RI: Small: Vision-Based Mobile Manipulation and Navigation

这个项目的重点是解决机器人系统长期自主的一个关键障碍，即缺乏理论上有充分根据的惯性和基于视觉的传感器的自校准方法，这些方法通常在复杂的机器人上发现。该项目的动力来自于机器人系统的愿景，该系统能够长时间自主运行，而无需繁琐的手动传感器校准。研究小组在基于视觉的移动操作和导航的背景下解决了这个问题。工作的核心重点是：1。1 .建立了统一的数学理论，实现了视惯性系统的自动标定；用最先进的、复杂的、具有显著多样性的机器人（执行移动操作的类人机器人和在户外导航的自主地面车辆）对所得算法进行实验表征。惯性传感对于人形平衡控制至关重要，而视觉传感则将3D世界与机器人的身体坐标联系起来，从而实现操纵。在自主地面车辆的情况下，单目和立体摄像机的校准通常仍然是使用已知的校准目标手动执行的。该项目消除了对这一要求的需要。项目的预期成果是：1.项目的目标是：1 .类人机器人在非结构化环境中长时间自主工作的理论基础；新的地面车辆导航算法，使它们能以更敏锐的眼光看得更远。该项目明确地将本科研究与目前在南加州大学计算机科学系运营的REU站点合作。

This project focuses on tackling a critical barrier to long-term autonomy for robotic systems, namely the lack of theoretically well-founded self-calibration methods for inertial and vision-based sensors, commonly found on sophisticated robots. The project is motivated by the vision of power-up-and-go robotic systems that are able to operate autonomously for long periods without requiring tedious manual sensor calibration. The research team addresses this problem in the context of vision-based mobile manipulation and navigation. The core foci of the work are: 1. the development of a unified mathematical theory of anytime, automatic calibration for visual-inertial systems, and 2. an experimental characterization of the resulting algorithms with state-of-the-art, sophisticated robots of significant diversity (humanoids performing mobile manipulation and autonomous ground vehicles navigating outdoors). Inertial sensing is critically important for humanoid balance control, while visual sensing relates the 3D world to the robot's body coordinates thereby enabling manipulation. In the case of autonomous ground vehicles, monocular and stereo camera calibration is still commonly performed manually using a known calibration target. The project obviates the need for this requirement. The expected outcomes of the project are: 1. a theoretical foundation for humanoid robots to function autonomously in unstructured environments over significant periods of time, and 2. new navigation algorithms for ground vehicles allowing them to see further with greater acuity. The project explicitly incorporates undergraduate research in cooperation with an REU site currently operational at the USC Computer Science Department.