Autonomous Robot

From IntRoLab


The goal is to design the most advanced robots with the highest integrated capabilities of perception, action , reasoning and interaction, operating in natural settings.

Integrate many research projects on the same robotic platform:

IRL-1 / Johnny-0

IRL1.jpg
IRl-1/Johnny-0


IRL-1 / Johnny-0 is an interactive robot integrating multiple projects (ADE, AUDIBLE, AZIMUT, HBBA).

The robot has different sensors principally configured for human presence detection :

  • A laser range detector (Hokuyo UTM-30LX) for people's legs on 180 degrees
  • A Microsoft Kinect that locates in 3D up to four people in front of the robot
  • An head-mounted camera that detects faces
  • An 8 microphones array that localizes sound sources

It can also interact with human in different ways, including:

  • Voice
  • Facial expressions
  • Head movements
  • Arm gestures
  • Base mobility

Publications/Videos

  1. Ferland, F., Aumont, A., Létourneau, D., Michaud, F. (2013), "Taking your robot for a walk: Force-guiding a mobile robot using compliant arms," Proceedings of the 8th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, 309-316. (pdf) (mp4)
  2. Ferland, F., Létourneau, D., Aumont, A., Frémy, J, Legault, M.-A., Lauria, M., Michaud, F. (2012), "Natural interaction design of a humanoid robot," Journal of Human-Robot Interaction, 1 (2), 118-134, [1].
  3. Ferland, F., Aumont, A., Létourneau, D., Legault, M.-A., Michaud, F. (2012), “Johnny-0, a compliant, force-controlled and interactive humanoid autonomous robot,” Proceedings International ACM/IEEE Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). (pdf) (mp4)
  4. Fremy, J. (2011), Contrôle en force sécuritaire d'une plateforme omnidirectionnelle non-holonome, Mémoire de maîtrise, Département de génie électrique et de génie informatique, Université de Sherbrooke. (pdf)
  5. Rousseau, V. (2011), Intégration et évaluation de capacités interactives d’un robot humanoïde, Mémoire de maîtrise, Département de génie électrique et de génie informatique, Université de Sherbrooke. (pdf)
  6. Beaudry, E. (2011), Planification d'actions concurrentes sous contraintes et incertitude, Thèse de doctorat, Département d'informatique, Université de Sherbrooke. (pdf)
  7. Michaud, F., Ferland, F., Létourneau, D., Legault, M.-A., Lauria, M. (2010), “Toward autonomous, compliant, omnidirectional humanoid robots for natural interaction in real life settings,” Paladyn Behavioral Robotic Journal, 1(1): 57-65. ([2])
  8. Frémy, J., Ferland, F., Clavien, L., Létourneau, D., Michaud, F., Lauria, M. (2010), “Force-controlled motion of a mobile platform,” IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. (pdf) (mov)
  9. Ferland, F., Clavien, L., Frémy, J., Létourneau, D., Michaud, F., Lauria, M. (2010), “Teleoperation of AZIMUT-3, an omnidirectional non-holonomic platform with steerable wheels,” IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. (pdf) (mov)
  10. Frémy, J., Michaud, F., Lauria, M. (2010), “Pushing a robot along – A natural interface for human-robot interaction,” IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. (pdf)


Spartacus - AAAI Mobile Robot Challenge (2000, 2005, 2006)


Description : Design a mobile robot that can participate to a scientific conference.

Spartacus front.jpg
Spartacus back.jpg


Spartacus is our the robotic platform designed for autonomous high-level interaction with people in real life settings. The robot built is equipped with a SICK LMS200 laser range finder, Sony SNC-RZ30N 25X pan-tilt-zoom color camera, an array of eight microphones placed in the robot's body, a touch screen interface, an audio system, one on-board computer and two laptop computers. Numerous algorithms are integrated to provide Spartacus with autonomous decision-making capabilities. MARIE (Mobile and Autonomous Robot Integrated Environment) is our middleware programming environment allowing to link multiple software packages such as Player/Stage/Gazebo, Carmen, pmap, RobotFlow/FlowDesigner, Nuance, Festival, OpenCV, etc. Algorithms to read messages and to follow people are used by Spartacus to interact with people. An artificial audition system makes it capable of simultaneously localizing and tracking sound sources in (cocktail effect conditions). The system can also separate sound sources in real time in order to process communicated information from different interlocutors. Autonomous use of these capabilities is done using a computational architecture based on the notion of motivated selection of behavior-producing modules, planning and managing the robot’s resources. The general idea is to have different motivational sources such as perceptual influences, pre-determined scenarios, navigation algorithms, a planner and alike, share knowledge about how to activate and use behavior-producing modules. Distributing motivational sources allows exploiting more efficiently the strengths of various influences regarding the tasks the robot must accomplish, while not having to rely on only one of them for the robot to work.

Spartacus demonstrates unprecedented capabilities by simultaneously localizing and tracking sound sources (a patent is pending on this technology) as for separating them in noisy and reverberant conditions. Our entry also added autonomous navigation capabilities, planning and scheduling, interacting with people through speech. No robot has yet demonstrated this level of integration for operation in real life settings.

AAAI Mobile Robot Competition 2006, robot Spartacus: 1er prix, Challenge; 1er prix, Perceptual Learning through Human Teaching; 1er prix, Perception, Reasoning and Action; 1er prix, Shared Attention, Common Workspace, Intent Detection; 1er prix, Prix du public / 1st position, Challenge; 1st position, Perceptual Learning through Human Teaching; 1st position, Perception, Reasoning and Action; 1st position, Shared Attention, Common Workspace, Intent Detection; 1st position, Public choice award.

Reportage TQS 10/2005

AAAI Mobile Robot Competition 2005, robot Spartacus: 1er prix, Challenge, Réalisation technique - Construction de cartes et interaction humain-robot / Winner Challenge, Technical Achievement Award - Map building and human-robot interaction (13/07/2005). Video

AAAI Mobile Robot Competition 2000, robot Lolitta Hall: 1er prix, Challenge, Premier essai complet / Winner Challenge - First complete attempt.

Publications

  1. Fréchette, M., Létourneau, D., Valin, J.-M., Michaud. F. (2012), “Integration of sound source localization and separation to improve dialogue management on a robot,” IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. NTF Award for Entertainment Robots and Systems. (pdf)
  2. Beaudry, E., Kabanza, F., Michaud, F. (2012), “Using a classical forward search to solve temporal planning problems under uncertainty,” Proceedings AAAI Workshop. (pdf)
  3. Beaudry, E. (2011), Planification d'actions concurrentes sous contraintes et incertitude, Thèse de doctorat, Département d'informatique, Université de Sherbrooke.
  4. Beaudry, E., Kabanza, F., Michaud, F. (2010), “Planning for concurrent action executive under action duration uncertainty using dynamically generated Bayesian networks”, International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling. (pdf)
  5. Côté, C. (2010), MARIE: une architecture d'intégration de composants logiciels hétérogènes pour le développement de systèmes décisionnels en robotique mobile et autonome, Thèse de doctorat, Département de génie électrique et de génie informatique, Université de Sherbrooke. (pdf)
  6. Michaud, F., Létourneau, D., Beaudry, É., Fréchette, M., Kabanza, F., Lauria, M. (2009), “Iterative design of advanced mobile robots,” International Journal of Computing and Information Technology, Special Issue on Advanced Mobile Robotics, 4, 1-16. (pdf)
  7. Beaudry, E., Michaud, F., Kabanza, F. (2008) “Reactive planning as a motivational source in a behavior-based architecture,” Proceedings IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (pdf)
  8. Michaud, F., Côté, C., Létourneau, D., Brosseau, Y., Valin, J.-M., Beaudry, É., Raïevsky, C., Ponchon, Moisan, P., Lepage, P., Morin, Y., Gagnon, F., Giguère, P., Roux, M.-A., Caron, S., Frenette, P., Kabanza, F. (2007), “Spartacus attending the 2005 AAAI Conference,” Autonomous Robots, Special Issue on the AAAI Mobile Robot Competitions and Exhibition, 22(4):369-383. (pdf)
  9. Brosseau, Y. (2007), "Intégration de composants décisionnels sur Spartacus, un robot participant au AAAI Challenge 2005", Mémoire de maîtrise, Département de génie électrique et de génie informatique, Université de Sherbrooke, mars.
  10. Côté, C., Brosseau, Y., Létourneau, D., Raïevsky, C., Michaud, F. (2006), "Using MARIE in software development and integration for autonomous mobile robotics", International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, Special Issue on Software Development and Integration in Robotics, 3(1):55-60. (pdf)
  11. Michaud, F., Létourneau, D., Fréchette, M., Beaudry, É., Côté, C., Kabanza, F. (2006), “Towards a higher level of human-robot interaction and integration,” Proceedings American Association for Artificial Intelligence, 1970-1971. (pdf)
  12. Michaud, F., Létourneau, D., Fréchette, M., Beaudry, É., Kabanza, F. (2006), “Spartacus, scientific robot reporter,” Proceedings Mobile Robot Workshop American Association for Artificial Intelligence. (pdf)
  13. Beaudry, E. (2006), "Planification de tâches pour robotique mobile", Mémoire de maîtrise, Département d'informatique, Université de Sherbrooke, août. (pdf)
  14. Michaud, F., Brosseau, Y., Côté, C., Létourneau, D., Moisan, P., Ponchon, A., Raïevsky, C., Valin, J.-M., Beaudry, É., Kabanza, F. (2005) “Modularity and integration in the design of a socially interactive robot,” Proceedings IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, Nashville USA, 172-177. (pdf)
  15. Beaudry, É., Brosseau, Y., Côté, C., Raïevsky, C., Létourneau, D., Kabanza, F., Michaud, F. (2005) “Reactive planning in a motivated behavioural architecture,” Proceedings American Association for Artificial Intelligence Conference, 1242-1247. (pdf)
  16. Michaud, F., Létourneau, D., Lepage, P., Morin, Y., Gagnon, F., Giguère, P., Beaudry, É., Brosseau, Y., Côté, C., Duquette, A., Laplante, J.-F., Legault, M.-A., Moisan, P., Ponchon, A., Raïevsky, C., Roux, M.-A., Salter, T., Valin, J.-M., Caron, S., Masson, P., Kabanza, F., Lauria, M. (2005), “A brochette of socially interactive robots,” Proceedings American Association for Artificial Intelligence Conference, 1733-1734. (pdf)
  17. Beaudry, E., Kabanza, F., Michaud, F. (2005), “Flexible task planning for mobile robots,” Advances in Artificial Intelligence: 18th Conference of the Canadian Society for Computational Studies of Intelligence, Canadian AI, 48-52. (pdf)
  18. Létourneau, D., Valin, J.-M., Côté, C., Michaud, F. (2005), “FlowDesigner: the free data-flow oriented development environment”, Software 2.0, vol. 3. (pdf)
  19. Michaud, F., Létourneau, D., Lepage, P., Morin, Y., Gagnon, F., Giguère, P., Beaudry, É., Brosseau, Y., Côté, C., Duquette, A., Laplante, J.-F., Legault, M.-A., Moisan, P., Ponchon, A., Raïevsky, C., Roux, M.-A., Salter, T., Valin, J.-M., Caron, S., Frenette, P., Masson, P., Kabanza, F., Lauria, M. (2005), “Socially interactive robots for real life use,” Proceedings Workshop on Mobile Robot Competition, American Association for Artificial Intelligence Conference (AAAI), Pittsburgh USA. (pdf)
  20. Audet, J. (2005), "Making an autonomous robot attend a conference", Master's Thesis, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering, Université de Sherbrooke, January.
  21. Michaud, F. (2002), "EMIB - Computational architecture based on emotion and motivation for intentional selection and configuration of behaviour-producing modules", Cognitive Science Quarterly, Special Issue on "Desires, Goals, Intentions, and Values: Computational Architectures", 3-4: 340-361. (pdf)
  22. Michaud, F., Lachiver, G., Le Dinh, C. T. (2001), "Architectural methodology based on intentional configuration of behaviors", Computational Intelligence, 17(1): 132-156. (ps, pdf)
  23. Michaud, F., Audet, J., Létourneau, D., Lussier, L., Théberge-Turmel, C., Caron, S. (2001), "Experiences with an autonomous robot attending the AAAI Conference", IEEE Intelligent Systems, 16(5): 23-29. (pdf)
  24. Michaud, F., Lachiver, G., Le Dinh, C. T. (2001), "Architectural methodology based on intentional configuration of behaviors", Computational Intelligence, 17(1): 132-156. (ps, pdf)
  25. Michaud, F., Létourneau, D. (2001), "Mobile robot that can read symbols", Proceedings IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation, Banff Alberta, 338-343. (pdf)
  26. Michaud, F., Létourneau D., Audet, J., Bélanger, F. (2000), "Symbol recognition and artificial emotion for making an autonomous robot attend the AAAI Conference", Proceedings AAAI/IAAI Conference, Austin Texas, 1140-1141. (pdf)
  27. Michaud, F. (1999), "Emergent behavior for real world robots", Proceedings IIIS/IFSR/IEEE Computer Society World Multiconference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, Orlando Florida, 402-408. (ps)
  28. Michaud, F., Vu, M. T. (1999), "Managing robot autonomy and interactivity using motives and visual communication", Proceedings 3rd Autonomous Agents Conference, Seattle Washington, 160-167. (ps)
  29. Michaud, F. (1997), "Adaptability by behavior selection and observation for mobile robots", Soft Computing in Engineering Design and Manufacturing, R. Roy, P. Chawdhry, P. Pants (ed.), Springer-Verlag, 363-370, Proceedings WSC2: 2nd On-line World Conference on Soft Computing in Engineering Design and Manufacturing. (ps)
  30. Michaud, F. (1997), "Selecting behaviors using fuzzy logic", Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems, invited session 'Using Fuzzy Logic for Autonomous Robots', Barcelona, Spain, 585-592. (ps, pdf)
  31. Michaud, F., Lachiver, G., Le Dinh, C. T. (1996), "Fuzzy selection and blending of behaviors for situated autonomous agent", Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems, New Orleans Louisiana, 258-264. (ps, pdf)
  32. Michaud, F., Lachiver, G., Le Dinh, C. T. (1996), "A new control architecture combining reactivity, planning, deliberation and motivation for situated autonomous agent", Proceedings Fourth International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior, Cape Cod Massachussets, 245-254. (ps, pdf)
  33. Michaud, F. (1996), "Nouvelle architecture unifiée de contrôle intelligent par sélection intentionnelle de comportements", Ph.D. Thesis, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke Québec. (pdf)