and data analysis, it is shown that the test is suitable for the target age group, providing researchers and educators with more options.
JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL COMPUTING RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Luca Buoncompagni, Syed Yusha Kareem, Fulvio Mastrogiovanni
Summary: Arianna(+) is a framework for designing network ontologies for online human activity recognition within smart homes. It provides a flexible interface for encoding data within multiple contexts and schedules procedures based on logic reasoning. The focus on small ontology networks enhances intelligibility and reduces computational load.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CYBERNETICS
(2022)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Alessandro Carfi, Fulvio Mastrogiovanni
Summary: This article explores the possibility of humans interacting with physical or virtual systems using gestures and proposes a conceptual design framework for advancing gesture-based human-machine interaction. The main contributions include a broad definition of functional gestures, a flexible and expandable gesture taxonomy, and a detailed problem statement.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CYBERNETICS
(2023)
Article
Robotics
Lucia Seminara, Strahinja Dosen, Fulvio Mastrogiovanni, Matteo Bianchi, Simon Watt, Philipp Beckerle, Thrishantha Nanayakkara, Knut Drewing, Alessandro Moscatelli, Roberta L. Klatzky, Gerald E. Loeb
Summary: This study proposes a framework that models the hierarchical sensorimotor controllers of the human nervous system to connect sensing and action in haptically enabled artificial hands, aiming to enhance dexterity and use of tactile sensors.
Proceedings Paper
Engineering, Marine
Andrea Tiranti, Francesco Wanderlingh, Enrico Simetti, Giovanni Indiveri, Marco Baglietto
Summary: In this study, the problem of Target Motion Analysis (TMA) in the marine environment is addressed using a team of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) with bearing observations only. A distributed control framework is proposed to optimize the team formation path and achieve coordinated motion control and cooperative target tracking. The implementation takes into account the limitations of underwater acoustic communication such as latency and bandwidth.
OCEANS 2023 - LIMERICK
(2023)
Proceedings Paper
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Arna Aimysheva, Maksat Bekkuliyev, Madina Karasheva, Nurziya Oralbayeva, Aida Amirova, Barbara Bruno, Anara Sandygulovat
Summary: Reciprocal Peer Tutoring (RPT) is a learning paradigm where learners take turns as tutors and tutees. This study explores the effectiveness of RPT in learning Kazakh as a second language using robot-assisted language learning (RALL). The results show that the tutor robot is more effective in terms of learning gains, while the tutee robot provides positive emotional experiences.
COMPANION OF THE ACM/IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION, HRI 2023
(2023)
Proceedings Paper
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Ilaria Torre, Luca Mirenda, Gianni Vercelli, Fulvio Mastrogiovanni
Summary: This paper proposes unsupervised methods for identifying prerequisite relations between concepts in video lectures, using both textual and visual features without relying on external knowledge or extensive training. The preliminary evaluation results show promising potential for extracting prerequisite relations from video transcripts compared to textbook-based approaches.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN EDUCATION: POSTERS AND LATE BREAKING RESULTS, WORKSHOPS AND TUTORIALS, INDUSTRY AND INNOVATION TRACKS, PRACTITIONERS AND DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM, PT II
(2022)
Proceedings Paper
Automation & Control Systems
Antony Thomas, Fulvio Mastrogiovanni, Marco Baglietto
Summary: This paper presents an approach for collision avoidance in dynamic environments considering robot and obstacle state uncertainties. By deriving a tight upper bound for collision probability and formulating it as a solvable motion planning constraint in real time, successful collision avoidance is achieved.
INTELLIGENT AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS 16, IAS-16
(2022)
Proceedings Paper
Robotics
Antony Thomas, Fulvio Mastrogiovanni, Marco Baglietto
Summary: This paper presents an integrated Task-Motion Planning (TMP) framework for navigation in large-scale environments. The framework addresses the need for motion-planning-aware task planners and leverages the task-motion interaction to navigate in indoor domains. It is validated with simulated office environment and aimed at motion planning under motion and sensing uncertainty.
ROBOTICS RESEARCH: THE 19TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ISRR
(2022)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Ran Jiao, Wenjie Liu, Ramy Rashad, Jianfeng Li, Mingjie Dong, Stefano Stramigioli
Summary: A novel end-effector bilateral rehabilitation robotic system (EBReRS) is developed for upper limb rehabilitation of patients with hemiplegia, providing simulations of multiple bimanual coordinated training modes, showing potential for application in home rehabilitation.
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Qiaosheng Pan, Yifang Zhang, Xiaozhu Chen, Quan Wang, Qiangxian Huang
Summary: A resonant piezoelectric rotary motor using parallel moving gears mechanism has been proposed and tested, showing high power output and efficiency.
