Abstract
Reliable operation of production lines without unscheduled disruptions is of paramount importance for ensuring the proper operation of automated working cells involving robotic systems. This article addresses the issue of preventing disruptions to an automotive production line that can arise from incorrect placement of aluminum car parts by a human operator in a feeding container with 4 indexing pins for each part. The detection of the misplaced parts is critical for avoiding collisions between the containers and a high pressure washing machine and also to avoid collisions between the parts and a robotic arm that is feeding parts to a air leakage inspection machine. The proposed inspection system relies on a 3D sensor for scanning the parts inside a container and then estimates the 6 DoF pose of the container followed by an analysis of the overlap percentage between each part reference point cloud and the 3D sensor data. When the overlap percentage is below a given threshold, the part is considered as misplaced and the operator is alerted to fix the part placement in the container. The deployment of the inspection system on an automotive production line for 22 weeks has shown promising results by avoiding 18 hours of disruptions, since it detected 407 containers having misplaced parts in 4524 inspections, from which 12 were false negatives, while no false positives were reported, which allowed the elimination of disruptions to the production line at the cost of manual reinspection of 0.27% of false negative containers by the operator.

Abstract
Quality control inspection systems are crucial and a key factor in maintaining and ensuring the integrity of any product. The quality inspection task is a repetitive task, when performed by operators only, it can be slow and susceptible to failures due to the lack of attention and fatigue. This work focuses on the inspection of parts made of high-pressure diecast aluminum for components of the automotive industry. In the present case study, last year, 18240 parts needed to be reinspected, requiring approximately 96 hours, a time that could be spent on other tasks. This article performs a comparison of four deep learning models: Faster R-CNN, RetinaNet, YOLOv7, and YOLOv7-tiny, to find out which one is more suited to perform the quality inspection task of detecting metal filings on casting aluminum parts. As for this use-case the prototype must be highly intolerant to False Negatives, that is, the part being defective and passing undetected, Faster R-CNN was considered the bestperforming model based on a Recall value of 96.00%.

Abstract
The knee is one of the most stressed joints of the human body, being susceptible to ligament injuries and degenerative diseases. Due to the rising incidence of knee pathologies, the number of knee X-rays acquired is also increasing. Such X-rays are obtained for the diagnosis of knee injuries, the evaluation of the knee before and after surgery, and the monitoring of the knee joint's stability. These types of diagnosis and monitoring of the knee usually involve radiography under physical stress. This widely used medical tool provides a more objective analysis of the measurement of the knee laxity than a physical examination does, involving knee stress tests, such as valgus, varus, and Lachman. Despite being an improvement to physical examination regarding the physician's bias, stress radiography is still performed manually in a lot of healthcare facilities. To avoid exposing the physician to radiation and to decrease the number of X-ray images rejected due to inadequate positioning of the patient or the presence of artefacts, positioning systems for stress radiography of the knee have been developed. This review analyses knee positioning systems for X-ray environment, concluding that they have improved the objectivity and reproducibility during stress radiographs, but have failed to either be radiolucent or versatile with a simple ergonomic set-up.

Abstract

Abstract
Stroke affects over 100 million people worldwide, and over two-thirds of survivors experience lasting upper-limb impairments, which significantly impact their quality of life. The global shortage of rehabilitation providers, who cannot attend to all patients who need it, creates an urgent, not yet answered, need for reliable and accessible rehabilitation innovations. Robotic rehabilitation has been emerging as an effective alternative to traditional physical therapy. This paper presents the development and evaluation of 2 degree-of-freedom exoskeleton, coupled to a collaborative robotic manipulator, which performs upper-limb rehabilitation. The system targets elbow flexion/extension and forearm pronation/supination, using two direct current brushless actuators. To accommodate a wide range of users, the mechanical design is modular and adjustable, allowing the rehabilitation of a broad range of arm lengths, while mechanical barriers prevent unsafe joint motions. Furthermore, limit switches ensure the movements are performed within safe values and an emergency button is also available for emergency stop. Safety assessment confirmed the actuators' performance and the integrity of the physical barriers. Three different rehabilitation modes were implemented: passive assist, active assist and active resist. Passive assistance tests achieved consistent trajectory tracking with a root mean square error of 4.85(o)& strns; for pronation/supination and 0.87 & strns;(o) for elbow flexion/extension, while maintaining smooth motion profiles with spectral arc length values of-1.603 and-1.56, respectively. Active resistance generated stable bidirectional torque across the full range of motion, reaching up to 1 Nm for forearm pronation/supination and 7 Nm for elbow flexion/extension. The adaptive active assistance strategy modified the assistance torque in real time according to the detected user performance. These findings establish a foundation for future clinical evaluation and real-world applications, with the system's modular design and multiple therapy modes showing potential to support diverse rehabilitation needs.