Domain-specific state representations are a fundamental component that enables planning of robot actions in unstructured human environments. In case of mobile robots, it is the spatial knowledge that constitutes the core of the state, and directly affects the performance of the planning algorithm. Here, we propose Deep Spatial Affordance Hierarchy (DASH), a probabilistic representation of spati...

– One of the important applications of robots is in material handling and transport of various shaped objects. In cases where an object cannot be directly grasped by the robot gripper, and must be carried by a hook, it may be subject to undesirable swings during transport. This paper presents an analytical method for minimizing the oscillation of a suspended object during transport. This method...

Two-component systems (TCSs) are common signal transduction systems, typically comprising paired histidine protein kinase (HK) and response regulator (RR) proteins. In many examples, it appears RR and HK genes have fused, producing a "hybrid kinase " We have characterized a set of prokaryotic genes encoding RRs, HKs, and hybrid kinases, enabling characterization of gene fusion and fission. Prim...

This extended abstract outlines a new study that investigates spatial language for use in human-robot communication. The scenario studied is a home setting in which the elderly resident has misplaced an object, such as eyeglasses, and the robot will help the resident find the object. We present preliminary results from the initial study in which we investigate spatial language generated to a hu...

Spatial abilities depend on the comprehension and interpretation of visual information about geometric objects in a given layout. Past research has shown that spatial abilities are a reliable predictor of efficiency in robot navigation in remote environments. This experiment investigated the relationship between spatial abilities and performance in direct line-of-sight and teleoperation courses...

Spatial directional relations, like "north of," play an important role in the modeling of the environment by an autonomous robot. We propose an approach to represent spatial relations grounded in fuzzy set theory and fuzzy mathematical morphology. We show how this approach can be applied to robot maps, and suggest that these relations can be used for self-localization and for reasoning about th...

This paper presents a synthesis methodology for robots that have less than six degrees of freedom, termed constrained robots. The goal is to determine the physical parameters of the chain that fit its workspace to a given set of spatial positions. Our formulation uses the dual quaternion form of the kinematics equations of the constrained robot. Here we develop the theory and formulate the synt...

For infants, the first problem in learning a word is to map the word to its referent; a second problem is to remember that mapping when the word and/or referent are again encountered. Recent infant studies suggest that spatial location plays a key role in how infants solve both problems. Here we provide a new theoretical model and new empirical evidence on how the body - and its momentary postu...

mobile robot navigation is one of the basic problems in robotics. in this paper, a new approachis proposed for autonomous mobile robot navigation in an unknown environment. the proposedapproach is based on learning virtual parallel paths that propel the mobile robot toward the trackusing a multi-layer, feed-forward neural network. for training, a human operator navigates themobile robot in some...