PhD Thesis Defense
Heather L. Jones
Carnegie Mellon University

Using Planned View Trajectories to Build Good Models of Planetary Features under Transient Illumination

Event Location: GHC 2109Abstract: This research addresses the modeling of substantially 3D planetary terrain features, such as skylights, canyons, craters, rocks, and mesas, by a surface robot. The sun lights planetary features with transient, directional illumination. For concave features like skylight pits, craters, and canyons, this can lead to dark shadows. For all terrain features, [...]

Field Robotics Center Seminar
Eugene Fang

High-Fidelity Planetary Route Determination Using Computationally Efficient Monocular Fisheye Odometry and Sun Compass

Event Location: GHC 2109Bio: Eugene Fang is a M.S. student in the Robotics Institute advised by William “Red” Whittaker. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley in 2014. His current research focuses on route determination for planetary rovers.Abstract: Today’s planetary robotic exploration is carried out by [...]

RI Seminar
Raj Madhavan
Founder and CEO
Humanitarian RoboticsTechnologies, LLC

Humanitarian Robotics and Automation Technologies: Improving the Quality of Life for Humanity

Event Location: NSH 1507Bio: Raj Madhavan is the Founder & CEO of Humanitarian Robotics Technologies, LLC, Maryland, U.S.A. and a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Robotics with AMMACHI Labs at Amrita University, Kerala, India. He has held appointments with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (March 2001-January 2010) as an R&D staff member based at the National [...]

VASC Seminar
Andrew Owens
Ph.D. Student at MIT CSAIL
MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Sound provides supervision for visual learning

Event Location: Newell Simon Hall 1507Bio: Andrew Owens is a graduate student at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, working under the supervision of Bill Freeman and Antonio Torralba. Before that, he obtained his B.A. in Computer Science at Cornell University in 2010. He is a recipient of a Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship, [...]

RI Seminar
Yanxi Liu
Professor
Penn State University

Human versus Machine Perception of Visual Regularity or Are you a human or a robot?

Event Location: NSH 1305Bio: Yanxi Liu received her B.S. degree in physics/electrical engineering (Beijing, China), her Ph.D. degree in computer science for group theory applications in robotics (University of Massachusetts, Amherst, US), and her postdoctoral training in the robotics lab of LIFIA/IMAG (Grenoble, France). Before joining the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon Institute in 1996 [...]

Field Robotics Center Seminar
Zongyi Zhang

Robot Brachiation with Energy Control

Event Location: NSH 1507Bio: Zongyi Yang is a M.S. student in the Robotics Institute advised by David Wettergreen. He received a B.S. in Engineering Science ECE Option from University of Toronto in 2014. His current research focuses on robot brachiation. Abstract: Branching structures are ubiquitous elements in several environments on Earth, from trees found in [...]

VASC Seminar
Yezhou Yang
Postdoctoral Research Associate
University of Maryland, Institute for Advanced Computer Studies

Human Manipulation Action Understanding for Cognitive Robots

Event Location: Newell Simon Hall 1507Bio: Dr. Yezhou Yang is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Computer Vision Lab and the Automation, Robotics and Cognition (ARC) Lab, with the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, working with his PhD advisors: Prof. Yiannis Aloimonos and Dr. Cornelia Fermuller. His main interests lie in Cognitive [...]

PhD Thesis Proposal
Daniel Maturana
Carnegie Mellon University

Semantic Mapping for Robotic Navigation and Exploration

Event Location: GHC 2109Abstract: The last decade has seen remarkable advances in 3D perception for robotics. Advances in range sensing and SLAM now allow robots to easily acquire detailed 3D maps of their environment in real-time. However, adaptive robot behavior requires an understanding the environment that goes beyond pure geometry. A step above purely geometric [...]

RI Seminar
Yuandong Tian
Reasoning in Deep Learning
Facebook AI Research

Reasoning in Deep Learning

Event Location: Newell Simon Hall 1507Bio: Yuandong Tian is a Research Scientist in Facebook AI Research, working on Deep Learning and Computer Vision. Prior to that, he was a Software Engineer in Google Self-driving Car team in 2013-2014. He received Ph.D in Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University on 2013, Bachelor and Master degree of Computer [...]

PhD Thesis Proposal
Christopher Cunningham
Carnegie Mellon University

Traversability Prediction for Planetary Rovers in Granular Terrain

Event Location: GHC 2109Abstract: Loose, granular terrain can cause rovers to slip and sink, inhibiting mobility and sometimes even permanently entrapping a vehicle. Traversability of granular terrain is difficult to foresee using traditional, non-contact sensing methods, such as cameras and LIDAR. This inability to detect loose terrain hazards has caused significant delays for rovers on [...]