Anthropomorphic Walking Robots Integration in

Smart Green Systems

Marius Pandelea

, Luige Vladareanu

, Corina Frent Radu

and Mihaiela Iliescu

Romanian Academy, Institute of Solid Mechanics, Bucharest, Romania

Keywords: Anthropomorphic Walking Robots, Mobility, Modelling, Smart, Green Systems.

Abstract: The article presents aspects of integrating Anthropomorphic Walking Robots (AWRs) into Smart Green city

systems. Through the interaction of physical systems assisted by artificial intelligence, it is estimated that

environmental pollution risks are reduced by manufacturing processes; improving the pace of citizens’ lives

by efficiently managing the travel time between different regions of the city; increasing the quality of social

life, ensuring a greater degree of independence of the elderly or disabled people etc. In order to achieve the

above mentioned, the paper highlights some aspects of research on detection, monitoring, control and

navigation of AWRs, as well as elements of standardization of intelligent urban processes and actions.

1 INTRODUCTION

The smart city is not an exclusive city, it is the city

where living beings, objects and processes are in

intense transformation and continuous evolution and

where local services are provided for a long period

of time, which simultaneously satisfy a number of

fundamental conditions. Equitable access to

education and healthy, safe living in an unpolluted

environment that includes a strong infrastructure,

alternative resources and connection is provided.

Robotics and autonomous systems can help the

smart city, but only under certain conditions: the

existence of national and international strategies

with permanent connection between suburbs, cities

and countries; strong political engagement needed to

set the legislative framework of priorities; research

projects to identify causes, influences, and validate

solutions. In the smart city, all components and

intelligent physical systems interact continuously,

anticipating possible challenges and indicating

solutions to avoid situations that pose a danger; the

sustainability of the actions being mainly dependent

on a few key elements, such as: collection and

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4670-0956

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1745-2997

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2272-1901

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3280-5933

processing of data and information, technological

means used and education of citizens.

Urban demographic expansion in the near future

requires local authorities to take urgent measures

such as increasing the surface of the locality by

adding land in the immediate vicinity, building a

new, intelligent general infrastructure,

interconnecting of intelligent elements of strict

necessity, preventing ecosystem and environment

deterioration, ensuring well-being for its citizens, a

civilized and dignified life.

The efficiency of manufacturing systems, which

are embedded in the industry concept 4.0, is

becoming increasingly important, especially from

the point of view of protecting the environment and

reducing the devastating effects of climate change,

which are so obvious lately (Barreto et al., 2017).

The causes-effect diagram, presented in figure 1,

shows the potential areas and basic causes that

influence the appearance of the smart city under

specified conditions. All the causes shown

graphically are concurrent sources of variational

character and have been grouped by categories.

AWRs can perform permanent 24-hour missions

to measure deviations of phenomenon parameters,

detect unpredictable events that can cause injuries or

harming people, data transmission, information,

pictures and videos from the site of abnormal

occurrences, the collection and real-time

transmission of information to traffic participants on

226

Pandelea, M., Vladareanu, L., Radu, C. and Iliescu, M.

Anthropomorphic Walking Robots Integration in Smart Green Systems.

DOI: 10.5220/0007828402260233

In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems (SMARTGREENS 2019), pages 226-233

ISBN: 978-989-758-373-5

Figure 1: Diagram causes-efect for smart city.

Figure 2: Macro SmartGreen Universe (MSCU).

the existence of unlicensed routes, the failure of some

intelligent systems installations, the violation pictures

and videos from the site of abnormal occurrences, the

collection and real-time transmission of information

to traffic participants on the existence of unlicensed

routes, the failure of some intelligent systems

installations, the violation of legal provisions, the

analysis of situations and their exemption from

normality, the establishment of guilty situations,

various information to pedestrians etc.

Scientists and researchers are invited to offer

solutions that include robots of all kinds to meet

macro targets, as we see in figure 2 below.

Today, there are a large number of complex

programs and projects in the world that are being

developed in order to transform many cities into smart

cities. Everything is done step by step, gradually on

several plans that correspond to the socio-economic

fields. Such a project is carried out by the University

of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of

Bucharest, Romania, through the Research Center for

the Study of Quality Agricultural Products -

HORTINVEST (figure 3), a modern, intelligent,

ecological building for the activities of research in the

fields of agriculture and food industry.

The HORTINVEST building is equipped with

smart installations and equipment that optimizes the

consumptions of utilities and reduces the risks of

environmental pollution.

Figure 3: Smart building HORTINVEST.

Anthropomorphic Walking Robots Integration in Smart Green Systems

227

2 INTEGRATION OF AWRs IN

THE SMART CITY

The urban framework of smart cities has several key

directions that define this concept. In order to

achieve this goal, concerted actions of all categories

of human resources (local authorities, citizens,

politicians, scientists etc.) together with technical

resources must collect data and information in order

to make medium and long-term decisions, but also to

develop viable and sustainable projects that include

proactive solutions.

Urbanization, management, infrastructure and

networks, civic education, public and private

transport, public lighting, public services and social

facilities offered to its citizens, drinking water

supply, sewerage, power supply, security, sanitation,

waste collection and recycling, the environment, the

economic environment, culture, entertainment, are

just a few of the key areas and issues of the smart

green city concept - see figure 4.

Urban management and urban services for smart

cities are areas of great importance. Monitoring the

essential qualitative parameters through the sensors

installed in the city allows the people to control the

changes quickly and efficiently. AWRs also help to

measure and monitor the size of the urban

macrosystem, performing routine, boring activities

for people. Their use streamlines services related to

the environment, social environment, street and

home security, real-time information on

infrastructure, but also unexpected events and

incidents.

The main topical issues that need to be solved in

smart green city include: increasing office and office

space, adapting existing infrastructure, satisfying

and optimizing the increasing demand for resources

(electricity, drinking water, land, food), increasing

the share of renewable energies consumer

protection, public safety and defence of the

population against natural disasters, food safety

management, waste recycling, logistics and mobility

services, increased demands for healthcare and

social care, new environmental standards,

incorporation of new digital technologies, reduction

of greenhouse effect gas emissions, climate change

mitigation, upgrading, support for actions initiated

by commercial applications.

Figure 4: Main areas and directions for the smart city.

MoMa-GreenSys 2019 - Special Session on Modelling Practical Paradigms of Green Manufacturing Systems

228

To monitor and control the unevenness or sudden

variation in resources or the quality of the

environment, for example, in the city it is suitable to

have fixedly sensors and robots, whether they are

anthropomorphic or mobile pessimists; they are

observed, monitored and connected to the IoT

network by transmitting in real time information for

possible emergency intervention or to solve a

particular problem.

Our research refers to the intelligent city and

proposes a concept with the new infrastructure,

called the Macro SmartGreen Universe (MSGU),

figure 2, for which were taken into account only

social services, social assistance, street and home

care needed for elderly people in the context of

AWRs involvement in their lives. This versatile,

scalable and flexible structure integrates into the

smart green city platform via the IoT internet

network with all the other smart systems and

platforms so that final decisions are quickly

redirected to implementation deployments.

2.1 Sustainable Development of Social

Systems and Citizen Safety Aided

by AWRs

The concept of a smart city can’t exist without the

inclusion of robots in the urban project and detailed

plans of the socio-economic domains as they are

progressing with citizens enhancing their well-being

and service efficiency.

Social assistance is targeted at people or

communities of people in distress, such as elderly

people, people with various disabilities, single-

parent families, families in disadvantaged

geographical areas who are entitled to well-being on

the part of society - see figure 5.

Smart Devices Machines (SDM - figure 2),

include AWRs in the smart world, requiring

equipment with super-developed senses. They can

be especially useful in indoor or outdoor

environments to perform missions that are

characterized by mobility, performance and

precision.

The analysis elements of the smart city concept

include problems and challenges, influence factors,

ideas and modern solutions. Such, (Silva et al.,

2018) proposes a verifiable architectural model of

the concept of smart sustainable city, while (Riffat et

al., 2016) proposes innovative models for the control

of urbanization, excessive industrialization and

cultural change through planning and flexibility,

economic and social stability, prosperity and

superior quality of the citizens life and energy

optimization, starting from the territorial

administrative division of the neighbourhood type.

(Serbanica and Constantin, 2017) studies the

importance and role of strategic actions well planned

in the legal and institutional framework, economic

and social environment, environmental and cultural

environment, and (Mora et al., 2018) formulates a

set of strategic principles needed to be pursued for

the smart development of the city on the basis of the

set of dichotomies adopted by several european

cities. (Yigitcanlar et al., 2019) analyses the

possibility for the future smart city to exist without

being sustainable, i.e. without a controlled balance

between the elements of the triad economic growth,

environmental protection and discovery of

alternative resources. The smart house is a necessity

of the smart city concept where resources are

efficiently managed, waste and pollutant emissions

are reduced in order to improve the quality of life in

the human habitat environment. Proposals for ideas,

strategies, methods and solutions by (Wilson et al.,

2018) exist in means of mobile robots with detection

functions and drawing up zoning topographical

plans in order to fulfil the daily activities.

Social and welfare area through social assistance

(Grieco et al., 2014), (Wachaja et al., 2017), (Wilson

et al., 2018), elderly care (Wachaja et al., 2017) and

health-care applications (Grieco et al., 2014)

(Wilson et al., 2018) represent an important

direction with a major impact on society. The study

conducted by (Shishehgar et al., 2018) represents a

wide scientific analysis of the necessity of

integrating artificial intelligence and robots into

elderly people life, avoiding the risk of social

exclusion and ensuring a decent and dignified living,

and (Wachaja et al., 2017) presents a practical

solution for moving people with walking and/or

vision impairments through the sensors; also for the

external environment, (Grieco et al., 2014) proposed

a customized solution for the assistance services

offered by robots in an airport. (Liu, 2018) presents

the advantages of interdependence between IoT and

ecological transport on the bike in the smart city,

contributing to the conservation and protection of

the environment, as well as to the sustainable

development of the city. Electricity field (Iliescu et

al., 2016), (Iliescu et al., 2018), (Kavitha and

Geetha, 2017), (Liu, 2018), (Riffat et al., 2016)

raises the interest of many researchers by developing

sustainable strategies and increased efficiency.

(Iliescu et al., 2016) offers a new, innovative,

complex and complete solution (design, manufacture

and validation of results in the real environment) for

the energy field, applicable to solar and photovoltaic

Anthropomorphic Walking Robots Integration in Smart Green Systems

229

cells, with precise reference to the obtaining of solar

cells of type Perovskite by modern, intelligent

advanced methods.

Article written by (Kavitha and Geetha, 2017)

presents an effective managerial solution that

optimizes the consumption of electricity at the level

of the individual dwelling located in the smart city

using the grid technology.

Waste recovery, an activity of the smart city,

stands at the base of studies conducted by

(Esmaeilian et al., 2018), which proposes a

conceptual, sustainable and centralized systemic

framework, interconnected through the IoT network,

for gathering information on the life cycle of

products and pursuing any resulting waste.

Study of technical elements, sensors (Esmaeilian

et al., 2018), (Kavitha and Geetha, 2017), (Liu,

2018), (Rehman et al., 2018), (Wachaja et al., 2017),

(Wilson et al., 2018) and robots (Grieco et al.,

2014), (Rehman et al., 2018), (Wachaja et al., 2017),

(Wilson et al., 2018), helps to integrate smart

devices and machines into the realization of smart

city. The rapid transmission of precise, punctual,

permanently updated information about the

environment, traffic, special events etc. is done by

connecting smart objects to the IoT internet network

(Esmaeilian et al., 2018), (Grieco et al., 2014),

(Kavitha and Geetha, 2017), (Liu, 2018), (Wilson et

al., 2018) of the smart city. The cost optimization is

an integral part of the decision-making system and

cannot lack in the management of smart city

development directions, being found in articles such

as (Kavitha and Geetha, 2017), (Liu, 2018),

(Rehman et al., 2018).

Poisonous areas are: construction sites, cement

factories and metal poles, stone quarries, car

boulevards, people houses, which can be monitored

by fixedly sensors and measuring stations, only that

pollution spreads rapidly in areas in which there are

no such sensors installed, and AWRs are extremely

useful for signalling imminent danger areas. The

rapid knowledge and analysis of alarming situations,

those in which the maximum permissible values of

particles, nanomaterials and toxic powders have

been exceeded, require a rapid reaction in real time

and solutions that by immediate implementation

diminish and prevent disasters.

Mobility AWRs is of great help in indoor /

outdoor environments for wheelchair disabled

people, blind people who want to cross the street or

travel on a particular route, for example, by pushing

/ emitting the voice command for the green colour of

the traffic light and stopping the car traffic, or by

analysing the parameters of the environment in the

areas in which the construction works take place.

A companion robot for an elder person can call the

emergency service when he observes something

unnatural or can announce the family, recall

Figure 5: Sustainable development for social systems and citizen safety aided by AWRs.

MoMa-GreenSys 2019 - Special Session on Modelling Practical Paradigms of Green Manufacturing Systems

230

various daily activities previously scheduled,

announce a life-threatening event, recite lyrics, can

work with the psyche of the afflicted, can render

self-confidence, apply to specialized service

platforms, collect and transmit data and information

etc. The person who has access to the services of

such a robot must feel safe and do not have to worry

about intimacy.

2.2 Detection, Monitoring, Control and

Navigation

AWR is structurally an open cinematic chain and

includes in its architecture subsystems and

components absolutely necessary that performs

walking, observation / detection, monitoring,

planning, communication, control and navigation

functions. Moving AWR's mechanical legs does not

give him as much control, stability, speed and safety

as in the case of human beings’ movement.

Maintaining the trajectory, reducing the constraints

and effects of disturbing factors, optimizing the

motion parameters, represent the actions necessary

to carry out the tasks.

Positioning AWR involves determining the

location, but also its orientation, relative to a

coordinate axis system. Along with the position,

sometimes speed and acceleration, force or moment

parameters are required. Navigation is the ability to

set motion safely, as simple as so complex, from one

place to another in relation to workspace landmarks.

Controllers give the platforms versatility, flexibility

and high-level interactivity to meet a growing

payload, where external disturbances are an integral

part of system equations.

Sensational feedback for efficient control is a

major desideratum, and is due to the number, type,

positioning, errors, calibration, and exploration

through sensor interpolation.

An example of AWR's integration into the social

assistance system is shown in figure 6. The focus is

on identifying important needs for an elderly or

impaired person, so that its life gets closer to the

normal one and is fit for, both indoor and outdoor

AWR assistance. The schema block used to identify

the needs of a person is shown in figure 6. This can

be used in indoor and outdoor environments.

In the smart city equation, AWRs continuously

interact with the other intelligent mobile systems

providing a new dimension of urban space,

observing phenomena, moving to dangerous places,

anticipating possible risks and indicating solutions to

avoid them, so they help to restore the balance of the

environment progressively and provide real benefits

Figure 6: Schema block to identify personal needs.

a. Industry 4.0 concept (Barreto et al., 2017)

b. AWR arm

Figure 7: AWR integration in industry 4.0 manufacturing

system (a. and b.).

to the citizens.

Another example of AWRs integration is that of

green manufacturing systems, especially the ones

based on industry 4.0 concepts (Barreto et al., 2017).

When it is rather difficult and dangerous for humans

to manipulate any materials, and when common

grippers do not ensure correct materials handling,

Anthropomorphic Walking Robots Integration in Smart Green Systems

231

special designed robotic hand (similar to human

arm) could be used – see figure 7. This robotic hand

is aimed to be mounted on AWR body so that,

required position, precision and gripping forces to be

available for the manufacture process stage.

3 STANDARDIZATION OF

SMART URBAN PROCESSES

AND ACTIONS

Specific ISO standards (ISO, 2017) on sustainable

cities and communities (ISO 37100 / ISO 37120,

ISO 26000 Guidance on Social Responsibility) have

already been developed for the specific needs of the

smart city, Energy Efficiency (ISO 17742), Road

Traffic Safety (ISO 39001), Health and Safety at

Work (ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety),

Safety of Persons (ISO 22395 Security and

resilience – Community resilience), Smart

community infrastructures (ISO 37152 / ISO 37157)

and are in the process of formulating standards that

complete the feature definition table tors.

Figure 8 comprises some of the ISO standards

regulating the specifications, predominant attributes

and qualities necessary for the smart city.

In addition to existing international ISO

standards, the smart city urgently needs good

practice guides and precise regulations to

complement those available to provide a framework

for sustainable socio-economic development. Only

in this way can the vocabulary, the objectives, the

characteristics, the structures, the control tools and

the parameters of the domains involved in this ample

process, as well as their interconnection, and the

cities between them can be defined. Experts,

scientists and researchers have the responsibility to

make sustained efforts to provide strategies and

methods for raising the community to a smart city

rank.

Figure 8: ISO standards for smarter cities (ISO, 2017).

Much of the necessary and sufficient actions to

provide the status of a smart city to an urban

settlement include: increasing the degree of political

and economic stability, a favourable climate for the

business environment, optimizing the degree of

territorial occupancy, increasing the citizens' health,

increasing the level of social assistance and welfare

(water, electricity etc.), ensuring intelligent transport

in safety, poverty alleviation, sanitation, food

security, collection, analysis and processing data,

communications and connectivity, cyber security,

environmental protection.

4 CONCLUSIONS

The primordial smart city equation is social,

economic and environmental and requires permanent

energy-controlled transformations. In order to exert

force and provide a suitable environment for people

in need of support, the phenomenon of the smart city

comprises an extensive paradigm plan, which

contains innovative, plurivalent concepts, part of the

concept proposed by us in this article – Macro

SmartGreen Universe and from which there are also

AWRs. Social community and citizen safety can

have real benefits by including AWRs in smart city

life.

Despite the statements of some scientists, we are

convinced that AWRs will always be with their

creators, rewarding their efforts.

This article discusses the life of the smart city

and the compulsory integration in an accelerated

pace of AWRs for social assistance services and

citizenship safety. Systems modelling, increased

mobility, as well as their implementation in the

paradigm plan of the smart city, will emanate

strength and ensure a suitable environment for

people in need of support.

In the future, we intend to simulate AWRs

navigation and stability control in order to support

blind people both in the urban environment and in

the living space.

REFERENCES

Barreto, L., Amaral, A. and Pereira, T., 2017. Industry 4.0

implications in logistics: an overview. [online]

Available at: https:/

/www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S23519789

17306807 [Accessed 16 Jan. 2019].

Esmaeilian, B., Wang, B., Lewis, K., Duarte, F., Ratti, C.

and Behdad, S.,2018. The future of waste management

MoMa-GreenSys 2019 - Special Session on Modelling Practical Paradigms of Green Manufacturing Systems

232

in smart and sustainable cities: A review and concept

paper. [online] Available at:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095

6053X18305865 [Accessed 26 Jan. 2019].

Grieco, L., Rizzo, A., Colucci, S., Sicari, S., Piro, G., Di

Paola, D. and Boggia, G., 2014. IoT-aided robotics

applications: Technological implications, target

domains and open issues. [online] Available at:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014

0366414002783 [Accessed 26 Jan. 2019].

Iliescu, M., Vladareanu, L., Lazăr, M., Marin, D.,

Pandelea, M., Melinte, O., Pintilie I., 2016. Complex

Mechatronic System used for Obtaining Perovskite

Solar Cells. Proceedings of the Annual Symposium of

the Institute of Solid Mechanics and Session of the

Commission of Acoustics. SISOM 2017. Bucharest,

18-19 May.

Iliescu, M., Vlădăreanu, L., Pandelea, M., Mărgean, A.

and Rogojinaru, A., 2018. Looking towards Green

Energy: Solar Cells, E-Motion and Buildings in

Romania. In Romania: Environmental, Social and

Economic Issues. Sophie Clarke (Editor). Nova

Science Publishers, Inc. New York. ISBN: 978-1-

53614-590-8.

ISO, 2017.ISO and Smart City. ISBN 978-92-67-10776-9.

Kavitha, M. and Geetha, B., 2017. An efficient city energy

management system with secure routing

communication using WSN. [online] Available at:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10586-017-

1277-6 [Accessed 26 Jan. 2019].

Liu, L., 2018. IoT and A Sustainable City. [online]

Available at:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187

6610218308932 [Accessed 26 Jan. 2019].

Mora, L., Deakin, M. and Reid, A., 2018. Strategic

principles for smart city development: A multiple case

study analysis of European best practices. [online]

Available at:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004

0162517318590 [Accessed 26 Jan. 2019].

Rehman, B., Yagfarov, R. and Klimchik, A., 2018.

Interactive mobile robot in a dynamic environment.

[online] Available at:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S240

5896318330064 [Accessed 26 Jan. 2019].

Riffat, S., Powell, R. and Aydin, D., 2016. Future cities

and environmental sustainability. [online] Available

at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40984-

016-0014-2 [Accessed 26 Jan. 2019].

Serbanica, C. and Constantin, D., 2017. Sustainable cities

in central and eastern European countries. Moving

towards smart specialization. [online] Available at:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019

739751630813X [Accessed 26 Jan. 2019].

Shishehgar, M., Kerr, D. and Blake, J., 2018. A systematic

review of research into how robotic technology can

help older people. [online] Available at:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235

2648316300149 [Accessed 16 Jan. 2019].

Silva, B., Khan, M. and Han, K., 2018. Towards

sustainable smart cities: A review of trends,

architectures, components, and open challenges in

smart cities. [online] Available at:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221

0670717311125 [Accessed 26 Jan. 2019].

Wachaja, A., Agarwal, P., Zink, M., Adame, M., Möller,

K. and Burgard, W., 2017. Navigating blind people

with walking impairments using a smart walker.

[online] Available at:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10514-016-

9595-8 [Accessed 26 Jan. 2019].

Wilson, G., Pereyda, C., Raghunath, N., de la Cruz, G.,

Goel, S., Nesaei, S., Minor, B., Schmitter-Edgecombe,

M., Taylor, M. and Cook, D., 2018. Robot-enabled

support of daily activities in smart home

environments. [online] Available at:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S138

9041718302651 [Accessed 26 Jan. 2019].

Yigitcanlar, T., Kamruzzaman, M., Foth, M., Sabatini-

Marques, J., da Costa, E. and Ioppolo, G., 2019. Can

cities become smart without being sustainable? A

systematic review of the literature. [online] Available

at:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2

21067071831268X [Accessed 26 Jan. 2019].

Anthropomorphic Walking Robots Integration in Smart Green Systems

233