Student Talks
Assessing the Impact of Visual Utility Based Camera Control
Event Location: NSH 1305Abstract: Complex visual tasks often require high resolution imagery of specific phenomena but run too slowly to process large fields of view. In this thesis, we explore a general technique for camera control designed to maximize the high resolution imagery captured that is useful to the given task while minimizing excess imagery [...]
Query-Specific Learning and Inference for Probabilistic Graphical Models
Event Location: GHC 4405Abstract: In numerous real world applications, from sensor networks to computer vision to natural text processing, one needs to reason about the system in question in the face of uncertainty. A key problem in all those settings is to compute the probability distribution over the variables of interest (the query) given the [...]
On the Fundamental Relationships Among Path Planning Alternatives
Event Location: NSH 1305Abstract: Robotic motion planning aspires to match the ease and efficiency with which humans move through and interact with their environment. Yet state of the art robotic planners fall short of human abilities; they are slower in computation, and the results are often of lower quality. One stumbling block in traditional motion [...]
Graph-based Trajectory Planning through Programming by Demonstration
Event Location: NSH 1507Abstract: Autonomous robots are becoming increasingly commonplace in industry, space exploration, and even domestic applications. These diverse fields share the need for robots to perform increasingly complex motion behaviors for interacting with the world. As the robots' tasks become more varied and sophisticated, though, the challenge of programming them becomes more difficult [...]
Improving Memory for Optimization and Learning in Dynamic Environments
Event Location: NSH 1507Abstract: Many problems considered in optimization and artificial intelligence research are static: information about the problem is known a priori, and little to no uncertainty about this information is presumed to exist. Most real problems, however, are dynamic: information about the problem is released over time, uncertain events may occur, or the [...]
Graph Planning for Environmental Coverage
Event Location: NSH 1305Abstract: Tasks such as street mapping and security surveillance seek a route that traverses a given space to perform a function. These task functions may involve mapping the space for accurate modeling, sensing the space for unusual activity, or searching the space for objects. When these tasks are performed autonomously by robots, [...]
Attention-guided Augmentation of Animations, Stills, and Videos
Event Location: NSH 1305Abstract: Artists who work with visual media consider what a viewer will look at, how their attention will flow across the scene. They understand that attention is a limited resource and train themselves to use this resource well. In this thesis, our key insight is that algorithms to digitally manipulate artist-created visual [...]
Brain-Computer Interface Control of an Anthropomorphic Robotic Arm
Event Location: NSH 1305Abstract: This thesis describes a brain-computer interface (BCI) system that was developed to allow direct cortical control of 7 active degrees of freedom in a robotic arm. Two monkeys with chronic microelectrode implants in their motor cortices were able to use the arm to complete an oriented grasping task under brain control. [...]
Parallel Algorithms for Real-time Motion Planning
Event Location: NSH 1305Abstract: For decades, humans have dreamed of making cars that could drive themselves, so that travel would be less taxing, and the roads safer for everyone. Toward this goal, we have made strides in motion planning algorithms for autonomous cars, using a powerful new computing tool, the parallel graphics processing unit (GPU). [...]
Lightweight Robotic Excavation
Subtitle: The advantageous scaling of continuous excavator configurations, high payload ratio, and high driving speed
Event Location: NSH 1507Abstract: Excavating regolith, or loose soil, on the Moon and Mars enables outposts, fuel depots, and sustained space exploration. In space missions mass is always at a premium because it is the main driver behind launch costs. Low mass, especially when combined with reduced gravity, results in machines with limited weight available [...]