Supervised Autonomous Locomotion and Manipulation for Disaster Response with a Centaur-like Robot

Mobile manipulation tasks are one of the key challenges in the field of search and rescue (SAR) robotics requiring robots with flexible locomotion and manipulation abilities. Since the tasks are mostly unknown in advance, the robot has to adapt to a wide variety of terrains and workspaces during a mission. The centaur-like robot Centauro has a hybrid legged-wheeled base and an anthropomorphic upper body to carry out complex tasks in environments too dangerous for humans. Due to its high number of degrees of freedom, controlling the robot with direct teleoperation approaches is challenging and exhausting. Supervised autonomy approaches are promising to increase quality and speed of control while keeping the flexibility to solve unknown tasks. We developed a set of operator assistance functionalities with different levels of autonomy to control the robot for challenging locomotion and manipulation tasks. The integrated system was evaluated in disaster response scenarios and showed promising performance.Comment: In Proceedings of IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Madrid, Spain, October 201

Toolflows for Mapping Convolutional Neural Networks on FPGAs: A Survey and Future Directions

In the past decade, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have demonstrated state-of-the-art performance in various Artificial Intelligence tasks. To accelerate the experimentation and development of CNNs, several software frameworks have been released, primarily targeting power-hungry CPUs and GPUs. In this context, reconfigurable hardware in the form of FPGAs constitutes a potential alternative platform that can be integrated in the existing deep learning ecosystem to provide a tunable balance between performance, power consumption and programmability. In this paper, a survey of the existing CNN-to-FPGA toolflows is presented, comprising a comparative study of their key characteristics which include the supported applications, architectural choices, design space exploration methods and achieved performance. Moreover, major challenges and objectives introduced by the latest trends in CNN algorithmic research are identified and presented. Finally, a uniform evaluation methodology is proposed, aiming at the comprehensive, complete and in-depth evaluation of CNN-to-FPGA toolflows.Comment: Accepted for publication at the ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR) journal, 201

Dual Isomonodromic Deformations and Moment Maps to Loop Algebras

The Hamiltonian structure of the monodromy preserving deformation equations of Jimbo {\it et al } is explained in terms of parameter dependent pairs of moment maps from a symplectic vector space to the dual spaces of two different loop algebras. The nonautonomous Hamiltonian systems generating the deformations are obtained by pulling back spectral invariants on Poisson subspaces consisting of elements that are rational in the loop parameter and identifying the deformation parameters with those determining the moment maps. This construction is shown to lead to ``dual'' pairs of matrix differential operators whose monodromy is preserved under the same family of deformations. As illustrative examples, involving discrete and continuous reductions, a higher rank generalization of the Hamiltonian equations governing the correlation functions for an impenetrable Bose gas is obtained, as well as dual pairs of isomonodromy representations for the equations of the Painleve transcendents $P_{V}$ and $P_{VI}$.Comment: preprint CRM-1844 (1993), 28 pgs. (Corrected date and abstract.

Standardized field testing of assistant robots in a Mars-like environment

Controlled testing on standard tasks and within standard environments can provide meaningful performance comparisons between robots of heterogeneous design. But because they must perform practical tasks in unstructured, and therefore non-standard, environments, the benefits of this approach have barely begun to accrue for field robots. This work describes a desert trial of six student prototypes of astronaut-support robots using a set of standardized engineering tests developed by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), along with three operational tests in natural Mars-like terrain. The results suggest that standards developed for emergency response robots are also applicable to the astronaut support domain, yielding useful insights into the differences in capabilities between robots and real design improvements. The exercise shows the value of combining repeatable engineering tests with task-specific application-testing in the field

Computer vision for real-time orbital operations. Center directors discretionary fund

Machine vision research is examined as it relates to the NASA Space Station program and its associated Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle (OMV). Initial operation of OMV for orbital assembly, docking, and servicing are manually controlled from the ground by means of an on board TV camera. These orbital operations may be accomplished autonomously by machine vision techniques which use the TV camera as a sensing device. Classical machine vision techniques are described. An alternate method is developed and described which employs a syntactic pattern recognition scheme. It has the potential for substantial reduction of computing and data storage requirements in comparison to the Two-Dimensional Fast Fourier Transform (2D FFT) image analysis. The method embodies powerful heuristic pattern recognition capability by identifying image shapes such as elongation, symmetry, number of appendages, and the relative length of appendages

Transport in time-dependent dynamical systems: Finite-time coherent sets

We study the transport properties of nonautonomous chaotic dynamical systems over a finite time duration. We are particularly interested in those regions that remain coherent and relatively non-dispersive over finite periods of time, despite the chaotic nature of the system. We develop a novel probabilistic methodology based upon transfer operators that automatically detects maximally coherent sets. The approach is very simple to implement, requiring only singular vector computations of a matrix of transitions induced by the dynamics. We illustrate our new methodology on an idealized stratospheric flow and in two and three dimensional analyses of European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) reanalysis data

Efficient Autonomous Navigation for Planetary Rovers with Limited Resources

Rovers operating on Mars are in need of more and more autonomous features to ful ll their challenging mission requirements. However, the inherent constraints of space systems make the implementation of complex algorithms an expensive and difficult task. In this paper we propose a control architecture for autonomous navigation. Efficient implementations of autonomous features are built on top of the current ExoMars navigation method, enhancing the safety and traversing capabilities of the rover. These features allow the rover to detect and avoid hazards and perform long traverses by following a roughly safe path planned by operators on ground. The control architecture implementing the proposed navigation mode has been tested during a field test campaign on a planetary analogue terrain. The experiments evaluated the proposed approach, autonomously completing two long traverses while avoiding hazards. The approach only relies on the optical Localization Cameras stereobench, a sensor that is found in all rovers launched so far, and potentially allows for computationally inexpensive long-range autonomous navigation in terrains of medium difficulty

Geometric Realization of the Segal--Sugawara Construction

We apply the technique of localization for vertex algebras to the Segal-Sugawara construction of an ``internal'' action of the Virasoro algebra on affine Kac-Moody algebras. The result is a lifting of twisted differential operators from the moduli of curves to the moduli of curves with bundles, with arbitrary decorations and complex twistings. This construction gives a uniform approach to a collection of phenomena describing the geometry of the moduli spaces of bundles over varying curves: the KZB equations and heat kernels on non-abelian theta functions, their critical level limit giving the quadratic parts of the Beilinson-Drinfeld quantization of the Hitchin system, and their infinite level limit giving a Hamiltonian description of the isomonodromy equations.Comment: References adde

The Kinetic Basis of Morphogenesis

It has been shown recently (Shalygo, 2014) that stationary and dynamic patterns can arise in the proposed one-component model of the analog (continuous state) kinetic automaton, or kinon for short, defined as a reflexive dynamical system with active transport. This paper presents extensions of the model, which increase further its complexity and tunability, and shows that the extended kinon model can produce spatio-temporal patterns pertaining not only to pattern formation but also to morphogenesis in real physical and biological systems. The possible applicability of the model to morphogenetic engineering and swarm robotics is also discussed.Comment: 8 pages. Submitted to the 13th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL-2015) on March 10, 2015. Accepted on April 28, 201