Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems : 24th Annual Conference, TAROS 2023, Cambridge, UK, September 13–15, 2023, Proceedings

Preface
Organization
Human Evaluation of Robotic Grippers for Berry Picking (Invited Talk)
Contents
Agri-Food Robotics
Plant Phenotyping Using DLT Method: Towards Retrieving the Delicate Features in a Dynamic Environment
1 Introduction
2 Proposed Method
3 Experimental Procedure
4 Observations and Results
5 Additional Testing
6 Conclusion
References
Rapid Development and Performance Evaluation of a Potato Planting Robot
1 Introduction
2 Methodology
2.1 PotatoBot Robotic System
2.2 Setup and Experiments
2.3 Metrics
3 Experimental Results
4 Discussion
References
An Automated Precision Spraying Evaluation System
1 Introduction
2 Related Work
2.1 Agri-Robot Precision Sprayer System Evaluations
2.2 eXplainable Artificial Intelligence
3 Experimental Setup and Dataset Description
3.1 Data Collection Procedure
3.2 Data Pre-processing: Augmentation
4 XAI Pipeline
4.1 Network Architectures
4.2 Stratification and Sampling
4.3 Classification Metrics
4.4 CAM Metrics
4.5 Speed Test
5 Results and Performance Evaluation
6 Conclusion
References
Smart Parking System Using Heuristic Optimization for Autonomous Transportation Robots in Agriculture
1 Introduction
2 Context and Problem Statement
3 Related Work and Methodology
4 Experiments Using Software Simulator
5 Experiments in the Real World
5.1 The Robot Controller, RASberry
5.2 Experimental Configuration
5.3 Human Fruit Pickers in Experimental Trials
6 Results and Discussions
7 Future Work and Conclusion
References
Closed-Loop Robotic Cooking of Soups with Multi-modal Taste Feedback
1 Introduction
2 Control Model
2.1 Problem Definition
2.2 Closed-Loop Control Model
3 Experimental Setup
3.1 Robotic System
3.2 Experimental Procedure
3.3 Experimental Conditions
3.4 Data Processing
4 Results and Discussion
5 Conclusion
References
A Folding Morphing-Wheg Duct-Entry Robot for Nuclear Characterisation
1 Introduction
2 Related Work
2.1 Whegs
2.2 Morphing Whegs
3 Robot Hardware and Software Design
3.1 Morphing Wheg Design
3.2 Robot Hardware
3.3 Robot Software
4 Prototype and Preliminary Evaluation
4.1 Evaluation
4.2 Limitations and Future Work
5 Conclusion
References
Autonomy
Occupancy Map Abstraction for Higher Level Mission Planning of Autonomous Robotic Exploration in Hazardous Nuclear Environments*-1pc
1 Introduction
2 Related Work
3 Methodology
4 Implementation
5 Simulated Environment Testing and Analysis
6 Real-World Testing and Analysis
7 Conclusion
References
Spiral Sweeping Protocols for Detection of Smart Evaders*-1pc
1 Introduction
1.1 Overview and Comparison to Related Research
1.2 Contributions
2 Spiral Sweep Protocols
3 The Drifting Spiral Sweep Protocol
4 The Improved Spiral Sweep Protocol
5 Comparison of Line Formation Sweep Protocols
6 Conclusions
References
Investigation of Action Recognition for Improving Pedestrian Intent Prediction
1 Introduction
2 Related Works
3 Methodology
3.1 Pose Estimation
3.2 Tracking-by-Detection
3.3 Intent Classification
3.4 Action Classifier
4 Experimentation
4.1 Datasets
4.2 Training and Evaluation Protocols
4.3 Data Augmentation
4.4 Data Generalisation
4.5 Run-Time Analysis
5 Results and Discussions
5.1 Performance and Efficiency Improvements
6 Conclusions
References
Evaluation of SLAM Algorithms for Search and Rescue Applications
1 Introduction
2 Low-Cost Search and Rescue Robot Platform
3 SLAM Algorithms and Discussions
3.1 SLAM Algorithms
3.2 Discussions
4 Experimentation on Low-Cost Robot
4.1 Gmapping SLAM
4.2 Hector SLAM
4.3 Karto SLAM
4.4 Discussion
5 Experimentation on Low-Cost Robot for Search and Rescue Applications
5.1 Flat Ground
5.2 Slope Surface
5.3 Rough Terrain
5.4 Discussion
6 Analysis
7 Conclusions
References
Developing an Integrated Runtime Verification for Safety and Security of Industrial Robot Inspection System
1 Introduction
2 Literature Review
3 Proposed System
3.1 Proposed Workflow for Runtime Verification
3.2 Details of MARVer Tool for Implementation
4 Experimental
4.1 Experimental Setup
4.2 Experimental Results
5 Conclusion
References
Collaborative and Service Robotics
Sonification of Ionising Radiation Data for Robot Operators
1 Introduction
2 Hardware
3 Method
4 Results
5 Discussion
6 Conclusion
References
Automating a Telepresence Robot for Human Detection, Tracking, and Following
1 Introduction
2 State of the Art
3 System Design
3.1 The DETRAFO Algorithm
3.2 Software Architecture
3.3 Implementation
4 Evaluation
5 Discussion
6 Conclusion
References
Towards Multimodal Sensing and Interaction for Assistive Autonomous Robots
1 Introduction
2 Related Work
3 Conceptual Architecture
4 Methodology
4.1 Dataset
4.2 Smart Home and Plan Simulator
4.3 Person and Object Detection
4.4 Gesture Detection
4.5 Activity Recognition
5 Experience at METRICS HEART-MET
6 Conclusion and Future Work
References
Locomotion and Manipulation
CPG-Based Locomotion Control of a Quadruped Robot with an Active Spine
1 Introduction
2 TQbot Structure
2.1 Spinal Joint
3 Central Pattern Generators
3.1 The Modified Phase Oscillator and Internal Feedback Mechanism
3.2 CPG Model Structure
3.3 Reference Oscillator
4 Simulation
4.1 Gaits Shaped by the Internal Feedback Mechanism
4.2 Multi-direction Movement in the Trot Gait
5 Conclusion
References
Low-Resolution Sensing for Sim-to-Real Complex Terrain Robots
1 Introduction
2 Methods
2.1 Simulated Environment
2.2 Neural Network
2.3 Strategies
2.4 Evolutionary Training
2.5 Physical Robot
2.6 Visual Processing
3 Results
3.1 Performance of Simulated Agents
3.2 Preliminary Evaluation of Models on Real-World Data
3.3 Evolved Back-Bending Controllers
4 Conclusion
References
Towards Wait-and-Catch Routine of a Dynamic Swinging Object Using a Prototype Robotic Arm Manipulator*-1pc
1 Introduction
1.1 Previous Work
1.2 Contributions
2 Vision System Performance
3 Modeling the Robotic Arm
3.1 Forward Kinematics
3.2 Inverse Kinematics
3.3 Coordinate Frames. Transformations
4 Modeling a Swinging Object
5 Simulations
5.1 An Observer
5.2 Predicting the Wait-and-Catch Location
6 Conclusions
References
Simultaneous Base and Arm Trajectories for Multi-target Mobile Agri-Robot
1 Introduction
2 Methods
2.1 Demonstrator Platform
2.2 Low Level Motion
2.3 Middle Level - Weed Spray Ordering
2.4 High Level Spraying Strategies
3 Evaluation
4 Discussion
References
Design and Kinematic Analysis of a 3D-Printed 3DOF Robotic Manipulandum
1 Introduction
1.1 Existing Robotic Manipulanda
1.2 Overview and Requirements
2 RRR Arm Mechanism
2.1 Design and Construction Methods
2.2 Rotating 2-DOF Parallelogram Design
2.3 BLDC Motor Actuation
3 Kinematic Analysis
3.1 Denavit-Hartenberg Analysis
3.2 Forward Kinematics
3.3 Velocity and Force Relationships
3.4 Inverse Kinematics
4 Results
4.1 Simulating Forward, and Inverse and Differential Kinematics
4.2 CAN Bus Operation Using a Microcontroller
4.3 Demonstrations of Robotic Operation
5 Discussion
5.1 Summary
5.2 Future Work
References
Sim-to-Real Deep Reinforcement Learning with Manipulators for Pick-and-Place
1 Introduction
2 Related Work
3 Methodology
3.1 System Overview
3.2 Reward Space and State Space
3.3 Network Structure
3.4 Height-Sensitive Action Policy
4 Experiments and Results
4.1 Training Details
4.2 Evaluation Metrics
4.3 Baseline Method
4.4 Simulation Evaluation
4.5 Real-World Evaluation
4.6 Suction in Challenging Environments
4.7 Real-World Unseen Objects Challenge
5 Conclusion
References
Machine Vision
Fast 3D Semantic Segmentation Using a Self Attention Network and Random Sampling*-1pc
1 Introduction
2 Related Work
2.1 Projection-Based Networks
2.2 Point-Based Networks
2.3 Attention-Based Networks
3 Methodology
3.1 Point Downsampling Layer
3.2 Point Self Attention Block
3.3 Decoder Block
4 Experiments
4.1 S3DIS Dataset
4.2 SemanticKITTI Dataset
4.3 Ablation Studies
5 Conclusion
References
An Assessment of Self-supervised Learning for Data Efficient Potato Instance Segmentation
1 Introduction
2 Related Works
2.1 Instance Segmentation
2.2 Self-supervised Learning
3 Datasets
3.1 Data Collection
3.2 Dataset Curation
4 Methodology
4.1 Mask R-CNN Instance Segmentation Model
4.2 Self Supervised Pretext Approaches
5 Experimental Setup
5.1 Experimentation Details
5.2 Evaluation Metrics
6 Results and Discussion
7 Conclusion and Future Work
References
Automated 3D Mapping, Localization and Pavement Inspection with Low Cost RGB-D Cameras and IMUs
1 Introduction
2 Methodology
2.1 Data Acquisition and Processing
2.2 Photogrammetry Pipeline from 2D to 3D Reconstruction
3 Experimental Results
4 Discussion and Conclusion
References
Optimized Custom Dataset for Efficient Detection of Underwater Trash*-1pc
1 Introduction
2 Related Work
3 Dataset
3.1 Existing Datasets
3.2 Data Preparation
4 Benchmarking
4.1 Object Detection Algorithms
4.2 GPU Hardware
4.3 Models
4.4 Evaluation Metrics
5 Results
6 Conclusion
References
A Geometric Algebra Solution to the 3D Registration Problem
1 Introduction
2 Geometric Algebra
3 The Proposed Geometric Algebra ICP Algorithms
4 Conclusion
References
Active Anomaly Detection for Autonomous Robots: A Benchmark
1 Introduction
2 Related Work
2.1 Anomaly Detection in Robotics
2.2 Models and Approaches
2.3 Active Learning
2.4 Active Anomaly Detection
3 Method
3.1 Anomaly Detection
3.2 Active Learning
4 Experiments Setup
4.1 Implementation
4.2 Metrics and Tracking
4.3 Experiment Run
5 Experiment Results
5.1 Overall Performance
5.2 Initial Training Size and Unlabeled Anomaly Presence
5.3 Anomaly Selection
6 Conclusions and Future Work
References
Multi-robot Systems
Hardware Validation of Adaptive Fault Diagnosis in Swarm Robots
1 Introduction
2 Related Work
3 Immune-Inspired Fault Diagnosis
4 Methods
5 Results and Discussion
6 Conclusion
References
Mobile Robots for Collaborative Manipulation over Uneven Ground Using Decentralised Impedance Control
1 Introduction
2 Modelling the Manipulator as a Suspension System
3 CMTS Modelling
4 Experimental Design
5 Results
6 Conclusion and Future Work
References
Multi-agent Collaborative Target Search Based on Curiosity Intrinsic Motivation
1 Introduction
2 Methodology
2.1 The MADDPG-C Algorithm
2.2 The Curiosity Intrinsic Motivation Module
3 Simulation Experiment
4 Conclusion
References
Simulation of Collective Bernoulli-Ball System for Characterizing Dynamic Self-stability
1 Introduction
2 Multi-ball Bernoulli Model
2.1 Bernoulli-Ball Model
2.2 Interaction Model
2.3 Turbulence Model
3 Model Identification
4 Results and Discussion
4.1 Optimization Result
4.2 Model Validation
4.3 Model Scalability
5 Conclusion
References
Soft Robotics
Casting vs Injection Moulding: A Comparison Study for In-Lab Low-Cost Soft Robot Fabrication
1 Introduction
2 Methodology
2.1 Geometry Used for Testing
2.2 Materials Used for Testing
2.3 Design of the Moulds
2.4 Silicone Fabrication Process
3 Results and Discussion
3.1 Analysis Setup
3.2 Analysis Results
3.3 Analysis Observations
4 Conclusion
References
Estimation of Soft Body Deformation by Using Light
1 Introduction
2 Methods
2.1 Light Penetration Through Elastic Materials
2.2 Modelling Optical Behaviour of Materials
3 Experiment and Results
3.1 Experimental Setup
3.2 Results and Discussion
4 Conclusions
References
Reduced-Order Modeling of a Soft Anthropomorphic Finger for Piano Keystrokes
1 Introduction
2 Materials and Fabrication
2.1 Fabrication of Soft Finger
2.2 Experimental Setup
3 Theoretical Framework
3.1 First-Principles Model
3.2 System Identification
3.3 Model Order Reduction
4 Results
4.1 Model Output
4.2 Frequency-Limited Balanced Truncation
5 Conclusion and Discussions
References
Tactile Sensing
Multi-directional Force and Tactile Sensor Sleeves for Micro Catheters and Cannulas
1 Introduction
2 Materials and Methods
2.1 Sensors' Design and Fabrication
2.2 Experimental Setup Design
2.3 Experimental Phantom Models
2.4 Experimental Procedure
2.5 EIS Experiments
2.6 FSR Experiments
3 Results and Discussions
3.1 EI-Based Sensors
3.2 FSR-Based Sensors
4 Conclusion
References
Towards Smooth Human-Robot Handover with a Vision-Based Tactile Sensor
1 Introduction
2 Related Work
3 Vision-Based Tactile Sensor for Object Handover Framework
4 Methodology
4.1 Participants
4.2 Experimental Procedure
5 Results and Discussion
5.1 Results
5.2 Discussion
6 Conclusion and Future Work
References
Feeling Good: Validation of Bilateral Tactile Telemanipulation for a Dexterous Robot
1 Introduction
2 Telemanipulation System
2.1 Human-Operator's Leader Interface
2.2 Robotic Manipulator Follower
2.3 Teleoperation Architecture
3 Experimental Validation
3.1 Methods
3.2 Results
4 Conclusion and Future Work
References
Teleoperation
Comparative Study of Hand-Tracking and Traditional Control Interfaces for Remote Palpation
1 Introduction
2 Material and Methods
3 Results
4 Conclusion
References
5G-Based Low-Latency Teleoperation: Two-Way Timeout Approach
1 Introduction
2 System Description and Two-Way Timeout Approach
2.1 Two-Way Timeout Approach
3 5G-Enabled Teleoperation Testbed with Haptic Feedback
3.1 Operator Domain
3.2 Communication Domain
3.3 Teleoperator Domain
3.4 Latency Measurement Setup
4 Experimental Results
5 Conclusions
References
Generative Model-Based Simulation of Driver Behavior When Using Control Input Interface for Teleoperated Driving in Unstructured Canyon Terrains
1 Introduction
2 Teleoperated Driving Dataset Collection
3 Teleoperated Driving Model
3.1 Preprocessing
3.2 Training and Inference Approach with Two Simulation Models
3.3 Model Architecture
4 Model Evaluation
4.1 Evaluation Design
4.2 Evaluation Result
5 Conclusion
References
Implementation of a Stereo Vision System for a Mixed Reality Robot Teleoperation Simulator
1 Introduction
2 Implementation
2.1 System Overview
2.2 Stereo Vision
2.3 Stereo Display
3 Validation of the Stereo Cameras System
4 Conclusion
References
Author Index