Body schema, a sensorimotor representation of the body used for planning and executing movements, is plastic because it extends by using a tool to reach far objects. Modifications of peripersonal space, i.e., a functional representation of reach space, usually co-occur with body schema changes. Here, we hypothesized that such plastic changes depend on the experience of controlling the course of events in space trough one’s own actions, i.e., the sense of agency. In two experiments, body schema and peripersonal space were assessed before and after the participants’ sense of agency over a virtual hand was manipulated. Body schema and peripersonal space enlarged or contracted depending on whether the virtual hand was presented in far space, or closer to the participants’ body than the real hand. These findings suggest that body schema and peripersonal space are affected by the dynamic mapping between intentional body movements and expected consequences in space.

In this paper, authors present a novel architecture for controlling an industrial robot via an eye tracking interface for artistic purposes. Humans and robots interact thanks to an acquisition system based on an eye tracker device that allows the user to control the motion of a robotic manipulator with his gaze. The feasibility of the robotic system is evaluated with experimental tests in which the robot is teleoperated to draw artistic images. The tool can be used by artists to investigate novel forms of art and by amputees or people with movement disorders or muscular paralysis, as an assistive technology for artistic drawing and painting, since, in these cases, eye motion is usually preserved.

In this paper, we present non-photorealistic rendering techniques that are applied together with a painting robot to realize artworks with original styles. Our robotic painting system is called Busker Robot and it has been considered of interest in recent art fairs and international exhibitions. It consists of a six degree-of-freedom collaborative robot and a series of image processing and path planning algorithms. In particular, here, two different rendering techniques are presented and a description of the experimental set-up is carried out. Finally, the experimental results are discussed by analyzing the elements that can account for the aesthetic appreciation of the artworks.

A core issue in collaborative robotics is that of impact mitigation, especially when collisions happen with operators. Passively compliant structures can be used as the frame of the cobot, although, usually, they are implemented by means of a single-degree-of-freedom (DoF). However, n-DoF preloaded structures offer a number of advantages in terms of flexibility in designing their behavior. In this work, we propose a comprehensive framework for classifying n-DoF preloaded structures, including one-, two-, and three-dimensional arrays. Furthermore, we investigate the implications of the peculiar behavior of these structures—which present sharp stiff-to-compliant transitions at design-determined load thresholds—on impact mitigation. To this regard, an analytical n-DoF dynamic model was developed and numerically implemented. A prototype of a 10DoF structure was tested under static and impact loads, showing a very good agreement with the model. Future developments will see the application of n-DoF preloaded structures to impact-mitigation on cobots and in the field of mobile robots, as well as to the field of novel architected materials.