Projects
Research projects at RIM take many forms from mobile robotics to assisted living and from human social interaction to perception. A wide range of problems are continually being investigated across the broad spectrum of robotics. Below is a sampling of current endeavors.
Human-like Action Segmentation
Robots learning interactively with a human part- ner has several open questions, one of which is increasing the efficiency of learning. One approach to this problem in the Reinforcement Learning domain is to use options, temporally extended actions, instead of primitive actions. In this work, we aim to develop a robot system that can discriminate meaningful options from observations of human use of low-level primitive actions.
Autonomous Marionettes
The GRITS Lab is pursuing a large research effort that aims to understand how we can control a collection of marionettes. Our work combines language theory, optimal control, and networked system theory in order to develop systematic tools for the automation of marionettes. Although the project focuses on marionettes, the tools we develop can generalize to other types of robotic systems.
Golem Krang
Golem Krang is a new humanoid robot designed and built by the Humanoid Robotics Lab at Georgia Tech in collaboration with Schunk Inc. The robot dynamically transforms from a .5 meter static to a 1.5 meter dynamic configuration. Our robot development has led to two advances in the design of platforms for mobility and manipulation: (1) A robot base that autonomously stands from horizontal rest and dynamic limbo! (2) A humanoid torso that adds a waist roll joint to replicate human torso folding a yaw joint for spine rotation and anthropomorphic arms.
Assistive Mobile Manipulation for Older Adults at Home
The proposed research consists of two closely integrated thrusts: one devoted to human-robot interaction and the other focused on software development. Both thrusts will be directed toward the development of assistive capabilities for the PR2 robot, with an emphasis on home care for older adults. These two thrusts are highly synergistic.