PhD Thesis Defense
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Hybrid Soft Sensing in Robotic Systems

Zoom Link Abstract: The desire to operate robots in unstructured environments, side-by-side with humans, has created a demand for safe and robust sensing skins. Largely inspired by human skin, the ultimate goal of electronic skins is to measure diverse sensory information, conform to surfaces, and avoid interfering with the natural mechanics of the host or [...]

PhD Speaking Qualifier
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

The Effect of Locomotion Configuration on Discrete Obstacle Traversal for a Small Tracked Vehicle

Zoom Link Abstract: As mobile robots are being designed for increasingly rugged and unknown terrain, mechanical reconfigurability presents one possibility for improving vehicle efficiency and mobility. To validate this idea, we created an 18.5-kg modular tracked vehicle with adjustable track tension, track width, track length, and sprocket diameter. In this talk, I will explain the [...]

MSR Speaking Qualifier
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Qian Long – MSR Thesis Talk

TBA

ZOOM Link: https://cmu.zoom.us/j/7263914910   Title: Evolutionary Population Curriculum for Scaling Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Abstract: In multi-agent games, the complexity of the environment can grow exponentially as the number of agents increases, so it is particularly challenging to learn good policies when the agent population is large. We introduce Evolutionary Population Curriculum (EPC), a curriculum learning [...]

MSR Speaking Qualifier
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Wen-Hsuan Chu – MSR Thesis Talk

TBA

ZOOM Link: https://cmu.zoom.us/j/4417558334 Title: Neural Batch Sampling with Reinforcement Learning for Semi-Supervised Anomaly Detection Abstract: We are interested in the detection and segmentation of anomalies in images where the anomalies are typically small (i.e., a small tear in woven fabric, bro-ken pin of an IC chip). From a statistical learning point of view, anomalies have [...]

MSR Speaking Qualifier
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Chendi Lin – MSR Thesis Talk

TBA

Zoom Link: https://cmu.zoom.us/j/95571441174   Title: Online Connectivity-aware Dynamic Distribution for Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Systems   Abstract: In many multi-robot applications the robot team needs to execute multiple tasks simultaneously with different task-related controllers. To ensure effective coordination and at the same time avoid collisions, the robots have to stay connected. In this work, we consider the problem where a [...]

MSR Speaking Qualifier
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Robert Li – MSR Thesis Talk

TBA

Zoom Link: https://cmu.zoom.us/j/91465601940   Title: Solving Puzzles Like A Human With Two Stage Random Search   Abstract: Humans are remarkably good at solving novel physical puzzles and tasks, with only a basic understanding of abstract concepts like kinematics, gravity, mass, friction, and inertia. We wanted to replicate how a human would explore the search space of a problem. [...]

MSR Speaking Qualifier
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Samantha Speer – MSR Thesis Talk

TBA

Zoom Link: https://cmu.zoom.us/j/98546775449   Title: Grounding Abstract Concepts With Robotic Manipulatives   Abstract: Technology in education has been on the rise for a long time, developing from computer manipulatives to mobile apps and finally into robotics. Robotics has the unique affordances of the classic physical manipulatives and virtual manipulative, providing both a physical aspect along with [...]

MSR Speaking Qualifier
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Vaibhav (Vai) Viswanathan – MSR Thesis Talk

TBA

Zoom Link: https://cmu.zoom.us/j/2112607862   Title: Bitwise Trajectory Elimination: An Efficient Method for Filtering Trajectory Libraries for Quadrotor Navigation   Abstract: Quadrotor flight in unknown environments is challenging due to the limited range of perception sensors, state estimation drift, and limited onboard computation. In this work, we tackle these challenges by proposing an efficient, reactive planning approach. We introduce [...]

MSR Speaking Qualifier
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Xi (Sandy) Sun – MSR Thesis Talk

TBA

Zoom link: https://cmu.zoom.us/j/94541819048   Title: Visual-Inertial Source Localization for Co-Robot Rendezvous   Abstract: We aim to enable robots to visually localize a target person through the aid of an additional sensing modality -- the target person's 3D inertial measurements. The need for such technology may arise when a robot is to meet a person in [...]

MSR Speaking Qualifier
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Harsh Agarwal – MSR Thesis Talk

Zoom Link: https://cmu.zoom.us/j/99544484313   Title   DeepBLE - Generalizing RSSI based Localization Across Different Devices   Abstract   Accurate smartphone localization ( < 1-meter error) for indoor navigation using only RSSI received from a set of BLE beacons remains a challenging problem, due to the inherent noise of RSSI measurements. To overcome the large variance in [...]