The project called “Polish Cardiosurgical Robot” has been developed by Foundation for Cardiac Surgery Development since year 2000. Within the project the telemanipulator to perform the endoscopic cardiosurgical operations has been designed, manufactured and examined. In the following paper the development of construction of arms for RobIn Heart 0, RobIn Heart 1, RobIn Heart 3 versions of the robot as well as the fixing system has been presented. In the preliminary phase of the project the requirements for mechanical construction were analyzed. Additional requirements enhancing functionality of the construction were also defined. Analyses of the planned development of the construction and ways of its possible applications were performed.

Neutralisation of the terrorist explosive devices is a risky task. Such tasks may be carried out by robots in order to protect human life. The article describes chosen design problems concerning the new neutralisation and assisting robot SMR-100 Expert. The robot was to be designed for the use in confined spaces, particularly inside the air-crafts, buses and rail cars. In order to achieve this ambitious plan, new advanced technological designing tools had to be applied. A number of interesting design issues were approached. The successful development of the prototype robot Expert in Poland resulted in the creation of the first intervention robot in the world able to perform all necessary anti-terrorist tasks inside the passenger planes.

The paper presents construction and control system of the climbing robot Safari designed at the Poznan University of Technology for inspection of high building walls, executed in order to evaluate their technical condition. Because such tasks are uncomfortable and very dangerous for humans, this mobile machine gives a possibility to observe and examine the state of the surface on which it is moving. The robot is a construction developed for walking on flat but uneven vertical and horizontal surfaces. Its on-board equipment provides ability to remotely examine and record images reflecting the robot’s surroundings. At the beginning of the paper, several concepts of existing climbing robots (four-legged, six-legged, sliding platform) are outlined. Next, the mechanical system of the Safari robot is presented with special emphasis on its kinematic equations and description of movement stages. Then, the on-board manipulator as well as the sensor and control systems are described.

Dr. Aleksandra Przegalinska explains why we find humanoid robots so creepy and considers whether watching machines play football is actually fun.

Robotics specialists observe nature carefully and try to recreate the complex motions performed by people and animals with ease. Locomotion and the ability to manipulate flexible objects are especially challenging, but progress is being made.

The paper presents the possibilities of teaching a robot controller to perform operations of autonomous segregation of objects differing in features that can be identified using a vision system.Objects can be arranged freely on the robot scene also covered with others. In the learning phase, a robot operator presents the segregation method by moving subsequent objects held in a human hand, e.g. a red object to container A, a green object to container B, etc. The robot system, after recognizing the idea of segregation that is being done using the vision system, continues this work in an autonomous way, until all identified objects will be removed from robotic scene. There are no restrictions on the dimensions, shapes and placement of containers collecting segregated objects. The developed algorithms were verified on a test bench equipped with two modern robots KUKA LBR iiwa 14 R820.

The article presents the issue of calibration and verification of an original module, which is a part of the robotic turbojet engines elements processing station. The task of the module is to measure turbojet engine compressor blades geometric parameters. These type of devices are used in the automotive and the machine industry, but here we present their application in the aviation industry. The article presents the idea of the module, operation algorithm and communication structure with elements of a robot station. The module uses Keyence GT2-A32 contact sensors. The presented information has an application nature. Functioning of the module and the developed algorithm has been tested, the obtained results are satisfactory and ensure sufficient process accuracy. Other station elements include a robot with force control, elements connected to grinding such as electrospindles, and security systems.

The goal of the project is to investigate the influence of elastic mechanisms on technical, bipedal locomotion. In particular, the paper presents the parameter identification for a biologically inspired two-legged robot model. The simulation model consists of a rigid body model equipped with rubber straps. The arrangement of the rubber straps is based on the arrangement of certain muscle groups in a human being. The parameters of the elastic elements are identified applying numerical optimisation. Thus two optimisation algorithms are investigated and compared with respect to robustness and computing time. Moreover, different objective functions are defined and discussed. The behaviour of the resulting configuration of the system is explored in terms of biomechanics.

Compared with the robots, humans can learn to perform various contact tasks in unstructured environments by modulating arm impedance characteristics. In this article, we consider endowing this compliant ability to the industrial robots to effectively learn to perform repetitive force-sensitive tasks. Current learning impedance control methods usually suffer from inefficiency. This paper establishes an efficient variable impedance control method. To improve the learning efficiency, we employ the probabilistic Gaussian process model as the transition dynamics of the system for internal simulation, permitting long-term inference and planning in a Bayesian manner. Then, the optimal impedance regulation strategy is searched using a model-based reinforcement learning algorithm. The effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method are verified through force control tasks using a 6-DoFs Reinovo industrial manipulator.

This paper proposes an analysis of the effect of vertical position of the pivot point of the inverted pendulum during humanoid walking. We introduce a new feature of the inverted pendulum by taking a pivot point under the ground level allowing a natural trajectory for the center of pressure (CoP), like in human walking. The influence of the vertical position of the pivot point on energy consumption is analyzed here. The evaluation of a 3D Walking gait is based on the energy consumption. A sthenic criterion is used to depict this evaluation. A consequent reduction of joint torques is shown with a pivot point under the ground.

The study presents the issue of kinematic discrepancy of hydrostatic drive systems of high mobility vehicles, and its impact on the presence of the unfavourable phenomenon of circulating power. Furthermore, it presents a theoretical discussion concerning the capacity of the compensation of kinematic discrepancy by a hydrostatic drive system on the basis of tests using static characteristics.

The paper concerns development of original method of optimal control at energy performance index and its application to dynamic processes surveillance of some mechatronic systems. The latter concerns chatter vibration surveillance during highspeed slender milling of rigid details, as well as motion control of two-wheeled mobile platform. Results of on-line computer simulations and real performance on the target objects reflect a great efficiency of the processes surveillance.

In the article problems related to human labor and factors affecting the increasing use of

industrial robots are discussed. Since human factors affect the production processes stability,

robots are preferred to apply. The application of robots is characterized by higher performance

and reliability comparing to human labor. The problem is how to determine the real

difference in work efficiency between human operator and robot. The aim of the study is to

develop a method that allows clearly definition of productivity growth associated with the

replacement of human labor by industrial robots. Another aim of the paper is how to model

robotized and manual operated workstation in a computer simulation software. Analysis of

the productivity and reliability of the hydraulic press workstation operated by the human

operator or an industrial robot, are presented. Simulation models have been developed taking

into account the availability and reliability of the machine, operator and robot. We apply

OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) indicator to present how availability and reliability

parameters influence over performance of the workstation, in the longer time. Simplified

financial analysis is presented considering different labor costs in EU countries.

In recent years, a significant development of technologies related to the control and communication of mobile robots, including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, has been noticeable. Developing these technologies requires having the necessary hardware and software to enable prototyping and simulation of control algorithms in laboratory conditions. The article presents the Laboratory of Intelligent Mobile Robots equipped with the latest solutions. The laboratory equipment consists of four quadcopter drones (QDrone) and two wheeled robots (QBot), equipped with rich sensor sets, a ground control station with Matlab-Simulink software, OptiTRACK object tracking system, and the necessary infrastructure for communication and security. The paper presents the results of measurements from sensors of robots monitoring various quantities during work. The measurements concerned, among others, the quantities of robots registered by IMU sensors of the tested robots (i.e., accelerometers, magnetometers, gyroscopes and others).