Hyper-redundant robots are highly articulated devices that present numerous technical challenges such as their design, control or remote operation. However, they offer superior kinematic skills than traditional robots for multiple applications. This work proposes an original and custom-made design for a discrete and hyper-redundant manipulator. It is comprised of 7 sections actuated by cables and 14 degrees of freedom. It has been optimized to be very robust, accurate and capable of moving payloads with high dexterity. Furthermore, it has been efficiently controlled from the actuators to high-level strategies based on the management of its shape. However, these highly articulated systems often exhibit complex shapes that frustrate their spatial understanding. Immersive technologies emerge as a good solution to remotely and safely teleoperate the presented robot for an inspection task in a hazardous environment. Experimental results validate the proposed robot design and control strategies. As a result, it is concluded that hyper-redundant robots and immersive technologies should play an important role in the near future of automated and remote applications.
We present a novel system for the automatic video monitoring of honey bee foraging activity at the hive entrance. This monitoring system is built upon convolutional neural networks that perform multiple animal pose estimation without the need for marking. This precise detection of honey bee body parts is a key element of the system to provide detection of entrance and exit events at the entrance of the hive including accurate pollen detection. A detailed evaluation of the quality of the detection and a study of the effect of the parameters are presented. The complete system also integrates identification of barcode marked bees, which enables the monitoring at both aggregate and individual levels. The results obtained on multiple days of video recordings show the applicability of the approach for large-scale deployment. This is an important step forward for the understanding of complex behaviors exhibited by honey bees and the automatic assessment of colony health.
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