CAREER: End-User Programming of General-Purpose Robots

能够帮助人类完成日常任务的机器人有可能改善人们的生活质量，并使残疾人独立。实现这种机器人的一个关键挑战是对它们进行编程，以满足用户独特和不断变化的需求，并在他们独特的环境中健壮地工作。机器人技术的大多数研究都试图通过开发通用或自适应机器人能力来应对这一挑战。这种方法取得的成功有限，因为很难预测通用机器人的所有可能场景和用例。相反，这项研究的目的是开发出可以在环境中编程的机器人，并在部署后由最终用户编程。PI的方法是从终端用户编程的广泛研究领域（以前仅限于个人计算机、智能电话和Web应用程序）应用和扩展方法到编程机器人。项目成果将产生长期的社会和经济影响，特别是对不同程度运动障碍的个体。为了进一步扩大这项研究的影响，该计划将涉及几项外展和教育活动，重点是扩大妇女和残疾人士在计算机科学教育、研究和职业方面的参与。这些活动将直接整合项目中开发的工具，在三个面向K-12学生的教育推广模块和一个本科课程中。外联模块将针对三个不同时间尺度的场馆；威斯康星大学it中心为残疾学生组织的为期一周的夏令营，“编程女孩”实地考察的三小时练习，以及“编程一小时”活动的一小时练习。PI开发的机器人顶点课程将更新，以整合该项目中开发的工具，并专注于实际客户参与的辅助机器人项目。所有工具都将在最先进的移动机械手PR2上实现，并将作为开源项目发布。这项研究的一个真正独特的方面是，开发的工具将部署在两个私人拥有的家用PR2机器人上，从而从现实世界的评估中获得第一个见解。为了实现她的目标，PI将解决与机器人不同特征相关的挑战，包括情境性、影响环境的能力、移动性、分布式并发处理和整体复杂性。这项研究将在三种编程范式中产生一套新的方法和工具：(i)“情境编程”，涉及通过与机器人及其环境的直接交互进行编程；（ii）“简化编程”，涉及实际编程，但使用高度简化的语言；（iii）“抽象编程”，涉及操纵程序实体的抽象，程序将自动合成。所有的方法都将被实例化为工具，用于在多个层次上编程机器人，包括新知识、技能、任务和规则的编程。这些项目的主要目标是使这些工具(i)具有足够的表现力来捕获有用的现实世界任务，（ii）没有技术背景的人也可以使用，以及（iii）具有不同能力的人都可以使用。第一个目标将通过系统实验进行评估，以全面的以用户为中心的家用辅助机器人基准，包括编程任务，如抓取，组织或准备，以及在不同家庭中打开或关闭橱柜，抽屉，电器和水龙头等技能。第二个和第三个目标将通过对健全和运动障碍个体的用户研究进行评估。

Robots that can assist humans in everyday tasks have the potential to improve people's quality of life and bring independence to persons with disabilities. A key challenge in realizing such robots is programming them to meet the unique and changing needs of users and to robustly function in their unique environments. Most research in robotics targets this challenge by attempting to develop universal or adaptive robotic capabilities. This approach has had limited success because it is extremely difficult to anticipate all possible scenarios and use-cases for general-purpose robots. Instead, this research aims to develop robots that can be programmed in-context and by end-users after they are deployed. The PI's approach is to apply and extend methods from the broad research area of end-user programming, which has previously been limited to personal computers, smart phones, and Web applications, to programming robots. Project outcomes will have long-term societal and economic impacts, particularly on individuals with varying levels of motor impairments. To further broaden the impacts of this research, the project will involve several outreach and educational activities focused on broadening participation of women and individuals with disabilities in computer science education, research, and careers. These activities will directly integrate tools developed in the project, within three educational outreach modules for K-12 students and one undergraduate course. Outreach modules will target three venues with different time scales; a week-long summer camp for students with disabilities organized by the UW DO-IT center, a three-hour exercise for a "Girls who Code" field trip, and one-hour exercise for an "Hour of Code" event. The Robotics Capstone course developed by the PI will be updated to integrate tools developed in this project and to focus on projects within assistive robotics with the involvement of an actual customer. All tools will be implemented on a state-of-the-art mobile manipulator robot, PR2, and will be released as open-source projects. A truly unique aspect of this research is that developed tools will be deployed on two privately-owned in-home PR2 robots, leading to first insights from real-world evaluations.To achieve her goal the PI will address challenges related to distinct characteristics of robots including situatedness, ability to influence the environment, mobility, distributed concurrent processing, and overall complexity. This research will produce a suite of new methods and tools within three programming paradigms: (i) "situated programming" which involves programming through direct interactions with the robot and its environment, (ii) "simplified programming" which involves actual programming but with highly simplified languages, and (iii) "abstracted programming" which involves manipulating abstractions of program entities for which programs are synthesized automatically. All methods will be instantiated as tools for programming robots at multiple levels, including programming of new knowledge, skills, tasks, and rules. The main objectives of the projects are to make these tools (i) expressive enough to capture useful real-world tasks, (ii) usable by people with no technical background, and (iii) accessible to people with diverse abilities. The first objective will be evaluated through systematic experiments with a comprehensive user-centered benchmark for domestic assistive robots, including programming of tasks such as fetching, organizing, or preparing, and skills such as opening or closing cabinets, drawers, appliances, and faucets in different homes. The second and third objectives will be evaluated through user studies with both able-bodied and motor-impaired individuals.