An Adaptive Control Strategy for Neural Network based Optimal Quadcopter Controllers

Developing optimal controllers for aggressive high-speed quadcopter flight is a major challenge in the field of robotics. Recent work has shown that neural networks trained with supervised learning can achieve real-time optimal control in some specific scenarios. In these methods, the networks (termed G&CNets) are trained to learn the optimal state feedback from a dataset of optimal trajectories. An important problem with these methods is the reality gap encountered in the sim-to-real transfer. In this work, we trained G&CNets for energy-optimal end-to-end control on the Bebop drone and identified the unmodeled pitch moment as the main contributor to the reality gap. To mitigate this, we propose an adaptive control strategy that works by learning from optimal trajectories of a system affected by constant external pitch, roll and yaw moments. In real test flights, this model mismatch is estimated onboard and fed to the network to obtain the optimal rpm command. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method by performing energy-optimal hover-to-hover flights with and without moment feedback. Finally, we compare the adaptive controller to a state-of-the-art differential-flatness-based controller in a consecutive waypoint flight and demonstrate the advantages of our method in terms of energy optimality and robustness.Comment: 7 pages, 11 figure

Designing Augmented Reality Applications for Personal Health Decision-Making

Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that can assist with our daily decision-making tasks by presenting information that extends the physical world. However, little work has been done to understand the effect of the layout of AR interfaces on decision-making. In this paper, we present PHARA, an AR-based personal assistant that supports decision-making for healthier food products. In a controlled user study (n=28), we explored the use of four different AR layouts on two different devices: Microsoft HoloLens and smartphone. Using subjective and objective means, we measured their effects on decision-making tasks that occur when people hold food products in their hands. We found that pie and grid layouts perform better on the smartphone, whereas a stacked layout works better on the reduced field-of-view of the Microsoft HoloLens, potentially at the cost of some affordances such as time spent and actions

Augmenting drug discussions in general practice

This extended abstract discusses our ongoing research on augmenting the communication between an expert and a layman using interactive visualizations. We are currently designing an interactive table that assists patients and general practitioners (GPs) to explore drug information using a camera to recognize drug packages and a projector to visualize complex drug information directly around these packages.status: publishe

Augmenting Healthcare by Supporting General Practitioners and Disclosing Health Information to Patients

This PhD explores, designs, develops and evaluates a suite of information visualization tools for understanding, exploring, explaining and disclosing health information. This toolset is aimed at both general practitioners and patients and is driven by three underlying research goals: augmenting traditional practitioners’ workflows, boosting patient empowerment, and investigating novel opportunities in devices for supporting communication and collaboration between practitioners and patients.nrpages: 224status: publishe

Visualizing quantified self and objective patient data

This doctoral consortium paper discusses our research plans on interactive visualizations of quantified self data combined with the objective data in an electronic medical record. The main goal of the visualization is to support understanding and insight for patients and medical staff.status: publishe

Optimizing smartphone micro-usage with smartwatch notifications

In this paper, the influence of a smartwatch application on smartphone micro-usage, brief bursts of interaction Ferreira et al. , among students is investigated. Our study indicates that social applications, such as WhatsApp, SMS or e-mail are used most by students. These applications tend to generate numerous notifications, which often result in brief bursts of smartphone use, which is called micro-usage. We propose three novel ways of handling notifications on a smartwatch, in order to reduce micro-usage. The first proposal receives input through on-screen buttons, the second by tapping the edges of the device and the third by drawing gestures on the screen. An evaluation of our design shows an increase of 5% of application micro-usage and a decrease of 5% of the general smartphone micro-usage.status: publishe

MyHealthToday: Helping patients with their health schedule using a 24-hour clock visualization

We propose a variation on the 24-hour clock visualization to represent daily health schedules. The area inside the clock is used to display a graph network which helps patients explore and understand the rationale for each health-related scheduled task, such as taking medication. We investigate whether this visualization can be leveraged to increase patient comprehension of personal health schedules. Two low and one high-fidelity prototype have been designed and evaluated. Participants in our study included both general practitioners and patients. Results are promising and indicate that our visualization can be an effective means to explore and understand health schedules. Moreover, our results suggest there is an actual need for visual exploration of health schedules. Finally, participants perceive that our proof-of-concept provides useful feedback and can help both patients and physicians to discuss and explore health schedules.status: publishe

Interactive proof-of-concept dashboard to explore patient follow-up in general practice

This paper reports on our proof-of-concept interactive visualization dashboard to support general practitioners (GPs) explore patient follow-up in their practice. The dashboard enables GPs to create visual queries in order to filter patients. Using the dashboard, GPs themselves can verify their practice with official quality indicators.status: publishe

A proof-of-concept visualization to increase comprehension of personal medication schemes

In this paper, we investigate how information visualization techniques can be leveraged to increase patient comprehension of personal medication schemes in order to make it easier for them to explore, explain and understand drug information. Using computer vision techniques, our solution is able to recognize medication boxes, or so-called pharmaceutical packages, which are laid on an ordinary table. A projector visualizes drug information such as inter- actions, adverse drug reactions, intolerances and the dosage regimen around corresponding boxes. Five prototypes are designed and evaluated following a user-centered, rapid- prototyping methodology. Test participants in our study included both general practitioners (GPs) and patients. Results are promising and clearly indicate that information visualization techniques are an effective means to explore and understand drug information. Even if this system was originally envisaged to be used as a means to improve ‘therapy dialogue’ between GPs and their patients during consultations, our results show that both GPs and patients think it would be highly beneficial if patients were able to use the system at home.status: publishe