Analysis of methods for playing human robot hide-and-seek in a simple real world urban environment

The hide-and-seek game has many interesting aspects for studying cognitive functions in robots and the interactions between mobile robots and humans. Some MOMDP (Mixed Observable Markovian Decision Processes) models and a heuristic-based method are proposed and evaluated as an automated seeker. MOMDPs are used because the hider's position is not always known (partially observable), and the seeker's position is fully observable. The MOMDP model is used in an o-line method for which two reward functions are tried. Because the time complexity of this model grows exponentially with the number of (partially observable) states, an on-line hierarchical MOMDP model was proposed to handle bigger maps. To reduce the states in the on-line method a robot centered segmentation is used. In addition to extensive simulations, games with a human hider and a real mobile robot as a seeker have been done in a simple urban environment.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Constraint basierte Modellierung von Komponentennetzwerken am Beispiel eines autonomen Unterwasserfahrzeugs

Moderne Robotersysteme werden zunehmend komplexer. Die Forschung im Bereich der Robotik sieht sich immer mehr mit dem Problem der Integration von Algorithmen in neue Plattformen konfrontiert. Es gibt zahlreiche innovative Verfahren und Algorithmen, die die Robotersysteme mit neuen Fähigkeiten ausstatten. Diese Erweiterungen lassen sich sowohl auf der Hardware- als auch der Softwareebene erkennen. Jedoch findet diese Vielzahl an neuen Entwicklungen nur selten Anwendung auf den aktuellen Ziel-Plattformen. Dies bremst weitere Entwicklungen, da mehr Zeit für die Integration als für die eigentliche Forschung aufgewendet wird. Mit einem Blick über die eigene Forschung hinaus oder durch die detailliertere Beschäftigung mit den eingesetzten Verfahren lässt sich erkennen, dass die Lösungen zumeist systemspezifisch sind oder sich nur mit großer Mühe auf andere oder gar größere komplexere Maßstäbe übertragen lassen. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es daher zu identifizieren, wo die größten Herausforderun liegen. Im Anschluss soll das markanteste Problem gelöst werden. Die Modularisierung sowie die modellgetriebene Entwicklung sind dabei die größten Änderungen, die sich Abzeichen. Beide Trends haben verschiedene, teils gravierende Einflüsse auf die Art und Weise, wie Entwicklung stattfindet. Modularisierung erhöht die Wiederverwendbarkeit einzelner Module und führt zu kleineren Verbunden. Modellgetriebene Entwicklung versucht mögliche Fehler in Konzepten zu einem frühen Zeitpunkt zu erkennen. Konkret bedeuten beide Verfahren jedoch Mehrarbeit im Vergleich zu der klassischen monolithischen und reaktiven Systementwicklung. Die Komponenten lassen sich zwar oftmals wiederverwenden, aber die Konsistenz und Nebeneffekte der Selektion bzw. der Abhängigkeiten erfordern viel Zeit und Expertenwissen. Die modellgetriebene Softwareentwicklung verlangt von den Entwicklern von Algorithmen bereits im Voraus Informationen darüber, wie und unter welchen Bedingungen ihr Algorithmus operieren kann. Auf der anderen Seite, der Hardwareentwicklung, stehen immer kleinere und hoch integrierte Sensoren und Aktuatoren zur Verfügung, die wiederum die Konstruktion immer komplexerer Systeme erlauben. Die Systeme bieten oftmals ausreichend Redundanz, um Probleme auf unterschiedliche Art und Weise lösen zu können

Blokstad

Probably the biggest revolution ever in architecture happened in 1954, when Nikita Khrushchev banned Stalinist classicism and demanded a radical industrialization of the building industry. Architects that had excelled in creating beautiful palaces for the people were put aside in favour of the building industry, which was assigned to improve construction quality and raise production figures. Khrushchev was certainly not the first to consider industrialization to be the only way to the lift the shortage of housing. While Stalin’s infamous ‘sugar pies’ were erected in Moscow, in Western Europe prefabricated housing systems were developed that were meant to serve the enormous demand for housing that resulted from the devastation of the Second World War. Not surprisingly it was Western Europe – France, to be more precise – that inspired Khrushchev to demand a de-Stalinization of architecture. Yet in the Soviet Union the industrialization of housing construction would find its most radical form. It fitted seamlessly into both the ideology and the economic system. Marxism promoted the application of scientific methods to find the right solutions to the needs of society, as opposed to capitalism, which promoted competition – a method that in the eyes of the Soviets only resulted in speculation and profit. Economically it was the only way forward if one wanted to improve the housing conditions of the population. Actually, the same was the case in Western Europe’s post-war social democracies. Whether we are talking of the working class as the foundation of communism or of the middle class as the foundation of social democracy, both systems aim at emancipating the worker. In order to create favourable housing conditions, the income of the worker must be high enough for him to be able to live in a house built by a representative of the same class he belongs to. In other words: the amount of work the construction worker invests in this house must be low enough and the payment he receives high enough to enable him to pay another construction worker to construct a house for him. If, for instance, the amount of work necessary to build his house is 50 man years, then the builder will never be able to buy the house. He will die before he has accumulated enough money to buy it using wages he has accumulated during his working life. The only way to guarantee this is to reduce the amount of man years needed to construct a house, meaning to increase productivity through industrialization.De waarschijnlijk belangrijkste revolutie in de architectuur ooit vond plaats in 1954, toen Nikita Chroesjtsjov het stalinistisch classicisme uitbande en een radicale industrialisatie van de bouwindustrie eiste. Architecten die excelleerden in het creëren van fraaie volkspaleizen, werden aan de kant geschoven ten faveure van de bouwindustrie, die de taak kreeg de bouwkwaliteit te verbeteren en de productiecijfers op te krikken. Chroesjtsjov was bepaald niet de eerste om industrialisatie te beschouwen als de enige weg om het woningtekort op te heffen. Terwijl in Moskou Stalin’s beruchte suikertaarten werden gebouwd, werden in West-Europa prefab woningbouwsystemen ontwikkeld, die de enorme vraag naar woningen als gevolg van de verwoesting van de Tweede Wereldoorlog moesten bedienen. Niet verwonderlijk was het West-Europa – Frankrijk om precies te zijn – dat Chroesjtsjov inspireerde om een destalinisatie van de architectuur te bepleiten. Toch zou de industrialisatie van woningbouw juist in de Sovjet Unie haar meest radicale vorm krijgen. Industrialisatie paste naadloos in zowel de ideologie als het economische systeem. Marxisme promootte de toepassing van wetenschappelijke methoden om de juiste antwoorden te vinden voor de noden van de samenleving, in tegenstelling tot kapitalisme dat concurrentie stimuleerde – een methode die in de ogen van de sovjets alleen maar leidde tot speculatie en gewin. Wanneer men de woonomstandigheden van de bevolking wilde verbeteren, was industrialisatie economisch gezien de enige weg vooruit. Hetzelfde speelde zich in feite af in de naoorlogse West-Europese sociaal-democratieën. Of we het nu hebben over de arbeidersklasse als het fundament van het communisme of de middenklasse als het fundament van de sociaal-democratie, beide systemen zijn gericht op de emancipatie van de arbeider. Als we geschikte woonomstandigheden willen creëren, moet het inkomen van de arbeider hoog genoeg zijn, opdat hij een woning kan bewonen die gebouwd is door een vertegenwoordiger van dezelfde klasse waartoe hij behoort. Met andere woorden: de hoeveelheid werk die de bouwvakker investeert in deze woning moet laag genoeg en het salaris dat hij krijgt hoog genoeg zijn, om hem in staat te stellen een andere bouwvakker te betalen om een huis voor hem te bouwen. Stel bijvoorbeeld dat de hoeveelheid werk nodig om zijn huis te bouwen, 50 manjaren beslaat, dan zal degene die bouwt nooit in staat zijn zelf het huis te kopen. Hij zal dood zijn, voordat hij genoeg geld heeft verzameld, met het loon dat hij gedurende zijn werkzame leven heeft verdiend, om het te kopen. De enige manier om dit te kunnen garanderen, is om de hoeveelheid manjaren nodig om een huis te bouwen, te reduceren; dat wil zeggen de productiviteit verhogen door middel van industrialisatie

Prediction of Object Position based on Probabilistic Qualitative Spatial Relations

Due to recent and extensive advancements in the robotic and artificial intelligence fields, intelligent systems can be found, with increasing frequency, in many areas of daily life. From industrial and surgical purposes to space robots, such complex systems are present. However, as demands for robotics systems increase, sophisticated algorithms for use in robotic areas such as perception, navigation, or manipulation are required. Although some algorithms for such purposes exist, there are still open questions and challenges that must be addressed. Although robots are primarily used in the manufacturing industry, which has since been revolutionized by their precision and speed, there is a growing trend towards using service and personal robotics applications. The latter in particular must interact with humans naturally and effectively manage their environments, such as offices and homes. In contrast to the systems used in an industrial context, systems such as personal robots do not act in a predefined and fixed environment. Rather, these intelligent systems need an intrinsic comprehension of human environments to be able to support people in their daily life and manage common tasks such as preparing a breakfast table or cleaning a room. Crucially, these new robot systems require an entirely new level of capabilities to act in dynamic human environments. This thesis addresses how qualitative spatial relations can be used to find an objecta s most probable location and thus guide the search for a sought object. Because current approaches focus mainly on crisp, two-dimensional relations, which are not directly suitable for use in three-dimensional real-world applications, a formalism for a new type of spatial relations is proposed in this work. This theoretical approach is then applied on real-world data to evaluate its applicability for robotics purposes. The resulting validation of the approach demonstrates that the developed method performs well and can be used to enhance search for objects

Continuous real time POMCP to find-and-follow people by a humanoid service robot

Trabajo presentado al 14th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots: Humanoids 2014 "Humans and Robots Face-to-Face", celebrado en Madrid (España) del 18 al 20 de noviembre de 2014.This study describes and evaluates two new methods for finding and following people in urban settings using a humanoid service robot: the Continuous Real-time POMCP method, and its improved extension called Adaptive Highest Belief Continuous Real-time POMCP follower. They are able to run in real-time, in large continuous environments. These methods make use of the online search algorithm Partially Observable Monte-Carlo Planning (POMCP), which in contrast to other previous approaches, can plan under uncertainty on large state spaces. We compare our new methods with a heuristic person follower and demonstrate that they obtain better results by testing them extensively in both simulated and real-life experiments. More than two hours, over 3 km, of autonomous navigation during real-life experiments have been done with a mobile humanoid robot in urban environments.This work has been partially funded by the DPI2013-42458-P.Peer Reviewe

Searching and tracking people in urban environments with static and dynamic obstacles

© . This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Searching and tracking people in crowded urban areas where they can be occluded by static or dynamic obstacles is an important behavior for social robots which assist humans in urban outdoor environments. In this work, we propose a method that can handle in real-time searching and tracking people using a Highest Belief Particle Filter Searcher and Tracker. It makes use of a modified Particle Filter (PF), which, in contrast to other methods, can do both searching and tracking of a person under uncertainty, with false negative detections, lack of a person detection, in continuous space and real-time. Moreover, this method uses dynamic obstacles to improve the predicted possible location of the person. Comparisons have been made with our previous method, the Adaptive Highest Belief Continuous Real-time POMCP Follower, in different conditions and with dynamic obstacles. Real-life experiments have been done during two weeks with a mobile service robot in two urban environments of Barcelona with other people walking around.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft