20 research outputs found
Human-Centered Navigation and Person-Following with Omnidirectional Robot for Indoor Assistance and Monitoring
Robot assistants and service robots are rapidly spreading out as cutting-edge automation solutions to support people in their everyday life in workplaces, health centers, and domestic environments. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic drastically increased the need for service technology to help medical personnel in critical conditions in hospitals and domestic scenarios. The first requirement for an assistive robot is to navigate and follow the user in dynamic environments in complete autonomy. However, these advanced multitask behaviors require flexible mobility of the platform to accurately avoid obstacles in cluttered spaces while tracking the user. This paper presents a novel human-centered navigation system that successfully combines a real-time visual perception system with the mobility advantages provided by an omnidirectional robotic platform to precisely adjust the robot orientation and monitor a person while navigating. Our extensive experimentation conducted in a representative indoor scenario demonstrates that our solution offers efficient and safe motion planning for person-following and, more generally, for human-centered navigation tasks
RL-DWA Omnidirectional Motion Planning for Person Following in Domestic Assistance and Monitoring
Robot assistants are emerging as high-tech solutions to support people in everyday life. Following and assisting the user in the domestic environment requires flexible mobility to safely move in cluttered spaces.
We introduce a new approach to person following for assistance and monitoring. Our methodology exploits an omnidirectional robotic platform to detach the computation of linear and angular velocities and navigate within the domestic environment without losing track of the assisted person. While linear velocities are managed by a conventional Dynamic Window Approach (DWA) local planner, we trained a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) agent to predict optimized angular velocities commands and maintain the orientation of the robot towards the user. We evaluate our navigation system on a real omnidirectional platform in various indoor scenarios, demonstrating the competitive advantage of our solution compared to a standard differential steering following
PIC4rl-gym: a ROS2 modular framework for Robots Autonomous Navigation with Deep Reinforcement Learning
Learning agents can optimize standard autonomous navigation improving
flexibility, efficiency, and computational cost of the system by adopting a
wide variety of approaches. This work introduces the \textit{PIC4rl-gym}, a
fundamental modular framework to enhance navigation and learning research by
mixing ROS2 and Gazebo, the standard tools of the robotics community, with Deep
Reinforcement Learning (DRL). The paper describes the whole structure of the
PIC4rl-gym, which fully integrates DRL agent's training and testing in several
indoor and outdoor navigation scenarios and tasks. A modular approach is
adopted to easily customize the simulation by selecting new platforms, sensors,
or models. We demonstrate the potential of our novel gym by benchmarking the
resulting policies, trained for different navigation tasks, with a complete set
of metrics
Enhancing Navigation Benchmarking and Perception Data Generation for Row-based Crops in Simulation
Service robotics is recently enhancing precision agriculture enabling many
automated processes based on efficient autonomous navigation solutions.
However, data generation and infield validation campaigns hinder the progress
of large-scale autonomous platforms. Simulated environments and deep visual
perception are spreading as successful tools to speed up the development of
robust navigation with low-cost RGB-D cameras. In this context, the
contribution of this work is twofold: a synthetic dataset to train deep
semantic segmentation networks together with a collection of virtual scenarios
for a fast evaluation of navigation algorithms. Moreover, an automatic
parametric approach is developed to explore different field geometries and
features. The simulation framework and the dataset have been evaluated by
training a deep segmentation network on different crops and benchmarking the
resulting navigation.Comment: Accepted at the 14th European Conference on Precision Agriculture
(ECPA) 202
Marvin: an Innovative Omni-Directional Robotic Assistant for Domestic Environments
Population ageing and pandemics recently demonstrate to cause isolation of
elderly people in their houses, generating the need for a reliable assistive
figure. Robotic assistants are the new frontier of innovation for domestic
welfare, and elderly monitoring is one of the services a robot can handle for
collective well-being. Despite these emerging needs, in the actual landscape of
robotic assistants there are no platform which successfully combines a reliable
mobility in cluttered domestic spaces, with lightweight and offline Artificial
Intelligence (AI) solutions for perception and interaction. In this work, we
present Marvin, a novel assistive robotic platform we developed with a modular
layer-based architecture, merging a flexible mechanical design with
cutting-edge AI for perception and vocal control. We focus the design of Marvin
on three target service functions: monitoring of elderly and reduced-mobility
subjects, remote presence and connectivity, and night assistance. Compared to
previous works, we propose a tiny omnidirectional platform, which enables agile
mobility and effective obstacle avoidance. Moreover, we design a controllable
positioning device, which easily allows the user to access the interface for
connectivity and extends the visual range of the camera sensor. Nonetheless, we
delicately consider the privacy issues arising from private data collection on
cloud services, a critical aspect of commercial AI-based assistants. To this
end, we demonstrate how lightweight deep learning solutions for visual
perception and vocal command can be adopted, completely running offline on the
embedded hardware of the robot.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, 3 tabl
The Marvin Project: an Omni-Directional Robot for Home Assistance
In the last decades, many researchers are investigating how robotic solutions may be adopted to address the increasing need for home and personal assistance aggravated by current global challenges, e.g. population ageing and pandemic emergency. In this direction, the researchers at Politecnico di Torino, together with the colleagues from Edison S.p.A., developed the Marvin project which aims at designing a useful mobile robot for the domestic environment. In this work, the main features of the Marvin prototype and a first qualitative experimental validation are presented
The Impact of a Precision-Based Exercise Intervention in Childhood Hematological Malignancies Evaluated by an Adapted Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test
During cancer treatments in childhood hematological malignancies, reduced exercise tolerance is one of the main hardships. Precision-based training programs help children, adolescents, and young adults and their families to resume regular physical activity, exercise, and sports once they return to their communities after the intensive phases spent in hospital. This study was aimed at verifying whether an intermittent recovery test, the Yo-Yo AD, could provide a simple and valid way to evaluate an individualâs capacity to perform repeated intense exercise and to follow up on the impact of tailored exercise in children, adolescents, and young adults with hematological malignancies. The Yo-Yo AD involved the repetition of several shuttles to muscle exhaustion, at pre-established speeds (walking and slow running). The heart rate (HR) and oxygen saturation (SaO2) were monitored during the test. The total distance and the walking/running ability, measured as the slope of the HR vs. distance correlation, were investigated before (T0) and after 11 weeks (T1) of precision exercise intervention. The Yo-Yo AD was also performed by healthy children (CTRL). Ninety-seven patients (10.58 ± 4.5 years, 46% female) were enrolled. The Yo-Yo AD showed the positive impact of the exercise intervention by increasing the distance covered by the individuals (T0 = 946.6 ± 438.2 vs. T1 = 1352.3 ± 600.6 m, p < 0.001) with a more efficient walking/running ability (T0 = 2.17 ± 0.84 vs. T1 = 1.73 ± 0.89 slope, p < 0.0164). CTRLs performed better (1754.0 ± 444.0 m, p = 0.010). They were equally skillful (1.71 ± 0.27 slope) when compared to the patients after they received the precision-based intervention. No adverse events occurred during the Yo-Yo AD and it proved to be an accurate way of correctly depicting the changes in performance in childhood hematological malignancies
Training during the COVID-19 lockdown : knowledge, beliefs, and practices of 12,526 athletes from 142 countries and six continents
OBJECTIVE Our objective was to explore the training-related knowledge, beliefs, and practices of athletes and the influence of
lockdowns in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome
coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
METHODS Athletes (n = 12,526, comprising 13% world class, 21% international, 36% national, 24% state, and 6% recreational)
completed an online survey that was available from 17 May to 5 July 2020 and explored their training behaviors (training
knowledge, beliefs/attitudes, and practices), including specific questions on their training intensity, frequency, and session
duration before and during lockdown (MarchâJune 2020).
RESULTS Overall, 85% of athletes wanted to âmaintain training,â and 79% disagreed with the statement that it is âokay to not
train during lockdown,â with a greater prevalence for both in higher-level athletes. In total, 60% of athletes considered âcoaching
by correspondence (remote coaching)â to be sufficient (highest amongst world-class athletes). During lockdown, < 40%
were able to maintain sport-specific training (e.g., long endurance [39%], interval training [35%], weightlifting [33%], most (83%) training for âgeneral fitness and health maintenanceâ during lockdown. Athletes trained alone (80%) and focused
on bodyweight (65%) and cardiovascular (59%) exercise/training during lockdown. Compared with before lockdown, most
athletes reported reduced training frequency (from between five and seven sessions per week to four or fewer), shorter training
sessions (from â„ 60 to < 60 min), and lower sport-specific intensity (~ 38% reduction), irrespective of athlete classification.
CONCLUSIONS COVID-19-related lockdowns saw marked reductions in athletic training specificity, intensity, frequency, and
duration, with notable within-sample differences (by athlete classification). Higher classification athletes had the strongest
desire to âmaintainâ training and the greatest opposition to ânot trainingâ during lockdowns. These higher classification
athletes retained training specificity to a greater degree than others, probably because of preferential access to limited training
resources. More higher classification athletes considered âcoaching by correspondenceâ as sufficient than did lower
classification athletes. These lockdown-mediated changes in training were not conducive to maintenance or progression of
athletesâ physical capacities and were also likely detrimental to athletesâ mental health. These data can be used by policy
makers, athletes, and their multidisciplinary teams to modulate their practice, with a degree of individualization, in the
current and continued pandemic-related scenario. Furthermore, the data may drive training-related educational resources
for athletes and their multidisciplinary teams. Such upskilling would provide athletes with evidence to inform their training
modifications in response to germane situations (e.g., COVID related, injury, and illness).A specific funding was provided by the National Sports Institute
of Malaysia for this study.The National Sports Institute of Malaysia.https://www.springer.com/journal/40279am2023Sports Medicin
COVID-19 lockdown : a global study investigating athletesâ sport classification and sex on training practices
PURPOSE : To investigate differences in athletesâ knowledge, beliefs, and training practices during COVID-19 lockdowns with reference to sport classification and sex. This work extends an initial descriptive evaluation focusing on athlete classification. METHODS : Athletes (12,526; 66% male; 142 countries) completed an online survey (MayâJuly 2020) assessing knowledge, beliefs, and practices toward training. Sports were classified as team sports (45%), endurance (20%), power/technical (10%), combat (9%), aquatic (6%), recreational (4%), racquet (3%), precision (2%), parasports (1%), and others (1%). Further analysis by sex was performed. RESULTS : During lockdown, athletes practiced body-weight-based exercises routinely (67% females and 64% males), ranging from 50% (precision) to 78% (parasports). More sport-specific technical skills were performed in combat, parasports, and precision (âŒ50%) than other sports (âŒ35%). Most athletes (range: 50% [parasports] to 75% [endurance]) performed cardiorespiratory training (trivial sex differences). Compared to prelockdown, perceived training intensity was reduced by 29% to 41%, depending on sport (largest decline: âŒ38% in team sports, unaffected by sex). Some athletes (range: 7%â49%) maintained their training intensity for strength, endurance, speed, plyometric, change-of-direction, and technical training. Athletes who previously trainedââ„5 sessions per week reduced their volume (range: 18%â28%) during lockdown. The proportion of athletes (81%) trainingââ„60 min/session reduced by 31% to 43% during lockdown. Males and females had comparable moderate levels of training knowledge (56% vs 58%) and beliefs/attitudes (54% vs 56%). CONCLUSIONS : Changes in athletesâ training practices were sport-specific, with few or no sex differences. Team-based sports were generally more susceptible to changes than individual sports. Policy makers should provide athletes with specific training arrangements and educational resources to facilitate remote and/or home-based training during lockdown-type events.https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ijspp/ijspp-overview.xmlhj2023Sports Medicin