Frontiers in Robotics and AI最新文献

{"title":"Development of human-collaborative robots to perform daily tasks based on multimodal vital information with cybernics space.","authors":"Akira Uehara, Hiroaki Kawamoto, Yoshiyuki Sankai","doi":"10.3389/frobt.2025.1462243","DOIUrl":"10.3389/frobt.2025.1462243","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Due to the increasing employment of people with disabilities, support for the elderly, and childcare needs, enhancing the independence and freedom across generations and spaces is necessary. This study aimed to develop a human-collaborative robot using multimodal vital information as input with cybernics space, which is fused \"human\" and \"Cyber/Physical Space,\" and confirm its feasibility experimentally. The robot allows the user to operate it via gaze and bio-electrical signals (BES), reflecting the user's intentions, and seamlessly transition among three modes (i.e., assistant, jockey, and ghost). In the assistant mode, the user collaborates with the robot in the physical space using a system that includes a head-mounted display (HMD) for gaze measurement, BES measurement unit, personal mobility system, and an arm-hand system. The HMD can be flipped up and down for hands-free control. The BES measurement unit captures leaked weak signals from the skin surface, indicating the user's voluntary movement intentions, which are processed by the main unit to generate control commands for the various actuators. The personal mobility system features omni-wheels for tight turning, and the arm-hand system can handle payloads up to 500 g. In the jockey mode, the user remotely operates a small mobile base with a display and camera, moving it through the physical space. In the ghost mode, the user navigates and inputs commands in a virtual space using a smart key and remote-control device integrated with IoT and wireless communication. The switching of each control mode is estimated using the BES from the user's upper arm, gaze direction, and position, thereby enabling movement, mobility, and manipulation without physical body movement. In basic experiments involving able-bodied participants, the macro averages of recall, precision, and F score were 1.00, 0.90, and 0.94, respectively, in the assistant mode. The macro averages of recall, precision, and F score were 0.85, 0.92, and 0.88, respectively, in the ghost mode. Therefore, the human-collaborative robot utilizing multimodal vital information has feasibility for supporting daily life tasks, contributing to a safer and more secure society by addressing various daily life challenges.</p>","PeriodicalId":47597,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Robotics and AI","volume":"12 ","pages":"1462243"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11959013/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143765412","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A child-robot theater afterschool program can promote children's conceptualization of social robots' mental capacities and engagement in learning.","authors":"Jiayuan Dong, Shuqi Yu, Koeun Choi, Myounghoon Jeon","doi":"10.3389/frobt.2025.1529421","DOIUrl":"10.3389/frobt.2025.1529421","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Research on integrating emerging technologies, such as robots, into K-12 education has been growing because of their benefits in creating engaging learning environments and preparing children for appropriate human-robot interactions in the future. However, most studies have focused on the impact of robots in formal educational settings, leaving their effectiveness in informal settings, such as afterschool programs, unclear. The present study developed a 9-week afterschool program in an elementary school to promote STEAM (STEM + Art) education for elementary school students. The program incorporated four modules (Acting, Dancing, Music & Sounds, and Drawing), each with specific learning objectives and concluding with a theater play at the end. This program facilitated hands-on activities with social robots to create engaging learning experiences for children. A total of 38 students, aged 6-10 years, participated in the afterschool program. Among these students, 21 took part in research activities, which included answering questions about their perceptions of robots compared to other entities (i.e., babies and beetles), learning interest and curiosity, and their opinions about robots. In addition, four teachers and staff participated in interviews, sharing their reflections on children's learning experiences with robots and their perceptions of the program. Our results showed that 1) children perceived robots as having limited affective and social capabilities but gained a more realistic understanding of their physiological senses and agentic capabilities; 2) children were enthusiastic about interacting with robots and learning about robot-related technologies, and 3) teachers recognized the importance of embodied learning and the benefits of using robots in the afterschool program; however, they also expressed concerns that robots could be potential distractions and negatively impact students' interpersonal relationships with peers in educational settings. These findings suggest how robots can shape children's perceptions of robots and their learning experiences in informal education, providing design guidelines for future educational programs that incorporate social robots for young learners.</p>","PeriodicalId":47597,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Robotics and AI","volume":"12 ","pages":"1529421"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11949813/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143754941","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Editorial: Failures and repairs in human-robot communication.","authors":"Frank Förster, Patrick Holthaus","doi":"10.3389/frobt.2025.1583911","DOIUrl":"10.3389/frobt.2025.1583911","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47597,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Robotics and AI","volume":"12 ","pages":"1583911"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11931154/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143701745","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sliding-mode control based on prescribed performance function and its application to a SEA-Based lower limb exoskeleton.","authors":"Feilong Zhang, Tian Wang, Liang Zhang, Enming Shi, Chengchao Wang, Ning Li, Yu Lu, Bi Zhang","doi":"10.3389/frobt.2025.1534040","DOIUrl":"10.3389/frobt.2025.1534040","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A sliding-mode control based on a prescribed performance function is proposed for discrete-time single-input single-output systems. The controller design aims to maintain the tracking error in a predefined convergence zone described by a performance function. However, due to the fixed structure of the controller, the applicability and universality of this method are limited. To address this issue, we separate the controller into two parts and analyze the principle of the prescribed performance control (PPC) method. Then we can replace the linear part of the controller with model-based control methods to adapt to the specific characteristics of the controlled system. Compared with current works, when the established system model is inaccurate, we can enhance the smoothness or response speed of the system by introducing a penalty constant to alter the system's transient characteristics while the tracking error is within the prescribed domain. Finally, numerical comparison simulations and a lower limb exoskeleton experiment illustrate the established results and the effectiveness of the proposed method.</p>","PeriodicalId":47597,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Robotics and AI","volume":"12 ","pages":"1534040"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11913672/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143659193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Operators and their human-robot interdependencies: implications of distinct job decision latitudes for sustainable work and high performance.","authors":"Milan R Wolffgramm, Stephan Corporaal, Aard J Groen","doi":"10.3389/frobt.2025.1442319","DOIUrl":"10.3389/frobt.2025.1442319","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The collaborative robot (cobot) has the potential to remove barriers for individual operators when deciding on the deployment of robotics in their work. Ideally, using their opportunities to (re)design work (i.e., job decision latitudes), the operator establishes synergetic human-cobot interdependencies that enable the human-cobot production unit to achieve superior performance and foster more sustainable work perceptions than manual production units. However, it remains scientifically unclear whether the operator is both willing to and capable of using cobot-related job decision latitudes, what this means for designing human-cobot interdependencies, and whether these designs improve unit outcomes. Therefore, we built a manual and three human-cobot production units with distinct job decision latitudes. Forty students participated in the manual production unit and operated one of the human-cobot production units during an assembly simulation. Sophistically accounting for individual differences, the results illustrated that most operators used speed- and task-related job decision latitudes to design their human-cobot interdependencies. These behaviours often led to increased productivity and more motivating working conditions. At the same time, these human-cobot interdependencies frequently resulted in limited human-robot interactions, poor production reliability, and more psychological safety risks. This contribution lays a rich foundation for future research on involving individual operators in developing modern production systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":47597,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Robotics and AI","volume":"12 ","pages":"1442319"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11913812/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143659189","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"OpenSEA: a 3D printed planetary gear series elastic actuator for a compliant elbow joint exoskeleton.","authors":"Benjamin Jenks, Hailey Levan, Filip Stefanovic","doi":"10.3389/frobt.2025.1528266","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2025.1528266","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Next-generation assistive robotics rely on series elastic actuators (SEA) that enable compliant human-robot interaction. However, currently there is a deficiency of openly available SEA systems to support this development. To address this, we propose a novel design of a compliant 3D-printed SEA device for elbow movement rehabilitation exoskeletons that we make openly available.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We designed a 3D-printed SEA to incorporate a planetary gear system and torsional spring, offering compliance, adaptability, and cost-effectiveness. The design provides a high-power density, that can address torque limitations in 3D printed SEA systems. Our design utilizes a 4.12 Nm motor operating at 26 RPM based on assessment of functional performance differences across healthy and post-stroke individuals. Moreover, the design of this SEA allows for easily adjustable parameters to fit different joints, or various torque output configurations, in low-cost exoskeleton applications in rehabilitation.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Testing demonstrated an average compliance contribution of the planetary gear and the average total system compliance of 14.80° and 22.22°, respectively. This range conforms to those expected in human-exoskeleton interaction. Similarly, an FEA analysis of the 3D printed system shows stress ranges of the SEA gears to be between 50 and 60.2 MPa, which causes a displacement of approximately 0.14 mm. This is within the operational flexural range of standard 3D printed materials such as PLA, which is 175 MPa.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>The study demonstrates an openly available SEA design for 3D printed exoskeletons. This work provides an entry point for accessible exoskeleton design, specifically for rehabilitation. Future work will explore the role of segment vs joint rigidity in developing next-generation compliant exoskeletons, and improving accessibility for personalizable assistive exoskeletons. All designs presented herein are publicly available.</p>","PeriodicalId":47597,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Robotics and AI","volume":"12 ","pages":"1528266"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11906680/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143650434","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Editorial: Human factors and cognitive ergonomics in advanced industrial human-robot interaction.","authors":"Erik Billing, Federico Fraboni, Luca Gualtieri, Patricia Helen Rosen, Peter Thorvald","doi":"10.3389/frobt.2025.1564948","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2025.1564948","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47597,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Robotics and AI","volume":"12 ","pages":"1564948"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11906329/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143651440","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Unsupervised semantic label generation in agricultural fields.","authors":"Gianmarco Roggiolani, Julius Rückin, Marija Popović, Jens Behley, Cyrill Stachniss","doi":"10.3389/frobt.2025.1548143","DOIUrl":"10.3389/frobt.2025.1548143","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Robust perception systems allow farm robots to recognize weeds and vegetation, enabling the selective application of fertilizers and herbicides to mitigate the environmental impact of traditional agricultural practices. Today's perception systems typically rely on deep learning to interpret sensor data for tasks such as distinguishing soil, crops, and weeds. These approaches usually require substantial amounts of manually labeled training data, which is often time-consuming and requires domain expertise. This paper aims to reduce this limitation and propose an automated labeling pipeline for crop-weed semantic image segmentation in managed agricultural fields. It allows the training of deep learning models without or with only limited manual labeling of images. Our system uses RGB images recorded with unmanned aerial or ground robots operating in the field to produce semantic labels exploiting the field row structure for spatially consistent labeling. We use the rows previously detected to identify multiple crop rows, reducing labeling errors and improving consistency. We further reduce labeling errors by assigning an \"unknown\" class to challenging-to-segment vegetation. We use evidential deep learning because it provides predictions uncertainty estimates that we use to refine and improve our predictions. In this way, the evidential deep learning assigns high uncertainty to the weed class, as it is often less represented in the training data, allowing us to use the uncertainty to correct the semantic predictions. Experimental results suggest that our approach outperforms general-purpose labeling methods applied to crop fields by a large margin and domain-specific approaches on multiple fields and crop species. Using our generated labels to train deep learning models boosts our prediction performance on previously unseen fields with respect to unseen crop species, growth stages, or different lighting conditions. We obtain an IoU of 88.6% on crops, and 22.7% on weeds for a managed field of sugarbeets, where fully supervised methods have 83.4% on crops and 33.5% on weeds and other unsupervised domain-specific methods get 54.6% on crops and 11.2% on weeds. Finally, our method allows fine-tuning models trained in a fully supervised fashion to improve their performance in unseen field conditions up to +17.6% in mean IoU without additional manual labeling.</p>","PeriodicalId":47597,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Robotics and AI","volume":"12 ","pages":"1548143"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11893429/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143606340","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"On realizing autonomous transport services in multi story buildings with doors and elevators.","authors":"Paul Robert Schulze, Steffen Müller, Tristan Müller, Horst-Michael Gross","doi":"10.3389/frobt.2025.1546894","DOIUrl":"10.3389/frobt.2025.1546894","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Mobile service robots for transportation tasks are usually restricted to a barrier-free environment where they can navigate freely. To enable the use of such assistive robots in existing buildings, the robot should be able to overcome closed doors independently and operate elevators with the interface designed for humans while being polite to passers-by. The integration of these required capabilities in an autonomous mobile service robot is explained using the example of a SCITOS G5 robot equipped with differential drive and a Kinova Gen II arm with 7 DoF. This robot also defines the framework conditions with certain limitations in terms of maneuverability and perceptual abilities. Results of field tests with that robot in an elderly care facility as well as in a university office building are shown, where it performed transportation and messaging tasks. We also report on the success rates achieved and highlight the main problems we have encountered and dicsuss open issues.</p>","PeriodicalId":47597,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Robotics and AI","volume":"12 ","pages":"1546894"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11894313/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143606335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Editorial: AI-powered musical and entertainment robotics.","authors":"Huijiang Wang, Josie Hughes, Tetsushi Nonaka, Arsen Abdulali, Thilina Dulantha Lalitharatne, Fumiya Iida","doi":"10.3389/frobt.2025.1572828","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2025.1572828","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47597,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Robotics and AI","volume":"12 ","pages":"1572828"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11893408/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143606222","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}