PhD Thesis Defense

Abstract: People with upper extremity disabilities are gaining increased independence through the use of assisted devices such as wheelchair-mounted robotic arms. However, the increased capability and dexterity of these robotic arms also makes them challenging to control through accessible interfaces like joysticks, sip-and-puff, and buttons that are lower-dimensional than the control space of the robot. [...]

Abstract: Robots exploring the subsurface ocean of Europa, for example, may not have reliable communications with scientists on Earth. Robots exploring with unreliable communications must conduct scientific exploration autonomously. Approaches to deliberative and opportunistic science autonomy that work in the laboratory may not work in the field. This thesis presents three algorithms designed to improve [...]

Abstract: Understanding the temporal dimension of images is a fundamental part of computer vision. Humans are able to interpret how the entities in an image will change over time. However, it has only been relatively recently that researchers have focused on visual forecasting—getting machines to anticipate events in the visual world before the actually happen. [...]

Abstract: Lunar polar resources can accelerate deep space exploration by resupplying missions with oxygen, water, and propellent. Before lunar resupply can be established, the distribution and concentration of water ice and other volatiles abundant at the poles of the Moon must be verified and mapped. The need for affordable, scalable exploration of the lunar poles [...]

Abstract: Given the increase in scale and complexity of robotics, robot application development is challenging in the real world. It may be expensive, unsafe, or impractical to collect data, or test systems, in reality. Simulation provides an answer to these challenges. In simulation, data collection is relatively inexpensive, scenes can be procedurally generated, and state [...]

Abstract: The promised future filled with robots sensing and acting intelligently in the world is near fruition, thanks in part to continuous progress in robotic perception. However, a number of challenges remain before robots and their perception systems can be truly reliable. In particular, we must consider what happens when highly complex perception systems designed [...]

Abstract: Hospitals and warehouses use autonomous delivery robots to increase productivity. Robots must reliably navigate unstructured non-uniform environments which requires efficient long-term operation that robustly accounts for unforeseen circumstances. However, unreliable autonomous robots need continuous operator assistance, which decreases throughput and negates a robot's benefit. Planning with high fidelity models is more likely to lead [...]

Abstract: Virtually all robotics and computer vision applications require some form of pose estimation; such as registration, structure from motion, sensor calibration, etc. This problem is challenging because it is highly nonlinear and nonconvex. A fundamental contribution of this thesis is the development of fast and accurate pose estimation by formulating in a parameter space [...]

Abstract: Robotic swarms are multi-robot systems whose global behavior emerges from local interactions between individual robots and spatially proximal neighboring robots. Each robot can be programmed with several local control laws that can be activated depending on an operator's choice of global swarm behavior (e.g. flocking, aggregation, formation control, area coverage). In contrast to other [...]

Abstract: Improving robotic manipulation is critical for robots to be actively useful in real-world factories and homes. While some success has been shown in simulation and controlled environments, robots are slow, clumsy, and not general or robust enough when interacting with their environment. By contrast, humans effortlessly manipulate objects. One possible reason for this discrepancy [...]