scholarly journals Skeleton Tracking Accuracy and Precision Evaluation of Kinect V1, Kinect V2, and the Azure Kinect

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 5756
Author(s):  
Michal Tölgyessy ◽  
Martin Dekan ◽  
Ľuboš Chovanec
Keyword(s):  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Body Motion ◽  
Tracking Accuracy ◽  
Depth Sensor ◽  
Human Machine Interaction ◽  
Test Plate ◽  
End Effector ◽  
Kinect V2 ◽  
Accuracy And Precision ◽  
Technical Features

The Azure Kinect, the successor of Kinect v1 and Kinect v2, is a depth sensor. In this paper we evaluate the skeleton tracking abilities of the new sensor, namely accuracy and precision (repeatability). Firstly, we state the technical features of all three sensors, since we want to put the new Azure Kinect in the context of its previous versions. Then, we present the experimental results of general accuracy and precision obtained by measuring a plate mounted to a robotic manipulator end effector which was moved along the depth axis of each sensor and compare them. In the second experiment, we mounted a human-sized figurine to the end effector and placed it in the same positions as the test plate. Positions were located 400 mm from each other. In each position, we measured relative accuracy and precision (repeatability) of the detected figurine body joints. We compared the results and concluded that the Azure Kinect surpasses its discontinued predecessors, both in accuracy and precision. It is a suitable sensor for human–robot interaction, body-motion analysis, and other gesture-based applications. Our analysis serves as a pilot study for future HMI (human–machine interaction) designs and applications using the new Kinect Azure and puts it in the context of its successful predecessors.

scholarly journals Design and Development of an Upper Limb Rehabilitative Robot with Dual Functionality

Micromachines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 870
Author(s):  
Md Rasedul Islam ◽  
Md Assad-Uz-Zaman ◽  
Brahim Brahmi ◽  
Yassine Bouteraa ◽  
Inga Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Upper Limb ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Control Technique ◽  
Upper Arm ◽  
Interaction Forces ◽  
End Effector ◽  
Upper Limb Rehabilitation ◽  
End Point ◽  
Limb Rehabilitation

The design of an upper limb rehabilitation robot for post-stroke patients is considered a benchmark problem regarding improving functionality and ensuring better human–robot interaction (HRI). Existing upper limb robots perform either joint-based exercises (exoskeleton-type functionality) or end-point exercises (end-effector-type functionality). Patients may need both kinds of exercises, depending on the type, level, and degree of impairments. This work focused on designing and developing a seven-degrees-of-freedom (DoFs) upper-limb rehabilitation exoskeleton called ‘u-Rob’ that functions as both exoskeleton and end-effector types device. Furthermore, HRI can be improved by monitoring the interaction forces between the robot and the wearer. Existing upper limb robots lack the ability to monitor interaction forces during passive rehabilitation exercises; measuring upper arm forces is also absent in the existing devices. This research work aimed to develop an innovative sensorized upper arm cuff to measure the wearer’s interaction forces in the upper arm. A PID control technique was implemented for both joint-based and end-point exercises. The experimental results validated both types of functionality of the developed robot.

scholarly journals Optimization of Dynamic Task Location within a Manipulator’s Workspace for the Utilization of the Minimum Required Joint Torques

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 288
Author(s):  
Adam Wolniakowski ◽  
Charalampos Valsamos ◽  
Kanstantsin Miatliuk ◽  
Vassilis Moulianitis ◽  
Nikos Aspragathos
Keyword(s):  
High Performance ◽  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Optimal Position ◽  
End Effector ◽  
Joint Torques ◽  
Dynamic Task ◽  
Arbitrary Position ◽  
Simulation Results ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Task Placement

The determination of the optimal position of a robotic task within a manipulator’s workspace is crucial for the manipulator to achieve high performance regarding selected aspects of its operation. In this paper, a method for determining the optimal task placement for a serial manipulator is presented, so that the required joint torques are minimized. The task considered comprises the exercise of a given force in a given direction along a 3D path followed by the end effector. Given that many such tasks are usually conducted by human workers and as such the utilized trajectories are quite complex to model, a Human Robot Interaction (HRI) approach was chosen to define the task, where the robot is taught the task trajectory by a human operator. Furthermore, the presented method considers the singular free paths of the manipulator’s end-effector motion in the configuration space. Simulation results are utilized to set up a physical execution of the task in the optimal derived position within a UR-3 manipulator’s workspace. For reference the task is also placed at an arbitrary “bad” location in order to validate the simulation results. Experimental results verify that the positioning of the task at the optimal location derived by the presented method allows for the task execution with minimum joint torques as opposed to the arbitrary position.

Force Capabilities of Two-Degree-of-Freedom Serial Robots Equipped With Passive Isotropic Force Limiters

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meiying Zhang ◽  
Thierry Laliberté ◽  
Clément Gosselin
Keyword(s):  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Contact Forces ◽  
Degree Of Freedom ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Robot Interaction ◽  
End Effector ◽  
Serial Robots ◽  
Serial Robot ◽  
Maximum Contact ◽  
Two Degree Of Freedom

This paper proposes the use of passive force and torque limiting devices to bound the maximum forces that can be applied at the end-effector or along the links of a robot, thereby ensuring the safety of human-robot interaction. Planar isotropic force limiting modules are proposed and used to analyze the force capabilities of a two-degree-of-freedom planar serial robot. The force capabilities at the end-effector are first analyzed. It is shown that, using isotropic force limiting modules, the performance to safety index remains excellent for all configurations of the robot. The maximum contact forces along the links of the robot are then analyzed. Force and torque limiters are distributed along the structure of the robot in order to ensure that the forces applied at any point of contact along the links are bounded. A power analysis is then presented in order to support the results. Finally, examples of mechanical designs of force/torque limiters are shown to illustrate a possible practical implementation of the concept.

scholarly journals Assessment and Rating of Motor Cerebellar Ataxias With the Kinect v2 Depth Sensor: Extending Our Appraisal

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeru Honda ◽  
Hiroshi Mitoma ◽  
Hirotaka Yoshida ◽  
Kyota Bando ◽  
Hiroo Terashi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Depth Sensor ◽  
Kinect V2 ◽  
Cerebellar Ataxias

Force Capabilities of Two-Degree-of-Freedom Serial Robots Equipped With Passive Isotropic Force Limiters

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Meiying Zhang ◽  
Thierry Laliberté ◽  
Clément Gosselin
Keyword(s):  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Contact Forces ◽  
Degree Of Freedom ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Robot Interaction ◽  
End Effector ◽  
Serial Robots ◽  
Serial Robot ◽  
Maximum Contact ◽  
Two Degree Of Freedom

This paper proposes the use of passive force and torque limiting devices to bound the maximum forces that can be applied at the end-effector or along the links of a robot, thereby ensuring the safety of human–robot interaction. Planar isotropic force limiting modules are proposed and used to analyze the force capabilities of a two-degree-of-freedom (2DOF) planar serial robot. The force capabilities at the end-effector are first analyzed. It is shown that, using isotropic force limiting modules, the performance to safety index remains excellent for all configurations of the robot. The maximum contact forces along the links of the robot are then analyzed. Force and torque limiters are distributed along the structure of the robot in order to ensure that the forces applied at any point of contact along the links are bounded. A power analysis is then presented in order to support the results. Finally, examples of mechanical designs of force/torque limiters are shown to illustrate a possible practical implementation of the concept.

scholarly journals Mental Workload of Local vs Remote Operator in Human-Machine Interaction Case Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Zimmer ◽  
Ali Al-Yacoub ◽  
Pedro Ferreira ◽  
Ella-Mae Hubbard ◽  
Niels Lohse
Keyword(s):  
Mental Workload ◽  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Human Machine Interaction ◽  
Task Load ◽  
Full Production ◽  
Interaction Task ◽  
Perceived Workload ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Nasa Task Load Index

Since late 2019, a novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread globally. As a result, businesses were forced to send their workforce into remote working, wherever possible. While research in this area has seen an increase in studying and developing technologies that allow and support such remote working style, not every sector is currently prepared for such a transition. Especially the manufacturing sector has faced challenges in this regard. In this paper, the mental workload of two groups of participants is studied during a human-robot interaction task. Participants were asked to bring a robotised cell used in a dispensing task to full production by tuning system parameters. After the experiment, a self-assessment of the participants’ perceived mental workload using the NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) was used. The results show that remote participants tend to have lower perceived workload compared to the local participants.

scholarly journals Turn-Taking and Coordination in Human-Machine Interaction

AI Magazine ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 5-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Andrist ◽  
Dan Bohus ◽  
Bilge Mutlu ◽  
David Schlangen
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Systems ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Research Progress ◽  
Virtual Agents ◽  
Human Machine Interaction ◽  
Dialog Systems ◽  
Turn Taking ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
Machine Interaction

This issue of AI Magazine brings together a collection of articles on challenges, mechanisms, and research progress in turn-taking and coordination between humans and machines. The contributing authors work in interrelated fields of spoken dialog systems, intelligent virtual agents, human-computer interaction, human-robot interaction, and semiautonomous collaborative systems and explore core concepts in coordinating speech and actions with virtual agents, robots, and other autonomous systems. Several of the contributors participated in the AAAI Spring Symposium on Turn-Taking and Coordination in Human-Machine Interaction, held in March 2015, and several articles in this issue are extensions of work presented at that symposium. The articles in the collection address key modeling, methodological, and computational challenges in achieving effective coordination with machines, propose solutions that overcome these challenges under sensory, cognitive, and resource restrictions, and illustrate how such solutions can facilitate coordination across diverse and challenging domains. The contributions highlight turn-taking and coordination in human-machine interaction as an emerging and evolving research area with important implications for future applications of AI.

scholarly journals Multi-connection load compensation and load information calculation for an upper-limb exoskeleton based on a six-axis force/torque sensor

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 172988141986318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Wang ◽  
Qiuzhi Song ◽  
Shitong Zhou ◽  
Jing Tang ◽  
Kezhong Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Upper Limb ◽  
Interaction Force ◽  
Center Of Gravity ◽  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Torque Sensor ◽  
Robot Interaction ◽  
End Effector ◽  
Load Compensation ◽  
Upper Limb Exoskeleton

In this article, a method of multi-connection load compensation and load information calculation for an upper-limb exoskeleton is proposed based on a six-axis force/torque sensor installed between the exoskeleton and the end effector. The proposed load compensation method uses a mounted sensor to measure the force and torque between the exoskeleton and load of different connections and adds a compensator to the controller to compensate the component caused by the load in the human–robot interaction force, so that the human–robot interaction force is only used to operate the exoskeleton. Therefore, the operator can manipulate the exoskeleton with the same interaction force to lift loads of different weights with a passive or fixed connection, and the human–robot interaction force is minimized. Moreover, the proposed load information calculation method can calculate the weight of the load and the position of its center of gravity relative to the exoskeleton and end effector accurately, which is necessary for acquiring the upper-limb exoskeleton center of gravity and stability control of whole-body exoskeleton. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, we performed load handling and operational stability experiments. The experimental results showed that the proposed method realized the expected function.

Kinematic Kalman Filter (KKF) for Robot End-Effector Sensing

2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Soo Jeon ◽  
Masayoshi Tomizuka ◽  
Tetsuaki Katou
Keyword(s):  
Kalman Filter ◽  
High Speed ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Sampling Rate ◽  
Body Motion ◽  
Vision Sensor ◽  
End Effector ◽  
Measurement Delay ◽  
Velocity Information

In control of industrial manipulators, the position from the motor encoder has been the only sensor measurement for axis control. In this case, it is not easy to estimate the end-effector motion accurately because of the kinematic errors of links, joint flexibility of gear mechanisms, and so on. Direct measurement of the end-effector using the vision sensor is considered as a solution but its performance is often limited by the slow sampling rate and the latency. To overcome these limitations, this paper extends the basic idea of the kinematic Kalman filter (KKF) to general rigid body motion leading to the formulation of the multidimensional kinematic kalman filter (MD-KKF). By combining the measurements from the vision sensor, the accelerometers and the gyroscopes, the MD-KKF can recover the intersample values and compensate for the measurement delay of the vision sensor providing the state information of the end-effector fast and accurately. The performance of the MD-KKF is verified experimentally using a planar two-link robot. The MD-KKF will be useful for widespread applications such as the high speed visual servo and the high-performance trajectory learning for robot manipulators, as well as the control strategies which require accurate velocity information.

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