Human robot interation

本提案申请资助购买人形机器人，以促进认知机器人一般领域的研究。研究目标是开发一个人机交互（HRI）研究计划，并证明在工业环境中使用它们的可行性。在HRI下，预计将在几个领域开展研究，即基于行为的类人机器人控制，通过手/眼协调的监督学习，类人环境建模和定位以及多机器人协调和控制。最初的研究是针对地下采矿和食品加工。仿人机器人的行为调节包括在学习人类活动（或行为）的过程中形成行为，并将其转化为一系列姿势，从而产生仿人机器人的手和腿的关节运动。本研究的第二个目标是通过交互式手/眼协调来研究监督学习，从而以合作的方式执行高水平的任务。这涉及到基于视觉感知和行为的人形手臂轨迹规划控制。第三个问题与环境建模和定位有关。本研究的重点是开发基于视觉感知的仿人系统定位跟踪技术。新的认知控制架构将被开发，以促进多个机器人和人形的协调控制。这里提出的设备是为了扩展移动机器人研究的一个新领域。目前，纪念大学的智能系统实验室有能力进行先进的机器人相关研究。增加一个移动类人系统将使该实验室能够使用最先进的设备进行研究，特别是在与新兴技术有关的领域培养高素质的人员。申请人有足够的研究背景，以促进智能系统的主要研究课题，而该设备的加入将是迈向下一代工业机器人的重要一步。

This proposal requests funding to purchase a humanoid robot to facilitate research in general area of cognitive robotics. The research objectives are to develop a human robot interaction (HRI) research program and to demonstrate feasibility of using them in industrial settings. Under the HRI it is expected to develop research in several areas, namely, behaviour based control of humanoid robots, supervised learning through hand/eye coordination, humanoid environment modelling and localization and multi-robot coordination and control.  The initial research is directed towards underground mining and food processing. The behaviour modulation for humanoid includes formation of behaviours while learning from human activities (or behaviours) and translation them in to a sequence of poses to produce joint motions for hands and legs of a humanoid. The second goal of this research is to investigate supervised learning through interactive hand/eye coordination and thereby execution of high level task by humanoids in a cooperative manner. This involves visual perception and behaviour based control for trajectory planning of the humanoid arms. The third issue is related to environment modelling and localization. The proposed research focuses on developing tracking techniques for humanoid system to localize using visual perception. Novel cognitive control architectures will be developed to facilitate coordinated control of multiple robots and humanoids.The equipment proposed here is to extend a new area of research in mobile robotics. Currently the Intelligent Systems Lab at Memorial University has the capacity to work on advanced robotics related research. Addition of a mobile humanoid system would allow this laboratory to perform research using state of the art equipment, particularly to produce highly qualified personnel in areas related to emerging technologies. The applicants have sufficient research background to facilitate major research topics in intelligent systems and addition of this equipment will be a major step towards next generation robotics for industry.