Purpose This paper aims to discuss, analyze and compare members of a group of actuators with adjustable stiffness, namely: AwAS, AwAS-II and CompACT variable stiffness actuator (VSA) developed at Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). Design/methodology/approach These actuators are among series...

Purpose – This paper aims to propose a paradigm of case-supported principle-based behavior (CPB) to help ensure ethical behavior of autonomous machines. The requirements, methods, implementation and evaluation components of the CPB paradigm are detailed. Design/methodology/approach – The...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a robotic motion compensation system, using ultrasound images, to assist orthopedic surgery. The robotic system can compensate for femur movements during bone drilling procedures. Although it may have other applications, the system was thought...

Purpose This paper aims to propose and formulate a complicated routing/scheduling problem for multiple automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in a manufacturing system. Design/methodology/approach Considering the due date of AGVs requiring for material handling among shops in a jobshop layout, their...

Purpose – This paper, a “Q&A interview” conducted by Joanne Pransky of Industrial Robot Journal , aims to impart the combined technological, business and personal experience of a prominent, robotic industry engineer-turned entrepreneur regarding the evolution, commercialization and...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the importance of redesigning, reusing, remanufacturing, recovering, recycling and reducing (6R) to sustainable manufacturing and discuss the general procedure to reconfigure robots. Two critical challenges in adopting industrial robots in small...

Purpose – This paper aims to present the design of a modular robot with 3D-printing technology. Design/methodology/approach – The robot consists of a number of autonomous modules coupled by magnetic interfaces. Each module combines 3D-printed mechanical parts with widely available standard...

Purpose – The problem of robotic co-manipulation is often addressed using impedance control based methods where the authors seek to establish a mathematical relation between the velocity of the human-robot interaction point and the force applied by the human operator (HO) at this point. This...

Purpose – This paper aims to provide an insight into the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in robotics. Design/methodology/approach – Following an introduction to AI, this paper provides an overview of the application of AI to robotics. Mobile robots are then discussed, together with the...