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
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  - 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  - 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  - 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  -