{"title":"Interactive robot learning of visuospatial skills","authors":"S. Ahmadzadeh, Petar Kormushev, D. Caldwell","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766597","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766597","url":null,"abstract":"This paper proposes a novel interactive robot learning approach for acquiring visuospatial skills. It allows a robot to acquire new capabilities by observing a demonstration while interacting with a human caregiver. Most existing learning from demonstration approaches focus on the trajectories, whereas in our approach the focus is placed on achieving a desired goal configuration of objects relative to one another. Our approach is based on visual perception which captures the object's context for each demonstrated action. The context embodies implicitly the visuospatial representation including the relative positioning of the object with respect to multiple other objects simultaneously. The proposed approach is capable of learning and generalizing different skills such as object reconfiguration, classification, and turn-taking interaction. The robot learns to achieve the goal from a single demonstration while requiring minimum a priori knowledge about the environment. We illustrate the capabilities of our approach using four real world experiments with a Barrett WAM robot.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125488888","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A variable stiffness mechanism for improving energy efficiency of a planar single-legged hopping robot","authors":"H. Q. Vu, H. Hauser, D. Leach, R. Pfeifer","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766488","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766488","url":null,"abstract":"Recently, variable stiffness actuators (VSAs) have been considered as actuation approaches to improve energy efficiency of legged locomotion robots. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a variable stiffness actuator, named L-MESTRAN, which allows for improving energy efficiency of a planar single-legged robot over different stride frequencies. The leg in our setup consists of an actuated hip joint and a passive knee joint equipped with the L-MESTRAN. This mechanism is capable of varying stiffness in a large range, maintaining stiffness with almost no energy, and offers a linear joint stiffness. We empirically demonstrate that the L-MESTRAN actuator can increase energy efficiency for hopping locomotion for various stride frequencies. Furthermore, we also demonstrate the capability of the L-MESTRAN to adjust stiffness to improve energy efficiency during locomotion.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"110 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116453673","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Monocular navigation for long-term autonomy","authors":"T. Krajník, S. Pedre, L. Preucil","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766591","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766591","url":null,"abstract":"We present a reliable and robust monocular navigation system for an autonomous vehicle. The proposed method is computationally efficient, needs off-the-shelf equipment only and does not require any additional infrastructure like radio beacons or GPS. Contrary to traditional localization algorithms, which use advanced mathematical methods to determine vehicle position, our method uses a more practical approach. In our case, an image-feature-based monocular vision technique determines only the heading of the vehicle while the vehicle's odometry is used to estimate the distance traveled. We present a mathematical proof and experimental evidence indicating that the localization error of a robot guided by this principle is bound. The experiments demonstrate that the method can cope with variable illumination, lighting deficiency and both short- and long-term environment changes. This makes the method especially suitable for deployment in scenarios which require long-term autonomous operation.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"115 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128114078","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
T. Krajník, M. Nitsche, J. Faigl, T. Duckett, M. Mejail, L. Preucil
{"title":"External localization system for mobile robotics","authors":"T. Krajník, M. Nitsche, J. Faigl, T. Duckett, M. Mejail, L. Preucil","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766520","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766520","url":null,"abstract":"We present a fast and precise vision-based software intended for multiple robot localization. The core component of the proposed localization system is an efficient method for black and white circular pattern detection. The method is robust to variable lighting conditions, achieves sub-pixel precision, and its computational complexity is independent of the processed image size. With off-the-shelf computational equipment and low-cost camera, its core algorithm is able to process hundreds of images per second while tracking hundreds of objects with millimeter precision. We propose a mathematical model of the method that allows to calculate its precision, area of coverage, and processing speed from the camera's intrinsic parameters and hardware's processing capacity. The correctness of the presented model and performance of the algorithm in real-world conditions are verified in several experiments. Apart from the method description, we also publish its source code; so, it can be used as an enabling technology for various mobile robotics problems.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133258291","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pseudo-linear measurement approach for heterogeneous multi-robot relative localization","authors":"Thumeera R. Wanasinghe, G. Mann, R. Gosine","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766521","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766521","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of relative localization (RL) is to locate and track one or more robots in another moving robot body-fixed coordinate frame using relative range and/or bearing measurements. Most available RL methods assume known initial conditions at the first encounter of an arbitrary robot, and the tracking is then followed using an extended Kalman filter (EKF). In case of poor filter initialization, these EKF based methods sometimes cause instability or demand longer settling time. To overcome this issue, this paper proposes a pseudo-linear measurement (PM) based technique for RL where true nonlinear measurements are algebraically transformed into PM. The proposed RL scheme is tested in Monte Carlo simulations for a heterogeneous multi-robot system comprising both aerial and ground robots. Results demonstrate that the proposed method performs RL with 5~10 cm positional accuracy and 0.075~0.1 rad orientational accuracy. The performance of the PM based RL is then compared against traditional EKF based methods with unknown filter initialization. The results demonstrate that the proposed method able to achieve both the positional and orientational accuracy within 12 iterations, whereas the traditional methods requires more than 250 iterations to achieve the same accuracy. The experiment validation of the proposed method was performed and results are congruent with the simulations.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123070878","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A. E. Velasquez, H. B. Guerrero, Ingrid Lorena Argote Pedraza, D. V. Magalhães, M. Becker, G. Caurin
{"title":"Navigation control in FPGA for a differential-drive mobile robot","authors":"A. E. Velasquez, H. B. Guerrero, Ingrid Lorena Argote Pedraza, D. V. Magalhães, M. Becker, G. Caurin","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766532","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766532","url":null,"abstract":"FPGA(Field Programmable Gates Array) allows to embed digital circuits which occupy little space in comparison to traditional deployments that take up much physical space in an integrated circuit, also, the use of FPGA allows taking advantage of capabilities like parallel processing and therefore is possible to embed bio-inspired digital circuits to enable skills like associative memory and learning. This paper describes the general concepts and procedure to deploy of a perceptron in a FPGA. The first step was the programming of a perceptron using MATLAB; the next step was the deployment of the same perceptron in FPGA. The perceptron deployed performs the learning stage and after perceptron was trained, the information from inputs is processed simultaneously and thus the perceptron provides the outputs for which was trained. The perceptron outputs were used to drive servomotors of a prototype mobile robot that has a locomotion system of two wheels differential drive.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127091532","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Design and control of an under-actuated robot leg, using state feedback and impulse shaping","authors":"Yunha Kim, V. Salvucci, Y. Hori","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766535","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766535","url":null,"abstract":"This paper is about a novel type mono-pedal robot with a bi-articular spring and a mono-articular electric motor. The mechanism is designed based on the concept of the mono-bi configuration, which effectively reduces the number of actuators and consequently the cost, keeping the advantages of bi-articular actuators such as high compliance, stability, accuracy, and homogeneity of motion. By showing the control strategies of JUMPBiE, it shows the feasibility of the proposed system configuration and gives insights on the under-actuated bi-articular actuation problems. In this work, the background of the robot design and its mathematical model were elaborated, and the simulation results were shown and discussed.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"377 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124705547","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The highly performant and realtime deterministic communication layer of the aRDx software framework","authors":"Tobias Hammer, B. Bäuml","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766584","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766584","url":null,"abstract":"Communication between software components is one of the most important functionalities a software framework for modern complex robotic systems has to provide. Here, we present the highly performant realtime communication layer of our new robotic software framework aRDx (agile robot development - next generation), with, e.g., zero-copy semantics, realtime determinism and detailed control of the QoS (quality of service). In addition, we give an in-depth performance comparison to other popular robotic frameworks, namely ROS, YARP, Orocos and aRD.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123712363","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Naveed Akhtar, Anastassia Küstenmacher, P. Plöger, G. Lakemeyer
{"title":"Simulation-based approach for avoiding external faults","authors":"Naveed Akhtar, Anastassia Küstenmacher, P. Plöger, G. Lakemeyer","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766551","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766551","url":null,"abstract":"When a robot interacts with its environment to perform tasks, it often faces unexpected situations which render its actions unsuccessful despite perfect functioning of its components. These situations occur as deviations of properties of the objects (manipulated by the robot) from their acceptable values. Hence, they are experienced by the robot as external faults. In this work, we propose a simulation-based approach for avoiding the external faults that occur during the manipulation actions of a robot which involve releasing of objects. With the help of a single example simulation, that shows the behavior of the manipulated object for successful completion of the action, the proposed approach constructs different examples of the object's behavior and labels them as `desired' or `undesired'. These labelled examples are used by an algorithm, which we refer as N-Bins, to suggest a releasing state of the object that avoids the occurrence of external faults. Once exposed to the labelled examples, N-Bins can also be used for predicting the occurrence of external faults for a given releasing state of the object. These abilities of N-Bins are used by the approach to modify the releasing action of the robot for avoiding external faults. We present the approach as a four-step scheme that performs the above mentioned tasks completely autonomously.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127002504","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Timo Beyl, Philip Nicolai, J. Raczkowsky, H. Wörn, Mirko Daniele Comparetti, E. Momi
{"title":"Multi kinect people detection for intuitive and safe human robot cooperation in the operating room","authors":"Timo Beyl, Philip Nicolai, J. Raczkowsky, H. Wörn, Mirko Daniele Comparetti, E. Momi","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766594","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766594","url":null,"abstract":"Microsoft Kinect cameras are widely used in robotics. The cameras can be mounted either to the robot itself (in case of mobile robotics) or can be placed where they have a good view on robots and/or humans. The use of cameras in the surgical operating room adds additional complexity in placing the cameras and adds the necessity of coping with a highly uncontrolled environment with occlusions and unknown objects. In this paper we present an approach that accurately detects humans using multiple Kinect cameras. Experiments were performed to show that our approach is robust to interference, noise and occlusions. It provides a good detection and identification rate of the user which is crucial for safe human robot cooperation.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"1163 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114167603","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}