Personal Guides: Heterogeneous Robots Sharing Personal Tours in Multi-Floor Environments

GidaBot is an application designed to setup and run a heterogeneous team of robots to act as tour guides in multi-floor buildings. Although the tours can go through several floors, the robots can only service a single floor, and thus, a guiding task may require collaboration among several robots. The designed system makes use of a robust inter-robot communication strategy to share goals and paths during the guiding tasks. Such tours work as personal services carried out by one or more robots. In this paper, a face re-identification/verification module based on state-of-the-art techniques is developed, evaluated offline, and integrated into GidaBot’s real daily activities, to avoid new visitors interfering with those attended. It is a complex problem because, as users are casual visitors, no long-term information is stored, and consequently, faces are unknown in the training step. Initially, re-identification and verification are evaluated offline considering different face detectors and computing distances in a face embedding representation. To fulfil the goal online, several face detectors are fused in parallel to avoid face alignment bias produced by face detectors under certain circumstances, and the decision is made based on a minimum distance criterion. This fused approach outperforms any individual method and highly improves the real system’s reliability, as the tests carried out using real robots at the Faculty of Informatics in San Sebastian show.This work has been partially funded by the Basque Government, Spain, grant number IT900-16, and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), grant number RTI2018-093337-B-I00

An intelligent multi-floor mobile robot transportation system in life science laboratories

In this dissertation, a new intelligent multi-floor transportation system based on mobile robot is presented to connect the distributed laboratories in multi-floor environment. In the system, new indoor mapping and localization are presented, hybrid path planning is proposed, and an automated doors management system is presented. In addition, a hybrid strategy with innovative floor estimation to handle the elevator operations is implemented. Finally the presented system controls the working processes of the related sub-system. The experiments prove the efficiency of the presented system

Software for a Service Robot

Service robots are becoming more commonplace every year due to advances in artificial intelligence, substituting humans in increasingly more complex tasks. By having an autonomous and competent service robot performing routinely tasks instead of its human owners, their productivity increases. The search for better service robots has led to the creation of competitions where such robots are tested and the state of the art technology is pushed further. Socialab acquired a Turtlebot2 robot to serve people around the university campus and one day participate in such competitions. With hopes of achieving these goals, the laboratory has proposed a variety of projects over the years, each adding new layers offunctionality to the robot. With each studentthathas tackled their respective project,thedeveloped softwarehasbeencontinuously stacking. However, each completed project has remained separate from each other andhasn’t been used ever since. Hence,the developed software is being wasted. Therefore, it is imperative to integrate all the available software into the robot. Yet, as new projects are proposed, the problem of scattered software can reoccur after the integration of the currently available ones. Furthermore, with more functionality that is developed, the harder and longer it takes to complete their integration. To preventthis entirely, itis necessary to create structural software that eases the development of new functionality as well as its integration with the current software. To achieve this, a class was developed which is responsible for controlling the execution of all processes running in the robot, of which the different software depends on. Additionally, research was done on multiple competitions to identify the most commonly required functionality traits, which we refer to as modules. Afterwards, an implementation of each of these modules was developed. Because of their universality, their implementation allows future software that requires any of the modules to simply import them, rather than having to re-implement them. In line with good software quality practices, if any of the modules needs an upgrade, this upgrade simply has to be performed on the respective module, instead of upgrading every adjacent software that uses this module. This was the first goal of this thesis. After creating a solid foundation for robot software development, the focus shifted towards the creation of new functionality. The different tasks were obtained from the previous research of various robotic competitions. The idea is that if the robot can perform such tasks then it can participate in the competitions, while the same functionalities can be used around campus. The list aimed to be as long as possible with the goal of leaving the robot with as much functionality as possible while taking into consideration the time restraints of the development of this thesis. Seven tasks were selected. The implementation of each task is explained in detail. As each task was developed, the implemented steps were turned into modules, therefore respecting the initial goal of flexible and reusable software. Because of this, as more tasks were developed the following task’s implementation was increasingly simpler as some of the requirements were already available from the development of their predecessors. The tasks required knowledge from different areas of artificial intelligence. This lead to the broadening of my knowledge rather than specialization in a single area. With this work, we show how distinct robotic tasks were implemented. Due to the varied nature ofthe tasks, we show how to tackle a multitude of different problems that appear in the area of artificial intelligence. Additionally, the work presents an approach to create a solid foundation for the development and integration of increasingly more software. The tasks are benchmarked, meaning future updates ofthe tasks can be performed and proved superior through the comparison of their results.Os robôs de serviço são cada vez mais comuns devido aos avanços constantes na área da inteligência artificial, substituindo os humanos em tarefas cada vez mais complexas. Ao ter um robô autónomo e competente desempenhando tarefas diárias em vez do seu dono humano, a produtividade destes consequentemente aumenta. A pesquisa por melhores robôs de serviço levou à criação de competições robóticas onde tais tipos de robôs são avaliados e o estado da arte é forçado a avançar. Com o objetivo de possuir um robô de serviço que sirva as pessoas na universidade, bem como um dia participar em tais competições, o Socialab adquiriu um robô Turtlebot2. O laboratório tem proposto vários projetos ao longo dos anos, cada um adicionando novos níveis de funcionalidade ao robô. Com cada estudante que tem vindo a realizar o respetivo projeto, o software que foi desenvolvido tem estado continuamente a aumentar. Adicionalmente, cada projeto completado tem permanecido separado dos restantes e não tem sido utilizado desde o momento da sua criação. Por esta razão, o software desenvolvido está a ser desperdiçado. Portanto, é imperativo integrar todo o software disponível no robô. No entanto, como novos projetos serão desenvolvidos, este problema de projetos disjuntos poderá voltar a ocorrer após a integração dos projetos atuais. Ademais, com o aumento da funcionalidade que é desenvolvida, mais dificil e demorado será a sua integração. De forma a evitar este problema na sua totalidade, é necessário criar software estrutural que facilite o desenvolvimento de novas funcionalidades, bem como a sua integração com o software já existente. De forma a atingir este objetivo, foi desenvolvida uma classe cujo propósito é controlar a execução de todos os processos em execução no robô. Adicionalmente, foi efetuada uma pesquisa sobre diversas competições robóticas com o objetivo de identificar os tipos de funcionalidades mais comuns, que referimos como módulos. Depois foi realizada uma implementação de cada um destes módulos. Devido à universalidade destes módulos, a sua implementação permite que software futuro, que provavelmente depende de alguns dos módulos, apenas os tenha que importar, em contraste com ter que os re-implementar. Adicionalmente, emlinha comas práticas dequalidadede software, se cadaumdosmódulos precisa de uma atualização, esta apenas tem de ser realizada nos respetivos módulos, ao invés de ter de atualizar cada software adjacente que teve de o implementar. Este foi o primeiro objetivo da tese. Após a criação de uma fundação sólida para o desenvolvimento de software para robô, o foco transferiu-se para a criação de nova funcionalidade. Uma lista de tarefas robóticas foi obtida da pesquisa anterior sobre várias competições robóticas. A ideia é que se o robô é capaz de realizar tais tarefas então não só pode participar nas competições que as requerem, como também tem utilidade que pode ser utilizada pelas pessoas na universidade. A lista visava ser o mais extensa possível, tendo em conta as restrições temporais de desenvolvimento da tese, de modo a deixar o robô com o máximo de funcionalidades possível. Desta forma, sete tarefas foram escolhidas. A implementação de cada uma das tarefas é explicada em detalhe no seu capítulo respetivo. À medida que cada tarefa foi desenvolvida, os seus componentes individuais foram extraídos para novos módulos, passiveis de serem utilizados por outras funcionalidades, respeitando assim, o objetivo inicial de criar software flexível e reutilizável. Este fator tornou a criação das tarefas seguintes cada vez mais simples devido a estas dependerem de funcionalidades já implementadas nas anteriores. A implementação das tarefas exigiu conhecimento das diferentes áreas da inteligência artificial. Este facto levou à ampliação do meu conhecimento ao invés da especialização numa área, algo que é frequente na realização de teses. A realização deste trabalho demonstra como as distintas tarefas robóticas foram implementadas. Devido à natureza variada das tarefas, é demonstrado como enfrentar um conjunto diverso de problemas que podem aparecer na área da inteligência artificial. Adicionalmente, este trabalho apresenta uma abordagem para a criação de uma fundação sólida para o desenvolvimento e integração de novo software. Por último, as tarefas estão aferidas contra o estado da arte, significando que atualizações futuras às tarefas podem ser realizadas e provadas superiores através da comparação dos seus resultados

Towards a framework for socially interactive robots

250 p.En las últimas décadas, la investigación en el campo de la robótica social ha crecido considerablemente. El desarrollo de diferentes tipos de robots y sus roles dentro de la sociedad se están expandiendo poco a poco. Los robots dotados de habilidades sociales pretenden ser utilizados para diferentes aplicaciones; por ejemplo, como profesores interactivos y asistentes educativos, para apoyar el manejo de la diabetes en niños, para ayudar a personas mayores con necesidades especiales, como actores interactivos en el teatro o incluso como asistentes en hoteles y centros comerciales.El equipo de investigación RSAIT ha estado trabajando en varias áreas de la robótica, en particular,en arquitecturas de control, exploración y navegación de robots, aprendizaje automático y visión por computador. El trabajo presentado en este trabajo de investigación tiene como objetivo añadir una nueva capa al desarrollo anterior, la capa de interacción humano-robot que se centra en las capacidades sociales que un robot debe mostrar al interactuar con personas, como expresar y percibir emociones, mostrar un alto nivel de diálogo, aprender modelos de otros agentes, establecer y mantener relaciones sociales, usar medios naturales de comunicación (mirada, gestos, etc.),mostrar personalidad y carácter distintivos y aprender competencias sociales.En esta tesis doctoral, tratamos de aportar nuestro grano de arena a las preguntas básicas que surgen cuando pensamos en robots sociales: (1) ¿Cómo nos comunicamos (u operamos) los humanos con los robots sociales?; y (2) ¿Cómo actúan los robots sociales con nosotros? En esa línea, el trabajo se ha desarrollado en dos fases: en la primera, nos hemos centrado en explorar desde un punto de vista práctico varias formas que los humanos utilizan para comunicarse con los robots de una maneranatural. En la segunda además, hemos investigado cómo los robots sociales deben actuar con el usuario.Con respecto a la primera fase, hemos desarrollado tres interfaces de usuario naturales que pretenden hacer que la interacción con los robots sociales sea más natural. Para probar tales interfaces se han desarrollado dos aplicaciones de diferente uso: robots guía y un sistema de controlde robot humanoides con fines de entretenimiento. Trabajar en esas aplicaciones nos ha permitido dotar a nuestros robots con algunas habilidades básicas, como la navegación, la comunicación entre robots y el reconocimiento de voz y las capacidades de comprensión.Por otro lado, en la segunda fase nos hemos centrado en la identificación y el desarrollo de los módulos básicos de comportamiento que este tipo de robots necesitan para ser socialmente creíbles y confiables mientras actúan como agentes sociales. Se ha desarrollado una arquitectura(framework) para robots socialmente interactivos que permite a los robots expresar diferentes tipos de emociones y mostrar un lenguaje corporal natural similar al humano según la tarea a realizar y lascondiciones ambientales.La validación de los diferentes estados de desarrollo de nuestros robots sociales se ha realizado mediante representaciones públicas. La exposición de nuestros robots al público en esas actuaciones se ha convertido en una herramienta esencial para medir cualitativamente la aceptación social de los prototipos que estamos desarrollando. De la misma manera que los robots necesitan un cuerpo físico para interactuar con el entorno y convertirse en inteligentes, los robots sociales necesitan participar socialmente en tareas reales para las que han sido desarrollados, para así poder mejorar su sociabilida

Design and Development of Robotic Part Assembly System under Vision Guidance

Robots are widely used for part assembly across manufacturing industries to attain high productivity through automation. The automated mechanical part assembly system contributes a major share in production process. An appropriate vision guided robotic assembly system further minimizes the lead time and improve quality of the end product by suitable object detection methods and robot control strategies. An approach is made for the development of robotic part assembly system with the aid of industrial vision system. This approach is accomplished mainly in three phases. The first phase of research is mainly focused on feature extraction and object detection techniques. A hybrid edge detection method is developed by combining both fuzzy inference rule and wavelet transformation. The performance of this edge detector is quantitatively analysed and compared with widely used edge detectors like Canny, Sobel, Prewitt, mathematical morphology based, Robert, Laplacian of Gaussian and wavelet transformation based. A comparative study is performed for choosing a suitable corner detection method. The corner detection technique used in the study are curvature scale space, Wang-Brady and Harris method. The successful implementation of vision guided robotic system is dependent on the system configuration like eye-in-hand or eye-to-hand. In this configuration, there may be a case that the captured images of the parts is corrupted by geometric transformation such as scaling, rotation, translation and blurring due to camera or robot motion. Considering such issue, an image reconstruction method is proposed by using orthogonal Zernike moment invariants. The suggested method uses a selection process of moment order to reconstruct the affected image. This enables the object detection method efficient. In the second phase, the proposed system is developed by integrating the vision system and robot system. The proposed feature extraction and object detection methods are tested and found efficient for the purpose. In the third stage, robot navigation based on visual feedback are proposed. In the control scheme, general moment invariants, Legendre moment and Zernike moment invariants are used. The selection of best combination of visual features are performed by measuring the hamming distance between all possible combinations of visual features. This results in finding the best combination that makes the image based visual servoing control efficient. An indirect method is employed in determining the moment invariants for Legendre moment and Zernike moment. These moments are used as they are robust to noise. The control laws, based on these three global feature of image, perform efficiently to navigate the robot in the desire environment

The Post-Screen Through Virtual Reality, Holograms and Light Projections

Screens are ubiquitous today. They display information; present image worlds; are portable; connect to mobile networks; mesmerize. However, contemporary screen media also seek to eliminate the presence of the screen and the visibilities of its boundaries. As what is image becomes increasingly indistinguishable against the viewer’s actual surroundings, this unsettling prompts re-examination about not only what is the screen, but also how the screen demarcates and what it stands for in relation to our understanding of our realities in, outside and against images. Through case studies drawn from three media technologies – Virtual Reality; holograms; and light projections – this book develops new theories of the surfaces on and spaces in which images are displayed today, interrogating critical lines between art and life; virtuality and actuality; truth and lies. What we have today is not just the contestation of the real against illusion or the unreal, but the disappearance itself of difference and a gluttony of the unreal which both connect up to current politics of distorted truth values and corrupted terms of information. The Post-Screen Through Virtual Reality, Holograms and Light Projections: Where Screen Boundaries Lie is thus about not only where the image’s borders and demarcations are established, but also the screen boundary as the instrumentation of today’s intense virtualizations that do not tell the truth. In all this, a new imagination for images emerges, with a new space for cultures of presence and absence, definitions of object and representation, and understandings of dis- and re-placement – the post-screen

Wings in Orbit: Scientific and Engineering Legacies of the Space Shuttle, 1971-2010

The Space Shuttle is an engineering marvel perhaps only exceeded by the station itself. The shuttle was based on the technology of the 1960s and early 1970s. It had to overcome significant challenges to make it reusable. Perhaps the greatest challenges were the main engines and the Thermal Protection System. The program has seen terrible tragedy in its 3 decades of operation, yet it has also seen marvelous success. One of the most notable successes is the Hubble Space Telescope, a program that would have been a failure without the shuttle's capability to rendezvous, capture, repair, as well as upgrade. Now Hubble is a shining example of success admired by people around the world. As the program comes to a close, it is important to capture the legacy of the shuttle for future generations. That is what "Wings In Orbit" does for space fans, students, engineers, and scientists. This book, written by the men and women who made the program possible, will serve as an excellent reference for building future space vehicles. We are proud to have played a small part in making it happen. Our journey to document the scientific and engineering accomplishments of this magnificent winged vehicle began with an audacious proposal: to capture the passion of those who devoted their energies to its success while answering the question "What are the most significant accomplishments?" of the longestoperating human spaceflight program in our nation s history. This is intended to be an honest, accurate, and easily understandable account of the research and innovation accomplished during the era

The Post-Screen Through Virtual Reality, Holograms and Light Projections

Screens are ubiquitous today. They display information; present image worlds; are portable; connect to mobile networks; mesmerize. However, contemporary screen media also seek to eliminate the presence of the screen and the visibilities of its boundaries. As what is image becomes increasingly indistinguishable against the viewer’s actual surroundings, this unsettling prompts re-examination about not only what is the screen, but also how the screen demarcates and what it stands for in relation to our understanding of our realities in, outside and against images. Through case studies drawn from three media technologies – Virtual Reality; holograms; and light projections – this book develops new theories of the surfaces on and spaces in which images are displayed today, interrogating critical lines between art and life; virtuality and actuality; truth and lies. What we have today is not just the contestation of the real against illusion or the unreal, but the disappearance itself of difference and a gluttony of the unreal which both connect up to current politics of distorted truth values and corrupted terms of information. The Post-Screen Through Virtual Reality, Holograms and Light Projections: Where Screen Boundaries Lie is thus about not only where the image’s borders and demarcations are established, but also the screen boundary as the instrumentation of today’s intense virtualizations that do not tell the truth. In all this, a new imagination for images emerges, with a new space for cultures of presence and absence, definitions of object and representation, and understandings of dis- and re-placement – the post-screen

A Fire to be Lighted: The Training of American Astronauts From 1959 to the Present

This study examines the training of American astronauts from the selection of the original Mercury astronauts in 1959 to the present, as crews of six work aboard the International Space Station. It makes the primary argument that through all of those years, the training sequence has successfully adapted to the challenges of preparing astronauts for flight far more than it has failed. It will examine in more detail than any previous publication how training devices for the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle, and International Space Station programs helped astronauts to make this statement true. This study will also make the argument that the successful training of astronauts helped prove the value of sending them into space. Sessions at a variety of locales, from electronic flight simulators, to neutral buoyancy pools, to virtual reality laboratories have given astronauts the mental and physical flexibility in space missions that only they possess. In other words, they are not automatons, but rather people who can develop their skills through training. This study will demonstrate that when their missions began, those skills contributed to spectacular successes in space. Astronauts have returned a bevy of scientific data from their scientific experiments in Earth orbit and from their walks on the Moon during Apollo thanks to their trained eyes and minds. They have also serviced the Hubble Space Telescope and constructed an International Space Station that is longer than a football field thanks to their training. As the 21st century continues, astronauts will journey on bolder missions to near Earth asteroids, back to the Moon, and onto Mars. The instructors who train them for those missions, whether belonging to a government or a company, will benefit from reading this study because they will gain a sense of what training methods have worked historically and understand the tremendously strong track record of human accomplishments in space given adequate training