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

Automatic generation of language-based tools using the LISA system

Many tools have been constructed using different formal methods to process various parts of a language specification (e.g. scanner generators, parser generators and compiler generators). The automatic generation of a complete compiler was the primary goal of such systems, but researchers recognised the possibility that many other language-based tools could be generated from formal language specifications. Such tools can be generated automatically whenever they can be described by a generic fixed part that traverses the appropriate data structures generated by a specific variable part, which can be systematically derivable from the language specifications. The paper identifies generic and specific parts for various language-based tools. Several language-based tools are presented in the paper, which are automatically generated using an attribute grammar-based compiler generator called LISA. The generated tools that are described in the paper include editors, inspectors, debuggers and visualisers/animators. Because of their complexity of construction, special emphasis is given to visualisers/animators, and the unique contribution of our approach toward generating such tools.GRICES -MCTE

Does the Constellation Program Offer Opportunities to Achieve Space Science Goals in Space?

Future space science missions developed to achieve the most ambitious goals are likely to be complex, large, publicly and professionally very important, and at the limit of affordability. Consequently, it may be valuable if such missions can be upgraded, repaired, and/or deployed in space, either with robots or with astronauts. In response to a Request for Information from the US National Research Council panel on Science Opportunities Enabled by NASA's Constellation System, we developed a concept for astronaut-based in-space servicing at the Earth-Moon L1,2 locations that may be implemented by using elements of NASA's Constellation architecture. This libration point jobsite could be of great value for major heliospheric and astronomy missions operating at Earth-Sun Lagrange points. We explored five alternative servicing options that plausibly would be available within about a decade. We highlight one that we believe is both the least costly and most efficiently uses Constellation hardware that appears to be available by mid-next decade: the Ares I launch vehicle, Orion/Crew Exploration Vehicle, Centaur vehicle, and an airlock/servicing node developed for lunar surface operations. Our concept may be considered similar to the Apollo 8 mission: a valuable exercise before descent by astronauts to the lunar surface

Development of a wearable assistive soft robotic device for elbow rehabilitation

The loss of motor function at the elbow joint can result as a consequence of stroke. Stroke is a clinical illness resulting in long lasting neurological deficits often affecting somatosensory and motor cortices. More than half of those that recover from a stroke survive with disability in their upper arm and need rehabilitation therapy to help in regaining functions of daily living. In this paper, we demonstrated a prototype of a low-cost, ultra-light and wearable soft robotic assistive device that could aid administration of elbow motion therapies to stroke patients. In order to assist the rotation of the elbow joint, the soft modules which consist of soft wedge-like cellular units was inflated by air to produce torque at the elbow joint. Highly compliant rotation can be naturally realised by the elastic property of soft silicone and pneumatic control of air. Based on the direct visual-actuation control, a higher control loop utilised visual processing to apply positional control, the lower control loop was implemented by an electronic circuit to achieve the desired pressure of the soft modules by Pulse Width Modulation. To examine the functionality of the proposed soft modular system, we used an anatomical model of the upper limb and performed the experiments with healthy participants

Terrain Segmentation and Roughness Estimation using RGB Data: Path Planning Application on the CENTAURO Robot

Robots operating in real world environments require a high-level perceptual understanding of the chief physical properties of the terrain they are traversing. In unknown environments, roughness is one such important terrain property that could play a key role in devising robot control/planning strategies. In this paper, we present a fast method for predicting pixel-wise labels of terrain (stone, sand, road/sidewalk, wood, grass, metal) and roughness estimation, using a single RGB-based deep neural network. Real world RGB images are used to experimentally validate the presented approach. Furthermore, we demonstrate an application of our proposed method on the centaur-like wheeled-legged robot CENTAURO, by integrating it with a navigation planner that is capable of re-configuring the leg joints to modify the robot footprint polygon for stability purposes or for safe traversal among obstacles

Technology and dementia: the future is now

Background: Technology has multiple potential applications to dementia from diagnosis and assessment to care delivery and supporting ageing in place. Objectives: To summarise key areas of technology development in dementia and identify future directions and implications. Method: Members of the US Alzheimer’s Association Technology Professional Interest Area involved in delivering the annual pre-conference summarised existing knowledge on current and future technology developments in dementia. Results: The main domains of technology development are as follows: (i) diagnosis, assessment and monitoring, (ii) maintenance of functioning, (iii) leisure and activity, (iv) caregiving and management. Conclusions: The pace of technology development requires urgent policy, funding and practice change, away from a narrow medical approach, to a holistic model that facilitates future risk reduction and pre- vention strategies, enables earlier detection and supports implementation at scale for a meaningful and fulfilling life with dementia

Callous-unemotional traits, low cortisol reactivity and physical aggression in children: findings from the Wirral Child Health and Development Study

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are thought to confer risk for aggression via reduced amygdala responsivity to distress cues in others. Low cortisol reactivity is thought to confer risk for aggression via reduced arousal and this effect may be confined to boys. We tested the hypothesis that the association between childhood CU traits and aggression would be greatest in the absence of the inhibitory effects of cortisol reactivity, and that this effect would be sex dependent. Participants were 283 members of a stratified subsample within an epidemiological longitudinal cohort (WCHADS). Cortisol reactivity to a social stressor was assessed at 5 years. CU traits were reported by mothers at 5 years, and physical aggression by mothers and teachers at age 7. Results showed that CU traits were associated with elevated aggression at 7 years controlling for earlier aggression. There was no main effect of cortisol reactivity on regression. The association between CU traits and aggression was moderated by cortisol reactivity (p = .011) with a strong association between CU traits and aggression in the presence of low reactivity, and a small and non-significant association in the presence of high reactivity. This association was further moderated by child sex (p = .041) with the joint effect of high CU traits and low cortisol reactivity seen only in boys (p = .016). We report first evidence that a combined deficit in inhibitory processes associated with CU traits and low cortisol reactivity increases risk for childhood aggression, in a sex-dependent manner

Autonomous weapon systems and international humanitarian law: a reply to the critics

In November 2012, Human Rights Watch, in collaboration with the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, released Losing Humanity: The Case against Killer Robots.[2] Human Rights Watch is among the most sophisticated of human rights organizations working in the field of international humanitarian law. Its reports are deservedly influential and have often helped shape application of the law during armed conflict. Although this author and the organization have occasionally crossed swords,[3] we generally find common ground on key issues. This time, we have not. “Robots” is a colloquial rendering for autonomous weapon systems. Human Rights Watch’s position on them is forceful and unambiguous: “[F]ully autonomous weapons would not only be unable to meet legal standards but would also undermine essential non-safeguards for civilians.”[4] Therefore, they “should be banned and . . . governments should urgently pursue that end.”[5] In fact, if the systems cannot meet the legal standards cited by Human Rights Watch, then they are already unlawful as such under customary international law irrespective of any policy or treaty law ban on them.[6] Unfortunately, Losing Humanity obfuscates the on-going legal debate over autonomous weapon systems. A principal flaw in the analysis is a blurring of the distinction between international humanitarian law’s prohibitions on weapons per se and those on the unlawful use of otherwise lawful weapons.[7] Only the former render a weapon illegal as such. To illustrate, a rifle is lawful, but may be used unlawfully, as in shooting a civilian. By contrast, under customary international law, biological weapons are unlawful per se; this is so even if they are used against lawful targets, such as the enemy’s armed forces. The practice of inappropriately conflating these two different strands of international humanitarian law has plagued debates over other weapon systems, most notably unmanned combat aerial systems such as the armed Predator. In addition, some of the report’s legal analysis fails to take account of likely developments in autonomous weapon systems technology or is based on unfounded assumptions as to the nature of the systems. Simply put, much of Losing Humanity is either counter-factual or counter-normative. This Article is designed to infuse granularity and precision into the legal debates surrounding such weapon systems and their use in the future “battlespace.” It suggests that whereas some conceivable autonomous weapon systems might be prohibited as a matter of law, the use of others will be unlawful only when employed in a manner that runs contrary to international humanitarian law’s prescriptive norms. This Article concludes that Losing Humanity’s recommendation to ban the systems is insupportable as a matter of law, policy, and operational good sense. Human Rights Watch’s analysis sells international humanitarian law short by failing to appreciate how the law tackles the very issues about which the organization expresses concern. Perhaps the most glaring weakness in the recommendation is the extent to which it is premature. No such weapons have even left the drawing board. To ban autonomous weapon systems altogether based on speculation as to their future form is to forfeit any potential uses of them that might minimize harm to civilians and civilian objects when compared to other systems in military arsenals

Keep Rollin' - Whole-Body Motion Control and Planning for Wheeled Quadrupedal Robots

We show dynamic locomotion strategies for wheeled quadrupedal robots, which combine the advantages of both walking and driving. The developed optimization framework tightly integrates the additional degrees of freedom introduced by the wheels. Our approach relies on a zero-moment point based motion optimization which continuously updates reference trajectories. The reference motions are tracked by a hierarchical whole-body controller which computes optimal generalized accelerations and contact forces by solving a sequence of prioritized tasks including the nonholonomic rolling constraints. Our approach has been tested on ANYmal, a quadrupedal robot that is fully torque-controlled including the non-steerable wheels attached to its legs. We conducted experiments on flat and inclined terrains as well as over steps, whereby we show that integrating the wheels into the motion control and planning framework results in intuitive motion trajectories, which enable more robust and dynamic locomotion compared to other wheeled-legged robots. Moreover, with a speed of 4 m/s and a reduction of the cost of transport by 83 % we prove the superiority of wheeled-legged robots compared to their legged counterparts.Comment: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letter