Skapat av Högskolan i Skövde och på uppdrag av Elektroautomatik i Skövde har detta projekt genomförts för att identifiera möjliga människa-robot samarbeten i monteringsmiljö. Robotarna som funnits i åtanke för denna form av samarbete är kollaborativa robotar. I dagens industri existerar redan kollaborativa robotar men utför ofta uppgifter på en mer samexisterande nivå avskild från människan. Den form av människa-robot samarbete som undersökts i detta arbete är där båda parter assisterar varandra i en arbetsuppgift på gemensam yta. Detta koncept har blivit allt viktigare för dagens företag som efterfrågar ett mer flexibelt och anpassningsbart system i framtiden. Under projektet undersöktes även förbättringsförslag på nuvarande lösningar för kollaborativa robotar samt processen kring robotlösningen. Genom studerad litteratur utformades tre intervjuprotokoll avsedda för en intervjustudie med tre olika yrkesgrupper – montörer, produktionstekniker och ingenjörer. Intervjustudien utfördes i samarbete med företag i Skövde där kunskap extraherats från personer inom monteringsmiljö. Kärnfrågan i samtliga intervjuprotokoll var i vilka uppgifter i monteringsmiljö som intervjupersonen såg möjlighet till ett människa-robot samarbete. Insamlad data har transkriberats, strukturerats och sorterats för att kunna sammanställa ett resultat. Förslag på möjliga arbetsmoment som framkom under intervjustudien delades in i sex kategorier: Svåråtkomligt, tidskrävande, ergonomisk avlastning, logistik, kvalitet och produktvariation. Ett resultat presenteras där samarbetsuppgifter mellan människa och robot sammanställts från intervjustudien. Dessa har sorterats efter de sex kategorierna inom möjliga arbetsmoment. Övergripande förslag angavs under intervjustudien på vilken typ av uppgifter och områden en kollaborativ robot hade kunnat samarbeta med en människa. Dessa förslag föll under flera kategorier – exempelvis äntring av stort antal skruvar vilket kan kategoriseras enligt både ergonomisk avlastning och tidskrävande. Den kategori som genererat flest förslag är arbetsuppgifter där en kollaborativ robot kan erbjuda ergonomisk avlastning för människan. För att identifiera mer specifika arbetsuppgifter behöver ytterligare undersökning utföras baserat på de områden som identifierats i detta arbete. Den kollaborativa robotlösningen behöver kunna arbeta inom flera olika kategorier för att uppnå den framtida flexibla produktion som efterfrågas. / Created by the University of Skövde and assigned by Elektroautomatik in Skövde this project was executed to identify possible HRC tasks in the assembly industry. The robots that were reviewed for this type of collaboration tasks were collaborative robots. Collaborative robots already exists in today’s industry but are commonly working on a co-existing level separated from the human. The type of collaboration investigated during this project regards solving tasks where the human and robot assist each other on a common work surface. This concept has gained more importance for companies today because of the increasing demand of a more flexible and adaptable system for the future production. Improvement proposals has been generated during the project regarding the collaborative robot and its implementation process. Based on the researched literature three interview protocols was created for three different groups of professions – assemblers, production technicians and engineers. In collaboration with companies in Skövde the interviews were executed gathering knowledge from people working within the assembly environment. The main question in all interview protocols were in which type of assembly tasks the interviewed could see a possibility for HRC. Collected data has been transcribed, structured and sorted in order to reach a result. Proposals of possible HRC operations gathered from the interviews were divided into six categories – inaccessible, time demanding, ergonomic relief, logistics, quality and product variety. A result has been presented where HRC tasks has been compiled from the interviews. These has been sorted into the six categories generated from possible HRC operations. General ideas were proposed during the interviews regarding what possible type of tasks and areas a collaborative robot could work together with a human. In many cases the proposals given could be sorted into more than one category – for example assemble of a large amount of screws that could be categorized as both ergonomic relief and time demanding. The category that generated the largest amount of proposals of HRC were tasks intended to offer ergonomic relief for the human. To identify more specific HRC tasks further research need to be performed based on the categories of areas that has been identified in this project. The future collaborative robot solution has to be able to combine more than one category to reach the flexible and adaptable system that is demanded.

Användandet av servicerobotar i olika sammanhang, har under de senare åren stadigt ökat och är idag ett allt vanligare inslag på företag och organisationers webbsidor. Servicerobotar har stor potential att skapa fördelar i kontakten med användare, eftersom de kan tillhandahålla outtröttlig och snabb service på ett kostnadseffektivt sätt. Denna teknik skapar även möjligheten att i viss utsträckning automatisera den viktiga kundkontakten, vilken kan leda till effektivisering av olika affärsprocesser och kostnadsminskningar utan att inskränka på upplevd kvalitet. Den tidigare forskning som utförts inom området för servicerobotar har främst varit inriktad mot att undersöka vilka aspekter ur ett användarperspektiv av en servicerobot som är essentiella för att uppnå god användbarhet och användaracceptans. Man har i tidigare forskning även identifierat att det ur ett organisationsperspektiv saknas ett etablerat och standardiserat tillvägagångssätt för hur man bör hantera design och tillämpning av interaktiva servicerobotar. Denna studie har avsett att undersöka hur design och tillämpning av en servicerobot bör hanteras ur en organisatorisk synvinkel, vilket uppnåtts genom en fallstudie i det Växjö baserade företaget Visma Spcs och deras servicerobot Vera. I fallstudien har en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod tillämpats genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med personer involverade i Vera projektet. Resultatet av fallstudien visade att det finns viktiga aspekter i arbetet med servicerobotar som bör beaktas ur en organisatorisk synvinkel, för att kunna skapa en användbar och accepterad servicerobot. Slutsatsen av studien visade på tre principer: Förstå användaren, Förstå Kontexten, samt Skapande, kontroll och underhåll, som är viktiga delar att beakta vid design och tillämpning av interaktiva servicerobotar ur en organisatorisk synvinkel. Att förstå användaren kommer vara viktigt för att skapa en användarupplevelse som uppfyller användarnas behov. Förstå kontexten kommer vara kritiskt vid val av robottyp, samt vilken typ av mjukvarulösning som ska användas och skapande, kontroll och underhåll kommer vara viktigt för att se till att serviceroboten upprätthåller hög system-, informations- och servicekvalitet. / The use of service robots in various contexts has steadily increased in recent years and has become an increasingly common feature of different companies and organizations' websites. Service robots have been proven to have a great potential to provide important benefits in contact with users, where service robots can provide tireless and fast service to users in a cost-effective manner. This technology enables companies and organizations to a certain extent automate the very important customer contact, which can lead to more efficient business processes and cost minimization without restricting perceived quality. The previous research carried out in the field of service robots has focused primarily on investigating which aspects of a service robot that are essential for achieving good usability and user acceptance from a user perspective. Previous research has also identified that there is no established and standardized approach for how to handle the design and application of interactive service robots from an organizational perspective. This study has intended to investigate how the design and application of a service robot should be managed from an organizational perspective, which was achieved through a case study in the Växjö based company Visma Spcs and their service robot Vera. In the case study, a qualitative survey method has been applied through semi-structured interviews with people involved in the Vera project. The result of the case study showed that there are important aspects in the work with service robots that should be considered from an organizational perspective, in order to be able to create a useful and accepted service robot. The conclusion of the study showed three principles: Understand the user, Understand the context, and Creation, control and maintenance, which are important parts to consider when designing and applying interactive service robots from an organizational perspective. Understanding the user will be important for creating a user experience that meets the users' needs. Understanding the context will be critical when choosing a robot type, and what type of software solution is to be used. Creation, control and maintenance will be important to ensure that the service robot maintains high system, information and service quality.

A challenge in Human-Robot Interaction is tailoring the social skills of robot companions to match those expected by individual humans during their rst encounter. Currently, large amounts of user data are needed to con gure robot companions with these skills. This creates the need of running long-term Human-Robot Interaction studies in domestic environments. A new approach using personas is explored to alleviate this arduous data collection task without compromising the level of interaction currently shown by robot companions. The personas technique was created by Alan Cooper in 1999 as a tool to de ne user archetypes of a system in order to reduce the involvement of real users during the development process of a target system. This technique has proven bene cial in Human-Computer Interaction for years. Therefore, similar bene ts could be expected when applying personas to Human-Robot Interaction. Our novel approach de nes personas as the key component of a computational behaviour model used to adapt robot companions to individual user's needs. This approach reduces the amount of user data that must be collected before a Human-Robot Interaction study, by associating new users to pre-de ned personas that adapt the robot behaviours through their integration with the computational behaviour model. At the same time that the current robot social interaction level expected by humans during the rst encounter is preserved. The University of Hertfordshire Robot House provided the naturalistic domestic environment for the investigation. After incorporating a new module, an Activity Recognition System, to increase the overall context-awareness of the system, a computational behaviour model will be de ned through an iterative research process. The initial de nition of the model was evolved after each experiment based on the iii ndings. Two successive studies investigated personas and determined the steps to follow for their integration into the targeted model. The nal model presented was de ned from users' preferences and needs when interacting with a robot companion during activities of daily living at home. The main challenge was identifying the variables that match users to personas in our model. This approach open a new discussion in the Human-Robot Interaction eld to de ne tools that help reduce the amount of user data requiring collection prior to the rst interaction with a robot companion in a domestic environment. We conclude that modelling people's preferences when interacting with robot companions is a challenging approach. Integrating the Human-Computer Interaction technique into a computational behaviour model for Human-Robot Interaction studies was more di cult than anticipated. This investigation shows the advantages and disadvantages of introducing this technique into Human-Robot Interaction, and explores the challenges in de ning a personas-based computational behaviour model. The continuous learning process experienced helps clarify the steps that other researchers in the eld should follow when investigating a similar approach. Some interesting outcomes and trends were also found among users' data, which encourage the belief that the personas technique can be further developed to tackle some of the current di culties highlighted in the Human-Robot Interaction literature.

The human cognitive biases that result in anthropomorphism, the moral confusion surrounding the status of robots, and wider societal concerns related to the deployment of artificial intelligence at scale all motivate the study of robot transparency --- the design of robots such that they may be fully understood by humans. Based on the hypothesis that robot transparency leads to better (in the sense of more accurate) mental models of robots, I investigate how humans perceive and understand a robot when they encounter it, both in online video and direct physical encounter. I also use Amazon Mechanical Turk as a platform to facilitate online experiments with larger population samples. To improve transparency I use a visual real-time transparency tool providing a graphical representation of the internal processing and state of a robot. I also describe and deploy a vocalisation algorithm for transparency. Finally, I modify the form of the robot with a simple bee-like cover, to investigate the effect of appearance on transparency. I find that the addition of a visual or vocalised representation of the internal processing and state of a robot significantly improves the ability of a naive observer to form an accurate model of a robot's capabilities, intentions and purpose. This is a significant result across a diverse, international population sample and provides a robust result about humans in general, rather than one geographic, ethnic or socio-economic group in particular. However, all the experiments were unable to achieve a Mental Model Accuracy (MMA) of more than 59%, indicating that despite improved transparency of the internal state and processing, naive observers' models remain inaccurate, and there is scope for further work. A vocalising, or 'talking', robot greatly increases the confidence of naive observers to report that they understand a robot's behaviour when observed on video. Perhaps we might be more easily deceived by talking robots than silent ones. A zoomorphic robot is perceived as more intelligent and more likeable than a very similar mechanomorphic robot, even when the robots exhibit almost identical behaviour. A zoomorphic form may attract closer visual attention, and whilst this results in an improved MMA, it also diverts attention away from transparency measures, reducing their efficacy to further increase MMA. The trivial embellishment of a robot to alter its form has significant effects on our understanding and attitude towards it. Based on the concerns that motivate this work, together with the results of the robot transparency experiments, I argue that we have a moral responsibility to make robots transparent, so as to reveal their true machine nature. I recommend the inclusion of transparency as a fundamental design consideration for intelligent systems, particularly for autonomous robots. This research also includes the design and development of the 'Instinct' reactive planner, developed as a controller for a mobile robot of my own design. Instinct provides facilities to generate a real-time 'transparency feed'--- a real-time trace of internal processing and state. Instinct also controls agents within a simulation environment, the 'Instinct Robot World'. Finally, I show how two instances of Instinct can be used to achieve a second order control architecture.

presente trabalho consolida um estudo para o planejamento de trajetória livre de colisão para um robô pneumático com 5 graus de liberdade aplicando três algoritmos metaheurísticos: algoritmos metaheurísticos por vagalumes, algoritmos metaheurísticos por enxames de partículas e algoritmos genéticos. No que se refere à aplicação de algoritmos metaheurísticos ao estudo de planejamento de trajetória de robôs manipuladores na presença de obstáculos, existem diferentes tipos de técnicas para evitar colisões que consideram os efeitos cinemáticos e dinâmicos na obtenção de trajetórias com o menor tempo, torque, etc. Neste estudo, são propostas contribuições à aplicação dessas técnicas especificamente a robôs manipuladores pneumáticos, sobretudo, no que diz respeito às características específicas dos servoposicionadores pneumáticos, como, por exemplo, a modelagem do atrito desses sistemas, o cálculo da massa equivalente, etc. A metodologia utilizada é definida em duas etapas. A primeira delas consiste na obtenção de pontos intermediários, adquiridos considerando a menor distância entre os mesmos e o ponto final, gerados considerando a presença de obstáculos (cilindros, cubos e esferas) Esses obstáculos são mapeados em regiões de colisão, que constituem restrições para o problema de otimização. A segunda etapa baseia-se no estudo do planejamento de trajetórias: aplicam-se b-splines de 5º e 7º grau na interpolação dos pontos intermediários, com vistas à obtenção de trajetórias que considerem, de um lado, a menor força dos atuadores associada à dinâmica do manipulador em estudo e, de outro, restrições cinemáticas e dinâmicas, determinadas por meio das características operacionais dos servoposicionadores pneumáticos. Os resultados mostram que a metodologia proposta é adequada para tarefas de manipulação de peças na presença de obstáculos, uma vez que os pontos intermediários situam-se fora da região de colisão nos três casos aqui apresentados. Além disso, quanto à segunda etapa, observou-se que as trajetórias de 5º e 7º grau apresentaram resultados similares, de maneira que os erros obtidos poderiam ser melhorados analisando aspectos associados ao controlador do robô em estudo. / The thesis presents a study for collision-free trajectory planning for a pneumatic robot with 5 degrees of freedom applying three metaheuristic algorithms: firefly metaheuristic algorithm, particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithms. As regards the application of metaheuristic algorithms to the study of the trajectory planning of manipulating robots in the presence of obstacles, there are different types of techniques to avoid collisions that consider the kinematic and dynamic effects, obtaining trajectories with the optimal time, torque, etc. In this study, contributions are made to the application of these techniques specifically to pneumatic manipulator robots, particularly with regard to the specific characteristics of pneumatic servo-actuators, such as friction modeling of these systems, calculation of equivalent mass, etc. The methodology used is defined in two steps. The first one consists of obtaining intermediate points, acquired considering the smallest distance between the intermediate points and the final point, generated considering the presence of obstacles (cylinders, cubes and spheres) These obstacles are mapped in collision regions, which are constraints to the optimization problem. The second step is based on the study of the trajectory planning: 5th and 7th degree b-splines are applied in the interpolation of the intermediate points, in order to obtain trajectories that consider the smallest actuator force associated to the dynamics of the manipulator and the kinematic and dynamic constraints, determined by the operational characteristics of pneumatic servo-positioners. The results show that the proposed methodology is suitable for tasks of manipulating parts in the presence of obstacles because the intermediate points are outside the collision region in the three cases presented here. In addition, it was observed that the trajectories of 5th and 7th degree presented similar results, so that the errors obtained could be improved by analyzing aspects associated to the controller of the robot.

Dans le contexte industriel actuel, il existe encore un grand nombre de tâches pénibles qui ne peuvent pas être automatisées, et où le geste humain reste indispensable. L'introduction d'une assistance robotique peut alors être envisagée pour réduire les efforts que l'opérateur doit fournir, et ainsi éviter l'occurrence de troubles musculosquelettiques. En permettant à l'opérateur de manipuler conjointement un outil (ou objet) porté par le robot, il est possible envisager une collaboration sous forme de compensation de gravité, d'augmentation d'effort ou de réalisation de guides virtuels. Les robots industriels peuvent être des candidats pertinents pour ce type de collaboration, car leurs qualités mécaniques sont particulièrement complémentaires à celles de l'homme : ils sont notamment optimisés pour avoir une grande force, rigidité et précision absolue. Cependant les frottements dans les articulations et l'inertie importante de ces robots s'opposent à une interaction physique avec l'opérateur fluide et légère. L'utilisation d'un capteur d'effort au niveau de l'effecteur et d'une boucle d'effort est donc incontournable. On montre que la stabilité d'un système ainsi asservi dépend alors fortement de l'impédance mécanique qu'oppose la main de l'opérateur lorsqu'il manipule l'effecteur du robot. Nous appuierons notre étude sur une modélisation du robot capable de prendre en compte une flexibilité structurelle entre l'actionneur et la mesure d'effort, qui est à l'origine des limites de stabilité. Afin de résoudre le compromis performance/stabilité très contraignant qui en découle, nous proposons une loi de commande en impédance prenant en compte les caractéristiques de la prise de main sur une poignée d'interaction spécialement conçue. Pour caractériser la prise de main, il nous a été nécessaire de développer un capteur capable de cartographier la pression appliquée sur la surface arrondie de la poignée. Nous détaillons l'architecture et le fonctionnement d'un tel capteur, et montrons qu'il peut aussi être employé pour recouvrir le corps du robot. Nous proposons ainsi une solution pour assurer la sécurité de l'utilisateur vis-à-vis des autres parties mobiles du robot, peu sensibles aux interactions physiques avec l'opérateur ou avec son environnement. Nous complétons notre étude en considérant une interaction tripartite où le robot amplifie les efforts que l'opérateur applique sur l'outil. En adaptant les outils théoriques communément employés dans le domaine de la téléopération, nous menons une étude approfondie sur les limites de stabilité et de performances de ce dispositif. L'ensemble de ces travaux reposent sur des développements théoriques appuyés par des expérimentations sur un robot industriel réel.

Denna rapport beskriver ett examensarbete för högskoleingenjörsexamen i elektroteknik vid Växjö Universitet. Syftet är att konstruera ett styrsystem till en robotbil, ett program som hindrar bilen från att krocka med omgivningen. Roboten ska även kunna styras från en dator via ett grafiskt gränssnitt implementerat i Labview. Nödvändig hårdvara för styrning och kommunikation har konstruerats. Det har behövts tre olika programmeringsspråk för att nå de krav som har ställts på uppgiften, C, Perl och Labview. Microprocessorn i robotbilen har programmerats i C och gör bilen helt autonom, endast beroende av signaler från avståndssensorer. Avlusningsprogrammet skrevs i Perl och styrningen från datorn har implementerats i Labview. Avlusningsprogrammet togs fram på grund av att det blev svårt att hålla koll på allt som skedde med värden och beräkningar i den automatiska styrningen av robotbilen. / This thesis describes a project for the bachelor degree in electrical engineering at Växjö University. The purpose with this project is to construct a guidance system for a robot car, a program that prevents the car from colliding with objects when moving without external control. The robot could also be controlled from the computer through a virtual instrument implemented in Labview. The necessary hardware for steering and communicating has been constructed. The software is implemented using three different programming languages, C, Perl and Labview.

Experience forms the basis of learning. It is crucial in the development of human intelligence, and more broadly allows an agent to discover and learn about the world around it. Although experience is fundamental to learning, it is costly and time-consuming to obtain. In order to speed this process up, humans in particular have developed communication abilities so that ideas and knowledge can be shared without requiring first-hand experience. Consider the same need for knowledge sharing among robots. Based on the recent growth of the field, it is reasonable to assume that in the near future there will be a collection of robots learning to perform tasks and gaining their own experiences in the world. In order to speed this learning up, it would be beneficial for the various robots to share their knowledge with each other. In most cases, however, the communication of knowledge among humans relies on the existence of similar sensory and motor capabilities. Robots, on the other hand, widely vary in perceptual and motor apparatus, ranging from simple light sensors to sophisticated laser and vision sensing. This dissertation defines the problem of how heterogeneous robots with widely different capabilities can share experiences gained in the world in order to speed up learning. The work focus specifically on differences in sensing and perception, which can be used both for perceptual categorization tasks as well as determining actions based on environmental features. Motivating the problem, experiments first demonstrate that heterogeneity does indeed pose a problem during the transfer of object models from one robot to another. This is true even when using state of the art object recognition algorithms that use SIFT features, designed to be unique and reproducible. It is then shown that the abstraction of raw sensory data into intermediate categories for multiple object features (such as color, texture, shape, etc.), represented as Gaussian Mixture Models, can alleviate some of these issues and facilitate effective knowledge transfer. Object representation, heterogeneity, and knowledge transfer is framed within Gärdenfors' conceptual spaces, or geometric spaces that utilize similarity measures as the basis of categorization. This representation is used to model object properties (e.g. color or texture) and concepts (object categories and specific objects). A framework is then proposed to allow heterogeneous robots to build models of their differences with respect to the intermediate representation using joint interaction in the environment. Confusion matrices are used to map property pairs between two heterogeneous robots, and an information-theoretic metric is proposed to model information loss when going from one robot's representation to another. We demonstrate that these metrics allow for cognizant failure, where the robots can ascertain if concepts can or cannot be shared, given their respective capabilities. After this period of joint interaction, the learned models are used to facilitate communication and knowledge transfer in a manner that is sensitive to the robots' differences. It is shown that heterogeneous robots are able to learn accurate models of their similarities and difference, and to use these models to transfer learned concepts from one robot to another in order to bootstrap the learning of the receiving robot. In addition, several types of communication tasks are used in the experiments. For example, how can a robot communicate a distinguishing property of an object to help another robot differentiate it from its surroundings? Throughout the dissertation, the claims will be validated through both simulation and real-robot experiments.

<p>Denna rapport beskriver ett examensarbete för högskoleingenjörsexamen i elektroteknik vid Växjö Universitet. Syftet är att konstruera ett styrsystem till en robotbil, ett program som hindrar bilen från att krocka med omgivningen. Roboten ska även kunna styras från en dator via ett grafiskt gränssnitt implementerat i Labview. Nödvändig hårdvara för styrning och kommunikation har konstruerats.</p><p>Det har behövts tre olika programmeringsspråk för att nå de krav som har ställts på uppgiften, C, Perl och Labview. Microprocessorn i robotbilen har programmerats i C och gör bilen helt autonom, endast beroende av signaler från avståndssensorer. Avlusningsprogrammet skrevs i Perl och styrningen från datorn har implementerats i Labview. Avlusningsprogrammet togs fram på grund av att det blev svårt att hålla koll på allt som skedde med värden och beräkningar i den automatiska styrningen av robotbilen.</p> / <p>This thesis describes a project for the bachelor degree in electrical engineering at Växjö University. The purpose with this project is to construct a guidance system for a robot car, a program that prevents the car from colliding with objects when moving without external control. The robot could also be controlled from the computer through a virtual instrument implemented in Labview. The necessary hardware for steering and communicating has been constructed. The software is implemented using three different programming languages, C, Perl and Labview.</p>

In order to operate safely and naturally in human-centered environments, robots need to respond compliantly to force and contact interactions. While advanced robotic torsos and arms have been built that successfully achieve this, a somewhat neglected research area is the construction of compliant wheeled mobile bases. This thesis describes the mechatronics behind Trikey, a holonomic wheeled mobile base employing torque sensing at each of its three omni wheels so that it can detect and respond gracefully to force interactions. Trikey's mechanical design, kinematic and dynamic models, and control architecture are described, as well as simple experiments demonstrating compliant control. Trikey is designed to support a force-controlled humanoid upper body, and eventually, the two will be controlled together using whole-body control algorithms that utilize the external and internal dynamics of the entire system. / text