Cognition-enabled robotic wiping: Representation, planning, execution, and interpretation

Advanced cognitive capabilities enable humans to solve even complex tasks by representing and processing internal models of manipulation actions and their effects. Consequently, humans are able to plan the effect of their motions before execution and validate the performance afterwards. In this work, we derive an analog approach for robotic wiping actions which are fundamental for some of the most frequent household chores including vacuuming the floor, sweeping dust, and cleaning windows. We describe wiping actions and their effects based on a qualitative particle distribution model. This representation enables a robot to plan goal-oriented wiping motions for the prototypical wiping actions of absorbing, collecting and skimming. The particle representation is utilized to simulate the task outcome before execution and infer the real performance afterwards based on haptic perception. This way, the robot is able to estimate the task performance and schedule additional motions if necessary. We evaluate our methods in simulated scenarios, as well as in real experiments with the humanoid service robot Rollin’ Justin

Cognitive Reasoning for Compliant Robot Manipulation

Physically compliant contact is a major element for many tasks in everyday environments. A universal service robot that is utilized to collect leaves in a park, polish a workpiece, or clean solar panels requires the cognition and manipulation capabilities to facilitate such compliant interaction. Evolution equipped humans with advanced mental abilities to envision physical contact situations and their resulting outcome, dexterous motor skills to perform the actions accordingly, as well as a sense of quality to rate the outcome of the task. In order to achieve human-like performance, a robot must provide the necessary methods to represent, plan, execute, and interpret compliant manipulation tasks. This dissertation covers those four steps of reasoning in the concept of intelligent physical compliance. The contributions advance the capabilities of service robots by combining artificial intelligence reasoning methods and control strategies for compliant manipulation. A classification of manipulation tasks is conducted to identify the central research questions of the addressed topic. Novel representations are derived to describe the properties of physical interaction. Special attention is given to wiping tasks which are predominant in everyday environments. It is investigated how symbolic task descriptions can be translated into meaningful robot commands. A particle distribution model is used to plan goal-oriented wiping actions and predict the quality according to the anticipated result. The planned tool motions are converted into the joint space of the humanoid robot Rollin' Justin to perform the tasks in the real world. In order to execute the motions in a physically compliant fashion, a hierarchical whole-body impedance controller is integrated into the framework. The controller is automatically parameterized with respect to the requirements of the particular task. Haptic feedback is utilized to infer contact and interpret the performance semantically. Finally, the robot is able to compensate for possible disturbances as it plans additional recovery motions while effectively closing the cognitive control loop. Among others, the developed concept is applied in an actual space robotics mission, in which an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) commands Rollin' Justin to maintain a Martian solar panel farm in a mock-up environment. This application demonstrates the far-reaching impact of the proposed approach and the associated opportunities that emerge with the availability of cognition-enabled service robots

“iCub, clean the table!” A robot learning from demonstration approach using Deep Neural Networks

Autonomous service robots have become a key research topic in robotics, particularly for household chores. A typical home scenario is highly unconstrained and a service robot needs to adapt constantly to new situations. In this paper, we address the problem of autonomous cleaning tasks in uncontrolled environments. In our approach, a human instructor uses kinestethic demonstrations to teach a robot how to perform different cleaning tasks on a table. Then, we use Task Parametrized Gaussian Mixture Models (TP-GMMs) to encode the demonstrations variability, while providing appropriate generalization abilities. TP-GMMs extend Gaussian Mixture Models with an auxiliary set of reference frames, in order to extrapolate the demonstrations to different task parameters such as movement locations, amplitude or orientations. However, the reference frames (that parametrize TP-GMMs) can be very difficult to extract in practice, as it may require segmenting the cluttered images of the working table-top. Instead, in this work the reference frames are automatically extracted from robot camera images, using a deep neural network that was trained during human demonstrations of a cleaning task. This approach has two main benefits: (i) it takes the human completely out of the loop while performing complex cleaning tasks; and (ii) the network is able to identify the specific task to be performed directly from image data, thus also enabling automatic task selection from a set of previously demonstrated tasks. The system was implemented on the iCub humanoid robot. During the tests, the robot was able to successfully clean a table with two different types of dirt (wiping a marker’s scribble or sweeping clusters of lentils).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Planning for human robot interaction

Les avancées récentes en robotique inspirent des visions de robots domestiques et de service rendant nos vies plus faciles et plus confortables. De tels robots pourront exécuter différentes tâches de manipulation d'objets nécessaires pour des travaux de ménage, de façon autonome ou en coopération avec des humains. Dans ce rôle de compagnon humain, le robot doit répondre à de nombreuses exigences additionnelles comparées aux domaines bien établis de la robotique industrielle. Le but de la planification pour les robots est de parvenir à élaborer un comportement visant à satisfaire un but et qui obtient des résultats désirés et dans de bonnes conditions d'efficacité. Mais dans l'interaction homme-robot (HRI), le comportement robot ne peut pas simplement être jugé en termes de résultats corrects, mais il doit être agréable aux acteurs humains. Cela signifie que le comportement du robot doit obéir à des critères de qualité supplémentaire. Il doit être sûr, confortable pour l'homme, et être intuitivement compris. Il existe des pratiques pour assurer la sécurité et offrir un confort en gardant des distances suffisantes entre le robot et des personnes à proximité. Toutefois fournir un comportement qui est intuitivement compris reste un défi. Ce défi augmente considérablement dans les situations d'interaction homme-robot dynamique, où les actions de la personne sont imprévisibles, le robot devant adapter en permanence ses plans aux changements. Cette thèse propose une approche nouvelle et des méthodes pour améliorer la lisibilité du comportement du robot dans des situations dynamiques. Cette approche ne considère pas seulement la qualité d'un seul plan, mais le comportement du robot qui est parfois le résultat de replanifications répétées au cours d'une interaction. Pour ce qui concerne les tâches de navigation, cette thèse présente des fonctions de coûts directionnels qui évitent les problèmes dans des situations de conflit. Pour la planification d'action en général, cette thèse propose une approche de replanification locale des actions de transport basé sur les coûts de navigation, pour élaborer un comportement opportuniste adaptatif. Les deux approches, complémentaires, facilitent la compréhension, par les acteurs et observateurs humains, des intentions du robot et permettent de réduire leur confusion.The recent advances in robotics inspire visions of household and service robots making our lives easier and more comfortable. Such robots will be able to perform several object manipulation tasks required for household chores, autonomously or in cooperation with humans. In that role of human companion, the robot has to satisfy many additional requirements compared to well established fields of industrial robotics. The purpose of planning for robots is to achieve robot behavior that is goal-directed and establishes correct results. But in human-robot-interaction, robot behavior cannot merely be judged in terms of correct results, but must be agree-able to human stakeholders. This means that the robot behavior must suffice additional quality criteria. It must be safe, comfortable to human, and intuitively be understood. There are established practices to ensure safety and provide comfort by keeping sufficient distances between the robot and nearby persons. However providing behavior that is intuitively understood remains a challenge. This challenge greatly increases in cases of dynamic human-robot interactions, where the actions of the human in the future are unpredictable, and the robot needs to constantly adapt its plans to changes. This thesis provides novel approaches to improve the legibility of robot behavior in such dynamic situations. Key to that approach is not to merely consider the quality of a single plan, but the behavior of the robot as a result of replanning multiple times during an interaction. For navigation planning, this thesis introduces directional cost functions that avoid problems in conflict situations. For action planning, this thesis provides the approach of local replanning of transport actions based on navigational costs, to provide opportunistic behavior. Both measures help human observers understand the robot's beliefs and intentions during interactions and reduce confusion

Robotic Agents Representing, Reasoning, and Executing Wiping Tasks for Daily Household Chores

Universal robotic agents are envisaged to perform a wide range of manipulation tasks in everyday environments. A common action observed in many household chores is wiping, such as the absorption of spilled water with a sponge, skimming breadcrumbs off the dining table, or collecting shards of a broken mug using a broom. To cope with this versatility, the agents have to represent the tasks on a high level of abstraction. In this work, we propose to represent the medium in wiping tasks (e.g. water, breadcrumbs, or shards) as generic particle distribution. This representation enables us to represent wiping tasks as the desired state change of the particles, which allows the agent to reason about the effects of wiping motions in a qualitative manner. Based on this, we develop three prototypical wiping actions for the generic tasks of absorbing, collecting and skimming. The Cartesian wiping motions are resolved to joint motions exploiting the free degree of freedom of the involved tool. Furthermore, the workspace of the robotic manipulators is used to reason about the reachability of wiping motions. We evaluate our methods in simulated scenarios, as well as in a real experiment with the robotic agent Rollin' Justin

Commissioning and System Integration Tests for an Industrial Manipulator Workstation

Industrial systems are composed of several sub systems and architectures that are provided by different manufacturers. System integration aims at enabling a developer to combine these unit systems with limited functionality into one system that can accomplish the execution of required process. Modern integrated systems are developed on top of service-oriented architecture and use webservices for information exchange. Such systems are swiftly deployable and ensure platform interoperability, system adaptability and service reusability. Meanwhile, system integration tests help to reduce the complexity during the integration phase thus ensuring process uniformity. This thesis focuses on deploying a robotic manipulator in an industrial cell. The robot is in-stalled in the assembly line as service provider while services are invoked by using RESTful web services. Second objective of the thesis is to implement a free shape path planning algorithm for the deployed autonomous manipulator to follow the desired curve. The last component of this thesis is focused on developing integration tests to examine and verify the designed system. The robot was commissioned at the FASTory assembly line, installed at FAST lab of Tampere University. The free shape paths were implemented by interpolating Bezier curves using De Casteljau algorithm. System was successfully integrated and verified using Top-down depth first and bottom-up breadth first integration testing approaches

Handa sa laban araw-araw? (Ready to fight every day?) : Readiness to Political Action and Sense of Entitlement: How strong is Citizenship in the Philippines? With a Special Focus on International Call Center Agents

The aim of this dissertation is to identity the sense of citizenship prevalent in the Philippines. Citizenship here is defined in two respects: an active dimension (exercis-ing voice) and a passive dimension (claiming rights or sense of entitlement). Findings from a series of problem-centered interviews with call center agents are complemented by the outcome of several annual surveys by the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), especially the ISSP surveys on government (2006), social inequality (2009) and citizenship (2004) and validated by the analysis of media col-umns and societal artefacts over the last 10 years. While the first part of the dissertation analyzes why trade unions and other forms of collective interest representation hardly develop in the call center setting (economic citizenship), the second part identifies readiness to political action and expectations towards the state (political citizenship) in the context of an “informal security re-gime” (Geoff Wood). The main part of the study is followed by a postscript offering an outlook on opportunities and limitations of citizenship in the Philippine social and cultural context. The work contains several theoretical discussions of basic concepts and issues arising when sense of citizenship, especially in a non-European context, is analyzed. These include critiques on the theory of citizenship and on precarity, the middle class(es), citizenship in a non-western context, spaces of the political and post-national citizen-ship. In sum, a sense of citizenship is identified as full of requirements so that the stand-by citizen is rather considered the norm. The work comes to the conclusion that there is no general lack of a sense of citizen-ship among Filipinos. However as they have never experienced a comprehensive public service and consider such “unrealistic,” their expectations as citizens are in practice low. The state is considered as enabler, not as provider, so that self-help is given priority. Such rather communitarian sense of citizenship is identified as con-niving with a neoliberal governementality of responsibilization. Only among those with a left political socialization can a sense of citizenship, as assumed in most schol-arly literature, be identified, with substantial expectations towards the state, demand of accountability and an identity as political subject (professional citizenship)

Decolonizing Pathways towards Integrative Healing in Social Work

Taking a new and innovative angle on social work, this book seeks to remedy the lack of holistic perspectives currently used in Western social work practice by exploring Indigenous and other culturally diverse understandings and experiences of healing. This book examines six core areas of healing through a holistic lens that is grounded in a decolonizing perspective. Situating integrative healing within social work education and theory, the book takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from social memory and historical trauma, contemplative traditions, storytelling, healing literatures, integrative health, and the traditional environmental knowledge of Indigenous Peoples. In exploring issues of water, creative expression, movement, contemplation, animals, and the natural world in relation to social work practice, the book will appeal to all scholars, practitioners, and community members interested in decolonization and Indigenous studies