Effective communication is often required for agents to properly handle collaborative multi-agent... more Effective communication is often required for agents to properly handle collaborative multi-agent tasks. This is particularly true when humans are working alongside synthetic agents and traditional wireless communication modes are impractical. A framework for communication must allow for both explicit communication, where actions are directly execute to convey information, and implicit communication, where the agent projects information indirectly as a consequence of actions taken to achieve the tasks. We propose a Theory of Mind-based approach to communication that allows an agent to reason about its own state, the states of the other agents, and the other agents' beliefs about each other's state.
Automated Analysis of Proxemic Behavior: Leveraging Metrics from the Social Sciences
Abstract—We discuss a set of metrics for analyzing human spatial behavior motivated by work in th... more Abstract—We discuss a set of metrics for analyzing human spatial behavior motivated by work in the social sciences; specifically, we investigate individual, attentional, interpersonal, physiological, and organizational factors that contribute to social spacing. We then ...
The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, in cooperation with Stanford Univ... more The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, in cooperation with Stanford University's Department of Computer Science, presented the 2016 Spring Symposium Series on Monday through Wednesday, March 21-23, 2016 at Stanford University. The titles of the seven symposia were (1) AI and the Mitigation of Human Error: Anomalies, Team Metrics and Thermodynamics; (2) Challenges and Opportunities in Multiagent Learning for the Real World (3) Enabling Computing Research in Socially Intelligent Human-Robot Interaction: A Community-Driven Modular Research Platform; (4) Ethical and Moral Considerations in Non-Human Agents; (5) Intelligent Systems for Supporting Distributed Human Teamwork; (6) Observational Studies through Social Media and Other Human-Generated Content, and (7) Well-Being Computing: AI Meets Health and Happiness Science.
Human preferences of distance (proxemics) to a robot significantly impact the performance of the ... more Human preferences of distance (proxemics) to a robot significantly impact the performance of the robot's automated speech and gesture recognition during face-to-face, social human-robot interactions. This work investigated how people respond to a sociable robot based on its performance at different locations. We performed an experiment in which the robot's ability to understand social signals was artificially attenuated by distance. Participants (N = 180) instructed the robot using speech and pointing gestures, provided proxemic preferences before and after the interaction, and responded to a questionnaire. Our analysis of questionnaire responses revealed that robot performance factors-rather than human-robot proxemics-are significant predictors of user evaluations of robot competence, anthropomorphism, engagement, likability, and technology adoption. Our behavioral analysis suggests that human proxemic preferences change over time as users interact with and come to understand the needs of the robot, and those changes improve robot performance.
the Proceedings of The 21st National Conference …, 2006
NSF and NASA sponsored a workshop to discuss harvesting solar power in space. One solution consid... more NSF and NASA sponsored a workshop to discuss harvesting solar power in space. One solution considered was the use of a swarm of robots to form a solar reflector. How can these robots organize to form a large parabolic structure and be effectively controlled? The ...
As robots become more involved in assisting us in large and hazardous operations, such as search ... more As robots become more involved in assisting us in large and hazardous operations, such as search and rescue, we can anticipate that diverse robots will come together with the need to coordinate their efforts. These robots will come from different organizations, ...
Robotics competitions are an educational tool at the middle school, high school, and university l... more Robotics competitions are an educational tool at the middle school, high school, and university levels. The layout, rules, and reward systems of these competitions galvanize students to a specific solution space. From our experiences competing-in and designing such ...
Proceedings of the 23rd national conference on …, 2008
One potentially cost-effective approach to harvesting solar power from space is the use of thousa... more One potentially cost-effective approach to harvesting solar power from space is the use of thousands of individual robots moving in formation, each with a piece of solar panel attached, to form a solar panel array. In previous work, we demonstrated an algorithm that ...
Wheeled robot platforms have reached an ease of use that allows AI educators to easily incorporat... more Wheeled robot platforms have reached an ease of use that allows AI educators to easily incorporate them into their course to provide an opportunity for students to program physically embodied agents. This invites an opportunity for students to learn AI techniques for dealing with the physical environment and, just as importantly, brings an added interest and excitement to the course. Legged robot platforms have yet to reach the same ease of use. These robots add interesting problem dimensions and an additional level of inspiration to the AI class. This paper describes SkwelZone, a generalized system that brings affordable, programmable, legged robot platforms with reusable sensors, a microcontroller, and a common computing platform into AI curricula.
2009 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2009
The goal of a robot formation control architecture is to get a number of robots into a specified ... more The goal of a robot formation control architecture is to get a number of robots into a specified form. To be effective and practical, the control architecture must be able to transition a group of robots from an initial swarm to a final formation. It must then be able to handle real-world events that could disrupt the formation, thus, requiring formation repair, obstacle avoidance, and changes in the formation. In previous work, we presented a distributed, reactive cellular automatabased formation control architecture capable of controlling any number of robots in formation at once. In this paper, we examine our architecture with respect to necessary characteristics to handle real-world occurrences. To address issues of formation repair and obstacle avoidance, the control architecture is extended by a distributed auctioning method that allows the robot formation to reconfigure autonomously.
National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2010
The field of multi-robot coordination, specifically robot formation control, is rapidly expanding... more The field of multi-robot coordination, specifically robot formation control, is rapidly expanding, with many applications proposed. In our previous work, we considered the problem of establishing and maintaining a formation of robots given an already connected network. We now propose a distributed auction-based method to autonomously initialize and reorganize the network structure of a formation of robots.
Robotics competitions are an educational tool at the middle school, high school, and university l... more Robotics competitions are an educational tool at the middle school, high school, and university levels. The layout, rules, and reward systems of these competitions galvanize students to a specific solution space. From our experiences competing-in and designing such competitions, open-loop, low feedback strategies tend to dominate the winner's circle. If we want competitions to emphasize solutions spaces that include AI-type robot control, contest designs need to favor closed-loop, high feedback strategies. Game elements that encourage such designs are discussed.
National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2007
Coordinating a group of robots to work in formation has been suggested for a number of tasks, suc... more Coordinating a group of robots to work in formation has been suggested for a number of tasks, such as urban search- and-rescue, traffic control, and harvesting solar energy. Algorithms for controlling robot formations have been inspired by biological and organizational systems. In our approach to robot formation control, each robot is treated like a cell in a cellular automaton, where
A multi-robot system, like a robot formation, contains information that is distributed throughout... more A multi-robot system, like a robot formation, contains information that is distributed throughout the system. As the collective increases in numbers or explores distant or difficult areas, obtaining collective situational awareness becomes critical. We propose a method for extracting system and environmental information distributed over a collective of robots.
Proceedings of the 22nd National Conference on Artificial Intelligence Volume 2, 2007
As robots become more involved in assisting us in large and hazardous operations, such as search ... more As robots become more involved in assisting us in large and hazardous operations, such as search and rescue, we can anticipate that diverse robots will come together with the need to coordinate their efforts. These robots will come from different organizations, creating a heterogeneous team, varying in shape, size, and functionality. How can diverse robots forming such an impromptu team collaborate to accomplish a joint objective? If they are to organize and work together, methods must be developed that allow them to share knowledge in a meaningful way. We propose an ontology-based symbolic communication protocol to provide a shared understanding of physical concepts between units. Coordination is then accomplished through a negotiation of tasks to complete individual and joint goals.
National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2000
Coordinating a group of robots to work in formation has been suggested for a number of tasks, suc... more Coordinating a group of robots to work in formation has been suggested for a number of tasks, such as urban search- and-rescue, traffic control, and harvesting solar e nergy. Algorithms for controlling robot formations have be en inspired by biological and organizational systems. In our approach to robot formation control, each robot is treated like a cell in a cellular
In previous work, we demonstrated an algorithm that treats a group of robots as a 1-dimensional c... more In previous work, we demonstrated an algorithm that treats a group of robots as a 1-dimensional cellular automaton, which is able to establish formations defined by a single mathematical function. We now extend the algorithm to establish grid formations.
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Papers by Ross Mead