MSR Thesis Defense
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Toward Invariant Visual Inertial State Estimation using Information Sparsification

1305 Newell Simon Hall

Abstract In this work, we address two current challenges in real-time visual-inertial odometry (VIO) systems - efficiency and accuracy. To this end, we present a novel approach to tightly couple visual and inertial measurements in a fixed-lag VIO framework using information sparsification. To bound computational complexity, fixed-lag smoothers perform marginalization of variables but consequently deteriorate accuracy and [...]

RI Seminar
Associate Professor
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Imaging the World One Photon at a Time

1305 Newell Simon Hall

Abstract: The heart of a camera and one of the pillars for computer vision is the digital photodetector, a device that forms images by collecting billions of photons traveling through the physical world and into the lens of a camera.  While the photodetectors used by cellphones or professional DSLR cameras are designed to aggregate as [...]

RI Seminar
Principal Systems Scientist / Director, NREC
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Lesson Learned from Two Decades of Robotics Development and Thoughts on Where We Go from Here

GHC 6115

Abstract: In this talk, Herman Herman will offer various lessons learned from developing various robots for the last 2 decades at the National Robotics Engineering Center. He will also offer his perspective on the future of autonomous robots in various industries, including self-driving cars, material handling and consumer robotics. Bio: Dr. Herman Herman is the [...]

RI Seminar
Associate Professor
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Factor Graphs for Robot Perception

1305 Newell Simon Hall

Abstract: Factor graphs have become a popular tool for modeling robot perception problems. Not only can they model the bipartite relationship between sensor measurements and variables of interest for inference, but they have also been instrumental in devising novel inference algorithms that exploit the spatial and temporal structure inherent in these problems. I will overview [...]

VASC Seminar
Emily Denton
Ph.D. Student
Courant Institute at New York University

Towards better methods of video generation

Gates-Hillman 6115

Abstract: Learning to generate future frames of a video sequence is a challenging research problem with great relevance to reinforcement learning, planning and robotics. Existing approaches either fail to capture the full distribution of outcomes, or yield blurry generations, or both. In this talk I will address two important aspects of video generations: (i) what [...]

RI Seminar
Anat Levin
Associate Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering , Technion Israel Institute of Techology

Light-Sensitive Displays

1305 Newell Simon Hall

Abstract: Nobel prize winner M. G. Lippmann described his dream of an ideal display as a “window into the world.”  “While the current most perfect photographic print only shows one aspect of reality, reduced to a single image fixed in a plane, the direct view of reality offers, as we know, infinitely more variety.” Changing [...]

VASC Seminar
Fereshteh Sadeghi
PhD Candidate
Computer Science, University of Washington

Acquiring and Transferring Generalizable Vision-based Robot Skills

GHC 6501

Abstract:  In recent years, there have been great advances in policy learning for goal-oriented agents. However, there are still major challenges brought by real-world constraints for teaching highly generalizable and versatile robot policies in a cost efficient and safe manner. In this talk, I will argue that instead of aiming to teach large motion repertoires [...]

VASC Seminar
Yong Jae Lee
Assistant Professor
Computer Science Department, University of California, Davis

Learning to localize and anonymize objects with indirect supervision

GHC 6501

Abstract: Computer vision has made great strides for problems that can be learned with direct supervision, in which the goal can be precisely defined (e.g., drawing a box that tightly-fits an object). However, direct supervision is often not only costly, but also challenging to obtain when the goal is more ambiguous. In this talk, I [...]

RI Seminar
Bertram F. Malle
Professor
Department of Cognitive, Linguistic & Psychological Sciences and Humanity-Centered Robotics Initiative , Brown University

What People See in a Robot: A New Look at Human-Like Appearance

Newell-Simon Hall 3305

Abstract: A long-standing question in HRI is what effects a robot’s human-like appearance has on various psychological responses.  A substantial literature has demonstrated such effects on liking, trust, ascribed intelligence, and so on.  Much of this work has relied on a construct of uni-dimensional low to high human-likeness. I introduce evidence for an alternative view according to which [...]