Robots have been reportedly seen serving food in several restaurants in many parts of the world. New ventures have been deploying mechanical partners which promote the growth in service robotics. However, robots are considerably incompetent when it comes to beverage and soup delivery. The physical challenge behind the clumsy motion of these machines is found to be its jerky motion control. Jerk control solutions are widely studied in a constrained environment but not well introduced in dynamic environments. In this paper, we will begin by examining developed kinematics solutions, open-source packages from Robot Operating System and the constraints of motion planning. The proposed solution in this paper provides a quick system response with jerk limits using spline velocity profiles. The solution will introduce the concepts of a state machine design that enables the robot to behave and move reactively; effectively balancing its desired velocity and position without spilling a drop of customer satisfaction. Experiments have proven that robots can move at higher velocity without any crashing, spilling, or docking issues. The smooth velocity control proposed will improve the capabilities of waiter robot and service operations in restaurants.

Waiter robots have been introduced in the food and beverage industry in the early 2000s in a number of countries, especially in Asia but with mixed receptions.Problem in designs appropriate for the environment, high costs and operation constraints are some reasons for the robots not being widely implemented on a larger scale.In this paper, it will discuss solutions that address these problems.To keep cost manageable, mechanical design is highly simplified, open source software algorithms for mobile robotics and integration with mobile Wi-Fi technologies currently in use in F&B settings are used.Wi-Fi apps for QR code allow for the tracking of customers' location and a secured local area Wi-Fi provides for the integration to business system.Using digital map and LiDAR and an array of short range IR sensors, the waiter robot is able to navigate autonomously from a serving point to a target point about 5 m away (repeated 10 times) to within 0.3 m (radius).It was next tested in an office environment and was ascertained to fulfil delivery tasks.

In paper, we present the design of a waiter robotic system for the service industry the food outlets or restaurants. For such applications, we have considered and proposed a suitable mechanical and system design commensurate with the users' requirements of cost and functionality. The engineering involved the robot design and eco-system. The tray conveying omni-directional robot is adjustable for different table heights and has a 3-tiered dumb-waiter for 3 trays. It is autonomous and it navigates using a map of the outlet. It is able to reach to within a 1 m of the target table and avoiding both mapped and unmapped obstacles. To supporting eco-system, we have worked on a docking system to ensure that diners get their food and return the trays easily and have designed a central computer system that will have the capability to interface with business system.Positioning the robot to with 1 m accuracy requires a docking system to navigate the robot closer to various types of tables or furniture used in any outlet. This part requires fine tuning. Robustness is important and challenging to achieve. The interface with the owner's business computer is business sensitive but is useful especially with the advent of NFC RFID and various type mobile apps. The growth opportunity for waiter robotic system is in this area as well.

The use of robots as waiters in restaurants is on an increasing trend in the service industry. Restaurants owners have begun to look towards robots to aid in serving the customers due to shortage of waiters. We have developed a prototype of a mecanum wheeled based mobile waiter robot for trial runs in a casual dining food outlet. Unlike existing waiter robots, it is autonomous, has higher payload and is able to travel and dock at the target table. However, as restaurants have the most diverse designs and layouts, developing an autonomous system can be more efficient when done in the Robot Operating System (ROS) framework and using a modular robot design. In ROS, path planning and navigation within a target restaurant can efficiently done using digital map of the environment or that generated by SLAM algorithm; with the Adaptive Monte-Carlo (AMCL) in ROS, the position of the robot can be determined and path planning can be done. Preliminary tests show that autonomous navigation is achieved, and the robot is able to dock at a target table and roll out the serving tray.

With significant improvement in technologies, robotics systems have appeared in homes as vacuum robots, and as transporters of goods and equipment in the industries, including hospitals and mortuaries. In Singapore (amongst others), they have attracted the attention of the food and beverage (F&B) industry, in part due to the lack of human resources here. To address the latter, a work has been established to develop the concept of robotics waiter system to serve at dining tables. It is the integration of autonomous omnidirectional platforms, a commercial indoor Radio Frequency (RF) network of sensors and transmitters and off the shelf coaster paging system commonly used in Singapore eateries. The robotics waiter system will provide services that are mundane and repetitive. The mobile platforms are designed primarily to be productive and efficient; in the current design, the torso can convey many serving trays and possibly used for cutlery collection. However unlike humanoids, they are not designed for dexterity e.g. using robotic arms and hands. Diners can order food with an iPad or tablet, and receive a coaster pager to be placed on their table. When the order is ready, the coaster pager will vibrate and activate the transmission of encoded signal (RC-5 protocol) with its table identity (id). Tables and robots are RF identification tagged and operate with the indoor RF positioning wireless network system. With proper calibration, the RF transmitters spaced at about 9 m apart have been tested with some success of locating tables within a meter or two. It will be evaluated in an operational F&B outlet. The concept and design can be modified for use in the hospitals to assist in the serving of meals and medicine. With the integration of diverse commercial technologies and modular designs, it can be customized for other sectors in the service industry as well.

By having virtual graphical elements that are superimposed onto the real world scene, such AR methods can provide dynamic exercise settings for each individual patient. In this paper, as a second phase of development of Rehabilitation System, we propose the expansion of Configurable Augmented Virtual Reality Rehabilitation System for Upper Limb Disability. This new system open to therapists to access into its own exercises settings so as to provide a wider adaptive range of exercises that fit to different patients at different conditions of physical capability.

Virtual reality therapy has been successfully applied into visualization area. However, they can sometimes leave the user in a virtual world that is not real. Augmented Reality (AR) on the other hand is able to utilize the advantage of having virtual graphical elements that are superimposed onto the real world scene. In this paper, we propose a semi-portable system for upper limb disability. This system uses the Microsoft Kinect™ together with two wireless sensors being strapped on the upper limbs to track the movement of the arm of the patients. Together with AR, the patient will be able to perform a set of targeted exercises.

In this paper, we describes a new design of a robot that is suitable for climbing up and down stairs. This design combines the advantage of using tracks and the robotic arm linkages to achieve robust climbing under the real-world conditions. Simulation models were initially used to develop the climbing sequences and later applied on a real prototype. System architecture of the robot is presented. All experimental and refinement of the climbing sequences was carried out using the prototype and the final product is an autonomous robot that is able to climb the stairs successfully.

This section describes the hardware used in the biped roots. Each of the robots consists of mechanical hardware, sensors and central processing unit. Figure XD shows the overall system. Mechanical hardware consists of robot frame and structure and the servo motors. The frame and all the mechanical structure is made from aluminium alloy sheet metal to keep the weight of the robot low while maintaining rigid structure. The motors used are Kondo KRS 4014HV. The robots consists of 22 degrees of freedom and it is connected together through RS232.

This paper investigates ways of applying classical control strategies based upon the idea of skyhook damping to achieve active control of the flexibility of the body of a railway vehicle. Actuators located at the front and rear secondary suspension points are used, and the idea of putting a third actuator at the centre of the body of the vehicle to control the flexibility is also investigated.