Huosheng Hu School of Computer Science & Electronic Engineering University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, U.K. Email: [email protected] Mike Brady Research

Huosheng Hu

School of Computer Science & Electronic Engineering University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, U.K.

Email: [email protected]

Mike Brady Research Symposium

From Oxford AGVs to Human-Centred Robotics

Introduction

16 September 2010Prof. H. Hu, School of CSEE, University of Essex, U.K.2

1950s

1980s

2000s

4th stageHuman-centredenvironments

3rd stageUnstructuredenvironments

2nd stageStructuredenvironments

Human’s dream of replicating themselves Industrial

RobotsField Robots

1920s

Service Robots

Oxford AGV Project

1st stageImaginary world

Oxford AGV Project (1988-1997)Tracked vehicle Robuter Turtle LICAR1OxNav

Key issues: • Multi-sensor integration• Sensor-based control• Autonomous navigation & mapping• Toward unstructured environments 16 September 20103 Prof. H. Hu, School of CSEE, University of Essex, U.K.

Funded by EPSRC

• GR/E42416 - £230K (1988-91)

• GR/G37361- £270K (1991-94)

• GR/K39844 - £350K (1994-97)

• plus other grants (Hugh & Penny)

Video

To operate in human-centred environments that are not structured in any way for robots.


Human-Centred Robotics

To communicate intelligently with human users to know their needs.

To be adaptive, compliant, fail safe.

To be easily used by general public who have no knowledge on robots & programming (elderly & disabled).

Honda Asimo, 2001Robotics is the intelligent connection

of perception to action (M. Brady)

Intelligent Appliance

Intelligent Home/Office/Building

IntelligentTransportation

SystemIntelligent Health

Care SystemIntelligent Personal Assistant

Internet & Wireless

Security Robots Service Robots


Typical Applications

Industrial Robots in MedicalROBODOC (1992, IBM), based on an IBM scara robot for

hip and knee surgeries.

• Rehabilitation Robot

16 September 20106 Prof. H. Hu, School of CSEE, University of Essex, U.K.

Da Vinci Surgical Robot video

Encoders & Force sensors

Dextrous Hand for Service Robots


A high-speed robot hand (Komuro’s Lab at Univ. of Tokyo) performs impressive acts of dexterity & skillful manipulation (2009).

EU-FP7-DEXMART-2009

Shadow C6M Dextrous Hand(20 motors)

IIT Dextrous Hand for the iCub robot(22 DOFs, extremely compact, & light 0.5Kg)

Field Robots for Military


Two robots made by Boston Dynamics

BigDog robot

RHex robot

Robotic Fish built at Essex


G8 – Robotic Fish

G5 – Robotic fishG4 – Robotic fish G6 – Robotic fish

G9 – Robotic fish G14 – Robotic fish

Funded by London Aquarium

EU FP7 ICT Project – SHOAL

16 September 2010

Prof. H. Hu, School of CSEE, University of Essex, U.K.

10

Robotic Fish Mechanics

Artificial Intelligence Component

Fluid Dynamics

Control

Comms Component

Triangulation Devices

Chemical Analysis

Component

Testing at De Gijon Port, Spain

Comm

Tail motor

Battery Unit

Water chamberWater

chamber

CPU

Sensors

Tail fin

Water sinkable tail

Aerial float ball

Pectoral fin module

External sensor (pressure,

pollution, etc)

Internal sensors (inertial, gyro, etc) Communication

(GPS, radio, etc)

Referred from NMRI, JapanSensor networks

A shoal of robotic fish will function in collaboration, monitor pollution in a port, and map pollution levels & its position.

Robotic Swarm for Environmental Monitoring

19 April 2023Prof. H. Hu, School of CSEE, University of Essex, U.K.

Video

11

For optimal coverage of an environmental variable for pollution monitoring.

Control of real and simulated agents using a combination of bacteria controller and flocking controller.

Architecture and system design for the System.


Head gesture based control

Voice based control

Hands-free Control of Wheelchair

EMG based control of a wheelchair at Essex


• CyberLink - small wearable headband with 3 bio-sensors.

EMG – band pass 70- 1000Hz. eyebrow tension

EOG – band pass 0.2-3Hz.

Video 1

Funded by The Royal Society & Royal Academy of Engineering

Video 2


Brain Actuated Control

Biosemi,Netherlands

A/D Conversion& amplifier

FeatureExtraction

TranslationAlgorithm

DeviceCommands

www.biosemi.com

FeatureSelection

AlgorithmSelection

Communication Control

• 16-CH A/D• Amplifiers• Headcap-64• Electrodes

Video

Funded by EPSRC; Partner: Oxford University (Steve Roberts)

Multi-sensor Perception

16 September 2010Prof. H. Hu, School of CSEE, University of Essex, U.K.

15

People are tracked using a multi-sensor solution, i.e.

the camera for face detection

The SICK laser scanner for legs detection

Three recognition modalities are integrated

height

clothes

face recognition

People tracking with service robots

Bank of Filters for Joint People Tracking & Identification


Experiment 1- Tracking 1 Person



Multiple Targets

Data association problem

data association

Different

persons

Different

readings State

estimation

person A

State

estimation

person B

A B

face / legs

of A

face / legs

of B

Experiment 2 – Tracking 3 people


Lux for University Open Day

Conclusion


Opportunity: Robot in every home - a personal robot era is coming. Like PC & Mobile phone, we will enjoy these new robots (wearable, portable, implantable, pervasive).

Future Challenges


Multi-modality human-machine interaction

How to effectively conquer home environments.

Memory & Machine Consciousness

Incremental Learning for life-long adaptation

Interdisciplinary: psychology, medical, neuroscience, sociology, ethics, etc.

Thanks to Mike who led me into the robotics research at Oxford, which was exciting & enjoyable.


Please see my homepage for more informationhttp://csee.essex.ac.uk/staff/hhu

Q & A

Thanks to my colleagues and students at Essex who made contributions to this talk.

Documents

Huosheng Hu School of Computer Science & Electronic Engineering University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, U.K. Email: [email protected] Mike Brady Research