Bolting operations are critical in industrial assembly and in the maintenance of scientific facilities, requiring high precision and robustness to faults. Although robotic solutions have the potential to improve operational safety and effectiveness, current systems still lack reliable autonomy and fault management capabilities. To address this gap, we propose a control framework for dependable robotized bolting tasks and instantiate it on a specific robotic system. The system features a control architecture ensuring accurate driving torque control and active compliance throughout the entire operation, enabling safe interaction even under fault conditions. By designing a multimodal human-robot interface (HRI) providing real-time visualization of relevant system information and supporting seamless transitions between automatic and manual control, we improve operator situation awareness and fault detection capabilities. A high-level supervisor (SV) coordinates the execution and manages transitions between control modes, ensuring consistency with the supervisory control (SVC) paradigm, while preserving the human operator's authority. The system is validated in a representative bolting operation involving pipe flange joining, under several fault conditions. The results demonstrate improved fault detection capabilities, enhanced operator situational awareness, and accurate and compliant execution of the bolting operation. However, they also reveal the limitations of relying on a single camera to achieve full situational awareness.

Looking to cash in on the generative AI craze, Yext, the platform for online brand management, today announced an AI-powered chatbot called Yext Chat. Taking inspiration from OpenAI's ChatGPT, Yext Chat is designed for enterprise use cases -- and differentiated, Yext claims, by a partly proprietary back end. "ChatGPT has shown the world that large language models can hold incredibly coherent, helpful conversations -- far better than any technology up to this point. But right now there is no easy way for enterprises to harness this technology," Yext president and chief operating officer Marc Ferrentino told TechCrunch in an email interview. "Yext Chat is designed for the enterprise, and enterprises need full control over what a chatbot says and does."