This paper presents relationships between personality traits and stress levels in light of the transactional model of stress. The framework of the transactional model was applied to determine the significance of work with a robot for primary and secondary stress appraisal made by an individual. We decided to use the Big Five personality traits model as one which integrates the dimensions of personality and had been previously applied to research on stress. The participants in our three-wave study were 105 students doing an industrial robots programming course. Using Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) and Questionnaire for Primary and Secondary Appraisal (PASA) questionnaires, we gathered information about the students’ personality, the level of anticipated stress, and the stress experienced while working with a robot after 6 and 12 weeks. The obtained results prove that emotional stability is significant for secondary appraisal of anticipated stress. The results also show that openness to experience is a negative predictor, whereas conscientiousness is a positive predictor of primary stress appraisal. The ability to cope with stress after 12 weeks of work with a robot is appraised as higher by older, more conscientious, and introverted people. The obtained results are discussed from the psychological perspective of stress and personality, which complements earlier studies in technical sciences. The limitations of the study are also indicated.

The paper presents the application of various classification schemes for actuator fault diagnosis in industrial systems. The main objective of this study is to compare either single or meta-classification strategies that can be successfully used as reasoning means in off-line as well as on-line diagnostic expert systems. The applied research was conducted on the assumption that only classic and well-practised classification methods would be adopted. The comparison study was carried out within the DAMADICS benchmark problem which provides a popular framework for confronting different approaches in the development of fault diagnosis systems.

In the paper elements of a system of assessment of a welding process and welded joints have been presented. The system was based on the application of one thermovision and two CCD cameras. In the paper exemplary results of processing and analysis of thermal and ordinary images have been discussed. 1.

The article is a review of completed research on developed and implemented innovative and technologically advanced technical systems. According to the Industry 4.0 concept they can have a significant impact on the efficiency of production processes and product development. In this perspective, the key aspect seems to be maintenance management of technical systems, realized both in the operate phase as well as during service and repair works. There were discussed research results of authors and developed application solutions supporting decision-making processes, in terms of three main periods of realization of exploitation processes: short, medium and long-term.

Components made of polymeric composite materials, such as wings and stabilizers of aircrafts, are periodically inspected using non-destructive testing methods. Ultrasonic testing is one of the primary inspection methods applied in the aircraft/aerospace industry. Image processing methods have been developed for the purpose of ultrasonic data analysis and increasing the inspection efficiency. A critically important factor in damage sizing is appropriate processing of ultrasonic data in order to extract the damage region properly before calculation of its extent. The paper presents a comparative analysis of various image segmentation methods in the light of accuracy of damage detection in ultrasonic C-Scans of composite structures. A brief review of image segmentation methods is presented and their usefulness in the ultrasonic testing applications is discussed. The selected methods, namely the threshold-, edge-, region-, and clustering-based ones, were tested using ultrasonic C-Scans of a specimen with barely visible impact damage and aircraft panels with delamination, all made of CFRP composites. A problem with the selection of appropriate input parameters using most of the segmentation methods is discussed, and non-parametric histogram-based approaches are proposed. A quantitative analysis of the accuracy of damage detection using the segmentation methods is presented and the most suitable approaches are introduced. The proposed processing procedures may significantly improve the objectivity of inspections of composite elements and structures using ultrasonic testing.

The paper deals with methods of image processing applied in a vision system for assessing welded joints quality. The vision system consists of two CCD and one infrared camera. The base of elaborated approaches to joint assesment is a set of images taken in infrared and visible light during welding process. Images taken in visible light are sources of information about outer conditions of the joint, while thermograms let us to obtain information concerning the joint interior. In the paper results of the application of processing of these two types of images are presented.

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This study examines selected components of the optimization function, used to evaluate the optimal kinematic structure of a robot for a given task. Automated generation of the kinematic structure is based on scalable drive modules of the joints and modules of the carrying arms with a check on the permissible torque of the drive and bending moment of the carrier element. An optimization algorithm is used to generate variations of kinematic structures, the base requirement of the fitness function is the ability to traverse a given trajectory with a defined orientation of the tool. The suitability of a given kinematic structure is evaluated further by a set of evaluation functions such as a check for spatial collisions, energy consumption, minimization of total weight, minimization of degrees of freedom for a given task and several other criteria. Two of these criteria -evaluation of the total weight of a robotic arm with drives in joints and evaluation of power consumption for a defined handling task are examined here.