PR2 Beta Program Recipients Announced
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 4 of May , 2010 at 7:01 am
Well, I didn’t get one, but ten eleven research groups are getting their very own PR2s to mess around with as part of the PR2 Beta Program. Out of 78 submissions, Willow Garage was forced to (somehow) choose only ten eleven, and those lucky sods will get a PR2 for a couple years. The goal is to generate a whole bunch of new ROS libraries that other robots running ROS will be able to use to do everything from the laundry to the dishes. And, you know, other stuff.
There are going to be some fascinating developments coming out of this program. And since it’s all open source, if you have a robot capable of running ROS, you may actually directly benefit from what these groups come up with. Summaries of all of the accepted proposals, after the jump.
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg with the proposal TidyUpRobot
The University of Freiburg will teach the PR2 to tidy-up tasks like clearing a table, while working on difficult underlying capabilities like understanding how drawers and refrigerators open, and how to recognize different types of objects.
Bosch with the proposal Developing the Personal Robotics Market: Enabling New Applications Through Novel Sensors and Shared Autonomy
Bosch will bring their expertise in manufacturing, sensing technologies and consumer products. In addition to software contributions, Bosch will be making robotic sensors available to members of the PR2 Beta Program, including a limited number of “skins” that will give PR2 the ability to feel its environment.
Georgia Institute of Technology with the proposal Assistive Mobile Manipulation for Older Adults at Home
The Healthcare Robotics Lab at Georgia Tech will be placing the PR2 in an “Aware Home” to study how robots can help with homecare and creative assistive capabilities for older adults. Their research includes creating easier ways for people to interact with robots and enabling robots to interact with everyday objects like drawers, lamps, and light switches.
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven with the proposal Unified Framework for Task Specification, Control and Coordination for Mobile Manipulation
KU Leuven in Belgium is a key player in the open-source robotics community. As one of the founding institutions for the Orocos Project, they will be improving the tools and libraries used to program robots. They will also be working on getting the PR2 and people to perform a task together, like carrying objects through a crowded environment.
MIT CSAIL with the proposal Mobile Manipulation in Human-Centered Environments
The MIT CSAIL group will use the PR2 to study the key capabilities needed by robots that operate in human-centered environments, such as safe navigation, interaction with humans via natural language, and planning for complex goals. Their work will allow robots to build the maps they need in order to move around in buildings as large as MIT’s 11-story Stata Center.
Stanford University with the proposal STAIR on PR2
PR1 was developed in Kenneth Salisbury’s Lab at Stanford and ROS was developed from the STAIR (Stanford AI Robot) Project. The team will work on several applications, which include navigating a building, identifying objects, retrieving items scattered about a building, and clearing a table after a meal.
Technische Universität München with the proposal CRAM: Cognitive Robot Abstract Machine
TUM will research giving PR2 the artificial intelligence skills and 3D perception to reason about what it is doing while it performs various kitchen tasks. These combined improvements will help PR2 perform more complicated tasks like setting a table, emptying a dishwasher, and other kitchen-related tasks.
University of California, Berkeley with the proposal PR 2 Beta Program: A Platform for Personal Robotics
The PR2 is now known as the “Towel-Folding Robot”, thanks to the impressive efforts of Pieter Abbeel’s lab at Berkeley. In two short months, they were able to get PR2 to fold fifty towels in a row. Berkeley will extend on its work with the PR2 folding towels and tackle the much more difficult challenge of doing laundry, from dirty laundry piles to neatly folded clothes. In addition, Berkeley’s team is interested in assembly and manufacturing tasks through learning by demonstration.
University of Pennsylvania, GRASP Laboratory with the proposal PR2GRASP: From Perception and Reasoning to Grasping
The GRASP Lab proposal aims to tackle some of the challenges facing household robotics. These challenges include tracking people and planning for navigation in dynamic environments, and transferring handheld objects between robots and humans. Their contributions will include giving PR2 a tool belt to change its gripper on the fly, helping it track and navigate around people, and performing difficult two-arm tasks like opening spring-loaded doors.
University of Southern California with the proposal Persistent
and Persuasive Personal Robots (P^3R): Towards Networked, Mobile,
Assistive RoboticsUSC has already demonstrated teaching the PR2 basic motor skills so it can adapt to different situations, such as the motions necessary to pour liquid into a cup. They will continue to expand on this work in imitation learning and building and refining skill libraries, while also doing research in human-robot interaction and tools so the robot can use sensors more accurately over time.
University of Tokyo, JSK Robotics Laboratory with the proposal
Autonomous Motion Planning for Daily Tasks in Human Environments using Collaborating RobotsThe JSK Lab’s goal is to see robots safely and autonomously perform daily, human-like tasks such as retrieving objects and cleaning up. They’ll also be working on getting PR2 to work together with other robots.
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Comments (4)
Category: Artificial Intelligence,Research
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Comment by Darin
Made Thursday, 13 of May , 2010 at 12:22 pm
The PR2 looks great! I work for – Managing Automation- take a look at this article about : Robotics
Hope you enjoy it.
Comment by Smyrna Garage Door Repair
Made Monday, 10 of January , 2011 at 8:37 pm
that is quite interesting. It presented me a number of ideas and I’ll turn out to be writing them on my blog soon. I’m bookmarking your site and I’ll be to return. Thank you again!
Comment by Leila
Made Thursday, 18 of August , 2011 at 7:50 am
I have not seen this at Stanford and i really love the idea.
Comment by Kurtis Limon
Made Wednesday, 14 of December , 2011 at 10:56 pm
You have got some seriously important information written here. Good job and keep posting good stuff.
