TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
A1  - Vassos, Stavros
T1  - Action-Based Imperative Programming with YAGI
N2  - Many tasks for autonomous agents or robots are best described by a specification of the environment and a specification of the available actions the agent or robot can perform. Combining such a specification with the possibility to imperatively program a robot or agent is what we call the actionbased imperative programming. One of the most successful such approaches is Golog. In this paper, we draft a proposal for a new robot programming language YAGI, which is based on the action-based imperative programming paradigm. Our goal is to design a small, portable stand-alone YAGI interpreter. We combine the benefits of a principled domain specification with a clean, small and simple programming language, which does not exploit any side-effects from the implementation language. We discuss general requirements of action-based programming languages and outline YAGI, our action-based language approach which particularly aims at embeddability.
Y1  - 2012
N1  - Cognitive Robotics
AAAI Technical Report WS-12-06
SP  - 24
EP  - 31
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Embedding fuzzy controllers in golog  / Ferrein, Alexander ; Schiffer, Stefan ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems, 2009. FUZZ-IEEE 2009
Y1  - 2009
SN  - 978-1-4244-3596-8
SP  - 894
EP  - 899
PB  - IEEE
CY  - New York
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Beck, Daniel
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Landmark-Based Representations for Navigating Holonomic Soccer Robots / Beck, Daniel ; Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - RoboCup 2008 : robot soccer world cup XII / Luca Iocchi ... (eds.)
Y1  - 2009
SN  - 978-3-642-02921-9
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 5399
SP  - 25
EP  - 36
PB  - Springer
CY  - Heidelberg
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Rens, Gavin
A1  - Poel, Etienne van der
T1  - A BDI agent architecture for a POMDP planner / Rens, Gavin ; Ferrein, Alexander ; Poel, Etienne van der
Y1  - 2009
N1  - 9th International Symposium on Logical Formalization of Commonsense Reasoning: Commonsense 2009, Toronto, Canada, 1-3 June, 2009
SP  - 1
EP  - 6
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Jacobs, Stefan
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Beck, Daniel
T1  - Robust Collision Avoidance in Unknown Domestic Environments  /  Jacobs, Stefan ; Ferrein, Alexander ; Schiffer, Stefan ; Beck, Daniel ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - ROBOCUP 2009: ROBOT SOCCER WORLD CUP XIII
Y1  - 2009
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 5949
SP  - 116
EP  - 127
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - BOOK
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Robot controllers for highly dynamic environments with real-time constraints
Y1  - 2008
N1  - Aachen, Techn. Hochsch., Diss., 2007
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - A Fuzzy Set Semantics for Qualitative Fluents in the Situation Calculus / Ferrein, Alexander ; Schiffer, Stefan ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - Intelligent Robotics and Applications : First International Conference, ICIRA 2008 Wuhan, China, October 15-17, 2008 Proceedings, Part I
Y1  - 2008
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 5314
SP  - 498
EP  - 509
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Dylla, Frank
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
A1  - Murray, Jan
T1  - Approaching a formal soccer theory from behaviour specifications in robotic soccer / Dylla, Frank ; Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard ; Murray, Jan ; Obst, Oliver ; Röfer, Thomas ; Schiffer, Stefan ; Stolzenburg, Frieder ; Visser, Ubbo ; Wagner, Tho
JF  - Computers in sport / editors: P Dabnichki
Y1  - 2008
SN  - 978-1-8456-4064-4
SP  - 161
EP  - 185
PB  - WIT Press
CY  - Southampton
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Logic-based robot control in highly dynamic domains  / Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - Robotics and Autonomous Systems. 56 (2008), H. 11
Y1  - 2008
SN  - 0921-8890
SP  - 980
EP  - 991
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Mies, Christoph
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Repairing Decision-Theoretic Policies Using Goal-Oriented Planning / Mies, Christoph ; Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - KI 2008: Advances in Artificial Intelligence : 31st Annual German Conference on AI, KI 2008, Kaiserslautern, Germany, September 23-26, 2008. Proceedings
Y1  - 2008
SN  - 978-3-540-85844-7
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 5243
SP  - 267
EP  - 275
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Beck, Daniel
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - A Simulation Environment for Middle-Size Robots with Multi-level Abstraction / Beck, Daniel ; Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - RoboCup 2007: Robot Soccer World Cup XI
Y1  - 2007
SN  - 978-3-540-68846-4
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 5001
SP  - 136
EP  - 147
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Böhnstedt, Lutz
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Options in readylog reloaded -- generating decision-theoretic plan libraries in golog / Böhnstedt, Lutz ; Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - KI 2007: advances in artificial intelligence : 30th Annual German Conference on AI, KI 2007, Osnabrück, Germany, September 10 - 13, 2007 ; proceedings
Y1  - 2007
SN  - 978-3-540-74564-8
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 4667
SP  - 352
EP  - 366
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Hermanns, Lutz
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Comparing Sensor Fusion Techniques for Ball Position Estimation / Ferrein, Alexander ; Hermanns, Lutz ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - RoboCup 2005: Robot Soccer World Cup IX
Y1  - 2006
SN  - 978-3-540-35437-6
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 4020
SP  - 154
EP  - 165
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Football is coming Home / Schiffer, Stefan ; Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - PCAR '06 Proceedings of the 2006 international symposium on Practical cognitive agents and robots
Y1  - 2006
SN  - 1-74052-130-7
SP  - 39
EP  - 50
PB  - ACM
CY  - New York, NY
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Roboterfußball - Wissenschaft, die auch Spass macht / Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - RWTH Themen (2006)
Y1  - 2006
SN  - 0179-079X
SP  - 36
EP  - 39
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Strack, Andreas
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Laser-Based Localization with Sparse Landmarks  / Strack, Andreas ; Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - RoboCup 2005: Robot Soccer World Cup IX
Y1  - 2006
SN  - 978-3-540-35437-6
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 4020
SP  - 569
EP  - 576
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Qualitative World Models for Soccer Robots / Schiffer, Stefan ; Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - Qualitative constraint calculi : application and integration ; KI 2006, 14 - 19 June 2006, Bremen, Germany ; 29th Annual German Conference on Artificial Intelligence ; workshop / Stefan Wölfl ... (eds.)
Y1  - 2006
SN  - 3-88722-666-6
SP  - 3
EP  - 14
PB  - Univ.
CY  - Bremen
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Calmes, Laurent
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
A1  - Wagner, Hermann
T1  - Von Schleiereulen und fussballspielenden Robotern / Calmes, Laurent ; Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard ; Wagner, Hermann
JF  - RWTH Themen (2006)
Y1  - 2006
SN  - 0179-079X
SP  - 30
EP  - 33
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Jacobs, Stefan
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Controlling Unreal Tournament 2004 Bots with the logic-based action language Golog / Jacobs, Stefan ; Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - Proceedings of the First AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE).
Y1  - 2005
SP  - 151
EP  - 152
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Dylla, Frank
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
A1  - Murray, Jan
T1  - Towards a League-Independent Qualitative Soccer Theory for RoboCup  / Dylla, Frank ; Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard ; Murray, Jan ; Obst, Oliver ; Röfer, Thomas ; Stolzenburg, Frieder ; Visser, Ubbo
JF  - RoboCup 2004: Robot Soccer World Cup VIII / Daniele Nardi ... (ed.).
Y1  - 2005
SN  - 978-3-540-25046-8
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 3276
SP  - 611
EP  - 618
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Jacobs, Stefan
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Unreal Golog Bots / Jacobs, Stefan ; Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - IJCAI-05 Workshop on Reasoning, Representation, and Learning in Computer Games
Y1  - 2005
SP  - 31
EP  - 36
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gspandl, Stephan
A1  - Pill, Ingo
A1  - Reip, Michael
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Belief Management for High-Level Robot Programs
JF  - Proceedings of the Twenty-Second International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence [electronic resource] : Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, 16 - 22 July 2011 / sponsored by International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). Ed. by Toby Walsh
Y1  - 2011
N1  - International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence ; (22 : ; 2011.07.16-22 : ; Barcelona, Spain) ; IJCAI ; (22 : ; 2011.07.16-22 : ; Barcelona, Spain)
SP  - 900
EP  - 905
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Reasoning with Qualitative Positional Information for Domestic Domains in the Situation Calculus
JF  - Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems
Y1  - 2011
SN  - 0921-0296
VL  - 63
IS  - 2
SP  - 273
EP  - 300
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Niemüller, Tim
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Eckel, Gerhard
A1  - Pirro, David
A1  - Podbregar, Patrick
A1  - Kellner, Tobias
A1  - Rath, Christoph
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
T1  - Providing Ground-truth Data for the Nao Robot Platform
JF  - RoboCup 2010: Robot Soccer World Cup XIV
Y1  - 2011
SN  - 978-3-642-20217-9
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 6556
SP  - 133
EP  - 144
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Applications (ICIRA 2011)
JF  - Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Applications (ICIRA 2011)
Y1  - 2010
SP  - 1
EP  - 10
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Niemüller, Tim
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Beck, Daniel
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Design Principles of the Component-Based Robot Software Framework Fawkes
JF  - Simulation, Modeling, and Programming for Autonomous Robots
Y1  - 2010
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 6472 ; Second International Conference, SIMPAR 2010, Darmstadt, Germany, November 15-18, 2010. Proceedings
SP  - 300
EP  - 311
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Niemüller, Tim
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - A Lua-based Behavior Engine for Controlling the Humanoid Robot Nao
JF  - RoboCup 2009: Robot Soccer World Cup XIII
Y1  - 2010
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 5949
SP  - 240
EP  - 251
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Siebel, Nils T.
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
T1  - Hybrid control for autonomous systems — Integrating learning, deliberation and reactive control
JF  - Robotics and Autonomous Systems
Y1  - 2010
SN  - 0921-8890
VL  - 58
IS  - 9
SP  - 1037
EP  - 1038
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
T1  - On the Way to High-Level Programming for Resource-Limited Embedded Systems with Golog
JF  - Simulation, Modeling, and Programming for Autonomous Robots
Y1  - 2010
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 6472 ; Second International Conference, SIMPAR 2010, Darmstadt, Germany, November 15-18, 2010. Proceedings
SP  - 229
EP  - 240
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Robot controllers for highly dynamic environments with real-time constraints
JF  - Künstliche Intelligenz : KI. 24 (2010), H. 2
Y1  - 2010
SN  - 1610-1987
SP  - 175
EP  - 178
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Rens, Gavin
A1  - Varzinczak, Ivan
A1  - Meyer, Thomas
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - A Logic for Reasoning about Actions and Explicit Observations
JF  - AI 2010: Advances in Artificial Intelligence 23rd Australasian Joint Conference, Adelaide, Australia, December 7-10, 2010. Proceedings
Y1  - 2010
SN  - 978-3-642-17431-5
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 6464
SP  - 395
EP  - 404
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - golog.lua: Towards a Non-Prolog Implementation of Golog for Embedded Systems
Y1  - 2010
SP  - 20
EP  - 28
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Booysen, Tracy
A1  - Rieger, Michael
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Towards inexpensive robots for science & technology teaching and education in Africa
Y1  - 2011
SN  - 978-1-61284-992-8
N1  - AFRICON, 2011
SP  - 1
EP  - 6
PB  - IEEE
CY  - New York
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Marais, Stephen
A1  - Potgieter, Anet
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
T1  - RoboCup Junior: A vehicle for S&T education in Africa?
Y1  - 2011
SN  - 978-1-61284-992-8
N1  - AFRICON, 2011
SP  - 1
EP  - 6
PB  - IEEE
CY  - New York
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Rens, Gavin
A1  - Meyer, Thomas
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - A Logic for Specifying Partially Observable Stochastic Domains / Rens, Gavin ; Meyer, Thomas ; Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - Proceedings of the Ninth International Workshop pn non-Monotonic Reasoning, Action and Change (NRAC`11)
Y1  - 2011
N1  - Technical Report RMIT-TR-11-02
SP  - 15
EP  - 22
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Fritz, Christian
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Using Golog for Deliberation and Team Coordination in Robotic Soccer / Ferrein, Alexander ; Fritz, Christian ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - Künstliche Intelligenz : KI. 19 (2005), H. 1
Y1  - 2005
SN  - 0933-1875
SP  - 24
EP  - 30
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Wie Roboter die Welt sehen : Roboterfußball im Dienst der Wissenschaft / Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - Bild und Erkenntnis : Formen und Funktionen des Bildes in Wissenschaft und Technik / RWTH. Andreas Beyer ; Markus Lohoff (Hrsg.)
Y1  - 2005
SN  - 3-422-06463-X
SP  - 360
EP  - 361
PB  - Deutscher Kunstverlag
CY  - München
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Konur, Savas
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Learning Decision Trees for Action Selection in Soccer Agents / Konur, Savas ; Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
Y1  - 2004
N1  - Proceedings of Workshop on Agents in dynamic and real-time environments
SP  - 1
EP  - 7
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Fritz, Christian
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - On-Line Decision-Theoretic Golog for Unpredictable Domains / Ferrein, Alexander ; Fritz, Christian ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - KI 2004: Advances in Artificial Intelligence : 27th Annual German Conference on AI, KI 2004, Ulm, Germany, September 20-24, 2004. Proceedings
Y1  - 2004
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 3238
SP  - 322
EP  - 336
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Planwirtschaft
JF  - Linux Magazin (2004)
Y1  - 2004
SN  - 1432-640X
SP  - 50
EP  - 53
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Specifying Soccer Moves with Golog
JF  - Book of abstracts : Cologne, 15 - 17 September 2004 / 1st International Working Conference IT and Sport & 5th conference DVS-Section Computer Science in Sport
Y1  - 2005
SN  - 3-00-014576-1
N1  - International Working Conference IT and Sport 1, 2004, Köln ; Deutsche Vereinigung für Sportwissenschaft
SP  - 161
EP  - 165
PB  - German Sport Univ.
CY  - Köln
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Fritz, Christian
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Extending DTGOLOG with Options / Ferrein, Alexander ; Fritz, Christian ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - IJCAI-03, Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Acapulco, Mexico, August 9-15, 2003
Y1  - 2003
SP  - 1391
EP  - 1393
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Dylla, Frank
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Specifying Multirobot Coordination in ICPGolog - From Simulation towards Real Robots / Dylla, Frank ; Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
Y1  - 2003
N1  - AOS-4 at IJCAI-03
SP  - 1
EP  - 10
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Dylla, Frank
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Acting and Deliberating using Golog in Robotic Soccer - A Hybrid Architecture / Dylla, Frank ; Ferrein, Alexander ; Lakemeyer, Gerhard
JF  - Proc. 3rd International Cognitive Robotics Workshop (CogRob 2002)
Y1  - 2002
SP  - 1
EP  - 7
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - golog.lua: Towards a Non-Prolog Implementation of Golog for Embedded Systems
JF  - Cognitive Robotics / Lakemeyer, Gerhard (ed.)
Y1  - 2010
N1  - Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings ; 10081
SP  - 1
EP  - 15
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Caesar: an intelligent domestic service robot
JF  - Intelligent service robotics
N2  - In this paper we present CAESAR, an intelligent domestic service robot. In domestic settings for service robots complex tasks have to be accomplished. Those tasks benefit from deliberation, from robust action execution and from flexible methods for human–robot interaction that account for qualitative notions used in natural language as well as human fallibility. Our robot CAESAR deploys AI techniques on several levels of its system architecture. On the low-level side, system modules for localization or navigation make, for instance, use of path-planning methods, heuristic search, and Bayesian filters. For face recognition and human–machine interaction, random trees and well-known methods from natural language processing are deployed. For deliberation, we use the robot programming and plan language READYLOG, which was developed for the high-level control of agents and robots; it allows combining programming the behaviour using planning to find a course of action. READYLOG is a variant of the robot programming language Golog. We extended READYLOG to be able to cope with qualitative notions of space frequently used by humans, such as “near” and “far”. This facilitates human–robot interaction by bridging the gap between human natural language and the numerical values needed by the robot. Further, we use READYLOG to increase the flexible interpretation of human commands with decision-theoretic planning. We give an overview of the different methods deployed in CAESAR and show the applicability of a system equipped with these AI techniques in domestic service robotics
Y1  - 2012
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11370-012-0118-y
SN  - 1861-2776
N1  - Special Issue on Artificial Intelligence Techniques for Robotics: Sensing, Representation and Action, Part I
VL  - 5
IS  - 4
SP  - 259
EP  - 276
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Rens, Gavin
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Belief-node condensation for online POMDP algorithms
N2  - Slightly extended version of the paper accepted at the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Workshop, a special track of IEEE AFRICON-2013, held in Mauritius, 9-12 September 2013
Y1  - 2013
SP  - 1
EP  - 7
PB  - IEEE
CY  - New York
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Meyer, Thomas
T1  - A Brief Overview of Artificial Intelligence in South Africa
JF  - AI Magazine
N2  - South Africa in recent years is the establishment of a number of research hubs involved in AI activities ranging from mobile robotics and computational intelligence, to knowledge representation and reasoning, and human language technologies. In this survey we take the reader through a quick tour of the research being conducted at these hubs, and touch on an initiative to maintain and extend the current level of interest in AI research in the country.
Y1  - 2012
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1609/aimag.v33i1.2357
SN  - 0738-4602
VL  - 33
IS  - 1
SP  - 99
EP  - 101
PB  - AAAI
CY  - Menlo Park
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Kallweit, Stephan
A1  - Lautermann, Mark
T1  - Towards an autonomous pilot system for a tunnel boring machine
T2  - 5th Robotics and Mechatronics Conference of South Africa (ROBMECH) : 26 - 27 November 2012 ; CSIR International Conference Centre Gauteng South Africa
Y1  - 2012
SN  - 978-1-4673-5183-6
N1  - Robotics and Mechatronics Conference of South Africa <5, 2012, Johannesburg> ; ROBOMECH <5, 2012, Johannesburg>
PB  - IEEE
CY  - Piscataway, NJ
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Niemüller, Tim
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Aspects of integrating diverse software into robotic systems extended abstract
T2  - ICRA 2013 - 8th Workshop on Software Development and Integration in Robotics (SDIR), Karlsruhe, Germany
Y1  - 2013
SP  - 1
EP  - 2
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Niemüller, Tim
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Reuter, S.
A1  - Ewert, D.
A1  - Jeschke, S.
A1  - Pensky, D.
A1  - Karras, Ulrich
T1  - Proposal for advancements to the LLSF in 2014 and beyond
Y1  - 2013
SP  - Publ. online
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Niemüller, Tim
A1  - Ewert, Daniel
A1  - Reuter, Sebastian
A1  - Karras, Ulrich
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Towards benchmarking cyber-physical systems in factory automation scenarios
T2  - KI 2013: advances in artificial intelligence : 36th Annual German Conference on AI, Koblenz, Germany, September 16-20, 2013 ; proceedings / Ingo J. Timm ... (ed.). (Lecture notes in computer science ; 8077)
Y1  - 2013
SN  - 978-3-642-40941-7
SP  - 296
EP  - 299
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin [u.a.]
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Leingartner, Max
A1  - Maurer, Johannes
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Evaluation of sensors and mapping approaches for disasters in tunnels
T2  - IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics : SSRR : 21-26 Oct. 2013, Linkoping, Sweden
Y1  - 2013
SN  - 978-1-4799-0879-0
SP  - 1
EP  - 7
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Niemüller, Tim
A1  - Ewert, Daniel
A1  - Reuter, Sebastian
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Jeschke, Sabina
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - The Carologistics RoboCup Logistics Team 2013
T2  - RoboCup 2013 : Eindhoven
Y1  - 2013
SP  - 1
EP  - 8
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Niemüller, Tim
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
ED  - Boots, Byron
T1  - Lessons learnt from developing the embodied AI platform CAESAR for domestic service robotics
T2  - Designing intelligent robots : reintegrating AI II ; papers from the AAAI spring symposium ; [held March 25 - 27, 2013 in Palo Alto, California, USA, on the campus of Stanford University]. (Technical Report / Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence ; 2013,4)
Y1  - 2013
SN  - 9781577356011
SP  - 21
EP  - 26
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Potgieter, Anet
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
T1  - Self-aware robots - What do we need from learning, deliberation, and reactive control?
T2  - HYCAS 2009 : International Workshop on Hybrid Control of Autonomous Systems : Integrating Learning, Deliberation and Reactive Control : Pasadena, Calif., 13 July 2009
Y1  - 2009
SP  - 1
EP  - 5
PB  - AAAI Pr.
ER  - 
TY  - BOOK
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Pauli, J.
A1  - Siebel, N. T.
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
T1  - Hybrid control for autonomous systems : [... 1st Workshop on Hybrid Control of Autonomous Systems - Integrating Learning, Deliberation and Reactive Control with the 21st International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-09), held in Pasadena, CA, in July 2009] / ed. by Alexander Ferrein ...
Y1  - 2009
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Towards applying soccer moves in the RoboCup Standard Platform League
JF  - ÖGAI-Journal
Y1  - 2008
SN  - 0254-4326
VL  - Bd. 27
IS  - H. 3
SP  - 4
EP  - 9
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Rens, Gavin
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Poel, Etienne van der
T1  - Extending DTGolog to deal with POMD-Ps
T2  - Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Symposium of the Pattern Recognition Association of South Africa (PRASA 2008)
Y1  - 2008
SP  - 49
EP  - 54
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Autonome Entscheidungsfindung bei Robotern : Planwirtschaft
JF  - Linux-Magazin
Y1  - 2004
SN  - 1432-640X (Print)
IS  - 7
SP  - 50
EP  - 53
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
A1  - McPhillips, Graeme
A1  - Potgieter, Anet
T1  - RoboCup Standard Platform League - Team Zadeat : an intercontinental research effort
Y1  - 2008
SP  - 1
EP  - 7
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Priede, Gareth
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Towards passive walking for the fully-actuated biped robot Nao
T2  - Emerging trends in computing, informatics, systems sciences, and engineering. (Lecture notes in electrical engineering : vol. 151)
N2  - Many biped robots deploy a form of gait that follows the zero moment point (ZMP) approach, that is, the robot is in a stable position at any point in time. This requires the robot to be fully actuated. While very stable, the draw-backs of this approach are a fairly slow gait and high energy consumption. An alternative approach is the so-called passive-dynamic walking, where the gait makes use of the inertia and dynamic stability of the robot. In this paper we describe our ongoing work of combining the principles of passive-dynamic walking on the fully-actuated biped robot Nao, which is also deployed for robotic soccer applications. We present a simple controller that allows the robot to stably rock sidewards, showing a closed limit-cycle. We discuss first results of superimposing a forward motion on the sidewards motion. Based on this we expect to endow the Nao with a fast, robust, and stable passive-dynamic walk on the fully-actuated Nao in the future.
Y1  - 2013
SN  - 978-1-4614-3557-0 ; 978-1-4614-3558-7
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3558-7_18
SP  - 225
EP  - 236
PB  - Springer
CY  - New York, NY
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
A1  - McPhillips, Graeme
A1  - Potgieter, Anet
T1  - Establishing the RoboCup Standard League in Africa - applying for the RoboCup Standard League with a German-Austrian-South African Research Project
Y1  - 2007
SP  - 1
EP  - 5
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Vorst, Phillip
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - AllemaniACs3D team description
Y1  - 2006
SP  - 1
EP  - 6
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Beck, Daniel
A1  - Buchleitner, Martin
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Niemüller, Tim
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
T1  - Mostly Harmless & AllemaniACs - mixed innovations
Y1  - 2014
SP  - 1
EP  - 8
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Niemüller, Tim
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
T1  - Team Zadeat 2010 : application for participation
Y1  - 2010
SP  - 1
EP  - 5
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
A1  - McPhillips, Graeme
A1  - Niemüller, Tim
A1  - Potgieter, Anet
T1  - Team Zadeat 2009 : team report
Y1  - 2009
VL  - 6
SP  - 1
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Niemüller, Tim
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
ED  - Boots, Byron
T1  - Incremental task-level reasoning in a competitive factory automation scenario
T2  - Designing intelligent robots : reintegrating AI II ; papers from the AAAI spring symposium ; [held March 25 - 27, 2013 in Palo Alto, California, USA, on the campus of Stanford University]. (Technical Report / Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence ; 2013,4)
Y1  - 2013
SN  - 9781577356011
SP  - 43
EP  - 48
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
T1  - AllemaniACs@ home 2006 team description
Y1  - 2006
SP  - 1
EP  - 6
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Fuzzy representations and control for domestic service robots in Golog
T2  - Intelligent robotics and applications : 4th International conference, ICIRA 2011, Aachen, Germany, December 6-8, 2011, proceedings, part I. (Lecture notes in computer science ; 7102)
Y1  - 2011
SN  - 978-3-642-25486-4
SP  - 241
EP  - 250
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Dylla, Frank
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - AllemaniACs 2003 team description
T2  - RoboCup 2003 : Robot Soccer World Cup VII
Y1  - 2003
SP  - 1
EP  - 3
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Kallweit, Stephan
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Scholl, Ingrid
A1  - Reichert, Walter
T1  - Mobile Autonome Systeme in der Lehre, am Beispiel der ROS Summer School
T2  - Tagungsband AALE 2014 : das Forum für Fachleute der Automatisierungstechnik aus Hochschulen und Wirtschaft ; 11. Fachkonferenz, Regensburg ; [11. Konferenz für Angewandte Automatisierungstechnik in Lehre und Entwicklung / Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Regensburg; VFAALE, Verein der Freunde und Förderer der Angewandten Automatisierungstechnik]
Y1  - 2014
SN  - 978-3-8356-7142-3
N1  - Die Textverteilung der elektronischen Zweitveröffentlichung entspricht nicht der der o.g. Verlagsausgabe.
SP  - 157
EP  - 163
PB  - Dt. Industrieverl.
CY  - München
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Niemüller, Tim
A1  - Ewert, Daniel
A1  - Reuter, Sebastian
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Jeschke, Sabina
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - RoboCup logistics league sponsored by festo: A competitive factory automation testbed
T2  - RoboCup 2013: Robot World Cup XVII :  Eindhoven; Netherlands; 1 July 2013 through 1 July 2013. (Lecture notes in computer science ; 8371)
N2  - A new trend in automation is to deploy so-called cyber-physical systems (CPS) which combine computation with physical processes. The novel RoboCup Logistics League Sponsored by Festo (LLSF) aims at such CPS logistic scenarios in an automation setting. A team of robots has to produce products from a number of semi-finished products which they have to machine during the game. Different production plans are possible and the robots need to recycle scrap byproducts. This way, the LLSF is a very interesting league offering a number of challenging research questions for planning, coordination, or communication in an application-driven scenario. In this paper, we outline the objectives of the LLSF and present steps for developing the league further towards a benchmark for logistics scenarios for CPS. As a major milestone we present the new automated referee system which helps in governing the game play as well as keeping track of the scored points in a very complex factory scenario.
Y1  - 2014
SN  - 978-3-662-44467-2 (Print) 978-3-662-44468-9 (Online)
SP  - 336
EP  - 347
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Alhwarin, Faraj
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Scholl, Ingrid
T1  - IR stereo kinect: improving depth images by combining structured light with IR stereo
Y1  - 2014
SP  - 1
EP  - 9
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Neumann, Tobias
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Kallweit, Stephan
A1  - Scholl, Ingrid
T1  - Towards a mobile mapping robot for underground mines
T2  - 7th Conference of Robotics and Mechatronics : RobMech 2014 : 27th and 28th Nov. 2014, Cape Town
Y1  - 2014
SP  - 1
EP  - 6
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Alhwarin, Faraj
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Scholl, Ingrid
T1  - IR stereo kinect: improving depth images by combining structured light with IR stereo
T2  - PRICAI 2014: Trends in artificial intelligence : 13th Pacific Rim International Conference on Artificial Intelligence : Gold Coast, QLD, Australia, December 1-5, 2014 : proceedings. (Lecture notes in computer science ; vol. 8862)
N2  - RGB-D sensors such as the Microsoft Kinect or the Asus Xtion are inexpensive 3D sensors. A depth image is computed by calculating the distortion of a known infrared light (IR) pattern which is projected into the scene. While these sensors are great devices they have some limitations. The distance they can measure is limited and they suffer from reflection problems on transparent, shiny, or very matte and absorbing objects. If more than one RGB-D camera is used the IR patterns interfere with each other. This results in a massive loss of depth information. In this paper, we present a simple and powerful method to overcome these problems. We propose a stereo RGB-D camera system which uses the pros of RGB-D cameras and combine them with the pros of stereo camera systems. The idea is to utilize the IR images of each two sensors as a stereo pair to generate a depth map. The IR patterns emitted by IR projectors are exploited here to enhance the dense stereo matching even if the observed objects or surfaces are texture-less or transparent. The resulting disparity map is then fused with the depth map offered by the RGB-D sensor to fill the regions and the holes that appear because of interference, or due to transparent or reflective objects. Our results show that the density of depth information is increased especially for transparent, shiny or matte objects.
Y1  - 2014
SN  - 978-3-319-13559-5 (Print) ; 978-3-319-13560-1 (E-Book)
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13560-1_33
SP  - 409
EP  - 421
PB  - Springer
CY  - München
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Abstracting Away Low-Level Details in Service Robotics with Fuzzy Fluents
JF  - Model-Driven Knowledge Engineering for Improved Software Modularity in Robotics and Automation.
Workshop at European Robotics Forum 2015
Vienna, Austria, March 11-13, 2015.
Y1  - 2015
SP  - 1
EP  - 4
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Robots: challenges, chances and risks for solving 21st century problems
T2  - President’s Invitation Lecture / South African Institute of Electrical Engineers : May 21 & 22, 2015, University of Johannesburg
Y1  - 2015
SP  - 1
EP  - 45
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Rebel, Sören
A1  - Hüning, Felix
A1  - Scholl, Ingrid
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - MQOne: Low-cost design for a rugged-terrain robot platform
T2  - Intelligent robotics and applications : 8th International Conference, ICIRA 2015, Portsmouth, UK, August 24-27, 2015, Proceedings, Part II (Lecture notes in computer science : vol. 9245)
N2  - Rugged terrain robot designs are important for field robotics missions. A number of commercial platforms are available, however, at an impressive price. In this paper, we describe the hardware and software component of a low-cost wheeled rugged-terrain robot. The robot is based on an electric children quad bike and is modified to be driven by wire. In terms of climbing properties, operation time and payload it can compete with some of the commercially available platforms, but at a far lower price.
Y1  - 2015
SN  - 978-3-319-22875-4 (print) ; 978-3-319-22876-1 (E-Book)
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22876-1_19
SP  - 209
EP  - 221
PB  - Springer
CY  - Cham
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - Decision-Theoretic Planning with Linguistic Terms in Golog
T2  - FLinAl 2015 - Fuzzy Logic in Artificial Intelligence : Proceedings of the Workshop on Fuzzy Logic in AI (FLinAI-15) co-located with the 24th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2015) Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 25, 2015.
Y1  - 2015
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0074-1424-4
SN  - 1613-0073
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Krückel, Kai
A1  - Nolden, Florian
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Scholl, Ingrid
T1  - Intuitive visual teleoperation for UGVs using free-look augmented reality displays
T2  - 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Seattle, WA
Y1  - 2015
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICRA.2015.7139809
SP  - 4412
EP  - 4417
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Niemueller, Tim
A1  - Reuter, Sebastian
A1  - Ewert, Daniel
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Jeschke, Sabina
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - Decisive Factors for the Success of the Carologistics RoboCup Team in the RoboCup Logistics League 2014
T2  - RoboCup 2014: Robot World Cup XVIII
Y1  - 2015
SN  - 978-3-319-18615-3
N1  - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 8992
SP  - 155
EP  - 167
PB  - Springer
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Kallweit, Stephan
A1  - Scholl, Ingrid
A1  - Reichert, Walter
T1  - Learning to Program Mobile Robots in the ROS Summer School Series
T2  - Proceedings 6th International Conference on Robotics in Education (RiE 15)
N2  - The main objective of our ROS Summer School series is to introduce MA level students to program mobile robots with the Robot Operating System (ROS). ROS is a robot middleware that is used my many research institutions world-wide. Therefore, many state-of-the-art algorithms of mobile robotics are available in ROS and can be deployed very easily. As a basic robot platform we deploy a 1/10 RC cart that is wquipped with an Arduino micro-controller to control the servo motors, and an embedded PC that runs ROS. In two weeks, participants get to learn the basics of mobile robotics hands-on. We describe our teaching concepts and our curriculum and report on the learning success of our students.
Y1  - 2015
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Alhwarin, Faraj
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Gebhardt, Andreas
A1  - Kallweit, Stephan
A1  - Scholl, Ingrid
A1  - Tedjasukmana, Osmond Sanjaya
T1  - Improving additive manufacturing by image processing and robotic milling
T2  - 2015 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), Aug 24-28, 2015 Gothenburg, Sweden
Y1  - 2015
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/CoASE.2015.7294217
SP  - 924
EP  - 929
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - 3D-Mapping von Straßentunneln
T2  - 16. Geokinematischer Tag, 07. und 08. Mai 2015 : Tagungsband / Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg
Y1  - 2015
N1  - Schriftenreihe des Instituts für Markscheidewesen und Geodsäsie an der Technischen Universität Bergakademie Freiberg
SP  - 31
EP  - 40
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Niemueller, Tim
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Reuter, Sebastian
A1  - Jeschke, Sabina
A1  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
T1  - The RoboCup Logistics League as a Holistic Multi-Robot Smart Factory Benchmark
T2  - Proceedings of the IROS 2015 Open forum on evaluation of results, replication of experiments and benchmarking in robotics research
N2  - With autonomous mobile robots receiving increased
attention in industrial contexts, the need for benchmarks
becomes more and more an urgent matter. The RoboCup
Logistics League (RCLL) is one specific industry-inspired scenario
focusing on production logistics within a Smart Factory.
In this paper, we describe how the RCLL allows to assess the
performance of a group of robots within the scenario as a
whole, focusing specifically on the coordination and cooperation
strategies and the methods and components to achieve them.
We report on recent efforts to analyze performance of teams in
2014 to understand the implications of the current grading
scheme, and derived criteria and metrics for performance
assessment based on Key Performance Indicators (KPI) adapted
from classic factory evaluation. We reflect on differences and
compatibility towards RoCKIn, a recent major benchmarking
European project.
Y1  - 2015
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Stopforth, Riaan
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
T1  - Europe and South African collaboration on the Mechatronics and Robotics systems as part of the SA Robotics Center
T2  - ICRA 2015 Developing Countries Forum
N2  - 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.
Y1  - 2015
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Booysen, Tracy
A1  - Mathew, Thomas
A1  - Knox, Greig
A1  - Fong, W. K.
A1  - Stüttgen, Marcel
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
T1  - The Scarab Project
T2  - ICRA 2015 Developing Countries Forum
N2  - Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) is an active research
field in the robotics community. Despite recent advances
for many open research questions, these kind of systems are
not widely used in real rescue missions. One reason is that such
systems are complex and not (yet) very reliable; another is that
one has to be an robotic expert to run such a system. Moreover,
available rescue robots are very expensive and the benefits of
using them are still limited.
In this paper, we present the Scarab robot, an alternative
design for a USAR robot. The robot is light weight, humanpackable
and its primary purpose is that of extending the
rescuer’s capability to sense the disaster site. The idea is that a
responder throws the robot to a certain spot. The robot survives
the impact with the ground and relays sensor data such as
camera images or thermal images to the responder’s hand-held
control unit from which the robot can be remotely controlled.
Y1  - 2015
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  - 
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  - 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  - Lakemeyer, Gerhard
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
ED  - Finzi, Alberto
T1  - The RoboCup Logistics League as a Benchmark for Planning in Robotics
T2  - Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Planning and Robotics (PlanRob-15); Jerusalem, Israel 7-8/6/2015
Y1  - 2015
SP  - 63
EP  - 68
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Limpert, Nicolas
A1  - Schiffer, Stefan
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
T1  - A Local Planner for Ackermann-Driven Vehicles in ROS SBPL
T2  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Pattern Recognition Association of South Africa and Robotics and Mechatronics (PRASA-RobMech), 2015
Y1  - 2015
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/RoboMech.2015.7359518
SP  - 172
EP  - 177
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Leingartner, Max
A1  - Maurer, Johannes
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
T1  - Evaluation of Sensors and Mapping Approaches for Disasters in Tunnels
JF  - Journal of Field Robotics
N2  - 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.
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/rob.21611
SN  - 1556-4967
VL  - 33
IS  - 8
SP  - 1037
EP  - 1057
PB  - Wiley-VCH
CY  - Weinheim
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Ferrein, Alexander
A1  - Maier, Christopher
A1  - Mühlbacher, Clemens
A1  - Niemueller, Tim
A1  - Steinbauer, Gerald
A1  - Vassos, Stravros
T1  - Controlling Logistics Robots with the Action-based Language YAGI
T2  - Proceedings of the 2015 IROS Workshop on Workshop on Task Planning for Intelligent Robots in Service and Manufacturing
Y1  - 2015
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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  - 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  -