Soft Grippers for Automatic Crop Harvesting: A Review.

Agriculture 4.0 is transforming farming livelihoods thanks to the development and adoption of technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and robotics, traditionally used in other productive sectors. Soft robotics and soft grippers in particular are promising approaches to lead to new solutions in this field due to the need to meet hygiene and manipulation requirements in unstructured environments and in operation with delicate products.

Propensity to sell stocks in an artificial stock market.

This experimental study of an artificial stock market investigates what explains the propensity to sell stocks and thus the disposition effect. It is a framed field experiment that follows the steps of a previous observational study of investor behavior in the Finnish stock market. Our experimental approach has an edge over the observational study in that it can control extraneous variables and two or more groups can be compared.

Multisensory System for the Detection and Localization of Peripheral Subcutaneous Veins.

This paper proposes a multisensory system for the detection and localization of peripheral subcutaneous veins, as a first step for achieving automatic robotic insertion of catheters in the near future. The multisensory system is based on the combination of a SWIR (Short-Wave Infrared) camera, a TOF (Time-Of-Flight) camera and a NIR (Near Infrared) lighting source. The associated algorithm consists of two main parts: one devoted to the features extraction from the SWIR image, and another envisaged for the registration of the range data provided by the TOF camera, with the SWIR image and the results of the peripheral veins detection.

A research review on clinical needs, technical requirements, and normativity in the design of surgical robots.

Nowadays robots play an important role in society, mainly due to the significant benefits they provide when utilized for assisting human beings in the execution of dangerous or repetitive tasks. Medicine is one of the fields in which robots are gaining greater use and development, especially those employed in minimally invasive surgery (MIS). However, due to the particular conditions of the human body where robots have to act, the design of these systems is complex, not only from a technical point of view, but also because the clinical needs and the normativity aspects are important considerations that have to be taken into account in order to achieve better performances and more secure systems for patients and surgeons.

Novel Robotic Platforms for the Accurate Sampling and Monitoring of Water Columns.

The hydrosphere contains large amounts of suspended particulate material, including living and non-living material that can be found in different compositions and concentrations, and that can be composed of particles of different sizes. The study of this particulate material along water columns plays a key role in understanding a great variety of biological, chemical, and physical processes. This paper presents the conceptual design of two patented robotic platforms that have been conceived for carrying out studies of water properties at desired depths with very high accuracy in the vertical positioning.

Intelligent Multisensor Prodder for Training Operators in Humanitarian Demining.

Manual prodding is still one of the most utilized procedures for identifying buried landmines during humanitarian demining activities. However, due to the high number of accidents reported during its practice, it is considered an outmoded and risky procedure and there is a general consensus about the need of introducing upgrades for enhancing the safety of human operators. With the aim of contributing to reduce the number of demining accidents, this paper presents an intelligent multisensory system for training operators in the use of prodders.

A New Approach for Combining Time-of-Flight and RGB Cameras Based on Depth-Dependent Planar Projective Transformations.

Image registration for sensor fusion is a valuable technique to acquire 3D and colour information for a scene. Nevertheless, this process normally relies on feature-matching techniques, which is a drawback for combining sensors that are not able to deliver common features. The combination of ToF and RGB cameras is an instance that problem.

A new device to automate the monitoring of critical patients' urine output.

Urine output (UO) is usually measured manually each hour in acutely ill patients. This task consumes a substantial amount of time. Furthermore, in the literature there is evidence that more frequent (minute-by-minute) UO measurement could impact clinical decision making and improve patient outcomes.

Combination of RGB and multispectral imagery for discrimination of cabernet sauvignon grapevine elements.

This paper proposes a sequential masking algorithm based on the K-means method that combines RGB and multispectral imagery for discrimination of Cabernet Sauvignon grapevine elements in unstructured natural environments, without placing any screen behind the canopy and without any previous preparation of the vineyard. In this way, image pixels are classified into five clusters corresponding to leaves, stems, branches, fruit and background. A custom-made sensory rig that integrates a CCD camera and a servo-controlled filter wheel has been specially designed and manufactured for the acquisition of images during the experimental stage.

An automatic critical care urine meter.

Nowadays patients admitted to critical care units have most of their physiological parameters measured automatically by sophisticated commercial monitoring devices. More often than not, these devices supervise whether the values of the parameters they measure lie within a pre-established range, and issue warning of deviations from this range by triggering alarms. The automation of measuring and supervising tasks not only discharges the healthcare staff of a considerable workload but also avoids human errors in these repetitive and monotonous tasks.

Foodborne botulism in a six-month-old infant caused by home-canned baby food.

Previously reported cases of botulism in infants have been diagnosed as infant botulism; that is, botulism caused by intestinal colonization by Clostridium botulinum with intraluminal production and absorption of toxin. Foodborne botulism is caused by ingestion of preformed toxin. We describe an unusual case of foodborne botulism in a 6-month-old infant caused by the ingestion of improperly prepared home-canned baby food.