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Thermo-Responsive Hydrogels As Actuators For Biomedical Applications, Marilu Ortiz, Shani Abraham, Romina Zeine, Roscelin Figueroa, Zoltan Varga, Christian Mendoza, Sang-Eun Song

36th Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

Extended research is being conducted in developing soft actuators for biomedical applications. Electroactive polymers, shape-memory alloys, shape-memory polymers and hydraulic or pneumatic actuators that will change the volume of a chamber to induce movement are some of the technologies being used.

Stimuli-responsive hydrogels as actuators is a subject of current research. Stimuli-responsive hydrogels are water absorbent polymer networks that change their volume in response to a given stimulus. The stimulus may be physical (temperature variability), biological (DNA molecules), or chemical (pH variability). Their capability to reverse their response when the stimulus is removed make them suitable to be used in …

Design Evaluation Of Self-Learning Line Following Robot, Nadia Camacho, Jared Butcher, Nate Kanyok, Xiangxu Lin, Jong-Hoon Kim

36th Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

The development of a line-following robot is, for many, a building block into further applications of robotics. One of the main focuses is pathfinding without prior knowledge of the route or environment. In the case of a simple line- following robots, the task is limited, allowing for much room in experimenting with different approaches. In this paper, we present our dual-control line following robot - ATR LineBot. The first control mechanism uses two series of line sensors in combination with a custom PID controller for speed optimization. The additional sensors allows for sophisticated planning and correction to be done. Our …

An Automated Toll Collection System For Bangladesh: An Experimental Approach, Saifuddin Mahmud, Hasib Iqbal, Chandra Mondol Tusher, Alfred Shaker

36th Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

Automation has a great impact in our everyday life and making our life easy. Day by day the number of vehicles passing over the road is increasing due to which traffic jam; wastage of human effort is taking places. And our existing manual toll collection system of Bangladesh can’t handle this with limited amount of time. So, we propose an experimental approach of running a system 24 hours a day without interruption concerned with fully automated toll collection system using active RFID tags which is able to reduce human effort and time and most importantly traffic jam. In this system …

Increasing User Confidence In Privacy-Sensitive Robots, Raniah Bamagain, Marius Silaghi

36th Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

As the deployment and availability of robots grow rapidly, and spreads everywhere to reach places where they can communicate with humans, numerous new beneFlorida Institute of Technologys and services can be provided, but at the same time, various types of privacy issues appear. Indeed, the use of robots that process data remotely causes privacy concerns. There are some main factors that could increase the capability of violating users’ privacy. Here we analyze these factors and propose solutions that assist in mitigating the problem of privacy violation while using social robots. These solutions assist in solving the limitations of current robots …

Design Of A Low-Cost, Open Source, And Open Hardware Educational Drone, Hyunjae Jeong, Xiangxu Lin, Alfred Shaker, Irvin Steve Cardenas, Jong-Hoon Kim, Jeremy Robins, Yong-Seok Chi

36th Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

In today’s technology-driven world, innovation is high-paced and the importance of learning the skills surrounding emerging technologies has become crucial. One of such emerging technologies are drones, and the need for drone education has become apparent. However, current educational drones are inaccessible to many individuals, and instead are aimed at collegiate education. Furthermore, drones are hazardous, difficult to manipulate, and costly. To address these issues, in this paper we present the ATR-Drone Project. We have developed a safe mechanical platform, composed of 3D printed components and a simple round metal rod that serves to adjust the balance of the drone …

Sharing Tracks With High Speed Trains In Urban Areas – Risk Due To Drivers And Pedestrian, Oren Masory

36th Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

Sharing operations of high-speed passenger and heavy freight on the same rail tracks presents additional risks to vehicle and pedestrians who cross the tracks. This is due to increase in rail traffic at crossing; users overestimate the amount of time they have to cross in front of a higher speed train, since they are used to interacting with slower conventional trains; track circuited crossings are not adaptable and might lead to confusion and bad decisions. This paper discusses few issues related to human perception which contribute to accidents in this case.

Robotic Nursing Assistants: Human Temperature Measurement Case Study, Ajinkya Mahadeo Ghadge, Ankur Vipulkumar Dalal, Cody Lee Lundberg, Hakki Erhan Sevil, Deborah Behan, Dan O. Popa

36th Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

In this study, we present a human temperature measurement case implementation for hospital patients using a mobile robotic platform (PR2). The main focus of the study is to apply computer vision methods, specifically optical character recognition (OCR) with template matching, in order to read a non-contact thermometer screen while PR2 is measuring patient's temperature. Parameter analysis is done for thermometer digit detection, and parameters with best results are selected for human tests. The tests are designed including human subjects as patients, a tablet for human-robot interaction (HRI), and the PR2 robot. Human subject test are performed with 8 volunteers over …

Towards Sensor And Motion Measurements Databases For Training Models For The Nao Robot, Kholud Alghamdi, Jesse Torres, Justin Burden, Venkata Maddineni, Roba Alharbi, Tejeswar Neelam, Peter Tarsoly, Abdullah Alhaif, Joseph Nke, Soham Jadhav, Sai Dodle, Marius Silaghi

36th Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

High quality probabilistic models for a complex robot like Alde- baran’s Nao humanoid depend heavily on details from its envi- ronment, involving multiple parameters. Building such models re- quires significant effort with data gathering and data cleaning. We propose to create a public database of NAO sensor data that can be used by researchers and engineers training models for localization, mapping, and planning in controlled environments. Here we report on our release of a database with sensor data, parameterized by en- vironment configuration and nature. The database contains struc- tured folders with documentation, measurements, Nao AI feedback, and data management …

Ongoing Efforts In Implementing An Educational Intelligent Robotic Garden System, Elise Araiza, Ryan Integlia

36th Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

This project will focus on bringing together interactive education, recreation, and gardening to promote education in gardening through robotic and interactive gaming systems. The system would be beneficial in a community environment and will be used as a community resource. By using recycled materials including robotic vacuums and computers as well as new materials, including microcomputers and game interfaces. This system will combine the complexity of machines and the simplicity of nature’s plants. To gain educational human-machine interaction, an open sourced game involving machines and horticulture will be included that is related to the environment. Learning can also be included …

Additively Manfacturing Molds For Soft Robots With Complex Internal Geometries, Kumar Yogesh Shah, Andrew Martinez, Gonzalo Seisdedos, Juan Salazar, Ibrahim N. Tansel

36th Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

Almost all moving creatures have soft bodies in nature. Soft bodies give them flexibility, smooth motions, silent actions, and allow them to travel through small openings. The robotics community turned their attention to the robots with soft bodies with the help of newly available manufacturing methods, actuators, sensors, and electronics. Flexible bodies have been used in many systems from medical to space applications. Soft robots have been implemented as grippers already. These grippers are incorporated into industrial robotic arms to grab, lift, or move fragile items such as live animals, produce, or sharp items. In this study, additive manufacturing technology …

Implementation Of Customizable Inner Geometries In Soft Robotics Using Additive Manufacturing, Kumar Yogesh Shah, Andrew Martinez, Gonzalo Seisdedos, Juan Salazar, Ibrahim N. Tansel

36th Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

Soft Robotics has drawn the attention of the academic community in the last decade. Control of complex soft bodies with electronic components has been a major challenge. Currently, main industrial implementations of Soft Robotics are grippers, in which they are incorporated into industrial robotic arms to grab, lift, or move fragile items such as live animals, produce, or sharp items. Harvard’s Multigait robot was designed to crawl when actuated with air. This robot incorporates a two-part casted design, controlling each of the five parts of the robot by multiple actuation tubes. In this study, a highly customizable soft robot was …

Human-Robot Plan Communication Strategies, Rahil Rajaa, Layla Alarifi, Walter Bond, Marius Silaghi

36th Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

In this research, the problem we address concerns finding the better mechanisms to communicate to a robot the directions for navigation in indoor environments. We identify which out of a set of combinations of speech, gestures, and drawing mechanisms are the most comfortable, easier to learn, and least error-prone for human users. Three different methods: a Speaking method, a Gesturing and Speaking method, and a Drawing method were tested for guiding the NAO robot to the desired place, assuming that the robot has no prior map of the building and even no information about the involved human faces. Our experiment …

Robots That Successfully Elicit Help From Humans, Layla Alarifi, Marius C. Silaghi, Rajaa Rahil

36th Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

Most attention in the development of robots has been focused on the robots’ hardware and software to improve functionality. However, the interaction between humans and robots can be key to enhancing robots’ performance. Autonomous mobile robots can more often complete their tasks if they are enabled to effectively solicit help from humans when robots face limitations. Hence, in this paper, we examine three different manners of addressing humans: friendly, polite, and indirect. These approaches combine different interaction modalities, like speech and gestures. We conducted experiments where the NAO robot addresses bystanders in one of the aforementioned three manners to get …

Kinematic Analysis Of Human’S Upper Arm Movement For The Development Of Human-Like Social Motions In Anthropomorphic Robot, Mizanoor Rahman

36th Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

The hand waving motion of a human was considered as a representative social motion because the human can use such motions for social interaction and communication. Twenty healthy human subjects were recruited to participate in the study. A motion capture system was put in operation. Then, each human subject separately showed the hand waving motion in different conditions such as (i) both hands waved, (ii) only left hand waved, and (iii) only right hand waved. The hand waving motion was captured by the motion capture system for each subject in each condition separately. Then, linear displacements, velocities and accelerations along …

Vision-Based Guidance And Navigation For Swarm Of Small Satellites In A Formation Flying Mission, Hadi Fekrmandi, Skye Rutan-Bedard, Alexander Frye, Michael Yoon, Randy Hoover

36th Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

Small satellites, including the nanosatellite platforms called CubeSats, are suitable for formation flying missions because of their modular nature and low cost. A formation flying mission involves a set of spatially-distributed satellites capable of autonomous interaction and cooperation with one another in order to maintain the desired formation. One of the fundamental drawbacks of current guidance, navigation, and control techniques is that they rely on a centralized process, primarily using a global positioning system (GPS). While real-time positioning computed by standard GPS service is adequate for some disperse applications (i.e., constellation missions), inherent position discontinuities are not acceptable for proximate …

Metrics And Methods Of Evaluating Teaching And Learning Outcomes In Robot-Based Stem Education, S.M. Mizanoor Rahman

36th Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

This paper attempts to develop the metrics and methods for evaluating the learning outcomes in robot-based STEM education. A survey was conducted with 20 middle school math and science teachers who received training on how to design, develop and implement robotics-based STEM lessons. Each teacher had also experience of implementing robot-based STEM lessons in actual classroom environment. The participating teachers responded the survey based on their training, classroom experience and observations, and self-brainstorming. The survey responses were then analyzed and the appropriate and comprehensive assessment metrics and methods for the learning outcomes were determined. The results showed that the expected …

Autonomous Inspection And Maintenance (Aim) Crawler For Nondestructive Testing And Evaluation Of Cu-Ni Piping System In Highly Corrosive Environments, Hadi Fekrmandi

36th Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

In this paper, we describe the design, control and experimental validation of a new robotic pipe crawler for autonomous inspection of remote-to-access piping. The majority of current in-pipe inspection robots are primarily designed and suitable for large diameter pipes and unreliable for pipes less than 5 inches (12.70 cm) in diameter. The small size of the robot gives rise to problems with insufficient power, propulsion, structural integrity and difficulty of control, guidance and navigation. To address these challenges, a modular design of the crawler with a hybrid, legged- peristaltic movement has been designed and developed with the capability of navigating, …