Purpose – Active contour can describe target's silhouette accurately and has been widely used in image segmentation and target tracking. Its main drawback is huge computation that is still not well resolved. The purpose of this paper is to optimize the evolving path of active contour, to...

Purpose – The Group of Unmanned Assistant Robots Deployed in Aggregative Navigation by Scent (GUARDIANS) multi‐robot team is to be deployed in a large warehouse in smoke. The team is to assist firefighters search the warehouse in the event or danger of a fire. The large dimensions of the...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the local minima issue encountered in motion planning by the artificial potential field (APF) method, investigate the currently existing approaches and analyze four types of previous methods. Based on the conclusions of analysis, this paper...

Purpose – The paper aims to provide a review of the uses of robots in non‐destructive testing (NDT). Design/methodology/approach – Following a brief introduction, this paper considers the uses of robotic NDT, with an emphasis on applications in certain key industries. While some...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of simple expert systems to improve the performance of tele‐operated mobile robots and ultrasonic sensor systems. The expert systems interpret data from the joystick and sensors and identify potentially hazardous situations and then...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to solve the trajectory planning problem of industrial robots in a complex environment. Design/methodology/approach – A simultaneous algorithm was presented in which the trajectory was generated gradually as the robot moves. It takes into account the...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new manipulator structure to configure power‐assist devices in order to protect the operator from suffering musculoskeletal disorders. The mechanical structure and the control system along with their main features are presented....

Purpose – The paper aims to describe the design and development of an automated guided vehicle (AGV) that incorporates artificial intelligence techniques to increase its autonomy and flexibility. The aim is developing a flexible AGV that operates as a flexible material handling system (MHS) in...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of a robotic cleaning system for applying on the glass facade of the control tower at the Guangzhou Airport, in Guangzhou, China. Design/methodology/approach – Four similar robotic cleaning systems are designed for a reversed...