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The development of domestic mobile manipulators for unconstrained environments has driven significant research recently. Robot Care Systems has been pioneering in developing a prototype of a mobile manipulator for elderly care. It has a 6 degrees of freedom robotic arm mounted on their flagship robot LEA, a non-holonomic differential drive platform. In order to utilize the navigation and manipulation capabilities of such mobile manipulators, robot placement algorithm that computes a favorable position and orientation of the mobile base is sought, which enables the end effector to reach a desired target. None of the existing approaches perform robot placement while ensuring a high chance of successful planning to target through a short path, while accounting for sensing and actuation errors typical in real world scenarios. This thesis presents a novel robot placement algorithm DeCOWA (Determining Commutation configuration using Optimization and Workspace Analysis) with these characteristics. Since the approach to robot placement is dependent upon the kind of mobile manipulation, a comparative study of sequential and full body methods is performed with respect to criteria important in domestic settings. Sequential mobile manipulation is found to be most suitable, for which a modular mobile manipulation framework encompassing motion planning and robot placement is presented. With sequential mobile manipulation, the ability to successfully reach a target depends upon the kinematic capabilities of the arm. Accordingly, robot placement with DeCOWA determines a favorable location for the arm, and corresponding platform orientation. To find the position of arm’s base, an offline manipulator workspace analysis is performed generating the Inverse Reachability and Planability maps. During online use, these maps are combined into an Inverse Fusion Map that ranks different locations based on the ability of the arm placed there to find a successful and short motion plan to target. This map is filtered to generate a set of feasible locations at the arm’s height. Through a ranked iterative search, a suitable collision free arm location is determined followed by minimization of the platform distance from robot’s current pose. This approach is evaluated against an unbiased random placement of robot near the target using a sample set of twenty scenes mimicking domestic settings. It is found that DeCOWA is able to generate commutation configurations in fraction of a second, that lead to a high planning success rate, a short path length, and account for goal tolerance of navigation. Also, its modularity allows to use several planability metrics, making it useful for domestic application.

Biomechanical Design - BioRobotics

Advisors/Committee Members: Wisse, Martijn (mentor), Kober, Jens (graduation committee), Gaisser, Floris (graduation committee), Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution).

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Digital technologies and networks begun integrating into the fabric of everyday life, mainly, since the 1980s. Throughout the late 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, we experienced the first stages of the process of domestication of digital technologies. It transformed our ways to inhabit and changed our perception of home, so that we "fit" in a digitally augmented world. In the meantime, significant technological innovations have altered the constitution and the operability of the household, triggering equally significant psychological and social adaptations. Architectural experimentation for the ideal house, since the late 1960s has been responding to the upcoming wave of technological changes with adaptations in the typology of the domicile and the augmentation of domestic aesthetics.The thesis constructs a historical and conceptual framework with which to consider and reflect on the social, but mainly technological and architectural transformations that have occurred, during the period in focus, that have led to the gradual realisation of a possible new way of "being at home", without spatio-temporal fixity, mediated by technologies. The thesis, also, at several points attempts to frame more specific areas of further design experimentation. The current research is conducted while the process of domesticating the digital is in progress, so the 'augmented home' encapsulates here, both a body of recent knowledge and experience on the ways to make more human habitable intelligent environments, and a reflective thinking towards the past and the prospect future of that process. The originality of the current research is that it assimilates into one body a broad and diverse literature on the area of interest, drawing sources from social sciences, philosophy, technology, architecture and art, so as to compile an informed and nuanced image of the 'augmented home' as the exemplary case of mediated and intelligent environment. The thesis aims to provide a common understanding of the field which can be shared by researchers across disciplines (computer scientists, anthropologists, architects, etc.) and designers.

Οι ψηφιακές τεχνολογίες και δίκτυα άρχισαν να ενσωματώνονται στον ιστό της καθημερινής ζωής, κυρίως από τη δεκαετία του '80. Στα τέλη του 20ού αιώνα και στις αρχές του 21ου αιώνα βιώσαμε τα πρώτα στάδια της εξοικείωσής μας με τις ψηφιακές τεχνολογίες. Μεταβλήθηκαν οι τρόποι και η αντίληψη μας για την έννοια της κατοίκησης, ώστε να είναι συμβατή με τον ψηφιακά ενισχυμένο κόσμο. Παράλληλα, σημαντικές τεχνολογικές καινοτομίες έχουν αλλάξει την υπόσταση και τη λειτουργικότητα του νοικοκυριού, προκαλώντας εξίσου σημαντικές ψυχολογικές και κοινωνικές προσαρμογές. Ο αρχιτεκτονικός πειραματισμός για το την ιδανική μελλοντική κατοικία, από τα τέλη της δεκαετίας του 1960, ανταποκρίνεται στο επερχόμενο κύμα τεχνολογικών αλλαγών με προσαρμογές στην τυπολογία της κατοικίας και την αύξηση της αισθητικής του οικιακού χώρου.Η παρούσα διατριβή κατασκευάζει ένα ιστορικό και εννοιολογικό πλαίσιο το οποίο επιτρέπει να…

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Esta pesquisa tem como tema de estudo as relações interpessoais no cotidiano e o uso das tecnologias de informação e comunicação no fomento de experiências. Seu objetivo é desenvolver um quadro teórico em torno de uma área do design intitulada de design para a experiência. Para tal, a metodologia da pesquisa fundamenta-se na seleção de propostas de design que exploram questões ligadas ao comportamento no espaço doméstico e às tecnologias de informação e comunicação. Em seguida é realizada uma análise qualitativa dessas propostas a partir de alguns critérios também desenvolvidos pela pesquisa.

This research studies the daily interpersonal relations and the information and communication technologies usage to stimulate experiences. The goal is to develop the theoretical references around a design area identified as experience design. In order to achieve that the research methodology is based on the analysis of some design proposals, which explores issues related to the peoples behavior inside the domestic environment and to the information and communication technologies. These proposals are investigated according to principles also developed during the research.

Advisors/Committee Members: Tramontano, Marcelo Claudio.

▼ This visual art project explores the idea of and possibilities of the evocation of childhood memories, experiences and narratives through drawing installation practice. Underpinned by cognitive neuroscientific, phenomenological and anthropological fields of enquiry, these ideas are investigated through installation environments where causal links are explored between drawings evocative of past domestic settings, activities and experiences in viewers’ memories and current experiences of the domestic in exhibition spaces. Advisors/Committee Members: Amundsen, Fiona (advisor), Fitchett, Dale (advisor).

▼ The New Zealand landmass encompasses a vast diversity of wilderness areas, including fourteen national parks and other conservation lands. These natural environments attract a large number of domestic and international visitors, who consult a many different sources of on-line and printed information before and during their visit. However, these resources are usually designed to suit a generic visitor, and take no account of the different needs and expectation of diverse individuals. In this thesis, I investigate the use of information resources by different users groups as categorized by the Wilderness Perception Scaling (WPS) method. I begin with a review of relevant studies and statistics relating to domestic and international visitors’ experiences of the New Zealand wilderness. I then report on the results of my direct observations of visitors to three destinations, and I discuss the findings that I gathered from surveys that I conducted in two of these locations. This work includes pilot studies of two sites — the Catlins Conservation Park and the Orokonui Ecosanctuary — and a more detailed study of Arthur’s Pass National Park. Following a discussion of my observations and findings, I argue for a redesign of the Department of Conservation (DOC) Website, and I present sketch ideas for a new site that is informed by mobile media interface designs. This work hints at future possibilities for smartphone applications. I conclude that current technologies allow us to address the needs and expectations of different visitors to wilderness areas. Furthermore, I argue that mobile media can enable individuals to create and share, as well as download and use, information resources that address their various and different requirements. I conclude that, if we want younger people to engage with wilderness environments, we should be using the technologies that they are using. Advisors/Committee Members: McGuire, Mark (advisor).