This video shows the main features of Hammer, a tablet-based end-user interface for industrial robot programming, in a real environment: a robotic cell created for the Hephestos European project. Hammer is an Android application that makes easier to program tasks for industrial robots like polishing, milling or grinding. It is based on the Scratch programming language, but specifically design and created for Android OS. It is a visual programming concept that allows non-skilled operators to create programs. The application allows to monitor the tasks while it is being executed by overlapping real time information through augmented reality. The application includes a teach pendant screen that can be customized according to the operator needs at every moment. The application is designed for online programming and reprogramming; easy use of learn-by-demonstration methods; easy connection with the robot control and sensors systems; and safety-system integration. It aims to be intuitive, easy to use, and simple. The application has four main parts: customized teach pendant, robot programming IDE and simulator, manual-guidance interface and augmented-reality-based-monitoring system.

In this paper, an Expert-Guided Kinodynamic RRT algorithm (EGK-RRT) is presented. It aims to consider how a human pilot would navigate a kinodynamic robot. One of the characteristics of this algorithm is the fact that, unlike the original RRT for kinodynamic systems, it generates deterministic control sequences which can be reproduced as long as the sequence of references (sampled states) are known. Here, the performance of the proposed algorithm is tested against the basic RRT, showing that the EGK-RRT greatly improves in terms of execution speed. In addition to this, the influence of using a visibility check and an inertia estimation in order to select the nearest neighbor is also analyzed, demonstrating that a combination of both factors leads to a better overall performance, both in execution speed and in quality of the generated path.

A 2 degrees of freedom module for pipe inspection modular micro-robots based on servomotors is presented in this article. A mechanical and electrical description of the module is also given, including the kinematics and the close control loop design to detect obstacles (walls). The main configurations in which it can be used are described as well: snake-like robots and chain multi-configurable modular robots. The different pipes and elbows it can move on are also shown

The inspection of low diameter pipes is a subject of great complexity due to the small operation environment in which the tasks must be developed. Besides, the construction of microrobots for specific pipe inspection is too expensive. In this article, a modular multiconfigurable architecture is presented. The fact of being modular and multiconfigurable makes it capable of performing different tasks and to adjust to different pipes and environments. Different types of modules that can be combined to form a whole microrobot and a control and communication system are also presented.

Although extensive work about robot path planning has been carried out, there is still a need for fast, practical and general-purpose motion planners. New applications of robots, outside the known and fixed environment of a factory, will increase the need for such planners. In these situations it will be necessary to cope with very variable and complex environments and with direct human interaction. A new approach for n-degree-of-freedom robot motion planning, based on the concept of visibility tetrahedra and the use of genetic algorithms combined with local search methods, is presented in this paper. The proposed approach has been successfully tested over several selected experiments, obtaining fast planning even for complex situations.

Well known collision avoiding approaches used in automatic robot path planning are also applied in teleoperation systems when moving in hazardous environments. In such cases, it is very useful to define forbidden zones in order to avoid dangerous situations for both the equipment and the operator. An efficient collision detection algorithm, based on the generation of virtual forces, which avoids dangerous situations in teleoperated robots, is presented. Whenever the operator moves the robot to a predefined forbidden zone, the algorithm will generate a virtual force on the human operator arm in real time, not allowing the operator to keep further with the movement. The algorithm has been successfully applied to a robot system for live-line maintenance (ROBTET) substituting the time consuming operation of the placement of insulated covers by a software protection. By this approach, short-cuts and any unwanted collision are immediately avoided.

Outage-free maintenance of electrical power lines has been conducted throughout the years in order to fulfil the increasing demand of uninterrupted power supply. In these techniques care regarding electric shock and falls must be exercised while the work is performed on or near energized elements. In order to increase the safety and comfort of the workers as well as the overall efficiency, a teleoperated system for live-line maintenance, called ROBTET, has been developed for the electrical utility IBERDROLA. ROBTET is described in detail in the paper. It has 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, while he receives visual feedback through a vision system. Multimedia display, voice commands, stereo vision and force-feedback are some of the new features implemented in order to achieve the required telepresence of the operator and hence increase the performance of the system.