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In contemporary warehouse logistics, the demand for efficient and precise inventory management is increasingly critical, yet traditional Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-based systems often falter due to static antenna configurations that limit tag detection efficacy in complex environments with diverse object arrangements. Addressing this challenge, we introduce an advanced RFID-based inventory robot that integrates a 3-degree-of-freedom (3DOF) manipulator with vision-assisted dynamic antenna positioning to optimize tag detection performance. This autonomous system leverages a pretrained You Only Look Once (YOLO) model to detect objects in real time, employing forward and inverse kinematics to dynamically orient the RFID antenna toward identified items. The manipulator subsequently executes a tailored circular scanning motion, ensuring comprehensive coverage of each object’s surface and maximizing RFID tag readability. To evaluate the system’s efficacy, we conducted a comparative analysis of three scanning strategies: (1) a conventional fixed antenna approach, (2) a predefined path strategy with preprogrammed manipulator movements, and (3) our proposed vision-assisted dynamic positioning method. Experimental results, derived from controlled laboratory tests and Gazebo-based simulations, unequivocally demonstrate the superiority of the dynamic positioning approach. This method achieved detection rates of up to 98.0% across varied shelf heights and spatial distributions, significantly outperforming the fixed antenna (21.6%) and predefined path (88.5%) strategies, particularly in multitiered and cluttered settings. Furthermore, the approach balances energy efficiency, consuming 22.1 Wh per mission—marginally higher than the fixed antenna (18.2 Wh) but 9.8% less than predefined paths (24.5 Wh). By overcoming the limitations of static and preprogrammed systems, our robot offers a scalable, adaptable solution poised to elevate warehouse automation in the era of Industry 4.0.

Electromagnetic (EM) metasurfaces are essential in a wide range of EM engineering applications, from incorporated into antenna designs to separate devices like radome. Near-field manipulators are a class of metasurfaces engineered to tailor an EM source’s radiation patterns by manipulating its near-field components. They can be made of all-dielectric, hybrid, or all-metal materials; however, simultaneously delivering a set of desired specifications by an all-metal structure is more challenging due to limitations of a substrate-less configuration. The existing near-field phase manipulators have at least one of the following limitations; expensive dielectric-based prototyping, subject to ray tracing approximation and conditions, narrowband performance, costly manufacturing, and polarization dependence. In contrast, we propose an all-metal wideband phase correcting structure (AWPCS) with none of these limitations and is designed based on the relative phase error extracted by post-processing the actual near-field distributions of any EM sources. Hence, it is applicable to any antennas, including those that cannot be accurately analyzed with ray-tracing, particularly for near-field analysis. To experimentally verify the wideband performance of the AWPCS, a shortened horn antenna with a large apex angle and a non-uniform near-field phase distribution is used as an EM source for the AWPCS. The measured results verify a significant improvement in the antenna’s aperture phase distribution in a large frequency band of 25%.

Multimodal orbital angular momentum is a research hotspot in the field of electromagnetic wave communication. How to accurately detect and identify multimodal orbital angular momentum data is a current academic problem. Based on the theory of mechanically reconfigurable arrays and neural networks, the purity, detection method, and transmission and reception of orbital angular momentum vortex waves are modeled in this paper. Through the network identification of the dynamic model of the three-degree-of-freedom reconfigurable manipulator, the paper takes the identification result and the control input of the single neuron PID as the input of the system control torque of the manipulator and realizes the reconfigurable manipulator. In the simulation process, the local approximation effect of the nonlinear control system used is very ideal. The single neuron PID controller overcomes the shortcomings of time-consuming and unsatisfactory control accuracy caused by the constant parameter of the traditional PID controller and realizes the circular loop. On the other hand, at the point of interest of the human eye, its resolution value is the largest, and its value gradually decreases as the distance from the pit increases. The experimental results show that the three-transmitting and three-receiving orbital angular momentum vortex wave transceiver system based on the mechanically reconfigurable array and neural network theory is relatively complete, and the transmission coefficient between the same modes reaches 0.827, which is much higher than that between different modes. On this basis, the modal purity, detection method, and reception of orbital angular momentum are studied accordingly. At the same time, the damage to the microscopic particles can be greatly reduced. At the same time, the information delay is reduced to 8.25%, which effectively improves the isolation characteristics of different modal orbital angular momentum channels and promotes the communication transmission of multimodal signals.

Space robotic systems tend to be more flexible and equipped with some appendages, such as solar panels and communication antennas. The inevitable vibration in the flexible appendage will occur during space missions, and it in turn affects the attitude of the rigid base due to coupling dynamics. This study develops an assembly scheme for a dual-arm space robot with flexible appendages to assemble two modular components and to minimize the disturbance force caused by the manipulators to the base and flexible appendages. The assembly strategy consists of two stages, a preassembly stage which transports the two components to desired relative states, and a trajectory tracking stage to achieve the final assembly. In the first stage, based on a relative Jacobian matrix in the base frame, an optimal objective function is formulated in terms of the relative position and attitude errors between the two components. Thereby, more freedom of manipulators is released for minimizing disturbance forces. Notably, two virtual points are created to describe the relative position between the two components. In the second stage, two components are driven to follow a relative trajectory for the final assembly with an unchanged relative attitude. Finally, numerical simulations are conducted to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed assembly strategy.

Wideband and multifunction operation for THz polarization manipulating devices has been desired for a wide range of applications. In this paper, a novel wideband transmissive type polarization manipulator based on metasurfaces is proposed in the THz region. The designed metasurface acts as a multifunctional polarization manipulator, performing linear to circular polarization conversion (LCPC) for relative bandwidth 43.9% (0.94 THz to 1.47 THz) for incident x/y polarizations and a wideband bandpass filter with relative bandwidth 67% (0.713 THz to 1.4346 THz) for incident slant (xy) polarizations. Wideband LCPC operation is achieved using a unique diagonal symmetric structure based on a bilayered metasurface. In order to confirm the validation of proposed results, electromagnetic simulation was carried out in two industry-standard software packages, HFSS and CST, using frequency domain and time domain solvers, respectively. Close agreement between numerical results depicts the validity and reliability of the proposed design. Polarized wave trajectory, equivalent microscopic circuit, physical mechanisms, and impact of different geometrical parameters on the performance is investigated. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first polarization manipulator based on bilayered metasurfaces. The same structure can be used as for LCPC and the transmit reject filter for THz wireless communication, including THz satellite communications, the future of communication. Moreover, they can be used in THz imaging and biomolecular control devices.

In this paper, a method to control one degree of freedom lightweight flexible manipulators is investigated. These robots have a single low-frequency and high amplitude vibration mode. They hold actuators with high friction, and sensors which are often strain gauges with offset and high-frequency noise. These problems reduce the motion’s performance and the precision of the robot tip positioning. Moreover, since the carried payload changes in the different tasks, that vibration frequency also changes producing underdamped or even unstable time responses of the closed-loop control system. The actuator friction effect is removed by using a robust two degrees of freedom PID control system which feeds back the actuator position. This is called the inner loop. After, an outer loop is closed that removes the link vibrations and is designed based on the combination of the singular perturbation theory and the input-state linearization technique. A new controller is proposed for this outer loop that: (1) removes the strain gauge offset effects, (2) reduces the risk of saturating the actuator due to the high-frequency noise of strain gauges and (3) achieves high robustness to a change in the payload mass. This last feature prompted us to use a fractional-order PD controller. A procedure for tuning this controller is also proposed. Simulated and experimental results are presented that show that its performance overcomes those of PD controllers, which are the controllers usually employed in the input-state linearization of second-order systems.

In this work the position, velocity and acceleration analyses of a four-degrees-of-freedom serial manipulator are approached mainly by means of the theory of screws. Closed-form solutions are easily obtained for the displacement analysis of the mechanism owing the decoupled action of the generalized coordinates, while the input-output equations of velocity and acceleration of the manipulator are systematically obtained by means of the theory of screws. A case study is included with the purpose to exemplify the application of the method.

In this work a new nonoverconstrained redundant decoupled robot, free of compound joints, formed from three parallel manipulators, with two moving platforms and provided with six active limbs connected to the fixed platform, called LinceJJP, is presented. Interesting applications such as multi-axis machine tools with parallel kinematic architectures, solar panels, radar antennas, and telescopes are available for this novel spatial mechanism.

This paper introduces the new Large Antenna Positioning System (LAPS) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). For the last eight years NIST has been pioneering the use of robotics for antenna measurements. Starting with the development and integration of the Configurable Robotic Millimeter-Wave Antenna (CROMMA) facility. CROMMA was designed to be reconfigurable to different near-field antenna measurement geometries and perform antenna measurements from 100 to 500 GHz. Probe position repeatability of 25 μm was achieved using coordinate metrology feedback. However, the single-robotic-armed CROMMA was restricted to small antennas. To overcome this limitation, NIST developed the concept of a dual-robot system with one fixed and the other mounted on a large linear rail slide. Using characterization of the robotic arm joints and segments, the LAPS will have open loop probe position accuracies of 200 μm to facilitate antenna measurements up to 30 GHz.