Related papers: Making High-Performance Robots Safe and Easy to Us…
This dissertation considers Open-world Robot Manipulation, a manipulation problem where a robot must generalize or quickly adapt to new objects, scenes, or tasks for which it has not been pre-programmed or pre-trained. This dissertation…
The arrival of AI coding assistants in educational settings presents a paradigm shift, introducing a "new kid in the classroom" for both students and instructors. Thus, understanding the perceptions of these key actors about this new…
Robotic systems are complex and safety-critical software systems. As such, they need to be tested thoroughly. Unfortunately, robot software is intrinsically hard to test compared to traditional software, mainly since the software needs to…
Robots can greatly enhance human capabilities, yet their development presents a range of challenges. This collaborative study, conducted by a team of software engineering and robotics researchers, seeks to identify the challenges…
Social robots are increasingly introduced into children's lives as educational and social companions, yet little is known about how these products might best be introduced to their environments. The emergence of the "unboxing" phenomenon in…
Rather than programming, training allows robots to achieve behaviors that generalize better and are capable to respond to real-world needs. However, such training requires a big amount of experimentation which is not always feasible for a…
Robots are ubiquitous in small-to-large-scale manufacturers. While collaborative robots (cobots) have significant potential in these settings due to their flexibility and ease of use, proper integration is critical to realize their full…
Simulators are an important tool in robotics that is used to develop robot software and generate synthetic data for machine learning algorithms. Faster simulation can result in better software validation and larger amounts of data. Previous…
Service robots for personal use in the home and the workplace require end-user development solutions for swiftly scripting robot tasks as the need arises. Many existing solutions preserve ease, efficiency, and convenience through simple…
This paper describes exploratory experiments to validate the possibility of programming autonomous robots using an agent-oriented programming language. Proper perception of the environment, by means of various types of sensors, and timely…
Computer science's increased recognition as a prominent field of study has attracted students with diverse academic backgrounds. This has significantly increased the already high failure rates in introductory courses. To address this…
As the size and richness of available datasets grow larger, the opportunities for solving increasingly challenging problems with algorithms learning directly from data grow at the same pace. Consequently, the capability of learning…
In this paper, we present a pilot study aiming to investigate the challenges of teaching AI and Robotics to children in low- and middle-income countries. Challenges such as the little to none experts and the limited resources in a Mexican…
Programming skills are rapidly becoming essential for many educational paths and career opportunities. Yet, for many international students, the traditional approach to teaching introductory programming courses can be a significant…
Robot deployment in realistic dynamic environments is a challenging problem despite the fact that robots can be quite skilled at a large number of isolated tasks. One reason for this is that robots are rarely equipped with powerful…
Robots applications in our daily life increase at an unprecedented pace. As robots will soon operate "out in the wild", we must identify the safety and security vulnerabilities they will face. Robotics researchers and manufacturers focus…
Human-robot interaction is now an established discipline. Dozens of HRI courses exist at universities worldwide, and some institutions even offer degrees in HRI. However, although many students are being taught HRI, there is no agreed-upon…
Two cooperating, autonomous mobile robots with arbitrary nonzero max speeds are placed at arbitrary initial positions in the plane. A remotely detonated bomb is discovered at some source location and must be moved to a safe distance away…
Robotic surgery represents a major breakthrough in medical interventions, which has revolutionized surgical procedures. However, the high cost and limited accessibility of robotic surgery systems pose significant challenges for training…
Computing educators face significant challenges in providing timely support to students, especially in large class settings. Large language models (LLMs) have emerged recently and show great promise for providing on-demand help at a large…