The research of robotic autonomous radioactivity detection or radioactive source search plays an important role in the monitoring and disposal of nuclear safety and biological safety. In this paper, a method for autonomously searching for radioactive sources through mobile robots was proposed. In the method, by using a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP), the search of autonomous unknown radioactive sources was realized according to a series of radiation information measured by mobile robot. First, the factors affecting the accuracy of radiation measurement during the robot’s movement were analyzed. Based on these factors, the behavior set of POMDP was designed. Secondly, the parameters of the radioactive source were estimated in the Bayesian framework. In addition, through the reward strategy, autonomous navigation of the robot to the position of the radiation source was achieved. The search algorithm was simulated and tested, and the TurtleBot robot platform was used to conduct a real search experiment on the radio source Cs-137 with an activity of 37 MBq indoors. The experimental results showed the effectiveness of the method. Additionally, from the experiments, it could been seen that the robot was affected by the linear velocity, angular velocity, positioning accuracy and the number of measurements in the process of autonomous search for the radioactive source. The proposed mobile robot autonomous search method can be applied to the search for lost radioactive sources, as well as for the leakage of substances (nuclear or chemical) in nuclear power plants and chemical plants.

Purpose: This paper aims to present a method to improve the sensitive and low probabilities of false alarm of a manipulator in a human–robot interaction environment, which can improve the performance of the system owing to non-linear uncertainty in the model of the robot controller. Design/methodology/approach: A novel collision detection method based on adaptive residual estimation is proposed, promoting the detection accuracy of the collision of the manipulator during operation. First, a general momentum residual estimator is designed to incorporate the non-linear factors of the manipulator (e.g. joint friction, speed and acceleration) into the residual-related uncertainty of the model. Second, model parameters are estimated through gradient correction. The residual filter is used to determine the dynamic threshold, resulting in higher detection accuracy. Finally, the performance of the residual estimation scheme is evaluated by comparing the dynamic threshold with residual in real-time experiments where a single Universal Robot 5 robot end–effector collides with the obstacle. Findings: Experimental results demonstrate that the collision detection system can improve sensitivity and lead to low probabilities of false alarm of non-linear uncertainty in the model. Practical implications: The method proposed in this article can be applied to industry and human–robot interaction area. Originality/value: An adaptive collision detection method is proposed in this paper to address non-linear uncertainties of the model in industrial application.

This paper presents a study on controlling the out-of-water motion of amphibious multi-rotor UAVs using a cascade control method based on the Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) algorithm. The aim is to overcome the challenges of time-varying model parameters and complex external disturbances. The research involves developing an underwater dynamic model and analyzing hydrodynamic forces to calculate theoretical inertial hydrodynamic forces and simulate viscous hydrodynamic forces. This establishes the relationship between viscous hydrodynamic forces and exit velocity. A complete air dynamic model is then established, selecting model parameters based on the center of mass position of the amphibious vehicle to enable switching from water to air. To address control algorithm instability caused by changes in model parameters, position and attitude controllers are built using the ADRC algorithm. The control effects are compared with traditional PID and sliding mode controllers (SMC) to verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed cascade ADRC control strategy. Experimental results show that our controller has stronger anti-interference than traditional PID and SMC controllers and can overcome control instability caused by changes in model parameters. Our research highlights the importance of using ADRC-based controllers for amphibious multi-rotor UAVs to achieve robust and stable control.

When a quadruped robot is climbing stairs, due to unexpected factors, such as the size of the differing from the international standard or the stairs being wet and slippery, it may suddenly fall down. Therefore, solving the self-recovery problem of the quadruped robot after falling is of great significance in practical engineering. This is inspired by the self-recovery of crustaceans when they fall; the swinging of their legs will produce a resonance effect of a specific body shape, and then the shell will swing under the action of external force, and self-recovery will be achieved by moving the center of gravity. Based on the bionic mechanism, the kinematics model of a one-leg swing and the self-recovery motion model of a falling quadruped robot are established in this paper. According to the established mathematical model, the algorithm training environment is constructed, and a control strategy based on the reinforcement learning algorithm is proposed as a controller to be applied to the fall self-recovery of quadruped robots. The simulation results show that the quadruped robot only takes 2.25 s to achieve self-recovery through DDPG on flat terrain. In addition, we compare the proposed algorithm with PID and LQR algorithms, and the simulation experiments verify the superiority of the proposed algorithm.