4,522 research outputs found
Behavior Trees in Robotics and AI: An Introduction
A Behavior Tree (BT) is a way to structure the switching between different
tasks in an autonomous agent, such as a robot or a virtual entity in a computer
game. BTs are a very efficient way of creating complex systems that are both
modular and reactive. These properties are crucial in many applications, which
has led to the spread of BT from computer game programming to many branches of
AI and Robotics. In this book, we will first give an introduction to BTs, then
we describe how BTs relate to, and in many cases generalize, earlier switching
structures. These ideas are then used as a foundation for a set of efficient
and easy to use design principles. Properties such as safety, robustness, and
efficiency are important for an autonomous system, and we describe a set of
tools for formally analyzing these using a state space description of BTs. With
the new analysis tools, we can formalize the descriptions of how BTs generalize
earlier approaches. We also show the use of BTs in automated planning and
machine learning. Finally, we describe an extended set of tools to capture the
behavior of Stochastic BTs, where the outcomes of actions are described by
probabilities. These tools enable the computation of both success probabilities
and time to completion
Product Intelligence: Its Conceptualization, Measurement and Impact on Consumer Satisfaction
In the last decade, companies have developed a large number of intelligent products. Due to the use of information technology, these products, for example, are able to work autonomously, cooperate with other products, or adapt to changing circumstances. Although intelligent products appear an attractive category of products, they have received little attention in the literature. The present article provides a conceptualization of the new construct of product intelligence and describes the development procedure of a measure for the construct. In addition, the article sets up and empirically tests a conceptual framework in which product intelligence leads to consumer satisfaction through the innovation attributes of relative advantage, compatibility, and complexity. Managerial implications for new product development and marketing of intelligent products are considered and suggestions for further research provided.Adoption;Innovation;Intelligent products;New product development;Smart products
Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 320)
This bibliography lists 125 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during January, 1989. Subject coverage includes: aerospace medicine and psychology, life support systems and controlled environments, safety equipment, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, and flight crew behavior and performance
Towards adaptive multi-robot systems: self-organization and self-adaptation
Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.The development of complex systems ensembles that operate in uncertain environments is a major challenge. The reason for this is that system designers are not able to fully specify the system during specification and development and before it is being deployed. Natural swarm systems enjoy similar characteristics, yet, being self-adaptive and being able to self-organize, these systems show beneficial emergent behaviour. Similar concepts can be extremely helpful for artificial systems, especially when it comes to multi-robot scenarios, which require such solution in order to be applicable to highly uncertain real world application. In this article, we present a comprehensive overview over state-of-the-art solutions in emergent systems, self-organization, self-adaptation, and robotics. We discuss these approaches in the light of a framework for multi-robot systems and identify similarities, differences missing links and open gaps that have to be addressed in order to make this framework possible
Combining brain-computer interfaces and assistive technologies: state-of-the-art and challenges
In recent years, new research has brought the field of EEG-based Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI) out of its infancy and into a phase of relative maturity through many demonstrated prototypes such as brain-controlled wheelchairs, keyboards, and computer games. With this proof-of-concept phase in the past, the time is now ripe to focus on the development of practical BCI technologies that can be brought out of the lab and into real-world applications. In particular, we focus on the prospect of improving the lives of countless disabled individuals through a combination of BCI technology with existing assistive technologies (AT). In pursuit of more practical BCIs for use outside of the lab, in this paper, we identify four application areas where disabled individuals could greatly benefit from advancements in BCI technology, namely,“Communication and Control”, “Motor Substitution”, “Entertainment”, and “Motor Recovery”. We review the current state of the art and possible future developments, while discussing the main research issues in these four areas. In particular, we expect the most progress in the development of technologies such as hybrid BCI architectures, user-machine adaptation algorithms, the exploitation of users’ mental states for BCI reliability and confidence measures, the incorporation of principles in human-computer interaction (HCI) to improve BCI usability, and the development of novel BCI technology including better EEG devices
Overcoming barriers and increasing independence: service robots for elderly and disabled people
This paper discusses the potential for service robots to overcome barriers and increase independence of
elderly and disabled people. It includes a brief overview of the existing uses of service robots by disabled and elderly
people and advances in technology which will make new uses possible and provides suggestions for some of these new
applications. The paper also considers the design and other conditions to be met for user acceptance. It also discusses
the complementarity of assistive service robots and personal assistance and considers the types of applications and
users for which service robots are and are not suitable
Deliberative Context-Aware Ambient Intelligence System for Assisted Living Homes
Monitoring wellbeing and stress is one of the problems covered by ambient
intelligence, as stress is a significant cause of human illnesses directly
affecting our emotional state. The primary aim was to propose a deliberation
architecture for an ambient intelligence healthcare application. The
architecture provides a plan for comforting stressed seniors suffering from
negative emotions in an assisted living home and executes the plan considering
the environment's dynamic nature. Literature was reviewed to identify the
convergence between deliberation and ambient intelligence and the latter's
latest healthcare trends. A deliberation function was designed to achieve
context-aware dynamic human-robot interaction, perception, planning
capabilities, reactivity, and context-awareness with regard to the environment.
A number of experimental case studies in a simulated assisted living home
scenario were conducted to demonstrate the approach's behavior and validity.
The proposed methods were validated to show classification accuracy. The
validation showed that the deliberation function has effectively achieved its
deliberative objectives
Deliberative Context-Aware Ambient Intelligence System for Assisted Living Homes
[EN] Monitoring wellbeing and stress is one of the problems covered by ambient intelligence, as stress is a significant cause of human illnesses directly affecting our emotional state. The primary aim was to propose a deliberation architecture for an ambient intelligence healthcare application. The architecture provides a plan for comforting stressed seniors suffering from negative emotions in an assisted living home and executes the plan considering the environment¿s dynamic nature. Literature was reviewed to identify the convergence between deliberation and ambient intelligence and the latter¿s latest healthcare trends. A deliberation function was designed to achieve context-aware dynamic human-robot interaction, perception, planning capabilities, reactivity, and context-awareness with regard to the environment. A number of experimental case studies in a simulated assisted living home scenario were conducted to demonstrate the approach¿s behavior and validity. The proposed methods were validated to show classification accuracy. The validation showed that the deliberation function has effectively achieved its deliberative objectives.This work is supported by the Spanish MINECO Project (No. TIN2017-88476-C2-1-R) and the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia Research (Grant No. PAID-10-19).Babli, M.; Rincón-Arango, JA.; Onaindia De La Rivaherrera, E.; Carrascosa Casamayor, C.; Julian, V. (2021). Deliberative Context-Aware Ambient Intelligence System for Assisted Living Homes. Human-Centric Computing and Information Sciences. 11:1-18. https://doi.org/10.22967/HCIS.2021.11.0191181
Pedestrian-Robot Interactions on Autonomous Crowd Navigation: Reactive Control Methods and Evaluation Metrics
Autonomous navigation in highly populated areas remains a challenging task
for robots because of the difficulty in guaranteeing safe interactions with
pedestrians in unstructured situations. In this work, we present a crowd
navigation control framework that delivers continuous obstacle avoidance and
post-contact control evaluated on an autonomous personal mobility vehicle. We
propose evaluation metrics for accounting efficiency, controller response and
crowd interactions in natural crowds. We report the results of over 110 trials
in different crowd types: sparse, flows, and mixed traffic, with low- (< 0.15
ppsm), mid- (< 0.65 ppsm), and high- (< 1 ppsm) pedestrian densities. We
present comparative results between two low-level obstacle avoidance methods
and a baseline of shared control. Results show a 10% drop in relative time to
goal on the highest density tests, and no other efficiency metric decrease.
Moreover, autonomous navigation showed to be comparable to shared-control
navigation with a lower relative jerk and significantly higher fluency in
commands indicating high compatibility with the crowd. We conclude that the
reactive controller fulfils a necessary task of fast and continuous adaptation
to crowd navigation, and it should be coupled with high-level planners for
environmental and situational awareness.Comment: \c{opyright}IEEE All rights reserved. IEEE-IROS-2022, Oct.23-27.
Kyoto, Japa
Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes, supplement 220, June 1981
Approximately 137 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in May 1981 are recorded, covering a variety of topics in aerospace medicine and biology
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