IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2018 - 10

Figure 1. Two photos of the viaduct Polcevera (often called the Morandi Bridge, based on the name of the engineer who designed it).
The span, completed in 1967, linked the A7 and A12 motorways to the A10 motorway. It partially collapsed during a thunderstorm
14 August 2018, causing 43 deaths. (Photos courtesy of Enrico Simetti.)

technologies are applied to real-life sce-
narios. The article from Ollero et al.,
"The AEROARMS Project," describes
the application of aerial robots for con-
tact inspection of industrial pipes while
flying. "Dexterous Underwater Mani-
pulation from
Onshore Loca -
Predictive
tions" by Birk et al.
demonstrates a
maintenance is
lesson learned
considered the most from the DexROV
project, which in-
suitable approach
volves the use of
to ensure the
remotely super-
vised underwa-
healthy functioning
ter intervention
of infrastructure.
systems in lieu of
standard ROVs
for interaction
with subsea well infrastructure and tasks
such as biological sampling.
The second cluster of two articles
shows fundamental technological
advances with a focus on enabling
technologies for floating-base manip-
ulation. Kamel et al. present "The
Voliro Omniorientational Hexacop-
ter," which describes a novel platform
that overcomes the limitations of com-
mercially available UAVs for manipu-
lation. The authors show how full

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IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

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actuation of the aerial platform is a
key element to facilitate and enhance
manipulation by a drone. Mura et al.
show in "A Soft Modular End Effector
for Underwater Manipulation" that
floating-base manipulation goes be-
yond solving control problems. The
availability of appropriate end effectors
for manipulation is another key ele-
ment in achieving delicate tasks. The
authors present several field results
showing how the proposed robotic
end effector could be well suited for
those operations requiring a fine,
adaptable grasp (e.g., archeological
recovery and biological sampling)
that are currently challenging to per-
form underwater.
The third cluster for this special
issue is represented by four articles
describing ways to meet new floating
manipulation challenges. "Multimodal
Aerial Locomotion" by Wopereis et al.
targets challenges concerning precision
of operation via the persistence of con-
tact with a given required level of pres-
sure. The article presents the use of
UAVs to perform cleaning operations
in hard-to-reach areas by means of a
novel multimodal end effector that
allows active locomotion on a surface
for precise tool handling.

December 2018

In "The Tele-MAGMaS," Staub et al.
discuss the application of a UAV for col-
laboration with ground manipulators.
The article focuses on the design, archi-
tectural, and experimental aspects related
to the cooperation and exchange of forc-
es between these two fundamentally dif-
ferent robotic systems. Extending the
cooperation between a ground and an
aerial manipulator, "Cooperation in the
Air" by Kim et al. introduces the chal-
lenges of cooperation in the air, demon-
strating the use of a learning-based
approach for rapidly replanning opera-
tions in unstructured environments. The
final article of this special issue, "Coordi-
nated Control of a Dual-Arm Space Ro-
bot" authored by Shi et al., extends the
challenges of floating-base manipulation
to space robotics and focuses on the
coordinated control of the floating-base's
motion and manipulators for precise
end-effector trajectory tracking and
energy-efficient system motion.
Matteo Fumagalli is with Aalborg Univer-
sity, Denmark. E-mail: m_fumagalli@
m-tech.aau.dk.
Enrico Simetti is with the University of
Genoa, Italy. Email: enrico.simetti@
unige.it
IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2018
