Luis M. Jiménez

ROBTET: a new teleoperated system for live-line maintenance

This paper presents a new teleoperated system for live-line maintenance developed for the IBERDROLA electrical utility. Its aim is to increase the safety and comfort of the workers and the overall efficiency, as well as to reduce labour requirements. Its design is based on other already developed systems but with a new approach. It consists of a pair of hydraulic-driven master-slave teleoperated manipulators, placed on top of an insulated boom, which execute directly on the hot line, the tasks commanded via master arms by an operator on the ground. Telepresence of the operator is accomplished through a 3-D vision system, a multimedia interface and the force-feedback capabilities of the manipulators. This paper describes in detail all these elements, as well as the teleoperation architecture that interface them, with special attention to the telepresence issues which seem to lack in similar systems.

Remote control laboratory via Internet using Matlab and Simulink

This article describes the general architecture and application of a remote laboratory for teaching control theory based in Matlab/Simulink. The proposed system allows solving the time and spatial limitations of laboratories that rely on real physical systems used in control courses. In this way, control lab assignments with various physical processes present in the remote laboratories can be performed. Also, some examples that show the validity and applicability of the presented architecture are introduced.

Remote Control Laboratory Using Matlab and Simulink

In this paper, a teaching application for remote real-time execution of physical process controllers is presented. This application has been developed using the platform Matlab/Simulink. The motivation of this work is based on the little availability of real physical systems or laboratories to perform the experiments in control courses. In this way, control lab assignments with various physical processes present in the remote laboratories can be performed. Also, some examples that show the validity and applicability of the presented architecture are introduced.

Automated real-time visual inspection system for high-resolution superimposed printings

This paper describes an automatic real-time inspection system of printed products. This system has been applied to the inspection of objects having superimposed printings with different reference systems at high resolution, that is, there are not two identical products. The automation of this process is particularly critical and its solution is highly complex. The techniques employed are based on a combination of various disciplines, allowing a compromise between resolution and processing speed. In this way, disciplines such as morphological processing, subpixel accuracy, scheduling techniques, parallel processing, etc. are incorporated.

Automatic inspection for phase-shift reflection defects in aluminum web production

Industrial inspection problems usually require specific and highly complex solutions that can be implemented at a reasonable cost, what has produced a great research and development effort in the field of computer vision. Among these problems, inspection systems for continuous feed production (named as “web-inspection”), are those that raise the main challenges for the researchers exceeding the current systems capacity. Manual inspection, that is still being used in many cases, does not allow to reach detection guarantees, accuracy, robustness and a high volume that are required in web-based manufacturing.

3D inspection system for manufactured machine parts

This paper presents a new system for inspecting 3D manufactured machine parts with high accuracy. The system focuses on two main aspects: a definition of specific tools for inspection and 3D measurement and high flexibility for feature selection. As a result, a novel system for inspecting objects with 3D characteristics has been developed. The input information is a complete knowledge of the inspection workbench setting (elements, characteristics and resolution ranges) and a CAD model of the part to be inspected. Using an interactive interface, the user may define the features to inspect and the precision required for each one. Some of the operations the system performs are dimensional control with subpixel accuracy, surface inspection and object edge finish. Based on the CAD model and the features to inspect the system automatically designs an inspection planning responsible for managing the difference resources involved in the inspection process. Provided that the aim of the system is to obtain the greatest possible accuracy, a great effort has been done in the area of mechanical devices and camera calibration. Also, in order to quantify the goodness of the results obtained, an uncertainty propagation strategy has been carried out throughout the measurement process.

Obstacle Avoidance for Teleoperated Robots for Live Power Lines Maintenance, Using Artificial Vision

Abstract Nowadays uninterrupted power supply has become a must for electrical companies, due to the increasing technological advances, present in our society, that lead to higher demands of electricity. This strong need is obliging the electrical companies to develop processes and techniques for outage-free maintenance of electrical power supply, whose major application lies in aerial distribution lines. In these conventional techniques workers have to do their job on a live electrical power line indirectly, with various kinds of hot-sticks or directly touching the line with rubber-insulated gloves. Therefore, work is performed in a hazardous environment with both, the risk of electric shock and the danger of falling from a high place. In addition, workers have to be very skilled and work cooperatively under very demanding tasks. For all these reasons, the European Community foresees the suppression of this operation in a short term. This paper presents a teleoperated system, developed at DISAM*, capable of performing electrical power lines maintenance and inspection, tasks. The general features of the project are explained, paying special attention to the artificial vision system, which is an obstacle avoidance system capable of preventing collisions between robots and the electric cable. Such a system is the result of several years of research on computer vision

Distributed platform for the control of the Wifibot robot through internet

Abstract This paper presents a distributed platform composed of a team of mobile robots so that they can be controlled by the students through Internet. With this platform, a remote environment is created so that the students can carry out different experiments over several available equipments in the lab, with a flexible schedule. This way, the student can design and test different control algorithms and experience over the mobile robots in the laboratory. Currently, there are 3 kinds of robots available; each one is accessible by the students for monitoring and supervision tasks and also for control tasks using a common interface of communication, in a transparent way from the point of view of the user.

Advances in natural language interaction in mobile robots used for practice education

This paper presents a proposal for the development of laboratory assignments about the design and implementation of advanced interfaces for mobile robots using speech recognition. In these assignments, the main objective is the analysis of the possibilities for using speech interfaces as a complementary system for other interaction components with a mobile robot, such as artificial vision. The paper also describes how to develop introductory practical works to the analysis and implementation of intelligent dialogue for mobile robots

Teleoperated system for live power lines maintenance

Outage-free maintenance of electrical power lines have been developed and used throughout the years. In these techniques workers have to work near energized components with hazard of electric shock and falls. In this context, a teleoperator system is being developed to increase the safety of the workers and the overall efficiency. It counts with two hydraulic-driven master-slave teleoperated manipulators on top of an insulated boom over a truck. The operator commands the manipulators from a cabin on the truck via a pair of master arms, and it receives visual feedback through a stereo vision system. Multimedia display, voice recognition and synthesis, stereo vision and force-feedback are some of the features being implemented in order to achieve telepresence of the operator. The paper addressed the implementation of these features on a teleoperation system prepared to work in a semi-structured hazardous environment performing repair and maintenance related tasks.