Multi-Human Multi-Robot Interaction in the Wild

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The goal of this research program is to develop new capabilites for intelligent mobile robot systems to work with people outdoors. Recently there has been enormous progress in localization and mapping: robots can now make very detailed metric maps of their environment using laser scanners and cameras. My aims are to develop the ability of robot systems to (i) locate people and track their activity on their maps in real time, over small and large distances; and (ii) interact with individual and groups of people to perform useful tasks. Robots will work together to answer these questions: Where are the people? What robot help do they need?***This program combines the state-of-the-art in robotics (multi-robot coordination, task allocation, mapping, localization and other state-estimation, trajectory planning, and human robot interaction (HRI)) with computer vision (human recognition and tracking, activity recognition) and the study of human behaviour as individuals and in groups. My team will use ground and air robots, with multiple sensor modalities, mainly outdoors in semi-structured environments and over large distances. The work will be done in various locations including Simon Fraser University as an urban environment, and in the mountains, forests and lakes around Vancouver.****This current program of work will extend my lab's newly-established leading position in multi-robot HRI, and combine it with my group's previous work in simple and robust multi-robot coordination, task allocation and energy management. We bring this background into the very-topical context of environmental mapping and monitoring, and observing and understanding the movement and needs of people: these are key applications for Unmanned Air Vehicles. We have made contributions in all these areas and seek to bring them together into a long-term program that will form the basis of a range of collaborations and projects in my lab and with teams across Canada. This Discovery Grant will allow my lab to explore core ideas and problems which we will develop further in specific research partnership and pre-commercial projects.**