This paper deals with the problem of planning the Center of Mass (CoM) trajectory of a humanoid robot while its feet follow an omnidirectional walking pattern. This trajectory should satisfy the dynamic stability criterion to ensure analytically that the Zero…

Computer vision is one of the most challenging applications in sensor systems since the signal is complex from spatial and logical point of view. Due to these characteristics vision applications require high computing resources, which makes them especially difficult to…

This special issue of the Journal of Physical Agents is devoted to multi-robot systems. Some might perhaps argue that the term should have been ”multi-agent systems” or ”physical multi-agent systems”, in accordance with the title of the journal. In any…

This special issue of the Journal of Physical Agents is devoted to human interaction with domestic robots. The form, features and future, of domestic robotic devices, from entertainment-based agents through to robotic cleaners, companions, assistants and helpers, are considered and…

This paper presents the application developed for humanoid robots which are used in therapy of dementia patients, as a cognitive stimulation tool. It has been created using BICA, a component oriented framework for programming robot applications, which is also described.…

Nowadays, there are a lot of Spanish groups which are doing research in areas related with physical agents: they use agent-based technologies concepts, especially industrial applications, robotics and domotics (physical agents) and applications related to the information society, (software agents)…

Can you imagine a useful task you would like a social robot to perform for you? This paper presents an Internet survey where participants were asked this question to identify applications for social robots. The applications mentioned by the participants…

If robotic companions are to be used in the near future by aging adults, they have to be accepted by them. In the process of developing a methodology to measure, predict and explain acceptance of robotic companions, we researched the…

In Fall 2007, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) held the Urban Challenge, a street race between fully autonomous vehicles. Unlike previous challenges, the Urban Challenge vehicles had to follow the California laws for driving, including properly handling…

There is considerable interest in real-world formation-maintenance tasks, where robots move together while maintaining a geometric shape. This interest is motivated by promise of robustly and efficiently moving multiple robots along a path, guided by a human operator. This paper…