David St-Onge

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Papers by David St-Onge

How to Manipulate? Kinematics, Dynamics and Architecture of Robot Arms

Foundations of Robotics, 2022

• recognize the architecture and mobilities of a robot arm; • solve the forward and inverse kinem... more • recognize the architecture and mobilities of a robot arm; • solve the forward and inverse kinematics problem of serial and parallel manipulators; • obtain the Jacobian relating the velocities of the joints to the end-effector; • analyze the Jacobian to obtain the different singularities and understand their physical meaning; • obtain the equations defining the dynamics of a robotic manipulator.

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Behaviours and States for Human-Swarm Interaction Studies

Companion of the 2018 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction

This demonstration will present a software concept and architecture for the control robot swarms ... more This demonstration will present a software concept and architecture for the control robot swarms for user studies. Exploring user perception of a swarm»s motion and the dynamics of its members is a topic of growing interest. However, at the time of writing, no structured methodology that ensures repeatable and scalable studies is available. We postulate that a swarm»s motion can be controlled with three complementary aspects: its behaviour, its agents» state, and the task at hand. We developed a software solution that allows a researcher to quickly implement a new model for each of the aspects, and test it with users in a repeatable manner.

The Sound Settler

Companion of the 2020 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction

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The eyes and hearts of UAV pilots: observations of physiological responses in real-life scenarios

Cornell University - arXiv, Oct 26, 2022

The drone industry is diversifying and the number of pilots increases rapidly. In this context, f... more The drone industry is diversifying and the number of pilots increases rapidly. In this context, flight schools need adapted tools to train pilots, most importantly with regard to their own awareness of their physiological and cognitive limits. In civil and military aviation, pilots can train themselves on realistic simulators to tune their reaction and reflexes, but also to gather data on their piloting behavior and physiological states. It helps them to improve their performances. Opposed to cockpit scenarios, drone teleoperation is conducted outdoor in the field, thus with only limited potential from desktop simulation training. This work aims to provide a solution to gather pilots behavior out in the field and help them increase their performance. We combined advance object detection from a frontal camera to gaze and heart-rate variability measurements. We observed pilots and analyze their behavior over three flight challenges. We believe this tool can support pilots both in their training and in their regular flight tasks.

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The 4th Workshop on Modeling Socio-Emotional and Cognitive Processes from Multimodal Data In-the-Wild (MSECP-Wild)

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MULTIMODAL INTERACTION

The Robot Operating System (ROS1 &2): Programming Paradigms and Deployment

Foundations of Robotics, 2022

• to know how to use (run and launch) ROS nodes and packages; • to understand the messaging struc... more

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Safety First: On the Safe Deployment of Robotic Systems

Foundations of Robotics, 2022

• recognize the different standard organization and their publications; • conduct a risk-assessme... more • recognize the different standard organization and their publications; • conduct a risk-assessment procedure on a robotic system and propose risk mitigation measures; • know the difference between an industrial robot and a cobot as well as their respective potential hazards; • differentiate the types of collaborative operation methods; • conduct a risk assessment on a mobile robotic system.

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Semantic navigation with domain knowledge

Cornell University - arXiv, Jun 18, 2021

Several deployment locations of mobile robotic systems are human made (i.e. urban firefighter, bu... more Several deployment locations of mobile robotic systems are human made (i.e. urban firefighter, building inspection, property security) and the manager may have access to domain-specific knowledge about the place, which can provide semantic contextual information allowing better reasoning and decision making. In this paper we propose a system that allows a mobile robot to operate in a location-aware and operator-friendly way, by leveraging semantic information from the deployment location and integrating it to the robot's localization and navigation systems. We integrate Building Information Models (BIM) into the Robotic Operating System (ROS), to generate topological and metric maps fed to an layered path planner (global and local). A map merging algorithm integrates newly discovered obstacles into the metric map, while a UWB-based localization system detects equipment to be registered back into the semantic database. The results are validated in simulation and real-life deployments in buildings and construction sites.

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Bots of a Feather: Exploring User Perceptions of Group Cohesiveness for Application in Robotic Swarms

2022 31st IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN)

Towards evaluating the impact of swarm robotic control strategy on operators’ cognitive load

2022 31st IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN)

Semantic Navigation Using Building Information on Construction Sites

Cornell University - arXiv, Apr 20, 2021

With the growth in automated data collection of construction projects, the need for semantic navi... more With the growth in automated data collection of construction projects, the need for semantic navigation of mobile robots is increasing. In this paper, we propose an infrastructure to leverage building-related information for smarter, safer and more precise robot navigation during construction phase. Our use of Building Information Models (BIM) in robot navigation is twofold: (1) the intuitive semantic information enables non-experts to deploy robots and (2) the semantic data exposed to the navigation system allows optimal path planing (not necessarily the shortest one). Our Building Information Robotic System (BIRS) uses Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) as the interoperable data format between BIM and the Robotic Operating System (ROS). BIRS generates topological and metric maps from BIM for ROS usage. An optimal path planer, integrating critical components for construction assessment is proposed using a cascade strategy (global versus local). The results are validated through series of experiments in construction sites.

format_quoteA novel optimal path planning algorithm leverages user inputs and BIM/IFC data to enhance robot navigation, prioritizing safety and efficiency over merely shortest paths.format_quote

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Minimize Tracking Occlusion in Collaborative Pick-and-Place Tasks: An Analytical Approach for Non-Wrist-Partitioned Manipulators

Sensors

Several industrial pick-and-place applications, such as collaborative assembly lines, rely on vis... more Several industrial pick-and-place applications, such as collaborative assembly lines, rely on visual tracking of the parts. Recurrent occlusions are caused by the manipulator motion decrease line productivity and can provoke failures. This work provides a complete solution for maintaining the occlusion-free line of sight between a variable-pose camera and the object to be picked by a 6R manipulator that is not wrist-partitioned. We consider potential occlusions by the manipulator as well as the operator working at the assembly station. An actuated camera detects the object goal (part to pick) and keeps track of the operator. The approach consists of using the complete set of solutions obtained from the derivation of the univariate polynomial equation solution to the inverse kinematics (IK). Compared to numerical iterative solving methods, our strategy grants us a set of joint positions (posture) for each root of the equation from which we extract the best (minimizing the risks of oc...

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Lightweight Collision Avoidance for Resource-Constrained Robots

2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)

One of the safest and most reliable strategies for vehicle's collision avoidance is embedded ... more One of the safest and most reliable strategies for vehicle's collision avoidance is embedded control at low level to guarantee safe motion in all situations using on-board sensors. In this paper, we propose a novel lightweight collision avoidance strategy that can be implemented as a low level motion control to achieve safe motion while simultaneously tracking the robot's reference control input. This strategy is designed to be general so that it can be easily integrated with most control designs, with the primary target of resource-constrained robot swarms that act in real-time, dynamic environments. The main advantages of our approach are a very simple structure and low computational requirements. We verified the effectiveness of the proposed collision avoidance strategy through two simulated scenarios and with physical robots. We believe our design can be directly used in many areas, such as autonomous driving, intelligent transportation and planetary exploration.

Collaborative Localization and Tracking with Minimal Infrastructure

2020 18th IEEE International New Circuits and Systems Conference (NEWCAS)

Localization and tracking are two very active areas of research for robotics, automation, and the... more Localization and tracking are two very active areas of research for robotics, automation, and the Internet-of-Things. Accurate tracking for a large number of devices usually requires deployment of substantial infrastructure (infrared tracking systems, cameras, wireless antennas, etc.), which is not ideal for inaccessible or protected environments. This paper stems from the challenge posed such environments: cover a large number of units spread over a large number of small rooms, with minimal required localization infrastructure. The idea is to accurately track the position of handheld devices or mobile robots, without interfering with its architecture. Using Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) devices, we leveraged our expertise in distributed and collaborative robotic systems to develop an novel solution requiring a minimal number of fixed anchors. We discuss a strategy to share the UWB network together with an Extended Kalman filter derivation to collaboratively locate and track UWB-equipped devices, and show results from our experimental campaign tracking visitors in the Chambord castle in France.

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Editorial: The Art of Human-Robot Interaction: Creative Perspectives From Design and the Arts

Frontiers in Robotics and AI

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Neuromuscular Performance and Injury Risk Assessment Using Fusion of Multimodal Biophysical and Cognitive Data

Companion Publication of the 2021 International Conference on Multimodal Interaction

Athletes rely on rationally bounded decisions of coaches and sports physicians to optimize perfor... more Athletes rely on rationally bounded decisions of coaches and sports physicians to optimize performance, improve well-being, and reduce risk of injuries. These decisions are subjective or require costly tests that are not necessarily predictive of in-game performance or cannot predict risk of injury. This paper presents an approach to remedy this shortcoming by providing coaches and sports medicine teams with reliable tools for objective, quantitative assessment of in-field performance and risk of injury. The proposed method uses advanced physiological signal processing, data driven modelling, and multi-modal data fusion techniques applied to data recorded from unobtrusive wearable sensors in tasks and conditions that closely resemble those observed in the field during training or even a game. We postulate that the required data for this prediction task include joint kinematics from inertial measurement units or accelerometers, muscle surface electromyography, ground reaction force, electrocardiography, heart rate and heart rate variability, oxygen saturation, respiration rate, and pupillometry data. The required analysis methods include physiological signal processing, feature extraction, and data-driven modeling techniques to estimate neuromuscular properties, identify joint and leg stiffness, and assess cognitive performance from pupillometry and heart rate variability.

Conveying information with groups of robots through expressive motion

Ontology-based approach to data exchanges for robot navigation on construction sites

Journal of Information Technology in Construction, 2021

As the use of autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV) for automated data collection from constr... more As the use of autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV) for automated data collection from construction projects increases, construction stakeholders have become aware of a problem with inter-disciplinary semantic data sharing and exchanges between construction and robotic. Cross-domain data translation requires detailed specifications especially when it comes to semantic data translation. Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Geographic Information System (GIS) are the two digital building technologies used to capture and store semantic information for indoor structures and outdoor environments respectively. In the absence of a standard format for data exchanges between the construction and robotic domains, the tools of both industries have yet to be integrated into a coherent deployment infrastructure. In other words, the semantics of BIM-GIS cannot be automatically integrated by the robotic platforms currently being used. To enable semantic data transfer across domains, semanti...

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Semantic Optimal Robot Navigation Using Building Information on Construction Sites

Proceedings of the 38th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC), 2021

Scutigera: Design, Modeling, and Experiments for an Artistic Multibody Airship Concept

Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, 2022

The exploration of new lands has always been a source of motivation for mankind. Despite the comm... more The exploration of new lands has always been a source of motivation for mankind. Despite the common idea that our planet is fully known, a huge number of inaccessible places still remain unvisited today, especially below the surface. Recent advances in robotics allow some of these locations to be explored by unmanned vehicles. This paper presents the design of a three modules lighter-than-air vehicle specifically conceived to autonomously explore inaccessible caves and underground environments. The design is inspired from an arthropod, Scutigera coleoptrata, a long-legged centipede commonly found in our houses. Instead of crawling on walls like its biological counterpart, the robotic scutigera hovers and flies in cave tunnels. The aim is to develop a flexible semi-rigid, segmented airship that can withstand long, smooth explorations of caves while transmitting in real-time the images and sounds that it captures. This paper presents the equations of motion for a single module, and ex...

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