MORSE and State-Machine-Based Testing for the Humanoid Robot Head FloBI

In this talk recent development on automated state machine-based system testing, with a focus on robotics simulation, is presented. In particular, I present the implementation of the simulation environment for the humanoid robot head "Flobi" and the testing framework (FSMT) to assess its preciseness with respect to executed joint trajectories --- compared to its physical counterpart. In addition, I present a fully automated system testing approach, embedded in a Continuous Integration Server

Towards Automated Execution and Evaluation of Simulated Prototype HRI Experiments

Lier F, Lütkebohle I, Wachsmuth S. Towards Automated Execution and Evaluation of Simulated Prototype HRI Experiments. In: HRI '14 Proceedings of the 2014 ACM/IEEE international conference on Human-robot interaction. New York, NY, USA: ACM; 2014: 230-231.Autonomous robots are highly relevant targets for interaction studies, but can exhibit behavioral variability that confounds experimental validity. Currently, testing on real systems is the only means to prevent this, but remains very labour-intensive and often happens too late. To improve this situation, we are working towards early testing by means of partial simulation, with automated assessment, and based upon continuous software integration to prevent regressions. We will introduce the concept and describe a proof-of-concept that demonstrates fast feedback and coherent experiment results across repeated trials

MORSE and State-Machine-Based Testing for the Humanoid Robot Head FloBI

In this talk recent development on automated state machine-based system testing, with a focus on robotics simulation, is presented. In particular, I present the implementation of the simulation environment for the humanoid robot head "Flobi" and the testing framework (FSMT) to assess its preciseness with respect to executed joint trajectories --- compared to its physical counterpart. In addition, I present a fully automated system testing approach, embedded in a Continuous Integration Server

Modeling Software Systems in Experimental Robotics for Improved Reproducibility -- A Case Study with the iCub Humanoid Robot

Lier F, Wachsmuth S, Wrede S. Modeling Software Systems in Experimental Robotics for Improved Reproducibility -- A Case Study with the iCub Humanoid Robot. Presented at the IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, Madrid, Spain

ToBI - Team of Bielefeld A Human-Robot Interaction System for RoboCup@Home 2018

Wachsmuth S, Lier F, Meyer zu Borgsen S. ToBI - Team of Bielefeld A Human-Robot Interaction System for RoboCup@Home 2018. Presented at the RoboCup 2018, Montreal, Canada.The Team of Bielefeld (ToBI) was founded in 2009. The RoboCup team’s activities are embedded in a long-term research agenda towards human-robot interaction with laypersons in regular and smart home environments. The RoboCup@Home competition is an important benchmark and milestone for this goal in terms of robot capabilities as well as the system integration effort. In order to achieve a robust and stable system performance, we apply a systematic approach for reproducible robotic experimentation including automated tests. A second focus of research is the development of reusable robot behaviors and robot skills. By re-usability we mean both, the re-use in different robot tasks as well as the reuse across different platforms. For RoboCup 2018, we plan to enhance this approach for the standard platform Pepper which comes with certain requirements and limitations, like its own runtime and development ecosystem, limited computing resources onboard, or a limited range of sensor devices. We further introduce a simulation environment for the Pepper robot that is based on MORSE and allows to define additional artificial agents as human-like interaction partners. This is one of the key features for simulating complete RoboCup@Home tasks. In this paper, we will present a generic approach to these issues. System descriptions as well as build and deployment procedures are modeled in the Cognitive Interaction Toolkit. The overall framework inherently supports the idea of open research and offers direct access to reusable components and reproducible systems via a web-based catalo

The Cognitive Interaction Toolkit – Improving Reproducibility of Robotic Systems Experiments (POSTER)

Lier F, Wienke J, Nordmann A, Wachsmuth S, Wrede S. The Cognitive Interaction Toolkit – Improving Reproducibility of Robotic Systems Experiments (POSTER). Presented at the International Conference on Simulation, Modeling, and Programming for Autonomous Robots (SIMPAR), Bergamo, Italy

Facilitating HRI by Mixed Reality Techniques

Renner P, Lier F, Friese F, Pfeiffer T, Wachsmuth S. Facilitating HRI by Mixed Reality Techniques. In: HRI '18 Companion: 2018 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction Companion. ACM/IEEE; 2018.Mobile robots start to appear in our everyday life, e.g., in shopping malls, airports, nursing homes or warehouses. Often, these robots are operated by non-technical staff with no prior experience/education in robotics. Additionally, as with all new technology, there is certain reservedness when it comes to accepting robots in our personal space. In this work, we propose making use of state-of-the-art Mixed Reality (MR) technology to facilitate acceptance and interaction with mobile robots. By integrating a Microsoft HoloLens into the robot's operating space, the MR device can be used to a) visualize the robot's behavior-state and sensor data, b) visually notify the user about planned/future behavior and possible problems/obstacles of the robot, and c) to actively use the device as an additional external sensor source. Moreover, by using the HoloLens, users can operate and interact with the robot without being close to it, as the robot is able to \textit{sense with the users' eye

Improving Human-Robot Handover Research by Mixed Reality Techniques

Meyer zu Borgsen S, Renner P, Lier F, Pfeiffer T, Wachsmuth S. Improving Human-Robot Handover Research by Mixed Reality Techniques. In: VAM-HRI 2018. The Inaugural International Workshop on Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality for Human-Robot Interaction. Proceedings. 2018

Towards automated system and experiment reproduction in robotics

Even though research on autonomous robots and human-robot interaction accomplished great progress in recent years, and reusable soft- and hardware components are available, many of the reported findings are only hardly reproducible by fellow scientists. Usually, reproducibility is impeded because required information, such as the specification of software versions and their configuration, required data sets, and experiment protocols are not mentioned or referenced in most publications. In order to address these issues, we recently introduced an integrated tool chain and its underlying development process to facilitate reproducibility in robotics. In this contribution we instantiate the complete tool chain in a unique user study in order to assess its applicability and usability. To this end, we chose three different robotic systems from independent institutions and modeled them in our tool chain, including three exemplary experiments. Subsequently, we asked twelve researchers to reproduce one of the formerly unknown systems and the associated experiment. We show that all twelve scientists were able to replicate a formerly unknown robotics experiment using our tool chain

ToBI - Team of Bielefeld A Human-Robot Interaction System for RoboCup@Home 2017

Wachsmuth S, Lier F, Meyer zu Borgsen S, Kummert J, Lach L, Sixt D. ToBI - Team of Bielefeld A Human-Robot Interaction System for RoboCup@Home 2017. Presented at the RoboCup 2017, Nagoya.The Team of Bielefeld (ToBI) has been founded in 2009. The RoboCup teams’ activities are embedded in a long-term research agenda towards human-robot interaction with laypersons in regular and smart home environments. The RoboCup@Home competition is an im- portant benchmark and milestone for this goal in terms of robot capabilities as well as the system integration effort. In order to achieve a robust and stable system performance, we apply a systematic approach for reproducible robotic experimentation including automatic tests. For RoboCup 2017, we plan to enhance this approach by simulating complete RoboCup@Home tasks. We further extend it to the RoboCup@Home standard platform Pepper. Similar to the Nao platform, the Pepper comes with its own runtime and development eco-system. Thus, one of the chal- lenges will be the cross-platform transfer of capabilities between robots based on different eco-system, e.g. the utilized middleware and application layers. In this paper, we will present a generic approach to such issues: the Cognitive Interaction Toolkit. The overall framework inherently supports the idea of open research and offers direct access to reusable components and reproducible systems via a web-based catalog. A main focus of research at Bielefeld are robots as an ambient host in a smart home or for instance as a museum’s guide. Both scenarios are highly relevant for the RoboCup@Home standard platform competition. Skills developed in these domains will be transferred to the RoboCup@Home scenarios