Searching Baxter's URDF robot joint and link tree for active serial chains

Teleoperation is integral to society's uptake of modern robotic systems. Given the wide array of readily available robots, ranging from simple mobile platforms and UAVs to advanced humanoid robots such as ASIMO and PR2, teleoperation is required in many different forms. The recent advances in virtual reality systems, interactive input controls and even haptic devices facilitate a wide range of new approaches to teleoperation control. This paper considers a dynamic user interface for improving the operator's ability to teleoperate heterogeneous robotic systems in dynamic and challenging environments. In order to achieve the proposed dynamic user interface the robot(s) comprising the heterogeneous robotic system and their active components need to be categorized. The recent uptake of ROS means that many robots are now represented within the standardized Unified Robot Descriptive Format (URDF), and this paper proposes a method for searching the URDF for active serial chains in individual robot systems. Results demonstrate the ability of the approach to determine active serial chains and associated kinematic information for the Baxter torso robot.

Regulation and autonomy in teacher education: government, community or democracy?

Current attempts in industrialised countries to regulate teacher education in increasingly prescriptive ways raise profound social, ethical and pedagogical issues. This paper looks at the challenge such prescriptions pose and suggests that such regulation serves the democratic state less well than a more autonomous form of education. The implications of this alternative for teacher education are explored.

Visual feedback control of a robot in an unknown environment (learning control using neural networks)

In this paper, a visual feedback control approach based on neural networks is presented for a robot with a camera installed on its end-effector to trace an object in an unknown environment. First, the one-to-one mapping relations between the image feature domain of the object to the joint angle domain of the robot are derived. Second, a method is proposed to generate a desired trajectory of the robot by measuring the image feature parameters of the object. Third, a multilayer neural network is used for off-line learning of the mapping relations so as to produce on-line the reference inputs for the robot. Fourth, a learning controller based on a multilayer neural network is designed for realizing the visual feedback control of the robot. Last, the effectiveness of the present approach is verified by tracing a curved line using a 6-degrees-of-freedom robot with a CCD camera installed on its end-effector. The present approach does not necessitate the tedious calibration of the CCD camera and the complicated coordinate transformations.

A reinforcement learning approach for robot control in an unknown environment

In this paper, a control approach based on reinforcement learning is present for a robot to complete a dynamic task in an unknown environment. First, a temporal difference-based reinforcement learning algorithm and its evaluation function are used to make the robot learn with its trials and errors as well as experiences. Second, the simulation are carried out to adjust the parameters of the learning algorithm and determine an optimal policy by using the models of a robot. Last, the effectiveness of the present approach is demonstrated by balancing an inverse pendulum in the unknown environment.

Flowchart software for a modular robot

Flowcharting is a common method of setting out the requirements for a piece of code. It is simple with few rules to follow. Rarely however, is it used as the code itself. This paper describes the outline of a software package that uses the flowchart as the code for a small, autonomous, modular robot, designed for use in High Schools and Universities at an introductory level. By using flowcharting the student is introduced to the concept of structured programming. A flowchart is often the first step in programming. Here it is the only step, easing the student into the art of coding, and simplifying the teachers job.

Regulation and autonomy in teacher education: government, community or democracy?

Current attempts in industrialised countries to regulate teacher education in increasingly prescriptive ways raise profound social, ethical and pedagogical issues. This paper looks at the challenge such prescriptions pose and suggests that such regulation serves the democratic state less well than a more autonomous form of education. The implications of this alternative for teacher education are explored.

Flowchart and kernel software for modular robot

Flowcharting is a common method of setting out the requirements for a piece of code. It is simple with few rules to follow. Rarely however, s it used as the code itself. This paper describes the outline of a software package that uses the flowchart as the code for a small, autonomous, modular robot, designed for use in High Schools. It also describe the code used by the robot to complement the flowchart software creating a system that can be used by students and their teachers to design, build and program a robot without previous programming experience.

Geographical dislocation and adjustment in university students: the impact of attachment, autonomy and coping behaviour on stress and well-being

The relative contribution of geographical dislocation, attachment styles, coping behaviours, and autonomy, to successful student adjustment, was examined in relation to stress and well-being. A sample of 142 on campus first year university students, across four Victorian university campuses completed self-report questionnaires. Questionnaires included demographic, social network, intrapsychic (attachment and autonomy), and coping variables. Multiple regression analysis revealed that being female, not having made a friend to confide in personal matters, lower achieved autonomy, and use of emotion-focused coping predicted higher levels of student stress. A second multiple regression analysis revealed that living away from home, and preferring others to approach oneself to initiate conversation or friendships predicted lower well-being, whilst increased frequency of phone and email contact, and greater secure parent and peer attachment, predicted greater well-being. Pearson's correlations indicated that securely attached students used more problem focused coping and social support, whereas insecurely attached students used more emotion focused coping. Qualitative data indicated student concerns about being away from family and friends, finance, course direction and structure, social opportunities on campus, and generally adjusting to the university culture. It was concluded that first year on-campus students would benefit from program initiatives targeting enhancement of on-campus social opportunities, development of autonomy, problem focused coping behaviour, interpersonal and social assertiveness.

An autonomous trimming system of large glass fiber reinforced plastics parts using an omni-directional mobile robot and its control

This paper describes an automated trimming system of large glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) using an omni-directional wheeled mobile robot (WMR) and its path control method. In trimming GFRP parts, much glass fiber and plastic powder dust occur and it becomes bad visible in environment. It is necessary to correct dead-reckoning errors of the WMR in order to control its moving path. We have discussed an external correction method of the dead-reckoning errors for the WMR using ultrasonic sensor.

Path planning for sensor data collecting mobile robot

A mobile robot employed for data collection is faced with the problem of travelling from an initial location to a final location while maintaining as close a distance as possible to all the sensors at a given time in the journey. Here we employ optimal control ideas in forming the necessary control commands for such a robot resulting not only the necessary acceleration commands for the underlying robot, but also the resulting trajectory. This approach can also be easily extended for the case of producing the optimal trajectory for an ariel vehicle used for data collection from indiscriminately scattered ad-hoc sensors located on the ground. We demonstrate the implementation of our algorithm using a Pioneer 3-AT robot.