Intelligent Robots and Systems Group

The Intelligent Robots and Systems Group was born as of the former ISR/IST Intelligent Systems and Mobile Robotics laboratories.

People

Active senior members of the lab:

• Maria Isabel Ribeiro
• Pedro Lima
• João Sequeira
• Carlos Bispo
• Rodrigo Ventura
• Matthijs Spaan
• Porfírio Silva

Projects

The IRS group has been involved in several financed projects, both European and national.

Current projects

• Activities Related to the Development of an Air Transfer System Prototype and Cask Transfer System Virtual Mock-up (EURATOM Fusion for Energy / ITER)
• Decentralized Planning Under Uncertainty for Cooperative Systems (FCT, 2007-2010)
• SocRob: Soccer Robots or Society of Robots (ISR internal)
• PCMMC: Perception-Driven Coordinated Multi-Robot Motion Control (FCT, 2010-2012)
• From Bio-Inspired to Institutional-Inspired Collective Robotics (FCT, 2010-2013)
• MAIS-S: Multiagent Intelligent Surveillance System (CMU-Portugal, 2010-2013)
• Robotic inspection over power lines (FCT)

Past projects

• URUS: Ubiquitous Networking Robotics in Urban Settings (EU FP6)
• FEMDS (ESA)
• HROSS (EUCLID RTP9)
• SocRob2004/FCT
• RESCUE
• RAPOSA
• Laser range systems to measure live power installations
• DARE
• MS-AGENCY
• older projects of the Intelligent Control Lab

Other research

Current research is being conducted by IRS group members in these core areas:

• Institutional Robotics
• Field Robotics
• Humanoid Robotics
• Formation State Estimation and Control
• Discrete Event Systems Based Robotic Task Modeling
• Planning under Uncertainty
• Cooperative Active Perception
• Cognitive Architectures

PhD Theses

An overview of PhD theses (co-)supervised by IRS group members.

• Planning, Learning and Control Under Uncertainty Based on Discrete Event Systems and Reinforcement Learning, Gonçalo Neto, 2010.
• Robotic Tasks Modelling and Analysis Based on Discrete Event Systems, Hugo Costelha, 2010.
• Decentralized Low Communication 6DoF Full State Formation Navigation, Sónia Marques, 2009.
• Extração de Preferências por Meio de Avaliações de Comportamentos Observados, Valdinei Silva, 2009.
• Emotion-based Mechanisms for Decision Making in Autonomous Agents, Rodrigo Ventura, 2008.
• Reinforcement Learning in Cooperative Navigation Tasks, Francisco Melo, 2007.
• Mobile Robot Navigation in Outdoor Environments: A Topological Approach, Alberto Vale, 2005.
• Stochastic Model of Micro-Agent Populations, Dejan Milutinovic, 2004.
• Hierarchies and Compositional Abstractions of Hybrid Systems, Paulo Tabuada, 2002.
• Cooperation Among Robots: a Behavioural Approach Supported on Group Theory, João Sequeira, 1999.

ISR Associate Laboratory

The Intelligent Robots and Systems group has actively participated in the research activities within theme B (Robotic Monitoring and Surveillance) of Institute for Systems and Robotics -- Associate Laboratory.

Workshops

The following workshops had IRS group members on their organizing comitees.

• ECAI 2010 Workshop on Benchmarking Intelligent (Multi-)Robot Systems (BIMRS) (August 2010)
• AAMAS'10 Workshop on Multi-agent Sequential Decision-Making in Uncertain Domains (MSDM 2010)
• ICAPS'10 POMDP Practitioners Workshop: solving real-world POMDP problems
• AAMAS'09 Workshop on Multi-agent Sequential Decision-Making in Uncertain Domains (MSDM 2009)
• Lisbon Workshop on New Challenges for Cooperative Robotics (October 2008)
• ICAPS'08 Multiagent Planning Workshop (September 2008)
• AAMAS'08 Workshop on Formal Models and Methods for Multi-Robot Systems (May 2008)
• Workshop on Cooperative Robotics at ICRA'2005 (April 2005)

Institutional Links

The scientific community organizes itself on interest groups and associations. The leading organizations on the scientific areas of IRS group, and with which IRS group members play an active role, in various degrees, are listed here:

• http://www.aass.oru.se/Agora/EuronCoop/ — CR SIG: EURON Special Interest Group on Cooperative Robotics
• http://www.ieee.org — IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• http://www.aaai.org — AAAI: Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
• http://www.robocup.org — RoboCup: Robot World Cup Initiative
• http://www.spr.ua.pt — SPR: Sociedade Portuguesa de Robótica
• http://www.appia.pt — APPIA: Associação Portuguesa Para a Inteligência Artificial

Software

Public domain software developed at IRS group, in the context of research activities.

• Multiagent decision process toolbox
• Dec-POMDP problem domains
• Matlab functions for FSA
• Open-source implementation of Sony's OPEN-R Development Kit

Educational open source software developed by IRS group staff for IST courses (mostly Python).

• Bayes filtering in 1-D, including Discrete Bayes, Kalman filter, Particle filtering (Monte-Carlo), and occupancy grid mapping (inverse sensor model): demo_bayes-1.3.py
• Solving Sudoku using plain backtrack search: sudoku.py
• Pioneer DX3 robot interface software for MATLAB: matlab_pioneer.zip

Hardware

• Bioloid Extension Project

Scientific Activities for Youngsters

The IRS group has a long tradition on the dissemination of science and technology to youngsters, as the researchers of tomorrow are now among them.

• Pioneer project of S&T Education through Robotics: RODITAS
• Scientific Activities for Youngsters on Holidays