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 - 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 - https://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 - 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 - 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 - https://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 - 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 - 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 A1 - Niemüller, Tim A1 - Steinbauer, Gerald T1 - Team Zadeat 2010 : application for participation Y1 - 2010 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - https://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 - 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 - 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 - https://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 - 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 -