Learning for semantic parsing using statistical syntactic parsing techniques

textNatural language understanding is a sub-field of natural language processing, which builds automated systems to understand natural language. It is such an ambitious task that it sometimes is referred to as an AI-complete problem, implying that its difficulty is equivalent to solving the central artificial intelligence problem -- making computers as intelligent as people. Despite its complexity, natural language understanding continues to be a fundamental problem in natural language processing in terms of its theoretical and empirical importance. In recent years, startling progress has been made at different levels of natural language processing tasks, which provides great opportunity for deeper natural language understanding. In this thesis, we focus on the task of semantic parsing, which maps a natural language sentence into a complete, formal meaning representation in a meaning representation language. We present two novel state-of-the-art learned syntax-based semantic parsers using statistical syntactic parsing techniques, motivated by the following two reasons. First, the syntax-based semantic parsing is theoretically well-founded in computational semantics. Second, adopting a syntax-based approach allows us to directly leverage the enormous progress made in statistical syntactic parsing. The first semantic parser, Scissor, adopts an integrated syntactic-semantic parsing approach, in which a statistical syntactic parser is augmented with semantic parameters to produce a semantically-augmented parse tree (SAPT). This integrated approach allows both syntactic and semantic information to be available during parsing time to obtain an accurate combined syntactic-semantic analysis. The performance of Scissor is further improved by using discriminative reranking for incorporating non-local features. The second semantic parser, SynSem, exploits an existing syntactic parser to produce disambiguated parse trees that drive the compositional semantic interpretation. This pipeline approach allows semantic parsing to conveniently leverage the most recent progress in statistical syntactic parsing. We report experimental results on two real applications: an interpreter for coaching instructions in robotic soccer and a natural-language database interface, showing that the improvement of Scissor and SynSem over other systems is mainly on long sentences, where the knowledge of syntax given in the form of annotated SAPTs or syntactic parses from an existing parser helps semantic composition. SynSem also significantly improves results with limited training data, and is shown to be robust to syntactic errors.Computer Science

Modeling Human-Robot-Interaction based on generic Interaction Patterns

Peltason J. Modeling Human-Robot-Interaction based on generic Interaction Patterns. Bielefeld: Bielefeld University; 2014

Development of a Mobile Modular Robotic System, R2TM3, for Enhanced Mobility in Unstructured Environments

Limited mobility of mobile ground robots in highly unstructured environments is a problem that inhibits the use of such robots in applications with irregular terrain. Furthermore, applications with hazardous environments are good candidates for the use of robotics to reduce the risk of harm to people. Urban search and rescue (USAR) is an application where the environment is irregular, highly unstructured and hazardous to rescuers and survivors. Consequently, it is of interest to effectively use ground robots in applications such as USAR, by employing mobility enhancement techniques, which stem from the robot’s mechanical design. In this case, a robot may go over an obstacle rather than around it. In this thesis the Reconfigurable Robot Team of Mobile Modules with Manipulators (R2TM3) is proposed as a solution to limited mobility in unstructured terrains, specifically aimed at USAR. In this work the conceptualization, mechatronic development, controls, implementation and testing of the system are given. The R2TM3 employs a mobile modular system in which each module is highly functional: self mobile and capable of manipulation with a five degree of freedom (5-DOF) serial manipulator. The manipulator configuration, the docking system and cooperative strategy between the manipulators and track drives enable a system that can perform severe obstacle climbing and also remain highly manoeuvrable. By utilizing modularity, the system may emulate that of a larger robot when the modules are docking to climb obstacles, but may also get into smaller confined spaces by using single robot modules. The use of the 5-DOF manipulator as the docking device allows for module docking that can cope with severe misalignments and offsets – a critical first step in cooperative obstacle management in rough terrain. The system’s concept rationale is outlined, which has been formulated based on a literature review of mobility enhanced systems. Based on the concept, the realization of a low cost prototype is described in detail. Single robot and cooperative robot control methods are given and implemented. Finally, a variety of experiments are conducted with the concept prototype which shows that the intended performance of the concept has been met: mobility enhancement and manoeuvrability

Os veículos terrestres não tripulados nas unidades de reconhecimento

Este trabalho de investigação aplicada tem como título "Os veículos terrestres não tripulados nas Unidades de Reconhecimento". Com este trabalho pretende-se demonstrar se a presença destes meios, nos Esquadrões de Reconhecimento do Exército Português, será benéfica ou não, tendo em conta alguns factores de análise. Numa primeira fase foi feita a análise conceptual, tentando-se discriminar as tarefas a desempenhar pelos Esquadrões de Reconhecimento, caracterizou-se o que é um veículo terrestre não tripulado, quais as suas capacidades e quais as tendências de emprego em exércitos com historial nesta área. Na parte prática, considerando a experiência de quem já comandou estes Esquadrões, ou outras subunidades de manobra em missões exteriores nas Forças Nacionais Destacadas ou quartéis-generais, pretendeu-se encontrar tarefas que permitissem a avaliação da pertinência destes veículos. De facto, a eficácia destes veículos em unidades de manobra parece ser elevada, sendo um factor primordial para rentabilizar melhor os onerosos recursos humanos, que constituem os modernos militares combatentes ou para ampliar as capacidades da força. Todavia, em oposição, encontram-se também factores negativos consideráveis, como o encargo financeiro e a complexidade da tecnologia. Ainda assim, as vantagens superam as desvantagens.Abstract This research paper is titled as "Unmanned ground vehicles in Reconnaissance Units". The aim of this paper is to verify if the presence of these vehicles is, considering the analysis of some issues, beneficial or not for the Reconnaissance Troops of the Portuguese Army. In a first phase, a conceptual analysis was completed, trying to list the tasks to be performed by the Reconnaissance Troops, to characterize an unmanned ground vehicle, to catalog which capacities it should possess and to assess which are the tendencies of engagement in some armies with solid background in this area. On a practical phase, considering the experience of someone who has commanded one of these Troops, or other maneuver small units in missions abroad within the National Detached Forces or headquarters, it was intended to assert tasks were the pertinence of use of these vehicles became or not evident. The relevancy of use of these vehicles within maneuver units seem to be high, becoming na important issue to better take advantage of the costly human resources, which are the modern military soldiers or to increase the capacities of the force. However, in opposition, several issues must also be analyzed, such as the financial aspect or the technological complexity. Nonetheless, the advantages still exceed the disadvantages

Desarrollo de un entorno marciano en USARSim para evaluación de robots móviles

Este documento contiene la memoria del Proyecto Fin de Carrera que consiste en el desarrollo de un entorno marciano en USARSim para el estudio del movimiento de un vehículo robótico de exploración espacial (rover) que tendrá como objetivo explorar la superficie de Marte. Para abordar esta cuestión se ha realizado un trabajo de investigación sobre la creación de entornos con la herramienta Unreal Level Editor que utiliza USARSim y sobre el propio manejo del simulador. Con los conocimientos adquiridos se ha procedido a la construcción del entorno marciano conforme a los requisitos inicialmente establecidos. Una vez creado, se ha simulado el entorno y el rover en USARSim y se han llevado a cabo diversas pruebas en el simulador para verificar que la solución aportada es válida para resolver el problema que se plantea.Ingeniería en Informátic