Andrea Orlandini

GiraffPlus: Combining social interaction and long term monitoring for promoting independent living

Early detection and adaptive support to changing individual needs related to ageing is an important challenge in todays society. In this paper we present a system called GiraffPlus that aims at addressing such a challenge and is developed in an on-going European project. The system consists of a network of home sensors that can be automatically configured to collect data for a range of monitoring services; a semi-autonomous telepresence robot; a sophisticated context recognition system that can give high-level and long term interpretations of the collected data and respond to certain events; and personalized services delivered through adaptive user interfaces for primary users. The system performs a range of services including data collection and analysis of long term trends in behaviors and physiological parameters (e.g. relating to sleep or daily activity); warnings, alarms and reminders; and social interaction through the telepresence robot. The latter is based on the Giraff telepresence robot, which is already in place in a number of homes. A distinctive aspect of the project is that the GiraffPlus system will be installed and evaluated in at least 15 homes of elderly people. This paper provides a general overview of the GiraffPlus system and its evaluation.

Human-Robot interaction through mixed-initiative planning for rescue and search rovers

We present an approach to human-robot interaction in Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) domains based on reactive mixed-initiative planning. A model-based executive monitoring system is used to coordinate the operators interventions and the concurrent activities of a rescue rover. In this setting, the users and the robots activities are coordinated by a continuos reactive planning process. We show the advantages of this approach for both the operator situation awareness and human-robot interaction during rescue missions. We present the implementation of the control architecture on a robotic system (DORO) providing some experimental results obtained from testing in rescue arenas.

Validation and verification issues in a timeline-based planning system

To foster effective use of artificial intelligence planning and scheduling (PS moreover, they employ resolution processes designed to optimize the solution with respect to non-trivial evaluation functions. Knowledge engineering environments aim at simplifying direct access to the technology for people other than the original system designers, while the integration of validation and verification (V&V) capabilities in such environments may potentially enhance the users’ trust in the technology. Somehow, V&V techniques may represent a complementary technology, with respect to P&S, that contributes to developing richer software environments to synthesize a new generation of robust problem-solving applications. The integration of V&V and P&S techniques in a knowledge engineering environment is the topic of this paper. In particular, it analyzes the use of state-of-the-art V&V technology to support knowledge engineering for a timeline-based planning system called MrSPOCK. The paper presents the application domain for which the automated solver has been developed, introduces the timeline-based planning ideas, and then describes the different possibilities to apply V&V to planning. Hence, it continues by describing the step of adding V&V functionalities around the specialized planner, MrSPOCK. New functionalities have been added to perform both model validation and plan verification. Lastly, a specific section describes the benefits as well as the performance of such functionalities.

TGA-based controllers for flexible plan execution

Plans synthesized by Temporal Planning and Scheduling systems may be temporally flexible hence they identify an envelope of possible solutions. Such flexibility can be exploited by an executive systems for robust on-line execution. Recent works have addressed aspects of plan execution using a quite general approach grounded on formal modeling and formal methods. The present work extends such an approach by presenting the formal synthesis of a plan controller associated to a flexible temporal plan. In particular, the controller synthesis exploits Timed Game Automata (TGA) for formal modeling and UPPAAL-TIGA as a model checker. After presenting a formal extension, the paper introduces a detailed experimental analysis on a real-world case study that demonstrates the viability of the approach. In particular, it is shown how the controller synthesis overhead is compatible with the performance expected from a short-horizon planner.

Planning and execution with flexible timelines: a formal account

Planning for real world problems with explicit temporal constraints is a challenging problem. Among several approaches, the use of flexible timelines in Planning and Scheduling has been shown to be successful in a number of concrete applications, such as, for instance, autonomous space systems. This paper builds on previous work and presents a revised and extended formal account of flexible timelines with the aim of providing a general semantics for related planning concepts such as domains, goals, problems, constraints, and flexible plans. Some sources of uncertainty are also modeled in the proposed framework and taken into account in the characterization of valid plans that are assumed not to take decisions on components the planner cannot control. A formal definition of different forms of plan controllability is also proposed.

Verification and validation meet planning and scheduling

A planning and scheduling (P&S) system takes as input a domain model and a goal, and produces a plan of actions to be executed, which will achieve the goal. A P&S system typically also offers plan execution and monitoring engines. Due to the non-deterministic nature of planning problems, it is a challenge to construct correct and reliable P&S systems, including, for example, declarative domain models. Verification and validation (V&V) techniques have been applied to address these issues. Furthermore, V&V systems have been applied to actually perform planning, and conversely, P&S systems have been applied to perform V&V of more traditional software. This article overviews some of the literature on the fruitful interaction between V&V and P&S.

Evaluating Telepresence Robots in the Field

Most robotic systems are usually used and evaluated in laboratory setting for a limited period of time. The limitation of lab evaluation is that it does not take into account the different challenges imposed by the fielding of robotic solutions into real contexts. Our current work evaluates a robotic telepresence platform to be used with elderly people. This paper describes our effort toward a comprehensive, ecological and longitudinal evaluation of such robots. Specifically, the paper highlights open points related to the transition from laboratory to real world settings. It first discusses some results from a short term evaluation performed in Italy, obtained by interviewing 44 healthcare workers as possible clients (people connecting to the robot) and 10 older adults as possible end users (people receiving visits through the robot). It then describes a complete evaluation plan designed for a long term assessment also dwelling on the initial application of such methodology to test sites, finally it introduces some technical features that could enable a more robust real world deployment.

A Formal Account of Planning with Flexible Timelines

Planning for real world problems with explicit temporal constraints is a challenging problem. Among several approaches, the use of flexible timelines in Planning and Scheduling (P&S) has demonstrated to be successful in a number of concrete applications, such as, for instance, autonomous space systems. A flexible timeline describes an envelope of possible solutions which can be exploited by an executive system for robust on-line execution. A remarkable research effort has been dedicated to design, build and deploy software environments, like EUROPA, ASPEN, and APSI-TRF, for the synthesis of timeline-based P&S applications. Several attempts have also been made to characterize the concept of timelines. Nevertheless, a formal characterization of flexible timelines and plans is still missing. This paper presents a formal account of flexible timelines aiming at providing a general semantics for related planning concepts such as domains, goals, problems, constraints and flexible plans. Some basic properties of the defined concepts are also stated and proved. A simple running example inspired by a real world planning domain is exploited to illustrate the proposed formal notions. Finally, a planning tool, called Extensible Planning and Scheduling Library (EPSL), is briefly presented, which is able to generate flexible plans that are compliant with the given semantics.

Controller Synthesis for Safety Critical Planning

Safety critical planning and execution is a crucial issue in autonomous systems. This paper proposes a methodology for controller synthesis suitable for timeline-based planning and demonstrates its effectiveness in a space domain where robustness of execution is a crucial property. The proposed approach uses Timed Game Automata (TGA) for formal modeling and the UPPAAL-TIGA model checker for controllers synthesis. An experimental evaluation is performed using a real-world control system.

Long-Term Evaluation of a Telepresence Robot for the Elderly: Methodology and Ecological Case Study

Telepresence robotic systems are proposed in different contexts and specifically in the area of social robotics for assisting older adults at home. Similarly to other robotic systems, such robots are often designed and then evaluated in laboratory settings for a limited period of time. Lab-based evaluations present limitations because they do not take into account the different challenges imposed by the fielding of robotic solutions into real contexts for longer periods. In order to perform long-term experiments in real ecological settings it is very important to define a structured approach to assess the impact of a prolonged and constant use of the telepresence robot. This paper proposes a methodology in the area of elderly people support, called MARTA, for MultidimensionalAssessment of telepresenceRoboTfor olderAdults. It introduces the main variables of interest as well as the instruments and administration timeline for assessing relevant changes that may occur over time. MARTA is also validated in a one year-long case study during which a telepresence robot, called Giraff, has been deployed and iteratively assessed. The paper also provides remarks on the technology readiness and suggestions for its improvements.