Globally, one in three adults has some level of measurable hearing loss, and 1.1 billion young persons are at risk for hearing loss attributable to noise exposure. Although noisy occupations such as construction, mining, and manufacturing are primary causes of hearing loss in adults, nonoccupational noise also can damage hearing. Loud noises can cause permanent hearing loss through metabolic ex...

This overview presents computational algorithms for generating 3D object grasps with autonomous multi-fingered robotic hands. Robotic grasping has been an active research subject for decades, and a great deal of effort has been spent on grasp synthesis algorithms. Existing papers focus on reviewing the mechanics of grasping and the finger–object contact interactions Bicchi and Kumar (2000) [12]...

Robotic systems have been increasingly adopted in several sectors of the society. To cope with this demand and diversity, researchers have investigated the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) to develop such systems. SOA promotes interoperability between software modules and heterogeneous hardware devices, and a better reusability and flexibility for robotic systems. However, due to the lack of...

In this paper, some considerations about the state of the art and the current trends in the design and control of “robot hands” are reported and discussed. The authors, on the basis of a long research activity for the development of robotic end-effectors and related technologies, address what they consider key-points for the development of “dextrous hands”, being related this term not only to k...

Nowadays, the vast majority of the tunnel inspection processes are performed manually by qualified operators. The process is subjective and the operators need to face very uncomfortable and even dangerous conditions such as dust environments, absence of light, or toxic substance exposition among others. Robotic technology can overcome many of these disadvantages and provide quality inspections ...

Submerged robots are broadly acclimated in the acreage of amphibian development. The necessity for higher value and propulsive routine basically requires fish-like performance. Fish swim in an unusual motion such as ostraciiform. The Ostraciiform pond approach utilizes the caudal fin aerial to accomplish piscine propulsion with axis maneuverability. Various absolute automatic angle models based...

This paper describes research issues on social robotic telepresence using “Elfoid.” It is a portable tele-operated humanoid that is designed to transfer individuals’ presence to remote places at anytime, anywhere, to provide a new communication style in which individuals talk with persons in remote locations in such a way that they feel each other’s presence. However, it is not known how people...

While research in machine ethics has investigated mechanisms for making artificial agents’ decisions more ethical, there is currently not work investigating adaptations to human-robot interaction (HRI) that can promote ethical behavior on the human side. We present the first results from HRI experiments showing that verbal protests and affective displays can promote ethical behavior in human su...

We investigated robotic methods for teaching movements to hemiparetic subjects using novel techniques for neuro-adaptive control. Eight healthy subjects and twelve hemiparetic stroke subjects were exposed to novel viscous forces during planar movement of the hand towards a visual target. These forces were initially responsible for significant movement errors, but were followed by automatic adap...

Robotic surgery is becoming increasing popular, yet the range of applications is still very limited. One of these underutilized areas is ocular procedures. This paper presents an outline of the state-ofthe-art in this field noting how robots can greatly improve the treatment of many eye conditions as well as how ophthalmic use of robotics continues to offer challenging problems.