Luis Payá

Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche | UMH · Department of Systems and Automatic Engineering

El Comité Español de Automática (CEA) es una asociación científica sin ánimo de lucro que impulsa el desarrollo, la investigación y las enseñanzasuniversitarias en Automática. Es miembro nacional de la Federación Internacional de Control Automático (IFAC), y celebra anualmente desde el año 1977 las Jornadas de Automática. Estas se organizan por dis...

En este artículo estudiamos la planificación simultánea de la trayectoria y de los apoyos de las patas de un robot en terrenos irregulares. Partimos del algoritmo A estrella (A*), que busca el camino más corto entre dos puntos. Primero se modela el terreno con un mallado triangular y se subdividen los triángulos, para tomar como espacio de búsqueda...

El presente articulo pretende comparar nuestro trabajo anterior en segmentación de estructuras reticulares con redes neuronales frente a un algoritmo ad hoc con el mismo propósito. Actualmente, las redes neuronales o la inteligencia artificial son conceptos muy usados y sinónimos de avances y mejoras, pero en determinados casos es posible emplear t...

This work presents an evaluation regarding the use of data augmentation to carry out the rough localization step within a hierarchical localization framework. The method consists of two steps: first, the robot captures an image and it is introduced into a CNN in order to estimate the room where it was captured (rough localization). After that, a ho...

When a robot suffers a Free Swing Joint Failure, it becomes underactuated since some of its actuated joints become passive. If the joints that remain actuated are locked, the robot can perform uncontrollable free-swinging motions that are dangerous due to the risk of collision. This is typically corrected by using brakes or redundant actuators, whi...

This work presents a framework to create a visual model of the environment which can be used to estimate the position of a mobile robot by means of artificial intelligence techniques. The proposed framework retrieves the structure of the environment from a dataset composed of omnidirectional images captured along it. These images are described by m...

Navigation is one of the fundamental abilities that mobile robots must be endowed with, so that they can carry out high-level tasks autonomously in any a priori unknown environment [...]

Las Jornadas de Automática (JA) son el evento más importante del Comité Español de Automática (CEA), entidad científico-técnica con más de cincuenta años de vida y destinada a la difusión e implantación de la Automática en la sociedad. Este año se celebra la cuadragésima tercera edición de las JA, que constituyen el punto de encuentro de la comunida...

Los sistemas de visión conformados por dos lentes fisheye posicionadas de forma que cubran un campo de visión de 360° presentan grandes ventajas, como la posibilidad de obtener una vista 360 de alta calidad, que puede ser usada en otras tareas de alto nivel. Haciendo uso de una cámara comercial de este tipo, el principal objetivo del trabajo consis...

Este artículo presenta la resolución de la planificación de movimientos de un robot móvil paralelo y binario, determinando la secuencia de movimientos discretos necesarios para alcanzar cualquier posición final deseada. Este problema se reformula y resuelve como la cinemática inversa de un manipulador híper-redundante equivalente, formado por conca...

The aim of this paper is to achieve the optimal hyperparameters setup of a convolutional neural network (CNN) to address the localization of a mobile robot. The localization problem is solved with a hierarchical approach by using omnidirectional images as provided by a catadioptric visual sensor, with no panoramic conversion. In this way, we propos...

Sliding-frame mobile robots used for autonomously inspecting metallic structures consist of two bodies connected by few joints. They move by alternately adhering one body to the structure while moving the other body to the next position. Sliding-frame robots are simpler and offer safer adhesion than legged and wheeled robots, and their control can...

This paper reports and evaluates the adaption and re-training of a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) with the aim of tackling the visual localization of a mobile robot by means of a hierarchical approach. The proposed method addresses the localization problem from the information captured by a catadioptric vision sensor mounted on the mobile robot...

En este artículo se presenta una plataforma para crear diferentes tipos de data sets a partir de entornos virtuales. Estos data sets contienen información sobre la apariencia visual del entorno y sobre la distancia desde algunas posiciones de referencia hasta todos los objetos. Los algoritmos diseñados para la creación de mapas y la localización de...

Feature matching is a key technique for a wide variety of computer vision and image processing applications such as visual localization. It permits finding correspondences of significant points within the environment that eventually determine the localization of a mobile agent. In this context, this work evaluates an Adaptive Probability-Oriented F...

This paper presents a method to solve the forward kinematic problem of parallel robots, obtaining all real solutions. The method is illustrated with the 3UPS-PU parallel robot, and consists in eliminating one unknown to obtain an equation that constrains the admissible values of the remaining unknowns. This constraint defines a curve in the plane o...

In this work, some holistic description methods are evaluated in the framework of a localization task in heterogeneous zones, task that an autonomous robot should be able to perform correctly. The unique source of information is an omnidirectional vision sensor and the work is focused on the use of holistic or global-appearance techniques to descri...

The present work introduces a study about the use of a deep learning tool to tackle the visual localization. The approach proposed consists in developing a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) with the aim of addressing the room retrieval task. Additionally, the network can be used to extract holistic descriptors from intermediate layers. Therefore,...

Un robot móvil debe ser capaz de localizarse en el entorno en el que se encuentra para navegar de forma autónoma. Para tal fin, en este trabajo se utiliza un método denominado Adaptive Probability-Oriented Feature Matching (APOFM). Este algoritmo consiste en obtener la pose relativa a partir de información visual de un par de imágenes, como un algo...

El objetivo del presente trabajo es abordar la localización de un robot móvil mediante el entrenamiento de una Red Neuronal Convolucional (CNN) de manera que se obtengan unos resultados óptimos. El problema de localización se aborda de forma jerárquica empleando un sistema catadióptrico omnidireccional y se trabaja directamente con las imágenes cap...

Understanding the environment is an essential ability for robots to be autonomous. In this sense, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) can provide holistic descriptors of a scene. These descriptors have proved to be robust in dynamic environments. The aim of this paper is to perform hierarchical localization of a mobile robot in an indoor environme...

Over the last few years, mobile robotics has experienced a great development thanks to the wide variety of problems that can be solved with this technology. An autonomous mobile robot must be able to operate in a priori unknown environments, planning its trajectory and navigating to the required target points. With this aim, it is crucial solving t...

Nowadays, the field of mobile robotics has experienced an important evolution and these robots are more commonly proposed to solve different tasks autonomously. The use of visual sensors has played an important role in mobile robotics tasks during the past few years due to the advances in computer vision hardware and algorithms. It is worth remarki...

In this work, an incremental clustering approach to obtain compact hierarchical models of an environment is developed and evaluated. This process is performed using an omnidirectional vision sensor as the only source of information. The method is structured in two loop closure levels. First, the Node Level Loop Closure process selects the candidate...

The use of visual sensors in robotic navigation tasks is a common approach, and numerous examples can be found in the literature. This work focuses on the problem of map building and localization using omnidirectional images as the only source of information. The main objective of this paper is to present a thorough comparison of global-appearance...

In recent years, the presence of mobile robots in diverse scenarios has considerably increased, to solve a variety of tasks [...]

Visual sensors have characteristics that make them interesting as sources of information for any process or system [...]

This paper is focused on the design of a mobile robot whose objective is to apply thermal insulation spray in underfloor voids, to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. Solving robustly the mapping and localization problems is crucial to achieve a high degree of autonomy during the development of this task. Nevertheless, underfloor voids cons...

Mobile robotics has become an essential content in many subjects within most Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in engineering. Visual sensors have emerged as a powerful tool to perform reliable localization and mapping tasks for a mobile robot. Moreover, the use of images permits achieving other high level tasks such as object and people detection, r...

Autonomous robots should be able to perform localization and map creation robustly. In order to solve these problems many studies and techniques have been evaluated over the past few years. This work focuses on the use of an omnidirectional vision sensor and global appearance techniques to describe each image. Global-appearance techniques consist i...

In this work, we present a simulation software that permits designing and testing several types of controllers based on both classical and modern control theory. It has been created using Easy JavaScript Simulations, since this software permits implementing interactive simulations of physical systems in a quick and intuitive way. This laboratory co...

Single-actuator mobile robots offer the benefits of low energy consumption, low weight and size, and low cost, but their motion is typically only one-dimensional. By using auxiliary binary mechanisms that redirect and channel the driving force of their only actuator in different ways, it is possible for these robots to perform higher-dimensional mo...

This approach presents a localization technique within mobile robotics sustained by visual sensory data fusion. A regression inference framework is designed with the aid of informative data models of the system, together with support of probabilistic techniques such as Gaussian Processes. As a result, the visual data acquired with a catadioptric se...

Over the past few decades, the incipient growth of technology applications sustained by electronics has contributed to the adaption of learning programs in many engineering degrees at university, fostering the presence of electronics subjects. This highlights the paramount importance of improving the teaching of electronics, especially in the first...

Currently, many tasks can be carried out using mobile robots. These robots must be able to estimate their position in the environment to plan their actions correctly. Omnidirectional vision sensors constitute a robust choice to solve this problem, since they provide the robot with complete information from the environment where it moves. The use of...

This paper presents an extended study about the compression of topological models of indoor environments. The performance of two clustering methods is tested in order to know their utility both to build a model of the environment and to solve the localization task. Omnidirectional images are used to create the compact model, as well as to estimate...

This paper analyzes some parallelisms between 3UPS-PU Tricept-like parallel robots and their planar version, 2RPR-PR manipulators, in terms of forward kinematics and singularities. We show that, like 2RPR-PR manipulators, all 3UPS-PU robots with flat mobile platform have special singularities for which the mobile and fixed platforms are coplanar. T...

In this paper, a hierarchical localization framework within indoor environments is proposed and evaluated, considering severe variations of the illumination conditions. The only source of information both to build a model of the environment and to solve the localization problem is a catadioptric vision system, which is mounted on the mobile robot....

Mobile robots have extended to many different environments, where they have to move autonomously to fulfill an assigned task. With this aim, it is necessary that the robot builds a model of the environment and estimates its position using this model. These two problems are often faced simultaneously. This process is known as SLAM (simultaneous loca...

This paper presents a graphical and intuitive tool for simulating the forward kinematics of planar parallel 3RPR robots with arbitrary geometric design. The proposed tool allows the user to visualize the singularity locus of the robot and the evolution of all the solutions to its forward kinematic problem in the complex plane. The user can modify a...

This work presents an approach to visual data fusion with omnidirectional imaging in the field of mobile robotics. An inference framework is established through Gaussian processes (GPs) and Information gain metrics, in order to fuse visual data between poses of the robot. Such framework permits producing a probability distribution of feature matchi...

La localización y creación de mapas son dos tareas que los robots móviles autónomos deben desarrollar. Por ello, se han llevado a cabo numerosas investigaciones sobre estos temas, proponiendo diferentes métodos para abordar estos problemas. Este trabajo describe brevemente algunas posibilidades para mejorar la tarea de navegación utilizando descrip...

This work presents a visual information fusion approach for robust probability-oriented feature matching. It is sustained by omnidirectional imaging, and it is tested in a visual localization framework, in mobile robotics. General visual localization methods have been extensively studied and optimized in terms of performance. However, one of the ma...

It is well known that there exist interior barriers within the boundaries of the workspace of redundant robots. These interior barriers, which are drastically affected by kinematic constraints, are very important for trajectory planning since they imply motion impediments for the robot. Existing geometrical and singularity-based methods that obtain...

In this work, a framework is proposed to build topological models in mobile robotics, using an omnidirectional vision sensor as the only source of information. The model is structured hierarchically into three layers, from one high-level layer which permits a coarse estimation of the robot position to one low-level layer to refine this estimation e...

This paper presents a novel robotic system that applies spray foam insulation in underfloor voids in order to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. The work focuses on solving the mapping and localization problems in such environments, since they are a key factor in the autonomy of the robot. Solving these tasks in underfloor voids is especia...

Currently, the range of applications of mobile robots has extended substantially thanks to the evolution of the sensing and computing technologies. In this field, creating accurate and compact models of the environment is crucial so that the robot can estimate its position and move autonomously to the target points. Among the available alternatives...

This work presents a robust visual localization technique based on an omnidirectional monocular sensor for mobile robotics applications. We intend to overcome the non-linearities and instabilities that the camera projection systems typically introduce, which are especially relevant in catadioptric sensors. In this paper, we come up with several con...

This article presents a visual localization technique based solely on the use of omnidirectional images, within the framework of mobile robotics. The proposal makes use of the epipolar constraint, adapted to the omnidirectional reference, in order to deal with matching point detection, which ultimately determines a motion transformation for localiz...

This work presents a method to estimate the movement direction of a mobile robot using only visual information, without any other additional sensor. This visual information is provided by a catadioptric system mounted on the robot and formed by a camera pointing towards a convex mirror. It provides the robot with omnidirectional images that contain...

This paper presents a new Monte Carlo method to calculate the workspace of robot manipulators, which we called the Gaussian Growth method. In contrast to classical brute-force Monte Carlo methods, which rely on increasing the number of randomly generated points in the whole workspace to attain higher accuracy, the Gaussian Growth method focuses on...