16 accepted papers
In domestic environments, robots require a comprehensive understanding of their surroundings to interact effectively and intuitively with untrained humans. In this paper, we propose DVEFormer – an efficient RGB-D Transformer-based approach that predicts dense text-aligned visual embeddings (DVE) via
Person re-identification plays a key role in applications where a mobile robot needs to track its users over a long period of time, even if they are partially unobserved for some time, in order to follow them or be available on demand. In this context, deep-learning-based real-time feature extractio…
With the emergence of collaborative robots (cobots), human-robot collaboration in industrial manufacturing is coming into focus. For a cobot to act autonomously and as an assistant, it must understand human actions during assembly. To effectively train models for this task, a dataset containing suit…
As the application scenarios of mobile robots are getting more complex and challenging, scene understanding becomes increasingly crucial. A mobile robot that is supposed to operate autonomously in indoor environments must have precise knowledge about what objects are present, where they are, what th…
A key proficiency an autonomous mobile robot must have to perform high-level tasks is a strong understanding of its environment. This involves information about what types of objects are present, where they are, what their spatial extend is, and how they can be reached, i.e., information about free…
Automated grasping of arbitrary objects is an essential skill for many applications such as smart manufacturing and human robot interaction. This makes grasp detection a vital skill for automated robotic systems. Recent work in model-free grasp detection uses point cloud data as input and typically…
Analyzing scenes thoroughly is crucial for mobile robots acting in different environments. Semantic segmentation can enhance various subsequent tasks, such as (semantically assisted) person perception, (semantic) free space detection, (semantic) mapping, and (semantic) navigation. In this paper, we…
Robust point cloud registration in real-time is an important prerequisite for many mapping and localization algorithms. Traditional methods like ICP tend to fail without good initialization, insufficient overlap or in the presence of dynamic objects. Modern deep learning based registration approache…
Efficient and robust person perception is one of the most basic skills a mobile robot must have to ensure intuitive human-machine interaction. In addition to person detection, this also includes estimating various attributes, like posture or body orientation, in order to achieve user-adaptive behavi…
An essential feature for navigating socially with a mobile robot is the upper body orientation of persons in its vicinity. For example, in a supermarket orientation indicates whether a person is looking at goods on the shelves or where a person is likely to go. However, given limited computing and b…
Due to recent deep learning techniques, person detection seems to be solved in the computer vision domain, however, it is still an issue in mobile robotics. On a robot only limited computing capacities are available. The challenge gets even more difficult when operating in an environment, with peopl…
This paper presents the results of the German research project SYMPARTNER (4/2015 - 6/2018), which aimed at developing a functional-emotional, mobile domestic robot companion for elderly people. The paper gives an overview of the developed robot, its system architecture, and essential skills and beh…
This paper introduces a novel robot-based approach to the stroke rehabilitation scenario, in which a mobile robot companion accompanies stroke patients during their walking self-training. This assistance enables them to move freely in the clinic practicing both their mobility and spatial orientation…
This work introduces the IRON keypoint detector and the IRON descriptor which enable high-speed and high-accuracy alignment of 3D depth maps. Instead of using raw point values for storing 3D-scenes, all algorithms were designed to operate on Normal Distribution Transforms (NDT), since NDT-maps provi…
This paper presents the implementation and evaluation results of the German research project SERROGA (2012 till mid 2015), which aimed at developing a robot companion for domestic health assistance for older people that helps keeping them physically and mentally fit to remain living independently in…
Rehabilitative follow-up care is important for stroke patients to regain their motor and cognitive skills. We aim to develop a robotic rehabilitation assistant for walking exercises in late stages of rehabilitation. The robotic rehab assistant is to accompany inpatients during their self-training, p…