biennial report 2011-2012

39
Biennial Repor t 2011-2012

Upload: others

Post on 13-Jan-2022

3 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Biennial Report 2011-2012

Biennial Report2011-2012

Page 2: Biennial Report 2011-2012

Biennial Report2011-2012

Page 3: Biennial Report 2011-2012

2 3

INDEX1. OVERVIEW 6 Description 7 Organization 7 IRI in numbers 9 Facilities and services 10

2. RESEARCH 14 Research projects 14 Research lines 15 Kinematics and Robot Design 16

Mobile Robotics 24

Perception and Manipulation 32

Automatic Control 40

Interdisciplinary research 48

3. PUBLICATIONS 50

4. EDUCATION 58

5. TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER 60 Technology Transfer projects 61 Industrial partners 62 Services for the industry 63

6. OUTREACH 64 Activities 64 Social networks 66 Media appearances 66

7. FUNDING 68

Page 4: Biennial Report 2011-2012

4 5

, in diverse dissemination activities like the European

Robotics Week and the Spanish Science Week, and on

industry dissemination activities such as the Consolider

Ingenio 2010 Industry Day.

Our goal is pursuing the excellence in scientific and te-

chnological research and its transfer to industry and so-

ciety, with the hope that the same view that we have

about R&D&I will be shared by our government.

Alberto SanfeliuDirector

and exploiting the meaning (semantics) of manipula-

tions in terms of objects, actions and their consequen-

ces for reproducing human actions with machines; and

the second one, ARCAS - Aerial robotics cooperative

assembly system, whose objective is the development

and experimental validation of the first cooperative free-

flying robot system for assembly and structure cons-

truction. In the control research area, 4 new European

projects have started, three related to fuel cell develo-

pment, ACOFC - Advanced controllers and observers

development for fuel cell based generation systems,

ACRES - Advanced control of renewable energy gene-

ration systems based on fuel cells/wind power, and

PUMA MIND - Physical bottom up multiscale modeling

for automotive PEMFC innovative performance and du-

rability optimization; and one related to the monitoring

and control of drinking water networks, EFFINET - Effi-

cient integrated real-time monitoring and control of drin-

king water networks. In this period we have also ca-

rried out 5 technological transfer projects with Spanish

top companies in diverse topics in robotics and control.

The Institute opened in this period new outreach chan-

nels with great success to address the general public

through social networks such as Twitter, Facebook

and Youtube. Moreover, in 2012, we participated in two

fairs, the Saló International del Còmic (with more than

100.000 attendants) and Smart Cities in Barcelona,

The economic crisis is influencing the scientific and tech-

nological advances in Spain and probably will be more

severe in the coming years. The research funds and the

research positions have been drastically cut without a

clear view when the tendency will be changed. In spite

of this, Europe continues to strive for scientific and te-

chnological excellence in their research institutions and

companies.

The Institute has followed this view and instead of lo-

sing hope, it has strengthened its efforts applying for

European research funds with great success. In the last

period, 2011-2012, we have started 6 new European re-

search projects and we have worked in 33 research

projects with an economic value of more the 5,3 million

Euros (18% more than in the last biennium). Our num-

ber and quality of peer-reviewed publications has also

increased. We produced 161 publications of which 57

are journal articles (30% more than in the period 2009-

2010). Of these, 68% appeared in top ranked journals.

The number of PhD students has also increased and

we now have 39 PhD theses under development.

The Institute has enlarged its research focus in robotics

and control. In this period the robotic research area has

started 2 new European projects, the first one IntellAct -

Intelligent observation and execution of actions and ma-

nipulations, that addresses the problem of understanding

Page 5: Biennial Report 2011-2012

6 7

The Institute has three main objectives: to promote fun-damental research in Robotics and Applied Informatics, to cooperate with the community in industrial technolo-gical projects and to offer scientific education through graduate courses.

Director: Alberto Sanfeliu

Vice-Director: Juan Andrade

Department Head: Francesc Moreno

General Manager: Ana Canales

PhD Members Representative: Carlos Ocampo

PhD Students Representative: Sergi Foix

Support Personnel Representative: Patrick Grosch

The Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial is a Joint University Research Institute of the Technical Uni-versity of Catalonia (UPC) and the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC).

It was created in November 1995 and its current pre-mises are located in the Parc Tecnològic de Barcelona, in the Faculty of Mathematics and Statistics building in the South Campus of UPC.

Description Organization

1Overview

Parc Tecnològic de Barcelona. C/ Llorens i Artigas 4-6. 08028 Barcelona.

Page 6: Biennial Report 2011-2012

8 9

Our research staff has nearly doubled in size in the last six years:

During 2011-2012 we worked in 33 research pro-jects (8 more than in 2009-2010)

see page 14

IRI in numbers

2006year

2007year

2008year

2009year

2010year

12

517

17

8

5

19

20

10

8

25

28

15

14

29

27

17

10

29

33

2011year

2012year

16

7

32

37

15

11

30

39

PhD Students

Support staff

Services

Researchers

see page 51

“ 12 PhD theses were presented in 2011-2012 see page 58

“ We have 39 theses under development: more than ever

see page 59

“ In 2011-2012 we carried out 5 technology trans-fer projects

see page 60

“ Our self-funding has reached 54 % of our bud-get, a very large number for a public research center. see page 68

“ We have started 6 new European Projects in the last biennium

see page 14

The economic value of our projects in the last biennium was 5,39 millions of Euros (18 % more than in 2009-2010)

see page 14

In 2011-2012 we have produced 161 publica-tions, with 57 journal articles (30% more than in 2009-2010)

Publications in top scientific journals in the first quartile of their respective areas increased by 18% in 2011-2012, and now represents 68% of all our journal articles.

see page 51

Page 7: Biennial Report 2011-2012

10 11

The Institute hosts 6 laboratories that provide hands on support to the various research activities. Four of these laboratories are devoted to build and test human-centered robotics systems of all kinds, including indoor challenging robotics applications, novel parallel mechanisms, and outdoor mobile robotic systems. The other two laboratories help the research activities in automatic control for energy management and fuel cells research.

Complementary services include a mechatronics work-shop, TIC services, and overall administrative support.

Peception and Manipulation LaboratoryKinematics and Robot Design LaboratoryMobile Robotics LaboratoryBarcelona Robot LaboratoryFuel Cell Control LaboratoryWater-cycle Control Systems Laboratory

Miguel AlluéSergi Hernández

Laboratories staff

Laboratories

The Perception and Manipulation Laboratory is equipped with 2 workcells: one with 2 standard manipulators and an XY positioner, and the other with 2 WAM arms in a reconfi-gurable arrangement. Additionally, researchers can find a 3 fingered hand, a Delta haptic interface, force sensors, several conventional cameras, and high speed, high resolution, and 3D cameras. The laboratory service offers quick experimental setup, several standardized software tools, and expertise in robot control and perception algorithms. This lab also hosts the Humanoid Lab initiative, with 15 small humanoid robots.

The Kinematics and Robot Design Laboratory was created thanks to the financial support of the VALTEC program of the Catalonian Government, co-financed with FEDER funds. It was initially created to validate the practical interest of our parallel robot designs, but it has rapidly derived into an active lab where the prototypes designed by the researches of the Kinematics and Robot Design Group are implemented as proofs of concept.

The Mobile Robotics Laboratory is an experimental area pri-marily devoted to hands-on research with mobile robot de-vices. The lab includes 3 Pioneer platforms, 2 service robots for urban robotics research based on Segway platforms, 4-wheel rough outdoor mobile robot, a six-legged LAURON-III walking robot, and a vast number of sensors and cameras.

Mechatronics WorkshopIT ServicesAdministration

Services

Mobile Robotics Laboratory

Kinematics and Robot Design Laboratory

Perception and Manipulation Laboratory

Facilities and services

2

Page 8: Biennial Report 2011-2012

12 13

Barcelona Robot LaboratoryThe Barcelona Robot Lab encompasses an outdoor pedes-trian area of 10.000 sq m., provided with 21 fixed cameras, a set of heterogeneous robots, full wifi coverage, and partial gps coverage. This laboratory is used for urban pedestrian mobile robotics research in national and European projects.

Fuel Cell Control LaboratoryThe objective of the Laboratory is the validation and testing of control strategies of fuel cell based energy conversion systems. The facilities are equipped with a supervisor system which monitors necessary safety conditions. Each of the five fuel cell test stations is equipped with the necessary sensors and actuators to operate in a safe and automated way, as well as to modify the working conditions that affect a fuel cell (humidity, temperature, flow, etc.).

Water-cycle Control Systems LaboratoryThe aim of this laboratory is to test and validate modelling and control developments for dynamic systems associated to the water cycle. Hence, it provides platforms of pressure, flow and level processes, over which it is possible to imple-ment real-time advanced control strategies. This laboratory is also open to offer services to other teams in the research community.

The Workshop provides support in the design, construction, and maintenance of electric, electronic, and mechanical devices and prototypes for the research projects carried out at IRI. Current rapid prototyping equipment at the Workshop includes CNC machinery and a 3D plastic printer.

Mechatronics Workshop

IT Services

The Institute has the support of an administrative service in charge of all accounting related to projects and contracts as well as the management of the whole Institute's human resources and outreach activities.

Ana CanalesEduardo BallesterosEsther ExpósitoCésar GonzálezEva LlaveríaVíctor Vílchez

Administration

José LázaroEvili del Río José Luis RonceroEduardo Wass

The IRI IT service (IRITIC) is responsible for all the computer and communications infrastructure of the Institute, as well as user support. We have a small data center properly suited with rack servers and communications devices. Our network resources include cable networks (Ethernet) and wireless (Wi-Fi).

Ferran CortésPatrick Grosch2

4

6

Page 9: Biennial Report 2011-2012

14 15

IRI's research activities are funded primarily by grants from the EU FP7 Research Programme and by compe-titive funds from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiviness through its non-oriented fundamental research projects in the DPI program.

Other sources that support our research include projects funded by the Government of Catalonia, by our hosting institutions (CSIC and UPC), and through technology transfer contracts.

of running projects in the period 2011-2012

The Institute's research activities are organized in four research lines. Three of them tackle various aspects of robotics research, including indoor and outdoor human-centered human-safe robotics systems, and the design and construction of novel parallel mecha-nisms. Efforts in the fourth line are aimed at research on enviromental resources, and on the management in the water and energy fields.

Research projects Research lines

2Research

European Projects: 9

National Projects: 10

Tech. Transfer Projects: 5

Regional Projects: 2

CSIC Projects: 6

UPC Projects: 1

TOTAL: 33

NUMBER

European Projects: 2.760.517

National Projects: 1.898.330

Tech. Transfer Projects: 452.011

Regional Projects: 96.640

CSIC Projects: 161.100

UPC Projects: 20.000

TOTAL: 5.388.598

of running projects in the period 2011-2012BUDGET (€)

Automatic Control

RESEARCH LINES

Kinematics and Robot Design

Mobile Robotics

Perception and Manipulation

Kinematics and Robot Design

Mobile Robotics

Perception and Manipulation

Automatic Control

Page 10: Biennial Report 2011-2012

16 17

Researchers:Júlia BorràsEnric CelayaLéonard JailletMontserrat ManubensAlba PérezJosep Maria PortaNicolás RojasLluís RosVicente Ruiz de AnguloFederico Thomas

PhD Students:Oriol BohigasCarlos RosalesAleix RullRubén Vaca

Research line:Kinematics and Robot Design

motion

singularities kinematics

parallel robots

mechanismsdesign

position

The Kinematics and Robot Design Group carries out funda-mental research on the design, construction, and motion analysis of complex mechanisms and structures. In Robo-tics, these devices are parallel manipulators, multi-fingered hands, reconfigurable mechanisms, or cooperating robots, to name a few, but they appear in other domains too, such as mechanistic models of locomotive organisms, molecular compounds, or nano-structures.

During the period 2011-2012, the efforts of the group have been centered on developing theoretical methods for position analysis and singularity characterization of complex multi-loop mechanisms, with an emphasis on both compu-tational and geometrical tools, and on applying such results to the analysis, design and construction of innovative parallel robots. A laboratory of parallel robots has been created to this end.

Josep Maria PortaResearch head

ObjectivesThe group seeks to extend the current knowledge on complex articulated systems, and how the motions of such systems can be planned, simulated, and controlled in an efficient and reliable way. Broadening such knowledge is essential for the development of the increasingly-sophisticated devices of today's Robotics, which must be designed to operate within prescribed workspaces, dexterously ma-nipulating objects, and avoiding singular configurations and collisions with the environment at alls times. Our efforts focus on developing theories to analyze the behaviour of such systems, and on experimen-tation with physical constructions of the systems. The group activity organizes around four principal lines: Robot design and construction, Position analysis of multi-loop linkages, Motion planning and singularity analysis.

Personnel RESEARCH STAFF IN 2011-2012:

Page 11: Biennial Report 2011-2012

18 19

Robot design and constructionThe group designs and constructs innovative mecha-tronic devices mainly based on parallel architectures. Our developments include the "Wrenchpad" (a six-axis tactile pad), an original air-pumped positioning table, several tensegrity-based robots, a pentaglide, several variations of the Gough-Stewart platform, kinematically equivalent the octahedral manipulator, and a twelve degree-of-freedom ameba-like robot.

KINEMATICS AND ROBOT DESIGN >

Research areas

Position analysis of multi-loop linkagesThe group develops techniques for linkage position analysis, i.e., for computing all possible configurations that a linkage can adopt, while respecting the kinema-tic constraints imposed by its joints. The problem finds applications to robotics (direct and inverse kinematics of serial/parallel robots, cooperative manipulation, and closed-chain motion planning), structural biology (conformational analysis of biomolecules), multibody dynamics (initial position and finite displacement pro-blems), and computer-aided design (variational CAD and assembly positioning). The group works essentially along two different approaches, one based on relaxa-tion techniques (see the CUIK project), and the other based on the deduction of characteristic polynomials using Distance Geometry.

Motion planningThe group also develops methods for closed-chain motion planning. In Robotics, for instance, this problem appears in motion planning for parallel manipulators, in object manipulation with anthropomorphic hands, in constraint-based object positioning, or in surgery or humanoid robots. The problem also appears in biochemistry, when searching for low-energy paths between different molecular conformations. In all cases, a number of loop-closure constraints give rise to a configuration space of a complex structure in which standard algorithms for motion planning cannot be di-rectly applied. The group addresses this problem using higher-dimensional continuation methods that allow characterizing the configuration space in an incremen-tal way.

Singularity analysisSingularities play a prominent role in the understanding of a robot's configuration space. Depending on their nature, singularities give rise to dexterity or controllabi-lity losses and thus are to be avoided during normal operation of a robot. They may, however, give rise to a mechanical advantage too - i.e., to the transforma-tion of small joint torques into large end-effector forces - which may be beneficial in specific applications. Also, output singularities provide the boundary of the workspace, which is a useful information for the robot designer. As a consequence, the group is developing new geometric tools that allow characterizing and computing the various singularity loci of a manipulator, either for classes of parallel mechanisms, or for general multi-body systems.

Page 12: Biennial Report 2011-2012

20 21

The main goal of this project is to provide general and com-plete algorithms for singularity analysis, workspace determi-nation, and dimensional synthesis on multi-body systems of general structure. This will be done by complementing the re-sults of the precedent CUIK+ project with new techniques for critical set computation, higher-dimensional continuation, and randomized exploration. The project also seeks to implement these algorithms efficiently into a new software platform able to perform integral motion analysis and synthesis of complex multi-body systems. In order to obtain solutions in practical ti-mes even for complex problems, the platform will be enabled to run on multi-processor machines, and to exploit the possi-bility of distributing the operations on highly-parallel proces-sing units. A final goal is to demonstrate the usefulness of the platform on complex problems of Robotics, such as grasp synthesis for anthropomorphic hands.

An extension of branch-and-prune techniques for motion analysis and synthesis of complex robotic systems

CUIK++

Principal Investigator

The objective of this project is the design of surfaces that can morph into different shapes on command. The key of our approach is the mathematical treatment of the unit-to-whole and inverse whole-to-unit relation. We are interested on how to efficiently extend the properties of individual cells and neighboring relations to the global motion of a complex sur-face; and inversely, how to map global surface properties to candidate unit cells. Programmable surfaces could be used for deployable architectural and space systems, morphing power elements such as aircraft wings, turbine blades or solar panel arrays, and biomimetic robotics.

KINEMATICS AND ROBOT DESIGN >

Research projects

Superficies programables

PROSURF

The aim of this project is to provide versatile parallel robots, which can be easily reconfigured for specific tasks, at a low cost. The designed robots are fully sensorized to make them easy to calibrate and operate. They incorporate high resolution inclinometers, tension-compression sensors, and gyroscopes. The information that all of these sensors provide permit to automatically recalibrate the designed robots after a reconfi-guration, detect and compensate systematic errors, disambi-guate between assembly modes, avoid singularities, detect leg collisions and, in general, any malfunction that might da-mage the robot.

System of reconfigurable parallel robots

VALTEC

Lluís RosPeriodJan11-Dec13

Budget91000 €

TypeNational Project€

Principal InvestigatorFederico Thomas

PeriodDec11-Jun13

Budget52000 €

TypeNational Project€

Principal InvestigatorFederico Thomas

PeriodOct08-Oct11

Budget98000 €

TypeTech. Transfer Project€

Page 13: Biennial Report 2011-2012

22 23

The goal of this project is to build a flexible toolbox for mo-tion analysis and construction of planar manipulators. Planar manipulators are selected to this end because they allow for a more visual interpretation of the motion capabilities when compared to their spatial counterparts, yet still retaining the variety of complex kinematic phenomena that may be en-countered in practice.In order to fully illustrate all these phenomena, the project aims at exploiting previous experience gained during the VALTEC and Cuik++ projects, to design and manufacture a set of ba-sic pieces that can be assembled to form different manipula-tors of this kind, as well as an associated software platform able to perform a full analysis of their workspace boundaries, singularities, and to plan singularity-free transitions between given configurations. Therefore, this toolbox can be a highly useful tool to support both the teaching of robot kinematics principles at the university level, and the empirical demonstra-tion of advanced scientific results. Additionally, the toolbox will be offered to the scientific community, thus helping to disse-minate the knowledge of the proposing group, as well as to increase its international visibility.

Un sistema modular para el análisis cinemático y la cons-trucción de manipuladores planares

CUIK-IT

This project is a subaward from a University of Idaho/Uni-versity of California, Irvine NIH grant. The goal is to design an exoskeleton-like robotic device to assist in tasks of finger and thumb rehabilitation. The exoskeleton will be designed using visual hand data as input. The mechanisms corresponding to fingers and thumb have different structure: for the finger, a simpler one-degree- of-freedom closed linkage is the prelimi-nary candidate, while for the thumb the robot is expected to have complex spatial motion, accomplished through an over-constrained linkage. In addition to the dimensional kinematic synthesis, the solution is to be optimized based on a series of constraints for size, space occupation, and mechanical advan-tage, among others.

Kinematics synthesis for a scalable finger/thumb exoeskele-ton robot

IDAHO

Principal InvestigatorMontserrat Manubens

PeriodJan12-Dec13

Budget15000 €

TypeCSIC Project€

Principal InvestigatorAlba Pérez

PeriodMar10-Feb11

Budget8400 €

TypeTech. Transfer Project€

Page 14: Biennial Report 2011-2012

24 25

Research line:

Mobile Robotics

The Mobile Robotics group performs research on human service robotics with emphasis on urban scenarios. Our activities are equally balanced between fundamental research on all aspects of perception and robust navigation for our robotic systems, as well as in systems integration.

In the period 2011-2012 we have continued our line of na-tional projects addressing various collaborative perception and navigation challenges for land robots and have also commenced participation in a line of project contributing perception solutions in the aerial robotics domain.

Alberto SanfeliuResearch head

Researchers:René AlquézarJuan AndradeIvan HuertaAlberto SanfeliuMichael Villamizar

PhD Students:Adrián AmorJosé R. CaprilesAndreu CorominasDiego EscuderoGonzalo FerrerAnaís GarrellAlex GoldhoornEdmundo GuerraLuca MarchionniAgustín OrtegaAdrián PeñateEloy RetaminoGerard SanromàÀngel SantamariaEduard SerradellErnesto TenienteEduard TrullsRafael Valencia

Personnel

ObjectivesThe research activities of the Mobile Robotics line are aimed to endow mobile robots and ubiquitous computing de-vices the necessary skills to aid humans in everyday life activities. These skills range from pure perceptual activities such as tracking, recognition or situation awareness, to motion skills, such as localization, mapping, autonomous navigation, path planning or exploration.

urban

robots navigation

mapping

localizationmobile

recognition

Support Staff:Fernando HerreroMartí MortaJoan PérezAlberto Sanfeliu P.

RESEARCH STAFF IN 2011-2012:

Page 15: Biennial Report 2011-2012

26 27

Urban service roboticsThe group focuses on the design and development of service mobile robots for human assistance and human robot interaction. This includes research on no-vel hardware and software solutions to urban robotic services such as surveillance, exploration, cleaning, transportation, human tracking, human assistance and human guiding.

MOBILE ROBOTICS >

Research areas

Social roboticsThe group’s work on social robotics has an emphasis in human robot interaction and collaboration, deve-loping new techniques to predict and learn human behavior, human-robot task collaboration, and the generation of emphatic robot behaviors using all types of sensors, computer vision techniques and cognitive systems technologies.

SLAM and robot explorationWe develop solutions for indoor and outdoor simulta-neous localization and mapping using computer vision and three-dimensional range sensing using Bayesian estimation. The research includes the development of new filtering and smoothing algorithms that limit the load of maps using information theoretic measures; as well as the design and construction of novel sensors for outdoor mapping. This research area also studies methods for autonomous robotic exploration.

Object recognitionThe group also performs research on object detec-tion and object recognition in computer vision. Current research is heavily based on boosting and other machine learning methodologies that make extensi-ve use of multiple view geometry. We also study the development of unique feature and scene descriptors, invariant to changes in illumination, cast shadows, or deformations.

Robot localization and robot navigationThis research area tackles the creation of robust single and cooperative, indoor and outdoor robot localization solutions, using multiple sensor modalities such as GPS, computer vision and laser range finding, INS sen-sors and raw odometry. The area also seeks methods and algorithms for autonomous robot navigation, and robot formation; and the application of these methods on a variety of indoor and outdoor mobile robot plat-forms.

Tracking in computer visionWe study the development of robust algorithms for the detection and tracking of human activities in indoor and outdoor areas, with applications to service robo-tics, surveillance, and human-robot interaction. This in-cludes the development of fixed/moving single camera tracking algorithms as well as detection and tracking methods over large camera sensor networks.

Page 16: Biennial Report 2011-2012

28 29

The Collective Experience of Empathic Data Systems (CEEDS) consortium advances a novel integrated technology that supports the experiencing, analyzing and understanding of massive datasets. A key axiom of CEEDS is that discovery is the identification of patterns in complex data sets by the human brain. It is these implicit information processing capa-bilities that CEEDS seeks to exploit. The implicit cues, as mea-sured through novel sensing systems, including bio-signals and non-verbal behaviour form the core information based on which the CEEDS system will process data and present them to the user(s). Confluence is achieved firstly, through immersion of the user in synthetic reality spaces, that allow to explore complex data spaces following narrative structures of varying spatio-temporal complexity, and secondly, through an unobtrusive multi-modal wearable technology that will provide an assessment of the behavioural, physiological and mental states of the user.

The collective experience of empathic data systems

CEEDS

Leader for IRI

The ARCAS project proposes the development and expe-rimental validation of the first cooperative free-flying robot system for assembly and structure construction. The project will pave the way for a large number of applications including the building of platforms for evacuation of people or landing aircrafts, the inspection and maintenance of facilities and the construction of structures in inaccessible sites and in the space. The detailed scientific and technological objectives are: new methods for motion control of a free-flying robot with mounted manipulator in contact with a grasped object as well as for coordinated control of multiple cooperating flying robots with manipulators in contact with the same object; new flying robot perception methods to model, identify and recognize the scenario and to be used for the guidance in the assembly operation; new methods for the cooperative assembly planning and structure construction by means of multiple flying robots with application to inspection and maintenance activities; and strategies for operator assistance in manipulation tasks involving multiple cooperating flying robots

MOBILE ROBOTICS >

Research projects

Aerial robotics cooperative assembly system

ARCAS

The use of robots will be in the near future extended to new demanding applications to help humans in everyday tasks, where cooperative and friendly interaction with humans will be at the core of the robotic system. In order to achieve this, robots in combination with the environment systems have to incorporate perception systems, such as cameras to detect, identify and track people; social robot communi-cation abilities, such as motion (positioning, adaptability and anticipatory behavior), speech and gesture capabilities; and social robot behaviors, for example guide people from one place to another.The general objective of this project is to design new tech-niques of cooperation between robots and human beings for doing tasks in urban environments, using the information obtained from the robot and environment (network cameras) perception systems. Specifically we want to advance in the development of new techniques in: localization and naviga-tion in dense urban areas; robot and environment perception (human action detection and tracking) where illuminant con-ditions can change; learning and adaptation of robot-human interaction; and designing new models for robot-human task cooperation (for example in guiding people).

Robot-human cooperation in urban areas

RobTaskCoop

Alberto SanfeliuPeriodSep10-Aug14

IRI Budget419000 € (Total 6,5 M€)

TypeEuropean Project€

Leader for IRIAlberto Sanfeliu

PeriodDec11-Oct15

IRI Budget767177 € (Total 6,15 M€)

TypeEuropean Project€

Principal InvestigatorAlberto Sanfeliu

PeriodJan11-Dec13

Budget348480 €

TypeNational Project€

Page 17: Biennial Report 2011-2012

30 31

The project goal is to contribute to the theoretical foundations of computational models of perception and action and their application to the solution of challenging robotics problems with large state spaces. The majority of the methods and techniques studied in this project have as pillars Bayesian estimation on one side, and geometrical models in robotics and computer vision on the other.

The application domains of the project are mobile robot mapping and navigation, and perception and manipulation of deformable objects. Although very dif ferent in nature, these two applications share many similarities with respect to the formalism of perception, estimation and exploration. The most important aspect is that both types of systems are commonly represented with very large state spaces.

Perception and action in robotics problems with large state spaces

PAU+

Principal Investigator

MOBILE ROBOTICS >

Research projects

The goal of this project is to provide a theoretical foundation of the relation between perception and action in the pre-sence of uncertainty. The main outcome of the project will be novel scientific contributions on Bayesian estimation applied to robotics problems with large state spaces. In particular, the project will produce: novel uncertainty parameterizations that allow efficient inference, new probabilistic hypotheses testing strategies with respect to information load, new active ex-ploration paradigms for scene and object model acquisition, and novel pose estimation algorithms.On the technical side, two demonstration applications are foreseen: manipulation of planar deformable objects and real-time SLAM systems in large outdoor unstructured envi-ronments. These two specific robotics applications, although very dif ferent in nature share many common aspects with respect to the formalism of the perception, estimation, and exploration algorithms used.

Perception and action under uncertainty

PAU

Juan AndradePeriodJan12-Dec14

Budget193600 €

TypeNational Project€

Principal InvestigatorJuan Andrade

PeriodJan09-Dec11

Budget217000 €

TypeNational Project€

EU-funded network of excellence building a strong commu-nity in the area of Cooperating Objects including research, public sector and industry partners from the areas of em-bedded systems, pervasive computing and wireless sensor networks.

Cooperating objects Network of Excellence

CONET

Principal InvestigatorAlberto Sanfeliu

PeriodJun08-May12

Budget16469 €

TypeEuropean Project€

In this project we develop guiding strategies for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the cooperative building of struc-tures. This requires the use of computer vision techniques for the detection, identification, and tracking of the structure elements. The detection and identification tasks are neces-sary for the localization of objects and to determine grasping and assembly poses. Experiments will be performed both in indoor and outdoor settings where illumination, wind, and other enviromental factors cannot be predicted. Moreover, as-sembly operations need to be executed in real time, which makes the challenge even more complex.

Visión autónoma para vehículos aéreos no tripulados

VAVAT

Principal InvestigatorJuan Andrade

PeriodSep12-Aug15

Budget100.000 €

TypeCSIC Project€

In this project we developed techniques to compute time to collision measures for the autonomous guidance of unman-ned aerial vehicles. The project goal was to analyze video signals using state of the art computer vision techniques.

Obstacle avoidance for UAV's using computer vision

AIN-IRI

Principal InvestigatorJuan Andrade

PeriodFeb10-Jan11

Budget50.000 €

TypeTech. Transfer Project€

Page 18: Biennial Report 2011-2012

32 33

Research line:Perception and Manipulation

Research focuses on enhancing the perception, learning, and planning capabilities of robots to achieve higher degrees of autonomy and user-friendliness during everyday manipu-lation tasks in domestic, service and industrial environments. Some topics addressed are the geometric interpretation of perceptual information, construction of 3D object models, action selection and planning, reinforcement learning, and teaching by demonstration

Carme TorrasResearch head

Researchers:Alejandro AgostiniMaria AlberichGuillem AlenyàBabette DellenPablo JiménezFrancesc MorenoDiego PardoArnau RamisaCarme Torras

PhD Students:Adrià ColoméSergi FoixFarzad HusainDavid MartínezPol MonsóLeonel RozoEdgar Simó

Personnel

ObjectivesDomestic, service and industrial robotics require the easy acquisition of 3D object models and user-friendly programming of manipulation tasks. The efforts of our group are oriented toward:- 3D active perception combining several sensory modalities, such as color vision, depth from time-of-flight, structured light, stereo, and haptics;- Teaching manipulation skills to a robot under a learning by demonstration approach, as well as teaching the robot to accomplish tasks requiring planning through rule learning; with- Special attention to the perception and manipulation of deformable objects, such as plants and cloth.

deformable objects

learning perception

computer visionplanningmanipulation

Support Staff:José L. RiveroIván RojasNàdia Tolós

RESEARCH STAFF IN 2011-2012:

Page 19: Biennial Report 2011-2012

34 35

Learning by demonstrationWe devise methods to learn object-action relations to accomplish tasks at dif ferent levels of abstraction, where object models are generated from visual and depth information, and actions, involving manipulation skills, are learned from demonstrations provided by a human using multimodal algorithms that combine vision and haptics.

PERCEPTION AND MANIPULATION >

Research areas

Planning for perception and manipulationWe are interested in planning algorithms for object modeling, with special interest in deformable objects. High-level task formulations are integrated with low-level geometry-based methods and simplified physical models, as well as with an on-line sensory-based treatment of uncertainty so as to come up with specific sequences of motion commands.

Perception of rigid and non-rigid objectsOur objective is to investigate computer vision algo-rithms for interpreting and understanding scenes from images, with applications in robotics and medical imaging. In particular, our activities are concentrated on retrieving rigid and non-rigid shape, motion and ca-mera pose from single images and video sequences.

Page 20: Biennial Report 2011-2012

36 37

The GARNICS project aims at 3D sensing of plant growth and building perceptual representations for learning the links to actions of a robot gardener. Plants are complex, self-changing systems with increasing complexity over time. Actions performed at plants (like watering), will have strongly delayed effects. Thus, monitoring and controlling plants is a difficult perception-action problem requiring advanced predictive cognitive properties, which so far can only be pro-vided by experienced human gardeners. Sensing and control of a plant actual properties, i.e. its phenotype, is relevant to e.g. seed production and plant breeders.We address plant sensing and control by combining active vision with appropriate perceptual representations, which are essential for cognitive interactions. Core ingredients for these representations are channel representations, dynamic graphs and cause-effect couples (CECs).

Gardening with a cognitive system

GARNICS

Leader for IRI

IntellAct addresses the problem of understanding and exploiting the meaning (semantics) of manipulations in terms of objects, actions and their consequences for reproducing human actions with machines. It comprises three building blocks: Learning, Monitoring, and Execution.The analysis of low-level observation data for semantic content (Learning) and the synthesis of concrete behavior (Execution) constitute the major scientific challenge of Inte-llAct. Based on the semantic interpretation and description and enhanced with low-level trajectory data for grounding, two major application areas are addressed by IntellAct: the monitoring of human manipulations for correctness and the efficient teaching of cognitive robots for manipulation. To achieve these goals, IntellAct brings together recent methods for (1) parsing scenes into spatio-temporal graphs and so called ‘semantic event chains’, (2) probabilistic models of objects and their manipulation, (3) probabilistic rule learning, and (4) dynamic motion primitives for trainable and flexible descriptions of robotic motor behavior.

PERCEPTION AND MANIPULATION >

Research projects

Intelligent observation and execution of actions and manipu-lations

IntellAct

Several learning algorithms will be adapted to a robot manipulator setting, with particular emphasis on learning by demonstration, supervised and reinforcement learning. These algorithms will be integrated with perception systems and robot manipulators available at IRI. Multi-modal perception is often required for learning manipulation skills by demonstra-tion and, therefore, it is essential to integrate the data coming from vision, ToF sensors and haptic displays into the learning schemes.

Perceptual models and learning techniques for service robots

APREN

Carme TorrasPeriodMar10-Feb13

IRI Budget477000 € (Total 2,87 M€)

TypeEuropean Project€

Leader for IRICarme Torras

PeriodMar11-Feb14

IRI Budget367000 € (Total 2,96 M€)

TypeEuropean Project€

Principal InvestigatorCarme Torras

PeriodJan10-Dec12

Budget150000 €

TypeCSIC Project€

Page 21: Biennial Report 2011-2012

38 39

The two robot WAM arms in the Perception and Manipula-tion laboratory can be placed in various relative configura-tions, some away from the standard anthropomorphic one, in order to improve their manipulability for specific tasks. In this project, their configuration will be optimized for tasks involving the manipulation of deformable surfaces (clothing, paper, plant leaves), and kinematic modeling, dynamic simulation, perception and learning algorithms will be developed for this challenging setting.

Modelos cinemáticos y técnicas de aprendizaje para robots de estructura innovadora

CINNOVA

PERCEPTION AND MANIPULATION >

Research projects

The measurement of object volumes is of large importance in many sectors of industry, including agriculture, transporta-tion, production, and forestry. In this project, we investigate the feasibility of using low-cost depth-sensing devices such as the Kinect camera for volume measurement of objects of medium size, e.g., parcels and other domestic objects, including the deformable objects. Using a fixed set-up, depth data is acquired from different view points and merged. Volumes are carved using a volume intersection approach, which is computationally simple, and, most importantly, model-free. Particular attention is given to the characteristic properties of the data acquired with the Kinect, such as the limited resolution, among other typical contingencies. The performance of the method is evaluated using ground-truth volumes of a benchmark data set of selected objects, and volume-measurement errors are estimated. The computatio-nal efficiency of the applied algorithms for volume measu-rement represents another important aspect of the project, since the computation speed largely determines how many objects can be measured during a day, which should be as large as possible.

Medición eficiente de volúmenes de objetos deformables con cámaras rentables

MVOD

PeriodJul11-Jun14

Budget100000 €

TypeCSIC Project€

Principal InvestigatorBabette Dellen

PeriodMar12-Jul13

Budget10000 €

TypeCSIC Project€

This project is mainly addressed to students interested in learning basic concepts of robotics. Hosted at the Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica industrial, our goal is to introduce engi-neering and mathematics students to the robotics world.Our philosophy: Learning, Technology and Openess.

The Humanoid Laboratory

Humanoid Lab

Principal InvestigatorGuillem Alenyà

PeriodJan09-Dec12

Budget20000 €

TypeUPC Project€

Principal InvestigatorCarme Torras

Page 22: Biennial Report 2011-2012

40 41

Research line:Automatic Control

The Automatic Control line develops basic and applied research in automatic control theory, with special emphasis on modeling, supervision and control of nonlinear, complex and/or large-scale systems. The group has acquired specific expertise in the application of advanced control techniques to environmental resources management, specifically in the water and energy fields. The research is oriented towards improving the efficiency in real-time industrial processes, such as power generation systems, water supply and distribution networks, urban drainage, power supply grids, among others.The group takes part in scientific and industrial projects at a national and European level. It also offers training in mode-ling of dynamical systems and advanced automatic control for undergraduate, MSc and PhD students from UPC and also from other universities and research centers worldwide.

Maria SerraResearch head

Researchers:Gabriela CembranoAttila HusarCristian KunuschCarlos OcampoVicenç PuigPaul PulestonJordi RieraAlbert RosichMaria Serra

PhD Students:Vanesa GarcíaJuan Manuel GrossoValeria JavaleraBernat JosephJulio Alberto LunaMauricio PrimucciMaría Laura SarmientoStephan StrahlCongcong SunFeng Xu

Personnel

ObjectivesThe main objectives of the research developed by this line can be summarized as follows:- Contribution to the development of new methodologies of modeling, supervision and control of com-plex and large-scale systems;- Contribution to improving the efficiency of industrial processes, specially in the fields of water and energy;- Implementation of the proposed methodologies and designs in real systems; and- Training of research staff and students in the field of automatic control.

automatic

supervision energy

water networks

systemscontrol

fuel cells

Support Staff:Tom CreemersVicente RodaRaffaele VitoJosé Sánchez

RESEARCH STAFF IN 2011-2012:

Page 23: Biennial Report 2011-2012

42 43

The group’s general scientific objective is the ad-vancement in the field of modeling, supervision and control of complex and large scale systems, including nonlinearities and uncertainty with the aim to improve efficiency, reliability and sustainability of processes and systems. The most relevant application fields, for which the group has acquired recognised expertise are: sys-tems in the water cycle (water resources management, water distribution, urban drainage) and energy systems (fuel cells, hydrogen-based energy systems, energy generation for autonomous mobile systems, power distribution management).

AUTOMATIC CONTROL >

Research areas

Modeling, diagnosis and control of complex multi-domain systemsThe development of control-oriented models and the design of advanced controllers for complex dynamic systems where phenomena of dif ferent nature are interrelated is another fundamental research topic of the group, where the experimental work and the real implementation is a fundamental aspect. It includes distributed and lumped parameters control-oriented modeling, experimental characterization techniques, identification, diagnosis, design of observers, sliding mode control, robust control and predictive control. Applications fields: polymeric exchange membrane fuel cells, power generation systems, ethanol reformers for hydrogen production.

Control-oriented system design for efficient operationEfficiency, reliability and sustainability of processes and systems depend on different design aspects which are also addressed by the group researchers. This includes topology selection or reconfiguration, sizing of com-ponents, structural analysis, and sensor and actuator location. Application fields: water networks, electrical grids, autonomous power generation systems, robotics.

Modeling, supervision and control of large-scale sys-temsThe study of large-scale systems requires new methodologies for modeling, supervision and control. The main research issues of the group within this topic include structural analysis, decentralized hierarchical and/or distributed control using Model Optimal/Pre-dictive Control, real-time fault detection and isolation, fault-tolerant control, optimization in resource allocation and optimal management of resources flows. Application fields: water and gas distribution networks, water abduction and transport, power grids, hybrid autonomous generation systems based on fuel cells, petrochemical plants.

Page 24: Biennial Report 2011-2012

44 45

Drinking water utilities in urban areas are facing new challenges in their real-time operation because of limited water resources, intensive energy requirements, a growing population, a costly and ageing infrastructure, increasingly stringent regulations, and increased attention towards the environmental impact of water use. Such challenges force water managers to monitor and control not only water supply and distribution, but also consumer demand. This project proposes a novel integrated water resource management system based on advanced ICT technologies of automation and telecommunications for largely improving the efficiency of drinking water networks in terms of water use, energy consumption, water loss minimization, and water quality guarantees. Two real-life pilot demonstrations in Barcelona (Spain) and Lemesos (Cyprus), respectively, will prove the general applicability of the proposed integrated ICT solution and its effectiveness in the management of drinking water networks, with considerable savings of electricity costs and reduced water loss while ensuring the high European stan-dards of water quality to citizens.

Efficient integrated real-time monitoring and control of drin-king water networks

EFFINET

Scientific and Technical Supervisor:

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) are complex nonlinear systems. In order to improve their durability, efficien-cy and to decrease the cost, time of development, design of new diagnostic tools is crucial. Powerful mathematical models of the dynamic behaviour of PEMFCs are necessary for the design and improvement of diagnostic tools. This project will enhance the understanding of interaction, competitions and synergies among the mechanisms at multiple scales and lead to the development of robust dynamic macroscopic models for control-command purposes with predictive capabilities. The novel mathematical models developed will be tested by an experimental work, in order to ensure the applicability on commercial attainable components and catalysts. The most suitable catalysts for the MEA manu-facturing technology will be used for these experiments. The implementation of the developed models on the mentioned above catalysts might allow a significant impact, and might also contribute to the most promising solutions based on current EU industrial available components. Operation condi-tions and control strategies to enhance the durability of auto-motive PEMFC will be derived on the basis of the multiscale modeling approach proposed by PUMA MIND.

AUTOMATIC CONTROL >

Research projects

Physical bottom up multiscale modelling for automotive PE-MFC innovative performance and durability optimization

PUMA MINDMESPEM project is focused on the automatic control of systems based on Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cells. The project aims to make innovative contributions to control oriented and distributed modelling, dynamic obser-vation, diagnosis and nonlinear control of PEM fuel cells. The project also addresses the control of open cathode and high temperature PEM fuel cells as well as the control of low tem-perature ethanol reformers for the production of hydrogen. Finally, the project considers the integration of PEM fuel cells in hybrid power generation systems and the supervisory control strategies necessary for the power management in such systems.

Desarrollo de sistemas de control para la mejora de la eficiencia y la vida útil en sistemas basados en pilas de combustible PEM

MESPEM

Gabriela CembranoPeriodOct12-Sep15

IRI Budget273534 € (Total 2192290 €)

TypeEuropean Project€

Leader for IRIJordi Riera

PeriodDec12-Dec15

IRI Budget273495 € (Total 2294106 €)

TypeEuropean Project€

Principal InvestigatorMaria Serra

PeriodJan12-Dec14

Budget130680 €

TypeNational Project€

The WATMAN Project deals with the global management of the hydric networks related to the UWC networks. This management not only comprises the design of control strategies to fulfill performance objectives but also includes the development of a control-oriented modeling for the UWC networks, regardless of their nature (raw-water, drinking water or sewage). Additionally, system disturbances must be taken into account. In the case of water systems, stochastic disturbances associated to water demand and rain predic-tions (for sewage network) are important examples thereof. The influence of those disturbances over the UWC networks, their nature and modelling approaches belong to the set of research topics to be treated within the project.

Analysis and design of distributed optimal control strategies applied to large-scale water systems management

WATMAN

Principal InvestigatorGabriela Cembrano

PeriodJan10-Dec12

Budget196.020 €

TypeNational Project€

Page 25: Biennial Report 2011-2012

46 47

The collaborative project between IRI and CETaqua, a re-search center created in 2006 and cofounded by CSIC, UPC and Agbar; seeks to develop applied research projects with the water industry, focused on the use of automatic control techniques to improve the efficiency in water systems, inclu-ding water resources management, drinking water networks, urban drainage and treatment plants.

Promotion and supervision of research projects related to efficiency in water networks

CETAQUA

Principal Investigator

AUTOMATIC CONTROL >

Research projects

The activities proposed in this project strive for providing novel and practical responses to the actual requirement of efficiency and lifetime improvement of PEM fuel cells based generation systems. Special efforts will be focused on obtaining innovative results in the area of PEM fuel cells control oriented models, dynamic estimation of states and new operational variables and nonlinear control based on Higher Order Sliding Modes. Considerable work with new technologies of PEM fuel cells (such as high temperature and open cathode fuel cells) will be also addressed, as well as activities in the area of fuel cells integration into hybrid generation systems.

Advanced controllers and observers development for fuel cell based generation systems

ACOFC

Gabriela CembranoPeriodJun07-Jun13

Budget270000 €

TypeTech. Transfer Project€

Principal InvestigatorCristian Kunusch

PeriodJun11-May13

Budget50000 €

TypeEuropean Project€

Advanced control of renewable energy generation systems based on fuel cells/wind power

ACRES

Principal InvestigatorJordi Riera

PeriodMay12-May13

Budget116852 €

TypeEuropean Project€

As result of the AM0619 project "Optimum Control of Urban Drainage Systems", where CORAL tool was evaluated against real case study (Riera Blanca), some improvements in the modelling part of the tool have been suggested. In particu-lar, the current RTC1201 project adresses the following CORAL improvements: In-line retention in sewers, Multi-compartment tanks, weirs controlled by water level, run-off modelling improvement and multi-objective prioritisation.The CORAL improvements have been satisfactory tested and validated using the Riera Blanca catchment of the Barcelona sewer network.

Coral upgrade RCT1201

CORAL

Principal InvestigatorVicenç Puig

PeriodDec11-Dec12

Budget25000 €

TypeTech. Transfer Project€

MACPERCON explores the way of analysing, designing and implementing novel controllers not used so far in the field of highly complex systems such as fuel cells. The particular strategy corresponds with the unfalsified control, which is based on the idea of commutation of controllers depending on a desired system per-formance. Additionally, it is expected to complement the proposed control designs with other modern control strategies such as model predictive control (MPC).

Enhanced management topologies based on unfalsified control for PEM fuel cells performance improvement

MACPERCON

Principal InvestigatorCarlos Ocampo

PeriodJan12-Dec13

Budget11100 €

TypeCSIC Project€

Upcoming sustainable power systems should incorporate efficient energy converters, such as fuel cells, and electrical storage as super-capacitors or batteries. These systems, known as Hybrid Electrical Generation Systems (HEGS), include many subsystems with different dynamics and constraints, but the whole system must work in a coordinated and efficient way. This project tries to solve some of the problems in autonomous HEGS by proposing accurate models and new advanced controllers for the fuel cell subsystem and efficient energy management strategies.

Advanced controllers for new hybrid electrical generation systems based in PEM fuel cells

AECI

Principal InvestigatorJordi Riera

PeriodJan10-Mar11

Budget9700 €

TypeNational Project€

The aim of the project is to improve the PEMFC systems performan-ce and to take full advantage of PEMFC integration into Distributed Electrical Generation Systems. The results will contribute to the de-finition of an integrated hydrogen based energy system, which has been seen as a possible scenario for future energy supply in Europe.

Design and implementation of control systems for PEM fuel cells and their integration into distributed electrical power generation systems

DISCPICO

Principal InvestigatorMaria Serra

PeriodJan11-Dec11

Budget10000 €

TypeNational Project€

The European Union is conscious about the fundamental pro-blems arisen from the current energy system, based mainly on hydrocarbons and has a firm commitment to encourage renewable energy technologies research.The key aim of this project is the development of advanced controllers capable to improve the efficiency of fuel cells\wind power based DEGS. They will be implemented and tested in the ACES labs in Barcelona. The results of this implementation will be used to assess the theoretical developments and will also provide a technology demonstrator to aid technology transfer to industry.

Page 26: Biennial Report 2011-2012

48 49

CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 Multimodal interaction in pattern recognition and computer vision

MIPRCV

Social and industrial demands for Multimodal Interactive (MI) technologies and advanced man-machine interfaces are in-creasing dramatically. Pattern Recognition (PR) and Computer Vision (CV) play a highly relevant role of in the development of these MI technologies and interfaces. However, traditional PR and CV technologies have mainly focused on full auto-mation, even though full automation often proves elusive or unnatural in many applications, where technology is expec-ted to assist rather than replace the human agents.MIPRCV establishes a five-years research programme to develop PR and CV approaches that explicitly deal with the challenges and opportunities entailed by the human-interac-tion paradigm. Based on these approaches, it also aims at implementing actual systems and prototypes for a number of important MI applications.

Research:

Interdisciplinary research projects

Synergies that span several research lines motivate interdisciplinary research.

Good examples of this type of research is our participation during this period in the CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 program, and the recognition by the Catalonian Government of the excellence of our research groups VIS and Robòtica

The Vision and Intelligent Systems Group (VIS) carries out ba-sic and applied research with the aim of understanding and designing intelligent systems that are capable of interacting with the real world in an autonomous and wide-reaching manner. Such intelligent systems must perceive, reason, plan, act and learn from previous experiences. The group works on the following topics: robust colour image segmentation and labelling, pattern recognition, viewpoint invariant object learning and recognition, object tracking, face tracking, biometrics, processing and analysis of medical images for diagnosis, document analysis, mobile robot navigation, simultaneous localisation and map building, visual servoing, and human-computer interaction. The possible areas of application of the VIS’s research include the automotive and transport industry, the biomedical imaging industry, the spa-ce industry, robotics applications, security, home and office automation, the entertainment industry, and future computing environments.

The IRI Robotics group is a group of long tradition established in 1997. The research carried out in this group is organized around two complementary lines of research: "Perception and Manipulation" and "Kinematics and Robot Design". One objective is to improve the understanding of perceptual information geometry, and to build models of 3D objects in the context of domestic and service robotics. Following the approach of cognitive robotics, this group works on planning and action selection, reinforcement learning, and learning by demonstration. In "Kinematics and Robot Design" we deal with the analysis, design and construction of robot mechanisms, kinematic analysis (position and instantaneous motion), the definition of optimal designs (synthesis of me-chanisms), the construction of physical prototypes, and the generation of collision-free motion.

Leader for IRI:Alberto Sanfeliu

PeriodOct07-Nov12

IRI Budget648000 € (Total: 4,5 M€)

TypeNational Project€

Grup de recerca consolidat-VIS

SGR-VIS

Principal InvestigatorAlberto Sanfeliu

PeriodSep09-Dec13

Budget48800 €

TypeRegional Project€

Grup de recerca consolidat-Robòtica

SGR-Robòtica

Principal InvestigatorCarme Torras

PeriodSep09-Dec13

Budget47840 €

TypeRegional Project€

Page 27: Biennial Report 2011-2012

50 51

We are not only enhancing the quality of our scientific throughput, but also its quantity. The number of publications has been doubled during the last six years.

In 2011-2012 we have mantained the high number of

publications of 2009-2010, but increasing its quality by

publishing more journal articles

Publication in top scientific journals in the first quartile

of their respective areas has increased by 18% in 2011-

2012, and now represents a 68% of all journal articles.

We are aware of the great importance of communicating our results to the scientific community. Therefore, our scientific production has grown considerably in the last years. Journal articles, conferences participation, and book authoring are included in our production.

3Publications

Articles quality evolution

Publications trend Distribution of article journals in 2011-2012

Article in others journals

Articles in journals top quartile impact factor

Articles in journals 2nd quartile impact factor

12

Conference presence in 2011-2012

84 10International conferences National conferences

- IEEE Transactions on Robotics- ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics- International Journal of Mechanics and Control- Pattern Recognition Letters- Int. Journal of Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence- Computer Vision and Image Understanding

Some IRI members participate in the Editorial Board of the fo-llowing journals:

In November 2011, our Institute co-organized the International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV2011)

Furthermore, in 2013 we will organize two conferences:- 6th International Workshop on Computational Kinematics (CK2013) to be held in May- 6th European Conference on Mobile Robots (ECMR2013) to be held in September

03-04years

2

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

05-06years

07-08years

09-10years

11-12years

623

15

21

14

6

25

20

4

5

2

35

10

23

7

Articles from non JCR journals

1 3

Quartile of the art icles published in JCR journals:

13

1035

03-04years

15

Conferences

Books

Book chapters

Journals

05-06years

07-08years

09-10years

11-12years

48

23

21

68

231

27

80

23

8

44

103

16

15

57

94

15

4

Technical reports

Page 28: Biennial Report 2011-2012

52 53

Scientific publications

JOURNAL ARTICLES2012 A. Abramov, K. Pauwels, J. Papon, F. Wörgötter and B. Dellen. Real-time segmentation of stereo videos on a portable system with a mobile GPU. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, 22(9): 1292-1305, 2012.

J. Blesa, V.Puig and J. Saludes. Robust identification and fault diagnosis based on uncertain multiple input-multiple output linear parameter varying parity equations and zonotopes. Journal of Process Control, 22(10): 1890-1912, 2012.

O. Bohigas, M. Manubens and L. Ros. A complete method for workspace boundary determination on general structure manipulators. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 28(5): 993-1006, 2012.

J. Díaz and C. Torras. A personal account of Turing’s imprint on the development of computer science. Computer Science Review, 6(5): 225–234, 2012.

E. Celaya, T. Creemers and L. Ros. Exact interval propagation for the efficient solution of position analysis problems on planar linkages. Mechanism and Machine Theory, 54: 116-131, 2012.

A. Garrell Zulueta and A. Sanfeliu. Cooperative social robots to accompany groups of people. The International Journal of Robotics Research, 31(13): 1675-1701, 2012.

A.P. Husar, S. Strahl and J. Riera. Experimental characteri-zation methodology for the identification of voltage losses of PEMFC: applied to an open cathode stack. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 37(8): 7309-7315, 2012.

P. Jiménez. Survey on model-based manipulation planning of deformable objects. Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 28(2): 154-163, 2012.

M. Manubens, G. Moroz, D. Chablat, P. Wenger and F. Rouillier. Cusp points in the parameter space of degenerate planar 3-RPR parallel manipulators. Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, 4(4): 041003, 2012.

S. Montes, V. Puig and J. Blesa. Robust fault detection based on adaptive threshold generation using interval LPV obser-vers. International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing, 26(3): 258-283, 2012.

C. Ocampo-Martínez, D. Barcelli, V. Puig and A. Bemporad. Hierarchical and decentralised model predictive control of drinking water networks: application to Barcelona case study. IET Control Theory and Applications, 6(1): 62–71, 2012.

J.M. Porta, L. Jaillet and O. Bohigas. Randomized path plan-ning on manifolds based on higher-dimensional continuation. International Journal of Robotics Research, 31(2): 201-215, 2012

A. Ramisa, D. Aldavert, S. Vasudevan, R. Toledo and R.

López de Mántaras. Evaluation of three vision based object perception methods for a mobile robot. Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, 2012.

D. Recio, C. Ocampo-Martínez and M. Serra. Design of optimization-based controllers applied to an ethanol steam reformer for hydrogen production. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 37(15): 11141-11156, 2012.

N. Rojas and F. Thomas. On closed-form solutions to the po-sition analysis of Baranov trusses. Mechanism and Machine Theory, 50: 179-196, 2012.

N. Rojas and F. Thomas. Formulating Assur kinematic chains as projective extensions of Baranov trusses. Mechanism and Machine Theory, 56: 16-27, 2012.

E. Romero and R. Alquézar Mancho. Comparing error minimized extreme learning machines and support vector sequential feed-forward neural networks. Neural Networks, 25: 122-129, 2012.

A. Rosich, E. Frisk, J. Åslund, R. Sarrate and F. Nejjari. Fault diagnosis based on causal computations. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part A: Systems and Humans, 42(2): 371-381, 2012.

V. Ruiz de Angulo, J. Cortés and J.M. Porta. Rigid-CLL: Avoiding constant-distance computations in cell linked-lists algorithms. Journal of Computational Chemistry, 33(3): 294-300, 2012.

G. Sanroma, R. Alquézar Mancho and F. Serratosa i Casa-nelles. A new graph matching method for point-set corres-pondence using the EM algorithm and Softassign. Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 116(2): 292-304, 2012.

G. Sanroma, R. Alquézar Mancho, F. Serratosa i Casanelles and B. Herrera. Smooth point-set registration using neigh-boring constraints. Pattern Recognition Letters, 2012, 33(15): 2029-2037, 2012.

F. Serratosa i Casanelles, R. Alquézar Mancho and N. Amézquita. A probabilistic integrated object recognition and tracking framework. Expert Systems with Applications, 39(8): 7302-7318, 2012.

A. Solé, F. Serratosa i Casanelles and A. Sanfeliu. On the graph edit distance costs: properties and applications. International Journal of Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence, 26(5): 1260004, 2012.

F. Thomas and J. Borràs Sol. On the primal and dual forms of the Stewart platform pure condition. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 28(6): 1205-1215, 2012.

S. Tornil-Sin, C. Ocampo-Martínez, V. Puig and T. Escobet. Robust fault detection of non-linear systems using set-membership state estimation based on constraint satisfaction. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 25(1): 1-10, 2012.

S. Ulbrich, V. Ruiz de Angulo, T. Asfour, C. Torras and R. Dillman. General robot kinematics decomposition without intermediate markers. IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, 23(4): 620-630, 2012.

S. Ulbrich, V. Ruiz de Angulo, C. Torras, T. Asfour and R. Dill-man. Kinematic Bézier maps. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Part B, 42(4): 1215-1230, 2012.

M. Villamizar, J. Andrade-Cetto, A. Sanfeliu and F. Moreno-Noguer. Bootstrapping boosted random Ferns for discrimi-native and efficient object classification. Pattern Recognition, 45(9): 3141-3153, 2012.

2011I. Abío, M. Alberich-Carramiñana and V. González-Alonso. The ultrametric space of plane branches. Communications in Algebra, 39(11): 4206-4220, 2011.

E.E. Aksoy, A. Abramov, J. Dörr, K. Ning, B. Dellen and F. Wör-götter. Learning the semantics of object-action relations by observation. The International Journal of Robotics Research, 30(10): 1229-1249, 2011.

J. Blesa, V. Puig and J. Saludes. Identification for passive robust fault detection using zonotope-based set-membership approaches. International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing, 25(9): 788-812, 2011.

J. Borràs Sol, F. Thomas and C. Torras. Architectural singu-larities of a class of pentapods. Mechanism and Machine Theory, 46(8): 1107-1120, 2011.

J. Borràs Sol, F. Thomas and C. Torras. Singularity-invariant families of line-plane 5-SPU platforms. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 27(5): 837-848, 2011.

M. Céfalo and JM Mirats-Tur. A comprehensive dynamic mo-del for class-1 tensegrity systems based on quaternions.In-ternational Journal of Solids and Structures,48(5):785-802,2011

G. Cembrano, J. Quevedo, V. Puig, R. Pérez, J. Figueras, J.M. Verdejo i Rabassó, M.I. Escaler, G. Ramón, G. Barnet, P. Rodríguez and M. Casas. PLIO: a generic tool for real-time operational predictive optimal control of water networks. Water Science & Technology, 64(2): 448-459, 2011.

S. De Lira, V. Puig, J. Quevedo and A.P. Husar. LPV observer design for PEM fuel cell system: Application to fault detection. Journal of Power Sources, 196(9): 4298–4305, 2011.

B. Dellen and F. Wörgötter. A local algorithm for the compu-tation of image velocity via constructive interference of global Fourier components. International Journal of Computer Vision, 92(1): 53-70, 2011.

M. Ferrer, D. Karatzas, E. Valveny, I. Bardaji, H. Bunke. A ge-neric framework for median graph computation based on a recursive embedding approach. Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 115(7):919-928, 2011.

S. Foix, G. Alenyà and C. Torras. Lock-in time-of-flight (ToF) cameras: a survey. IEEE Sensors Journal, 11(9): 1917-1926, 2011.

V. García, M. Serra and J. Llorca. Controllability study of an ethanol steam reforming process for hydrogen production. Journal of Power Sources, 196(9): 4411-4417, 2011.

V. Ila, J.M. Porta and J. Andrade-Cetto. Amortized constant time estimation in Pose SLAM and hierarchical SLAM using a mixed Kalman-information filter. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 59(5): 310-318, 2011.

L. Jaillet, F. Corcho, J.J. Pérez and J. Cortés. Randomized tree construction algorithm to explore energy landscapes. Journal of Computational Chemistry, 32(16): 3464–3474, 2011.

C. Kunusch, P.F. Puleston, M.Á. Mayosky and A.P. Husar. Control-oriented modeling and experimental validation of a PEMFC generation system. IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, 26(3): 851-861, 2011.

N. Krüger, C. Geib, J. Piater, R. Petrick, M. Steedman, F. Wör-götter, A. Ude, T. Asfour, D. Kraft, D. Omrčen, A. Agostini, R. Dillmann. Object–Action Complexes: Grounded abstractions of sensory–motor processes. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 59(10):740–757, 2011.

J. López, F.E. Cellier and G. Cembrano. Estimating the horizon of predictability in time-series predictions using inductive modelling tools. International Journal of General Systems, 40(3): 263-282, 2011.

J. M. Mirats Tur and J. Camps. A three-dof actuated robot. IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, 18(3): 96-103, 2011.

A. Niknezhadi, M. Allué, C. Kunusch and C. Ocampo-Martínez. Design and implementation of LQR/LQG strategies for oxygen stoichiometry control in PEM fuel cells based systems. Journal of Power Sources, 196(9): 4277-4282, 2011.

C. Ocampo-Martínez, S. Bovo and V. Puig. Partitioning approach oriented to the decentralised predictive control of large-scale systems. Journal of Process Control, 21(5): 775-786, 2011.

A. Perez. Synthesis of spatial RPRP closed linkages for a given screw system. Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, 3(2): 021009, 2011.

R. Pérez, V. Puig, J. Pascual, J. Quevedo, E. Landeros and A. Peralta. Methodology for leakage isolation using pressure sensitivity analysis in water distribution networks. Control Engineering Practice, 19(10): 1157-1167, 2011

N. Rojas and F. Thomas. Closed-form solution to the position analysis of Watt–Baranov trusses using the bilateration method. Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, 3(3): 1-10, 2011.

N. Rojas and F. Thomas. Distance-based position analysis of the three seven-link Assur kinematic chains. Mechanism and

Machine Theory, 46(2): 112-126, 2011.

N. Rojas and F. Thomas. The forward kinematics of 3-RPR planar robots: a review and a distance-based formulation. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 27(1): 143-150, 2011.

C. Rosales, L. Ros, J.M. Porta and R. Suárez. Synthesizing grasp configurations with specified contact regions. The Inter-national Journal of Robotics Research, 30(4): 431-443, 2011.

J. Rosell, R. Suárez, C. Rosales and A. Pérez. Autonomous motion planning of a hand-arm robotic system based on captured human-like hand postures. Autonomous Robots, 31(1): 87-102, 2011.

S. Strahl, A.P. Husar and M. Serra. Development and experi-mental validation of a dynamic thermal and water distribution model of an open cathode proton exchange membrane fuel cell. Journal of Power Sources, 196(9): 4251-4263, 2011.

E. Trulls Fortuny, A. Corominas Murtra, J. Perez, G. Ferrer, D. Vasquez, J. M. Mirats Tur and A. Sanfeliu. Autonomous navigation for mobile service robots in urban pedestrian environments. Journal of Field Robotics, 28(3): 329-354, 2011

BOOKS

2012C. Kunusch, P.F. Puleston and M.Á. Mayosky. Sliding-Mode Control of PEM Fuel Cells. Volume 20 of Advances in Industrial Control. Springer UK, 2012

2011C. Ocampo-Martínez. Model predictive control of wastewater systems. Volume 30 of Advances in Industrial Control. Springer, 2011.

J. Andrade-Cetto, J. Filipe, J. Ferrier (editors). Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics. Revised and Selected Papers from Int. Conf. on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics 2009. Volume 85 of Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering. Springer, 2011.

J. Andrade-Cetto, J. Ferrier, J. Filipe (editors). Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics. Revised and Selected Papers from Int. Conf. on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics 2010. Volume 89 of Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering. Springer, 2011.

X. Jiang, M. Ferrer, A. Torsello (editors). Graph-based Representations in Pattern Recognition. Proceedings of the 8th IAPR-TC-15 International Workshop, GbRPR 2011. Volume 6658 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer, 2011.

BOOK CHAPTERS

2011C. Torras. Comentario al aforismo 74. In El arte de aprender. Soluciones desde la prudencia, pp. 74-75. Fundación EOI, Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio, 2011.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES

2012G. Alenyà, B. Dellen, S. Foix and C. Torras. Robotic leaf probing via segmentation of range data into surface patches, 2012 IROS Workshop on Agricultural Robotics: Enabling Safe, Effi-cient, Affordable Robots for Food Production, 2012, Vilamoura, Portugal, pp. 1-6.

G. Alenyà, A. Ramisa, F. Moreno-Noguer and C. Torras. Characterization of textile grasping experiments, 2012 ICRA Workshop on Conditions for Replicable Experiments and Performance Comparison in Robotics Research, 2012, St Paul, Minnesota, USA, pp. 1-6.

A. Alexey, K. Pauwels, J. Papon, F. Wörgötter and B. Dellen. Depth-supported real-time video segmentation with the Kinect, 2012 IEEE Workshop on Applications of Computer Vision, 2012, Breckenridge, CO, USA, pp. 457-464.

O. Bohigas, Michael E. Henderson, L. Ros and J.M. Porta. A singularity-free path planner for closed-chain manipulators, 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automa-tion, 2012, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, pp. 2128-2134, IEEE

O. Bohigas, M. Manubens and L. Ros. Planning singularity-free force-feasible paths on the Stewart platform, 13th International Symposium on Advances in Robot Kinematics, 2012, Innsbruck, in Latest Advances in Robot Kinematics, pp. 245-252, 2012, Springer.

O. Bohigas, M. Manubens and L. Ros. Navigating the wrench-feasible C-space of cable-driven hexapods, 1st International Conference on Cable-Driven Parallel Robots, 2012, Stuttgart, in Cable-Driven Parallel Robots, Vol 12 of Me-chanisms and Machine Science, pp. 53-68, 2013, Springer.

O. Bohigas, D. Zlatanov, M. Manubens and L. Ros. On the numerical classification of the singularities of robot manipu-lators, 2012 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference, 2012, Chicago, Illinois, USA, to appear

O. Bohigas, D. Zlatanov, L. Ros, M. Manubens and J.M. Porta. Numerical computation of manipulator singularities, 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2012, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, pp. 1351-1358, IEEE

Page 29: Biennial Report 2011-2012

54 55

A. Colomé, D. Pardo, G. Alenyà and C. Torras. External force estimation for textile grasp detection, 2012 IROS Workshop Beyond Robot Grasping: Modern Approaches for Learning Dynamic Manipulation, 2012, Vilamoura, Portugal, pp. 1-1.

A. Colomé and C. Torras. Redundant inverse kinematics: Ex-perimental comparative review and two enhancements, 2012 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2012, Vilamoura, Portugal, pp. 5333-5340, IEEE

D. Feroldi, M. Allué, J. Riera, M. Serra and M. Basualdo. Experimental model for a DMC-based control applied to a PEM fuel cell, 20th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, 2012, Barcelona, IEEE

S. Foix, S. Kriegel, S. Fuchs, G. Alenyà and C. Torras. Informa-tion-gain view planning for free-form object reconstruction with a 3D ToF camera, 14th International Conference on Advanced Concepts for Intelligent Vision Systems, 2012, Brno, Czech Republic, in Advanced Concepts for Intelligent Vision Systems, Vol 7517 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 36-47, 2012, Springer.

J.M. Grosso, C. Ocampo-Martínez and V. Puig. A service reliability model predictive control with dynamic safety stocks and actuators health monitoring for drinking water networks, 2012 IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2012, IEEE,

J.M. Grosso, C. Ocampo-Martínez and V. Puig. Adaptive multilevel neuro-fuzzy model predictive control for drinking water networks, 2012 Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, 2012, Barcelona, pp. 1548-1553, IEEE.

M. Igelmo and A.Sanfeliu. Compact form of the pseudo-inverse matrix in the approximation of a star graph using the conductance electrical model (CEM), 14th Joint IAPR Interna-tional Workshop on Structural, Syntactic and Statistical Pattern Recognition, 2012, Hiroshima, Japan, in Structural, Syntactic, and Statistical Pattern Recognition, Vol 7626 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 539-547, 2012, Springer.

L. Jaillet and J.M. Porta. Asymptotically-optimal path planning on manifolds, 2012 Robotics: Science and Systems Conferen-ce, 2012, Sydney (Australia), pp. 1-8, MIT Press, 2012, Sydney (Australia)

W. Kazmi, S. Foix and G. Alenyà. Plant leaf imaging using time of flight camera under sunlight, shadow and room conditions, 2012 IEEE International Symposium on Robotic and Sensors Environments, 2012, Magdeburg, Germany, pp. 192-197, IEEE.

P. Monsó, G. Alenyà and C. Torras. POMDP approach to robotized clothes separation, 2012 IEEE/RSJ International Con-ference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2012, Vilamoura, Portugal, pp. 1324-1329, IEEE.

J. Moré, P.F. Puleston, C. Kunusch and E. Fossas. Multi input sliding mode control of an autonomous fuel cell-supercapa-citor hybrid system, 2012 International Workshop on Variable Structure Systems, 2012, Mumbai, India, pp. 184-189.

C. Ocampo-Martínez, V. Puig and S. Montes. Multi-rate decentralized MPC strategy for drinking water networks: Application to the Barcelona case study, 10th International Conference on Hydroinformatics, 2012, Hamburg, pp. 1-8, IWA.

D. Pardo, L. Rozo, G. Alenyà and C. Torras. Dynamically Consistent Probabilistic Model for Robot Motion Learning, 2012 IROS Workshop on Learning and Interaction in Haptic Robots, 2012, Algarve, Portugal, pp. 1-2.

V. Puig, C. Ocampo-Martínez, J. Romera, J. Quevedo, R. Ne-genborn, P. Rodríguez and S. de Campos. Model predictive control of combined irrigation and water supply systems: Application to the Guadiana river, 2012 IEEE International Conference on Networking, Sensing and Control, 2012, Beijing, China, pp. 85-90.

V. Puig, C. Ocampo-Martínez and S. Montes. Hierarchical temporal multi-layer decentralised MPC strategy for drinking water networks: application to the Barcelona case study, 2012 Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, 2012, Barcelona, pp. 734-739, IEEE.

J. Quevedo, R.Pérez, J.Pascual, V.Puig, G. Cembrano and A.Peralta. Methodology to detect and isolate water losses in water hydraulic networks: Application to Barcelona water network, 8th IFAC Symposium on Fault Detection Supervision and Safety for Technical Processes, 2012, Mexico City, Mexico, pp. 922-927.

A. Ramisa, G. Alenyà, F. Moreno-Noguer and C. Torras. Using depth and appearance features for informed robot grasping of highly wrinkled clothes, 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2012, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, pp. 1703-1708, IEEE.

F. Rigual, A. Ramisa, G. Alenyà and C. Torras. Object detection methods for robot grasping: Experimental assessment and tuning, 15th International Conference of the Catalan Association for Artificial Intelligence, 2012, Alacant, in Artificial Intelligence Research and Development, Vol 248 of Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, pp. 123-132, 2012, IOS Press.

D. Robles, V. Puig, C. Ocampo-Martínez and L.E. Garza Castañón. Methodology for actuator fault tolerance evaluation of linear constrained MPC: application to the Barcelona water network, 2012 Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, 2012, Barcelona, pp. 518-523, IEEE.

N. Rojas, J. Borràs Sol and F. Thomas. The octahedral manipulator revisited, 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2012, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, pp. 2293-2298, IEEE

C. Rosales, R. Suárez, M. Gabiccini and A. Bicchi. On the synthesis of feasible and prehensile robotic grasps, 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2012, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, pp. 550-556, IEEE.A. Rosich. Sensor placement for fault detection and isolation

based on structural models, 8th IFAC Symposium on Fault Detection Supervision and Safety for Technical Processes, 2012, Mexico City, Mexico, pp. 391-396.

A. Rosich, R. Sarrate and F. Nejjari. Optimal sensor placement for leakage detection and isolation in water distribution networks, 8th IFAC Symposium on Fault Detection Supervision and Safety for Technical Processes, 2012, Mexico City, Mexico, pp. 776-781.

R. Sarrate, F. Nejjari and A. Rosich. Model-based optimal sensor placement approaches to fuel cell stack system fault diagnosis, 8th IFAC Symposium on Fault Detection Supervi-sion and Safety for Technical Processes, 2012, Mexico City, Mexico, pp. 96-101.

R. Sarrate, F. Nejjari and A. Rosich. Sensor placement for fault diagnosis performance maximization under budgetary cons-traints, 2nd International Conference on Systems and Control, 2012, Marrakech, Morocco, pp. 1-6

J. Scandaliaris and A. Sanfeliu. Probabilistic invariant image representation and associated distance measure, 21st Inter-national Conference on Pattern Recognition, 2012, Tsukuba, Japan, pp. 3569-3572, IEEE Computer Society, to appear.

E. Serradell, P. Glowacki, K. Jan, F. Moreno-Noguer and P. Fua. Robust non-rigid registration of 2D and 3D graphs, 2012 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2012, Providence, Rhode Island, pp. 996-1003, IEEE Press.

E. Serradell, K. Jan, F. Moreno-Noguer and P. Fua. Robust elastic 2D/3D geometric graph matching, 2012 SPIE Medical Imaging: Image Processing, 2012, San Diego CA, USA, Vol 8314 of Proceedings of the SPIE, 2012, SPIE

E. Simo-Serra, A. Perez, H. Moon and N. Robson. Kinematic synthesis of multi-fingered robotic hands for finite and infinitesimal tasks, 13th International Symposium on Advances in Robot Kinematics, 2012, Innsbruck, in Latest Advances in Robot Kinematics, pp. 173-180, 2012, Springer.

E. Simo-Serra, A. Ramisa, G. Alenyà, C. Torras and F. Moreno-Noguer. Single image 3D human pose estimation from noisyobservations, 2012 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2012, Providence, Rhode Island, pp. 2673-2680, IEEE Press.

A. Solé, G. Sanroma, F. Serratosa i Casanelles and R. Alquézar Mancho. Group-wise sparse correspondences between images based on a common labelling approach, 7th International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications, 2012, Rome, Italy, pp. 269-278, INSTICC

K. Tchon, J. Jakubiak, P. Grosch and F. Thomas. Motion planning for parallel robots with non-holonomic joints, 13th International Symposium on Advances in Robot Kinematics, 2012, Innsbruck, in Latest Advances in Robot Kinematics, pp. 115-122, 2012, Springer.

E. Trulls Fortuny, A. Sanfeliu and F. Moreno-Noguer. Spatio-temporal descriptor for wide-baseline stereo reconstruction of non-rigid and ambiguous scenes, 12th European Conference on Computer Vision, 2012, Florence, Italy, in Computer Vision, Vol 7574 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 441-454, 2012, Springer

R.H. Vaca, J. Aranda and F. Thomas. Simplified Voronoi dia-grams for motion planning of quadratically-solvable Gough-Stewart platforms, 13th International Symposium on Advances in Robot Kinematics, 2012, Innsbruck, in Latest Advances in Robot Kinematics, pp. 157-164, 2012, Springer.

R. Valencia, J. Valls Miró, G. Dissanayake and J. Andrade-Cetto. Active Pose SLAM, 2012 IEEE/RSJ International Con-ference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2012, Vilamoura, Portugal, pp. 1885-1891, IEEE.

M. Villamizar, A. Garrell Zulueta, A. Sanfeliu and F. Moreno-Noguer. Online human-assisted learning using random ferns, 21st International Conference on Pattern Recognition, 2012, Tsukuba, Japan, pp. 2821-2824, IEEE Computer Society,

2011A. Agostini and E. Celaya. A competitive strategy for function approximation in Q-learning, 2011 International Joint Conferen-ce on Artificial Intelligence, 2011, Barcelona, pp. 1146-1151.

A. Agostini, C. Torras and F. Wörgötter. Integrating task planning and interactive learning for robots to work in human environments, 2011 International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2011, Barcelona, pp. 2386-2391.

E.E. Aksoy, B. Dellen, M. Tamosiunaite and F. Wörgötter. Exe-cution of a dual-object (pushing) action with semantic event chains, 11th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, 2011, Bled, Slovenia, pp. 576-583, IEEE Press.

G. Alenyà, B. Dellen and C. Torras. 3D modelling of leaves from color and ToF data for robotized plant measuring, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2011, Shanghai, pp. 3408-3414, IEEE.

E. Asuncion, E. Castañeda and A.P. Husar. Propulsión del Se-gway RMP 200 mediante pilas de combustible tipo PEM, 3rd Iberian Symposium on Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Advanced Batteries, 2011, Zaragoza, Spain, pp. 441-444, LITEC.

O. Bohigas, L. Ros and M. Manubens. A unified method for computing position and orientation workspaces of general Stewart platforms, 2011 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference, 2011, Washington, DC, USA, pp. 1-10

B. Dellen, G. Alenyà, S. Foix and C. Torras. Segmenting color images into surface patches by exploiting sparse depth data, 2011 IEEE Workshop on the Applications of Computer Vision, 2011, Kona, Hawaii, pp. 591-598. ISSN: 1550-5790

M. Douze, A. Ramisa and C. Schmid. Combining attributes

and Fisher vectors for efficient image retrieval, 2011 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2011, Colorado Springs, USA, pp. 745-752, IEEE Press.

G. Ferrer and A. Sanfeliu. Comparative analysis of human motion trajectory prediction using minimum variance curvatu-re, 6th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, 2011, Lausanne, Switzerland, pp. 135-136, ACM.

S. Foix, G. Alenyà and C. Torras. Towards plant monitoring through next best view, 14th International Conference of the Catalan Association for Artificial Intelligence, 2011, Lleida, in Artificial Intelligence Research and Development, Vol 232 of Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, pp. 101-109, IOS Press.

V. García, M. Serra, J. Llorca and J. Riera. Design of linear controllers applied to an ethanol steam reformer for PEM fuel cell applications, IX HYdrogen – POwer THeoretical and Engineering Solutions International Symposium, 2011, San José, Costa Rica.

A. Garrell Zulueta, O. Sandoval and A. Sanfeliu. Adaptive multi agent system for guiding groups of people in urban areas., 9th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multiagent Systems, 2011, Salamanca, in Advances on Practical Applications of Agents and Multiagent Systems, Vol 88 of Advances in Intelligent and Soft Compu-ting, pp. 175-184, 2011, Springer, Berlin.

A. Goldsztejn, C. Jermann, V. Ruiz de Angulo and C. Torras. Symmetry breaking in numeric constraint problems, 17th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming, 2011, Perugia, Italy, in Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming, Vol 6876 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 317-324, 2011, Springer.

A.P. Husar, S. Strahl and J. Riera. Experimental Charac-terization and Identification of the Voltage Losses in an Open Cathode PEM Fuel Cell Stack, Iberian Symposium on Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Advanced Batteries, 2011, Zaragoza, Spain, pp. 349-352, LITEC.

L. Jaillet, J. Hoffman, J. van den Berg, P. Abbeel, J.M. Porta and K. Goldberg. EG-RRT: Environment-guided random trees for kinodynamic motion planning with uncertainty and obstacles, 2011 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2011, San Francisco, pp. 2646-2652, IEEE Press.

L. Jaillet and J.M. Porta. Path planning with loop closure constraints using an atlas-based RRT, 15th International Symposium on Robotics Research, 2011, Flagstaff, USA, Springer, to appear.

J.J. McAuley, A. Ramisa and T.S. Caetano. Optimization of robust loss functions for weakly-labeled image taxonomies: An ImageNet case study, 8th International Conference on Energy Minimization Methods in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2011, St. Petersburg, Russia, in Energy Minimiza-

tion Methods in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Vol 6819 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 355-368, 2011, Springer.

F. Moreno-Noguer. Deformation and illumination invariant feature point descriptor, 2011 IEEE Computer Society Con-ference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2011, Colorado Springs, USA, pp. 1593-1600, IEEE Press.

F. Moreno-Noguer and J.M. Porta. Probabilistic simultaneous pose and non-rigid shape recovery, 2011 IEEE Computer So-ciety Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2011, Colorado Springs, USA, pp. 1289-1296, IEEE Press.

C. Ocampo-Martínez, V. Puig and S. Bovo. Decentralised MPC based on a graph partitioning approach applied to the Barcelona drinking water network, 18th IFAC World Congress, 2011, Milano (Italy), pp. 1-6. ISSN: 1474-6670

A.A. Ortega and J. Andrade-Cetto. Segmentation of dynamic objects from laser data, 5th European Conference on Mobile Robots, 2011, Örebro, Sweden, pp. 115-121, Örebro Univ.

A. Penate-Sanchez, A. Quesada and C.M. Travieso. Real time vehicle recognition: A novel method for road detection, 13th International Conference on Computer Aided Systems Theory, 2011, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in Computer Aided Sys-tems Theory, Vol 6928 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 359-364, 2012, Springer-Verlag

A. Ramisa, G. Alenyà, F. Moreno-Noguer and C. Torras. Determining where to grasp cloth using depth information, 14th International Conference of the Catalan Association for Artificial Intelligence, 2011, Lleida, in Artificial Intelligence Research and Development, Vol 232 of Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, pp. 199-207, IOS Press.

N. Rojas and F. Thomas. A coordinate-free approach to tracing the coupler curves of pin-jointed linkages, 2011 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference, 2011, Washington, DC, USA, pp. 1-10.

J. Romera, C. Ocampo-Martínez, V. Puig, J. Quevedo, P. García and G. Pérez. Flooding management using hybrid model predictive control at the Ebro river in Spain, 8th IWA Symposium on System Analysis and Integrated Assessment, 2011, San Sebastian, Spain, pp. 1-8, IWA.

C. Rosales, J.M. Porta and L. Ros. Global optimization of robotic grasps, VII Robotics: Science and Systems Conference, 2011, Los Angeles, USA, pp. 1-8, MIT Press.

J. Rosell, R. Suárez, A. Pérez and C. Rosales. Including vir tual constraints in motion planning for anthropomorphic hands, 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Assembly and Manu-facturing, 2011, Tampere, Finland, pp. 1-6, IEEE.

L. Rozo, P. Jiménez and C. Torras. Robot learning from demonstration in the force domain, 2011 IJCAI Workshop on Agents Learning Interactively from Human Teachers, 2011, Barcelona, Spain, pp. 1-6

Page 30: Biennial Report 2011-2012

56 57

L. Rozo, P. Jiménez and C. Torras. Robot learning from demonstration of force-based tasks with multiple solution trajectories, 15th International Conference on Advanced Robotics, 2011, Tallin, Estonia, pp. 124-129, IEEE.

G. Sanroma, R. Alquézar Mancho and F. Serratosa i Casa-nelles. Smooth simultaneous structural graph matching and point-set registration, 8th IAPR Workshop on Graph-based Representations in Pattern Recognition, 2011, Münster, Germany, in Graph-based Representations in Pattern Recognition, Vol 6658 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 142-151, 2011, Springer.

R. Sarrate, F. Nejjari and A. Rosich. Sensor placement for fault diagnosis performance maximization in distribution networks, 2012 Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, 2012, Barcelona, pp. 110-115, IEEE.

E. Serradell, A. Romero, R. Leta, C. Gatta and F. Moreno-Noguer. Simultaneous correspondence and non-rigid 3D reconstruction of the coronary tree from single X-ray images, 2011 International Conference on Computer Vision, 2011, Barcelona, IEEE, pp. 850-857.

E. Simo-Serra, F. Moreno-Noguer and A. Perez. Design of non-anthropomorphic robotic hands for anthropomorphic tasks, 2011 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference, 2011, Washington, DC, USA, pp. 1-10, to appear.

E.H. Teniente and J. Andrade-Cetto. FaMSA: Fast multi-scan alignment with partially known correspondences, 5th Euro-pean Conference on Mobile Robots, 2011, Örebro, Sweden, pp. 139-144, Örebro Univ.

R. Toro, C. Ocampo-Martínez, F. Logist, J. Van Impe and V. Puig. Tuning of predictive controllers for drinking water networked systems, 18th IFAC World Congress, 2011, Milano (Italy), pp. 1-6.

R. Valencia, J. Andrade-Cetto and J.M. Porta. Path planning in belief space with Pose SLAM, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2011, Shanghai, pp. 78-83, IEEE.

M. Villamizar, H. Grabner, J. Andrade-Cetto, A. Sanfeliu, L. Van Gool and F. Moreno-Noguer. Efficient 3D object detection using multiple pose-specific classifiers, 2011 British Machine Vision Conference, 2011, Dundee, UK, pp. 20.1-20.10.

M. Villamizar, F. Moreno-Noguer, J. Andrade-Cetto and A. Sanfeliu. Detection performance evaluation of boosted random Ferns, 5th Iberian Conference on Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis, 2011, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis, Vol 6669 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 67-75, 2011, Springer.

M. Wallenberg, M. Felsberg, P. Forssen and B. Dellen. Channel coding for joint colour and depth segmentation, 33rd Annual Symposium of the German Association for Pattern Recognition, 2011, Frankfurt, Germany, in Pattern Recognition, Vol 6835 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 306-315,

2011, Springer.

E.T. Wolbrecht, D.J. Reinkensmeyer and A. Perez. Single degree-of-freedom exoskeleton mechanism design for finger rehabilitation, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Rehabilita-tion Robotics, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland, pp. 1-6, IEEE

NATIONAL CONFERENCES

2012S. Gonzalez, P.F. Puleston and E. Fossas. Diseño de un convertidor CC-CC doble boost acoplado, XXIII Congreso Argentino de Control Automático, 2012, Buenos Aires, Argentina, AADECA.

J. Moré, P.F. Puleston, C. Kunusch and J. Riera. Diseño e implementación de un control supervisor para sistemas híbridos de generación basado en pilas de combustible, XXIII Congreso Argentino de Control Automático, 2012, Buenos Aires, Argentina, AADECA.

M. Primucci, M. Serra and J. Riera. Diagnosis tools for PEMFC using humidification interruption tests, V Congreso Nacional de Pilas de Combustible, 2012, Madrid, Spain, APPICE.

M.L. Sarmiento-Carnevali, M. Serra and C. Batlle. Distributed parameter model simulation tool for PEM fuel cells, V Congreso Nacional de Pilas de Combustible, 2012, Madrid, Spain, APPICE

S. Strahl, A.P. Husar and J. Riera. Study of hydrogen purge effects on performance and efficiency of a PEM fuel cell system, V Congreso Nacional de Pilas de Combustible, 2012, Madrid, Spain, pp. 4, APPICE.

2011G. Alenyà, F. Moreno-Noguer, A. Ramisa and C. Torras. Active perception of deformable objects using 3D cameras, 2011 Workshop de Robótica Experimental, 2011, Seville, pp. 434-440.

J. Borràs Sol, F. Thomas and C. Torras. New geometric approaches to the singularity analysis of parallel platforms, 2011 Workshop de Robótica Experimental, 2011, Seville, pp. 173-180.

A. Garrell Zulueta, A. Corominas Murtra and A. Sanfeliu. Robot companions for guiding people in urban areas, 2011 Work-shop de Robótica Experimental, 2011, Seville, pp. 419-426.

E.H. Teniente, R. Valencia and J. Andrade-Cetto. Dense outdoor 3D mapping and navigation with Pose SLAM, 2011 Workshop de Robótica Experimental, 2011, Seville, pp. 567-572.

Patents

GRANTED:J.M. Mirats [CSIC: 70%], E. Oñate [CIMNE: 15%], A.Gaza [RUC-KER LYPSA, S.L: 15%]. Robot Tensegrítico, Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas, Solicitud P200930258, Granting date: 14-September-2012

APPLICATIONS:A. Abramov, E.E. Aksoy, B. Dellen, F. Woergoetter [UPC: 35%, Georg-August University Goettingen: 65%]. Method and device for estimating the plant development parameters European patent application, reference number: PCT/EP2011/006222, Application date: 19-December-2011

G. Alenyà, P. Grosch, C. Torras, M. Palacín [CSIC:100%]. Herramienta para corte y extracción de muestras, Oficina Es-pañola de Patentes y Marcas, Solicitud 201131235, Application date: 20-July-2011

G. Alenyà. P. Grosch, C. Torras, M.Palacín [CSIC: 100%]. Herramienta para corte y extracción de muestras. European patent application, reference number: PCT/ES2012/070524, reivindicando prioridad de la solicitud de Patente española 201131235, International filling date: 11-July-2012

J. Andrade-Cetto, M. Morta, P. Grosch, E. Teniente [CSIC:100%]. Dispositivo medidor de distancias y magnitudes omnidireccional, Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas, Solicitud P201231044, Application date: 04-July-2012

Page 31: Biennial Report 2011-2012

58 59

4 3 2 2

We are committed to excellence in higher scientific education, through the mentoring of undergraduate, masters and PhD students

Our teaching activity is varied and active. Proof of this, is that the number of PhD Students has been doubled in the last six years, and in the last two year period a record number of PhD theses were finalized. Fur-thermore, we also support students who work in their Master Theses and "Final year projects".

Our research staff teaches graduate and undergradua-te courses at various UPC schools. Moreover, we hold a regular Seminar Series and the Humanoid Lab.

PhD Theses under development in 2012

4Education

719Master Theses defended in 2011-2012

Final year projects defended in 2011-2012

> Master in Automatics and Robotics

> Master in Artificial Intelligence> Master in Applied Mathematics

Our postgraduate teaching activities at UPC are included in:

Our faculty teaches undergraduate courses at UPC in:

PhD Theses defended:

122011-2012 2009-2010 2007-2008 2005-2006 2003-2004

Students

39

Teaching activities:

Humanoid Lab:In addition, the Institute hosts the Humanoid Lab, offering under-graduate students a unique opportunity to familiarize with robotics research.

Seminar series:The Institute holds an open seminar series to discuss our more recent research developments as well as those of other worldwi-de groups we cooperate with.

UNDERGRADUATE CLASSES76,7 %

MASTER CLASSES23,3 %

Page 32: Biennial Report 2011-2012

60 61

Basic and applied research developed at the Institute is at the core of the methodologies and knowledge transferred to our diverse range of industrial partners. This transferred technology forms into new processes, applications, services and developed products.

In order to cover this important demand the Institute has support facilities that not only allow developing prototypes and applications for the industry but also motivate the applied research, that opens new co-llaborations and agreements in other sectors. These facilities include the Perception and Manipulation Laboratory, the Kinematics and Robot Design Labo-ratory, the Mobile Robotics Laboratory, the Barcelona Robot Laboratory, the Fuel Cell Control Laboratory, and the Water-Cycle Process Control Laboratory. All these labs offer their services to the surrounding industrial community as well as to the academic community.

Through agreements with industrial partners, the Institute seeks innovative solutions to real industrial problems.

Technology transfer projectsunder development in 2011-20125

Technology transfer projectsdeveloped in our center since 199554

Thousand euros in technology transferprojects under development in 2011-2012452

5Technology Transfer

CORAL UPGRADE

see page 46

Control of Urban Drainage Systems

Technology Transfer projects in the period 2011-2012“

Technology Transfer numbers

VALTEC

see page 21

Modular robotics configurationsAIN-IRI

see page 31

Guidance of unmanned aerial vehicles

IDAHO

see page 23

Design of a robot for rehabilitation tasksCETAQUA

see page 46

Water resources management

Page 33: Biennial Report 2011-2012

62 63

unmanned aerial vehicles; and consulted on mobile robot navigation for the company PAL-Robotics.Within the URUS project, our researchers developed in collaboration with Telefónica I+D, systems for seamless routing of robot communication messages through Wifi and 3G networks. We have also developed various computer vision systems for the robotic manipulation and large vehicle autonomous navigation for the French company Robosoft.

The Institute has delivered in recent years solutions for energy routing on large distribution networks for Iberdrola, Repsol-YPF and SITEL among other companies, and on ener-gy management on hybrid vehicles for LEAR. Together with Agbar, CLABSA, and other groups at UPC, through Cetaqua, we promote and develop innovative solu-tions for management of the integral water cycle. Our researchers have also developed, in cooperation with AIN, algorithms for the computation of time to collision for

Company: Agbar - Aguas de Barcelona Project: Promotion and supervision of research projects

related to efficiency in water networks

Company: Clabsa - Clavegueram de Barcelona Project: Optimum control of urban drainage systems. implemen-tation of an integrated tool for the global optimised control of a combined sewer network

Company: Telefónica I+D Project: Ubiquitous networking robotics in urban settings

Company: SITELProject: Supervisory Algorithms for safe and efficient

energy distribution

Company: IBERDROLA Project: Supervisory algorithms for safe and efficient

energy distribution

Company: AIN - Asociación de la Industria Navarra Project: Obstacle avoidance for UAVs

using computer vision

Company: Repsol-YPFProject: Supervisory Algorithms for Safe and Efficient

Energy Distribution

Company: PAL RoboticsProject: Technological research to develop a support system

for navigation of mobile robot

Company: LEAR CorporationProject: Development of an electric energy management algorithm for an hybrid vehicle with double-bus architecture

Company: RobosoftProject: Computer vision-based driver assistance for

the NICOLAS-VTCU vehicle

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER >

Industrial partners

services for the industry

consultingIndustrial and technical advice to compa-nies to help them develop new products

and services

hw projectsDesign and rapid prototyping of hardware devices to address specific needs propo-

sed by our industrial partners

sw developmentDevelopment of algorithms and

software applications tailored to industrial needs

turnkey projectsDevelop and deliver ready-to-use project solutions to its costumers

basic & advanced trainingThe Institute organizes seminaries and provides training on all subjects in which we specialize

Company: DeltaresProject: Smart City Energy Management

Company: Estabanell EnergiaProject: Smart City Energy Management

Page 34: Biennial Report 2011-2012

64 65

6Outreach

In the Institute we think that it is good to involve all our members in informative activities that attempt to bring our science to all audiences. For this reason, our staff participates frequently in many events such as semi-nars, workshops, talks, exhibitions and competitions.

OUTREACH >

Activities

> 2011 and 2012 edition of Setmana de la Ciència

> 2011 and 2012 edition of European Robotics Week

> Saló del Còmic 2012, Barcelona

> Smart City Expo World Congress 2012, Barcelona

> Campus Party 2011, València

> Exhibition "I/O/I Els sentits de les màquines", BCN, 2011

> 2011 and 2012 edition of CEABOT, Sevilla and Vigo

> International Conference on Computer Vision ICCV

2011, Barcelona

> MIPRCV Industry Day, Barcelona

> Numerous guided visits to IRI

Outreach activities in 2011-2012

Page 35: Biennial Report 2011-2012

66 67

During the years 2011 and 2012, the presence of IRI in the media has been greater than ever, appea-ring in several newspapers and television and radio programs. This helps to increase the visibility of our re-search activities contributing to approach our research to the public.

OUTREACH >

Media appearancesOUTREACH >

Social networks

newspapers mentioned IRI in 2011-2012

In order to let people know in a more effective and easy way all our activities, we have decided to be part of the main social networks. Starting in 2011, we mantain Twitter and Facebook accounts as well as a Youtube channel.

We use our Twitter account to publish our job offers, to inform about the celebration of our research seminars, and to announce all the international visitants we re-ceive. We also inform about our attendance to different outreach events. Our Facebook account is used to publish images and answer questions and comments from many users.

Youtube is mainly used by our researchers, to share videos of their demostrations and work.

54

television programmes mentioned IRI or interviewed IRI members in 2011-2012

19

radio programmes mentioned IRI or interviewed IRI members in 2011-2012

10

NEWS

El País, El Mundo, ABC, ARA, La Razón, La Vanguardia, ....

TVE1, TVE2, TV3, Telecinco, BTV, ...

CatalunyaRàdio, RAC1, COMRàdio,...

@IRI_robotics

facebook.com/institutderobotica

youtube.com/institutderobotica

Page 36: Biennial Report 2011-2012

68 69

7Funding

(Data for the year 2012)

Total: ~ 3 Millions €

FUNDING >

Expenses(Data for the year 2012)

Total: ~ 3 Millions €

17 % Competitive Personnel Programs17 %

Competitive Project Funds

37 %

UPC General Budget

29 %CSIC General Budget

54 %

84 %Personnel

3 %Overheads

7 %Other project related expenses

2 %Scientific equipment

4 %General running expenses

Self-funding percentage:

FUNDING >

Budget

Page 37: Biennial Report 2011-2012

70 71

Photo credits

(PAGES):

coverRobotics arm from the Perception and Manipulation Laboratory performing a clothing grasping task

2Mobile Robotics Laboratory. From left to right: (1) Segway powered by a fuel cell, (2) Tibi robot, (3) Dabo robot

4Our director Alberto Sanfeliu accompanied by Tibi robot in the Barcelona Robot Lab (Campus Nord of UPC)

6Assembling an hexaglide in the Kinematics and Robot Design Laboraroty. From left to right: (1) Federico Thomas, (2) Aleix Rull, (3) Patrick Grosch

8Testing the Kinton quadrotor at the FME building grass. From left to right: Adrián Amor, Ivan Huerta, Fernando Herrero, Sergi Hernández, Anaís Garrell, Patrick Grosch, Àngel Santamaria, Michael Villamizar, Martí Morta and Gonzalo Ferrer 11 (from top to bottom)1 Perception and Manipulation Laboratory2 Stewart Gough platform in the Kinematics and Robot Design Laboratory3 Teo robot in the Mobile Robotics Laboratory

12 (from top to bottom)1 Tibi at the Barcelona Robot Lab2 Miguel Allué at the Fuel Cell Control Laboratory3 Water-Cycle Control Systems Laboratory

13 (from top to bottom)1 Workshop2 TIC service facilities3 Esther Expósito, Eva Llavería, Eduardo Ballesteros and César González from the Administration team

14Moving Tibi and Dabo robots to the Barcelona Robot Lab. From left to right: Anaís Garrell, Ivan Huerta and Gonzalo Ferrer 15 (from top to bottom)1 Patrick Grosch assembling the Hexaglide of the Kinematics and Robot Design Laboratory2 Gonzalo Ferrer performing a demostration with Tibi robot3 Sergi Foix with the WAM manipulator in the Perception and Manipulation Laboratory4 Jordi Riera at the Fuel Cell Control Laboratory

16A Stewart-Gough platform, actuated through variable leg lengths.

17 (from left to right)Photo of Kinematics and Robot Design Group (2-February-2012).- Front line: Léonard Jaillet, Carlos Rosales, Lluís Ros, Aleix Rull and Oriol Bohigas- Second line: Rubén Vaca, Enric Celaya, Vicente Ruiz de Angu-lo, Montserrat Manubens, Josep Maria Porta, Federico Thomas, Francesco Meoni and Nicolás Rojas

18A Hexaglide parallel robot, actuated through sliding anchor points.

21A parallel robot equipped with load cells to execute compliant movements.

22A parallel cable-driven hexapod for six-dimensional manipu-lation.

23Wünderlich's kinematotropic linkage, with dimension changes in its C-space.

24Tibi and Dabo robots

25 (from left to right)Photo of Mobile Robotics Group (17-January-2012).- Front line: Alberto Sanfeliu, Tibi, Edmundo Guerra, Juan Andra-de, Anaís Garrell, Martí Morta and Teo- Second line: Fernando Herrero, Gonzalo Ferrer, Joan Pérez, Ernesto Teniente, Ivan Huerta and Alberto Sanfeliu P. - Third line: Francesc Serratosa, René Alquézar, Adrián Peñate, Michael Villamizar, Eloy Retamino and Alex Goldhoorn

26Teo robot exploring the FME building courtyard

29Àngel Santamaria with the quadrotor Kinton in the flight room equipped with security nets.

30Working with Tibi in Barcelona Robot Lab. From left to right: Fernando Herrero, Anaís Garrell, Ivan Huerta, Gonzalo Ferrer and Ibraim Hernández

32Taking samples of a plant leaf (GARNICS project)

33 (from right to left)Photo of Perception and Manipulation Group (18-January-2012).Carme Torras, José Luis Rivero, Francesc Moreno, Arnau Ramisa, Pol Monsó, Farzad Husain, Guillem Alenyà, Pablo Jiménez, Da-vid Martínez, Diego Pardo, Adrià Colomé, Iván Rojas, Babette Dellen, Sergi Foix and Edgar Simó.

34Leonel Rozo using a haptic device

35David Martínez covers a board with lentils. The robotic arm performs the task of cleaning this board.

37WAM Manipulator grasping an IRI t-shir t.

38 (from top to bottom)Computer vision-based solutions for recovering shape are applied to a wide range of problems, such as automatic detection of people, perception of clothes, medical imaging and 3D reconstruction of urban environments.

40Fuel Cell Control Laboratory. From left to right: Vicente Roda, Stephan Strahl, Attila Husar, Carlos Ocampo, Cristian Kunusch and Julio Alberto Luna

41(from left to right)Photo of Automatic Control Group (30-January-2012).- Front line: Congcong Sun, Deneb Robles, Maria Serra, Miguel Allué, María Laura Sarmiento and Gabriela Cembrano- Second Line: Vicenç Puig, Mauricio Primucci, Juan Manuel Grosso, Stephan Strahl, Feng Xu, Albert Rosich, Bernat Joseph and Attila Husar-Third line: Carlos Ocampo, Daniel Rehmbock, José Sánchez, Tom Creemers, Cristian Kunusch and Jordi Riera

42Noemí Gasamans in the Fuel Cell Control Laboratory

43Congcong Sun and Bernat Joseph preparing a presentation

45 (from top to bottom)- Sewer network modeling by means of interconnected vir tual tanks.

- Representative portion of the sewer network of Barcelona

46Attila Husar and Cristian Kunusch with a segway powered by fuel cells (work by Eduard Castañeda and Enric Asunció)

48Circuit board from a device in the Workshop

50, 57Several papers form IRI researchers.

58Blackboard at the Fuel Cell Control Laboratory

59 (from top to bottom)1. Seminar by Montserrat Manubens2. Robots from the Humanoid Lab (Dorami, Darwin and another bioloid)

60Teo robot performing a laboratory 3D map and showing it in a projector while receiving a visit.

64Darwin follows a red line in the IRI stand of the Saló del Còmic

65 (from left to right and top to bottom)1 Nàdia Tolós, Adrián Llopart and Sara Argerich in CEABOT 2012

in Vigo

2 LAURON (spider robot) and White Moon (ameboid robot) in the IRI

stand of Saló del Còmic 2012

3 Workshop on "Introduction to humanoid robotics" held in the

European Robotics Week 2012

4 Guided visit to Fuel Cell Control Lab with Stephan Strahl

5 Live streaming of Setmana de la Ciència 2012 with Sergi Foix

6 Gabriela Cembrano receiving a visit in Setmana de la Ciència

7 Tibi meets the Imperial Stormtroopers in the Saló del Còmic

8 Tibi receives Xavier Trias, the major of Barcelona, in the Smart City

Expo World Congress, Barcelona, 2012

9 Tibi in the Expo I/O/I, DHUB, Barcelona, 2011

10 Guillem Alenyà shows the humanoid robots to some kids in the

Saló del Còmic

11 Tibi receives the ICCV 2011 attendants.

12 Tibi and Alberto Sanfeliu in Campus Party 2011 in Valencia

67 (from top to bottom and left to right) 1 Anaís Garrell and Tibi with Telecinco TV (Saló del Còmic 2012)

2 Andreu Corominas, Gonzalo Ferrer, Joan Pérez, Alberto Sanfeliu in

the Campus Party (TVE1)

3 Sergi Hernández interviewed by CatalunyaRàdio (Saló del Còmic)

4 Alberto Sanfeliu in the program tres14 (TVE2)

5 Arnau Ramisa in CCIA 2011, Lleida

6 Alberto Sanfeliu and Tibi with BTV Television

7 Susana Pons and Nàdia Tolós, in Els Matins de TV3

8 Sergi Hernández with a television (Saló del Còmic 2012)

9 Martí Morta with La Vanguardia TV (Saló del Còmic 2012)

10 Anaís Garrell with RAC1 Radio (Saló del Còmic 2012)

11 Nàdia Tolós, Susana Pons and Sandra Troyano in AESSBOT'11

with BTV

71 (from right to left)Darwin, Dabo, Tibi and Teo waiting a visit to perform a demo.

Page 38: Biennial Report 2011-2012

Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial, CSIC-UPC C/ Llorens i Artigas 4-6, 08028 Barcelona

Tel :+34 93 4015751 Fax :+34 93 4015750

email: [email protected]

Page 39: Biennial Report 2011-2012

www.iri.upc.edu

Biennial Report2011-2012

youtube.com/institutderobotica@IRI_robotics facebook.com/institutderobotica