Development of a low-cost modular snake-like robot with 2-DOF modules for rescue operations in collapsed environments with fast communication

In order to make the coal mine snake-like robot can better perform search and rescue missions in different terrain environment, according to the characteristics of the snake like robot, a new front end actuator was designed. According to the faults of traditional snake like robot head only has sensor without actuator, The method of 4 degree of freedom is proposed as the front end effector, the hardware platform is built with ARM7-LPC2132 as the controller, L298N as the motor driving module and LCD screen 12864 as the man-machine interface. Through a wireless router WR703n Mortimer S608 camera data can be transferred to the host machine, By the wireless data transmission module the host machine can real-time control the lower machine, temperature measurement, smoke alarm, mechanical arm in addition to the barrier, which can complex terrain and a device field detection. The program is written with C and C# language. After debugging, the function of the clamping and handling of the obstacle etc. can be achieved. The wireless remote control distance can reach 100 meters, and the communication effect is stable and reliable. Introduction In recent years, coal mine disasters around the world, it is often accompanied by vigorous shaking of the ground and cracks in the ground. Make various types of buildings to collapse and damaging, making communication system disruption . Toxic and hazardous gas leaks, fires, plague, and leaks of radioactive material secondary disasters have caused the disaster, and all kinds of terrain. In the history of mankind, each disaster has brought us great damage, disaster relief work is particularly important, small and secondary disasters occurred in search-and-rescue stations, you need a flexible search and rescue equipment, to collect field data, so that we know the scene. Snake-like robot flexibility, you can work in narrow terrain such as collapsed buildings. Will make the next aid more targeted . With the rapid development of science and technology, leap in technology led to the development of intelligent, snake-like robot technology has attracted more and more attention, study of snake-like robot system has become the science of a dynamic, challenging front direction. The snake-like rescue robot using the snake’s movement, can adapt to a variety of complex terrain, especially after the earthquake, a mining disaster environment, they have many obstacles, terrain narrow, space environment hazards, risk factors such as easy to produce flammable gas, snake-like rescue robot can flexibly respond to these environments, complete the search and rescue mission, for search and rescue work to save valuable time. Mechanical Structure Design of Multi-joint of the Snake-like Robot In nature, snakes are vertebrates, its cones about 200-400 of Ridge spine, spine formation snake ball sleeve joint, and with projections, it prevents the body twist, and protect the notochord. The snake 2016 6th International Conference on Applied Science, Engineering and Technology (ICASET 2016) © 2016. The authors Published by Atlantis Press 0107 body musculoskeletal mechanics movement is very complex. In order to simplify the process, reduce costs, here the model of snake robot design consists of 9 modules, 8 joints, the simplified model is schematically shown in figure 1. And with the servos as the joints connecting piece, make its have XY plane winding motion and linear motion. Fig.1 implified model of the snake-like robot The 8 joint of the snake-like robot angle in accordance with sinusoidal approximation of change ,of which 4 joint can form an approximate sinusoidal waveform, 2 joint angle adjacent differs by 1/4 cycles. Each joint is sequentially contact and the ground, so that the snake like robot wavy forward. The movement form as shown in figure 2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Forward

Snake-like robots have been developing in recent decades, and various bio-inspired ideas are deployed in both the mechanical and locomotion aspects. In recent years, several studies have proposed state-of-the-art snake-like aerial robots, which are beyond bio-inspiration. The achievement of snake-like aerial robots benefits both aerial maneuvering and manipulation, thereby having importance in various fields, such as industry surveillance and disaster rescue. In this work, we introduce our development of the modular aerial robot which can be considered a snake-like robot with high maneuverability in flight. To achieve such flight, we first proposed a unique thrust vectoring apparatus equipped with dual rotors to enable three-dimensional thrust force. Then, a generalized modeling method based on dynamics approximation is proposed to allocate the wrench in the center-of-gravity (CoG) frame to thrust forces and vectoring angles. We further developed a generalized control framework that can handle both under-actuated and fully actuated models. Finally, we show the experimental results with two different platforms to evaluate the flight stability of the proposed snake-like aerial robot. We believe that the proposed generalized methods can provide a solid foundation for the snake-like aerial robot and its applications regarding maneuvering and manipulation in midair.

The long and thin snake-like robots have became popular for searching narrow spaces, such as debris of the collapsed buildings under the impact of large-scale disasters. Till now, most of the previous research efforts on snake-like robots have primarily focused on development of its mobility or its locomotion. In this research we present the development of a snake-like robot under remote control operation. The present paper gives a detailed description of the mechanism and the construction of the developed snake-like rescue robot KOHGA. This double headed snake-like rescue robot KOHGA can present an operator the image from the viewpoint of a robot's rear side by changing its form into scorpion shape mode. The usefulness of the scorpion mode is amply verified by performing several successful experiments.

Automation Highlights from the Literature

We have introduced the biomechanical research on snakes and developmental research on snake-like robots that we have been working on. We could not introduce everything we developed. There were also a smaller snake-like active endoscope; a large-sized snake-like inspection robot for nuclear reactor related facility, Koryu, 1 m in height, 3.5 m in length, and 350 kg in weight; and several other snake-like robots. Development of snake-like robots is still one of our latest research topics. We feel that the technical difficulties in putting snake-like robots into practice have almost been overcome by past research, so we believe that such practical use of snake-like robots can be realized soon.

Robot Operating System (ROS) is currently the most trending and popular robotic framework in the world, reaching critical mass and being the closest one to become the standard that the robotics community urgently needed. Snake-like robots are capable of different locomotion patterns to move in narrow spaces, even with uneven terrain or highly constrained environments such as tunnels or pipes. In a rescue mission after a disaster, a snake-like robot needs Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) to determine the robot’s posture in an unknown environment. In SLAM, robots incrementally build a consistent map of the environment while simultaneously determining its position and orientation within this map. An implementation of integrating a scan-matching based SLAM into a snake-like robot is proposed using ROS. Experiments show the validity of the method.

Nowadays tourists have high expectations on the service quality provided by travel agencies. In order to increase service quality, there is a growth of using mobile apps by travel agencies which enables tourists to navigate places of interest, traveling information and plan trips ahead time. Although travel agencies are willing to invest in mobile apps for customer experience enhancement, the potential of mobile tracking apps for manager is largely unexplored. In the provision of transportation services, travel agencies must obtain real-time, relevant trip status from the transportation service providers and relay the information to the tourist. This paper aims to review relevant literature in mobile vehicle tracking applications by searching online vendor markets (online store for Apple and Google Android) and journal database. Findings of literature review show there is a lack of mobile vehicle tracking apps which enables managers in travel agencies to obtain location-based information. In order to gather desired features of mobile vehicles tracking apps for travel agencies and issues faced by them, interviews were conducted with director and project manager of a reputable travel agency namely NCR Travel and Tours located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Interview findings show the issues identified are poor communication and time coordination between the manager, driver and tour guide due to lack of real time location-based information of the driver. Based on literature review and requirements provided by NCR, this study proposes key features of mobile vehicles tracking apps for travel agencies. The proposed mobile apps possess trip scheduling feature and it enables the manager to track location of the driver in real time based on pre-determined route. Google Maps Direction API is used to determine the best route and Firebase Realtime Database is used to communicate the trip status between manager and driver. A prototype is proposed, and user acceptance test are conducted in future work.

A practical robot for search and rescue operation is demanded. We believe that one of the most promising robot is a snake-like robot with a slim and active trunk. This paper proposes a new multi-wheeled snake-like robot with active elastic trunk. We choose active wheels for the propulsive device due to mechanical robustness and simplicity, and increase locomotion capability by serially arranging many active wheels along to the trunk. We also propose a new mechanism for the trunk which satisfies both active bending motion and passive compliance. The active elastic trunk consists of deformable elastic segments made of sponge and rigid (or semi-rigid) segments, where active wheel is attached, stacked in layers. The active bending motion is generated by pulling the cables passing through the trunk from the head to tail. We develop three prototypes named “Souryu-VII”, “Souryu-VIII” and “Souryu-IX”. The mechanical design and features for each prototypes are explained and their performances are evaluated through the experiments with various measures.

In recent years, skin spectral information has been gradually applied in various fields, such as the cosmetics industry and clinical medicine. However, the high price and the huge size of the skin spectrum measurement device make the related applications of the skin spectrum unable to be widely used in practical applications. We used convolutional neural network (CNN) to achieve a satisfying accuracy of the Fitzpatrick skin-type classification by using a simple self-developed device in 2018. Leveraging on the hardware, firmware, and software app-developing experience, a low-cost miniature skin spectrum measurement system (LMSSMS) using deep neural network (DNN) technology was further studied, and the feasibility of the system is verified in this paper. The developed LMSSMS is divided into three parts: (1) miniature skin spectrum measurement device (MSSMD), (2) DNN model, and (3) mobile app. The MSSMD was developed with innovative low-cost MSSC, 3D printing, and a simple LED light source. The DNN model is designed to enhance measurement accuracy. Finally, the mobile app is used to control and show the measurement results. The developed app also includes a variety of skin-spectrum-related applications, such as erythema index and melanin index (EI/MI) measurement, Fitzpatrick skin-type classification, Pantone SkinTone classification, sun-exposure estimation, and body-fat measurement. In order to verify the feasibility of LMSSMS, we used the standard instrumentation device as a reference. The results show that the accuracy of the LMSSMS can reach 94.7%, which also confirms that this development idea has much potential for further development.

As the fourth book in our series of iPhone Projects based on the work and experiences of iPhone, this volume takes on the more advanced aspects of iPhone development. The first generation of iPhone applications has hit the App Store, and now it's time to optimize performance, streamline the user interface, and make every successful iPhone app just that much more sophisticated. Paired with Apress's bestselling Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK, you'll have everything you need to create the next great iPhone app that everyone is talking about. Optimize performance. Streamline your user interface. Do things with your iPhone app that other developers haven't attempted. Along with Series Editor Dave Mark, your guides for this exploration of the next level of iPhone development, include: Ben Panda Smith, discussing particle systems using OpenGL ES Joachim Bondo , demonstrating his implementation of correspondence gaming in the most recent version of his chess application, Deep Green. Tom Harrington implementing streaming audio with Core Audio, one of many iPhone OS 3 APIs. Owen Goss debugging those pesky errors in your iPhone code with an eye toward achieving professional-strength results. Dylan Bruzenak building a data-driven application with SQLite. Ray Kiddy illustrating the full application development life cycle with Core Data. Steve Finkelstein marrying an offline eMail client to Core Data. Peter Honeder and Florian Pflug tackling the challenges of networked applications in WiFi environments. Jonathan Saggau improving interface responsiveness with some of his personal tips and tricks, including blocks and other esoteric techniques. Joe Pezzillo pushing the frontiers of APNS, the new in iPhone OS 3 Apple Push Notification Service that makes the Cloud the limit for iPhone apps. Noel Llopis taking mere programmers into a really advanced developmental adventure into the world of Environment Mapping with OpenGL ES. What you'll learn Use wi-fi to do more than simply connect to the Internet. Communicate with other iPhone users in real time. Take advantage of all the tricks built into Cocoa Touch. Convert your iPhone and iPod touch apps for use in other environments. Convert your other mobile apps for use with iPhone and iPod touch. Who is this book for? All iPhone application developers with any level of experience or coming from any development platform, though this title is the natural choice after any of the other iPhone X Projects books.

In recent decades, a lot of research has been done on snake-like robots. There has been a new revolution in theory and implementation of snake-like robots. It enlarges the field of robotic application. A literature survey of researches on snake-like robots theory is provided biomechanical studies of biological snakes, kinematics and dynamics modeling, control system analysis. The research theory results are elaborated systemically. In particular, control system is introduced ulteriorly, which are control based on morphology, kinematics and dynamics, CPG. Then classifications of typical snake-like robots are presented according to the differences of structures and movement types. Representative snake-like robot bodies are described targetedly in detail. Finally, the development of snake-like robots is predicted. The overview shows that the majority of literature on snake-like robots so far has focused on experiment instead of the real, but there is a growing trend towards locomotion in realistic environments that are more challenging in future.

Patient Center – A Mobile Based Patient Engagement Solution

From Bluetooth enabled hearing aids to robotic caretakers, wearable and smart devices industries are immensely contributing to the development of the healthcare industry with the help of Internet of Things (IoT). Latest technologies like Artificial Intelligence, 3D Printing, Big data, Machine Learning, Advanced Sensors, Mobile Applications and other technologies will continue to generate lot of opportunities for Medtech organizations. Some of the latest healthcare innovations practiced at present might have been seen or read by some of us only in science fiction movies or science fiction stories a long ago. Presently, IoT and Artificial Intelligence is creating a revolution in healthcare industry when it comes to diagnosis and treatment of varied diseases. From smartphones to robots, artificial intelligence is already making its presence felt in healthcare industry and as such it is progressively recognizing the transformative nature of IoT technologies which drives innovation in the development of connected medical devices. Gradual increase in the number of connected medical devices with the advent of technology advancements helps to capture and transmit medical related data wherever and whenever required to the concerned people and thus, it gave birth to the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), where the Internet of Things (IoT) and healthcare meet. The IoMT helps to constantly monitor and alter (if required) the behvaiour of the patient and his/her health status in real time and also supports healthcare organizations to effectively streamline clinical processes, patient information and related work flows to enhance its operational productivity. The IoMT has made and continues to make the delivery of P4 Medicine (Predictive, Preventive, Personalized and Participatory) even for remote locations with the help of connected sensors and devices helping in real-time patient care. IoMT helps doctors and caregivers to provide patient care and support by constantly monitoring data related to patients through mobile apps and connected medical devices even when patient(s) or doctor(s) are located at remote locations. This research paper discusses about six use cases explaining how IoMT is applied in healthcare industry.

3D printed airway simulators: Adding a dimension to bronchoscopy training.

Investigation of the light output of 3D-printed plastic scintillators for dosimetry applications