This article assesses the benefits of implementing a dual-arm robot in a flow shop manufacturing cell. Such a robot has the ability to tend (unload or load) to two adjacent machines simultaneously. This significantly changes the analysis required to find sequences of robot actions that maximize...

Animals and humans engage in an enormous variety of behaviors which are orchestrated through a complex interaction of physical and informational processes: The physical interaction of the bodies with the environment is intimately coupled with informational processes in the animal's brain. A...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the locomotion performance of all‐terrain rovers employing rocker‐type suspension system. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, a robot with advanced mobility features is presented and its locomotion performance is evaluated,...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a novel approach to the design of an autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to aid with the internal inspection and classification of tall or large structures. Focusing mainly on the challenge of robustly determining the position and velocity...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the fundamental concept of Honda's robotized friction stir welding (FSW) technology, its implementation to mass produced vehicles and the future impact on the automobile industry. Design/methodology/approach – Based on an interview with...

Purpose – The Durable Reconnaissance and Observation Platform (DROP) is a prototype robotic platform with the ability to climb vertical cinder block surfaces at a rate of 25 cm/s, make rapid horizontal to vertical transitions, carry an audio/visual reconnaissance payload, and survive impacts...

Purpose – Using a bottom‐up, model‐free approach when building robots is often seen as a less scientific way, compared to a top‐down model‐based approach, because the results are not easily generalizable to other systems. The authors, however, hypothesize that this problem may be...