{"title":"A simple and efficient approach for cooperative incremental learning in robot swarms","authors":"G. D. Caro, A. Giusti, J. Nagi, L. Gambardella","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766596","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766596","url":null,"abstract":"In the context of vision-based hand gesture recognition, we study how a robot swarm can incrementally and cooperatively learn to classify an unseen gesture vocabulary using a simple information sharing mechanism. Training examples and correction feedback are interactively provided by a human instructor. Each robot in the swarm is equipped with a statistical classifier, which is built and progressively updated using the input from the instructor. In order to learn collectively and speed-up the process, the robots share with each other a selection of the locally acquired gesture data. Extensive experiments on a real-world dataset show that the proposed cooperative learning approach is effective and robust, in spite of its simplicity. Accounting for bandwidth limitations in network communications, we study the impact of different strategies for the selection of the shared data, and we investigate the effect of swarm size and the amount of shared information on the learning speed.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"23 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":"131898695","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":"Multi-step motion planning for climbing robots with kinodynamic constraints","authors":"Matthias Füller, E. Prassler, P. Forsman","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766459","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766459","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a kinodynamic multi-step motion planner that aims to investigate the influence and mutual dependencies of different kinematic robot configurations and 3D environments. The planner is able to plan the motion for a defined robot that can move along known docking points placed at walls and ceiling. This planner is based on the available multi-step planner of Bretl [1] and adds extended kinodynamic awareness into the planning process. The robot kinematic and dynamic properties, as well as the environment, can be easily changed and thus allows an investigation on the influence of different designs on the movement capabilities. The focus of the planner is the usage as a design tool that allows to compare different robot properties and their resulting influence on the movement capabilities as well the maximum joint forces/torques for desired movements.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"60 3 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":"114491297","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":"Identification and singularity distinction of surgical operation in endoscopic surgery","authors":"Takanori Sato, C. Ishii, H. Kawamura","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766451","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766451","url":null,"abstract":"Endoscopic surgery is a difficult procedure compared with laparotomy surgery. In particular, considerable skills and care are required for thread knotting in endoscopic surgery. In this paper, a method for the automatic identification of a surgical procedure and recognition of a singularity, defined as any unusual manipulation, in the identified surgical procedure is proposed to avoid surgical operation errors. Ligation is divided into several individual procedures, and on the basis of the threshold criteria, each surgical procedure is identified. Next, the identified surgical procedure, thread knotting, is classified as either normal or singular using a self-organizing map (SOM). Experiments were carried out to evaluate the proposed method. The results showed the effectiveness of the proposed method.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"233 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":"116429644","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":"Improving combinatorial auctions for multi-robot exploration","authors":"Rodolfo C. Cavalcante, T. Noronha, L. Chaimowicz","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766508","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766508","url":null,"abstract":"The use of multiple robots in exploration missions has attracted much attention in recent years. Here we deal with the specific problem in which a team of robots have to visit a set of target points to perform some action. Robots have a map of the environment and should compute and execute paths in a distributed way, trying to minimize the total mission cost that is dependent on the quality of the target-to-robot allocation. In this paper, we focus on this target allocation problem and use combinatorial auctions to solve it. We propose novel approaches for improving combinatorial auction mechanisms in the target allocation problem and compare them with approaches based on single-item auctions, sequential auctions, and other combinatorial auction algorithms. Experimental results showed that the auction approaches for multi-robot target allocation proposed in this work achieved better results than other auction based mechanisms found in the literature.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"58 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":"123624747","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":"Robust recursive control of a skid-steering mobile robot","authors":"R. Inoue, João P. Cerri, M. Terra, A. Siqueira","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766516","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766516","url":null,"abstract":"This paper is concerned with the robust control of a skid-steering mobile robot (SSMR). A robust recursive controller for linear state-space systems subject to parametric uncertainties is considered to deal with the SSMR tracking problem. Simulation results of the application of this regulator using the dynamic model equations of a SSMR shows the effectiveness of this approach.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"1 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":"125795419","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":"Attitude determination and control system of the uruguayan cubesat, AntelSat","authors":"Matias Tassano, P. Monzón, Juan Pechiar","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766523","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766523","url":null,"abstract":"This paper discusses the design and development of an Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) for the first Uruguayan nanosatellite, AntelSat, which is being built at UdelaR University in Uruguay. The satellite consists of a two-unit (2U) Cubesat, which implies that the ADCS is designed under tight mass, size and energy constraints. In addition, student satellites usually have limited sensing, computational and communication capabilities, motivating the need for autonomous and computationally efficient algorithms. Under these strict restraints, developing an effective attitude control system poses a difficult challenge. For the attitude determination section, data available from sensors is taken as inputs for the computation of an optimal quaternion estimator. Attitude control is based on magnetic actuation with magnetorquers being commanded with pulse width modulation. The selection of hardware and algorithms is addressed, observing the system requirements and restrictions, previous background as well as theoretical and practical considerations.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"17 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":"128477965","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":"Dexterous high-precision robotic wrist for micromanipulation","authors":"Frank L. Hammond, R. Howe, R. Wood","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766578","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766578","url":null,"abstract":"This paper describes the design and experimental validation of a three degree-of-freedom (DOF) robotic wrist which enables high-precision, anthropomorphic motion suitable for both teleoperative and automated robotic micromanipulation tasks. The proposed parallel-platform based robotic wrist improves upon previous wrist designs by combining the mechanical stiffness and precision of conventional parallel-platform manipulators (PPMs) with the larger workspaces and more dexterous motion of serial chain manipulators (SCMs). This robotic wrist also includes a non-backdrivable actuation mechanism, a continuous tool rotation DOF which allows for non-anthropomorphic twisting motions necessary for drilling and screw mating, and a coaxial channel through which wires and tubes can pass. A dexterous wrist prototype demonstrates an angular motion resolution of 0.1° and a motion bandwidth of 3.0Hz over a motion range greater than that of the human wrist.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"29 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":"122341465","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":"Ranking the good points: A comprehensive method for humanoid robots to grasp unknown objects","authors":"I. Gori, U. Pattacini, V. Tikhanoff, G. Metta","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766495","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766495","url":null,"abstract":"We propose a grasping pipeline to deal with unknown objects in the real world. We focus on power grasp, which is characterized by large areas of contact between the object and the surfaces of the palm and fingers. Our method seeks object regions that match the curvature of the robot's palm. The entire procedure relies on binocular vision, which provides a 3D point cloud of the visible part of the object. The obtained point cloud is segmented in smooth surfaces. A score function measures the quality of the graspable points on the basis of the surface they belong to. A component of the score function is learned from experience and it is used to map the curvature of the object surfaces to the curvature of the robot's hand.The user can further provide top-down information on the preferred grasping regions. We guarantee the feasibility of a chosen hand configuration by measuring its manipulability. We prove the effectiveness of the proposed approach by tasking a humanoid robot to grasp a number of unknown real objects.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"119 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":"128905784","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":"Towards adaptive robots based on interaction traces: A user study","authors":"Abir-Beatrice Karami, Karim Sehaba, Benoît Encelle","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766484","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766484","url":null,"abstract":"We focus on the problem of adaptivity of companion robots to their users. Until recently, propositions on the subject of intelligent service robots were mostly user independent. Our work is part of the FUI-RoboPopuli project, which concentrates on endowing entertainment companion robots with adaptive and social behaviour.We concentrate on the capacity of robots to learn how to adapt and personalize their behaviour according to their users. Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) are largely used for adaptive robots applications. Several approaches were proposed to decrease the sample complexity to learn the MDP model, including the reward function.We proposed in previous work, two learning algorithms to learn the MDP reward function through analysing interaction traces (i.e. the interaction history between the robot and their users) including users' feedback. The first algorithm is direct and certain. The second is able to detect the importance of certain information, regarding the users (profiles) and/or the environment, in the adaptation process. We present, in this paper, a user study in addition to simulated experiments. Those experiments prove that our proposed algorithms are able to learn, through interactions with real users, a reward function that leads to an adapted and personalised robot behaviour. We also show the ability of our algorithms to handle exceptions and ambiguities in users feedback during experiments with real users.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"51 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":"127602324","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}
Luigi D’Alfonso, Antonio Grano, P. Muraca, P. Pugliese
{"title":"Sensor fusing using a convex combination of two Kalman filters - Experimental results","authors":"Luigi D’Alfonso, Antonio Grano, P. Muraca, P. Pugliese","doi":"10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766450","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2013.6766450","url":null,"abstract":"In this work the mobile robot localization problem in an unknown environment is faced and a new version of the Extended Kalman filter is proposed to estimate the robot position and orientation. This new filter uses a convex combination of two filters estimating the same state variables. The first filter is based on measurements provided by robot on board distance sensors while the second one uses out of board distance sensors measurements. The resulting “Mixed” Kalman filter is designed to emphasize the qualities and overcome the defects of each used sensor. The proposed fusing technique has been tested in a real experimental framework using the robot Khepera III. The algorithm has been contrasted with other Extended Kalman filters, based on the on board and on the out of board sensors measurements, yielding to encouraging results.","PeriodicalId":437814,"journal":{"name":"2013 16th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)","volume":"95 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":"126241536","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}