A robotic-aid system could be more effective if the system were intelligent enough to understand the user needs and adapt its behaviors accordingly. This paper presents our efforts to realize such a personal roboticaid system through a multi-agent robot control architecture. We will describe a framework for humanrobot interaction, two cognitive agents responsible for human-robot interaction, an...

An autonomous agent is any intelligent entity that engages in a perceive-decide-act cycle of interaction with its environment. In this paper we present a formalism using a stratified percept chain that renders an augmented interactive cycle. In particular, we identify two kinds of agents: a “lead” agent, who gains the percepts directly from the environment, and a “follow” agent, who gains its p...

The study of biological systems has inspired the development of a large number of neural network architectures and robotic implementations. Through both experimentation and simulation biological systems provides a means to understand the underlying mechanisms in living organisms while inspiring the development of robotic applications. Experimentation, in the form of data gathering (ethological ...

A robotic cell for deburring planar polygonal objects is described. The object comes from a conveyor and arrives in a random position on a parallel manipulator. Its center of mass is located through the measurements of a 6-componants force sensor, it is then grasped and a force-feedback scheme is used to fix the object on a special plate. Then a probing algorithm is used to discover the locatio...

We treat the problem of autonomous acquisition of manipulation skills where problem-solving strategies are initially available only for a narrow range of situations. We propose to extend the range of solvable situations by autonomous playing with the object. By applying previously-trained skills and behaviours, the robot learns how to prepare situations for which a successful strategy is alread...

This paper describes a robotic walker designed as an assistive device for frail elderly people with cognitive impairment. Locomotion is most often the primary form of exercise for the elderly, and devices that provide mobility assistance are critical for the health and well being of such individuals. Previous work on walkers focused primarily on safety but offered little or no assistance with n...

Autonomous Robotic Wheelchairs in Europe by Spyros G. Tzafestas (National Technical University of Athens) Autonomous robotic wheelchairs (ARWs) represent an important class of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) [1-3] that is receiving increasing attention all over the world. This is due to the strong need of easier wheelchair mobility throughout a longer average life of the handicapped. In the Eur...

We describe a home lighting robot that uses directional spotlights to create complex lighting scenes. The robot senses its visual environment using a panoramic camera and attempts to maintain its target goal state by adjusting the positions and intensities of its lights. Users can communicate desired changes in the lighting environment through speech and gesture (e.g., "Make it brighter over th...

Purpose – In spite of having a number of general-purpose algorithms for solving plant layout problems, facility planners may still face a challenging task to adjust these algorithms to handle special, but not uncommon, layout problems. The purpose of this study is to propose a new method for addressing the impact of overhead space utilization on a plant layout solution. Design/methodology/appro...

The community service team from the Padang State Polytechnic majoring in Mechanical Engineering has implemented a program which is participated by members of affluent farmer group, namely local community, located Batu Gadang, Kec. Lubuk Kilangan owns agricultural land. This provides rice mower machine assistance to groups. Community expected be able help all prosperous who previously needed lot...