Robotics Applications in the Training of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Children with autism spectrum disorders encounter many difficulties in their social interactions with other people. Impairments in verbal and non-verbal communication, as well as repetitive and stereotypical behaviors, are some of the most common characteristics of this disorder. Along with other treatments and methods, the use of robotics is a relatively new and promising field, which can be implemented in most classrooms. Socially assistive robotics (SAR) is a subcategory of robotic technology that emanated from social robotics and assistive robotics. SAR can be used to enhance literacy skills, social communication, adaptive behaviors, and emotion recognition. In this chapter, the authors discuss some of the most popular robotic tools used in autism interventions for school-aged children, as well as ways to implement robotic partners in inclusive settings.

Machining Ornament: An investigation into contemporary machining practices and the creation of patterned ornamental surfaces

<p>Robotic tools open a new frontier in surface articulation. The combination of computer modelling with robotic tools allows the transfer of digital information onto physical objects with comparative ease. This permits a more intricate approach to building; where the architect can incorporate new ornamental effects onto surfaces increasing the diversity of our built environment. This use of contemporary tools to articulate surfaces has heralded a return of ornament to the artistic repertoire of the architect. Once again, the architect can be involved in the intricacies of instilling narratives into material surfaces. This thesis identifies this resurgence in ornamental effects and aims to question how robotic tools facilitate the creation of ornamental architecture. This thesis involves the digital creation of patterns which considers the creation of parametric designs that hold a particular narrative. This thesis also experiments with the potential of metal sheet forming to identify the parameters that guide the sheet form. These two topics work in unison whereby the digital design has been limited by the parameters discovered through physical experimentation. The machining process of Incremental Sheet Forming (ISF) is investigated as to its potential in the manipulation of sheet metal. Specifi cally, the robot is used to discover the potential of sheet forming through the creation of a full-scale prototype. This practical research shows how considered use of robotic tools can bring greater connection to our built environment. Intricate detailing of architecture boosts the experiential connection between the building and inhabitant, strengthening a person’s attachment to their physical environment.</p>

Machining Ornament: An investigation into contemporary machining practices and the creation of patterned ornamental surfaces

<p>Robotic tools open a new frontier in surface articulation. The combination of computer modelling with robotic tools allows the transfer of digital information onto physical objects with comparative ease. This permits a more intricate approach to building; where the architect can incorporate new ornamental effects onto surfaces increasing the diversity of our built environment. This use of contemporary tools to articulate surfaces has heralded a return of ornament to the artistic repertoire of the architect. Once again, the architect can be involved in the intricacies of instilling narratives into material surfaces. This thesis identifies this resurgence in ornamental effects and aims to question how robotic tools facilitate the creation of ornamental architecture. This thesis involves the digital creation of patterns which considers the creation of parametric designs that hold a particular narrative. This thesis also experiments with the potential of metal sheet forming to identify the parameters that guide the sheet form. These two topics work in unison whereby the digital design has been limited by the parameters discovered through physical experimentation. The machining process of Incremental Sheet Forming (ISF) is investigated as to its potential in the manipulation of sheet metal. Specifi cally, the robot is used to discover the potential of sheet forming through the creation of a full-scale prototype. This practical research shows how considered use of robotic tools can bring greater connection to our built environment. Intricate detailing of architecture boosts the experiential connection between the building and inhabitant, strengthening a person’s attachment to their physical environment.</p>

Design rules for timber log reciprocal floors, based on mass optimization under stiffness constraint

Building with raw timber allows to reduce the price of construction and to make it more competitive with respect to concrete or steel construction. For a few years now, the combination of parametric design and robotic tools make possible the fast and precise milling of timber logs for their accurate connection. However, the spans are quickly limited by the logs length. In this context, reciprocal structures are relevant, since they allow to build large spans structures with short beams. Finally, the architectural interest of reciprocal structures is not to prove. However, the choice of the most efficient reciprocal frame, as well as its structural relevance in terms of mass and stiffness is, most of the time, ruled by subjective considerations. This paper focuses on rectangular floors composed of reciprocal moduli and has three objectives: (1) to develop a general mass and stiffness optimization method for reciprocal floors, which is not only necessary to limit the price, but also to reduce their thickness, (2) to define design rules for reciprocal floors, in particular for the choice of the best engagement ratio, and (3) to compare the structural efficiency of reciprocal floors with the one of “traditional” floors with parallel logs. Coming from a dimensionless transformation of the equilibrium equations, the results of this article will thus give the designers keys to better design reciprocal structures, evaluate their structural performances and relevance, and justify their choices.

Simulation of a Pole Saw Assisted by a Gyroscopic Effect Device

Linemen performing pruning activity on vegetation entangled with overhead lines and handling a pole saw is a physically strenuous and risky job. It is a major cause of linemen musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) and others injuries, with more than one type of accumulative musculoskeletal injury like backbone, shoulder, neck and wrists. Although assisted robotic tools could reduce ergonomic issues, it also impairs the quality of work; efficiency and quality require human direct cutting due to a huge imponderability of each particular action on each particular job due different kind of vegetation and shapes. The best approach should be to aid linemen handling the pole saw during pruning. So, as a first step to develop and implement a gyroscopic platform for pruning pole saw, this paper compares and presents a simulation of a regular pole saw with a pole saw assisted by a gyroscopic device using kinematic data obtained by the motion capture system. Kinematic data obtained connects to dynamic simulation, which makes available pole saw control and kickback analysis. Simulation outcome shows that gyroscopic assistance on pole saw has great potential to mitigate harmful pruning dynamic forces for lineman, with no impact on productivity and work quality.

Analyzing the Development and Implementation Posibility of the Robotic Ambulance for COVID Pacients

During Covid pandemic, the automation, robotization and digitization were accelerated, but the results do not meet all expectations. Telecommunications have undeniable successes, but in other sectors the benefits of technological advancement are still missing. The "online school" and the "online procedures" of some institutions have been partially upgraded, but things have been as well in other activities which were less suitable for automation, robotization and digitization. The healthcare sector was highly stressed in the context of COVID-19 crisis, but it has not fully benefited from the advantages of the robotic vehicles. Life and death during COVID-19 crisis has affected most people, either as victims or actors in a reality that took them unprepared. Ambulances have been challenged by events which were not always managed successfully. They must respond promptly to save the lives of those who call for help. Staff in this sector are often overworked and highly stressed. The simultaneous existence of robotic ambulances that can take over some of the victims who need medical services could be both a good idea and a life-saving measure. The paper proposes implementation of existing technology for optimizing ambulance services with robotic tools and suitable for digitization. In this way, complementary solutions can be generated for increasing the quality of life, respectively for mitigating the emotional and physical stress when it comes to near death experiences. When on-site complex resuscitation and first aid maneuvers are not necessary, being required only the lifting and transportation procedures by a medical robot, the ​​use of a robotic vehicle mitigates the ambulance’s personnel from stresses. These solutions are complementary, leading to an improvement in life’s quality.

Babyface: Performance and Installation Art Exploring the Feminine Ideal in Gendered Machines

Representations of gender in new technologies like the Siri, Pepper, and Sophia robotic assistants, as well as the commodification of features associated with gender on platforms like Instagram, inspire questions about how and whether robotic tools can have gender and what it means to people if they do. One possible response to this is through artistic creation of dance performance. This paper reports on one such project where, along the route to this inquiry, creation of machine augmentation – of both the performer and audience member – was necessary to communicate the artistic ideas grappled with therein. Thus, this article describes the presentation of Babyface, a machine-augmented, participatory contemporary dance performance. This work is a reaction to feminized tropes in popular media and modern technology, and establishes a parallel between the ways that women and machines are talked about, treated, and – in the case of machines – designed to look and behave. This paper extends prior reports on the creation of this piece and its accompanying devices to describe extensions with audience member participation, and reflect on the responses of these audience members. These fabricated elements alongside the actions of the performer and a soundscape that quotes statements made by real “female” robots create an otherwordly, sad cyborg character that causes viewers to question their assumptions about and pressures on the feminine ideal.

Cable-Driven Robots in Physical Rehabilitation

This chapter deals with cable-driven robots when applied in physical rehabilitation. In general, neurorehabilitation is limited to physical therapy that is delivered by clinicians and potentially augmented by robotic tools to facilitate neurorehabilitation and to reduce the consequences of central nervous system injury. Among the robotic tools for rehabilitation can be considered the cable-driven manipulators. First, this chapter presents the upper and lower human limbs movements. The main rehabilitation robots are presented as exoskeletons and cable-driven manipulators. After, the cable-driven manipulators theory is introduced focusing on considerations for robot design in rehabilitation and control with safe human-machine interaction. Experimental examples with different cable-driven robot's structures are presented so that this chapter suggests that these structures can be used as a complement to conventional therapies and not as a substitute. Finally, this chapter presents the clinical evidence in cable-driven robots when applied in physical rehabilitation.