Publications by Roland Siegwart

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This abstract presents a perform study on SOLERO, a new and innovative rover concept for regional mobility on planetary surfaces. A rover is the most suited element to bring scientific instrument to a specific site in order to examine geology, mineralogy or exobiology on extraterrestrial planets. In contrast with the Mars Pathfinder mission, the actual need increases in terms of range and duration. These aspects lead to redesign many aspect of the past rovers, in particular the development of most suitable

Robots are rapidly evolving from factory workhorses to robot-companions . The future of robots, as our companions, is highly dependent on their abilities to understand, interpret and represent the environment in an efficient and consistent fashion, in a ...

This paper presents the genesis of the Expo.02 robot. RoboX the tour guide robot has been built from the scratch for this project based on the experience of the Autonomous Systems Lab. The production of 11 of those machines has been guaranteed by a spin-off of the lab: BlueBotics SA. The goal was to maximize the autonomy and interactivity of the mobile platform while ensuring high robustness, reliability and performance. The result is an interactive moving machine which can operate in human environments and

During recent years the European Space Agency (ESA) has started to develop concepts for micro-rovers for planetary missions. An ESA Technology Research Program (TRP) activity "Micro-Robots for Scientific Applications" has been dedicated to this subject. Within an interdisciplinary group of space companies and research labs new designs of micro-rovers have been investigated. Two concepts, a simple and robust one and an innovative one, have been selected and functional breadboard models of them are currently

This paper presents a solution to the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) problem in the stochastic map framework for a mobile robot navigating in an indoor environment. The approach is based on the concept of the relative map. The idea consists in introducing a map state, which only contains quantities invariant under translation and rotation. This is done in order to have a decoupling between the robot motion and the landmark estimation and therefore not to rely the landmark estimation on the unm

In this talk we present work on sensor-based motion planning in initially unknown dynamic environments. Motion detection and probabilistic motion modeling are combined with a smooth navigation function to perform on-line path planning and replanning in cluttered dynamic environments such as public exhibitions. Human behavior is unforeseeable in most situations that include human-robot interaction, e.g. service robots or robotic companions. This makes motion prediction problematic (they rarely move e.g. with

Programming by demonstration (PbD) is a key research topic in robotics. It impacts both fundamental research and application-oriented studies.Work in that area tackles the development of robust algorithms for motor control, motor learning, gesture recognition and visuo-motor integration. While the field existed for more than 20 years, recent developments, taking inspiration in biological mechanisms of imitation, have brought a new perspective. Programming by demonstration, now, encompasses more of the learn

Navigating in rough terrain is a complex task that requires the robot to be considered as a holistic system. Algorithms, which don’t consider the physical dimensions and capabilities of the mobile robot lead to inefficient motion and suffer from a lack of robustness. A physical model of the robot is necessary for trajectory control. In this paper, quasi-static modeling of a six-wheeled robot with a passive suspension mechanism is presented together with a method for selecting the optimal torques consi

This paper describes the hardware and behavior implementation of a miniature robot in size of a match box that simulates the behavior of cockroaches in order to establish a social interaction with them. The robot is equipped with two micro-processors dedic ...

The invention concerns a vehicle whereof the rigid body (1, 2, 4) comprises the front element (20) forming the rear element of a deformable articulated quadrilateral (17, 18, 19, 20). The element (17) is mounted in the extension of the arm (15) linked to the wheel of the front axle (7). The undercarriage comprises on the right two tandem wheels (9 and 10) whereof the arms are articulated on the system (24, 26) pivoting on the pivots (27) relative to the pillar (28) integral with the body. On the left the un

A driver support system should provide assistance and security to the driver. For navigaton tasks it is neccessary to determine position of the ego vehicle relative to the road. One of the principal approaches is to detect road boundaries and lanes using a vision system in the vehicle. Within the European research project "Secure Propulsion using Advanced Redundant Control (SPARC)" different approaches of lane detection are developed to meet the needs of real traffic situations. The vision module presented

Programming efficient and reliable code can be considered a non-trivial task, as it requires deep understanding of the problem to be solved along with good programming skills. However, software frameworks and programming paradigms can provide a dependable infrastructure upon which better programs can be written and deployed. This allows engineers to focus mainly on their task, while relying on the underlying run-time environment for taking care of low-level programming issues, such as memory allocation and

This paper presents the development of radial eddy-current position sensors for high temperature active magnetic bearing (AMB) applications. Thick-film technology was used to realize silver coils printed on ceramic substrates. Long term measurements showed ...

Scaling down robots to miniature size introduces many new challenges including memory and program size limitations, low processor performance and low power autonomy. In this paper we describe the concept and implementation of learning of a safewandering task with the autonomous micro-robots, Alice. We propose a simplified reinforcement learning algorithm based on one-step Qlearning that is optimized in speed and memory consumption. This algorithm uses only integer-based sum operators and avoids floatingpoin

In this paper an approach for localization using geometric features from a 360 degree laser range finder and a monocular vision system is presented. Its practicability under conditions of continuous localization during motion in real-time (referred to as on-the-fly localization) is investigated in large-scale experiments. The features are infinite horizontal lines for the laser and vertical lines for the camera. They are extracted using physically well-grounded models for all sensors and passed to a Kalman

This paper describes the hardware and behavior implementation of a miniature robot, in size of a match box, that is able to interact with cockroaches. The robot is equipped with two micro-processors dedicated to hardware processing and behavior generation. ...

This paper addresses the problem of the odometry error estimation during the robot navigation. The robot is equipped with an external sensor (like laser range finder). Concerning the systematic error an augmented Kalman Filter is introduced. This filter estimates a vector state containing the robot configuration and the parameters characterizing the systematic component of the odometry error. It uses encoder readings as inputs and the readings from the external sensor as observations. The estimation of the

Progress in mobile robotics requires the researchers to access and improve all modules that compose the robot, from low-level mechanical components to high-level reasoning systems. This paper presents the development process of the robots built at the Autonomous Systems Lab, EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland. Starting from the mechanical and electrical design up to the application, we show the challenges that needed to be faced as well as the solutions that have been devised. The description covers aspects like th

Scaling down robots to miniature size introduces many new challenges including memory and program size limitations, low processor performance and low power autonomy. In this paper we describe the concept and implementation of learning of safe-wandering and light following tasks on the autonomous micro-robots, Alice. We propose a simplified reinforcement learning algorithm based on one step Q-learning that is optimized in speed and memory consumption. This algorithm uses only integer-based sum operators and

For more than two decades, Mars has been of great interest for scientific exploration, using orbiting spacecrafts or landers. Orbiters like Mars Express cover large areas and give images of the surface with a resolution limited to several meters. Rovers missions, like Pathfinder or MER , offer the ability to maneuver to scientifically interesting sites, perform analysis of soil and rock composition, but are limited in range to the immediate surroundings of the landing site. There is a strategic gap for

Roland Siegwart

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SOLERO : Solar Powered Exploration Rover

Towards a Cognitive Probabilistic Representation of Space for Mobile Robots

Design and System Integration for the Expo.02 Robot

Design and Control of an Innovative Micro-Rover

SLAM with Corner Features Based on a Relative Map

Toward Online Probabilistic Path Replanning

EDITORIAL: Robot Programming By Demonstration

Wheel torque control for a rough terrain rover

Robot-animal interaction: Perception and behavior of insbot

Vehicle for rugged terrain

A Lane Detection Vision Module for Driver Assistance

"May You Have a Strong (-Typed) Foundation", Why Strong-Typed Programming Languages Do Matter

Thick-Film Radial Position Sensor for High Temperature Active Magnetic Bearings

Compact Q-Learning Optimized for Micro-robots with Processing and Memory Constraints

Multisensor On-the-Fly Localization: Precision and Reliability for Applications

Perception and Behavior of InsBot : Robot-Animal Interaction Issues

Estimating the Odometry Error of a Mobile Robot during Navigation

A Complex Mechatronic System: from Design to Application

Compact Q-Learning for Micro-robots

SKY-SAILOR Design of an autonomous solar powered martian airplane