1,720,968 research outputs found
Cutaneous haptic feedback to ensure the stability of robotic teleoperation systems
No full textCutaneous haptic feedback can be used to enhance the performance of robotic teleoperation systems while guaranteeing their safety. Delivering ungrounded cutaneous cues to the human operator conveys in fact information about the forces exerted at the slave side and does not affect the stability of the control loop. In this work we analyze the feasibility, effectiveness, and implications of providing solely cutaneous feedback in robotic teleoperation. We carried out two peg-in-hole experiments, both in a virtual environment and in a real (teleoperated) environment. Two novel 3-degree-of-freedom fingertip cutaneous displays deliver a suitable amount of cutaneous feedback at the thumb and index fingers. Results assessed the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach. Cutaneous feedback was outperformed by full haptic feedback provided by grounded haptic interfaces, but it outperformed conditions providing no force feedback at all. Moreover, cutaneous feedback always kept the system stable, even in the presence of destabilizing factors such as communication delays and hard contacts
KCT: a MATLAB toolbox for motion control of KUKA robot manipulators
No full textThe Kuka Control Toolbox (KCT) is a collection of MATLAB functions for motion control of KUKA robot manipulators, developed to offer an intuitive and high-level programming interface to the user. The toolbox, which is compatible with all 6 DOF small and low payload KUKA robots that use the Eth.RSIXML, runs on a remote computer connected with the KUKA controller via TCP/IP. KCT includes more than 30 functions, spanning operations such as forward and inverse kinematics computation, point-to-point joint and Cartesian control, trajectory generation, graphical display and diagnostics. The flexibility, ease of use and reliability of the toolbox is demonstrated through two applicative examples
RemoTouch: A System for Remote Touch Experience
Full text linkThis paper presents some preliminary results on RemoTouch, a system allowing to perform experiences of remote touch. The system consists of an avatar equipped with an instrumented glove and a user wearing tactile displays allowing to feel the remote tactile interaction. The main features of RemoTouch are that it is a wearable system and that a human avatar is used to collect remote tactile interaction data. New paradigms of tactile communication can be designed around the RemoTouch system. Two simple experiences are reported to show the potential of the proposed remote touch architecture
An Object-based Mapping Algorithm to Control Wearable Robotic Extra-Fingers
No full textOne of the new targets of wearable robots is not to enhance the lift strength far above human capability by wearing a bulky robot, but to support human capability within its range by wearing lightweight and compact robots. A new approach regarding robotic extra-fingers is presented here. In particular, an object-based mapping algorithm is proposed to control the robotic extra-fingers by interpreting the whole or a part of the hand motion in grasping and manipulation tasks. As a case study, the model and control of an additional robotic finger is presented. The robotic finger has been placed on the wrist opposite to the hand palm. This solution enlarges the hand workspace, increasing the grasp capability of the user. The proposed mapping algorithm do not require the human operator to activate explicit commands. Rather, the motion of the extra-fingers is connected to the human hand so that the user can perceive the robotic fingers as an extension of his body
RACT: a Remote Lab for Robotics Experiments
No full textThe "Robotics & Automatic Control Telelab" (RACT) is a remote laboratory on robotics developed at University of Siena, which extends the field of application of the "Automatic Control Telelab" (ACT). This extension consists of adding experiments on a remote robot manipulator. RACT is mainly intended for educational use, and its Matlab-based architecture allows students to easily put in practice their theoretical knowledge on robotics. The first implementation of RACT consists of a remote experiment on inverse kinematics and of an experiment on visual servoing. Experiments on visual servoing represent the most advanced feature of the remote lab and work is in progress to add more experiments of this type
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
A 4-DoF wearable hand device for haptic rendering of surfaces and edges
Full text linkWe present a 4 -degrees -of -freedom (4-DoF) wearable haptic device for the palm, able to provide the sensation of interacting with slanted surfaces and edges. It is composed of a static upper body, secured to the back of the hand, and a mobile end -effector, placed in contact with the palm. They are connected by two articulated arms, actuated by four servo motors housed on the upper body and along the arms. The end -effector is a foldable flat surface that can make/break contact with the palm to provide pressure feedback, move sideways to provide skin stretch and tangential motion feedback, and fold to elicit the sensation of interacting with different curvatures. The paper presents the design of the wearable haptic device, together with its mobility, statics, and manipulability, as well as direct, inverse, and differential kinematics. We also present a position control scheme for the device, which is then quantitatively evaluated
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