TY  - CHAP
A1  - Eichenbaum, Julian
A1  - Nikolovski, Gjorgji
A1  - Mülhens, Leon
A1  - Reke, Michael
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Scholl, Ingrid
T1  - Towards a lifelong mapping approach using Lanelet 2 for autonomous open-pit mine operations
T2  - 2023 IEEE 19th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE)
N2  - Autonomous agents require rich environment models for fulfilling their missions. High-definition maps are a well-established map format which allows for representing semantic information besides the usual geometric information of the environment. These are, for instance, road shapes, road markings, traffic signs or barriers. The geometric resolution of HD maps can be as precise as of centimetre level. In this paper, we report on our approach of using HD maps as a map representation for autonomous load-haul-dump vehicles in open-pit mining operations. As the mine undergoes constant change, we also need to constantly update the map. Therefore, we follow a lifelong mapping approach for updating the HD maps based on camera-based object detection and GPS data. We show our mapping algorithm based on the Lanelet 2 map format and show our integration with the navigation stack of the Robot Operating System. We present experimental results on our lifelong mapping approach from a real open-pit mine.
Y1  - 2023
SN  - 979-8-3503-2069-5 (Online)
SN  - 979-8-3503-2070-1 (Print)
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/CASE56687.2023.10260526
N1  - 19th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), 26-30 August 2023, Auckland, New Zealand.
PB  - IEEE
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Viehmann, Tarik
A1  - Limpert, Nicolas
A1  - Hofmann, Till
A1  - Henning, Mike
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
ED  - Eguchi, Amy
ED  - Lau, Nuno
ED  - Paetzel-Prüsmann, Maike
ED  - Wanichanon, Thanapat
T1  - Winning the RoboCup logistics league with visual servoing and centralized goal reasoning
T2  - RoboCup 2022
N2  - The RoboCup Logistics League (RCLL) is a robotics competition in a production logistics scenario in the context of a Smart Factory. In the competition, a team of three robots needs to assemble products to fulfill various orders that are requested online during the game. This year, the Carologistics team was able to win the competition with a new approach to multi-agent coordination as well as significant changes to the robot’s perception unit and a pragmatic network setup using the cellular network instead of WiFi. In this paper, we describe the major components of our approach with a focus on the changes compared to the last physical competition in 2019.
Y1  - 2023
SN  - 978-3-031-28468-7 (Print)
SN  - 978-3-031-28469-4 (Online)
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28469-4_25
N1  - Robot World Cup, RoboCup 2022. 17. July 2023. Bangkok, Thailand.

Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNAI,volume 13561)
SP  - 300
EP  - 312
PB  - Springer
CY  - Cham
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Arndt, Tobias
A1  - Conzen, Max
A1  - Elsen, Ingo
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Galla, Oskar
A1  - Köse, Hakan
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Tschesche, Matteo
T1  - Anomaly detection in the metal-textile industry for the reduction of the cognitive load of quality control workers
T2  - PETRA '23: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments
N2  - This paper presents an approach for reducing the cognitive load for humans working in quality control (QC) for production processes that adhere to the 6σ -methodology. While 100% QC requires every part to be inspected, this task can be reduced when a human-in-the-loop QC process gets supported by an anomaly detection system that only presents those parts for manual inspection that have a significant likelihood of being defective. This approach shows good results when applied to image-based QC for metal textile products.
KW  - Datasets
KW  - Neural networks
KW  - Anomaly detection
KW  - Quality control
KW  - Process optimization
Y1  - 2023
SN  - 9798400700699
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3594806.3596558
N1  - PETRA '23: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Pervasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments, Corfu Greece, July 5 - 7, 2023.
SP  - 535
EP  - 542
PB  - ACM
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Nikolovski, Gjorgji
A1  - Limpert, Nicolas
A1  - Nessau, Hendrik
A1  - Reke, Michael
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Model-predictive control with parallelised optimisation for the navigation of autonomous mining vehicles
T2  - 2023 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV)
N2  - The work in modern open-pit and underground mines requires the transportation of large amounts of resources between fixed points. The navigation to these fixed points is a repetitive task that can be automated. The challenge in automating the navigation of vehicles commonly used in mines is the systemic properties of such vehicles. Many mining vehicles, such as the one we have used in the research for this paper, use steering systems with an articulated joint bending the vehicle’s drive axis to change its course and a hydraulic drive system to actuate axial drive components or the movements of tippers if available. To address the difficulties of controlling such a vehicle, we present a model-predictive approach for controlling the vehicle. While the control optimisation based on a parallel error minimisation of the predicted state has already been established in the past, we provide insight into the design and implementation of an MPC for an articulated mining vehicle and show the results of real-world experiments in an open-pit mine environment.
KW  - Mpc
KW  - Control
KW  - Path-following
KW  - Navigation
KW  - Automation
Y1  - 2023
SN  - 979-8-3503-4691-6 (Online)
SN  - 979-8-3503-4692-3 (Print)
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/IV55152.2023.10186806
N1  - IEEE Symposium on Intelligent Vehicle, 4.-7. June 2023, Anchorage, AK, USA.
PB  - IEEE
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Dey, Thomas
A1  - Elsen, Ingo
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Frauenrath, Tobias
A1  - Reke, Michael
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
ED  - Makedon, Fillia
T1  - CO2 Meter: a do-it-yourself carbon dioxide measuring device for the classroom
T2  - PETRA 2021: The 14th PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments Conference
N2  - In this paper we report on CO2 Meter, a do-it-yourself carbon dioxide measuring device for the classroom. Part of the current measures for dealing with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is proper ventilation in indoor settings. This is especially important in schools with students coming back to the classroom even with high incidents rates. Static ventilation patterns do not consider the individual situation for a particular class. Influencing factors like the type of activity, the physical structure or the room occupancy are not incorporated. Also, existing devices are rather expensive and often provide only limited information and only locally without any networking. This leaves the potential of analysing the situation across different settings untapped. Carbon dioxide level can be used as an indicator of air quality, in general, and of aerosol load in particular. Since, according to the latest findings, SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted primarily in the form of aerosols, carbon dioxide may be used as a proxy for the risk of a virus infection. Hence, schools could improve the indoor air quality and potentially reduce the infection risk if they actually had measuring devices available in the classroom. Our device supports schools in ventilation and it allows for collecting data over the Internet to enable a detailed data analysis and model generation. First deployments in schools at different levels were received very positively. A pilot installation with a larger data collection and analysis is underway.
KW  - embedded hardware
KW  - sensor networks
KW  - information systems
KW  - education
KW  - do-it-yourself
Y1  - 2021
SN  - 9781450387927
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3453892.3462697
N1  - PETRA '21: The 14th PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments Conference Corfu Greece 29 June 2021- 2 July 2021
SP  - 292
EP  - 299
PB  - Association for Computing Machinery
CY  - New York
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schulte-Tigges, Joschua
A1  - Förster, Marco
A1  - Nikolovski, Gjorgji
A1  - Reke, Michael
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Kaszner, Daniel
A1  - Matheis, Dominik
A1  - Walter, Thomas
T1  - Benchmarking of various LiDAR sensors for use in self-driving vehicles in real-world environments
JF  - Sensors
N2  - Abstract
In this paper, we report on our benchmark results of the LiDAR sensors Livox Horizon, Robosense M1, Blickfeld Cube, Blickfeld Cube Range, Velodyne Velarray H800, and Innoviz Pro. The idea was to test the sensors in different typical scenarios that were defined with real-world use cases in mind, in order to find a sensor that meet the requirements of self-driving vehicles. For this, we defined static and dynamic benchmark scenarios. In the static scenarios, both LiDAR and the detection target do not move during the measurement. In dynamic scenarios, the LiDAR sensor was mounted on the vehicle which was driving toward the detection target. We tested all mentioned LiDAR sensors in both scenarios, show the results regarding the detection accuracy of the targets, and discuss their usefulness for deployment in self-driving cars.
KW  - Lidar
KW  - Benchmark
KW  - Self-driving
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s22197146
SN  - 1424-8220
N1  - This article belongs to the Special Issue "Sensor Fusion for Vehicles Navigation and Robotic Systems"
VL  - 22
IS  - 19
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Chajan, Eduard
A1  - Schulte-Tigges, Joschua
A1  - Reke, Michael
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Matheis, Dominik
A1  - Walter, Thomas
T1  - GPU based model-predictive path control for self-driving vehicles
T2  - IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV)
N2  - 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.
KW  - Heuristic algorithms
KW  - Computational modeling
KW  - model-predictive control
KW  - GPU
KW  - autonomous driving
Y1  - 2021
SN  - 978-1-7281-5394-0
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/IV48863.2021.9575619
N1  - 2021 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV)
July 11-17, 2021. Nagoya, Japan
SP  - 1243
EP  - 1248
PB  - IEEE
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Meeßen, Marcus
A1  - Limpert, Nicolas
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
ED  - Lepuschitz, Wilfried
T1  - Compiling ROS Schooling Curricula via Contentual Taxonomies
T2  - Robotics in Education
Y1  - 2021
SN  - 978-3-030-67411-3
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67411-3_5
N1  - RiE: International Conference on Robotics in Education (RiE);
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing book series (AISC, volume 1316)
SP  - 49
EP  - 60
PB  - Springer
CY  - Cham
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Hofmann, Till
A1  - Limpert, Nicolas
A1  - Mataré, Viktor
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Winning the RoboCup Logistics League with Fast Navigation, Precise Manipulation, and Robust Goal Reasoning
T2  - RoboCup 2019: Robot World Cup XXIII. RoboCup
Y1  - 2019
SN  - 978-3-030-35699-6
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35699-6_41
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 11531
SP  - 504
EP  - 516
PB  - Springer
CY  - Cham
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Eltester, Niklas Sebastian
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
T1  - A smart factory setup based on the RoboCup logistics league
T2  - 2020 IEEE Conference on Industrial Cyberphysical Systems (ICPS)
N2  - In this paper we present SMART-FACTORY, a setup for a research and teaching facility in industrial robotics that is based on the RoboCup Logistics League. It is driven by the need for developing and applying solutions for digital production. Digitization receives constantly increasing attention in many areas, especially in industry. The common theme is to make things smart by using intelligent computer technology. Especially in the last decade there have been many attempts to improve existing processes in factories, for example, in production logistics, also with deploying cyber-physical systems. An initiative that explores challenges and opportunities for robots in such a setting is the RoboCup Logistics League. Since its foundation in 2012 it is an international effort for research and education in an intra-warehouse logistics scenario. During seven years of competition a lot of knowledge and experience regarding autonomous robots was gained. This knowledge and experience shall provide the basis for further research in challenges of future production. The focus of our SMART-FACTORY is to create a stimulating environment for research on logistics robotics, for teaching activities in computer science and electrical engineering programmes as well as for industrial users to study and explore the feasibility of future technologies. Building on a very successful history in the RoboCup Logistics League we aim to provide stakeholders with a dedicated facility oriented at their individual needs.
Y1  - 2020
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICPS48405.2020.9274766
N1  - 2020 IEEE Conference on Industrial Cyberphysical Systems (ICPS), 10-12 June 2020, Tampere, Finland.
SP  - 297
EP  - 302
PB  - IEEE
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Kirsch, Maximilian
A1  - Mataré, Victor
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
T1  - Integrating golog++ and ROS for Practical and Portable High-level Control
T2  - 12th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence
Y1  - 2020
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.5220/0008984406920699
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Reke, Michael
A1  - Peter, Daniel
A1  - Schulte-Tigges, Joschua
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Walter, Thomas
A1  - Matheis, Dominik
T1  - A Self-Driving Car Architecture in ROS2
T2  - 2020 International SAUPEC/RobMech/PRASA Conference, Cape Town, South Africa
Y1  - 2020
SN  - 978-1-7281-4162-6
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/SAUPEC/RobMech/PRASA48453.2020.9041020
SP  - 1
EP  - 6
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Limpert, Nicolas
A1  - Wiesen, Patrick
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Kallweit, Stephan
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
T1  - The ROSIN Project and its Outreach to South Africa
JF  - R&D Journal
Y1  - 2019
VL  - 35
SP  - 1
EP  - 6
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Alhwarin, Faraj
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Scholl, Ingrid
T1  - An Optimized Method for 3D Body Scanning Applications Based on KinectFusion
T2  - Communications in Computer and Information Science
Y1  - 2019
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29196-9_6
SN  - 1865-0929
N1  - 11th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, BIOSTEC 2018; Funchal; Portugal; 19 January 2018 through 21 January 2018
VL  - 1024
SP  - 100
EP  - 113
PB  - Springer
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hofmann, Till
A1  - Limpert, Nicolas
A1  - Mataré, Victor
A1  - Schönitz, Sebastian
A1  - Niemueller, Tim
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - The Carologistics RoboCup Logistics Team 2018
N2  - The Carologistics team participates in the RoboCup Logistics League for the seventh year. The RCLL requires precise vision,
manipulation and path planning, as well as complex high-level decision
making and multi-robot coordination. We outline our approach with an
emphasis on recent modifications to those components.
The team members in 2018 are David Bosen, Christoph Gollok, Mostafa
Gomaa, Daniel Habering, Till Hofmann, Nicolas Limpert, Sebastian Schönitz,
Morian Sonnet, Carsten Stoffels, and Tarik Viehmann.
This paper is based on the last year’s team description.
Y1  - 2018
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - 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.
T2  - CEUR workshop proceedings
Y1  - 2019
SN  - 1613-0073
N1  - edited by Gerald Steinbauer, Alexander Ferrein
IS  - Vol-2325
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Donner, Ralf
A1  - Rabel, Matthias
A1  - Scholl, Ingrid
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Donner, Marc
A1  - Geier, Andreas
A1  - John, André
A1  - Köhler, Christian
A1  - Varga, Sebastian
T1  - Die Extraktion bergbaulich relevanter Merkmale aus 3D-Punktwolken eines untertagetauglichen mobilen Multisensorsystems
T2  - Tagungsband Geomonitoring
Y1  - 2019
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.15488/4515
SP  - 91
EP  - 110
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Claer, Mario
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
T1  - Calibration of a Rotating or Revolving Platform with a LiDAR Sensor
JF  - Applied Sciences
Y1  - 2019
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/app9112238
SN  - 2076-3417
VL  - Volume 9
IS  - issue 11, 2238
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Bharatheesha, Mukunda
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Corbato, Carlos Hernandez
T1  - TRROS 2018 :  Teaching Robotics with ROS Workshop at ERF 2018;  Proceedings of the Workshop on Teaching Robotics with ROS (held at ERF 2018), co-located with European Robotics Forum 2018 (ERF 2018), Tampere, Finland, March 15th, 2018
T2  - CEUR Workshop Proceedings
Y1  - 2019
SN  - 1613-0073
IS  - Vol-2329
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Scholl, Ingrid
A1  - Neumann, Tobias
A1  - Krückel, Kai
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
T1  - A system for continuous underground site mapping and exploration
Y1  - 2019
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85859
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Mataré, Victor
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
ED  - Steinbauer, Gerald
ED  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - golog++ : An integrative system design
T2  - 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
Y1  - 2019
SN  - 1613-0073
SP  - 29
EP  - 35
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Alhwarin, Faraj
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Scholl, Ingrid
T1  - An Efficient Hashing Algorithm for NN Problem in HD Spaces
T2  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Y1  - 2019
SN  - 978-303005498-4
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05499-1_6
N1  - 7th International Conference on Pattern Recognition Applications and Methods, ICPRAM 2018; Funchal; Portugal; 16 January 2018 through 18 January 2018; Code 222779
SP  - 101
EP  - 115
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Stopforth, Riaan
A1  - Davrajh, Shaniel
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Design considerations of the duo fugam dual rotor UAV
T2  - 2017 Pattern Recognition Association of South Africa and Robotics and Mechatronics (PRASA-RobMech)
Y1  - 2017
SN  - 978-1-5386-2314-5
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/RoboMech.2017.8261115
SP  - 7
EP  - 13
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - ERIKA—Early Robotics Introduction at Kindergarten Age
JF  - Multimodal Technologies Interact
N2  - 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.
Y1  - 2018
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mti2040064
SN  - 2414-4088
VL  - 2
IS  - 4
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Hofmann, Till
A1  - Mataré, Victor
A1  - Neumann, Tobias
A1  - Schönitz, Sebastian
A1  - Henke, Christoph
A1  - Limpert, Nicolas
A1  - Niemueller, Tim
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Jeschke, Sabina
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Enhancing Software and Hardware Reliability for a Successful Participation in the RoboCup Logistics League 2017
Y1  - 2018
SN  - 978-3-030-00308-1
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00308-1_40
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 11175
SP  - 486
EP  - 497
PB  - Springer
CY  - Cham
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Kallweit, Stephan
T1  - The ROSIN Education Concept - Fostering ROS Industrial-Related Robotics Education in Europe
T2  - ROBOT 2017: Third Iberian Robotics Conference
Y1  - 2018
SN  - 978-3-319-70836-2
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70836-2_31
N1  - Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 694;
(AISC, volume 694)
SP  - 370
EP  - 381
PB  - Springer
CY  - Cham
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Alhwarin, Faraj
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Scholl, Ingrid
T1  - Optimized KinectFusion Algorithm for 3D Scanning Applications
T2  - Proceedings of the 11th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies - Volume 2: BIOIMAGING
Y1  - 2018
SN  - 978-989-758-278-3
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.5220/0006594700500057
SP  - 50
EP  - 57
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Hofmann, Till
A1  - Mataré, Victor
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Constraint-based online transformation of abstract plans into executable robot actions
T2  - Proceedings of the 2018 AAAI Spring Symposium on Integrating Representation, Reasoning, Learning, and Execution for Goal Directed Autonomy
Y1  - 2018
SP  - 549
EP  - 553
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Alhwarin, Faraj
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Scholl, Ingrid
T1  - CRVM: Circular Random Variable-based Matcher - A Novel Hashing Method for Fast NN Search in High-dimensional Spaces
T2  - Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Pattern Recognition Applications and Methods, ICPRAM 2018
Y1  - 2018
SN  - 978-989-758-276-9
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.5220/0006692802140221
SP  - 214
EP  - 221
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - A System Layout for Cognitive Service Robots
T2  - Cognitive Robot Architectures. Proceedings of EUCognition 2016
Y1  - 2017
SN  - 1613-0073
N1  - CEUR-WS Vol-1855
SP  - 44
EP  - 45
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Marco, Heather G.
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - AGNES: The African-German Network of Excellence in Science
T2  - Proceedings of the 2nd Developing World Robotics Forum, Workshop at IEEE AFRICON 2017
Y1  - 2017
SP  - 1
EP  - 2
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Zug, Sebastian
A1  - Niemueller, Tim
A1  - Hochgeschwender, Nico
A1  - Seidensticker, Kai
A1  - Seidel, Martin
A1  - Friedrich, Tim
A1  - Neumann, Tobias
A1  - Karras, Ulrich
A1  - Kraetzschmar, Gerhard K.
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - An Integration Challenge to Bridge the Gap Among Industry-Inspired RoboCup Leagues
T2  - RoboCup 2016: Robot World Cup XX. RoboCup 2016.
Y1  - 2017
SN  - 978-3-319-68792-6
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68792-6_13
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science, LNCS, Vol 9776
SP  - 157
EP  - 168
PB  - Springer
CY  - Cham
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Niemueller, Tim
A1  - Neumann, Tobias
A1  - Henke, Christoph
A1  - Schönitz, Sebastian
A1  - Reuter, Sebastian
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Jeschke, Sabina
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - International Harting Open Source Award 2016: Fawkes for the RoboCup Logistics League
T2  - RoboCup 2016: RoboCup 2016: Robot World Cup XX. RoboCup 2016
Y1  - 2017
SN  - 978-3-319-68792-6
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68792-6_53
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science, LNCS, Vol 9776
SP  - 634
EP  - 642
PB  - Springer
CY  - Cham
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Niemueller, T.
A1  - Lakemeyer, G.
A1  - Reuter, S.
A1  - Jeschke, S.
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Benchmarking of Cyber-Physical Systems in Industrial Robotics: The RoboCup Logistics League as a CPS Benchmark Blueprint
T2  - Cyber-Physical Systems: Foundations, Principles and Applications
N2  - In the future, we expect manufacturing companies to follow a new paradigm that mandates more automation and autonomy in production processes. Such smart factories will offer a variety of production technologies as services that can be combined ad hoc to produce a large number of different product types and variants cost-effectively even in small lot sizes. This is enabled by cyber-physical systems that feature flexible automated planning methods for production scheduling, execution control, and in-factory logistics.

During development, testbeds are required to determine the applicability of integrated systems in such scenarios. Furthermore, benchmarks are needed to quantify and compare system performance in these industry-inspired scenarios at a comprehensible and manageable size which is, at the same time, complex enough to yield meaningful results.

In this chapter, based on our experience in the RoboCup Logistics League (RCLL) as a specific example, we derive a generic blueprint for how a holistic benchmark can be developed, which combines a specific scenario with a set of key performance indicators as metrics to evaluate the overall integrated system and its components.
KW  - Smart factory
KW  - Industry 4.0
KW  - Cyber-physical systems
KW  - Multi-robot systems
KW  - Autonomous mobile robots
Y1  - 2017
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-803801-7.00013-4
SP  - 193
EP  - 207
PB  - Academic Press
CY  - London
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Walenta, Robert
A1  - Schellekens, Twan
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
T1  - A decentralised system approach for controlling AGVs with ROS
T2  - AFRICON, Proceedings
Y1  - 2017
SN  - 978-1-5386-2775-4
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/AFRCON.2017.8095693
SN  - 2153-0033
N1  - AFRICON <2017, 18-20 Sept., Cape Town, South Africa>
SP  - 1436
EP  - 1441
PB  - IEEE
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Decision-Theoretic Planning with Fuzzy Notions in GOLOG
JF  - International Journal of Uncertainty, Fuzziness and Knowledge-Based Systems
N2  - In this paper we present an extension of the action language Golog that allows for using fuzzy notions in non-deterministic argument choices and the reward function in decision-theoretic planning. Often, in decision-theoretic planning, it is cumbersome to specify the set of values to pick from in the non-deterministic-choice-of-argument statement. Also, even for domain experts, it is not always easy to specify a reward function. Instead of providing a finite domain for values in the non-deterministic-choice-of-argument statement in Golog, we now allow for stating the argument domain by simply providing a formula over linguistic terms and fuzzy uents. In Golog’s forward-search DT planning algorithm, these formulas are evaluated in order to find the agent’s optimal policy. We illustrate this in the Diner Domain where the agent needs to calculate the optimal serving order.
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/S0218488516400134
SN  - 1793-6411
VL  - 24
IS  - Issue Suppl. 2
SP  - 123
EP  - 143
PB  - World Scientific
CY  - Singapur
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Stopforth, Riaan
A1  - Davrajh, Shaniel
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - South African robotics entity for a collaboration initiative
T2  - Pattern Recognition Association of South Africa and Robotics and Mechatronics International Conference (PRASA-RobMech), 2016
Y1  - 2017
SN  - 978-1-5090-3335-5
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/RoboMech.2016.7813144
N1  - PRASA-RobMech, Nov. 30 2016-Dec. 2 2016, Stellenbosch, South Africa
SP  - 1
EP  - 6
PB  - IEEE
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Niemueller, Tim
A1  - Zwilling, Frederik
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
A1  - Löbach, Matthias
A1  - Reuter, Sebastian
A1  - Jeschke, Sabina
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Cyber-Physical System Intelligence
T2  - Industrial Internet of Things
N2  - Cyber-physical systems are ever more common in manufacturing industries. Increasing their autonomy has been declared an explicit goal, for example, as part of the Industry 4.0 vision. To achieve this system intelligence, principled and software-driven methods are required to analyze sensing data, make goal-directed decisions, and eventually execute and monitor chosen tasks. In this chapter, we present a number of knowledge-based approaches to these problems and case studies with in-depth evaluation results of several different implementations for groups of autonomous mobile robots performing in-house logistics in a smart factory. We focus on knowledge-based systems because besides providing expressive languages and capable reasoning techniques, they also allow for explaining how a particular sequence of actions came about, for example, in the case of a failure.
KW  - Smart factory
KW  - Industry 4.0
KW  - Multi-robot systems
KW  - Autonomous mobile robots
KW  - RoboCup
Y1  - 2017
SN  - 978-3-319-42559-7
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42559-7_17
N1  - Springer Series in Wireless Technology
SP  - 447
EP  - 472
PB  - Springer
CY  - Cham
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
T1  - Looking back on 20 Years of RoboCup
JF  - KI - Künstliche Intelligenz
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13218-016-0443-y
SN  - 1610-1987
VL  - 30
IS  - 3-4
SP  - 321
EP  - 323
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - 20 Years of RoboCup
JF  - KI - Künstliche Intelligenz
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13218-016-0442-z
SN  - 1610-1987
VL  - 30
IS  - 3-4
SP  - 221
EP  - 224
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
T1  - The Interplay of Aldebaran and RoboCup
JF  - KI - Künstliche Intelligenz
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13218-016-0440-1
SN  - 1610-1987
VL  - 30
IS  - 3-4
SP  - 325
EP  - 326
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Niemueller, Tim
A1  - Karras, Ulrich
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Meisterschaft der Maschinen: Die Industrial Logistic Liga
JF  - C´t Magazin für Computertechnik
Y1  - 2017
IS  - 26
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Niemueller, Tim
A1  - Neumann, Tobias
A1  - Henke, Christoph
A1  - Schönitz, Sebastian
A1  - Reuter, Sebastian
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Jeschke, Sabina
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Improvements for a robust production in the RoboCup logistics league 2016
T2  - RoboCup 2016: Robot World Cup XX. RoboCup 2016.
Y1  - 2017
SN  - 978-3-319-68792-6
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68792-6_49
SP  - 589
EP  - 600
PB  - Springer
CY  - Cham
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
T1  - 20 Years of RoboCup -  A Subjective Retrospection
JF  - KI - Künstliche Intelligenz
N2  - This summer, RoboCup competitions were held for the 20th time in Leipzig, Germany. It was the second time that RoboCup took place in Germany, 10 years after the 2006 RoboCup in Bremen. In this article, we give an overview on the latest developments of RoboCup and what happened in the different leagues over the last decade. With its 20th edition, RoboCup clearly is a success story and a role model for robotics competitions. From our personal view point, we acknowledge this by giving a retrospection about what makes RoboCup such a success.
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13218-016-0449-5
SN  - 1610-1987
VL  - 30
IS  - 3
SP  - 225
EP  - 232
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Booysen, T.
A1  - Stopforth, R.
T1  - Why it is harder to run RoboCup in South Africa: Experiences from German South African collaborations
JF  - International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems
N2  - Robots are widely used as a vehicle to spark interest in science and technology in learners. A number of initiatives focus on this issue, for instance, the Roberta Initiative, the FIRST Lego League, the World Robot Olympiad and RoboCup Junior. Robotic competitions are valuable not only for school learners but also for university students, as the RoboCup initiative shows. Besides technical skills, the students get some project exposure and experience what it means to finish their tasks on time. But qualifying students for future high-tech areas should not only be for students from developed countries. In this article, we present our experiences with research and education in robotics within the RoboCup initiative, in Germany and South Africa; we report on our experiences with trying to get the RoboCup initiative in South Africa going. RoboCup has a huge support base of academic institutions in Germany; this is not the case in South Africa. We present our ‘north–south’ collaboration initiatives in RoboCup between Germany and South Africa and discuss some of the reasons why we think it is harder to run RoboCup in South Africa.
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1729881416662789
SN  - 1729-8806
VL  - 13
IS  - 5
SP  - 1
EP  - 13
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Neumann, Tobias
A1  - Dülberg, Enno
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - A rotating platform for swift acquisition of dense 3D point clouds
T2  - Intelligent Robotics and Applications: 9th International Conference, ICIRA 2016, Tokyo, Japan, August 22-24, 2016, Proceedings, Part I
Y1  - 2016
SN  - 978-3-319-43505-3 (Print)
SN  - 978-3-319-43506-0 (Online)
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43506-0_22
N1  - Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
VL  - 9834
SP  - 257
EP  - 268
PB  - Springer
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Maier, Christopher
A1  - Mühlbacher, Clemens
A1  - Niemüller, Tim
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
A1  - Vassos, Stravros
T1  - Controlling logistics robots with the action-based language YAGI
T2  - Intelligent Robotics and Applications: 9th International Conference, ICIRA 2016, Tokyo, Japan, August 22-24, 2016, Proceedings, Part I
Y1  - 2016
SN  - 978-3-319-43505-3 (Print)
SN  - 978-3-319-43506-0 (Online)
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43506-0_46
N1  - Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
VL  - 9834
SP  - 525
EP  - 537
PB  - Springer
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Niemueller, Tim
A1  - Reuter, Sebastian
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
ED  - Almeida, Luis
T1  - Fawkes for the RoboCup Logistics League
T2  - RoboCup 2015: Robot World Cup XIX
Y1  - 2016
SN  - 978-3-319-29339-4
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29339-4_31
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 9513
SP  - 365
EP  - 373
PB  - Springer International Publishing
CY  - Cham
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Niemueller, Tim
A1  - Reuter, Sebastian
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Jeschke, Sabina
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
ED  - Almeida, Luis
T1  - Evaluation of the RoboCup Logistics League and Derived Criteria for Future Competitions
T2  - RoboCup 2015: Robot World Cup XIX
Y1  - 2016
SN  - 978-3-319-29339-4
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29339-4_3
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 9513
SP  - 31
EP  - 43
PB  - Springer International Publishing
CY  - Cham
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Niemueller, Tim
A1  - Reuter, Sebastian
A1  - Ewert, Daniel
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Jeschke, Sabina
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
ED  - Almeida, Luis
T1  - The Carologistics Approach to Cope with the Increased Complexity and New Challenges of the RoboCup Logistics League 2015
T2  - RoboCup 2015: Robot World Cup XIX
Y1  - 2016
SN  - 978-3-319-29339-4
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29339-4_4
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 9513
SP  - 47
EP  - 59
PB  - Springer International Publishing
CY  - Cham
ER  -