Fuel-powered artificial muscles

Artificial muscles and electric motors found in autonomous robots and prosthetic limbs are typically battery-powered, which severely restricts the duration of their performance and can necessitate long inactivity during battery recharge. To help solve these problems, we demonstrated two types of artificial muscles that convert the chemical energy of high-energy-density fuels to mechanical energy. The first type stores electrical charge and uses changes in stored charge for mechanical actuation. In contrast with electrically powered electrochemical muscles, only half of the actuator cycle is electrochemical. The second type of fuel-powered muscle provides a demonstrated actuator stroke and power density comparable to those of natural skeletal muscle and generated stresses that are over a hundred times higher.     

弹跳机器人的弹跳序列规划问题研究

传统轮动式与爬行式机器人难以直接越过大的障碍物或沟壑 ,野外行动能力有限 ,需要研制弹跳机器人。为了快速并顺利地越过障碍物 ,应根据自身获取的或用户输入的地形信息规划出弹跳动作序列。本文分析了弹跳机器人与连续移动式机器人路径规划方法的区别 ,总结出影响弹跳运动规划过程的几个因素。调整影响系数后 ,在简化地形的基础上实现了弹跳序列的启发式搜索算法。结果表明 ,通过适当调整参数 ,该算法可以得到安全高效的弹跳动作序列     

Integrating machine vision-based row guidance with GPS and compass-based routing to achieve autonomous navigation for a rice field weeding robot

Precision Agriculture - Autonomous weeding robots are a productive and more sustainable solution over traditional, labor-intensive weed control practices such as chemical weeding that are harmful...     

Robotics in remote and hostile environments

In our continuing quest for knowledge, robots are powerful tools for accessing environments too dangerous or too remote for human exploration. Early systems functioned under close human supervision, effectively limited to executing preprogrammed tasks. However, as exploration moves to regions where communication is ineffective or unviable, robots will need to carry out complex tasks without human supervision. To enable such capabilities, robots are being enhanced by advances ranging from new sensor development to automated mission planning software, distributed robotic control, and more efficient power systems. As robotics technology becomes simultaneously more capable and economically viable, individual robots operated at large expense by teams of experts are increasingly supplemented by teams of robots used cooperatively under minimal human supervision.     

机器人足球比赛防守与进攻队形转换的研究

随着机器人足球的发展，机器人防守和进攻的队形对于比赛显得尤为重要。为了加强机器人足球比赛中的防守和进攻，文章通过分析足球在不同区域时防守队形的选择、防守与进攻的队形转换、以及在极端情况下剩余机器人的有效利用等几个问题，研究和设计机器人防守和进攻队形转换的算法和策略。机器人队形的选择采用人性化的方法，大大提高了队形的形成速度，在极端状态下也做出相应的策略来加强进攻。通过实验表明，该策略增加了防守和进攻的效率，提高了进球的几率。     

动态检测与容错机器人

提出了机器人容错模型,设计了多智能体机器人的框架结构,并且对各部分功能进行了详细说明。为了提供具备检测和隔离能力的接口,提出了使用有效数据进行检测的方法。最后采用故障树对机器人的可靠性进行了分析。     

Intelligent robots for fruit harvesting: recent developments and future challenges

Precision Agriculture - Intelligent robots for fruit harvesting have been actively developed over the past decades to bridge the increasing gap between feeding a rapidly growing population and...     

Efficient bipedal robots based on passive-dynamic walkers

Passive-dynamic walkers are simple mechanical devices, composed of solid parts connected by joints, that walk stably down a slope. They have no motors or controllers, yet can have remarkably humanlike motions. This suggests that these machines are useful models of human locomotion; however, they cannot walk on level ground. Here we present three robots based on passive-dynamics, with small active power sources substituted for gravity, which can walk on level ground. These robots use less control and less energy than other powered robots, yet walk more naturally, further suggesting the importance of passive-dynamics in human locomotion.     

German farmers’ intention to use autonomous field robots: a PLS-analysis

Autonomous field robots are a promising technology for solving several problems in agriculture, as they are electrical driven, can control weeds single-plant based mechanically or with microdoses of pesticides and exert less ground pressure on the field. Whether such robots will be applied on a large scale in German agriculture depends on various parameters. Therefore, the factors influencing the behavioural intention of farmers with respect to their future adoption of autonomous field robots were investigated. The analysis applies a structural equation model based on an extended version of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. The dataset, collected in 2019, consists of 500 German farmers. The results reveal significantly positive effects of farmers’ expected performance, social influence and trust as well as significantly negative effects of farmers’ effort expectancy and anxiety on the behavioural intention to use autonomous field robots. Additionally, moderating effects of age on the relationship of individual constructs to the behavioural intent to use robots could be confirmed. The results provide important information for various stakeholders. Robot suppliers should better inform farmers about the performance of their products, for instance by involving farmers in the development process of the robots. The ecological benefits attributed to field robots could meet public expectations and should be better communicated to address farmers’ social influence on the behavioural intention to use the robots. Policymakers could try to create better framework conditions, for example by establishing a stable legal situation for autonomous systems or promote its use.

     

Robots in agriculture: prospects,impacts, ethics,and policy

Agriculture is both the site of development of important new technologies and a key area of application of technologies developed elsewhere. It is little wonder, then, that many thinkers believe that progress in the science and engineering of robotics may soon change the face of farming. This paper surveys the prospects for agricultural robotics, discusses its likely impacts, and examines the ethical and policy questions it may raise. Along with the environmental and economic impacts of robots, political, social, cultural, and security implications of the introduction of robots that have received little attention in the larger literature on agricultural robotics are considered. Key policy choices necessary to meet the ethical challenges likely to arise as agricultural robots start to become used more widely, and to maximise the social, environmental, and economic benefits of robotics in agriculture, are highlighted.

     

林业机器人的发展现状

结合40a的林业机器人发展历史,给出了林业机器人的应用领域,提出了林业机器人的分类方法:主要从根、茎、叶和果实作业分类.在林业机器人国内外发展现状方面,以枝上作业机器人、树干作业机器人、草上作业机器人和林产工业机器人等方面进行了论述分析.在国内林业机器人研究方面,较为详尽的介绍了已经开发的机器人成果和正在研究的机器人.依据机器人技术近50a的发展和农林业机器人40多年的研究,提出了未来研究的关键技术及发展方向应主要集中在机器人机构学、智能控制、新机器人、食品安全和小型机器人等研究领域.     

蔬果采摘机器人的研究进展与展望

随着城市化的发展和农业劳动力的不断减少,新型农业生产模式的应用和新技术的开发迫 在眉睫,农业机器人将成为未来农业生产活动的核心。采摘机器人作为农业机器人的一个重要分支, 具有极大的发展潜力。本文分析了国内外近年来蔬菜和水果采摘机器人的研究进展和现状,指出采 摘机器人开发中的主要问题,并阐述了蔬果采摘机器人未来主流发展方向。     

Social integration of robots into groups of cockroaches to control self-organized choices

Collective behavior based on self-organization has been shown in group-living animals from insects to vertebrates. These findings have stimulated engineers to investigate approaches for the coordination of autonomous multirobot systems based on self-organization. In this experimental study, we show collective decision-making by mixed groups of cockroaches and socially integrated autonomous robots, leading to shared shelter selection. Individuals, natural or artificial, are perceived as equivalent, and the collective decision emerges from nonlinear feedbacks based on local interactions. Even when in the minority, robots can modulate the collective decision-making process and produce a global pattern not observed in their absence. These results demonstrate the possibility of using intelligent autonomous devices to study and control self-organized behavioral patterns in group-living animals.     

智能咨询机器人对图书馆参考咨询服务的革新

[目的/意义]智能机器人在图书馆参考咨询工作中的应用,拓展了参考咨询的知识库储备、提升了参考咨询的用户分析能力,可以根据用户的需求与行为规律提供准确、个性化的咨询服务,提高了参考咨询服务的实效性、质量和满意度.[方法/过程]探讨了传统参考咨询服务的不足之处,将智能咨询机器人的知识库构建和用户需求分析能力应用于参考咨询服...     

非完整性约束移动机器人的鲁棒控制研究

分析了移动机器人中的轮式机器人在非完整约束条件下的建模问题,并以三轮小车式移动机器人为例讨论了运动学模型建模。应用鲁棒控制技术,设计了移动机器人轨迹跟踪控制方法,并仿真实现。     

Transport of energy in muscle: the phosphorylcreatine shuttle

In order to explain the insulin-like effect of exercise, it was proposed in 1951 that contracting muscle fibers liberate creatine, which acts to produce an acceptor effect--later called respiratory control--on the muscle mitochondria. The development of this notion paralleled the controversy between biochemists and physiologists over the delivery of energy for muscle contraction. With the demonstration of functional compartmentation of creatine kinase on the mitochondrion, it became clear that the actual form of energy transport in the muscle fiber is phosphorylcreatine. The finding of an isoenzyme of creatine phosphokinase attached to the M-line region of the myofibril revealed the peripheral receptor for the mitochondrially generated phosphorylcreatine. This established a molecular basis for a phosphorylcreatine-creatine shuttle for energy transport in heart and skeletal muscle and provided an explanation for the inability to demonstrate experimentally a direct relation between muscle activity and the concentrations of adenosine triphosphate and adenosine diphosphate.     

Cognitive control signals for neural prosthetics

Recent development of neural prosthetics for assisting paralyzed patients has focused on decoding intended hand trajectories from motor cortical neurons and using this signal to control external devices. In this study, higher level signals related to the goals of movements were decoded from three monkeys and used to position cursors on a computer screen without the animals emitting any behavior. Their performance in this task improved over a period of weeks. Expected value signals related to fluid preference, the expected magnitude, or probability of reward were decoded simultaneously with the intended goal. For neural prosthetic applications, the goal signals can be used to operate computers, robots, and vehicles, whereas the expected value signals can be used to continuously monitor a paralyzed patient's preferences and motivation.     

国内外蔬菜嫁接机的发展现状

嫁接机是工厂化嫁接育苗生产的关键设备,使用嫁接机可以提高嫁接作业生产率和嫁接苗成活率、并降低作业难度。文章介绍了国内外嫁接机的发展现状,分析了典型机型的性能特点,并对各种类型的嫁接机进行了性能和价格分析。     

斑马鱼下颌再生中神经与肌肉的关系

本研究旨在揭示斑马鱼下颌再生中神经和肌肉的关系。通过HE染色技术、免疫荧光组织化学等实验技术分别观察斑马鱼下颌神经和肌肉的再生过程,考察神经和肌肉的关系。研究结果显示,截面附近的神经纤维在剪切后5 h降解,剪切后2 d时完全消失。剪切后3 d,整个芽基所在位置已出现新生的神经纤维。剪切5 d时,芽基上布满大量的神经纤维。肌纤维在剪切后12 h已发生断裂,剪切后5 d形成芽基细胞并分化成各种前体细胞如肌肉前体细胞,剪切后9 d出现新生的肌细胞,剪切后14 d新生的肌细胞与新生的神经纤维建立神经肌肉接头联系,30 d后成为成熟的肌肉组织。结果表明:如果斑马鱼1/3的下颌被人为切除,下颌肌肉可以实现功能性再生,同时神经极可能在肌肉再生中发挥作用。但是如果切除部分超过1/3,则下颌无法再生复原,其原因有待进一步研究。     

DNA synthesis in differentiating skeletal muscle cells: initiation by ultraviolet light

As skeletal muscle cells differentiate, they fail to initiate DNA synthesis. This rigid regulation, which persists even after cells are fully developed, does not extend to "repair" DNA synthesis, in that ultraviolet light initiates DNA synthesis in 99 percent of the muscle nuclei exposed. The rate of "repair" DNA synthesis in these nuclei, however, drops over 50 percent at the time of cell differentiation.