34,815 research outputs found
MaestROB: A Robotics Framework for Integrated Orchestration of Low-Level Control and High-Level Reasoning
This paper describes a framework called MaestROB. It is designed to make the
robots perform complex tasks with high precision by simple high-level
instructions given by natural language or demonstration. To realize this, it
handles a hierarchical structure by using the knowledge stored in the forms of
ontology and rules for bridging among different levels of instructions.
Accordingly, the framework has multiple layers of processing components;
perception and actuation control at the low level, symbolic planner and Watson
APIs for cognitive capabilities and semantic understanding, and orchestration
of these components by a new open source robot middleware called Project Intu
at its core. We show how this framework can be used in a complex scenario where
multiple actors (human, a communication robot, and an industrial robot)
collaborate to perform a common industrial task. Human teaches an assembly task
to Pepper (a humanoid robot from SoftBank Robotics) using natural language
conversation and demonstration. Our framework helps Pepper perceive the human
demonstration and generate a sequence of actions for UR5 (collaborative robot
arm from Universal Robots), which ultimately performs the assembly (e.g.
insertion) task.Comment: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2018.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19JsdZi0TW
Making tools and making sense: complex, intentional behaviour in human evolution
Stone tool-making is an ancient and prototypically human skill characterized by multiple levels of intentional organization. In a formal sense, it displays surprising similarities to the multi-level organization of human language. Recent functional brain imaging studies of stone tool-making similarly demonstrate overlap with neural circuits involved in language processing. These observations consistent with the hypothesis that language and tool-making share key requirements for the construction of hierarchically structured action sequences and evolved together in a mutually reinforcing way
What Can I Do Around Here? Deep Functional Scene Understanding for Cognitive Robots
For robots that have the capability to interact with the physical environment
through their end effectors, understanding the surrounding scenes is not merely
a task of image classification or object recognition. To perform actual tasks,
it is critical for the robot to have a functional understanding of the visual
scene. Here, we address the problem of localizing and recognition of functional
areas from an arbitrary indoor scene, formulated as a two-stage deep learning
based detection pipeline. A new scene functionality testing-bed, which is
complied from two publicly available indoor scene datasets, is used for
evaluation. Our method is evaluated quantitatively on the new dataset,
demonstrating the ability to perform efficient recognition of functional areas
from arbitrary indoor scenes. We also demonstrate that our detection model can
be generalized onto novel indoor scenes by cross validating it with the images
from two different datasets
Ostension and Demonstrative Reference
Abstract. The strong similarity between the use of ostension and that of a simple
demonstrative to predicate something of an object seems to conflict with equally
strong intuitions according to which, while âthisâ does usually refer to an object,
the gesture of holding an object in your hand and showing it to an audience does
not refer to the demonstrated object. This paper argues that the problem is
authentic and provides a solution to it. In doing so, a more general thought is
given support by the approach used. Namely, the thought that our abilities to
directly refer to things require some basic referential abilities exhibited in
ostension and the use of demonstratives which, in their turn, rest upon our
abilities to cooperate in performing non-communicative actions on our
environment. Several concepts introduced in order to solve the initial problem
can be used to articulate this thought in more detail
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Can there ever be a theory of utterance interpretation?
In this paper, I tackle what appears to be a rather simple question: can there ever be a theory of utterance interpretation? It will be contended that a theory of utterance interpretation is not beyond the intellectual grasp of present-day pragmatists so much as it is a construct which lacks sense and is unintelligible. Although many of our most successful theories exhibit desiderata such as simplicity, completeness and explanatory power, it will be argued that these same desiderata are problematic when it is utterance interpretation that is the focus of theoretical efforts. The case in support of this claim sets out from a detailed analysis of the rational, intentional, holistic character of utterance interpretation and draws on the insights of the American philosopher Hilary Putnam. To the extent that a theory of utterance interpretation is not a difficult empirical possibility to realize so much as it is an endeavour which leads to an unintelligible outcome, we consider where this situation leaves pragmatists who have a substantial appetite for theory construction
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