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1.
Dutta, Rajdeep.
Cooperative control of autonomous network topologies.
Degree: 2016, The University of Texas at San Antonio
URL: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10151348
► In this dissertation, we present novel solutions to cooperative control of autonomous multi-agent network topologies pertaining to the area of hostile target tracking by…
(more)
▼ In this dissertation, we present novel solutions to cooperative control of autonomous multi-agent network topologies pertaining to the area of hostile target tracking by multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The present work assumes an undirected graph comprising point-mass UAVs with time-varying communication topology among agents. The level of information sharing ability among agents in a multi-agent network, i.e. the <i>network connectivity,</i> plays pivotal role in group dynamics. A neighborhood information based decentralized controller is proposed in order to drive UAVs into a symmetric formation of polygon shape surrounding a mobile target, simultaneously with maintaining and controlling connectivity during the formation process. Appropriate controller parameter selection schemes, both for controller weights and gains, are adapted for dynamic topologies to maintain the connectivity measure above zero at all times. A challenging task of tracking a desired connectivity profile along with the formation control, is accomplished by using time-varying controller gains throughout agents dynamics. We next present a generalized formation controller, which in fact generates a family of UAV trajectories satisfying the control criteria. The proposed decentralized controller contains additional tuning parameters as fractional powers on proportional and derivative terms, rendering flexibility in achieving the control objective. The proposed controller with proper fractional powers, results in gradual state changes in UAV dynamics by using limited control inputs. Moreover, we extend our work by addressing a ground target tracking and reacquiring problem using the visual information gathered by flying UAV. The proposed guidance law uses line-of-sight guidance to track the target pushing it towards the image center captured by UAV, and exploits UAV-target mutual information to reacquire the target in case it steers away from the field-of-view for a short time. The convergence of the closed loop systems under the proposed controllers are shown using Lyapunov theory. Simulation results validate the effectiveness and novelty of the proposed control laws. In addition to the above, this work focuses on categorizing multi-agent topologies in concern with the network dynamics and connectivity to analyze, realize, and visualize multi-agent interactions. In order to explore various useful agents reconfiguration possibilities without compromising the network connectivity, the present work aims at determining distinct topologies with the same connectivity or <i>isoconnected topologies.</i> Different topologies with identical connectivity are found out with the help of analytic techniques utilizing matrix algebra and calculus of variation. Elegant strategies for preserving connectivity in a network with a single mobile agent and rest of the stationary members, are proposed in this work as well. The proposed solutions are validated with the help of sufficient examples. For visual understanding of how agents locations and…
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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APA (6th Edition):
Dutta, R. (2016). Cooperative control of autonomous network topologies. (Thesis). The University of Texas at San Antonio. Retrieved from http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10151348
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Dutta, Rajdeep. “Cooperative control of autonomous network topologies.” 2016. Thesis, The University of Texas at San Antonio. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10151348.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Dutta, Rajdeep. “Cooperative control of autonomous network topologies.” 2016. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Dutta R. Cooperative control of autonomous network topologies. [Internet] [Thesis]. The University of Texas at San Antonio; 2016. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10151348.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Dutta R. Cooperative control of autonomous network topologies. [Thesis]. The University of Texas at San Antonio; 2016. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10151348
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

University of Notre Dame
2.
Brown, Travis L.
Reaction wheel actuation for stabilization and efficiency improvement in planar bipeds.
Degree: 2016, University of Notre Dame
URL: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10004967
► As robotic technology moves out of factories and into broader segments of society, it promises to support a revolutionary improvement in the general standard…
(more)
▼ As robotic technology moves out of factories and into broader segments of society, it promises to support a revolutionary improvement in the general standard of living. One of the largest hurdles to this increased use of robotic technology, however, is the inability of current mobile robots to negotiate difficult and delicate terrain in ways that are fast, efficient, and safe. Examples in nature demonstrate the incredible potential of legged locomotion to fill this need, but legged robots have not yet reached this level of performance. This work moves the field toward a better understanding of the design of robust and efficient legged robots by exploring the concept of reaction wheel actuation. This concept consists of the generation of torques on the robot's body via a high efficiency reaction wheel system (RWS), which operates by accelerating an internal reaction mass. These torques can be used to both improve the stability of the robot and increase its walking efficiency when used in a coordinated manner. Due to the complex multi-body dynamics of these systems, the effect of design changes on a given performance metric are difficult to estimate. Full body trajectory optimization via direct transcription was employed as the primary tool to better understand the role that an RWS can play in bipedal locomotion. The five-link planar biped ERNIE was used as a basis for this analysis. Combined with a model of motor and gear losses, this allowed energetic comparisons between a baseline ERNIE model and hypothetical RWS-equipped versions. This showed for the first time that a correctly designed RWS, requiring only a modestly sized reaction wheel and a motor with minimal gear loss, can lead to improved walking efficiency. Extensive optimization over the full operational walking range showed that a reasonably sized RWS with realistic levels of regenerative efficiency can improve walking efficiency by 5-10% over most gaits. Comparison of resulting gaits revealed that optimal RWS use leads to better centroidal momentum regulation, which in turn reduces loads on joint motors in the legs. Simulations of the ERNIE model under virtual constraint control verified these results. For validation, an experimental reaction wheel system was constructed and attached to the ERNIE biped. Walking experiments with ERNIE demonstrated a measurable improvement in walking efficiency for gaits that utilize the RWS, corroborating the results from both optimization and simulation. For periodic walking, optimization results showed that near regions of marginal dynamic feasibility, reaction wheels can lead to much larger efficiency gains than in more typical operating conditions. RWS use also expands the range of dynamically feasible motions. In aperiodic motions such as speed and step length changes, RWS use is similarly beneficial, with significant efficiency gains in very demanding motions and expanded dynamic feasibility. For large, single-step changes of speed, the RWS can improve efficiency by as much as 60%.…
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
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to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
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APA (6th Edition):
Brown, T. L. (2016). Reaction wheel actuation for stabilization and efficiency improvement in planar bipeds. (Thesis). University of Notre Dame. Retrieved from http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10004967
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Brown, Travis L. “Reaction wheel actuation for stabilization and efficiency improvement in planar bipeds.” 2016. Thesis, University of Notre Dame. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10004967.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Brown, Travis L. “Reaction wheel actuation for stabilization and efficiency improvement in planar bipeds.” 2016. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Brown TL. Reaction wheel actuation for stabilization and efficiency improvement in planar bipeds. [Internet] [Thesis]. University of Notre Dame; 2016. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10004967.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Brown TL. Reaction wheel actuation for stabilization and efficiency improvement in planar bipeds. [Thesis]. University of Notre Dame; 2016. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10004967
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
3.
Pamulaparthy, Venkata Dhruva.
An Evolutionary Model-Free Controller and its Application to the Swing-Up of a Double Inverted Pendulum.
Degree: 2017, California State University, Long Beach
URL: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10690950
► Advancements in the field of machine learning has made a model-free approach for nonlinear control of dynamical systems more viable. Traditionally, the controller design…
(more)
▼ Advancements in the field of machine learning has made a model-free approach for nonlinear control of dynamical systems more viable. Traditionally, the controller design is based on the analysis of the system model. In practice, however, it might not be possible to estimate a system model that truly reflects the complex behavior of the real system. A model-free controller self-learns the required control decisions by applying machine learning techniques, avoiding the need for estimation and analytical design. In this thesis, a parameterized dynamical system known as Dynamic Movement Primitive (DMP) is used as a feedforward model-free controller. An advanced, nature-inspired, evolutionary machine learning algorithm called Covariance Matrix Adaption Evolution Strategy (CMA-ES) was used to self-learn the control decisions. It was demonstrated through computer simulated experiments that such an evolutionary model-free controller could successfully learn to accomplish the difficult task of swinging up a double inverted pendulum, motivating further research.
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
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APA (6th Edition):
Pamulaparthy, V. D. (2017). An Evolutionary Model-Free Controller and its Application to the Swing-Up of a Double Inverted Pendulum. (Thesis). California State University, Long Beach. Retrieved from http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10690950
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Pamulaparthy, Venkata Dhruva. “An Evolutionary Model-Free Controller and its Application to the Swing-Up of a Double Inverted Pendulum.” 2017. Thesis, California State University, Long Beach. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10690950.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Pamulaparthy, Venkata Dhruva. “An Evolutionary Model-Free Controller and its Application to the Swing-Up of a Double Inverted Pendulum.” 2017. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Pamulaparthy VD. An Evolutionary Model-Free Controller and its Application to the Swing-Up of a Double Inverted Pendulum. [Internet] [Thesis]. California State University, Long Beach; 2017. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10690950.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Pamulaparthy VD. An Evolutionary Model-Free Controller and its Application to the Swing-Up of a Double Inverted Pendulum. [Thesis]. California State University, Long Beach; 2017. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10690950
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
4.
Cheepirichetty, Sandeep.
Autonomous navigation robot for the aid of blind.
Degree: 2017, California State University, Long Beach
URL: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10196469
► The project is in the area of autonomous navigation robots, with a focus on assisting the blind and physically disabled. The project addresses two…
(more)
▼ The project is in the area of autonomous navigation robots, with a focus on assisting the blind and physically disabled. The project addresses two main issues concerning the autonomous navigation. First, avoiding obstacles in robot?s path towards destination, solved by placing three ultrasonic sensors on the front, right, and left sides of the robot. They are effective in detecting obstacles in the range of 0.02 meters to 4 meters. Second, giving a path for the navigation, the robot travels through a series of waypoints to reach the destination. Heading angle and distance to each of these coordinates are calculated using Magnetometer and GPS. Using waypoints to reach destination gives user the flexibility to select a route and navigate without use of the internet. A Human Voice Interface system has been added, which enables the user to control basic robot actions through Bluetooth voice commands. The above model is effective in autonomously guiding the user to their destination. Results have been demonstrated and tested using a four-wheel robot model. LCD and serial monitor readings are presented with the paper. Efforts are being made to make this model more flexible so that it could be attached to any functional wheelchair with minor modifications.
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Cheepirichetty, S. (2017). Autonomous navigation robot for the aid of blind. (Thesis). California State University, Long Beach. Retrieved from http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10196469
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Cheepirichetty, Sandeep. “Autonomous navigation robot for the aid of blind.” 2017. Thesis, California State University, Long Beach. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10196469.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Cheepirichetty, Sandeep. “Autonomous navigation robot for the aid of blind.” 2017. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Cheepirichetty S. Autonomous navigation robot for the aid of blind. [Internet] [Thesis]. California State University, Long Beach; 2017. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10196469.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Cheepirichetty S. Autonomous navigation robot for the aid of blind. [Thesis]. California State University, Long Beach; 2017. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10196469
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Yale University
5.
Bullock, Ian Merrill.
Understanding Human Hand Functionality| Classification, Whole-Hand Usage, and Precision Manipulation.
Degree: 2017, Yale University
URL: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10584937
► A better understanding of human hand functionality can help improve robotic and prosthetic hand capability, as well as having benefits for rehabilitation or device…
(more)
▼ A better understanding of human hand functionality can help improve robotic and prosthetic hand capability, as well as having benefits for rehabilitation or device design. While the human hand has been studied extensively in various fields, fewer existing works study the human hand within frameworks which can be easily applied to robotic applications, or attempt to quantify complex human hand functionality in real-world environments or with tasks approaching real-world complexity. This dissertation presents a study of human hand functionality from the multiple angles of high level classification methods, whole-hand grasp usage, and precision manipulation, where a small object is repositioned in the fingertips. Our manipulation classification work presents a motion-centric scheme which can be applied to any human or hand-based robotic manipulation task. Most previous classifications are domain specific and cannot easily be applied to both robotic and human tasks, or can only be applied to a certain subset of manipulation tasks. We present a number of criteria which can be used to describe manipulation tasks and understand differences in the hand functionality used. These criteria are then applied to a number of real world example tasks, including a description of how the classification state can change over time during a dynamic manipulation task. Next, our study of real-world grasping contributes to an understanding of whole-hand usage. Using head mounted camera video from two housekeepers and two machinists, we analyze the grasps used in their natural work environments. By tagging both grasp state and objects involved, we can measure the prevalence of each grasp and also understand how the grasp is typically used. We then use the grasp-object relationships to select small sets of versatile grasps which can still handle a wide variety of objects, which are promising candidates for implementation in robotic or prosthetic manipulators. Following the discussion of overall hand shapes, we then present a study of precision manipulation, or how people reposition small objects in the fingertips. Little prior work was found which experimentally measures human capabilities with a full multi-finger precision manipulation task. Our work reports the size and shape for the precision manipulation workspace, and finds that the overall workspace is small, but also has a certain axis along which more object movement is possible. We then show the effect of object size and the number of fingers used on the resulting workspace volume – an ideal object size range is determined, and it is shown that adding additional fingers will reduce workspace volume, likely due to the additional kinematic constraints. Using similar methods to our main precision manipulation investigation, but with a spherical object rolled in the fingertips, we also report the overall fingertip surface usage for two- and three-fingered manipulation, and show a shift in typical fingertip area used between the two and three finger…
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Bullock, I. M. (2017). Understanding Human Hand Functionality| Classification, Whole-Hand Usage, and Precision Manipulation. (Thesis). Yale University. Retrieved from http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10584937
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Bullock, Ian Merrill. “Understanding Human Hand Functionality| Classification, Whole-Hand Usage, and Precision Manipulation.” 2017. Thesis, Yale University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10584937.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Bullock, Ian Merrill. “Understanding Human Hand Functionality| Classification, Whole-Hand Usage, and Precision Manipulation.” 2017. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Bullock IM. Understanding Human Hand Functionality| Classification, Whole-Hand Usage, and Precision Manipulation. [Internet] [Thesis]. Yale University; 2017. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10584937.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Bullock IM. Understanding Human Hand Functionality| Classification, Whole-Hand Usage, and Precision Manipulation. [Thesis]. Yale University; 2017. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10584937
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Carnegie Mellon University
6.
Ross, Stephane.
Interactive Learning for Sequential Decisions and Predictions.
Degree: 2013, Carnegie Mellon University
URL: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/311
► Sequential prediction problems arise commonly in many areas of robotics and information processing: e.g., predicting a sequence of actions over time to achieve a goal…
(more)
▼ Sequential prediction problems arise commonly in many areas of robotics and information processing: e.g., predicting a sequence of actions over time to achieve a goal in a control task, interpreting an image through a sequence of local image patch classifications, or translating speech to text through an iterative decoding procedure.
Learning predictors that can reliably perform such sequential tasks is challenging. Specifically, as predictions influence future inputs in the sequence, the datageneration process and executed predictor are inextricably intertwined. This can often lead to a significant mismatch between the distribution of examples observed during training (induced by the predictor used to generate training instances) and test executions (induced by the learned predictor). As a result, naively applying standard supervised learning methods - that assume independently and identically distributed training and test examples - often leads to poor test performance and compounding errors: inaccurate predictions lead to untrained situations where more errors are inevitable.
This thesis proposes general iterative learning procedures that leverage interactions between the learner and teacher to provably learn good predictors for sequential prediction tasks. Through repeated interactions, our approaches can efficiently learn predictors that are robust to their own errors and predict accurately during test executions. Our main approach uses existing no-regret online learning methods to provide strong generalization guarantees on test performance.
We demonstrate how to apply our main approach in various sequential prediction settings: imitation learning, model-free reinforcement learning, system identification, structured prediction and submodular list predictions. Its efficiency and wide applicability are exhibited over a large variety of challenging learning tasks, ranging from learning video game playing agents from human players and accurate dynamic models of a simulated helicopter for controller synthesis, to learning predictors for scene understanding in computer vision, news recommendation and document summarization. We also demonstrate the applicability of our technique on a real robot, using pilot demonstrations to train an autonomous quadrotor to avoid trees seen through its onboard camera (monocular vision) when flying at low-altitude in natural forest environments.
Our results throughout show that unlike typical supervised learning tasks where examples of good behavior are sufficient to learn good predictors, interaction is a fundamental part of learning in sequential tasks. We show formally that some level of interaction is necessary, as without interaction, no learning algorithm can guarantee good performance in general.
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Ross, S. (2013). Interactive Learning for Sequential Decisions and Predictions. (Thesis). Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/311
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Ross, Stephane. “Interactive Learning for Sequential Decisions and Predictions.” 2013. Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/311.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Ross, Stephane. “Interactive Learning for Sequential Decisions and Predictions.” 2013. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Ross S. Interactive Learning for Sequential Decisions and Predictions. [Internet] [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2013. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/311.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Ross S. Interactive Learning for Sequential Decisions and Predictions. [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2013. Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/311
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Carnegie Mellon University
7.
Barlow, Gregory John.
Improving Memory for Optimizatioin and Learning in Dynamic Environments.
Degree: 2011, Carnegie Mellon University
URL: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/175
► Many problems considered in optimization and artificial intelligence research are static: information about the problem is known a priori, and little to no uncertainty about…
(more)
▼ Many problems considered in optimization and artificial intelligence research are static: information about the problem is known a priori, and little to no uncertainty about this information is presumed to exist. Most real problems, however, are dynamic: information about the problem is released over time, uncertain events may occur, or the requirements of the problem may change as time passes. One technique for improving optimization and learning in dynamic environments is by using information from the past. By using solutions from previous environments, it is often easier to find promising solutions in a new environment. A common way to maintain and exploit information from the past is the use of memory, where solutions are stored periodically and can be retrieved and refined when the environment changes. Memory can help search respond quickly and efficiently to changes in a dynamic problem. Despite their strengths, standard memories have many weaknesses which limit their effectiveness. This thesis explores ways to improve memory for optimization and learning in dynamic environments. The techniques presented in this thesis improve memories by incorporating probabilistic models of previous solutions into memory, storing many previous solutions in memory while keeping overhead low, building long-term models of the dynamic search space over time, allowing easy refinement of memory entries, and mapping previous solutions to the current environment for problems where solutions may become obsolete over time. To address the weaknesses and limitations of standard memory, two novel classes of memory are introduced: density-estimate memory and classifier-based memory. Density-estimate memory builds and maintains probabilistic models within memory to create density estimations of promising areas of the search space over time. Density-estimate memory allows many solutions to be stored in memory, builds long-term models of the dynamic search space, and allows memory entries to be easily refined while keeping overhead low. Density-estimate memory is applied to three dynamic problems: factory coordination, the Moving Peaks benchmark problem, and adaptive traffic signal control. For all three problems, density-estimate memory improves performance over a baseline learning or optimization algorithm as well as state-of-the-art algorithms. Classifier-based memory allows dynamic problems with shifting feasible regions to capture solutions in memory and then map these memory entries to feasible solutions in the future. By storing abstractions of solutions in the memory, information about previous solutions can be used to create solutions in a new environment, even when the old solutions are now completely obsolete or infeasible. Classifier-based memory is applied to a dynamic job shop scheduling problem with sequence-dependent setup times and machine breakdowns and repairs. Classifier-based memory improves the quality of schedules and reduces the amount of search necessary to find good schedules. The techniques presented in this this…
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Barlow, G. J. (2011). Improving Memory for Optimizatioin and Learning in Dynamic Environments. (Thesis). Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/175
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Barlow, Gregory John. “Improving Memory for Optimizatioin and Learning in Dynamic Environments.” 2011. Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/175.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Barlow, Gregory John. “Improving Memory for Optimizatioin and Learning in Dynamic Environments.” 2011. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Barlow GJ. Improving Memory for Optimizatioin and Learning in Dynamic Environments. [Internet] [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2011. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/175.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Barlow GJ. Improving Memory for Optimizatioin and Learning in Dynamic Environments. [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2011. Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/175
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Carnegie Mellon University
8.
Xu, Ling.
Graph Planning for Environmental Coverage.
Degree: 2011, Carnegie Mellon University
URL: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/181
► Tasks such as street mapping and security surveillance seek a route that traverses a given space to perform a function. These task functions may involve…
(more)
▼ Tasks such as street mapping and security surveillance seek a route that traverses a given space to perform a function. These task functions may involve mapping the space for accurate modeling, sensing the space for unusual activity, or searching the space for objects. When these tasks are performed autonomously by robots, the constraints of the environment must be considered in order to generate more feasible paths. Additionally, performing these tasks in the real world presents the challenge of operating in dynamic, changing environments.
This thesis addresses the problem of effective graph coverage with environmental constraints and incomplete prior map information. Prior information about the environment is assumed to be given in the form of a graph. We seek a solution that effectively covers the graph while accounting for space restrictions and online changes. For real-time applications, we seek a complete but efficient solution that has fast re-planning capabilities.
For this work, we model the set of coverage problems as arc routing problems. Although these routing problems are generally NP-hard, our approach aims for optimal solutions through the use of low-complexity algorithms in a branch-and-bound framework when time permits and approximations when time restrictions apply. Additionally, we account for environmental constraints by embedding those constraints into the graph. In this thesis, we present algorithms that address the multi-dimensional routing problem and its subproblems and evaluate them on both computer-generated and physical road network data.
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Xu, L. (2011). Graph Planning for Environmental Coverage. (Thesis). Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/181
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Xu, Ling. “Graph Planning for Environmental Coverage.” 2011. Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/181.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Xu, Ling. “Graph Planning for Environmental Coverage.” 2011. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Xu L. Graph Planning for Environmental Coverage. [Internet] [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2011. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/181.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Xu L. Graph Planning for Environmental Coverage. [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2011. Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/181
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Carnegie Mellon University
9.
Dogar, Mehmet R.
Physics-Based Manipulation Planning in Cluttered Human Environments.
Degree: 2013, Carnegie Mellon University
URL: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/310
► This thesis presents a series of planners and algorithms for manipulation in cluttered human environments. The focus is on using physics-based predictions, particularly for pushing…
(more)
▼ This thesis presents a series of planners and algorithms for manipulation in cluttered human environments. The focus is on using physics-based predictions, particularly for pushing operations, as an effective way to address the manipulation challenges posed by these environments.
We introduce push-grasping, a physics-based action to grasp an object first by pushing it and then closing the fingers. We analyze the mechanics of push-grasping and demonstrate its effectiveness under clutter and object pose uncertainty. We integrate a planning system based on push-grasping to the geometric planners traditionally used in grasping. We then show that a similar approach can be used to perform manipulation with environmental contact in cluttered environments. We present a planner where the robot can simultaneously push multiple obstacles out of the way while grasping an object through clutter.
In the second part of this thesis we focus on planning a sequence of actions to manipulate clutter. We present a planning framework to rearrange clutter using prehensile and nonprehensile primitives. We show that our planner succeeds in environments where planners which only use prehensile primitives fail. We then explore the problem of manipulating clutter to search for a hidden object. We formulate the problem as minimizing the expected time to find the target, present two algorithms, and analyze their complexity and optimality.
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
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APA (6th Edition):
Dogar, M. R. (2013). Physics-Based Manipulation Planning in Cluttered Human Environments. (Thesis). Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/310
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Dogar, Mehmet R. “Physics-Based Manipulation Planning in Cluttered Human Environments.” 2013. Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/310.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Dogar, Mehmet R. “Physics-Based Manipulation Planning in Cluttered Human Environments.” 2013. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Dogar MR. Physics-Based Manipulation Planning in Cluttered Human Environments. [Internet] [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2013. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/310.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Dogar MR. Physics-Based Manipulation Planning in Cluttered Human Environments. [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2013. Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/310
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Carnegie Mellon University
10.
Munoz, Daniel.
Inference Machines: Parsing Scenes via Iterated Predictions.
Degree: 2013, Carnegie Mellon University
URL: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/305
► Extracting a rich representation of an environment from visual sensor readings canbenefit many tasks in robotics, e.g., path planning, mapping, and object manipulation.While important progress…
(more)
▼ Extracting a rich representation of an environment from visual sensor readings canbenefit many tasks in robotics, e.g., path planning, mapping, and object manipulation.While important progress has been made, it remains a difficult problem to effectivelyparse entire scenes, i.e., to recognize semantic objects, man-made structures, and landforms.This process requires not only recognizing individual entities but also understandingthe contextual relations among them.
The prevalent approach to encode such relationships is to use a joint probabilistic orenergy-based model which enables one to naturally write down these interactions. Unfortunately,performing exact inference over these expressive models is often intractableand instead we can only approximate the solutions. While there exists a set of sophisticatedapproximate inference techniques to choose from, the combination of learning andapproximate inference for these expressive models is still poorly understood in theoryand limited in practice. Furthermore, using approximate inference on any learned modeloften leads to suboptimal predictions due to the inherent approximations.
As we ultimately care about predicting the correct labeling of a scene, and notnecessarily learning a joint model of the data, this work proposes to instead view theapproximate inference process as a modular procedure that is directly trained in orderto produce a correct labeling of the scene. Inspired by early hierarchical models in thecomputer vision literature for scene parsing, the proposed inference procedure is structuredto incorporate both feature descriptors and contextual cues computed at multipleresolutions within the scene. We demonstrate that this inference machine frameworkfor parsing scenes via iterated predictions offers the best of both worlds: state-of-the-artclassification accuracy and computational efficiency when processing images and/orunorganized 3-D point clouds. Additionally, we address critical problems that arise inpractice when parsing scenes on board real-world systems: integrating data from multiplesensor modalities and efficiently processing data that is continuously streaming fromthe sensors.
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
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APA (6th Edition):
Munoz, D. (2013). Inference Machines: Parsing Scenes via Iterated Predictions. (Thesis). Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/305
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Munoz, Daniel. “Inference Machines: Parsing Scenes via Iterated Predictions.” 2013. Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/305.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Munoz, Daniel. “Inference Machines: Parsing Scenes via Iterated Predictions.” 2013. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Munoz D. Inference Machines: Parsing Scenes via Iterated Predictions. [Internet] [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2013. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/305.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Munoz D. Inference Machines: Parsing Scenes via Iterated Predictions. [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2013. Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/305
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Carnegie Mellon University
11.
Melchior, Nik A.
Graph-based Trajectory Planning through Programming by Demonstration.
Degree: 2011, Carnegie Mellon University
URL: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/223
► Autonomous robots are becoming increasingly commonplace in industry, space exploration, and even domestic applications. These diverse fields share the need for robots to perform increasingly…
(more)
▼ Autonomous robots are becoming increasingly commonplace in industry, space exploration, and even domestic applications. These diverse fields share the need for robots to perform increasingly complex motion behaviors for interacting with the world. As the robots’ tasks become more varied and sophisticated, though, the challenge of programming then becomes more difficult and domain-specific. Robotics experts without domain knowledge may not be well-suited for communicating task specific goals and constraints to the robot, but domain experts may not possess the skills for programming robots through conventional means. Ideally, any person capable of demonstrating the necessary skill should be able to instruct the robot to do so. In this thesis, we examine the use of demonstration to program or, more aptly, to teach a robot to perform precise motion tasks.
Programming by Demonstration (PbD) offers an expressive means for teaching while being accessible to domain experts who may be novices in robotics. This learning paradigm relies on human demonstrations to build a model of a motion task. This thesis develops an algorithm for learning from examples that is capable of producing trajectories that are collision-free and that preserve non-geometric constraints such as end effector orientation, without requiring special training for the teacher or a model of the environment. This approach is capable of learning precise motions, even when the precision required is on the same order of magnitude as the noise in the demonstrations. Finally, this approach is robust to the occasional errors in strategy and jitter in movement inherent in imperfect human demonstrations.
The approach contributed in this thesis begins with the construction of a neighbor graph, which determines the correspondences between multiple imperfect demonstrations. This graph permits the robot to plan novel trajectories that safely and smoothly generalize the teacher’s behavior. Finally, like any good learner, a robot should assess its knowledge and ask questions about any detected deficiencies. The learner presented here detects regions of the task in which the demonstrations appear to be ambiguous or insufficient, and requests additional information from the teacher. This algorithm is demonstrated in example domains with a 7 degree-of-freedom manipulator, and user trials are presented.
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Melchior, N. A. (2011). Graph-based Trajectory Planning through Programming by Demonstration. (Thesis). Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/223
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Melchior, Nik A. “Graph-based Trajectory Planning through Programming by Demonstration.” 2011. Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/223.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Melchior, Nik A. “Graph-based Trajectory Planning through Programming by Demonstration.” 2011. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Melchior NA. Graph-based Trajectory Planning through Programming by Demonstration. [Internet] [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2011. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/223.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Melchior NA. Graph-based Trajectory Planning through Programming by Demonstration. [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2011. Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/223
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Carnegie Mellon University
12.
Baker, Christopher R.
Toward Adaptation and Reuse of Advanced Robotic Algorithms.
Degree: 2011, Carnegie Mellon University
URL: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/111
► As robotic systems become larger and more complex, it is increasingly important to compose them from reusable software components that can be easily deployed in…
(more)
▼ As robotic systems become larger and more complex, it is increasingly important to compose them from reusable software components that can be easily deployed in novel systems. To date, efforts in this area have focused on device abstractions and messaging frameworks that promote the rapid and interoperable development of various perception, mapping and planning algorithms. These frameworks typically promote reusability through the definition of message interfaces that are sufficiently generic to cover all supported robot configurations. However, migrating beyond these supported configurations can be highly problematic, as generic data interfaces cannot fully capture the variability of robotic systems.
Specifically, there will always be peculiarities of individual robots that must be explicitly coupled to the algorithms that govern their actions, and no single message or device abstraction can express all possible information that a robot might provide. The critical insight underlying this work is that while the information that contributes to a given algorithm may change from one robot to the next, the overall structure of the algorithm will remain largely undisturbed. The difference is made in comparatively small details, such as varying individual weights or thresholds that influence the results of, but do not otherwise interfere with, the algorithm's "main" calculations.
This work proposes that exposing a few such points of variation in a given robotic algorithm will allow the modular treatment of a wide array of platform-specific capabilities. A corresponding design methodology is proposed for separating these platform-specific "supplemental effects" from a reusable, platform-independent "core algorithm". This methodology is evaluated through case studies of two distinct software systems, the first drawn from the realm of autonomous urban driving, and the second from the domain of planetary exploration. The central contributions of this work are:
A nomenclature and corresponding guidelines for discriminating between platform-independent "primary" data and platform-specific "supplemental" data;
Quantified costs and benefits for two technical solutions to isolating the corresponding core algorithms from their supplemental effects;
A classification of typical segments of advanced robotic algorithms that can be affected by platform specific data;
A set of principles for structuring such algorithms to simplify the accommodation of future supplemental effects.
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Baker, C. R. (2011). Toward Adaptation and Reuse of Advanced Robotic Algorithms. (Thesis). Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/111
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Baker, Christopher R. “Toward Adaptation and Reuse of Advanced Robotic Algorithms.” 2011. Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/111.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Baker, Christopher R. “Toward Adaptation and Reuse of Advanced Robotic Algorithms.” 2011. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Baker CR. Toward Adaptation and Reuse of Advanced Robotic Algorithms. [Internet] [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2011. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/111.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Baker CR. Toward Adaptation and Reuse of Advanced Robotic Algorithms. [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2011. Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/111
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Carnegie Mellon University
13.
Chechetka, Anton.
Query-Specific Learning and Inference for Probabilistic Graphical Models.
Degree: 2011, Carnegie Mellon University
URL: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/171
► In numerous real world applications, from sensor networks to computer vision to natural text processing, one needs to reason about the system in question in…
(more)
▼ In numerous real world applications, from sensor networks to computer vision to natural text processing, one needs to reason about the system in question in the face of uncertainty. A key problem in all those settings is to compute the probability distribution over the variables of interest (the query) given the observed values of other random variables (the evidence). Probabilistic graphical models (PGMs) have become the approach of choice for representing and reasoning with high-dimensional probability distributions. However, for most models capable of accurately representing real-life distributions, inference is fundamentally intractable. As a result, optimally balancing the expressive power and inference complexity of the models, as well as designing better approximate inference algorithms, remain important open problems with potential to significantly improve the quality of answers to probabilistic queries.
This thesis contributes algorithms for learning and approximate inference in probabilistic graphical models that improve on the state of the art by emphasizing the computational aspects of inference over the representational properties of the models. Our contributions fall into two categories: learning accurate models where exact inference is tractable and speeding up approximate inference by focusing computation on the query variables and only spending as much effort on the remaining parts of the model as needed to answer the query accurately.
First, for a case when the set of evidence variables is not known in advance and a single model is needed that can be used to answer any query well, we propose a polynomial time algorithm for learning the structure of tractable graphical models with quality guarantees, including PAC learnability and graceful degradation guarantees. Ours is the first efficient algorithm to provide this type of guarantees. A key theoretical insight of our approach is a tractable upper bound on the mutual information of arbitrarily large sets of random variables that yields exponential speedups over the exact computation.
Second, for a setting where the set of evidence variables is known in advance, we propose an approach for learning tractable models that tailors the structure of the model for the particular value of evidence that become known at test time. By avoiding a commitment to a single tractable structure during learning, we are able to expand the representation power of the model without sacrificing efficient exact inference and parameter learning. We provide a general framework that allows one to leverage existing structure learning algorithms for discovering high-quality evidence-specific structures. Empirically, we demonstrate state of the art accuracy on real-life datasets and an order of magnitude speedup.
Finally, for applications where the intractable model structure is a given and approximate inference is needed, we propose a principled way to speed up convergence of belief propagation by focusing the computation on the query variables and away from the variables that…
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Chechetka, A. (2011). Query-Specific Learning and Inference for Probabilistic Graphical Models. (Thesis). Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/171
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Chechetka, Anton. “Query-Specific Learning and Inference for Probabilistic Graphical Models.” 2011. Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/171.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Chechetka, Anton. “Query-Specific Learning and Inference for Probabilistic Graphical Models.” 2011. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Chechetka A. Query-Specific Learning and Inference for Probabilistic Graphical Models. [Internet] [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2011. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/171.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Chechetka A. Query-Specific Learning and Inference for Probabilistic Graphical Models. [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2011. Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/171
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Carnegie Mellon University
14.
Jain, Eakta.
Attention-guided Algorithms to Retarget and Augment Animations, Stills, and Videos.
Degree: 2012, Carnegie Mellon University
URL: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/208
► Still pictures, animations and videos are used by artists to tell stories visually. Computer graphics algorithms create visual stories too, either automatically, or, by assisting…
(more)
▼ Still pictures, animations and videos are used by artists to tell stories visually. Computer graphics algorithms create visual stories too, either automatically, or, by assisting artists. Why is it so hard to create algorithms that perform like a trained visual artist? The reason is that artists think about where a viewer will look at and how their attention will flow across the scene, but algorithms do not have a similarly sophisticated understanding of the viewer.
Our key insight is that computer graphics algorithms should be designed to take into account how viewer attention is allocated. We first show that designing optimization terms based on viewers’ attentional priorities allows the algorithm to handle artistic license in the input data, such as geometric inconsistencies in hand-drawn shapes. We then show that measurements of viewer attention enables algorithms to infer high-level information about a scene, for example, the object of storytelling interest in every frame of a video.
All the presented algorithms retarget or augment the traditional form of a visual art. Traditional art includes artwork such as printed comics, i.e., pictures that were created before computers became mainstream. It also refers to artwork that can be created in the way it was done before computers, for example, hand-drawn animation and live action films. Connecting traditional art with computational algorithms allows us to leverage the unique strengths on either side. We demonstrate these ideas on three applications:
Retargeting and augmenting animations: Two widely practiced forms of animation are two-dimensional (2D) hand-drawn animation and three-dimensional (3D) computer animation. To apply the techniques of the 3D medium to 2D animation, researchers have attempted to compute 3D reconstructions of the shape and motion of the hand-drawn character, which are meant to act as their ‘proxy’ in the 3D environment. We argue that a perfect reconstruction is excessive because it does not leverage the characteristics of viewer attention. We present algorithms to generate a 3D proxy with different levels of detail, such that at each level the error terms account for quantities that will attract viewer attention. These algorithms allow a hand-drawn animation to be retargeted to a 3D skeleton and be augmented with physically simulated secondary effects.
Augmenting stills: Moves-on-stills is a technique to engage the viewer while presenting still pictures on television or in movies. This effect is widely used to augment comics to create ‘motion comics’. Though state of the art software, like iMovie, allows a user to specify the parameters of the camera move, it does not solve the problem of how the parameters are chosen. We believe that a good camera move respects the visual route designed by the artist who crafted the still picture; if we record the gaze of viewers looking at composed still pictures, we can reconstruct the artist’s intention. We show, through a perceptual study, that the artist succeeds in directing viewer attention in…
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Jain, E. (2012). Attention-guided Algorithms to Retarget and Augment Animations, Stills, and Videos. (Thesis). Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/208
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Jain, Eakta. “Attention-guided Algorithms to Retarget and Augment Animations, Stills, and Videos.” 2012. Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/208.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Jain, Eakta. “Attention-guided Algorithms to Retarget and Augment Animations, Stills, and Videos.” 2012. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Jain E. Attention-guided Algorithms to Retarget and Augment Animations, Stills, and Videos. [Internet] [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2012. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/208.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Jain E. Attention-guided Algorithms to Retarget and Augment Animations, Stills, and Videos. [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2012. Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/208
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Carnegie Mellon University
15.
McNaughton, Matthew.
Parallel Algorithms for Real-time Motion Planning.
Degree: 2011, Carnegie Mellon University
URL: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/179
► For decades, humans have dreamed of making cars that could drive themselves, so that travel would be less taxing, and the roads safer for everyone.…
(more)
▼ For decades, humans have dreamed of making cars that could drive themselves, so that travel would be less taxing, and the roads safer for everyone. Toward this goal, we have made strides in motion planning algorithms for autonomous cars, using a powerful new computing tool, the parallel graphics processing unit (GPU).
We propose a novel five-dimensional search space formulation that includes both spatial and temporal dimensions, and respects the kinematic and dynamic constraints on a typical automobile. With this formulation, the search space grows linearly with the length of the path, compared to the exponential growth of other methods. We also propose a parallel search algorithm, using the GPU to tackle the curse of dimensionality directly and increase the number of plans that can be evaluated by an order of magnitude compared to a CPU implementation. With this larger capacity, we can evaluate a dense sampling of plans combining lateral swerves and accelerations that represent a range of effective responses to more on-road driving scenarios than have previously been addressed in the literature.
We contribute a cost function that evaluates many aspects of each candidate plan, ranking them all, and allowing the behavior of the vehicle to be fine-tuned by changing the ranking. We show that the cost function can be changed on-line by a behavioral planning layer to express preferred vehicle behavior without the brittleness induced by top-down planning architectures. Our method is particularly effective at generating robust merging behaviors, which have traditionally required a delicate and failure-prone coordination between multiple planning layers. Finally, we demonstrate our proposed planner in a variety of on-road driving scenarios in both simulation and on an autonomous SUV, and make a detailed comparison with prior work.
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
McNaughton, M. (2011). Parallel Algorithms for Real-time Motion Planning. (Thesis). Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/179
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
McNaughton, Matthew. “Parallel Algorithms for Real-time Motion Planning.” 2011. Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/179.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
McNaughton, Matthew. “Parallel Algorithms for Real-time Motion Planning.” 2011. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
McNaughton M. Parallel Algorithms for Real-time Motion Planning. [Internet] [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2011. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/179.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
McNaughton M. Parallel Algorithms for Real-time Motion Planning. [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2011. Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/179
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Carnegie Mellon University
16.
Barnum, Peter.
Light and Water Drops.
Degree: 2011, Carnegie Mellon University
URL: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/182
► Water drops are present throughout our daily lives. Microscopic droplets create fog and mist, and large drops fall as rain. Because of their shape and…
(more)
▼ Water drops are present throughout our daily lives. Microscopic droplets create fog and mist, and large drops fall as rain. Because of their shape and refractive properties, water drops exhibit a wide variety of visual effects. If not directly illuminated by a light source, they are difficult to see. But if they are directly illuminated, they can become the brightest objects in the environment.
This thesis has two main components. First, we will show how to create two-and three-dimensional displays using water drops and a projector. Water drops act as tiny spherical lenses, refracting light into a wide angle. To a person viewing an illuminated drop, it will appear that the drop is the same color as the incident light ray. Using a valve assembly, we will fill a volume with non-occluding water drops. At any instant in time, no ray from the projector will intersect with two drops. Using a camera, we will detect the drops locations, then illuminate them with the projector. The final result is a programmable, dynamic, and three-dimensional display.
Second, we will show how to reduce the effect of water drops in videos via spatio-temporal frequency analysis, and in real life, by using a projector to illuminate everything except the drops. To remove rain (and snow) from videos, we will use a streak model in frequency space to find the frequencies corresponding to rain and snow in the video. These frequencies can then be suppressed to reduce the effect of rain and snow. We will also suppress the visual effect of water drops by selectively “missing” them by not illuminating them with a projector. In light rain, this can be performed by tracking individual drops. This kind of drop-avoiding light source could be used for many nighttime applications, such as car headlights.
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
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CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Barnum, P. (2011). Light and Water Drops. (Thesis). Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/182
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Barnum, Peter. “Light and Water Drops.” 2011. Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/182.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Barnum, Peter. “Light and Water Drops.” 2011. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Barnum P. Light and Water Drops. [Internet] [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2011. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/182.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Barnum P. Light and Water Drops. [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2011. Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/182
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Carnegie Mellon University
17.
Malisiewicz, Tomasz.
Exemplar-based Representations for Object Detection, Association and Beyond.
Degree: 2011, Carnegie Mellon University
URL: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/173
► Recognizing and reasoning about the objects found in an image is one of the key problems in computer vision. This thesis is based on the…
(more)
▼ Recognizing and reasoning about the objects found in an image is one of the key problems in computer vision. This thesis is based on the idea that in order to understand a novel object, it is often not enough to recognize the object category it belongs to (i.e., answering “What is this?”). We argue that a more meaningful interpretation can be obtained by linking the input object with a similar representation in memory (i.e., asking “What is this like?”). In this thesis, we present a memory-based system for recognizing and interpreting objects in images by establishing visual associations between an input image and a large database of object exemplars. These visual associations can then be used to predict properties of the novel object which cannot be deduced solely from category membership (e.g., which way is it facing? what is its segmentation? is there a person sitting on it?).
Part I of this thesis is dedicated to exemplar representations and algorithms for creating visual associations. We propose Local Distance Functions and Exemplar-SVMs, which are trained separately for each exemplar and allow an instance-specific notion of visual similarity. We show that an ensemble of Exemplar-SVMs performs competitively to state-of-the-art on the PASCAL VOC object detection task. In Part II, we focus on the advantages of using exemplars over a purely category-based approach. Because Exemplar-SVMs show good alignment between detection windows and their associated exemplars, we show that it is possible to transfer any available exemplar meta-data (segmentation, geometric structure, 3D model, etc.) directly onto the detections, which can then be used as part of overall scene understanding. Finally, we construct a Visual Memex, a vast graph over exemplars encoding both visual as well as spatial relationships, and apply it to an object prediction task. Our results show that exemplars provide a better notion of object context than category-based approaches.
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Malisiewicz, T. (2011). Exemplar-based Representations for Object Detection, Association and Beyond. (Thesis). Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/173
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Malisiewicz, Tomasz. “Exemplar-based Representations for Object Detection, Association and Beyond.” 2011. Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/173.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Malisiewicz, Tomasz. “Exemplar-based Representations for Object Detection, Association and Beyond.” 2011. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Malisiewicz T. Exemplar-based Representations for Object Detection, Association and Beyond. [Internet] [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2011. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/173.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Malisiewicz T. Exemplar-based Representations for Object Detection, Association and Beyond. [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2011. Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/173
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
18.
Sanan, Siddharth.
Soft Inflatable Robots for Safe Physical Human Interaction.
Degree: 2013, Carnegie Mellon University
URL: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/303
► Robots that can operate in human environments in a safe and robust manner would be of great benefit to society, due to their immense potential…
(more)
▼ Robots that can operate in human environments in a safe and robust manner would be of great benefit to society, due to their immense potential for providing assistance to humans. However, robots have seen limited application outside of the industrial setting in environments such as homes and hospitals.
We believe a very important factor preventing the cross over of robotic technology from the factory to the house is the issue of safety. The safety issue is usually bypassed in the industrial setting by separation of human and robot workspaces. Such a solution is clearly infeasible for robots that provide assistance to humans. This thesis aims to develop intrinsically safe robots that are suitable for providing assistance to humans. We believe intrinsic safety is important in physical human robot interaction because unintended interactions will occur between humans and robots due to: (a) sharing of workspace, (b) hardware failure (computer crashes, actuator failures), (c) limitations on perception, and (d) limitations on cognition. When such unintended interactions are very fast (collisions), they are beyond the bandwidth limits of practical controllers and only the intrinsic safety characteristics of the system govern the interaction forces that occur. The effects of such interactions with traditional robots could range from persistent discomfort to bone fracture to even serious injuries. Therefore robots that serve in the application domain of human assistance should be able to function with a high tolerance for unintended interactions. This calls for a new design paradigm where operational safety is the primary concern and task accuracy/precision though important are secondary.
In this thesis, we address this new design paradigm by developing robots that have a soft inflatable structure, i.e, inflatable robots. Inflatable robots can improve intrinsic safety characteristics by being extremely lightweight and by including surface compliance (due to the compressibility of air) as well as distributed structural compliance (due to the lower Young’s modulus of the materials used) in the structure. This results in a lower effective inertia during collisions which implies a lower impact force between the inflatable robot and human. Inflatable robots can essentially be manufactured like clothes and can therefore also potentially lower the cost of robots to an extent where personal robots can be an affordable reality.
In this thesis, we present a number of inflatable robot prototypes to address challenges in the area of design and control of such systems. Specific areas addressed are: structural and joint design, payload capacity, pneumatic actuation, state estimation and control. The CMU inflatable arm is used in tasks like wiping and feeding a human to successfully demonstrate the use of inflatable robots for tasks involving close physical human interaction.
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Sanan, S. (2013). Soft Inflatable Robots for Safe Physical Human Interaction. (Thesis). Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/303
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Sanan, Siddharth. “Soft Inflatable Robots for Safe Physical Human Interaction.” 2013. Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/303.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Sanan, Siddharth. “Soft Inflatable Robots for Safe Physical Human Interaction.” 2013. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Sanan S. Soft Inflatable Robots for Safe Physical Human Interaction. [Internet] [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2013. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/303.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Sanan S. Soft Inflatable Robots for Safe Physical Human Interaction. [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2013. Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/303
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Carnegie Mellon University
19.
Berenson, Dmitry.
Constrained Manipulation Planning.
Degree: 2011, Carnegie Mellon University
URL: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/172
► Every planning problem in robotics involves constraints. Whether the robot must avoid collision or joint limits, there are always states that are not permissible. Some…
(more)
▼ Every planning problem in robotics involves constraints. Whether the robot must avoid collision or joint limits, there are always states that are not permissible. Some constraints are straightforward to satisfy while others can be so stringent that feasible states are very difficult to find. What makes planning with constraints challenging is that, for many constraints, it is impossible or impractical to provide the planning algorithm with the allowed states explicitly; it must discover these states as it plans. The goal of this thesis is to develop a framework for representing and exploring feasible states in the context of manipulation planning.
Planning for manipulation gives rise to a rich variety of tasks that include constraints on collision- avoidance, torque, balance, closed-chain kinematics, and end-effector pose. While many researchers have developed representations and strategies to plan with a specific constraint, the goal of this the- sis is to develop a broad representation of constraints on a robot’s configuration and identify general strategies to manage these constraints during the planning process. Some of the most important con- straints in manipulation planning are functions of the pose of the manipulator’s end-effector, so we devote a large part of this thesis to end-effector placement for grasping and transport tasks. We present an efficient approach to generating paths that uses Task Space Regions (TSRs) to specify manipulation tasks which involve end-effector pose goals and/or path constraints. We show how to use TSRs for path planning using the Constrained BiDirectional RRT (CBiRRT2) algorithm and describe several extensions of the TSR representation. Among them are methods to plan with object pose uncertainty, find optimal base placements, and handle more complex pose constraints by chaining TSRs together. We also explore the problem of automatically generating end-effector pose constraints for grasping tasks and present two grasp synthesis algorithms that can generate lists of grasps in extremely clut- tered environments. We then describe how to convert these lists of grasps to TSRs so they can be used with CBiRRT2.
We have applied our framework to a wide range of problems for several robots, both in simulation and in the real world. These problems include grasping in cluttered environments, lifting heavy objects, two-armed manipulation, and opening doors, to name a few. These example problems demonstrate our framework’s practicality, and our proof of probabilistic completeness gives our approach a theoretical foundation.
In addition to the above framework, we have also developed the Constellation algorithm for finding configurations that satisfy multiple stringent constraints where other constraint-satisfaction strategies fail. We also present the GradienT-RRT algorithm for planning with soft constraints, which outper- forms the state-of-the-art approach to high-dimensional path planning with costs.
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Berenson, D. (2011). Constrained Manipulation Planning. (Thesis). Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/172
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Berenson, Dmitry. “Constrained Manipulation Planning.” 2011. Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/172.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Berenson, Dmitry. “Constrained Manipulation Planning.” 2011. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Berenson D. Constrained Manipulation Planning. [Internet] [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2011. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/172.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Berenson D. Constrained Manipulation Planning. [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2011. Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/172
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Carnegie Mellon University
20.
Makatchev, Maxim.
Cross-Cultural Believability of Robot Characters.
Degree: 2013, Carnegie Mellon University
URL: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/222
► Believability of characters is an objective in literature, theater, animation, film, and other media. Virtual characters, believable as sharing their ethnic background with users, improve…
(more)
▼ Believability of characters is an objective in literature, theater, animation, film, and other media. Virtual characters, believable as sharing their ethnic background with users, improve their perception of the character and, sometimes, even their task performance. Social scientists refer to this phenomenon as homophily—humans tend to associate and bond with similar others. Homophily based on ethnic similarity between humans and robots, however, has not previously been tested, in part due to the difficulties of endowing a robot with ethnicity. We tackle this task by attempting to avoid blatant labels of ethnicity such as clothing, accent, or ethnic appearance (although we control for the latter), and instead aim at evoking ethnicity via more subtle verbal and nonverbal behaviors.
Until now, when designing ethnically-specific virtual agents, their behaviors have been typically borrowed from anthropological studies and cultural models. Other approaches collect corpora of human interactions in target contexts and select maximally distinctive behaviors for further implementation on a virtual character. In this thesis, we argue that both behaviors that signal differences between an anthropologist and the target ethnicity (rich points), as well as maximally distinctive behaviors between target ethnicities, may vary on their ability to evoke ethnic attribution. We address this discrepancy by performing an additional evaluation of the candidate behaviors on their salience as ethnic cues via online crowdsourcing. The most salient ethnic cues are then implemented on the robot for a study with colocated participants.
This methodology has allowed us to design robot characters that elicit associations between the robot’s behaviors and ethnic attributions of the characters as native speakers of American English, or native speakers of Arabic speaking English as a foreign language, by members of both of these ethnic communities. Although we did not find evidence of ethnic homophily, we believe that the suggested pathway can be used to create robot characters with a higher degree of perceived similarity, and better chances of evoking homophily effect.
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Makatchev, M. (2013). Cross-Cultural Believability of Robot Characters. (Thesis). Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/222
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Makatchev, Maxim. “Cross-Cultural Believability of Robot Characters.” 2013. Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/222.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Makatchev, Maxim. “Cross-Cultural Believability of Robot Characters.” 2013. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Makatchev M. Cross-Cultural Believability of Robot Characters. [Internet] [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2013. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/222.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Makatchev M. Cross-Cultural Believability of Robot Characters. [Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University; 2013. Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/222
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

University of California – Berkeley
21.
Reynoso Mora, Pedro.
On the Time-optimal Trajectory Planning along Predetermined Geometric Paths and Optimal Control Synthesis for Trajectory Tracking of Robot Manipulators.
Degree: Mechanical Engineering, 2013, University of California – Berkeley
URL: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/58r3063m
► In this dissertation, we study two important subjects in robotics: (i) time-optimal trajectory planning, and (ii) optimal control synthesis methodologies for trajectory tracking. In the…
(more)
▼ In this dissertation, we study two important subjects in robotics: (i) time-optimal trajectory planning, and (ii) optimal control synthesis methodologies for trajectory tracking. In the first subject, we concentrate on a rather specific sub-class of problems, the time-optimal trajectory planning along predetermined geometric paths. In this kind of problem, a purely geometric path is already known, and the task is to find out how to move along this path in the shortest time physically possible. In order to generate the true fastest solutions achievable by the actual robot manipulator, the complete nonlinear dynamic model should be incorporated into the problem formulation as a constraint that must be satisfied by the generated trajectories and feedforward torques. This important problem was studied in the 1980s, with many related methods for addressing it based on the so-called velocity limit curve and variational methods. Modern formulations directly discretize the problem and obtain a large-scale mathematical optimization problem, which is a prominent approach to tackle optimal control problems that has gained popularity over variational methods, mainly because it allows to obtain numerical solutions for harder problems.We contribute to the referred problem of time-optimal trajectory planning, by extending and improving the existing mathematical optimization formulations. We successfully incorporate the complete nonlinear dynamic model, including viscous friction because for the fastest motions it becomes even more significant than Coulomb friction; of course, Coulomb friction is likewise accommodated for in our formulation. We develop a framework that guarantees exact dynamic feasibility of the generated time-optimal trajectories and feedforward torques. Our initial formulation is carefully crafted in a rather specific manner, so that it allows to naturally propose a convex relaxation that solves exactly the original problem formulation, which is non-convex and therefore hard to solve. In order to numerically solve the proposed formulation, a discretization scheme is also developed. Unlike traditional and modern formulations, we motivate the incorporation of additional criteria to our original formulation, with simulation and experimental studies of three crucial variables for a 6-axis industrial manipulator. Namely, the resulting applied torques, the readings of a 3-axis accelerometer mounted at the manipulator end-effector, and the detrimental effects on the tracking errors induced by pure time-optimal solutions. We therefore emphasize the significance of penalizing a measure of total jerk and of imposing acceleration constraints. These two criteria are incorporated without destroying convexity. The final formulation generates near time-optimal trajectories and feedforward torques with traveling times that are slightly larger than those of pure time-optimal solutions. Nevertheless, the detrimental effects induced by pure time-optimality are eliminated. Experimental results on a 6-axis industrial manipulator…
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Reynoso Mora, P. (2013). On the Time-optimal Trajectory Planning along Predetermined Geometric Paths and Optimal Control Synthesis for Trajectory Tracking of Robot Manipulators. (Thesis). University of California – Berkeley. Retrieved from http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/58r3063m
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Reynoso Mora, Pedro. “On the Time-optimal Trajectory Planning along Predetermined Geometric Paths and Optimal Control Synthesis for Trajectory Tracking of Robot Manipulators.” 2013. Thesis, University of California – Berkeley. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/58r3063m.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Reynoso Mora, Pedro. “On the Time-optimal Trajectory Planning along Predetermined Geometric Paths and Optimal Control Synthesis for Trajectory Tracking of Robot Manipulators.” 2013. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Reynoso Mora P. On the Time-optimal Trajectory Planning along Predetermined Geometric Paths and Optimal Control Synthesis for Trajectory Tracking of Robot Manipulators. [Internet] [Thesis]. University of California – Berkeley; 2013. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/58r3063m.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Reynoso Mora P. On the Time-optimal Trajectory Planning along Predetermined Geometric Paths and Optimal Control Synthesis for Trajectory Tracking of Robot Manipulators. [Thesis]. University of California – Berkeley; 2013. Available from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/58r3063m
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
22.
Berg, Brian.
Navigation of a Mobile Robot with Obstacle Avoidance.
Degree: 2018, California State University, Long Beach
URL: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10977871
► Navigating a vehicle autonomously and safely in unknown surroundings to a desired destination is challenging due to lack of initial information about stationary and…
(more)
▼ Navigating a vehicle autonomously and safely in unknown surroundings to a desired destination is challenging due to lack of initial information about stationary and moving objects along the path. This thesis proposes a navigation system that avoids static and dynamic obstacles using weighted real-time sensor feedback. The effectiveness of the system is demonstrated by implementing it on a robot. A 16-beam solid-state LiDAR sensor is used to detect obstacles to control a differential drive mobile robot. The sensor measurements are weighted and integrated into the Pure Pursuit path following algorithm to avoid obstacles in a natural smooth movement. The primary purpose of this thesis is to integrate all the sensors and processing units to create an appropriate reaction of the robot while it progresses toward the destination. The Algorithm proposed in this work guided the robot safely and fluently from start to end position while avoiding obstacles along the path.
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Berg, B. (2018). Navigation of a Mobile Robot with Obstacle Avoidance. (Thesis). California State University, Long Beach. Retrieved from http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10977871
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Berg, Brian. “Navigation of a Mobile Robot with Obstacle Avoidance.” 2018. Thesis, California State University, Long Beach. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10977871.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Berg, Brian. “Navigation of a Mobile Robot with Obstacle Avoidance.” 2018. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Berg B. Navigation of a Mobile Robot with Obstacle Avoidance. [Internet] [Thesis]. California State University, Long Beach; 2018. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10977871.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Berg B. Navigation of a Mobile Robot with Obstacle Avoidance. [Thesis]. California State University, Long Beach; 2018. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10977871
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

The George Washington University
23.
Lurz, Joshua Paul.
Using Simplified Models and Limited-Horizon Planning to React to Time-Critical Problems.
Degree: 2018, The George Washington University
URL: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=13419796
► A longstanding goal of robotics is to use robots to perform tasks that require physically interacting with humans. These tasks often require robots to…
(more)
▼ A longstanding goal of robotics is to use robots to perform tasks that require physically interacting with humans. These tasks often require robots to physically manipulate humans, for example in the task of guiding an elderly human and preventing the human from falling. This particular task is of significant importance due to the prevalence of falls and the expanding need for elderly care as the elderly cohort expands in many developed countries. At present, robots have very limited capabilities to support these types of tasks. Current planning approaches are challenged by the intrinsic features of these problems: the control policies of the dynamic agent are unknown, the state information is incomplete, and a rapid reaction time is required. This thesis describes an approach to solving these challenges by using simplified models of the dynamic agents and environments that are reasonably accurate over brief time frames. It couples these models with limited-horizon planning. My approach allows for rapid updates of execution plans, which are required due to the short time horizons over which the plans are accurate. This dissertation validates my approach using a series of tasks that require robots to interact with dynamic agents, including a simulation of catching a falling human.
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Lurz, J. P. (2018). Using Simplified Models and Limited-Horizon Planning to React to Time-Critical Problems. (Thesis). The George Washington University. Retrieved from http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=13419796
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Lurz, Joshua Paul. “Using Simplified Models and Limited-Horizon Planning to React to Time-Critical Problems.” 2018. Thesis, The George Washington University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=13419796.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Lurz, Joshua Paul. “Using Simplified Models and Limited-Horizon Planning to React to Time-Critical Problems.” 2018. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Lurz JP. Using Simplified Models and Limited-Horizon Planning to React to Time-Critical Problems. [Internet] [Thesis]. The George Washington University; 2018. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=13419796.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Lurz JP. Using Simplified Models and Limited-Horizon Planning to React to Time-Critical Problems. [Thesis]. The George Washington University; 2018. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=13419796
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Oregon State University
24.
Milliken, Lauren.
Modeling human expertise for providing adaptive levels of robot shared autonomy.
Degree: MS, 2017, Oregon State University
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1957/61907
► In shared autonomy, a robot and human user both have some level of control in order to achieve a shared goal. Choosing the balance of…
(more)
▼ In shared autonomy, a robot and human user both have some level of control in order to achieve a shared goal. Choosing the balance of control given to the user and the robot can be a challenging problem since different users have different preferences and vary in skill levels when operating a robot. We propose using a novel formulation of Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) to represent a model of the user's expertise in controlling the robot. The POMDP uses observations from the user's actions and from the environment to update the belief of the user's skill and chooses a level of control between the robot and the user. The level of control given between the user and the robot is encapsulated in macro-action controllers. The macro-action controllers encompass varying levels of robot autonomy and reduce the space of the POMDP, removing the need to plan over separate actions. As part of this research, we ran two users study, developed a method to automatically generate macro-action controller values, and applied our user expertise model to provide shared autonomy on a semi-autonomous underwater vehicle.
In our first user study, we tested our user expertise model in a robot driving simulation. Users drove a simulated robot through an obstacle-filled map while the POMDP model chose appropriate macro-action controllers based on the belief state of the user's skill level. The results of the user study showed that our model can encapsulate user skill levels. The results also showed that using the controller with greater robot autonomy helped users of low skill avoid obstacles more than it helped users of high skill.
We designed a controller value synthesis method to generate the variables that control the levels of autonomy in the macro-action controllers. We found differences in how the users drive the robot using a decision tree generated from the data recorded in the first user study, and we used these differences to program simulated user ``bots'' that mimic users of different skill levels. The ``bots'' were used to test a range of variables for the controllers, and the controller variables were found from minimizing obstacles hit, time to complete maps, and total distance driven from the simulated data.
For our second user study, we looked at users' satisfaction without robot autonomy, with the highest amount of autonomy, and with the autonomy chosen by our expertise model. We found users we classified as beginners ranked the autonomy more favorably than those ranked as experts.
We implemented our expertise model on a Seabotix vLBV300 underwater vehicle and ran a trial off the coast of Newport, Oregon. During our trials, we recorded a user driving the vehicle to predetermined waypoints. When beginner actions were performed, the user expertise model provided an increased level of autonomy which either increased throttle when far from waypoints or decreased throttle when close to waypoints. This demonstrated an implementation of our algorithm on existing robot hardware in the field.
Advisors/Committee Members: Hollinger, Geoffrey A. (advisor), Grimm, Cindy (committee member).
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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APA (6th Edition):
Milliken, L. (2017). Modeling human expertise for providing adaptive levels of robot shared autonomy. (Masters Thesis). Oregon State University. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1957/61907
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Milliken, Lauren. “Modeling human expertise for providing adaptive levels of robot shared autonomy.” 2017. Masters Thesis, Oregon State University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://hdl.handle.net/1957/61907.
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Milliken, Lauren. “Modeling human expertise for providing adaptive levels of robot shared autonomy.” 2017. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Milliken L. Modeling human expertise for providing adaptive levels of robot shared autonomy. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. Oregon State University; 2017. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1957/61907.
Council of Science Editors:
Milliken L. Modeling human expertise for providing adaptive levels of robot shared autonomy. [Masters Thesis]. Oregon State University; 2017. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1957/61907

University of California – San Diego
25.
Joseph, Francis.
Learning control of a Prism bot.
Degree: Engineering Sciences (Mechanical Engineering), 2018, University of California – San Diego
URL: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/7979w9v2
► In this work, a data-efficient method is applied to learn a model of the dynamics of a self-folding robot driven by vibration. These robots can…
(more)
▼ In this work, a data-efficient method is applied to learn a model of the dynamics of a self-folding robot driven by vibration. These robots can be autonomously fabricated and deployed, but complex dynamics lead to challenges in modeling. Learning from a limited set of observed experiments, a model is developed to control the locomotion of the robot along a desired trajectory. The model is fit assuming a probabilistic Gaussian model and a neural network. The two methods are benchmarked against a differential drive algorithm.
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
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APA (6th Edition):
Joseph, F. (2018). Learning control of a Prism bot. (Thesis). University of California – San Diego. Retrieved from http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/7979w9v2
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Joseph, Francis. “Learning control of a Prism bot.” 2018. Thesis, University of California – San Diego. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/7979w9v2.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Joseph, Francis. “Learning control of a Prism bot.” 2018. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Joseph F. Learning control of a Prism bot. [Internet] [Thesis]. University of California – San Diego; 2018. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/7979w9v2.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Joseph F. Learning control of a Prism bot. [Thesis]. University of California – San Diego; 2018. Available from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/7979w9v2
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Cornell University
26.
Zheng, Min.
A Probabilistic Approach to Autonomous Path Planning for Directional Mobile Sensors.
Degree: M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, 2018, Cornell University
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1813/59615
► Directional sensors, such as vision, infrared, ultrasound, and active acoustic sensors, are characterized by a preferred sensing direction, such that measurements are obtained only for…
(more)
▼ Directional sensors, such as vision, infrared, ultrasound, and active acoustic sensors, are characterized by a preferred sensing direction, such that measurements are obtained only for a bounded subset of all possible aspect angles. By such approach, directional sensors can obtain information about the target's relative orientation, in addition to its distance. Common applications include cameras mounted on autonomous vehicles that may be used for urban surveillance or target recognition by means of on-board computer vision algorithms. One of the major challenges in planning the motion of directional mobile sensors is that an important target of interest may be occluded by the presence of obstacles in the sensor's line-of-sight. This thesis addresses this path-planning problem for an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) equipped with a vision sensor for the purpose of classifying multiple static targets in an obstacle-populated environment. An approach is developed for determining a UGV path that enables observations from all targets with known locations in minimum time. The approach guarantees that the UGV is able to classify every target previously localized, while avoiding collisions with obstacles and occlusions that prevent line-of-sight visibility. The approach consists of mapping targets into the UGV configuration space, thus obtaining C-targets, using complexity reduction techniques that take into account shadow regions caused by the presence of obstacles. An information roadmap method (IRM) algorithm is used to build a connectivity graph from the C-target regions, and a solution with the least translation distance is obtained. Comprehensive simulations performed in MATLAB and Webots - a professional robot simulator that provides modules for sensors, robots, and their interactions with a 3-D virtual environment - demonstrate the effectiveness and performance improvement of the proposed approach when compared to existing methods, based on "nearest neighbor" and classical traveling salesman problem (TSP) algorithms.
Advisors/Committee Members: Ferrari, Silvia (chair), Knepper, Ross A. (committee member).
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Zheng, M. (2018). A Probabilistic Approach to Autonomous Path Planning for Directional Mobile Sensors. (Masters Thesis). Cornell University. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1813/59615
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Zheng, Min. “A Probabilistic Approach to Autonomous Path Planning for Directional Mobile Sensors.” 2018. Masters Thesis, Cornell University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://hdl.handle.net/1813/59615.
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Zheng, Min. “A Probabilistic Approach to Autonomous Path Planning for Directional Mobile Sensors.” 2018. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Zheng M. A Probabilistic Approach to Autonomous Path Planning for Directional Mobile Sensors. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. Cornell University; 2018. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1813/59615.
Council of Science Editors:
Zheng M. A Probabilistic Approach to Autonomous Path Planning for Directional Mobile Sensors. [Masters Thesis]. Cornell University; 2018. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1813/59615

Cornell University
27.
Wong, Kai Weng.
ROBOT CONTROLLERS: ONLINE AND OFFLINE ADAPTION, AND AUTOMATIC CODE TRANSFER.
Degree: PhD, Mechanical Engineering, 2018, Cornell University
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1813/59662
► The development of robotic technology has evolved and changed how robots operate next to humans. In the past decades, robots were mainly seen in factories…
(more)
▼ The development of robotic technology has evolved and changed how robots operate next to humans. In the past decades, robots were mainly seen in factories with confined and structured environments. Increasingly, robots are moving out of situated environments and are starting to operate in unstructured and dynamic environments. With the change of operating environment, many more environment events can arise during robot task execution. Robots need to cope with these events, sometimes anticipated and sometimes not, and be able to finish their assigned tasks. In this work, I present three approaches to increase robustness in robot task execution when unexpected situations arise. The approaches span low-level robot controllers and high-level robot controllers, and include both offline and online solutions. The first contribution is an offline approach that automatically adapts and transfers robot programs between robots, leveraging the Robot Operating System (ROS). The approach reduces the time spent on retrofitting existing programs on new robots and speeds up the time from robot software development to execution. The robot programs considered in the first contribution are often referred to as low-level robot controllers, retrieving sensor information from the robot and sending commands to the robot. They are usually executed alongside with high-level controllers, which process commands or specifications from users. The low-level and high-level controllers are inter-connected but their relationships and interactions are rarely inspected. The second contribution is an approach that inspects low-level controllers and proposes changes to the corresponding high-level specification, based on potential conflicts among the low-level controllers. The approach addresses the disconnect between high-level and low-level controllers which can lead to execution errors. The final contribution is an approach that increases robustness when unexpected environment events arise in the execution of high-level robot controllers. These events may involve uncontrolled environment behaviors or other robots operating in the same workspace, resulting in unpredictable robot behaviors during task execution. The approach automatically adapts the robot controller when these environment events occur, such that the robot can finish its task safely. Throughout the work, the approaches demonstrate how to cope with different unexpected situations and increase robustness during robot task execution.
Advisors/Committee Members: Kress Gazit, Hadas (chair), Halpern, Joseph Yehuda (committee member), Knepper, Ross A. (committee member).
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Wong, K. W. (2018). ROBOT CONTROLLERS: ONLINE AND OFFLINE ADAPTION, AND AUTOMATIC CODE TRANSFER. (Doctoral Dissertation). Cornell University. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1813/59662
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Wong, Kai Weng. “ROBOT CONTROLLERS: ONLINE AND OFFLINE ADAPTION, AND AUTOMATIC CODE TRANSFER.” 2018. Doctoral Dissertation, Cornell University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://hdl.handle.net/1813/59662.
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Wong, Kai Weng. “ROBOT CONTROLLERS: ONLINE AND OFFLINE ADAPTION, AND AUTOMATIC CODE TRANSFER.” 2018. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Wong KW. ROBOT CONTROLLERS: ONLINE AND OFFLINE ADAPTION, AND AUTOMATIC CODE TRANSFER. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. Cornell University; 2018. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1813/59662.
Council of Science Editors:
Wong KW. ROBOT CONTROLLERS: ONLINE AND OFFLINE ADAPTION, AND AUTOMATIC CODE TRANSFER. [Doctoral Dissertation]. Cornell University; 2018. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1813/59662
28.
Powell, Matthew Joseph.
Robot Locomotion Controller Generation Through Human-Inspired Optimization.
Degree: 2013, Texas Digital Library
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1969;
http://hdl.handle.net/2249.1/66579
► This thesis presents an approach to the formal design, optimization and implementation of bipedal robotic walking controllers, with experimental application on two biped platforms. Standard…
(more)
▼ This thesis presents an approach to the formal design, optimization and implementation of bipedal robotic walking controllers, with experimental application on two biped platforms. Standard rigid-body modeling is used to construct a hybrid sys- tem model of robotic walking; this model estimates the motion of the robot hardware under a given control action. The primary objective of this thesis is the construction of a control law which effects, on the robot, a periodic ???walking??? behavior. The pro- cess begins with examination of human walking data???specifically outputs of human walking???which provide inspiration for the construction of formal walking control laws. These controllers drive the robot to a low-dimensional representation, termed the partial hybrid zero dynamics, which is shaped by the parameters of the outputs describing the human output data. The main result of this paper is an optimization problem that produces a low-dimensional representation that ???best??? fits the human data while simultaneously enforcing constraints that ensure a stable periodic orbit and constraints which model the physical limitations of the robot hardware. This formal result is demonstrated through simulation and utilized to obtain 3D walking experimentally with an Aldebaran NAO robot and NASA???s prototype Leg Testbed robot.
Advisors/Committee Members: Ames, Aaron D (advisor).
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Powell, M. J. (2013). Robot Locomotion Controller Generation Through Human-Inspired Optimization. (Thesis). Texas Digital Library. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1969; http://hdl.handle.net/2249.1/66579
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Powell, Matthew Joseph. “Robot Locomotion Controller Generation Through Human-Inspired Optimization.” 2013. Thesis, Texas Digital Library. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://hdl.handle.net/1969; http://hdl.handle.net/2249.1/66579.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Powell, Matthew Joseph. “Robot Locomotion Controller Generation Through Human-Inspired Optimization.” 2013. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Powell MJ. Robot Locomotion Controller Generation Through Human-Inspired Optimization. [Internet] [Thesis]. Texas Digital Library; 2013. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1969; http://hdl.handle.net/2249.1/66579.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Powell MJ. Robot Locomotion Controller Generation Through Human-Inspired Optimization. [Thesis]. Texas Digital Library; 2013. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1969; http://hdl.handle.net/2249.1/66579
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
29.
Cafarelli, Ryan.
Energy-efficient Gait Control Schema of a Hexapod Robot with Dynamic Leg Lengths.
Degree: 2018, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville
URL: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10684042
► Walking robots consume considerable amounts of power, which leads to short mission times. Many of the tasks that require the use of walking robots,…
(more)
▼ Walking robots consume considerable amounts of power, which leads to short mission times. Many of the tasks that require the use of walking robots, rather than wheeled, often require extended periods of time between the possibility of charging. Therefore, it is extremely important that, whenever possible, the gait a walking robot uses is as efficient as possible in order to extend overall mission time. Many approaches have been used in order to optimize the gait of a hexapod robot; however, little research has been done on how enabling the leg segments of a hexapod to extend will impact the efficiency of its gait. In this thesis, a joint space model is defined that includes both rotational joints as well as prismatic joints for expanding and contracting individual leg segments. A genetic algorithm (GA) is used to optimize the efficiency of a gait using the joint space based on a tripod gait. Other considerations for the gait include stability and dragging, which affects overall efficiency of a gait. The results of preliminary runs of the GA show the impacts of changing the weights of a multi-objective function, the number of generations, the number of parents retained between generations and the mutation rate. Further experiments show the impact of dynamic leg lengths on the overall efficiency of a hexapod tripod gait.
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Cafarelli, R. (2018). Energy-efficient Gait Control Schema of a Hexapod Robot with Dynamic Leg Lengths. (Thesis). Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Retrieved from http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10684042
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Cafarelli, Ryan. “Energy-efficient Gait Control Schema of a Hexapod Robot with Dynamic Leg Lengths.” 2018. Thesis, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10684042.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Cafarelli, Ryan. “Energy-efficient Gait Control Schema of a Hexapod Robot with Dynamic Leg Lengths.” 2018. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Cafarelli R. Energy-efficient Gait Control Schema of a Hexapod Robot with Dynamic Leg Lengths. [Internet] [Thesis]. Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville; 2018. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10684042.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Cafarelli R. Energy-efficient Gait Control Schema of a Hexapod Robot with Dynamic Leg Lengths. [Thesis]. Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville; 2018. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10684042
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

The George Washington University
30.
Frank Bolton, Pablo.
Annotation Scaffolds for Robotics.
Degree: 2018, The George Washington University
URL: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10843648
► Having a human in the control loop of a robot plays an important role in today?s robotics applications. Whether for teleoperation, interactive processing, or…
(more)
▼ Having a human in the control loop of a robot plays an important role in today?s robotics applications. Whether for teleoperation, interactive processing, or as a learning resource for automation, human-robot interaction is in need of well-designed interfaces to allow the human-in-the-loop to be as effective as possible for robotic applications with the least effort.
One general framework for human-in-the-loop interaction with robots is annotation, which refers to the inclusion of supplementary information to a dataset or a robot?s perceptual stream that, when properly interpreted, produces valuable semantic information that is difficult for algorithms to infer directly and is also available for repeated use in the future. We focus on annotating 3D vision, a popular and rich means for robot perception in which robots use depth sensors to perceive the environment for recognition, navigation and scene understanding.
Annotation of 3D-scanned environments has been shown to be successful in employing humans-in-the-loop to improve a robot?s extraction of meaningful structure from the visual stream. By relying on human cognition, these semi-autonomous systems
may utilize hints - expressed through the annotated cues - as informed suggestions that reduce the complexity of a task and help focus the context of a given situation. These annotations may be used immediately as hints for operation or stored for later use and analysis.
In this work, we present a new scheme for constructing and storing annotation cues, called Point Cloud Scaffolds. Point Cloud Scaffolds are designed to allow fast and precise specification of object shape and manipulation constraints. In addition, we present the Point Cloud Prototyper, a simple annotation tool designed for constructing Point Cloud Scaffolds and studying how best to design annotation capabilities for three classic tasks in robotics: object reconstruction, Pick-and-Place, and articulated-object manipulation.
We present evidence that this approach is precise and simple enough even for novice users to master quickly. The annotation paradigm is well suited for three critical task types and compares well to other similar techniques developed in the field of annotation for robotics. Point Cloud Scaffolds are versatile tools that show promise as a shared-control counterpart to continuous teleoperation, interactive scene analysis and navigation, and the construction of rich repositories of annotations for
complex robotic tasks.
Subjects/Keywords: Robotics
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Frank Bolton, P. (2018). Annotation Scaffolds for Robotics. (Thesis). The George Washington University. Retrieved from http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10843648
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Frank Bolton, Pablo. “Annotation Scaffolds for Robotics.” 2018. Thesis, The George Washington University. Accessed February 27, 2021.
http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10843648.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Frank Bolton, Pablo. “Annotation Scaffolds for Robotics.” 2018. Web. 27 Feb 2021.
Vancouver:
Frank Bolton P. Annotation Scaffolds for Robotics. [Internet] [Thesis]. The George Washington University; 2018. [cited 2021 Feb 27].
Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10843648.
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
Council of Science Editors:
Frank Bolton P. Annotation Scaffolds for Robotics. [Thesis]. The George Washington University; 2018. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10843648
Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:
Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation
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