PhD Thesis Proposal
Sanjiban Choudhury
Carnegie Mellon University

Adaptive Motion Planning

Event Location: NSH 1305Abstract: Mobile robots are increasingly being deployed in the real world in response to a heightened demand for applications such as transportation, delivery and inspection. The motion planning systems for these robots are expected to have consistent performance across the wide range of scenarios that they encounter. While state-of-the art planners can [...]

RI Event

Learning optimal policies for compliant gaits and their implementation on robot hardware

Bipedal animals exhibit a diverse range of gaits and gait transitions, which can robustly travel over terrains of varying grade, roughness, and compliance. Bipedal robots should be capable of the same. Despite these clear goals, state-of-the-art humanoid robots have not yet demonstrated locomotion behaviors that are as robust or varied as those of humans and [...]

RI Seminar

Autonomous Intelligent Service Robots: Learning and Explanations in Human-Robot Interaction

1305 Newell Simon Hall

Manuela Veloso Herbert A Simon University Professor, Carnegie Mellon Abstract We research on autonomous mobile robots with a seamless integration of perception, cognition, and action. In this talk, I will first introduce our CoBot service robots and their novel localization and symbiotic autonomy, which enable them to consistently move in our buildings, now for more [...]

PhD Thesis Defense

Automatic Analysis of Facial Actions: Learning from Transductive, Supervised and Unsupervised Frameworks

GHC 4405

Abstract Automatic analysis of facial actions (AFA) can reveal a person's emotion, intention, and physical state, and make possible a wide range of applications. To enable reliable, valid, and efficient AFA, this thesis investigates both supervised and unsupervised learning. Supervised learning for AFA is challenging, in part, because of individual differences among persons in face [...]

PhD Thesis Defense

Measuring Human Motion in Social Interactions

GHC 6501

Tomas Simon Carnegie Mellon University Abstract This thesis develops methods for social signal reconstruction---in particular, we measure human motion during social interactions. Compared to other work in this space, we aim to measure the entire body, from the overall body pose to subtle hand gestures and facial expressions. The key to achieving this without placing [...]

PhD Thesis Proposal

Robust and Natural Gait via Neuromuscular Control for Transfemoral Prostheses

Porter Hall A19C

Nitish Thatte Carnegie Mellon University February 03, 2017, Robust and Natural Gait via Neuromuscular Control for Transfemoral Prostheses, Porter Hall A19C Abstract We present work towards developing a control method for powered knee and ankle prostheses based on a neuromuscular model of human locomotion. Previous research applying neuromuscular control to simulated biped models and to [...]

RI Seminar

Beyond Geometric Path Planning: Paradigms and algorithms for modern robotics

NSH 1305

Kris Hauser Associate Professor, Duke University Abstract The development of fast randomized algorithms for geometric path planning – computing collision-free paths for high dimensional systems – was a major achievement in the field of motion planning in the 2000's. But since then, recent advances in affordable robot sensors, actuators, and systems have changed the robotics [...]

VASC Seminar

Me Car, You Human: Understanding Human Activity for Intelligent Collaborative Robotic Vehicles

Newell Simon Hall 1507

Eshed Ohn-Bar Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California, San Diego Abstract The goal of my research is to develop human-centered algorithms for intelligent and autonomous systems. The research emphasizes modeling the perception, intent, and behavior of humans inside and around a vehicle. Over a decade has passed since the DARPA Grand Challenges, and the way in [...]

PhD Thesis Defense

Online Lidar and Vision based Ego-motion Estimation and Mapping

GHC 4405

Ji Zhang Carnegie Mellon University Abstract In many real-world applications, ego-motion estimation and mapping must be conducted online. In the robotics world, especially, real-time motion estimates are important for control of autonomous vehicles, while online generated maps are crucial for obstacle avoidance and path planning. Further, the complete map of a traversed environment can be [...]