Project's goal is to develop cooperative and the friendly interaction between robots and humans. To achieve the goal the robots in combination with the environment systems (the NRS-Network Robot Systems) have to incorporate perception systems, such as cameras to detect, identify and track people; social robot communication abilities, such as motion (positioning, adaptability and anticipatory behavior), speech and gesture capabilities; and social robot behaviors.
Perception and action under uncertainty ( DPI2008-06022)
The goal of this project is to provide a theoretical foundation of the relation between perception and action in the presence of uncertainty. The main outcome of the project will be novel scientific contributions on Bayesian estimation applied to robotics problems with large state spaces. In particular, the project will produce: novel uncertainty parameterizations that allow efficient inference, new probabilistic hypotheses testing strategies with respect to information load, new active exploration paradigms for scene and object model acquisition, and novel pose estimation algorithms.
Ubiquitous Networing Robotics in Urban Settings. (IST-FP6-STREP-045062)
Partners: Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial (IRI-UPC), Laboratory for Analysis and Architecture of Systems (LAAS), Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETHZ), Asociación de Investigación y Cooperación Industrial de Andalucía, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Instituto de Investigación de Ingeniería de Aragón, Instituto Superior Técnico/Institute for Systems and Robotics (IST/ISR), University of Surrey, Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona, Telefónica I+D, and Robotech. Project Leader: Alberto Sanfeliu
The general objective of this project is the development of new ways of cooperation between network robots and human beings and/or the environment in urban areas, in order to achieve efficiently tasks that in the other way can be very complex, time consuming or too costly. For example, the cooperation between robots and video cameras can solve surveillance problems in urban areas, or the cooperation between robots and wireless communication devices can help people in several ways. The focus of the project is in urban pedestrian areas, an important topic in Europe where there exists a growing interest in reducing the number of cars in the streets and improving the quality of life. Network robots can be an important instrument to address these issues in the cities.