Navigation for Balancing Robots in Contact with People
Event Location: NSH 1305Abstract: This work describes methods for advancing the state of the art in mobile robot navigation and physical Human-Robot Interaction (pHRI). An enabling technology in this effort is the ballbot, a person-sized mobile robot that balances on a ball. This underactuated robot presents unique challenges in planning, navigation, and control; however, it also has significant advantages over [...]
Robust Rearrangement Planning using Nonprehensile Interaction
Event Location: GHC 6501Abstract: As we work to move robots out of factories and into human environments, we must empower robots to interact freely in unstructured, cluttered spaces. Humans do this easily, using diverse, whole-arm, nonprehensile actions such as pushing or pulling in everyday tasks. These interaction strategies make difficult tasks easier and impossible tasks [...]
Learning Policies for Shared Autonomy
Event Location: NSH 3305Abstract: In shared autonomy, user input and robot autonomy are combined to control a robot to achieve a goal. Most prior work accomplishes this by augmenting user input with some autonomous strategy for that goal. We take a different viewpoint, treating the user as a policy minimizing some cost function. Our aim [...]
Analysis of Angle of Attack for Efficient Slope Ascent by Rovers
Event Location: GHC 2109Bio: Hiroaki Inotsume is a Masters student in the Robotics Institute advised by David Wettergreen. His research focuses on vehicle-terrain interaction analysis for design, planning, and control of planetary rovers. He holds a B.E. and a M.E. degrees in Aerospace Engineering.Abstract: What direction should a rover drive to efficiently ascend slope of [...]
Direct Multiple View Visual Simultaneous Localization And Mapping
Event Location: NSH 1305Abstract: We propose a direct, featureless, Lucas-Kanade-based method as a reliable Visual Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (VSLAM) solution in challenging environments, where feature detection and precise subpixel localization may be unreliable. Current state-of-the-art direct methods have been shown to perform well on a range of challenging datasets. Nonetheless, they have been limited [...]
Pose Machines: Estimating Articulated Pose from Images and Video
Event Location: NSH 1305Abstract: The articulated motion of humans is varied and complex. We use the range of motion of our articulated structure for functional tasks such as transport, manipulation, communication, and self-expression. We use our limbs to gesture and signal intent. It is therefore crucial for an autonomous system operating and interacting in human [...]
Neya Systems: How to Bootstrap a Robotics Company in 5 (not-so) Easy Years
Event Location: GHC 6115Bio: Dr. Parag Batavia is the founder of Neya Systems, LLC, in Wexford PA. He is a 1999 graduate of the CMU Robotics Institute Ph.D. program, and a 2009 graduate of Drexel’s MBA program. At Neya, he is responsible for all areas of company growth, and has taken the company from 1 [...]
Removing Common Assumptions from Large Scale Structure-from-Motion
Event Location: NSH 1507Bio: Chris Sweeney is currently a PhD candidate in the 4 Eyes Lab at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research interests include multi-view geometry, structure from motion, and augmented reality. His main research interest is in using unorganized photo collections from the internet to create a complete and up-to-date 3D [...]
Mathematica and WolframAlpha in Education and Research
Event Location: GHC 2109Abstract: During this free seminar, we will explore using Mathematica and WolframAlpha for a wide variety of practical and theoretical applications across a variety of disciplines. Attendees will not only see new features in Mathematica 10 and WolframAlpha, but will also receive examples of this functionality to begin using immediately. No experience [...]