CRNS@Webinar

This webinar has now passed – view the recording

Webinar delivered by: Anna Fogtman - Space Medicine Team, European Astronaut Centre, European Space Agency, Cologne, Germany

This webinar has now passed – view the recording

Daniele Nardi - Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering "A. Ruberti". Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.

Human robot interaction requires a common understanding of the operational environment, which can be provided by a representation that blends geometric and symbolic knowledge: a semantic map. Through a semantic map the robot can interpret user commands by grounding them to its sensory ob- servations. Semantic mapping is the process that builds such a representation. Despite being fundamental to enable cognition and high-level reasoning in robotics, semantic mapping is a challenging task due to generalization to different scenarios and sensory data types. In fact, most techniques do not obtain a rich and accurate semantic map of the environment and of the objects therein. Moreover, to date there are no frameworks that allow for a comparison of the performance in building semantic maps for a given environment. In the talk, after a general introduction on semantic mapping, we shall illustrate our work on semantic mapping, focussing in particular on a novel framework based on the Gazebo simulator, where we introduce two key novelties: (1) a methodology for a systematic evaluation of semantic mapping; (2) a new family of approaches to semantic mapping that exploit both active vision and domain knowledge, to improve the performance of the system with respect to state-of- the-art approaches.

This webinar is now passed – view the recording

Alex Bannach-Brown - Postdoctoral Research Fellow, CAMARADES Berlin, QUEST Centre, Berlin Institute of Health, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.

Lecture slides available here

This webinar has now passed – view the recording

Mona Nasser - Associate Professor of Evidence Based Dentistry

See the lecture slides

This webinar has now passed – view the recording

Hartmut Surmann - Professor for Autonomous Systems at Applied University of Gelsenkirchen and Researcher at the Fraunhofer Society's Institut Intelligente Analyse-und Informations system (IAIS) - German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence

On Thursday September 1 2016 a team of the TRADR project deployed two ground robots and three drones in Amatrice, Italy, to assist the post-earthquake response. The team was asked by the Italian Vigili del Fuoco (VVFF) to provide 3D textured models of two churches: San Francesco and Sant’Agostino, both in a state of partial collapse, in need of shoring to prevent potential further destruction and to preserve the national heritage. This talk will give a summary of the mission and lessons learned. 

The lecture is also based on my work done in the EU FP7 projects NIFTi (Natural Human-Robot Cooperation in Dynamic Environments; Jan 2010 - Dec 2013) and TRADR (Long-Term Human-Robot Teaming for Robot-Assisted Disaster Response; Nov 2013 - Dec 2017), as well as the A-DRZ project funded by the German BMBF (Aufbau des Deutschen Rettungsrobotik Zentrums; Nov 2018 - Oct 2022).

View a video showing drones building 3D models of disaster scenarios

This webinar has now passed – view the recording

Ivana Kruijff-Korbayova - Senior researcher, German Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Saarbruecken, Germany

Disaster response teams increasingly employ mobile robotic systems, for example for the reconnaissance of an incident site. We have been working with first responders for almost a decade to investigate teamwork in robot-assisted disaster response in realistic scenarios. With increasing autonomy, robotic systems should become agents that actively contribute to a mission. For this they need to understand the mission as it unfolds, the goals, the tasks within the human-robot team and the state of their execution. I will present our work which addresses the question how such understanding can be facilitated by interpreting the verbal communication among the human team members and grounding it in mission process models. I will describe the components of our mission management-support system based on verbal team communication understanding.

This webinar has now passed – view the recording

Hang Su - Research Fellow, Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering (DEIB) of Politecnico Di Milano. Italy

This webinar has now passed – view the recording

Giorgio Grisetti - Associate Professor, Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering "A. Ruberti". Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.

Shigang Yue - School of Computer Science, University of Lincoln

Animals, as small as insects, have an amazing ability in exploring within this dynamic visual world effortlessly. This ability has not been observed in or easy to implement to human made intelligent moving machines such as robots. By modelling bio-plausible visual neurons and their networks, we can not only further understand how animals’ visual systems work, but also move forward in developing new intelligent vision systems fit for future robots and autonomous vehicles. In this talk, I will introduce the most recent work in my group on modelling specific visual neurons and their pre-synaptic networks in insects with motion preferences, also recent progresses in swarm robots.

This webinar has now passed – view the recording

Petter Ogren - Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden

This webinar has now passed – view the recording

Panagiotis Papadakis - Maître de conférences, IMT Atlantique, France

This webinar has now passed – view the recording

Tomas Svoboda, Associate Professor, Department of Cybernetics, Czech Technical University in Prague

Further details of the DARPA Sub-T

This webinar has now passed – view the recording

Mina Marmpena - SoftBank Robotics Europe, Paris, France & University of Plymouth, UK.

This webinar has now passed – view the recording

Ayse Kucukyilmaz - Assistant Professor, School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham, UK

This webinar has now passed – view the recording

Marc Hanheide - Professor of Intelligent Robotics & Interactive Systems School of Computer Science, University of Lincoln, UK

This webinar has now passed – view the recording

Presented by:

Carlos A. Cifuentes, Professor and Head of the Center for Biomechatronics at Colombian School of Engineering, Julio Garavito, and Visiting Professor at EPF Graduate School of Engineering (France) and master students Diego Casas and Juan Maldonado.

Therapy with robotic tools is a promising way to improve verbal and nonverbal communication in children with autism spectrum disorder (CwASD). The robotic tools can increase aspects such as eye contact and the ability to follow instructions and empathize with others. This talk presents the design methodology, development, and experimental validation of a novel social robot based on CompliAnt SofT Robotics called the CASTOR robot, which intends to be used as an open-source platform for long-term therapy for CwASD. CASTOR integrates the concepts of soft actuators and compliant mechanisms to create a replicable robotic platform aimed at real therapy scenarios involving physical interaction between the children and the robot. The validation shows promising results in terms of robustness and the safety of the user and the robot. The Royal Academy of Engineering supported the CASTOR Project: CompliAnt SofT Robotics (Grant IAPP1-100126).

Carlos A. Cifuentes is Professor and Head of the Center for Biomechatronics at Colombian School of Engineering Julio Garavito, and Visiting Professor at EPF Graduate School of Engineering (France). He is broadly interested in human-robot interaction and rehabilitation robotics. In 2017 his work was lauded as one of five history-changing ideas in Latin America by History Channel. In 2020 he was elevated to the grade of IEEE Senior member, an honour bestowed by having made significant contributions to the profession. His research on Human-Robot Interaction is world-leading, and his team’s research has conclusively shown the benefits of using robots in a healthcare context. Funding agencies such as the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng, UK), Ibero-American Programme on Science and Technology for Development (CYTED), and Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (Minciencias, Colombia) present his research as funding success.

Master students Diego Casas and Juan Maldonado will also participate in the talk describing the mechanical and mechatronic aspects of the CASTOR Robot. Diego is a mechanical engineer at Colombian School of Engineering Julio Garavito; he is a researcher in the CASTOR Project, he participates in the mechanical design of the CASTOR Robot. Juan is an electronic engineer at the Colombian School of Engineering Julio Garavito, and he is a researcher in the CASTOR Project. He is in charge of the mechatronic integration of the CASTOR Robot.

This webinar has now passed – view the recording

Tina Mioch - Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) in Soesterberg, The Netherlands, and Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Presented by Professor Dr Marcela Munera and masters student, María José Pinto Bernal

One of the most promising ways social assistive robotics has been introduced is a therapeutic intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders (CwASD). Even though there are promising results in therapeutic contexts, there is a lack of guidelines for selecting the appropriate robot and how to design and implement the child–robot interaction. The use of participatory design methods in the design of technology-based processes for CwASD is a recognition of the stakeholders as “experts” in their fields, which provides an insight into the necessities, and requirements of the social robot in the community. In this context, this seminar presents the implementation and benefits of PD methods in designing a social robot called CASTOR and its assessment in a clinical environment. The Royal Academy of Engineering supported the CASTOR Project: CompliAnt SofT Robotics (Grant IAPP1-100126).

Marcela Múnera received her Ph.D. in Mechanics and Biomechanics from Université de Reims Champagne Ardenne, thanks to a FEDER, Region Champagne Ardenne- Doctoral Grant. She graduated as a Bioengineer from Universidad de Antioquia and the Ecole Nationale de Metz with a Master’s in Mechanics and Materials. During her Ph.D. and-after, as a Lecturer at Université de Reims Champagne Ardenne (France), she worked on industrial research projects in biomechanical assessment related to sports performance and injury prevention. She is currently an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the Colombian School of Engineering Julio Garavito, where she contributes to rehabilitation projects, particularly in the objective assessment of robotic devices and systems in different scenarios, assessing the human response the Center for Biomechatronics. Her research interests are focused on biomechanics, movement analysis, and evaluation in rehabilitation and sports.

Master student María José Pinto will also participate in the talk describing the clinical studies results with CASTOR Robot. María José is a biomedical Engineer at Colombian School of Engineering Julio Garavito and Rosario University. She is a researcher in the CASTOR Project. She participates in the design and performing of the studies with Children.