IROS 2015 Workshop on Alternative Sensing for Robot Perception

Objectives

Robotic perception based on conventional sensing (visual cameras and LIDARs) has lead to significant realizations in relatively restricted situations, while showing important limitations in challenging environments. The future of robotic perception lies in “alternative sensing modalities” and their intelligent combination and fusion. Examples of alternative sensing modalities include: radars, sonars and acoustic sensors, cameras sensing outside of the visible spectrum (e.g. thermal cameras or hyperspectral cameras), cameras using alternative acquisition processes (e.g. event-based or light-field cameras), or odor sensors. Operating at distinct electromagnetic frequencies, or sensing other physical properties altogether, alternative sensors have recently opened many new possibilities for robotics, such as: automatic geological analysis using hyperspectral cameras, obstacle detection through smoke or heavy dust using mm-wave radar, or robotic deep-sea exploration with sonars.

This workshop aims at exploring and discussing how alternative sensing and original combinations of sensor data induce new perspectives and challenges, which may require rethinking conventional perception and data fusion algorithms, and how they will open new robotic applications and put the next great robotic achievements within reach. It follows up on a first workshop held at the Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS) 2012 conference, and a special issue of the Journal of Field Robotics published in January 2015.

The workshop is supported by the IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Computer and Robot Vision.

Call for Papers

Submissions

We invite submissions of extended abstracts (2-3 pages) in PDF, using the standard IROS conference paper format. Optionally, short supporting videos can be submitted; the url to the video should be cited in the paper. All submissions should be submitted via easychair WASRoP2015.

Submissions will be reviewed by the technical committee. Accepted contributions will be archived on the workshop website and presented at the workshop either as an oral presentation or as a poster along with a short spotlight. After the workshop, the organizing committee will consider pursuing publication of a special issue in a journal or book including extended versions of the best papers.

Important Dates

Submission deadline: ~~24 July 2015~~ 31 July 2015
Notification of acceptance: ~~28 August 2015~~ 4 September 2015
Final version due: 11 September 2015
Workshop: 2 October 2015

Main Topics of Interest

The topics of interest to the workshop include, but are not limited to, the following.

Robotic perception systems making use of alternative sensors, including:

Radars (e.g. mm-wave, Ultra-Wide Band, Synthetic Aperture (SAR))
Sonars and other acoustic sensors
Hyperspectral and multispectral cameras
Infrared cameras
Unconventional visual cameras (e.g. event-based cameras or dynamic vision sensors, light-field cameras)
Electromagnetic sensors
Odor sensors

Challenges, methods and lessons learned:

Algorithms and techniques for alternative sensing: modeling, learning, feature extraction etc.
Novel and state-of-the-art algorithms for multimodal sensor data fusion or combination
Perception in challenging environmental conditions
Sensor data integrity
New applications for alternative sensing techniques
Limitations of traditional robotic sensors
Empirical studies of performance and limitations of alternative sensors
Case studies of successful applications and systems using alternative sensing techniques

Program

Time	Talk
8:30 - 8:40	Welcome Remarks: Organisers
8:40 – 9:30	Invited Talk: Dr. Larry Matthies “Alternative Sensors for Robot Perception in Challenging Terrain, Atmospheric Obscurants, and at Night”
9:30 – 9:55	Contributed Paper #4: Dushyant Rao
10:00 - 10:30	Coffee Break
10:30 – 11:20	Invited Talk: Dr. Kazuhiro Nakadai (abstract) “Robot Audition and its Deployment” (slides)
11:20 – 11:45	Contributed Paper #2: Sabine Thuerauf
11:45 – 12:05	Spotlight Presentations
12:05 – 12:45	Interactive Poster Session
12:50 - 14:00	Lunch Break
14:00 – 14:10	Afternoon session opening remarks: organisers.
14:10 – 15:00	Invited Talk: Prof. Davide Scaramuzza (abstract) “Event-Based Vision for High-Speed Robotics” (slides)
15:00 – 15:25	Contributed Paper #5: Peter Corke
15:30 - 16:00	Coffee Break
16:00 – 16:50	Invited Talk: Prof. Martin Adams (abstract) “Robotic Navigation – Experience Gained with Radar” (slides)
16:50 – 17:50	Panel Discussion
17:50	Closing Remarks: Organisers

List of contributed papers:

Cross Calibration of RGB and Thermal Cameras with LIDAR. Aravindhan Krishnan and Srikanth Saripalli.

Tuning of X-ray Parameters for Noise Reduction of an Image-Based Focus Position Measurement of a C-Arm X-Ray System. Sabine Thuerauf, Florian Vogt, Oliver Hornung, Mario Koerner, M. Ali Nasseri and Alois Knoll.

Short Range Capacitive Proximity Sensing. Stephan Mühlbacher-Karrer, Lisa-Marie Faller, Hubert Zangl, Thomas Schlegl and Michael Moser.

Multi-modality learning from visual and remotely sensed data. Dushyant Rao, Mark De Deuge, Navid Nourani-Vatani, Stefan Williams and Oscar Pizarro.

Closed-Form Change Detection from Moving Light Field Cameras. Donald Dansereau, Stefan Williams and Peter Corke.

Utilising Metadata to Aid Image Classification in Orchards. Suchet Bargoti and James Underwood.

A New Modality Radar-Acoustic Sensor for Visualisation in Environments with Poor Radar/Lidar Reflectivity. Graham Brooker, David Johnson, Javier Martinez and Duncan Robertson.

Organizers

Dr. Thierry Peynot, Queensland University of Technology

Dr. Sildomar Monteiro, Rochester Institute of Technology

Dr. Teresa Vidal-Calleja, University of Technology Sydney

Prof. Peter Corke, Queensland University of Technology

Program Committee

Dr. Juan Andrade Cetto, IRI, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain
Dr. Graham Brooker, ACFR, University of Sydney, Australia
Prof. Peter Corke, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Prof. Patrick Danes, LAAS-CNRS, France
Prof. Gamini Dissanayake, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Prof. Tomonari Furukawa, Virginia Tech, USA
Dr. Jean-Bernard Hayet, CIMAT, Mexico
Dr. Simon Lacroix, LAAS-CNRS, France
Dr. Sildomar Monteiro, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA
Dr. Thierry Peynot, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Prof. Jonathan Roberts, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Dr. Steven Scheding, ACFR, University of Sydney, Australia
Dr. Teresa Vidal-Calleja, University of Technology Sydney, Australia

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