Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the biannual Robot Show in Chicago with emphasis on innovative robot applications on display. Design/methodology/approach – The approach takes the form of in‐depth interviews with exhibitors of robots as well as system integrators who apply...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the National Plastics Exposition 2009, Plastics Show held in Chicago, IL, with emphasis on robots, end‐of‐arm‐tooling and their application in the plastics industry. Design/methodology/approach – The approach takes the form of in‐depth...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of recent developments in miniaturised flying robots. Design/methodology/approach – Following a brief consideration of micro‐ and nano‐aerial vehicles, the paper discusses recent US and European research into the development of...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a suitable motion control method for omni‐directional mobile robots (OMRs) based on anisotropy. Design/methodology/approach – A dynamic modeling method for OMRs based on the theory of vehicle dynamics is proposed. By analyzing the driving...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to establish a model‐based framework allowing the simulation, analysis and optimization of friction stir welding (FSW) processes of metallic structures using industrial robots, with a particular emphasis on the assembly of aircraft components made of...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to maximize the speed of industrial robots by obtaining the minimum‐time trajectories that satisfy various constraints commonly given in the application of industrial robots. Design/methodology/approach – The method utilizes the dynamic model of the...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a novel image‐labeling CMOS sensor for modulated marker detection. Design/methodology/approach – An image scene with multiple objects, each identified by a flashing light‐emitting diode (LED), is captured by the sensor. The LED's...

Purpose – The recognition and positioning of start welding position (SWP) is the first step and one of the key technologies to realize autonomous robot welding. The purpose of this paper is to describe a method developed to accomplish successful autonomous detection and guiding of SWP....

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose two simple tools for the kinematic characterization of hexapods. The paper also aims to share the experience of converting a popular commercial motion base (Stewart‐Gough platform, hexapod) to an industrial robot for use in heavy duty...

Purpose – Quality control of arc welding process is the key component in robotic welding system. The purpose of this paper is to address vision‐sensing technology and model‐free adaptive control (MFC) of weld pool size during automatic arc welding system. Design/methodology/approach –...