Energy harvesting (EH) technologies could lead to self-sustaining wireless sensor networks (WSNs) which are set to be a key technology in Industry 4.0. There are numerous methods for small-scale EH but these methods differ greatly in their environmental applicability, energy conversion characteristics, and physical form which makes choosing a suitable EH method for a particular WSN application challenging due to the specific application-dependency. Furthermore, the choice of EH technology is intrinsically linked to non-trivial decisions on energy storage technologies and combinatorial architectures for a given WSN application. In this paper we survey the current state of EH technology for small-scale WSNs in terms of EH methods, energy storage technologies, and EH system architectures for combining methods and storage including multi-source and multi-storage architectures, as well as highlighting a number of other optimisation considerations. This work is intended to provide an introduction to EH technologies in terms of their general working principle, application potential, and other implementation considerations with the aim of accelerating the development of sustainable WSN applications in industry.

In this paper, the Bees algorithm was used to train multi-layer perceptron neural networks to model the inverse kinematics of an articulated robot manipulator arm. The Bees Algorithm is a recently developed parameter optimisation algorithm that is inspired by the foraging behaviour of honey bees. The Bees Algorithm performs a kind of exploitative neighbourhood search combined with random explorative search. Three neural networks were trained to reproduce a set of input/output numerical examples of the inverse kinematics of the main three joints of an articulated robotic manipulator. The results prove the remarkable robustness of the Bees Algorithm, which consistently trained the neural networks to model the kinematics data with very high accuracy. The learning results obtained by the proposed algorithm are compared to the results obtained by the standard Backpropagation Algorithm and an Evolutionary Algorithm. The comparative study highlights the superior performance of the proposed Bees Algorithm over the other algorithms.

Microgrippers are commonly used for micromanipulation of micro-objects from 1 to 100 µm and attain features of reliable accuracy, low cost, wide jaw aperture and variable applied force. This paper aim is to review the design of different microgrippers which can manipulate and assemble µ-wire to PCB connectors. A review was conducted on microgrippers’ technologies, comparing fundamental components of structure and actuators’ types, which determined the most suitable design for the required micromanipulation task. Various microgrippers’ design was explored to examine the suitability and the execution of requirements needed for successful micromanipulation.

Magnetic control systems of micro-robots have recently blossomed as one of the most thrilling areas in the field of medical treatment. For the sake of learning how to apply relevant technologies in medical services, we systematically review pioneering works published in the past and divide magnetic control systems into three categories: stationary electromagnet control systems, permanent magnet control systems and mobile electromagnet control systems. Based on this, we ulteriorly analyze and illustrate their respective strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, aiming at surmounting the instability of magnetic control system, we utilize SolidWorks2020 software to partially modify the SAMM system to make its final overall thickness attain 111 mm, which is capable to control and observe the motion of the micro-robot under the microscope system in an even better fashion. Ultimately, we emphasize the challenges and open problems that urgently need to be settled, and summarize the direction of development in this field, which plays a momentous role in the wide and safe application of magnetic control systems of micro-robots in clinic.

In this paper, the application of Augmented Reality (AR) for the control and adjustment of robots has been developed, with the aim of making interaction and adjustment of robots easier and more accurate from a remote location. A LeapMotion sensor based controller has been investigated to track the movement of the operator hands. The data from the controller allows gestures and the position of the hand palm’s central point to be detected and tracked. A Kinect V2 camera is able to measure the corresponding motion velocities in x, y, z directions after our investigated post-processing algorithm is fulfilled. Unreal Engine 4 is used to create an AR environment for the user to monitor the control process immersively. Kalman filtering (KF) algorithm is employed to fuse the position signals from the LeapMotion sensor with the velocity signals from the Kinect camera sensor, respectively. The fused/optimal data are sent to teleoperate a Baxter robot in real-time by User Datagram Protocol (UDP). Several experiments have been conducted to test the validation of the proposed method.

This paper presents a predictive Energy Management System (EMS), aimed to improve the performance of a domestic PV-battery system and maximize self-consumption by minimizing energy exchange with the utility grid. The proposed algorithm facilitates a self-consumption approach, which reduces electricity bills, transmission losses, and the required central generation/storage systems. The proposed EMS uses a combination of Fuzzy Logic (FL) and a rule based-algorithm to optimally control the PV-battery system while considering the day-ahead energy forecast including forecast error and the battery State of Health (SOH). The FL maximizes the lifetime of the battery by using SOH and State of Charge (SOC) in decision making algorithm to charge/discharge the battery. The proposed Battery Management System (BMS) has been tested using Active Office Building (AOB) located in Swansea University, UK. Furthermore, it is compared with three recently published methods and with the current BMS utilized in the AOB to show the effectiveness of the proposed technique. The results show that the proposed BMS achieves a saving of 18% in the total energy cost over six months compared to a similar day-ahead forecast-based work. It also achieves a saving up to 95% compared to other methods (with a similar structure) but without a day-ahead forecast-based management. The proposed BMS enhances the battery's lifetime by reducing the average SOC up to 47% compared to the previous methods through avoiding unnecessary charge and discharge cycles. The impact of the PV system size and the battery capacity on the net exchanged energy with the utility grid is also investigated in this study.