Better thermal vision and better citizens of robotics: Michigan at RSS 2020

July 14, 2020
deblurred thermal video
Figure 1 from “Pixel-Wise Motion Deblurring of Thermal Videos,” Manikandasriram Srinivasan Ramanagopal, Zixu Zhang, Ram Vasudevan, Matthew Johnson Roberson.

Deblurred thermal imaging, safe trajectory of manipulator arms, and teaching robots multipart tasks are a few topics that University of Michigan researchers presented at the Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS) conference in 2020.

While the conference had to be held remotely this year, organizers still pulled together a wide range of robotics experts to showcase their latest work. Not only is top research featured, but the conference also offered participants the chance to examine the values embedded in their work.

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From snakes to wearable robotics, Michigan’s research at ICRA 2020

May 29, 2020

University of Michigan researchers will present work on topics such as unsupervised learning, motion and path planning, autonomous vehicle navigation, bipedal gaits, wearable robots, and even snakes at next week’s International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2020.

Originally planned for Paris, the conference will be held remotely this year throughout the summer. It is a premier robotics research showcase, and thanks to conference organizers, there are many opportunities to engage with peers beyond reading PDFs on your own computer, such as joining a Slack channel question and answer session, submitting a video to the funny robot challenge, playing robot trivia, or participating in the women in engineering mentoring event.

The work covers the spectrum of Michigan Robotics’ research focus areas, and illustrates the interdisciplinary effort from multiple departments and schools that furthers the potential for robotics to benefit society.

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Congratulations to promoted Robotics faculty of 2020

May 22, 2020
Chad showing lab members 3d environment
Recently promoted professor Chad Jenkins shows the 3-D environment that two of his research group’s robots scanned in the Beyster Building in 2016. Photo: Joseph Xu, Michigan Engineering.

The University of Michigan Board of Regents approved a number of faculty promotions at their May meeting yesterday, including several Robotics members.

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How can pedestrians trust autonomous vehicles

January 23, 2020

When at a crosswalk, humans can easily read a driver’s slightest nod. These gestures give us the confidence to step out into the road full of two-ton machines. With an automated vehicle, however, that human to human communication is unreliable: the driver may not be in control or even be paying attention, leaving the pedestrian unsure if they’ll be safe while crossing. 

To inform future solutions to this, a team led by Michigan researchers observed how we act as pedestrians in a virtual reality city full of autonomous vehicles.

“Pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users,” said Suresh Kumaar Jayaraman, a PhD student in mechanical engineering. “If we want wide-scale adoption of autonomous vehicles, we need those who are inside and outside of the vehicles to be able to trust and be comfortable with a vehicle’s actions.” 

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Professor Chad Jenkins earns MLK Spirit Award

January 21, 2020

Chad Jenkins, associate professor of computer science, received an MLK Spirit Award for “exemplifying the leadership and vision of Dr. King through their commitment to social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

An excerpt from his nomination:

If you want to call Professor Chad Jenkins a leading roboticist, you must also call him a leading roboticist who understands the great equalizing potential of robotics, a roboticist who integrates that belief into his cutting-edge research, outreach, and everyday faculty duties, and a roboticist who is determined to include others into his aspirational efforts.

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