Remote Robotic Laboratories for Learning from Demonstration - Enabling user interaction and shared experimentation

This paper documents the technology developed during the creation of the PR2 Remote Lab and the process of using it for shared development for Learning from Demonstration. Remote labs enable a larger and more diverse group of researchers to participate directly in state-ofthe-art robotics research and will improve the reproducibilS. Osentoski ( ) · B. Pitzer Bosch Research and Technology Center, 4005 Miranda Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA e-mail: [email protected] B. Pitzer e-mail: [email protected] C. Crick · G. Jay · O.C. Jenkins Brown University, Box 1910, 115 Waterman St, Providence, RI 02912, USA C. Crick e-mail: [email protected] G. Jay e-mail: [email protected] O.C. Jenkins e-mail: [email protected] S. Dong Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 362 Memorial Dr. W7-203, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA e-mail: [email protected] D. Grollman EPFL, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, EPFL-STI-I2S-LASA, Station 9, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland e-mail: [email protected] H.B. Suay Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 100 Institute Dr., 125 Atwater Kent Labs, Worcester, MA 01609, USA e-mail: [email protected] ity and comparability of robotics experiments. We present solutions to interface, control, and design difficulties in the client and server-side software when implementing a remote laboratory architecture. We describe how researchers can interact with the PR2 and its environment remotely through a web interface, as well as develop similar interfaces to visualize and run experiments remotely. Additionally, we describe how the remote lab technology was used by researchers participating in the Robot Learning from Demonstration Challenge (LfD) held in conjunction with the AAAI-11 Conference on Artificial Intelligence. Teams from three institutions used the remote lab as their primary development and testing platform. This paper reviews the process as well as providing observations and lessons learned.