@inproceedings{StopforthDavrajhFerrein2017, author = {Stopforth, Riaan and Davrajh, Shaniel and Ferrein, Alexander}, title = {Design considerations of the duo fugam dual rotor UAV}, series = {2017 Pattern Recognition Association of South Africa and Robotics and Mechatronics (PRASA-RobMech)}, booktitle = {2017 Pattern Recognition Association of South Africa and Robotics and Mechatronics (PRASA-RobMech)}, isbn = {978-1-5386-2314-5}, doi = {10.1109/RoboMech.2017.8261115}, pages = {7 -- 13}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @article{NiemuellerFerreinBecketal.2010, author = {Niem{\"u}ller, Tim and Ferrein, Alexander and Beck, Daniel and Lakemeyer, Gerhard}, title = {Design Principles of the Component-Based Robot Software Framework Fawkes}, series = {Simulation, Modeling, and Programming for Autonomous Robots}, journal = {Simulation, Modeling, and Programming for Autonomous Robots}, pages = {300 -- 311}, year = {2010}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{DonnerRabelScholletal.2019, author = {Donner, Ralf and Rabel, Matthias and Scholl, Ingrid and Ferrein, Alexander and Donner, Marc and Geier, Andreas and John, Andr{\´e} and K{\"o}hler, Christian and Varga, Sebastian}, title = {Die Extraktion bergbaulich relevanter Merkmale aus 3D-Punktwolken eines untertagetauglichen mobilen Multisensorsystems}, series = {Tagungsband Geomonitoring}, booktitle = {Tagungsband Geomonitoring}, doi = {10.15488/4515}, pages = {91 -- 110}, year = {2019}, language = {de} } @article{FerreinSchifferLakemeyer2009, author = {Ferrein, Alexander and Schiffer, Stefan and Lakemeyer, Gerhard}, title = {Embedding fuzzy controllers in golog / Ferrein, Alexander ; Schiffer, Stefan ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard}, series = {IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems, 2009. FUZZ-IEEE 2009}, journal = {IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems, 2009. FUZZ-IEEE 2009}, publisher = {IEEE}, address = {New York}, isbn = {978-1-4244-3596-8}, pages = {894 -- 899}, year = {2009}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{HofmannMatareNeumannetal.2018, author = {Hofmann, Till and Matar{\´e}, Victor and Neumann, Tobias and Sch{\"o}nitz, Sebastian and Henke, Christoph and Limpert, Nicolas and Niemueller, Tim and Ferrein, Alexander and Jeschke, Sabina and Lakemeyer, Gerhard}, title = {Enhancing Software and Hardware Reliability for a Successful Participation in the RoboCup Logistics League 2017}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Cham}, isbn = {978-3-030-00308-1}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-00308-1_40}, pages = {486 -- 497}, year = {2018}, language = {en} } @article{SchifferFerrein2018, author = {Schiffer, Stefan and Ferrein, Alexander}, title = {ERIKA—Early Robotics Introduction at Kindergarten Age}, series = {Multimodal Technologies Interact}, volume = {2}, journal = {Multimodal Technologies Interact}, number = {4}, publisher = {MDPI}, address = {Basel}, issn = {2414-4088}, doi = {10.3390/mti2040064}, pages = {15}, year = {2018}, abstract = {In this work, we report on our attempt to design and implement an early introduction to basic robotics principles for children at kindergarten age. One of the main challenges of this effort is to explain complex robotics contents in a way that pre-school children could follow the basic principles and ideas using examples from their world of experience. What sets apart our effort from other work is that part of the lecturing is actually done by a robot itself and that a quiz at the end of the lesson is done using robots as well. The humanoid robot Pepper from Softbank, which is a great platform for human-robot interaction experiments, was used to present a lecture on robotics by reading out the contents to the children making use of its speech synthesis capability. A quiz in a Runaround-game-show style after the lecture activated the children to recap the contents they acquired about how mobile robots work in principle. In this quiz, two LEGO Mindstorm EV3 robots were used to implement a strongly interactive scenario. Besides the thrill of being exposed to a mobile robot that would also react to the children, they were very excited and at the same time very concentrated. We got very positive feedback from the children as well as from their educators. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of only few attempts to use a robot like Pepper not as a tele-teaching tool, but as the teacher itself in order to engage pre-school children with complex robotics contents.}, language = {en} } @article{FerreinSteinbauerMcPhillipsetal.2007, author = {Ferrein, Alexander and Steinbauer, Gerald and McPhillips, Graeme and Potgieter, Anet}, title = {Establishing the RoboCup Standard League in Africa - applying for the RoboCup Standard League with a German-Austrian-South African Research Project}, pages = {1 -- 5}, year = {2007}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{StopforthFerreinSteinbauer2015, author = {Stopforth, Riaan and Ferrein, Alexander and Steinbauer, Gerald}, title = {Europe and South African collaboration on the Mechatronics and Robotics systems as part of the SA Robotics Center}, series = {ICRA 2015 Developing Countries Forum}, booktitle = {ICRA 2015 Developing Countries Forum}, pages = {3 S.}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Mechatronics consist of the integration of mechanical engineering, electronic integration and computer science/ engineering. These broad fields are essential for robotic systems, yet it makes it difficult for the researchers to specialize and be experts in all these fields. Collaboration between researchers allow for the integration of experience and specialization, to allow optimized systems. Collaboration between the European countries and South Africa is critical, as each country has different resources available, which the other countries might not have. Applications with the need for approval of any restrictions, can also be obtained easier in some countries compared to others, thus preventing the delays of research. Some problems that have been experienced are discussed, with the Robotics Center of South Africa as a possible solution.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{LeingartnerMaurerSteinbaueretal.2013, author = {Leingartner, Max and Maurer, Johannes and Steinbauer, Gerald and Ferrein, Alexander}, title = {Evaluation of sensors and mapping approaches for disasters in tunnels}, series = {IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics : SSRR : 21-26 Oct. 2013, Linkoping, Sweden}, booktitle = {IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics : SSRR : 21-26 Oct. 2013, Linkoping, Sweden}, organization = {Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers}, isbn = {978-1-4799-0879-0}, pages = {1 -- 7}, year = {2013}, language = {en} } @article{LeingartnerMaurerFerreinetal.2016, author = {Leingartner, Max and Maurer, Johannes and Ferrein, Alexander and Steinbauer, Gerald}, title = {Evaluation of Sensors and Mapping Approaches for Disasters in Tunnels}, series = {Journal of Field Robotics}, volume = {33}, journal = {Journal of Field Robotics}, number = {8}, publisher = {Wiley-VCH}, address = {Weinheim}, issn = {1556-4967}, doi = {10.1002/rob.21611}, pages = {1037 -- 1057}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Ground or aerial robots equipped with advanced sensing technologies, such as three-dimensional laser scanners and advanced mapping algorithms, are deemed useful as a supporting technology for first responders. A great deal of excellent research in the field exists, but practical applications at real disaster sites are scarce. Many projects concentrate on equipping robots with advanced capabilities, such as autonomous exploration or object manipulation. In spite of this, realistic application areas for such robots are limited to teleoperated reconnaissance or search. In this paper, we investigate how well state-of-the-art and off-the-shelf components and algorithms are suited for reconnaissance in current disaster-relief scenarios. The basic idea is to make use of some of the most common sensors and deploy some widely used algorithms in a disaster situation, and to evaluate how well the components work for these scenarios. We acquired the sensor data from two field experiments, one from a disaster-relief operation in a motorway tunnel, and one from a mapping experiment in a partly closed down motorway tunnel. Based on these data, which we make publicly available, we evaluate state-of-the-art and off-the-shelf mapping approaches. In our analysis, we integrate opinions and replies from first responders as well as from some algorithm developers on the usefulness of the data and the limitations of the deployed approaches, respectively. We discuss the lessons we learned during the two missions. These lessons are interesting for the community working in similar areas of urban search and rescue, particularly reconnaissance and search.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{NiemuellerReuterFerreinetal.2016, author = {Niemueller, Tim and Reuter, Sebastian and Ferrein, Alexander and Jeschke, Sabina and Lakemeyer, Gerhard}, title = {Evaluation of the RoboCup Logistics League and Derived Criteria for Future Competitions}, series = {RoboCup 2015: Robot World Cup XIX}, booktitle = {RoboCup 2015: Robot World Cup XIX}, editor = {Almeida, Luis}, publisher = {Springer International Publishing}, address = {Cham}, isbn = {978-3-319-29339-4}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-29339-4_3}, pages = {31 -- 43}, year = {2016}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{RensFerreinPoel2008, author = {Rens, Gavin and Ferrein, Alexander and Poel, Etienne van der}, title = {Extending DTGolog to deal with POMD-Ps}, series = {Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Symposium of the Pattern Recognition Association of South Africa (PRASA 2008)}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Symposium of the Pattern Recognition Association of South Africa (PRASA 2008)}, organization = {Pattern Recognition Association of South Africa}, pages = {49 -- 54}, year = {2008}, language = {en} } @article{FerreinFritzLakemeyer2003, author = {Ferrein, Alexander and Fritz, Christian and Lakemeyer, Gerhard}, title = {Extending DTGOLOG with Options / Ferrein, Alexander ; Fritz, Christian ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard}, series = {IJCAI-03, Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Acapulco, Mexico, August 9-15, 2003}, journal = {IJCAI-03, Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Acapulco, Mexico, August 9-15, 2003}, pages = {1391 -- 1393}, year = {2003}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{NiemuellerReuterFerrein2016, author = {Niemueller, Tim and Reuter, Sebastian and Ferrein, Alexander}, title = {Fawkes for the RoboCup Logistics League}, series = {RoboCup 2015: Robot World Cup XIX}, booktitle = {RoboCup 2015: Robot World Cup XIX}, editor = {Almeida, Luis}, publisher = {Springer International Publishing}, address = {Cham}, isbn = {978-3-319-29339-4}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-29339-4_31}, pages = {365 -- 373}, year = {2016}, language = {en} } @article{FerreinSchifferLakemeyer2006, author = {Ferrein, Alexander and Schiffer, Stefan and Lakemeyer, Gerhard}, title = {Football is coming Home / Schiffer, Stefan ; Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard}, series = {PCAR '06 Proceedings of the 2006 international symposium on Practical cognitive agents and robots}, journal = {PCAR '06 Proceedings of the 2006 international symposium on Practical cognitive agents and robots}, publisher = {ACM}, address = {New York, NY}, isbn = {1-74052-130-7}, pages = {39 -- 50}, year = {2006}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{SchifferFerreinLakemeyer2011, author = {Schiffer, Stefan and Ferrein, Alexander and Lakemeyer, Gerhard}, title = {Fuzzy representations and control for domestic service robots in Golog}, series = {Intelligent robotics and applications : 4th International conference, ICIRA 2011, Aachen, Germany, December 6-8, 2011, proceedings, part I. (Lecture notes in computer science ; 7102)}, booktitle = {Intelligent robotics and applications : 4th International conference, ICIRA 2011, Aachen, Germany, December 6-8, 2011, proceedings, part I. (Lecture notes in computer science ; 7102)}, isbn = {978-3-642-25486-4}, pages = {241 -- 250}, year = {2011}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{MatareSchifferFerrein2019, author = {Matar{\´e}, Victor and Schiffer, Stefan and Ferrein, Alexander}, title = {golog++ : An integrative system design}, series = {CogRob 2018. Cognitive Robotics Workshop : Proceedings of the 11th Cognitive Robotics Workshop 2018 co-located with 16th International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR 2018) Tempe, AZ, USA, October 27th, 2018}, booktitle = {CogRob 2018. Cognitive Robotics Workshop : Proceedings of the 11th Cognitive Robotics Workshop 2018 co-located with 16th International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR 2018) Tempe, AZ, USA, October 27th, 2018}, editor = {Steinbauer, Gerald and Ferrein, Alexander}, issn = {1613-0073}, pages = {29 -- 35}, year = {2019}, language = {en} } @article{Ferrein2010, author = {Ferrein, Alexander}, title = {golog.lua: Towards a Non-Prolog Implementation of Golog for Embedded Systems}, pages = {20 -- 28}, year = {2010}, language = {en} } @article{Ferrein2010, author = {Ferrein, Alexander}, title = {golog.lua: Towards a Non-Prolog Implementation of Golog for Embedded Systems}, series = {Cognitive Robotics / Lakemeyer, Gerhard (ed.)}, journal = {Cognitive Robotics / Lakemeyer, Gerhard (ed.)}, pages = {1 -- 15}, year = {2010}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{ChajanSchulteTiggesRekeetal.2021, author = {Chajan, Eduard and Schulte-Tigges, Joschua and Reke, Michael and Ferrein, Alexander and Matheis, Dominik and Walter, Thomas}, title = {GPU based model-predictive path control for self-driving vehicles}, series = {IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV)}, booktitle = {IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV)}, publisher = {IEEE}, isbn = {978-1-7281-5394-0}, doi = {10.1109/IV48863.2021.9575619}, pages = {1243 -- 1248}, year = {2021}, abstract = {One central challenge for self-driving cars is a proper path-planning. Once a trajectory has been found, the next challenge is to accurately and safely follow the precalculated path. The model-predictive controller (MPC) is a common approach for the lateral control of autonomous vehicles. The MPC uses a vehicle dynamics model to predict the future states of the vehicle for a given prediction horizon. However, in order to achieve real-time path control, the computational load is usually large, which leads to short prediction horizons. To deal with the computational load, the control algorithm can be parallelized on the graphics processing unit (GPU). In contrast to the widely used stochastic methods, in this paper we propose a deterministic approach based on grid search. Our approach focuses on systematically discovering the search area with different levels of granularity. To achieve this, we split the optimization algorithm into multiple iterations. The best sequence of each iteration is then used as an initial solution to the next iteration. The granularity increases, resulting in smooth and predictable steering angle sequences. We present a novel GPU-based algorithm and show its accuracy and realtime abilities with a number of real-world experiments.}, language = {en} }