CLARK - Smart Clinic Assistant Robot for CGA

En esta presentación se exponen la arquitectura general y el estado actual de desarrollo del sistema CLARK. Dicho sistema tiene como objetivo el despliegue de un asistente robótico para ayudar a un médico en la realización de procedimientos CGA (Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment), de forma que ciertas tareas, tales como la realización de cuestionarios o pruebas de movimiento, puedan ser realizadas por el robot de forma paralela al resto del procedimiento CGA, aumentando así su eficiencia.

Robot acuático hidrostático espectral de rayos laser, para el control larvario de mosquitos de importancia médica en Salud Pública.

Diseñar y construir un robot acuático que destruya la presencia de larvas o pupas de mosquitos en contenedores de agua. Se construyó y se diseñó un robot con materiales reciclables construido con tubos de cañería PVC, lupa, sensores de luz y barrera, motor de fuente 110 v, resistencias, LCR, cargador 9 v y focos led, para que destruya larvas de mosquitos en un contenedor de agua. Como resultado hay una cero prevalencia de índice larvario porque el robot detecta presencia larvaria con sensores y rayos laser activándose automáticamente con el efecto de succión y destrucción larvas en su interior eliminándolas desechas al utilizar filtros de 10 micras y aspas metálicas, el robot se activa por cinco a diez minutos y se apaga automáticamente hasta esperar la alarma otra vez según disposición de larvas. Conclusión el uso del robot acuático en contenedores de agua no se encuentra índices larvarios, así como pupas, que puede ser utilizado como control antilarvario para el combate transmisor de Dengue, Zika, Chikungunya entre otros.
Design and build an aquatic robot to destroy the presence of larvae or pupae of mosquitoes in water containers. It was built and a robot with recyclables built with tubes pipe PVC, magnifier, light sensors and barrier, engine power 110 v, resistors, LCR, charger 9 vy spotlights led, to destroy mosquito larvae was designed in a container of water. As a result there is a zero prevalence Larval rate because the robot detects larval presence sensors and lasers automatically activated with the suction effect and larvae destruction their killing the inner cast off using filters of 10 microns and metal blades, the robot is activated by five to ten minutes to wait automatically turns off the alarm again available as larvae. Conclusion use water in water containers robot is not larval indices and pupae, which can be used as anti larval control for transmitter combat Dengue, Zika, Chikungunya among others.

Where Are We After Five Editions?: Robot Vision Challenge, a Competition that Evaluates Solutions for the Visual Place Classification Problem

This article describes the Robot Vision challenge, a competition that evaluates solutions for the visual place classification problem. Since its origin, this challenge has been proposed as a common benchmark where worldwide proposals are measured using a common overall score. Each new edition of the competition introduced novelties, both for the type of input data and subobjectives of the challenge. All the techniques used by the participants have been gathered up and published to make it accessible for future developments. The legacy of the Robot Vision challenge includes data sets, benchmarking techniques, and a wide experience in the place classification research that is reflected in this article.

ViDRILO: The Visual and Depth Robot Indoor Localization with Objects information dataset

In this article we describe a semantic localization dataset for indoor environments named ViDRILO. The dataset provides five sequences of frames acquired with a mobile robot in two similar office buildings under different lighting conditions. Each frame consists of a point cloud representation of the scene and a perspective image. The frames in the dataset are annotated with the semantic category of the scene, but also with the presence or absence of a list of predefined objects appearing in the scene. In addition to the frames and annotations, the dataset is distributed with a set of tools for its use in both place classification and object recognition tasks. The large number of labeled frames in conjunction with the annotation scheme make this dataset different from existing ones. The ViDRILO dataset is released for use as a benchmark for different problems such as multimodal place classification and object recognition, 3D reconstruction or point cloud data compression.

obtención de barridos láser 3D nivelados conn el robot móvil Andábata en movimiento

Este artículo describe la adquisición de barridos tridimensionales (3D) nivelados en el robot móvil Andábata sin necesidad de detener su movimiento. Para ello, la computadora de Andábata debe integrar cada uno de los rangos láser, adquiridos con unos determinados ángulos de cabeceo y guiñada, con la información odométrica y las medidas de inclinación del vehículo para producir coordenadas Cartesianas niveladas referenciadas al inicio de cada barrido. Todo ello se ha realizado bajo el sistema operativo de robots ROS con la ayuda de paquetes estándard. El correcto funcionamiento de este esquema local de Localización y Modelado Simultáneos (SLAM) se ha comprobado experimentalmente sobre terreno inclinado.

Cooperation using a robotic ad hoc network made from Bluetooth, JXTA, OSGi and other commercial off the shelf (COTS) products

Abstract - Mobile devices in the near future will need to collaborate to fulfill their function. Collaboration will be done by communication. We use a real world example of robotic soccer to come up with the necessary structures required for robotic communication. A review of related work is done and it is found no examples come close to providing a RANET. The robotic ad hoc network (RANET) we suggest uses existing structures pulled from the areas of wireless networks, peer to peer and software life-cycle management. Gaps are found in the existing structures so we describe how to extend some structures to satisfy the design. The RANET design supports robot cooperation by exchanging messages, discovering needed skills that other robots on the network may possess and the transfer of these skills. The network is built on top of a Bluetooth wireless network and uses JXTA to communicate and transfer skills. OSGi bundles form the skills that can be transferred. To test the nal design a reference implementation is done. Deficiencies in some third party software is found, specifically JXTA and JamVM and GNU Classpath. Lastly we look at how to fix the deciencies by porting the JXTA C implementation to the target robotic platform and potentially eliminating the TCP/IP layer, using UDP instead of TCP or using an adaptive TCP/IP stack. We also propose a future areas of investigation; how to seed the configuration for the Personal area network (PAN) Bluetooth protocol extension so a Bluetooth TCP/IP link is more quickly formed and using the STP to allow multi-hop messaging and transfer of skills.

Mapping of indoor environments by robots using low-cost vision sensors

For robots to operate in human environments they must be able to make their own maps because it is unrealistic to expect a user to enter a map into the robot’s memory; existing floorplans are often incorrect; and human environments tend to change. Traditionally robots have used sonar, infra-red or laser range finders to perform the mapping task. Digital cameras have become very cheap in recent years and they have opened up new possibilities as a sensor for robot perception. Any robot that must interact with humans can reasonably be expected to have a camera for tasks such as face recognition, so it makes sense to also use the camera for navigation. Cameras have advantages over other sensors such as colour information (not available with any other sensor), better immunity to noise (compared to sonar), and not being restricted to operating in a plane (like laser range finders). However, there are disadvantages too, with the principal one being the effect of perspective. This research investigated ways to use a single colour camera as a range sensor to guide an autonomous robot and allow it to build a map of its environment, a process referred to as Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). An experimental system was built using a robot controlled via a wireless network connection. Using the on-board camera as the only sensor, the robot successfully explored and mapped indoor office environments. The quality of the resulting maps is comparable to those that have been reported in the literature for sonar or infra-red sensors. Although the maps are not as accurate as ones created with a laser range finder, the solution using a camera is significantly cheaper and is more appropriate for toys and early domestic robots.

Topological SLAM Using Fast Vision Techniques

In this paper we propose a method for vision only topological simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM). Our approach does not use motion or odometric information but a sequence of colour histograms from visited places. In particular, we address the perceptual aliasing problem which occurs using external observations only in topological navigation. We propose a Bayesian inference method to incrementally build a topological map by inferring spatial relations from the sequence of observations while simultaneously estimating the robot's location. The algorithm aims to build a small map which is consistent with local adjacency information extracted from the sequence measurements. Local adjacency information is incorporated to disambiguate places which otherwise would appear to be the same. Experiments in an indoor environment show that the proposed technique is capable of dealing with perceptual aliasing using visual observations only and successfully performs topological SLAM.

Topological SLAM using neighbourhood information of places

Perceptual aliasing makes topological navigation a difficult task. In this paper we present a general approach for topological SLAM~(simultaneous localisation and mapping) which does not require motion or odometry information but only a sequence of noisy measurements from visited places. We propose a particle filtering technique for topological SLAM which relies on a method for disambiguating places which appear indistinguishable using neighbourhood information extracted from the sequence of observations. The algorithm aims to induce a small topological map which is consistent with the observations and simultaneously estimate the location of the robot. The proposed approach is evaluated using a data set of sonar measurements from an indoor environment which contains several similar places. It is demonstrated that our approach is capable of dealing with severe ambiguities and, and that it infers a small map in terms of vertices which is consistent with the sequence of observations.

Processing of polycaprolactone and polycaprolactone-based copolymers into 3D scaffolds and their cellular responses

Synthetic polymers have attracted much attention in tissue engineering due to their ability to modulate biomechanical properties. This study investigated the feasibility of processing poly(varepsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) homopolymer, PCL-poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) diblock, and PCL-PEG-PCL triblock copolymers into three-dimensional porous scaffolds. Properties of the various polymers were investigated by dynamic thermal analysis. The scaffolds were manufactured using the desktop robot-based rapid prototyping technique. Gross morphology and internal three-dimensional structure of scaffolds were identified by scanning electron microscopy and micro-computed tomography, which showed excellent fusion at the filament junctions, high uniformity, and complete interconnectivity of pore networks. The influences of process parameters on scaffolds' morphological and mechanical characteristics were studied. Data confirmed that the process parameters directly influenced the pore size, porosity, and, consequently, the mechanical properties of the scaffolds. The in vitro cell culture study was performed to investigate the influence of polymer nature and scaffold architecture on the adhesion of the cells onto the scaffolds using rabbit smooth muscle cells. Light, scanning electron, and confocal laser microscopy showed cell adhesion, proliferation, and extracellular matrix formation on the surface as well as inside the structure of both scaffold groups. The completely interconnected and highly regular honeycomb-like pore morphology supported bridging of the pores via cell-to-cell contact as well as production of extracellular matrix at later time points. The results indicated that the incorporation of hydrophilic PEG into hydrophobic PCL enhanced the overall hydrophilicity and cell culture performance of PCL-PEG copolymer. However, the scaffold architecture did not significantly influence the cell culture performance in this study.

Bearing-only SLAM : a vision-based navigation system for autonomous robots

To navigate successfully in a previously unexplored environment, a mobile robot must be able to estimate the spatial relationships of the objects of interest accurately. A Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) sys- tem employs its sensors to build incrementally a map of its surroundings and to localize itself in the map simultaneously. The aim of this research project is to develop a SLAM system suitable for self propelled household lawnmowers. The proposed bearing-only SLAM system requires only an omnidirec- tional camera and some inexpensive landmarks. The main advantage of an omnidirectional camera is the panoramic view of all the landmarks in the scene. Placing landmarks in a lawn field to define the working domain is much easier and more flexible than installing the perimeter wire required by existing autonomous lawnmowers. The common approach of existing bearing-only SLAM methods relies on a motion model for predicting the robot’s pose and a sensor model for updating the pose. In the motion model, the error on the estimates of object positions is cumulated due mainly to the wheel slippage. Quantifying accu- rately the uncertainty of object positions is a fundamental requirement. In bearing-only SLAM, the Probability Density Function (PDF) of landmark position should be uniform along the observed bearing. Existing methods that approximate the PDF with a Gaussian estimation do not satisfy this uniformity requirement. This thesis introduces both geometric and proba- bilistic methods to address the above problems. The main novel contribu- tions of this thesis are: 1. A bearing-only SLAM method not requiring odometry. The proposed method relies solely on the sensor model (landmark bearings only) without relying on the motion model (odometry). The uncertainty of the estimated landmark positions depends on the vision error only, instead of the combination of both odometry and vision errors. 2. The transformation of the spatial uncertainty of objects. This thesis introduces a novel method for translating the spatial un- certainty of objects estimated from a moving frame attached to the robot into the global frame attached to the static landmarks in the environment. 3. The characterization of an improved PDF for representing landmark position in bearing-only SLAM. The proposed PDF is expressed in polar coordinates, and the marginal probability on range is constrained to be uniform. Compared to the PDF estimated from a mixture of Gaussians, the PDF developed here has far fewer parameters and can be easily adopted in a probabilistic framework, such as a particle filtering system. The main advantages of our proposed bearing-only SLAM system are its lower production cost and flexibility of use. The proposed system can be adopted in other domestic robots as well, such as vacuum cleaners or robotic toys when terrain is essentially 2D.

Problem solving in a middle school robotics design classroom

Little research has been conducted on how students work when they are required to plan, build and evaluate artefacts in technology rich learning environments such as those supported by tools including flow charts, Labview programming and Lego construction. In this study, activity theory was used as an analytic tool to examine the social construction of meaning. There was a focus on the effect of teachers’ goals and the rules they enacted upon student use of the flow chart planning tool, and the tools of the programming language Labview and Lego construction. It was found that the articulation of a teacher’s goals via rules and divisions of labour helped to form distinct communities of learning and influenced the development of different problem solving strategies. The use of the planning tool flow charting was associated with continuity of approach, integration of problem solutions including appreciation of the nexus between construction and programming, and greater educational transformation. Students who flow charted defined problems in a more holistic way and demonstrated more methodical, insightful and integrated approaches to their use of tools. The findings have implications for teaching in design dominated learning environments.

Anterior vertebral stapling for the fusionless correction of scoliosis

Fusionless scoliosis surgery is an emerging treatment for idiopathic scoliosis as it offers theoretical advantages over current forms of treatment. Currently the treatment options for idiopathic scoliosis are observation, bracing and fusion. While brace treatment is non-invasive, and preserves the growth, motion, and function of the spine, it does not correct deformity and is only modestly successful in preventing curve progression. In adolescents who fail brace treatment, surgical treatment with an instrumented spinal fusion usually results in better deformity correction but is associated with substantially greater risk. Furthermore in younger patients requiring surgical treatment, fusion procedures are known to adversely effect the future growth of the chest and spine. Fusionless treatments have been developed to allow effective surgical treatment of patients with idiopathic scoliosis who are too young for fusion procedures. Anterior vertebral stapling is one such fusionless treatment which aims to modulate the growth of vertebra to allow correction of scoliosis whilst maintaining normal spinal motion The Mater Misericordiae Hospital in Brisbane has begun to use anterior vertebral stapling to treat patients with idiopathic scoliosis who are too young for fusion procedures. Currently the only staple approved for clinical use is manufactured by Medtronic Sofamor Danek (Memphis, TN). This thesis explains the biomechanical and anatomical changes that occur following anterior vertebral staple insertion using in vitro experiments performed on an immature bovine model. Currently there is a paucity of published information about anterior vertebral stapling so it is hoped that this project will provide information that will aid in our understanding of the clinical effects of staple insertion. The aims of this experimental study were threefold. The first phase was designed to determine the changes in the bending stiffness of the spine following staple insertion. The second phase was designed to measure the forces experienced by the staple during spinal movements. The third and final phase of testing was designed to describe the structural changes that occur to a vertebra as a consequence of staple insertion. The first phase of testing utilised a displacement controlled testing robot to compare the change in stiffness of a single spinal motion segment following staple insertion for the three basic spinal motions of flexion-extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation. For the second phase of testing strain gauges were attached to staples and used to measure staple forces during spinal movement. In the third and final phase the staples were removed and a testing specimen underwent micro-computed tomography (CT) scanning to describe the anatomical changes that occur following staple insertion. The displacement controlled testing showed that there was a significant decrease in bending stiffness in flexion, extension, lateral bending away from the staple, and axial rotation away from the staple following staple insertion. The strain gauge measurements showed that the greatest staple forces occurred in flexion and the least in extension. In addition, a reduction in the baseline staple compressive force was seen with successive loading cycles. Micro-CT scanning demonstrated that significant damage to the vertebral body and endplate occurred as a consequence of staple insertion. The clinical implications of this study are significant. Based on the findings of this project it is likely that the clinical effect of the anterior vertebral staple evaluated in this project is a consequence of growth plate damage (also called hemiepiphysiodesis) causing a partial growth arrest of the vertebra rather than simply compression of the growth plate. The surgical creation of a unilateral growth arrest is a well established treatment used in the management of congenital scoliosis but has not previously been considered for use in idiopathic scoliosis.