VASC Seminar
Farah Deeba
PhD Candidate
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department , University of British Columbia

Understanding the Placenta: Towards an Objective Pregnancy Screening

Abstract: My research focusses on the development of a pregnancy screening tool, that will be: (i) system and user-independent; and (ii) provides a quantifi able measure of placental health. With this end, I am working towards the design of a multiparametric quantitative ultrasound (QUS) based placental tissue characterization method. The method would potentially identify the [...]

RI Seminar
Heni Ben Amor
Assistant Professor
Interactive Robotics Laboratory, Arizona State University

Human-Robot Interactive Collaboration & Communication

Abstract: Autonomous and anthropomorphic robots are poised to play a critical role in manufacturing, healthcare and the services industry in the near future. However, for this vision to become a reality, robots need to efficiently communicate and interact with their human partners. Rather than traditional remote controls and programming languages, adaptive and transparent techniques for [...]

PhD Speaking Qualifier
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Interleaving Graph Search and Trajectory Optimization for Aggressive Quadrotor Flight

Abstract: Quadrotors can achieve aggressive flight by tracking complex maneuvers and rapidly changing directions. Planning for aggressive flight with trajectory optimization could be incredibly fast, even in higher dimensions, and can account for dynamics of the quadrotor, however, only provides a locally optimal solution. On the other hand, planning with discrete graph search can handle [...]

PhD Speaking Qualifier
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

See, Hear, Explore: Curiosity via Audio-Visual Association

Abstract: Exploration is one of the core challenges in reinforcement learning. A common formulation of curiosity-driven exploration uses the difference between the real future and the future predicted by a learned model. However, predicting the future is an inherently difficult task which can be ill-posed in the face of stochasticity. In this work, we introduce [...]

RI Seminar
Principal Systems Scientist / Director, NREC
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Robots “R” Us: 25 years of Robotics Technology Development and Commercialization at NREC

Abstract: Since its founding in 1979, the Robotics Institute (RI) at Carnegie Mellon University has been leading the world in robotics research and education. In the mid 1990s, RI created NREC as the applied R&D center within the Institute with a specific mission to apply robotics technology in an impactful way on real-world applications. In this talk, I will go over [...]

VASC Seminar
Jiachen Li
Ph.D. Candidate
University of California, Berkeley

Relational Reasoning for Multi-Agent Systems

Abstract: Multi-agent interacting systems are prevalent in the world, from purely physical systems to complicated social dynamics systems. The interactions between entities / components can give rise to very complex behavior patterns at the level of both individuals and the whole system. In many real-world multi-agent interacting systems (e.g., traffic participants, mobile robots, sports players), [...]

PhD Thesis Proposal
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Dynamical Model Learning and Inversion for Aggressive Quadrotor Flight

Quadrotor applications have seen a surge recently and many tasks require precise and accurate controls. Flying fast is critical in many applications and the limited onboard power source makes completing tasks quickly even more important. Staying on a desired course while traveling at high speeds and high accelerations is difficult due to complex and stochastic [...]

PhD Speaking Qualifier
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

MonoClothCap: Towards Temporally Coherent Clothing Capture from Monocular RGB Video

Abstract: We present a method to capture temporally coherent dynamic clothing deformation from a monocular RGB video input. In contrast to the existing literature, our method does not require a pre-scanned personalized mesh template, and thus can be applied to in-the-wild videos. To constrain the output to a valid deformation space, we build statistical deformation [...]

RI Seminar
Rohan Paul
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Towards an Intelligence Architecture for Human-Robot Teaming

Abstract: Advances in autonomy are enabling intelligent robotic systems to enter human-centric environments like factories, homes and workplaces. To be effective as a teammate, we expect robots to accomplish more than performing simplistic repetitive tasks; they must perceive, reason, perform semantic tasks in a human-like way. A robot's ability to act intelligently is fundamentally tied [...]

PhD Thesis Defense
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Robust Manipulation with Active Compliance

Abstract: Human manipulation skills are filled with creative use of physical contacts to move the object about the hand and in the environment. However, it is difficult for robot manipulators to enjoy this dexterity since contacts may cause the manipulation task to fail by introducing huge forces or unexpected change of constraints, especially when modeling [...]