Industrial Robotics
INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS
Claudio Melchiorri
Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Energia Elettrica e dell’Informazione (DEI)
Università di Bologna
Email: [email protected]
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
1
Industrial Robotics
Introduction
•  The first “modern” robots have been developed for teleoperation (radioactive
material, in the 50’s) and prosthetic applications.
•  Robots have been used in production plants since the 70’s.
•  Initially, they have been almost exclusively used in industrial environments in
tasks such as painting, welding, manipulation, assembly, and so on.
•  More recently, they are more and more often used also in other fields:
¤ 
¤ 
¤ 
¤ 
¤ 
Medicine
Entertainment
Training & Education
Social services
Surveillance & Military applications
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
¤ 
¤ 
¤ 
¤ 
¤ 
Industrial Robotics
Space & Underwater tasks
Construction
Agriculture
Domotics
….
2
Industrial Robotics
Robots
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
3
Industrial Robotics
Entertainment robots
AIBO - Sony
http://www.aibo.com/
NAO, Aldebaran Robotics
since 2008, replaces AIBO quadrupeds
in RoboCup standard league
ASIMO - Honda
http://www.honda.co.jp/ASIMO/
Q-RIO – Sony (2003)
First robot able to balance on a surf
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
4
Industrial Robotics
Entertainment robots
Lego – MindStorm
www.lego.com
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
C3PO – Star Wars
Industrial Robotics
5
Industrial Robotics
Service robots
iRobot-LE
Mobile robot for surveillance (home, office, etc).
It can be tele-controlled.
Automower
autonomous
robot by
Husqvarna
(Sweden)
Dyson-DC06
Home-robot. Vacuum cleaner &
washes floors, autonomously.
Robomow RL500
Automatic gardener
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
6
Industrial Robotics
Service robots
Other examples:
•  Mall cleaning robots (USA)
•  Swimming pools cleaners
•  …
Skywash
cleans civil airplane bodies
and is “the largest robot
worldwide”
(AEG/Dornier/FhG-IPA/
Putzmeister)
Robots for safety missions
A robot prototype for
cleaning large
glass windows of civil
buildings
Other robots:
http://www.21stcentury.co.uk/robotics/
http://ranier.oact.hq.nasa.gov/telerobotics_page/realrobots.html
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
7
Industrial Robotics
Legged robots
MIT Leg Laboratory
Since the 80’s
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
8
Industrial Robotics
Legged robots
Cheetah – Boston Dynamics (45.54 km/h)
Dante II – For active vulcanoes exploration
Legged robots:
http://www.fzi.de/divisions/ipt/WMC/walking_machines_katalog/walking_machines_katalog.html
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
Big Dog – Boston Dynamics
9
Industrial Robotics
Anthorpomorphic upper limbs
Justin
has 7+7+3 degrees of freedom +
many dofs in the two hands
(DLR, Germany)
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Robot developed in a
German national project
on humanoids
Industrial Robotics
10
Industrial Robotics
Anthorpomorphic upper limbs
iCub
IIT, Genova
Justin
45 degrees of freedom
(DLR, Germany)
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
11
Industrial Robotics
Space applications
Canadian Arm
Space Shuttle
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
ISS International Space Station
Canadarm 2 delivering Destiny
Lab from Space Shuttle Atlantis
Industrial Robotics
12
Industrial Robotics
Space applications
NASA-JPL Pathfinder
(1997)
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Claudio Melchiorri
Industrial Robotics
13
Industrial Robotics
Space applications
NASA-JPL
Spirit & Opportunity on Mars since 2004
Spirit silent since May 2011
Opportunity still working (Feb. 2014)
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
DLR – Germany / 1993
ROTEX catching floating objects on the
Space Shuttle
Industrial Robotics
14
Industrial Robotics
Underwater robotics
•  Typically actuated by thrusters
(directional forces on the tail)
•  Cannot translate sideways
(“maneuvers” are necessary)
TRIDENT:
Underwater autonoumous
activities (@UNIBO)
Odin-II
Univ. of Hawaii
(omnidirectional)
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
15
Industrial Robotics
Underwater robotics
Robots Work to Stop
Leak of Oil in Gulf
… BP - which is responsible
under federal law for the cleanup - said it was using four
submersible vehicles, equipped
with cameras and remotecontrolled arms, to try to activate
a blow-out preventer - a series of
pipes and valves that could stop
the leak ...
Ansaldo underwater arm –
SAUVIM project
Cable hook task
Aqua robot amphibious robotic vehicle
(Mac Gill University, Montreal, Canada)
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
size and weight: 50x65x13 cm, 18 kg
locomotion: through six independently
actuated flippers
maximum depth: 37 m
sensors: two cameras (front/back), acoustic
sensor for localization
(sonar), tri-ocular sensor (structured light)
power source: 48V lithium battery
16
Industrial Robotics
Underwater robotics
Mariana Trench - 10,971 m (35,994 ft)
(NOAA/National Geographic)
The Swiss-designed, Italian-built, United States Navy bathyscaphe Trieste reached the bottom at 1:06 p.m. on
January 23, 1960, with U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard on board. Iron shot was used for
ballast, with gasoline for buoyancy. At the bottom, Walsh and Piccard were surprised to discover sole or flounder
about 30 cm (1 ft) long, as well as a shrimp. According to Piccard, "The bottom appeared light and clear, a waste of
firm diatomaceous ooze”.
Only three descents have ever been achieved:
1.  The manned descent by Trieste in 1960.
2.  The unmanned ROVs Kaikō in 1996
3.  The unmanned ROV Nereus in 2009
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
17
Industrial Robotics
Outdoor exploration
LAMA robot at CNRS-LAAS
(Toulouse) A french-russian
cooperation
NIFTi - Earthquacke in
Mirandola 2012
RoboVolc
On the surface of the Etna
volcano: wheeled and tracked
robots
(University of Catania, 2003)
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
18
Industrial Robotics
Outdoor exploration
SHERPA (@UNIBO)
Robotic system for search and
rescue operations in
alpine environment
AIROBOTS (@UNIBO)
Unmanned aerial vehicle (AUV)
for surveillance and monitoring
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
19
Industrial Robotics
Mine exploration
Groundhog (Carnegie Mellon)
•  750 kg
•  Movable SICK lasers
•  Gas and immersion sensors
•  SLAM algorithm (simultaneous
•  Localization and mapping)
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
20
Industrial Robotics
DARPA Grand Challange
The Ghostrider
Competition for fully autonomous
vehicles on a long mixed-type track
$2 Million Cash Prize
The 2005 winning
VW Touareg “Stanley”
Urban Grand Challange
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
21
Industrial Robotics
RoboCup
RoboCup
World-wide robot soccer competition
Since 1997
Different Leagues:
•  Humanoid
•  Middle Size
•  Simulation
•  Small Size
•  Standard platform
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
22
Industrial Robotics
Micro/Nano robotics
Not a robot:
cyborg insects
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
23
Industrial Robotics
Exoscheleton – power amplifiers
Great interest for
•  Military purposes
•  Rehabilitation
•  Disable persons
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
24
Industrial Robotics
Medicine - Prosthetics
• commercialized by Ossur
(Iceland)
Along with telemanipulaiton, this is the first
“application” field for robotic technologies
• a prosthesis sensorized at
the knee (angle and force),
capable of processing
sensor data and of extracting
a gait model of the user, so
as to adapt its dynamical
behavior (knee motion and
stiffness)
• made famous by the
paralympic sprinter
Oscar Pistorius
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
25
Industrial Robotics
Medicine - Rehabilitation
• "RUPERT" Robotic Upper
Extremity Repetitive Therapy,
(Arizona State University + Kinetic
Muscles, Inc.)
• Sustains the human arm with
pneumatic muscles (McKibben
actuators)
• It can be programmed for the
execution of cyclic exercises of
rehabilitation
The stroke
rehabilitation robot
helps patients get
movement back in
their shoulders and
arms.
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
26
Industrial Robotics
Medicine - Surgery
http://www.intuitivesurgical.com/
• 
• 
• 
• 
Minimally invasive surgery
Articulated wrist/tools
3D computer vision
Navigation helps
Next generation:
Trough the natural
orifices
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
27
Industrial Robotics
Human – Robot interaction
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
28
Industrial Robotics
Articulated hands
University of Bologna:
UB Hand II, III and IV
DEIS-DIEM
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Claudio Melchiorri
Industrial Robotics
29
Industrial Robotics
Study of human behavior
MIT
Prof. R. Brooks
COG
sorrow
disgusted
happy
interested
Kismet
surprised
angry
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/humanoid-robotics-group/
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
30
Industrial Robotics
Agriculture robots / Construction robots
•  Several prototypes have been developed for
agricultural applications
•  Poor diffusion
•  One of the main reasons: low cost of
human work
Similar considerations for construction…
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
31
Industrial Robotics
Robotic on the web (educational)
•  Telegarden: http://cwis.usc.edu/dept/garden/
•  Interaction with a remote garden
•  Plant seeds, water, monitor the progress
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
32
Industrial Robotics
Robotic on the web (educational)
•  Australia: http://telerobot.mech.uwa.edu.au/
•  Object manipulation
•  “Augmented reality”
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
33
Industrial Robotics
Robotics on the web (educational)
•  University Jaume I, Spain: http://ciclop.act.uji.es/rmarin/research/
•  Object manipulation
•  Different control modalities (voice, keyboard, …)
•  “Augmented reality”
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
34
Industrial Robotics
Robots …
List of non-industrial application of robots could go on … forever!
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
35
Industrial Robotics
Diffusion of service robots
Source: IFR – International Federation of Robotics -- www.ifr.org
Service robots for professional use: 76,600 units sold up to the end of 2009
1)  With 23,200 units the service robots in defense applications, accounted for
30% of the total number of service robots for professional use sold up to the
end of 2009.
2)  Thereafter follow field robots (mainly milking robots) with 25%
3)  Cleaning robots and medical robots with 8% each
4)  Underwater systems with 7%
In 2010: + 4% units compared to 2009; +15% in terms of value (3.2 USD Billion).
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
36
Industrial Robotics
Diffusion of service robots
Service robots for personal and private use: about 5.6 million units for
domestic use and about 3.1 million units for entertainment and leisure sold up to
end of 2009
Projections for the period 2010-2013:
80,000 new service robots for professional use to be installed
11.4 million units of service robots for personal use to be sold
(6.7 domestic, 4.6 entertainment)
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
37
Industrial Robotics
Main interest for the course: robots in industry
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
38
Industrial Robotics
Associations
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
http://www.ifr.org/
International Federation of Robotics
http://www.robotics.org USA
http://www.jara.jp/en/ Japan
http://www.robosiri.it/ Italiy: SIRI – ASS. IT. DI ROBOTICA E AUTOMAZIONE
http://www.vibab.se/swira/ Sweden
http://www.cs.uow.edu.au/isase/ara/ Australia
http://www.bara.org.uk/ United Kingdom: Robotics & Automation
•  http://video-service-ras.org
Full collection of vide-clips from the 1991 to 2006 editions of the
IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
•  http://www.service-robots.org Technical Committee on Service Robots of Robotics and
Automation Society (RAS) of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
•  http://www.euron.org/ Robotics in Europe (research)
•  http://www.robotics-in-europe.org/ Robotics in Europe (all)
•  http://www.robocup2002.org/
•  http://www.fira.net/
•  Real Robots On the Web: http://ranier.hq.nasa.gov/telerobotics_page/realrobots.html
C. Melchiorri (DEI)
Industrial Robotics
39