The sonar image segmentation is needed such as in underwater object orientation and recognition, in collision prevention and navigation of underwater robots, in underwater investigation and rescue, in seafloor object seeking, in seafloor salvage, and in marine military affairs like torpedo detection. The wavelet-based methods have the ability of multiscale and multiresolution, and they are apt at edge

Intelligent vehicles should be able to detect various obstacles and also identify their types so that the vehicles can take an appropriate level of protection and intervention. This article presents a method of detecting and classifying multiclass obstacles for intelligent vehicles. A stereovision-based method is used to segment obstacles from traffic background and measure three-dimensional geometrical

Efficient and robust sound source recognition and localization is one of the basic techniques for humanoid robots in terms of reaction to environments. Due to the fixed sensor arrays and limited computation resources in humanoid robots, there comes challenge for sound source recognition and localization. This article proposes a sound source recognition and localization framework to realize real-time

A model predictive control approach is proposed for path following of underactuated surface ships with input saturation, parameters uncertainties, and environmental disturbances. An Euler iterative algorithm is used to reduce the calculation amount of model predictive control. The matter of input saturation is addressed naturally and flexibly by taking advantage of model predictive control. The mathematical

This article presents a software layer to abstract users of unmanned aerial vehicles from the specific hardware of the platform and the autopilot interfaces. The main objective of our unmanned aerial vehicle abstraction layer (UAL) is to simplify the development and testing of higher-level algorithms in aerial robotics by trying to standardize and simplify the interfaces with the unmanned aerial vehicles

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) have been regarded as a promising means for the future delivery industry by many logistic companies. Several AGV-based delivery systems have been proposed, but they generally have drawbacks in delivering and locating baggage by magnet line, such as the high maintenance cost, and it is hard to change the trajectory of AGV. This article considers using multi-AGVs as delivery

This article presents a method for generating the locomotion of a mobile manipulator that globally minimizes the weighted generalized momentum. The method utilizes the calculus of variation setting to address the problem for which the optimal trajectory may be computed by solving the initial value problem of the system of ordinary differential equations rather than the two-point boundary value problem

Effectively and efficiently recognizing multi-scale objects is one of the key challenges of utilizing deep convolutional neural network to the object detection field. YOLOv3 (You only look once v3) is the state-of-the-art object detector with good performance in both aspects of accuracy and speed; however, the scale variation is still the challenging problem which needs to be improved. Considering

Facial landmark localization is still a challenge task in the unconstrained environment with influences of significant variation conditions such as facial pose, shape, expression, illumination, and occlusions. In this work, we present an improved boundary-aware face alignment method by using stacked dense U-Nets. The proposed method consists of two stages: a boundary heatmap estimation stage to learn

The developing time-of-flight (TOF) camera is an attractive device for the robot vision system to capture real-time three-dimensional (3D) images, but the sensor suffers from the limit of low resolution and precision of images. This article proposes an approach to automatic generation of an imaging model in the 3D space for error correction. Through observation data, an initial coarse model of the

The object of this article is to design an observer-based adaptive neural network sliding mode controller for active suspension systems. A general nonlinear suspension model is established, and the electrohydraulic actuator dynamics are considered. The proposed controller is decomposed into two loops. Since the dynamics of the actuator is assumed highly nonlinear with uncertainties, the adaptive neural

The online monitoring of water environments is urgently needed. A feasible and effective approach is the use of agents. Water environments, similar to other real-world environments, present many changing and unpredictable situations. To ensure flexibility in such an environment, agents should be prepared to deal with various situations. In this study, we focused on an adaptive agent tracking approach

This article proposes a robotic system that aims to support the elderly, to comply with the medication regimen to which they are subject. The robot uses its locomotion system to move to the elderly and through computer vision detects the packaging of the medicine and identifies the person who should take it at the correct time. For the accomplishment of the task, an application was developed supported

Tactile information is valuable in determining properties of objects that are inaccessible from visual perception. A new type of tangential friction and normal contact force magnetostrictive tactile sensor was developed based on the inverse magnetostrictive effect, and the force output model has been established. It can measure the exerted force in the range of 0–4 N, and it has a good response to

This study considers the problems of manipulators with high coupling, parameter uncertainties, and external disturbances. A six-axis serial manipulator control system based on active disturbance rejection control strategy is proposed without the requirement of the exact dynamic model. First, the operating circuit of the manipulator joint motor is analyzed, and the mathematical model of the direct-current

Applying snake-like robots to environmental exploration has been a hot topic for years. How to achieve free navigation for target search in a complex environment in a safe and efficient manner is one of the main tasks that researchers in the field of robotics currently face. This article presents a target exploration system that takes advantages of visual sensing to navigate the snake-like robot in

Template dictionary construction is an important issue in sparse representation (SP)-based tracking algorithms. In this article, a drift-free visual tracking algorithm is proposed via the construction of an effective template dictionary. The constructed dictionary is composed of three categories of atoms (templates): nonpolluted atoms, variational atoms, and noise atoms. Moreover, the linear combinations

In auto-parking systems, a certain degree of error in the path tracking algorithm is inevitable. This is caused by actuator error, tire slipping, or other factors relevant to and included in the parking process. In such situations, the parking path needs to be updated to finish parking successfully which is referred to as secondary path planning. Herein, a new geometry-based method is proposed to deal

In this work, geometry-based finger kinematic models for joint rotation configuration are proposed. The purpose of the work is to provide an effective means of describing an individual-specific finger motion during flexion or extension movements as precisely as possible. Based on the finger’s geometric postures that are observed when fingers naturally grasp a cylindrical object with a circular cross-section

In this article, the hydraulic drive unit that drives the movement of the joint of a legged robot was researched, aiming at improving the control accuracy of the position-based impedance control system with dual input and single output. The state feedback control containing more state information of the system was adopted to replace the traditional output feedback and proportional-integral-derivative

The time-varying ocean currents and the delay of underwater acoustic communication have caused the uncertainty of single autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) tracking target and the inconsistency of multi-AUV coordination, which make it difficult for multiple AUVs to form a hunting alliance. To solve the above problems, this article proposes the multi-AUV consistent collaborative hunting method based

In this article, the coordinated path-following control problem for networked unmanned surface vehicles is investigated. The communication network brings time delays and packet dropouts to the fleet, which will have negative effects on the control performance of the fleet. To attenuate the negative effects, a novel networked predictive control scheme is proposed. By introducing the predictive error

The integrated navigation method based on star sensor celestial angles (altitude angle and azimuth angle) is proposed to serve the need for rapidly responsive, reliable, and precise of a hypersonic vehicle under a sophisticated environment. An integrated navigation algorithm suitable for large azimuth misalignment is established under launching point inertial coordinate and local geographical coordinate

To tackle the water surface pollution problem, a vision-based water surface garbage capture robot has been developed in our lab. In this article, we present a modified you only look once v3-based garbage detection method, allowing real-time and high-precision object detection in dynamic aquatic environments. More specifically, to improve the real-time detection performance, the detection scales of

Nuclear power plant is completely independent of air and has high power density, which improves unmanned marine vehicle maneuvering performance, maximum speed, and concealment. The supercritical carbon dioxide-cooled reactor system that has the advantages of compact system and high cycle efficiency is a promising energy conversion system candidate for generation IV reactors. However, due to the dramatic

This article investigates a model predictive control (MPC) with disturbance observer (DOB) for a trimaran longitudinal motion control. Firstly, to design the trimaran longitudinal motion stability controller, the mathematical model of the trimaran requires to be obtained. The hydrodynamic coefficients in the mathematical model are obtained by the computational fluid dynamics simulation. Secondly, a

To realize the omnidirectional motion, the transition motion of hexapod robot from flat to slope is studied, and a new type of stability criterion is proposed. Firstly, the landing point problem of the hexapod robot in the process of transition is studied, the relationship between the introduced angle in ankle of the supporting leg and the body pitch is acquired, and the transition gait based on central

Before the cognitive map is generated through the fire of the rodent hippocampal spatial cells, mammals can obtain the outside knowledge through the visual information, which comes from the eyeball to the brain. The information is encoded and transferred to the two regions of the brain based on the fact of biophysiological research, which are known as “what” loop and “where” loop. In this article,

When carrier phase observations are applied to high-precision positioning, how to handle the cycle slip is an unavoidable problem. For cycle slip correction, detection combination noise and the ionospheric delay are two crucial factors. Specifically, the drastic changes in the ionosphere and the increased noise of code observations will increase the failure probability of cycle slip detection. To reduce

Pedestrian navigation with daily smart devices has become a vital issue over the past few years and the accurate heading estimation plays an essential role in it. Compared to the pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR) based solutions, this article constructs a scalable error model based on the inertial navigation system and proposes an adaptive heading estimation algorithm with a novel method of relative

To address the Jacobian matrix approximation error, which usually exists in the iterative solving process of the classic singular robust inverse method, the correction coefficient α is introduced, and the improved singular robust inverse method is the result. On this basis, the constant improved singular robust method and the intelligent improved singular robust inverse method are proposed. In addition

Aiming at the formation problem in the cooperative navigation of unmanned aerial vehicle swarm, a cooperative position error analysis method based on cooperative dilution of precision is studied in this article. During cooperative flight, the unmanned aerial vehicle swarm can use the received position and ranging information of the adjacent unmanned aerial vehicles to calculate the position, and fuse

Faced with the problem of frequent slippage of the wheel-arm inspection robot in overhead high-voltage transmission lines, a magnetic linear drive method, based on high-voltage direct current (HVDC) magnetic field, is proposed: The ampere force of an enhanced HVDC magnetic field, generated by an innovatively arranged current-carrying coil, is used as the driving force for the traction robot, replacing

The present work deals with the design of intelligent path planning algorithms for a mobile robot in static and dynamic environments based on swarm intelligence optimization. Two modifications are suggested to improve the searching process of the standard bat algorithm with the result of two novel algorithms. The first algorithm is a Modified Frequency Bat algorithm, and the second is a hybridization

This study investigates an adaptive chattering-free sliding-mode control method for n-order nonlinear systems with unknown external disturbances and uncertain models. The proposed method takes the advantage of finite-time fast convergence to avoid singularity problem and ensure its robustness against system uncertainty and unknown disturbance. To achieve fast convergence from any initial condition

Pose graph optimization algorithm is a classic nonconvex problem which is widely used in simultaneous localization and mapping algorithm. First, we investigate previous contributions and evaluate their performances using KITTI, Technische Universität München (TUM), and New College data sets. In practical scenario, pose graph optimization starts optimizing when loop closure happens. An estimated robot

Using multiple unmanned surface vehicle swarms to implement tasks cooperatively is the most advanced technology in recent years. However, how to find which swarm the unmanned surface vehicle belongs to is a meaningful job. So, this article proposed an artificial potential field-based swarm finding algorithm, which applies the potential field force directly to unmanned surface vehicles and leads them

It has been more than 30 years since the French pioneered the research of the apple harvesting robot, and with the joint efforts of scholars all around the world, a variety of prototypes have been developed. However, the existing apple harvesting robot prototype is still in the experimental research stage because of its low harvesting efficiency. With the help of information technology, the related

The target-encirclement guidance problem for many-to-one missile-target engagement scenario is studied, where the missiles evenly distribute on a target-centered circle during the homing guidance. The proposed distributed target-encirclement guidance law can achieve simultaneous attack of multiple missiles in different line-of-sight directions. Firstly, the decentralization protocols of desired line-of-sight

China has been the world’s largest automotive manufacturing country since 2008. The automotive wheel industry in China has been growing steadily in pace with the automobile industry. Visual recognition system that automatically classifies wheel types is a key component in the wheel production line. Traditional recognition methods are mainly based on extracted feature matching. Their accuracy, robustness

Ikaros is an open framework for system-level brain modeling and real-time robot control. Version 2 of the system includes a range of computational components that implements various algorithms and methods ranging from models of neural circuits to control systems and hardware interfaces for robot. Ikaros supports the design and implementation of large-scale computation models using a flow programming

This article proposes a novel inverse kinematic approach with translation transformation matrix based on screw theory to solve the inverse kinematic problem for 6R robot manipulator with offset joint. The translation transformation matrix is introduced to convert the 6R robot manipulator with offset joint to a new configuration with intersecting axes, and the mapping relationship from the end effector

Reinforcement learning and behavior optimization are becoming more and more popular in the field of robotics because algorithms are mature enough to tackle real problems in this domain. Robust implementations of state-of-the-art algorithms are often not publicly available though, and experiments are hardly reproducible because open-source implementations are often not available or are still in a stage

Sandwich structures are important innovative multifunctional structures with the advantages of low density and high performance. Creative design for sandwich structures is a design process based on sandwich core structure evolution mechanisms, material design method, and panel (including core structure and facing sheets) performance prediction model. The review outlines recent research efforts on creative

A variety of open-source software tools are currently available to help building autonomous mobile robots. These tools have proven their effectiveness in developing different types of robotic systems, but there are still needs related to safety and efficiency that are not sufficiently covered. This article describes recent advances in the Aerostack software framework to address part of these needs

Vision-based detection methods often require consideration of the robot’s sight. For example, panoramic images cause image distortion, which negatively affects the target recognition and spatial localization. Furthermore, the original you only look once method does not have a reasonable performance for the image recognition in the panoramic images. Consequently, some failures have been reported so

The purpose of this work is to investigate the possibilities of climbing higher obstacles while maintaining the overall dimensions of a walking robot through design improvements and experiments. An original concept for the design of a walking robot with a minimum number of motors is presented. Geometric and force constraints for overcoming an obstacle and the conditions for maintaining static stability

There are a large number of cloud-covered areas in most unmanned aerial vehicle images and lead to the loss of information in the image and affect image post procession such as image fusion and target identification. Finding the cloud-occluded area in an image is a key step in image processing. Based on the differences of color and texture characteristics between cloud and ground, a cloud detection

The problem of optimal tracking control for robot–environment interaction is studied in this article. The environment is regarded as a linear system and an admittance control with iterative linear quadratic regulator method is obtained to guarantee the compliant behaviour. Meanwhile, an adaptive dynamic programming-based controller is proposed. Under adaptive dynamic programming frame, the critic network

Binocular stereovision has become one of the development trends of machine vision and has been widely used in robot recognition and positioning. However, the current research on omnidirectional motion handling robots at home and abroad is too limited, and many problems cannot be solved well, such as single operating systems, complex algorithms, and low recognition rates. To make a high-efficiency handling

At present, the application of mobile robots is more and more extensive, and the movement of mobile robots cannot be separated from effective navigation, especially path exploration. Aiming at navigation problems, this article proposes a method based on deep reinforcement learning and recurrent neural network, which combines double net and recurrent neural network modules with reinforcement learning

Human–robot interaction is a vital part of human–robot collaborative space exploration, which bridges the high-level decision and path planning intelligence of human and the accurate sensing and modelling ability of the robot. However, most conventional human–robot interaction approaches rely on video streams for the operator to understand the robot’s surrounding, which lacks situational awareness

Fire is a fierce disaster, and smoke is the early signal of fire. Since such features as chrominance, texture, and shape of smoke are very special, a lot of methods based on these features have been developed. But these static characteristics vary widely, so there are some exceptions leading to low detection accuracy. On the other side, the motion of smoke is much more discriminating than the aforementioned

Breast cancer is one of the most frequent cancers and a major cause of cancer death in women. In this article, the design and control of a novel magnetic resonance imaging-compatible breast intervention robot are proposed. The dimensions and tolerance of the robot system are considered, and a novel pitching mechanism is designed to achieve a dexterous operation in the limited space. The magnetic resonance

An impedance control method in null-space for 7-degree-of-freedom redundant manipulators is presented in this article. The null-space impedance motion of the redundant manipulator was described in the angle domain and a null-space impedance equation was established. To successfully obtain joint angular velocity, a high-gain observer is designed. The stability of the proposed control method was proved

The robotic articulated arm coordinate measuring machine (RAACMM) is a special robotic structural measuring instrument used to perform industrial field inspection. The accuracy of a RAACMM in different poses presents certain characteristics due to the influence of various dynamic factors. However, the existing error compensation model of the RAACMM cannot include dynamic factors, which imposes certain

To effectively reduce the mass and simplify the structure of traditional aerial manipulators, we propose novel light cable-driven manipulator for the aerial robots in this article. The drive motors and corresponding reducers are removed from the joints to the base; meanwhile, force and motion are transmitted remotely through cables. Thanks to this design, the moving mass has been greatly reduced. In

The article puts forward the new layout methodology of the multi-floor linear cellular manufacturing layout. The proposed equipment layout methodology not just breaks the conventional single-floor linear cellular manufacturing layout but also meets the layout requirements of the intelligent manufacturing workshop for the stereoscopic aisle manufacturing cell. The layout methodology takes into account

The cleaning of cement warehouse is a labor-intensive and high-risk operation. The applicability and cleaning effect of traditional work tools are poor. Therefore, most of the methods are manual cleaning, which is inefficient and prone to accidents. It is of great social significance and practical value to develop an intelligent flexible warehouse cleaning robot that replaces the manual cleaning of

This article presents an innovative wall-climbing robot for detection on smooth wall surfaces, which consists of a vacuum adsorption system and adhesion belts, making the robot flexible and effectively steerable. Moreover, the detailed attachment mechanism is further analyzed for the climbing tasks. Safe operating conditions, kinematics, and dynamic model are derived, respectively, indicating that