Intelligent Social Robots

Yasser F. O. Mohammad

Which is harder?
To decide which

to move

To actually

piece

move it

Overview
Introduction to the field of
Basic

Problems in Robotics
Robotic Architectures
Imitation in Robotics

ISR

What is a robot?
The word robot came from Karel Capeks

play, R.U.R. (Rossums Universal Robots).

From robota in Czech which means menial

laborer

Why is intelligence important

Adaptability, Interactivity, Safety,

2013 BAXTER
2015 Cat

2004
Leonardo

2014 Nextage

2004 Robonaut

2015 ATLAS

2006 NAO
ASIMO

2002
Roomba

1996 Mars Pathfinder

1966 Shakey

1961 Unimate

1978 SCARA

Repeatability, Accuracy, Speed

Major Publication Venues

Research Fields

Machine
Learning & AI
HumanComputer
Interaction

Automatic
Control

Psychology
(Developmenta
l,
Experimental,...
)
Neuroscience

Social Science

Mechanical
Design &
Robotics

Related Fields

Fong et al. A survey of socially interactive robots, Autonomous Robotics

Subfields

IJSR: Social Roboticsis the study of robots that are able to interact and
communicate among themselves, with humans, and with the environment,
within the social and cultural structure attached to its role.

Affective and cognitive sciences for socially interactive robots

Human-robot interaction and robot-robot interaction

Compliance, safety and compatibility in the design of social robots ''living'' with humans

Learning, adaptation and evolution of intelligence

Roboethics in human society

Social acceptance and impact of robots in the society

Socially assistive robotics

Biomechatronics, neuro-robotics, and biomedical robotics

Context awareness, expectation and intention understanding

Human factors and ergonomics in human-robot interactions

Interaction and collaboration between robots, humans and environments

Intelligent control and artificial intelligence for social robotics

Interactive robotic arts

Knowledge representation, information acquisition, and decision making

Models of human and animal social behavior as applied to robots

Multimodal sensor fusion and communication

Edutainment robotics

Perception and modeling of humans and their behavior

Socially-aware robot navigation, task and motion planning

Why are social robots important?

Chinas 12th 5-Year Plan
targeted robotics as a
growth
industry
necessary for Chinas
development. It expects
a compound growth rate
of 25%, said Wang
Weiming, deputy director
of the Ministry of
Industry and Information
Technology.
http://www.therobotreport.co
m/

social vs. Industrial robotics

social
Robot

Industr
ial
Robot

Accu Acceptab Extraor

racy le
dinary
goal
Envir Dynamic
onm and
ent
unpredict
able

Static
and
fully
predict
able

Task
s

Fixed
and
repetiti
ve

Variable
and
evolving

Spee Acceptab The

d
le for
faster
humans
the
better

OK, I admit I lied

Basic Problems in robotics

Example:

In

Make this robot follow the contour from A to B using

constant given speed

General: this is not at all an easy task

Basic Problems in robotics

(Forward Kinematics)
Problem 1

Given the configuration of the robot, find the configuration

of the end effector

Examples:
Given a RR robot with angles 1 and 2 find the location and
orientation of the end effector
Given
a RRPRRPRPPPPRPRRRRPPPRPRPPPRPRPRPPPRRPRP
manipulator, find the location and orientation of the end effector

Basic Problems in Robotics

Forward Kinematics

In

general:
We use Denavit-Hartenberg convention for frame
assignment
We use transformations between frames to get to the tool

Basic Problems in robotics

Inverse Kinematics
Problem 2

Given a required configuration for the end effector, find the

configuration of all joints in the robot.

Examples:
How to make the end effector touch a box?
How to make the end effector reach a point?

Basic Problems in robotics

Inverse Kinematics
Two Solutions:

Elbow down
Elbow Up

Basic Problems in robotics

Velocity Kinematics
Problem 3

How to follow the contour at a pre-specified velocity?

Example

Go from A to B in straight line at a speed of 50 m/hours

Basic Problems in robotics

Velocity Kinematics

J is called the Jacobian

If The Jacobian has no inverse, then

the configuration is singular which
means that it cannot move in some directions

Basic Problems in robotics

Trajectory Control
Problem 4

How to control intermediate states while going from A to B?

Has three stages:

Path Planning (no time consideration)
Trajectory Generation (with time consideration)
Trajectory Tracking (real time)

Basic Problems in robotics

Dymaics
Problem 5

How much torque we need for the actuators (motors) to

generate the required motion?

We use Lagragian Dynamics or

Eular-Newton formulation

Here we need to consider the actuators (motors) and power

transmission

Basic Problems in robotics

Position Control
Problem 6

How to generate the required commands (torques) online

while rejecting disturbances?

This is called Position Control

This is a special case of general Automatic Control

Basic Problems in robotics

Force Control
Problem 7

Any small change in position may lead to huge differences in

force, how to control the contact force to the surface from A
to B?

This is called Force Control

This is a special case of general Automatic Control

How to teach a robot a new skill?

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest;
Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the
bitterest.
Confucius

Reflection
Deliberation
GOFAI
Shakey
70s~80s
Very Slow

Imitation
Reactivity
ML
Baxter
2000~
challenging

Reinforcement
Learning
90s~
Not scalable

Deliberative Architectures (Motivation)

The chess player paradigm (Always have a plan!!!)

Intelligence is logical in nature and deliberative in approach

Control is central
Uncertainty is just a nuance
Think . Think .. Think

The very beginning: Shakey

Sensed
information

Sense
data

Strips

Action
s
Directive
s

General Problem Solver

Means-ends Analysis
Inputs:
World Model
Difference Table
Difference Evaluator

Picture from Introduction to AI Robotics, Murphy R.

Shakey
by SRI for DARPA 1967
70

Example Strips
Difference
Table

Summary

Compute the difference

Find an operator that negates it
Examine its preconditions:
If all satisfied just do it
Otherwise, take the first false one and
make it your new goal

Example from Introduction to AI Robotics, Murphy R.

Reactive Architectures (Motivation)

The ethological paradigm (Elephants do not play chess!!!)

Intelligence is algorithmic in nature and reactive in approach

Control is distributed
Uncertainty is here to stay.
Do . Do . Do

Example: Subsumption

Picture from Introduction to AI Robotics, Murphy R.

Hybrid Architectures

The Psychological paradigm (Human is not a lizard)

Intelligence is mathematical in nature and uses both reaction and

deliberation
Control is massively distributed yet meta-control is central
Uncertainty is the problem
Think before doing, but

Deliberative vs. Reactive Architectures

Deliberative

=
Hybrid

Picture from Introduction to AI Robotics, Murphy R.

Reactive

Example: AuRA

Picture from Introduction to AI Robotics, Murphy R.

Example: EICA
Execution Time

Activation Level

Behavioral Influence

Example: Gaze during close

encounters
Sensors
Perception
Processes
Behavior Processes

Intentions

How to set process parameters?

Crossover

Select 2 individuals and generate 4:

Calculate probability of passing:

Mutation
Eliting
Tournament
Cross Over
Mutation

1. Calculate probabilities over 1~m:

2. Calculate P(mutation@ k) as:

3. Select mutation site according to P(mutation @ k)
4. Mutate parameter using:

Learning from Demonstration

Given one or few demonstrations of a task

Learn a model
Reproduce the task using the model

Why robotic imitation is difficult?

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Action Segmentation: finding primitives

Behavior Significance for Imitation: finding
important primitives
Perspective Taking: Seeing the world from the
demonstrators point of view
Correspondence Problem: Transferring the
motion to the robots form factor
Demonstrator modeling: Learning the motion
Evaluation and Adaptation Problem: defining
success and improvement

Data
Mining

Vision/
Robotics

ML
Social
sciences

The continuum of imitation

Unknown
Primitives

IOC, IRL 1990s

DMP 2001
GMM/GMR 2005
SAXImitate 2014

Free Context

Fluid
Imitation

Few demonstrations

Known
Primitives

Standard ML
NN/SVM/HMM

Planned
Kinesthetic Teaching

Motif Discovery
Correspondence
Problem

Unplanned
Learning from Observation

Taxonomy of LfD
Learning from
Demonstration
Learning primitives

DMP

GMM/GMR

Learning complex task

Inverse RL

Skill Trees

Fluid imitation

Bayesian IL

State of the Art in LfD

GMM/GMR

DMP/Dynamical Systems/Attractor Methods

Uses a canonical dynamical system that is guaranteed to converge

Modulates it by a set of nonlinear basis functions

Skill learning in RL

Models motion by a Mixture of Gaussians

Uses Gaussian Mixture Regression for Behavior Generation

Learns the reward function

Inverse Optimal Control

Learns the function to be optimized

IOC (1997)
User to learn ball balancing from a single demonstration

Given demonstration, we learn J

The mighty Gaussian

The Gaussian Distribution

From Bishops Pattern Recognition and Machine

Important Theorems for Gaussians (1)

Robot Programming by Demonstration: A probabilistic approach, Sylvain

Important Theorems for Gaussians (2)

Robot Programming by Demonstration: A probabilistic approach, Sylvain

Important Theorems for Gaussians (3)

Robot Programming by Demonstration: A probabilistic approach, Sylvain

GMM/GMR (2005)

GMM/GMR example

Example of GMM/GMR

Robot Programming by Demonstration: A probabilistic approach, Sylvain

Effect of the number of Gaussians

Robot Programming by Demonstration: A probabilistic approach, Sylvain

The internal what problem

Robot Programming by Demonstration: A probabilistic approach, Sylvain

The frame of reference problem

Robot Programming by Demonstration: A probabilistic approach, Sylvain

Recent Advances
Diritchilet
2013

Variational
2015

Operational
2012

Serialization
2013

Cyclic motion
2012

GMR
2013
GMM/GMR

Multi Frames
2009
SAXGMM
2014
Piecewise
linear (2015)

QGMM
2012
PHMM
2010

DMP

Limear/Cyclic
2013

SAXImitate
SAXDMP
(2015)

Fluid Imitation
Current State-Of-the-Art

Long Term Perspective

Focus on
MOTION/OBJECTS

Focus on
INTERACTION/PEOPLE

Collaboration

Focus on HOW

Focus on WHAT and WHEN

Life Long
Improvement

Fluid Imitation

Focus on the imitation (How?)

Change Point Discovery

Given

a time series X(t) find for every time step

the probability that X(t) is changing form
(underlying dynamics are changing!!)

Constrained Motif Discovery

Given a time series X(t) find recurring patterns of length between
L1 and L2 using distance function D
subject to the constraint P(t), where P(t) is an
estimation of the probability that a motif occurrence
exists near time step t.

Causality Structure Discovery

Recurrence Only (scenario)

Behaviors:
1. Rectangl
e
2. Ellipse
3. Triangle

Recurrence Only (active modules)

Example

Learned Behaviors

Saliency (scenario)

Cylinders around K-Juniors and Squares around obstacles

A full rotation around K-Juniors causes them to step flashing their
LEDs

Saliency (active modules)

Relevance (scenario)

Cylinders around K-Juniors and Squares around

obstacles
GOAL: stop K-Junior LEDS
Condition: Full rotation (counterclockwise).

Relevance (active modules)

Experimental Setup

Results
Gestures Discovery

rate (5/7)
Action Discovery rate (7/7)
Action-Gesture Association Accuracy: 71.4%

Learning to Write
11 DoF redundant serial manipulator
ODE physics simulation
User writes 1452 words article in Arabic

on a touch

screen device
X-Y coordinates are recorded as input to FIE
Inverse Kinematics was learned using a babbling stage.

Results

References

Basic Robotics (Kinematics, Dynamics, Control, Planning)

Intelligent Robotics

Robot Programming by Demonstration: A probabilistic approach, Sylvain Calinon

Imitation in Robotics, Yasser Mohammad (Feb. 2017)

Reference

Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning, Bishop, Springer

Pattern Classification, Duda, Hart and Stark, Wiley

Learning from Demonstration

Introduction to AI Robotics, Robin R. Murphy, MIT

Probabilistic Robotics, Sebastian Thrun
Data Mining for Social Robots, T. Nishida and Y. Mohammad (Feb. 2016)

Artificial Intelligence, Pattern Recognition and ML

Robot Modeling and Control, Spong, Hutchinson and Vidyasagar, Wiley

Handbook of Robotics, Siciliano and Khatib, Springer

Online Courses

Introduction to Robotics, Osama Khatib (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yD3uBshJB0)

Artificial Intelligence for Robotics, Sebastian Thrun (https://www.udacity.com/course/cs373)
Introduction to Linear Dynamical Systems, Stephen Boyd (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf1264iFr-w)
Machine Learning, Andrew Ng (https://www.coursera.org/course/ml)
Underactuated Robotics, Russ Tedrake (https://www.edx.org/course/underactuated-robotics-mitx-6-832x-0)