Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe a range of artificial muscle and soft gripping technologies for robotic applications. Design/methodology/approach – Following a short introduction, this paper first discusses the role of air muscles and other pneumatic actuation...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the methodology and the results on the design and development of an autonomous, golf ball picking robot, for driving ranges. Design/methodology/approach – The strategy followed to develop a commercial product is presented, based on prior...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to deal with a method for gesture encoding and reproduction, particularly aiming at a text‐to‐gesture (TTG) system that enables robotic agents to generate proper gestures automatically and naturally in human‐robot interaction....

Purpose – A walking assistant robot can help elderly people walk around independently, which could improve the life quality of the elderly and benefit our aging society. Ensuring the elderly person's walking comfort with such a robot is very important. At present, the majority of walking...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare the quality and efficiency of five methods for solving the path planning problem of industrial robots in complex environments. Design/methodology/approach – In total, five methods are presented for solving the path planning problem and...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to design an interactive industrial robotic system which can be used to assist a “layperson” in re‐casting a generic pick‐and‐place application. A user can program a pick‐and‐place application simply by pointing to objects in the work area...

Purpose – Friction stir welding (FSW) is a novel method for joining materials without using consumables and without melting the materials. The purpose of this paper is to present the state of the art in robotic FSW and outline important steps for its implementation in industry and specifically...

Purpose – So‐called humanoid robots, among a large class of service robots, are designed to work in close harmony with humans. Their anthropomorphism and its consequences have, however, been little studied. The purpose of this paper is to tackle this question by differentiating the...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the PACK EXPO show (packaging technology), with emphasis on the new robot innovations and applications to packaging on display. Design/methodology/approach – The paper includes in‐depth interviews with exhibitors of robots of all types and...