Space station automation and robotics study. Operator-systems interface

This is the final report of a Space Station Automation and Robotics Planning Study, which was a joint project of the Boeing Aerospace Company, Boeing Commercial Airplane Company, and Boeing Computer Services Company. The study is in support of the Advanced Technology Advisory Committee established by NASA in accordance with a mandate by the U.S. Congress. Boeing support complements that provided to the NASA Contractor study team by four aerospace contractors, the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), and the California Space Institute. This study identifies automation and robotics (A&R) technologies that can be advanced by requirements levied by the Space Station Program. The methodology used in the study is to establish functional requirements for the operator system interface (OSI), establish the technologies needed to meet these requirements, and to forecast the availability of these technologies. The OSI would perform path planning, tracking and control, object recognition, fault detection and correction, and plan modifications in connection with extravehicular (EV) robot operations

Proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET 2013)

"This book contains the proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET) 2013 which was held on 16.-17.September 2013 in Paphos (Cyprus) in conjunction with the EC-TEL conference. The workshop and hence the proceedings are divided in two parts: on Day 1 the EuroPLOT project and its results are introduced, with papers about the specific case studies and their evaluation. On Day 2, peer-reviewed papers are presented which address specific topics and issues going beyond the EuroPLOT scope. This workshop is one of the deliverables (D 2.6) of the EuroPLOT project, which has been funded from November 2010 – October 2013 by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission through the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLL) by grant #511633. The purpose of this project was to develop and evaluate Persuasive Learning Objects and Technologies (PLOTS), based on ideas of BJ Fogg. The purpose of this workshop is to summarize the findings obtained during this project and disseminate them to an interested audience. Furthermore, it shall foster discussions about the future of persuasive technology and design in the context of learning, education and teaching. The international community working in this area of research is relatively small. Nevertheless, we have received a number of high-quality submissions which went through a peer-review process before being selected for presentation and publication. We hope that the information found in this book is useful to the reader and that more interest in this novel approach of persuasive design for teaching/education/learning is stimulated. We are very grateful to the organisers of EC-TEL 2013 for allowing to host IWEPLET 2013 within their organisational facilities which helped us a lot in preparing this event. I am also very grateful to everyone in the EuroPLOT team for collaborating so effectively in these three years towards creating excellent outputs, and for being such a nice group with a very positive spirit also beyond work. And finally I would like to thank the EACEA for providing the financial resources for the EuroPLOT project and for being very helpful when needed. This funding made it possible to organise the IWEPLET workshop without charging a fee from the participants.

Survey: Robot Programming by Demonstration

Robot PbD started about 30 years ago, growing importantly during the past decade. The rationale for moving from purely preprogrammed robots to very flexible user-based interfaces for training the robot to perform a task is three-fold. First and foremost, PbD, also referred to as {\em imitation learning} is a powerful mechanism for reducing the complexity of search spaces for learning. When observing either good or bad examples, one can reduce the search for a possible solution, by either starting the search from the observed good solution (local optima), or conversely, by eliminating from the search space what is known as a bad solution. Imitation learning is, thus, a powerful tool for enhancing and accelerating learning in both animals and artifacts. Second, imitation learning offers an implicit means of training a machine, such that explicit and tedious programming of a task by a human user can be minimized or eliminated (Figure \ref{fig:what-how}). Imitation learning is thus a ``natural'' means of interacting with a machine that would be accessible to lay people. And third, studying and modeling the coupling of perception and action, which is at the core of imitation learning, helps us to understand the mechanisms by which the self-organization of perception and action could arise during development. The reciprocal interaction of perception and action could explain how competence in motor control can be grounded in rich structure of perceptual variables, and vice versa, how the processes of perception can develop as means to create successful actions. PbD promises were thus multiple. On the one hand, one hoped that it would make the learning faster, in contrast to tedious reinforcement learning methods or trials-and-error learning. On the other hand, one expected that the methods, being user-friendly, would enhance the application of robots in human daily environments. Recent progresses in the field, which we review in this chapter, show that the field has make a leap forward the past decade toward these goals and that these promises may be fulfilled very soon

Design and implementation of flexible microprocessor control for retrofitting to first generation robotic devices

This Master of Science project concerns the design and development of a flexible microprocessor-based controller for a Versatran Industrial Robot. The software and hardware are designed in modules to enhance the flexibility of the controller so that it can be used as the control unit for other forms of workhandling equipment. The hardware of the designed controller is based on the Texas Instruments single board computer and interface printed circuit boards although some specially designed interface hardware was required. The software is developed in two major categories, which are "real-time" modules and "operator communication" modules. The real-time modules were for the control of the hydraulic servo-valves, pneumatic actuators and interlock switches, whilst the operator communication modules were used to assist the operator in programming "handling" sequences". The main advantages of the controller in its present form can be summarised thus:- (i) The down-time between program changes is significantly reduced; (ii) There can be many more positions programmed in a "handling sequence"; (iii)Greater control over axis dynamics can be achieved The software and hardware structure adopted has sufficient flexibility to allow many future enhancements to be provided. For example, as part of a subsequent research project additional facilities are being implemented as follows: a teach hand held pendant is being installed to improve still further the ease with which "handling sequences" can be programmed; improved control algorithms are being implemented and these will facilitate contouring; communication software is being included so that the controller can access via a node a commercially available local area network

Developing a person guidance module for hospital robots

This dissertation describes the design and implementation of the Person Guidance Module (PGM) that enables the IWARD (Intelligent Robot Swarm for attendance, Recognition, Cleaning and delivery) base robot to offer route guidance service to the patients or visitors inside the hospital arena. One of the common problems encountered in huge hospital buildings today is foreigners not being able to find their way around in the hospital. Although there are a variety of guide robots currently existing on the market and offering a wide range of guidance and related activities, they do not fit into the modular concept of the IWARD project. The PGM features a robust and foolproof non-hierarchical sensor fusion approach of an active RFID, stereovision and cricket mote sensor for guiding a patient to the X-ray room, or a visitor to a patient’s ward in every possible scenario in a complex, dynamic and crowded hospital environment. Moreover, the speed of the robot can be adjusted automatically according to the pace of the follower for physical comfort using this system. Furthermore, the module performs these tasks in any unconstructed environment solely from a robot’s onboard perceptual resources in order to limit the hardware installation costs and therefore the indoor setting support. Similar comprehensive solution in one single platform has remained elusive in existing literature. The finished module can be connected to any IWARD base robot using quick-change mechanical connections and standard electrical connections. The PGM module box is equipped with a Gumstix embedded computer for all module computing which is powered up automatically once the module box is inserted into the robot. In line with the general software architecture of the IWARD project, all software modules are developed as Orca2 components and cross-complied for Gumstix’s XScale processor. To support standardized communication between different software components, Internet Communications Engine (Ice) has been used as middleware. Additionally, plug-and-play capabilities have been developed and incorporated so that swarm system is aware at all times of which robot is equipped with PGM. Finally, in several field trials in hospital environments, the person guidance module has shown its suitability for a challenging real-world application as well as the necessary user acceptance

A framework integrating statistical and social cues to teach a humanoid robot new skills

Bringing robots as collaborative partners into homes presents various challenges to human-robot interaction. Robots will need to interact with untrained users in environments that are originally designed for humans. Compared to their industrial homologous form, humanoid robots can not be preprogrammed with an initial set of behaviours. They should adapt their skills to a huge range of possible tasks without needing to change the environments and tools to fit their needs. The rise of these humanoids implies an inherent social dimension to this technology, where the end-users should be able to teach new skills to these robots in an intuitive manner, relying only on their experience in teaching new skills to other human partners. Our research aims at designing a generic Robot Programming by Demonstration (RPD) framework based on a probabilistic representation of the task constraints, which allows to integrate information from cross-situational statistics and from various social cues such as joint attention or vocal intonation. This paper presents our ongoing research towards bringing user- friendly human-robot teaching systems that would speed up the skill transfer process