Cleaning Task Research Articles

Development of in-pipe robots for inspection and cleaning tasks

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the reviews of past research work on various in-pipe robotic systems and their operations. This investigation has been focussed on the implemented methodologies for performing in-pipe cleaning and inspection tasks. Design/methodology/approach This work has been concentrated on review of various sensors used in robots to perform in-pipes inspection operation for determining flaws/cracks, corrosion-affected areas, blocks and coated paint thickness. Various actuators like DC motors, servo motors, pneumatic operated and hydraulic operated are discussed in this review analysis to control the motion of various mechanical components of the robot. Findings In the current analysis, categorisation of various pipe cleaning robots according to their mechanical structure has been addressed. A lot of information has been gathered regarding the control of in-pipe robots for performing inspection and cleaning tasks. Originality/value In this paper, various in-pipe cleaning and inspection techniques have been studied. Necessary information provided regarding different types of in-pipe robots like PIG, wall-pressed, walking, wheel and inchworm. This investigation provides a through literature on various types of sensors like ultrasonic, magnetic, touch, light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, X-ray, etc., that have been used for inspection and detection of flaws in the pipe.

On a bio-inspired hybrid pheromone signalling for efficient map exploration of multiple mobile service robots

This paper presents a novel bio-inspired hybrid communication framework that incorporates the repelling behaviour of anti-aphrodisiac pheromones and attractive behaviour of pheromones for efficient map exploration of multiple mobile service robots. The proposed communication framework presents a scheme for robots to efficiently serve large areas of map, while cooperating with each other through proper pheromone deposition. This eliminates the need of explicitly programming each service robot to serve particular areas of the map. The paths taken by robots are represented as nodes across which pheromones are deposited. This reduces the search space for tracking pheromones and reduces data size to be communicated between robots. A novel pheromone deposition model is presented which takes into account the uncertainty in the robot's position. This eliminates robots to deposit pheromones at wrong places when localization fails. The framework also integrates the pheromone signalling mechanism in landmark-based Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) localization and allows the robots to capture areas or sub-areas of the map, to improve the localization. A scheme to resolve conflicts through local communication is presented. We discuss, through experimental and simulation results, two cases of floor cleaning task, and surveillance task, performed by multiple robots. Results show that the proposed scheme enables multiple service robots to perform cooperative tasks intelligently without any explicit programming.

Teaching Robots Generalisable Hierarchical Tasks Through Natural Language Instruction

Natural language provides a convenient means of communicating information, and as such, is an ideal medium for enabling nonexpert users to teach robots novel tasks. However, in order to take advantage of natural language, a series of challenges must first be overcome. These challenges include the need to a) generalize learnt tasks to novel scenarios without retraining, b) resolve problems encountered during task execution, and c) derive implicit information from knowledge about the domain. To solve these challenges, this paper presents a novel approach to learning complex hierarchical tasks through natural language instruction, which not only allows learnt tasks to be generalized to novel situations without the need for retraining, but also enables an agent to derive implicit information from domain knowledge. Additionally, the approach presented in this paper enables the agent to infer task properties, such as preconditions and effects, directly from the explanation of the task flow. The authors validate the approach by demonstrating an implementation of the algorithms both on a simulated agent, as well as a Baxter robot. In each case, the agent is provided with a small set of primitive tasks for manipulating its workspace. From these primitives, the authors demonstrate the ability to teach the agent increasing complex tasks, including tasks of table cleaning, solely through natural language instructions.

Use of Micro-Modulation Features in Large Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition Tasks

Most of the state-of-the-art ASR systems take as input a single type of acoustic features, dominated by the traditional feature schemes, i.e., MFCCs or PLPs. However, these features cannot model rapid, intra-frame phenomena present in the actual speech signals. On the other hand, micro-modulation components, inspired by the AM-FM speech model, can capture these important characteristics of spoken speech, resulting in significant performance improvements, as previously shown in small-vocabulary ASR tasks. Yet, they have limited use in large vocabulary ASR applications, where feature post-processing schemes are usually employed. To enable the successful application of these frequency measures in real-life tasks, we investigate their combination with the traditional Cepstral features when employing linear, e.g., HDA, and nonlinear, i.e., bottleneck neural net (BN), feature transforms. This feature combination is investigated in the context of the hybrid DNN-HMM framework, as well. The experimental results reveal that the integration of micro-modulation and Cepstral features, using neural nets, can greatly improve the ASR performance with respect to using the Cepstral features alone. We apply this novel feature extraction approach on different tasks, i.e., a clean speech task (DARPA-WSJ), the Aurora- 4 task and a real-life, open-vocabulary, mobile search task, the Speak4it, always reporting improved performance, while the obtained relative word error reduction ranges between 7%-21% depending on the task, e.g., a relative WER improvement of 18% for the Speak4it task, and similar improvements, up to 21%, for the WSJ task are reported.

An analytical ergonomic risk evaluation of body postures during daily cleaning tasks in horse stables.

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are a common reason for health problems and sick leave in many professions. A work arena where MSDs have not been sufficiently studied is stable work. Here many heavy and repetitive work tasks are performed manually with old-fashioned working tools. The aim of this study was to use an analytical approach to identify, evaluate and grade ergonomic problems in physical work performed during daily activities in horse stables and relate these to MSDs among the workers and to the design of the tools. Three common work tasks were studied to identify, evaluate and grade ergonomic problems; mucking out, sweeping and bedding replacement. Used methods were Hierarchical Task Analysis, Heuristic Evaluation and Rapid Entire Body Assessment. Several high-risk operations were found in mucking out boxes and disposal of bedding material. The problems consisted of awkward working postures such as a twisted and bent back, arms in an elevated position, wrists in extreme joint positions and handling of heavy loads. By using an analytical approach it is possible to identify presumptive ergonomic problems without extensive empirical research. In most high-risk operations, long-shafted tools or a wheelbarrow were used, which emphasize a need to develop tools with better ergonomic design to improve the working situation. The limitation is that the ergonomics problems found are not finally validated. The results show where deeper empirical research is needed, both regarding how MSDs occur and how tools and environment contribute to physical problems.

Simultaneous mobile sink allocation in home environments with applications in mobile consumer robotics

This paper presents a novel mobile sink area allocation scheme for consumer based mobile robotic devices with a proven application to robotic vacuum cleaners. In the home or office environment, rooms are physically separated by walls and an automated robotic cleaner cannot make a decision about which room to move to and perform the cleaning task. Likewise, state of the art cleaning robots do not move to other rooms without direct human interference. In a smart home monitoring system, sensor nodes may be deployed to monitor each separate room. In this work, a quad tree based data gathering scheme is proposed whereby the mobile sink physically moves through every room and logically links all separated sub-networks together. The proposed scheme sequentially collects data from the monitoring environment and transmits the information back to a base station. According to the sensor nodes information, the base station can command a cleaning robot to move to a specific location in the home environment. The quad tree based data gathering scheme minimizes the data gathering tour length and time through the efficient allocation of data gathering areas. A calculated shortest path data gathering tour can efficiently be allocated to the robotic cleaner to complete the cleaning task within a minimum time period. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can effectively allocate and control the cleaning area to the robot vacuum cleaner without any direct interference from the consumer. The performance of the proposed scheme is then validated with a set of practical sequential data gathering tours in a typical office/home environment.

1A1-R07 水圧モータの開発

A water hydraulic manipulator is useful for clean condition tasks and we are developing the 4 joints manipulator. But the manipulator has one rotating joint operated by electric power, it is needed to change water hydraulic power source. This paper reports the water hydraulic motor concept with 3 crank pistons and prototype device.

The Baby and the Bathwater: Hans Jonas's Recovery of Aristotelian Biological Concepts

The idiom referred to in the title, “don't throw out the baby with the bath water,” instructs us to keep what is essential and to only throw away what is inessential. Bathing babies has the well-being of the child in mind, the end result of which is cleanliness. Efficiency in the task of cleaning is secondary. No one would throw away a baby when draining the baby's bathwater. Somewhat analogously, science and philosophy each have the goal of the attainment of truth in mind. Part and parcel of this search for truth has been the attachment of being parsimonious, especially since William of Ockham. If the goal is truth, then one cannot get lost in the pursuit of parsimony, therefore losing the truth. The goal of finding the truth must remain intact; the method of parsimony at best remains subservient to the attainment of truth. Hans Jonas believed this regarding truth and pursued the criticism of reductive materialism as part and parcel of his research program in philosophy of biology and philosophical anthropology beginning in 1950. In his mind, reductive materialism, as it was practiced, involved the pursuit of parsimony at the cost of the truth through neglect of the purpose-driven conscious life of the subject. In this article, I expose and defend the recovery of certain elements of Aristotelian biology by Professor Hans Jonas. In the process, I show how Jonas was among the early authors writing on the philosophy of biology and defending ontological essentialism and purposefulness in organisms against reductive materialism and the relentless pursuit of the unity of the sciences. Along this line, I position Jonas among the arguments made regarding teleological explanations current in the philosophy of biology. First, I explain and defend Jonas's thesis that a full understanding of organisms requires recognizing an ontological essentialism regarding organisms. Secondly, I explain and defend Jonas's forward looking and backward looking teleological conceptions of activity insofar as it concurs directly with the conscious experience of life for humans, while situating it within the mainstream of philosophy of biology. Last, the importance of this recovery of Aristotelian concepts highlights Jonas's position as an early proponent of non-reductive materialism. More importantly, his thought forces us to recognize that in the pursuit of truth we must use parsimony well. We should take extreme care to preserve the truth; we should not throw out the baby with the bath water.

0120 Cleaning tasks and respiratory, dermatological and musculoskeletal symptoms among custodians using traditional and green cleaners

ObjectivesAs part of a larger study investigating the transition from traditional to green cleaners, we sought to investigate the relationships between cleaning tasks and respiratory, dermatological and musculoskeletal symptoms among...

Airborne exposures to monoethanolamine, glycol ethers, and benzyl alcohol during professional cleaning: a pilot study.

A growing body of epidemiologic evidence suggests an association between exposure to cleaning products and respiratory dysfunction. Due to the lack of quantitative assessments of respiratory exposures to airborne irritants and sensitizers among professional cleaners, the culpable substances have yet to be identified. Focusing on previously identified irritants, our aims were to determine (i) airborne concentrations of monoethanolamine (MEA), glycol ethers, and benzyl alcohol (BA) during different cleaning tasks performed by professional cleaning workers and assess their determinants; and (ii) air concentrations of formaldehyde, a known indoor air contaminant. Personal air samples were collected in 12 cleaning companies, and analyzed by conventional methods. Nearly all air concentrations [MEA (n = 68), glycol ethers (n = 79), BA (n = 15), and formaldehyde (n = 45)] were far below (<1/10) of the corresponding Swiss occupational exposure limits (OEL), except for ethylene glycol mono-n-butyl ether (EGBE). For butoxypropanol and BA, no OELs exist. Although only detected once, EGBE air concentrations (n = 4) were high (49.48-58.72mg m(-3)), and close to the Swiss OEL (49mg m(-3)). When substances were not noted as present in safety data sheets of cleaning products used but were measured, air concentrations showed no presence of MEA, while the glycol ethers were often present, and formaldehyde was universally detected. Exposure to MEA was affected by its amount used (P = 0.036), and spraying (P = 0.000) and exposure to butoxypropanol was affected by spraying (P = 0.007) and cross-ventilation (P = 0.000). Professional cleaners were found to be exposed to multiple airborne irritants at low concentrations, thus these substances should be considered in investigations of respiratory dysfunctions in the cleaning industry; especially in specialized cleaning tasks such as intensive floor cleaning.

Implementation of the Intelligent Voice System for Kazakh

Modern speech technologies are highly advanced and widely used in day-to-day applications. However, this is mostly concerned with the languages of well-developed countries such as English, German, Japan, Russian, etc. As for Kazakh, the situation is less prominent and research in this field is only starting to evolve. In this research and application-oriented project, we introduce an intelligent voice system for the fast deployment of call-centers and information desks supporting Kazakh speech. The demand on such a system is obvious if the country's large size and small population is considered. The landline and cell phones become the only means of communication for the distant villages and suburbs. The system features Kazakh speech recognition and synthesis modules as well as a web-GUI for efficient dialog management. For speech recognition we use CMU Sphinx engine and for speech synthesis- MaryTTS. The web-GUI is implemented in Java enabling operators to quickly create and manage the dialogs in user-friendly graphical environment. The call routines are handled by Asterisk PBX and JBoss Application Server. The system supports such technologies and protocols as VoIP, VoiceXML, FastAGI, Java SpeechAPI and J2EE. For the speech recognition experiments we compiled and used the first Kazakh speech corpus with the utterances from 169 native speakers. The performance of the speech recognizer is 4.1% WER on isolated word recognition and 6.9% WER on clean continuous speech recognition tasks. The speech synthesis experiments include the training of male and female voices.

Design and stability analysis of a novel wall-climbing robotic platform (ROPE RIDE)

This paper presents a novel robotic platform (ROPE RIDE: RObotic Platform Enabling Rope access In Dangerous Environment) to efficiently climb up various types of walls with the help of a rope ascender. A stability measure for a wall-climbing robotic platform is suggested in order to tactfully deal with detrimental effects of such disturbances on its mobile stability as obstacles on various types of walls or the interaction between its payload and environments. Based on the stability analysis, the wall-climbing robotic platform is systematically designed to ensure the mobile stability against external disturbances. The ROPE RIDE is subsequently constructed upon a rope ascender-based locomotion mechanism combined with the triangular tracks for smooth obstacle-climbing. In order to effectively maintain the adhesion to a wall during climbing up, two propeller thrusters are also adopted and a 1-DOF wall-cleaning unit using a ball–screw mechanism is installed as a payload to perform a cleaning task. The extensive experiments using the proposed ROPE RIDE on walls are carried out to demonstrate its superior capability of climbing up and cleaning walls of buildings.

Design of Structure and Drive System for Pneumatic Glass Curtain Wall Cleaning Robot

In order to improve the cleaning efficiency of curtain wall, a pneumatic robot is designed. The robot is consists of mobile system, adsorption system and cleaning system. The mobile system is a cross-shaped framework that is driven by the pneumatic system and moves mutually. Vacuum sucker scheme is adopted in the adsorption system. Cleaning brush is driven directly backward and forward by the cylinder. The adsorption and detachment of robot feet sucker, body movement and sequence control of the robot cleaning task are controlled by the PLC. The function that robot can clean glass curtain wall efficiently by the harmony operation is achieved.

Cookbooks, High-tech Kitchens, and Gender Culture: Addressing the Sugar and Spice in Contemporary Couple Relations

Cookbooks, High-tech Kitchens, and Gender Culture: Addressing the Sugar and Spice in Contemporary Couple Relations

Best practices in disinfection of noncritical surfaces in the health care setting: Creating a bundle for success

Because increasing evidence suggests that the environment plays a role in transmission of health care-associated infections, more attention is focusing on environmental cleaning and improving its efficacy. Creating and sustaining a successful cleaning and disinfection program should include several key components using a bundle approach and requires ongoing commitment within the institution.

Successful Endodontic Management Using Er,Cr:YSGG Laser Disinfection of Root Canal in a Case of Large Periapical Pathology

Total elimination of bacteria from infected root canal systems remains the most important objective of endodontic therapy. Biomechanical instrumentation of the root canal system has been suggested to achieve this task. However, because of the complexity of the root canal system, it has been shown that the complete elimination of debris and achievement of a sterile root canal system is still an ongoing challenge. The task of cleaning and disinfecting a root canal system which contains microorganisms gathered in a biofilm is very difficult; certain bacterial species become more virulent when harbored in biofilm, demonstrating stronger pathogenic potential and increased resistance to antimicrobial agents since biofilm has the ability to prevent the entry and action of such agents. The use of lasers in the field of endodontology represents an innovative approach to match these requirements. In general, dental lasers provide greater accessibility of formerly unreachable parts of the tubular network, due to their better penetration into dentinal tissues. The ability of lasers to remove smear layer and debris from the root canal wall and to open up the orifices of dentinal tubules can be exploited for disinfection of the root canal systems. This article describes the successful management of a case of lower anteriors with large periapical pathology. Er,Cr:YSGG laser was used as an adjunct to conventional root canal preparation that resulted in remarkable and faster healing of the periradicular lesion in lower anteriors.

Visual Recognition System for Cleaning Tasks by Humanoid Robots

In this study, we present a visual recognition system that enables a robot to clean a tabletop. The proposed system comprises object recognition, material recognition and ungraspable object detection using information acquired from a visual sensor. Multiple cues such as colour, texture and three-dimensional point-clouds are incorporated adaptively for achieving object recognition. Moreover, near-infrared (NIR) reflection intensities captured by the visual sensor are used for realizing material recognition. The Gaussian mixture model (GMM) is employed for modelling the tabletop surface that is used for detecting ungraspable objects. The proposed system was implemented in a humanoid robot, and tasks such as object and material recognition were performed in various environments. In addition, we evaluated ungraspable object detection using various objects such as dust, grains and paper waste. Finally, we executed the cleaning task to evaluate the proposed system's performance. The results revealed that the proposed system affords high recognition rates and enables humanoid robots to perform domestic service tasks such as cleaning.

Potential Sequential Exposures to 2-Butoxyethanol After Use of a Hard-Surface Cleaner

ABSTRACT Professional workers and consumers frequently use hard-surface cleaning products and these products may contain glycol ethers (GEs), such as 2-Butoxyethanol (2-BE). Governmental agencies have set exposure limits for some chemicals used in cleaning products and these exposure limits have been used as guides to protect human health. The study objectives were to determine realistic inhalation exposures for professional workers performing multiple, sequential cleaning tasks and compare the exposures to the acute reference exposure level (REL), which California established for 2-BE. The ConsExpo model was acceptable for evaluating exposure based on a comparison of its predictions to experimentally measured 2-BE vapor concentrations from hard-surface cleaning. The typical worker exposure was predicted for a cleaning scenario consisting of three bathrooms and three kitchens (or three bedrooms) in a 1-h period. This exposure scenario would not be expected to result in significant health consequences because the predicted exposure was much lower than the REL. The predicted chronic and aggregate exposures were also acceptable. This analysis identified two important variables that affect inhalation exposure: cleaners should be used with adequate ventilation and wet wiping towels should be properly disposed so that they are not a source of continuing exposure.

Compromised decision making and the effects of manipulating physical states on human judgments

Nonmorally based decision making between two equitable objects often involves degrading the unchosen object and promoting the chosen object ("postdecisional dissonance"). One can extinguish these thought processes with the physical act of hand-washing ("clean slate" effects; [Lee & Schwarz (2010). Washing away postdecisional dissonance. Science, 328, 709.]). However, clean slate effects might not characterize all nonmorally based decision making, particularly for people who mentally "get stuck" making decisions (i.e., compromised decision making). We administered a clean slate task to 48 undergraduates (64.6% females; mean = 21.34 years, standard deviation = 4.06 years; 75% Caucasian), and identified individuals reporting relatively high-compromised versus low-compromised decision making (e.g., self-reported repetitive thought processes and generalized anxiety symptoms). Only individuals reporting relatively high-compromised decision making continued to express postdecisional dissonance even after hand-washing. Behavioral markers of clean slate effects might result in identifying phenotypes associated with psychological concerns typified by compromised decision making.

Exposure to Grain Dust in Great Britain

Airborne grain dust is a complex mixture of fragments of organic material from grain, plus mineral matter from soil, and possible insect, fungal, or bacterial contamination or their toxic products, such as endotoxin. In the 1990s, grain workers in Britain were frequently exposed to inhalable dust >10 mg.m(-3) (8 h), with particularly high exposures being found at terminals where grain was imported or exported and in drying operations (personal exposure typically approximately 20 mg.m(-3)). Since then, the industry has made substantial progress in improving the control of airborne dust through better-designed processes, increased automation, and an improved focus on product quality. We have used information from the published scientific literature and a small survey of industry representatives to estimate current exposure levels. These data suggest that current long-term exposure to inhalable dust for most workers is on average less than approximately 3 mg.m(-3), with perhaps 15-20% of individual personal exposures being >10 mg.m(-3). There are no published data from Britain on short-term exposure during cleaning and other tasks. We have estimated average levels for a range of tasks and judge that the highest levels, for example during some cleaning activities and certain process tasks such as loading and packing, are probably approximately10 mg.m(-3). Endotoxin levels were judged likely to be <10⁴ EU m(-3) throughout the industry provided inhalable dust levels are <10 mg.m(-3). There are no published exposure data on mycotoxin, respirable crystalline silica, and mite contamination but these are not considered to present widespread problems in the British industry. Further research should be carried out to confirm these findings.