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Learning to translate between real world and simulated 3D sensors while transferring task models
(2019)
Learning-based vision tasks are usually specialized on the sensor technology for which data has been labeled. The knowledge of a learned model is simply useless when it comes to data which differs from the data on which the model has been initially trained or if the model should be applied to a totally different imaging or sensor source. New labeled data has to be acquired on which a new model can be trained. Depending on the sensor, this can even get more complicated when the sensor data becomes more abstract and hard to be interpreted and labeled by humans. To enable reuse of models trained for a specific task across different sensors minimizes the data acquisition effort. Therefore, this work focuses on learning sensor models and translating between them, thus aiming for sensor interoperability. We show that even for the complex task of human pose estimation from 3D depth data recorded with different sensors, i.e. a simulated and a Kinect 2TM depth sensor, human pose estimation can greatly improve by translating between sensor models without modifying the original task model. This process especially benefits sensors and applications for which labels and models are difficult if at all possible to retrieve from raw sensor data.
RoPose-Real: real world dataset acquisition for data-driven industrial robot arm pose estimation
(2019)
It is necessary to employ smart sensory systems in dynamic and mobile workspaces where industrial robots are mounted on mobile platforms. Such systems should be aware of flexible and non-stationary workspaces and able to react autonomously to changing situations. Building upon our previously presented RoPose-system, which employs a convolutional neural network architecture that has been trained on pure synthetic data to estimate the kinematic chain of an industrial robot arm system, we now present RoPose-Real. RoPose-Real extends the prior system with a comfortable and targetless extrinsic calibration tool, to allow for the production of automatically annotated datasets for real robot systems. Furthermore, we use the novel datasets to train the estimation network with real world data. The extracted pose information is used to automatically estimate the observing sensor pose relative to the robot system. Finally we evaluate the performance of the presented subsystems in a real world robotic scenario.
Recognizing human actions is a core challenge for autonomous systems as they directly share the same space with humans. Systems must be able to recognize and assess human actions in real-time. To train the corresponding data-driven algorithms, a significant amount of annotated training data is required. We demonstrate a pipeline to detect humans, estimate their pose, track them over time and recognize their actions in real-time with standard monocular camera sensors. For action recognition, we transform noisy human pose estimates in an image like format we call Encoded Human Pose Image (EHPI). This encoded information can further be classified using standard methods from the computer vision community. With this simple procedure, we achieve competitive state-of-the-art performance in pose based action detection and can ensure real-time performance. In addition, we show a use case in the context of autonomous driving to demonstrate how such a system can be trained to recognize human actions using simulation data.
Avatars are in use when interacting in virtual environments in different contexts, in collaborative work, as well as in gaming and also in virtual meetings with friends. Therefore it is important to understand how the relationship between user and avatar works. In this study, an online survey is used to determine how the perception of an avatar changes in different contexts by relating it to existing avatar relationship typologies. Additionally, it is determined whether in each context a realistic, abstract or comic-like representation is preferred by the participants. One result was a preference of low poly representations in the work context, which are associated with the perception of the avatar as a tool. In the context of meeting friends, a realistic representation is perceived as more appropriate, which is perceived as an accurate self-representation. In the gaming context, the results are less clear, which can be attributed to different gaming preferences. Here, unlike in the other contexts, a comic-like representation is also perceived as appropriate, which is associated with the perception of the avatar as a friend. A symbiotic user-avatar relationship is not directly related to any form of representation, but always lies in the midfield, which is attributed to the fact that it represents a whole spectrum between other categories.
This paper presents a machine learning powered, procedural sizing methodology based on pre-computed look-up tables containing operating point characteristics of primitive devices. Several Neural Networks are trained for 90nm and 45nm technologies, mapping different electrical parameters to the corresponding dimensions of a primitive device. This transforms the geometric sizing problem into the domain of circuit design experts, where the desired electrical characteristics are now inputs to the model. Analog building blocks or entire circuits are expressed as a sequence of model evaluations, capturing the sizing strategy and intention of the designer in a procedure, which is reusable across different technology nodes. The methodology is employed for the sizing of two operational amplifiers, and evaluated for two technology nodes, showing the versatility and efficiency of this approach.
In any autonomous driving system, the map for localization plays a vital part that is often underestimated. The map describes the world around the vehicle outside of the sensor view and is a main input into the decision making process in highly complicated scenarios. Thus there are strict requirements towards the accuracy and timeliness of the map. We present a robust and reliable approach towards crowd based mapping using a GraphSLAM framework based on radar sensors. We show on a parking lot that even in dynamically changing environments, the localization results are very accurate and reliable even in unexplored terrain without any map data. This can be achieved by collaborative map updates from multiple vehicles. To show these claims experimentally, the Joint Graph Optimization is compared to the ground truth on an industrial parking space. Mapping performance is evaluated using a dense map from a total station as reference and localization results are compared with a deeply coupled DGPS/INS system.
Recognizing actions of humans, reliably inferring their meaning and being able to potentially exchange mutual social information are core challenges for autonomous systems when they directly share the same space with humans. Today’s technical perception solutions have been developed and tested mostly on standard vision benchmark datasets where manual labeling of sensory ground truth is a tedious but necessary task. Furthermore, rarely occurring human activities are underrepresented in such data leading to algorithms not recognizing such activities. For this purpose, we introduce a modular simulation framework which offers to train and validate algorithms on various environmental conditions. For this paper we created a dataset, containing rare human activities in urban areas, on which a current state of the art algorithm for pose estimation fails and demonstrate how to train such rare poses with simulated data only.
The basic idea behind a wearable robotic grasp assistancesystem is to support people that suffer from severe motor impairments in daily activities. Such a system needs to act mostly autonomously and according to the user’s intent. Vision-based hand pose estimation could be an integral part of a larger control and assistance framework. In this paper we evaluate the performance of egocentric monocular hand pose estimation for a robot-controlled hand exoskeleton in a simulation. For hand pose estimation we adopt a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). We train and evaluate this network with computer graphics, created by our own data generator. In order to guide further design decisions we focus in our experiments on two egocentric camera viewpoints tested on synthetic data with the help of a 3D-scanned hand model, with and without an exoskeleton attached to it.We observe that hand pose estimation with a wrist-mounted camera performs more accurate than with a head-mounted camera in the context of our simulation. Further, a grasp assistance system attached to the hand alters visual appearance and can improve hand pose estimation. Our experiment provides useful insights for the integration of sensors into a context sensitive analysis framework for intelligent assistance.
As production workspaces become more mobile and dynamic it becomes increasingly important to reliably monitor the overall state of the environment. Therein manipulators or other robotic systems likely have to be able to act autonomously together with humans and other systems within a joint workspace. Such interactions require that all components in non-stationary environments are able to perceive the state relative to each other. As vision-sensors provide a rich source of information to accomplish this, we present RoPose, a convolutional neural network (CNN) based approach, to estimate the two dimensional joint configuration of a simulated industrial manipulator from a camera image. This pose information can further be used by a novel targetless calibration setup to estimate the pose of the camera relative to the manipulator’s space. We present a pipeline to automatically generate synthetic training data and conclude with a discussion of the potential usage of the same pipeline to acquire real image datasets of physically existent robots.
Significant advances have been achieved in mobile robot localization and mapping in dynamic environments, however these are mostly incapable of dealing with the physical properties of automotive radar sensors. In this paper we present an accurate and robust solution to this problem, by introducing a memory efficient cluster map representation. Our approach is validated by experiments that took place on a public parking space with pedestrians, moving cars, as well as different parking configurations to provide a challenging dynamic environment. The results prove its ability to reproducibly localize our vehicle within an error margin of below 1% with respect to ground truth using only point based radar targets. A decay process enables our map representation to support local updates.