Purpose – This paper aims to present a novel localization scheme using infrared light reflecting artificial landmarks. Design/methodology/approach – By putting the infrared light reflecting landmarks on the ceiling, localization is achieved. The landmark is designed for effective recognition...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the control methods of the exoskeleton robotic arm for stroke rehabilitation. Design/methodology/approach – The robotic arm is driven by the pneumatic muscle actuators. The control system provides independent control for the robot. The joint...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to design an integrated localization system for mobile robots in underground environments for exploring and rescuing tasks after incidents and detection of hazard gas in tunnels before ingress. Design/methodology/approach – An integrated localization...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the design and fabrication of magnetic couplings to use for vacuum robots. The permanent magnetic coupling (PMC) is appropriate for torque transmission in ultrahigh vacuum and highly clean environments. However, conventional structures of PMC...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a new scout robot that tries to combine the hopping movement and the wheeling movement to greatly enlarge the scope of robot's activities. Design/methodology/approach – A five‐shank hopping mechanism was employed to build the...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present recent work designing a mechanical robotic hand for self‐adaptive grasping, human‐like appearance, which can be used in a humanoid robot. Conventional robotic devices are relatively complex, large, cumbersome and difficult to be installed...

Purpose – The weld seam detection is required for a welding robot to preplan the weld seam track before the actual welding. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this subject in natural lighting conditions. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents an efficient algorithm of...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce structured light image processing technology into pipeline welding automation projects, and develop a vision‐based pipeline girth‐welding robot. The welding torch can accurately track the weld and complete the omni‐orientation welding...