PeerJ Computer Science Preprints: Roboticshttps://peerj.com/preprints/index.atom?journal=cs&subject=11000Robotics articles published in PeerJ Computer Science PreprintsEvent-driven industrial robot control architecture for the Adept V+ platformhttps://peerj.com/preprints/275522019-02-272019-02-27Oleksandr SemeniutaPetter Falkman
Modern industrial robotic systems are highly interconnected. They operate in a distributed environment and communicate with sensors, computer vision systems, mechatronic devices, and computational components. On the fundamental level, communication and coordination between all parties in such distributed system are characterized by discrete event behavior. The latter is largely attributed to the specifics of communication over the network, which, in terms, facilitates asynchronous programming and explicit event handling. In addition, on the conceptual level, events are an important building block for realizing reactivity and coordination. Event-driven architecture has manifested its effectiveness for building loosely-coupled systems based on publish-subscribe middleware, either general-purpose or robotic-oriented. Despite all the advances in middleware, industrial robots remain difficult to program in context of distributed systems, to a large extent due to the limitation of the native robot platforms. This paper proposes an architecture for flexible event-based control of industrial robots based on the Adept V+ platform. The architecture is based on the robot controller providing a TCP/IP server and a collection of robot skills, and a high-level control module deployed to a dedicated computing device. The control module possesses bidirectional communication with the robot controller and publish/subscribe messaging with external systems. It is programmed in asynchronous style using pyadept, a Python library based on Python coroutines, AsyncIO event loop and ZeroMQ middleware. The proposed solution facilitates integration of Adept robots into distributed environments and building more flexible robotic solutions with event-based logic.
Modern industrial robotic systems are highly interconnected. They operate in a distributed environment and communicate with sensors, computer vision systems, mechatronic devices, and computational components. On the fundamental level, communication and coordination between all parties in such distributed system are characterized by discrete event behavior. The latter is largely attributed to the specifics of communication over the network, which, in terms, facilitates asynchronous programming and explicit event handling. In addition, on the conceptual level, events are an important building block for realizing reactivity and coordination. Event-driven architecture has manifested its effectiveness for building loosely-coupled systems based on publish-subscribe middleware, either general-purpose or robotic-oriented. Despite all the advances in middleware, industrial robots remain difficult to program in context of distributed systems, to a large extent due to the limitation of the native robot platforms. This paper proposes an architecture for flexible event-based control of industrial robots based on the Adept V+ platform. The architecture is based on the robot controller providing a TCP/IP server and a collection of robot skills, and a high-level control module deployed to a dedicated computing device. The control module possesses bidirectional communication with the robot controller and publish/subscribe messaging with external systems. It is programmed in asynchronous style using pyadept, a Python library based on Python coroutines, AsyncIO event loop and ZeroMQ middleware. The proposed solution facilitates integration of Adept robots into distributed environments and building more flexible robotic solutions with event-based logic.Ulyxes: an open source project for automation in engineering surveyinghttps://peerj.com/preprints/272262018-09-202018-09-20Zoltan SikiBence TakácsCsaba Égető
Ulyxes is an open source project to drive robotic total stations as well as other sensors, collect their measurements in database and finally publish the results for authorized users on the web. On special requests the results are also presented with web based maps in the background. This project is like an instant coffee: three in one (coffee, sugar and milk). The coffee and the strongest part is the research and coding. The sugar is the application of the program in industrial environment and the milk on the top is the educational usage. The software development started in 2008 connected to a monitoring task in the Hungarian Nuclear Power Plant. Since then the development has been extended from total stations to different positioning capable sensors. In 2012 the development of a new Python based object oriented framework started. The code is based on the results of some other open source projects, Python, PySerial, GNUGama, SQLite, OpenCV, etc. After connecting to the international Geo4All network in 2014, Ulyxes became a project of our Geo4All Lab. The project has its own home page (http://www.agt.bme.hu/ulyxes) and the source code is available on the GitHub portal (https://github.com/zsiki/ulyxes). The code is maintained by the colleagues at the Department of Geodesy and Surveying at the Budapest University of Technology, volunteers from all over the World are welcome. BSc and MSc students are also involved in the development and testing. More theses were connected to this project in the recent five years. In the curriculum of an MSc subject called Surveying Automation, Ulyxes is used to demonstrate automatized tasks in engineering surveying. The system has been applied for several projects during the last 10+ years. Typical applications are the load tests of bridges and other engineering structures and on the other hand Ulyxes can be used to monitor the movements of buildings in the nearby of constructional works, like metro stations, underground garage and other buildings as well. Raspberry Pi small, single board computers are used with Raspbian operating system during on-site works. The source code is divided into three parts. The first one is the Ulyxes API which is the core of the system. The second one, Ulyxes Apps is a collection of applications based upon the API. Some of them were developed by our students. The third part is the server side scripts to publish observation results through the Internet. Moreover it is also planned to implement SOS standard using IstSOS. Our Geo4All Lab maintains another open source software, called GeoEasy to process observation data in engineering and land surveying. A closer cooperation is also planned between our two open source projects. In this paper the most important features of Ulyxes will be presented with examples, an actual monitoring project in Budapest and test loads of bridges and overpasses.
Ulyxes is an open source project to drive robotic total stations as well as other sensors, collect their measurements in database and finally publish the results for authorized users on the web. On special requests the results are also presented with web based maps in the background. This project is like an instant coffee: three in one (coffee, sugar and milk). The coffee and the strongest part is the research and coding. The sugar is the application of the program in industrial environment and the milk on the top is the educational usage. The software development started in 2008 connected to a monitoring task in the Hungarian Nuclear Power Plant. Since then the development has been extended from total stations to different positioning capable sensors. In 2012 the development of a new Python based object oriented framework started. The code is based on the results of some other open source projects, Python, PySerial, GNUGama, SQLite, OpenCV, etc. After connecting to the international Geo4All network in 2014, Ulyxes became a project of our Geo4All Lab. The project has its own home page (http://www.agt.bme.hu/ulyxes) and the source code is available on the GitHub portal (https://github.com/zsiki/ulyxes). The code is maintained by the colleagues at the Department of Geodesy and Surveying at the Budapest University of Technology, volunteers from all over the World are welcome. BSc and MSc students are also involved in the development and testing. More theses were connected to this project in the recent five years. In the curriculum of an MSc subject called Surveying Automation, Ulyxes is used to demonstrate automatized tasks in engineering surveying. The system has been applied for several projects during the last 10+ years. Typical applications are the load tests of bridges and other engineering structures and on the other hand Ulyxes can be used to monitor the movements of buildings in the nearby of constructional works, like metro stations, underground garage and other buildings as well. Raspberry Pi small, single board computers are used with Raspbian operating system during on-site works. The source code is divided into three parts. The first one is the Ulyxes API which is the core of the system. The second one, Ulyxes Apps is a collection of applications based upon the API. Some of them were developed by our students. The third part is the server side scripts to publish observation results through the Internet. Moreover it is also planned to implement SOS standard using IstSOS. Our Geo4All Lab maintains another open source software, called GeoEasy to process observation data in engineering and land surveying. A closer cooperation is also planned between our two open source projects. In this paper the most important features of Ulyxes will be presented with examples, an actual monitoring project in Budapest and test loads of bridges and overpasses.IoT and Robotics: a synergyhttps://peerj.com/preprints/27602017-01-312017-01-31Ankur Roy Chowdhury
The Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT) is a concept first introduced by Dan Kara at ABI Research, which talks about augmenting the existing IoT with active sensorization; thereby, opening the doors to novel business ideas, at the intersection of both IoT and Robotics. This position paper considers the synergy between IoT and robotics: it talks about the technologies in IoT that would benefit the robotics domain. The advent of Cloud Robotics and its role in aiding robot functions like sensing, manipulation, and mobility. The paper then discusses the ways in which robots can extend the capabilities of existing IoT infrastructure by acting as a special class of edge device. IoT-aided robotic applications are discussed in various domains like health-care, military, industrial plants and rescue operations. The paper concludes by considering the use case of an Intelligent Transportation System endowed by an IoRT-inspired architecture.
The Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT) is a concept first introduced by Dan Kara at ABI Research, which talks about augmenting the existing IoT with active sensorization; thereby, opening the doors to novel business ideas, at the intersection of both IoT and Robotics. This position paper considers the synergy between IoT and robotics: it talks about the technologies in IoT that would benefit the robotics domain. The advent of Cloud Robotics and its role in aiding robot functions like sensing, manipulation, and mobility. The paper then discusses the ways in which robots can extend the capabilities of existing IoT infrastructure by acting as a special class of edge device. IoT-aided robotic applications are discussed in various domains like health-care, military, industrial plants and rescue operations. The paper concludes by considering the use case of an Intelligent Transportation System endowed by an IoRT-inspired architecture.Canonical instabilities of autonomous vehicle systemshttps://peerj.com/preprints/17142016-02-062016-02-06Rodrick Wallace
Formal argument suggests that command, communication and control systems can remain stable in the sense of the Data Rate Theorem that mandates the minimum rate of control information required to stabilize inherently unstable 'plants', but may nonetheless, under fog-of-war demands, collapse into dysfunctional modes at variance with their fundamental mission. We apply the theory to autonomous ground vehicles under intelligent traffic control in which swarms of interacting, self-driving devices are inherently unstable as a consequence of the basic irregularity of the road network. It appears that such 'V2V/V2I' systems will experience large-scale failures analogous to the vast propagating fronts of power network blackouts, and possibly less benign, but more subtle patterns of `psychopathology' at various scales.
Formal argument suggests that command, communication and control systems can remain stable in the sense of the Data Rate Theorem that mandates the minimum rate of control information required to stabilize inherently unstable 'plants', but may nonetheless, under fog-of-war demands, collapse into dysfunctional modes at variance with their fundamental mission. We apply the theory to autonomous ground vehicles under intelligent traffic control in which swarms of interacting, self-driving devices are inherently unstable as a consequence of the basic irregularity of the road network. It appears that such 'V2V/V2I' systems will experience large-scale failures analogous to the vast propagating fronts of power network blackouts, and possibly less benign, but more subtle patterns of `psychopathology' at various scales.