14 accepted papers
This paper investigates a hybrid solution which combines deep reinforcement learning (RL) and classical trajectory planning for the "following in front" application. Here, an autonomous robot aims to stay ahead of a person as the person freely walks around. Following in front is a challenging proble…
Fig. 1.Generating predictions of a future for a pedestrian attempting to cross the street. We pick out two key frames from the (a) input sequence and the (b) ground truth sequence, 16 frames apart. Image (c) shows our prediction at the same time instant as the ground truth.We explore prediction of u…
We demonstrate an autonomous ground robot capable of exploring unknown indoor environments for reconstructing their 2D maps. This problem has been traditionally tackled by geometric heuristics and information theory. More recently, deep learning and reinforcement learning based approaches have been…
We propose a novel scheme that jointly addresses the problems of powering and coordinating a population of mini-robots for collective construction. In our setting, a population of simple mobile robots must push blocks into desired polygonal shapes. Each robot performs only simple phototaxis. Coordin…
We expand on previous work for negotiating human-robot navigation contention around doorways to produce a more socially-compliant autonomous robot behaviour. Our goal is to improve the integration of robots navigating in human environments by eliciting human recognition of the robot's right of way.…
Image-based modeling techniques [1]–[3] can now generate photo-realistic 3D models from images. But it is up to users to provide high quality images with good coverage and view overlap, which makes the data capturing process tedious and time consuming. We seek to automate data capturing for image-ba…
We propose and test an autonomous robot behavior for socially-compliant navigation of doorways with both human and robot interlocutors. Building on previous work for “aggressive” interaction between robots to resolve navigation deadlocks in corridors, we demonstrate an “assertive” robot that negotia…
We present a robust real-time system for simultaneous detection of hands and faces in RGB and gray-scale images, and a novel dataset used for training. Our goal is to provide a robust sensor front-end suitable for real-time human-robot interaction using face-engagement and gestures. Using hand-label…
This paper demonstrates an autonomous mobile robot that follows a walking user while staying ahead of them. Despite several useful applications for autonomous push-carts, this problem has received much less attention than the easier problem of following from behind. In contrast to previous work, we…
We present a simple probabilistic framework for multimodal sensor fusion that allows a mobile robot to reliably locate and approach the most promising interaction partner among a group of people, in an uncontrolled environment. Our demonstration integrates three complementary sensor modalities, each…
This paper presents a computer vision based system for interaction between multiple humans and multiple robots. Each human can “select” (obtain the undivided attention of) a robot by simply looking directly at it. This extends previous work whereby a single human can select one or more robots from a…
We present the first demonstration of end-to-end far-to-near situated interaction between an uninstrumented human user and an initially distant outdoor autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The user uses an arm-waving gesture as a signal to attract the UAV's attention from a distance. Once this…
We propose a novel method for non-uniform terrain coverage using Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The existing methods for coverage path planning consider a uniformly interesting target area and hence all the regions are covered with high resolution. However in many real world applications items of…
We present the first demonstration of establishing mutual attention between an outdoor UAV in autonomous normal flight and an uninstrumented human user. We use the familiar periodic waving gesture as a signal to attract the UAV's attention. The UAV can discriminate this gesture from human walking an…