PhD Thesis Defense
Marynel Vázquez
Carnegie Mellon University

Reasoning About Spatial Patterns of Human Behavior During Group Conversations with Robots

GHC 4405

Abstract: The goal of this dissertation is to develop computational models for robots to detect and sustain the spatial patterns of behavior that naturally emerge during free-standing group conversations with people. These capabilities have often been overlooked by the Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) community, but they are essential for robots to appropriately interact with and around [...]

PhD Thesis Defense
Shervin Javdani
Carnegie Mellon University

Acting under Uncertainty for Information Gathering and Shared Autonomy

GHC 8102

Abstract: Acting under uncertainty is a fundamental challenge for any decision maker in the real world. As uncertainty is often the culprit of failure, many prior works attempt to reduce the problem to one with a known state. However, this fails to account for a key property of acting under uncertainty: we can often gain [...]

Student Talks
Supreeth Achar
Carnegie Mellon University

Active Illumination for the Real World

GHC 8102

Abstract: Active illumination systems use a controllable light source and a light sensor to measure properties of a scene. For such a system to work reliably across a wide range of environments it must be able to handle the effects of global light transport, bright ambient light, interference from other active illumination devices, defocus, and [...]

PhD Thesis Defense
Nathan Brooks
Carnegie Mellon University

Situational Awareness and Mixed Initiative Markup for Human-Robot Team Plans

NSH 1305

Abstract: As robots become more reliable and user interfaces (UI) become more powerful, human-robot teams are being applied to more real world problems. Human-robot teams offer redundancy and heterogeneous capabilities desirable in scientific investigation, surveillance, disaster response, and search and rescue operations. Large teams are overwhelming for a human operator, so systems employ high level [...]

Field Robotics Center Seminar
Shobhit Srivastava

High-Fidelity Perceptual Representations via Hierarchical Gaussian Mixture Models

Event Location: NSH 1507Bio: Shobhit Srivastava is an M.S. student in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, advised by Prof. Nathan Michael. The primary focus of his research is to enable high-fidelity and efficient multimodal environment modeling on mobile autonomous systems to enable efficient inference with respect to the environment. He previously received his [...]

Field Robotics Center Seminar
Timothy Lee

State Estimation and Localization for ROV-Based Reactor Pressure Vessel Inspection Using a Pan-Tilt-Zoom Camera

Event Location: NSH 1305Bio: Timothy E. Lee is a M.S. in Robotics graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University, advised by Prof. Nathan Michael. Timothy's field robotics research seeks to enable robust, efficient, and autonomous inspection of critical infrastructure. Specifically, he is working towards improving the efficiency of nuclear power by enabling camera-based navigation of underwater [...]

Special Events

2017 Robotics Institute Administrative Support Staff Retreat

TBA

By Invitation Only - Please save the date and plan to join us for the Robotics Institute Staff Retreat to be held Friday, August 4, 2017. More information for the day meeting agenda will follow once it becomes available.