Publications | Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems

276 results (View BibTeX file of all listed publications)

2016

Video segmentation via object flow

In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), June 2016 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Video object segmentation is challenging due to fast moving objects, deforming shapes, and cluttered backgrounds. Optical flow can be used to propagate an object segmentation over time but, unfortunately, flow is often inaccurate, particularly around object boundaries. Such boundaries are precisely where we want our segmentation to be accurate. To obtain accurate segmentation across time, we propose an efficient algorithm that considers video segmentation and optical flow estimation simultaneously. For video segmentation, we formulate a principled, multiscale, spatio-temporal objective function that uses optical flow to propagate information between frames. For optical flow estimation, particularly at object boundaries, we compute the flow independently in the segmented regions and recompose the results. We call the process object flow and demonstrate the effectiveness of jointly optimizing optical flow and video segmentation using an iterative scheme. Experiments on the SegTrack v2 and Youtube-Objects datasets show that the proposed algorithm performs favorably against the other state-of-the-art methods.

pdf [BibTex]

2016

ps Tsai, Y., Yang, M., Black, M. J. Video segmentation via object flow In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), June 2016 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Patches, Planes and Probabilities: A Non-local Prior for Volumetric 3D Reconstruction

Ulusoy, A. O., Black, M. J., Geiger, A.

In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), June 2016 (inproceedings)

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a non-local structured prior for volumetric multi-view 3D reconstruction. Towards this goal, we present a novel Markov random field model based on ray potentials in which assumptions about large 3D surface patches such as planarity or Manhattan world constraints can be efficiently encoded as probabilistic priors. We further derive an inference algorithm that reasons jointly about voxels, pixels and image segments, and estimates marginal distributions of appearance, occupancy, depth, normals and planarity. Key to tractable inference is a novel hybrid representation that spans both voxel and pixel space and that integrates non-local information from 2D image segmentations in a principled way. We compare our non-local prior to commonly employed local smoothness assumptions and a variety of state-of-the-art volumetric reconstruction baselines on challenging outdoor scenes with textureless and reflective surfaces. Our experiments indicate that regularizing over larger distances has the potential to resolve ambiguities where local regularizers fail.

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YouTube pdf poster suppmat Project Page [BibTex]

avg ps Ulusoy, A. O., Black, M. J., Geiger, A. Patches, Planes and Probabilities: A Non-local Prior for Volumetric 3D Reconstruction In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), June 2016 (inproceedings)

YouTube pdf poster suppmat Project Page [BibTex]

The Mondrian Kernel

Balog, M., Lakshminarayanan, B., Ghahramani, Z., Roy, D. M., Teh, Y. W.

Proceedings of the Thirty-Second Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), (Editors: Ihler, Alexander T. and Janzing, Dominik), June 2016 (conference)

Arxiv link (url) Project Page [BibTex]

ei Balog, M., Lakshminarayanan, B., Ghahramani, Z., Roy, D. M., Teh, Y. W. The Mondrian Kernel Proceedings of the Thirty-Second Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), (Editors: Ihler, Alexander T. and Janzing, Dominik), June 2016 (conference)

Arxiv link (url) Project Page [BibTex]

Optical Flow with Semantic Segmentation and Localized Layers

Sevilla-Lara, L., Sun, D., Jampani, V., Black, M. J.

In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), pages: 3889-3898, IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), June 2016 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Existing optical flow methods make generic, spatially homogeneous, assumptions about the spatial structure of the flow. In reality, optical flow varies across an image depending on object class. Simply put, different objects move differently. Here we exploit recent advances in static semantic scene segmentation to segment the image into objects of different types. We define different models of image motion in these regions depending on the type of object. For example, we model the motion on roads with homographies, vegetation with spatially smooth flow, and independently moving objects like cars and planes with affine motion plus deviations. We then pose the flow estimation problem using a novel formulation of localized layers, which addresses limitations of traditional layered models for dealing with complex scene motion. Our semantic flow method achieves the lowest error of any published monocular method in the KITTI-2015 flow benchmark and produces qualitatively better flow and segmentation than recent top methods on a wide range of natural videos.

video Kitti Precomputed Data (1.6GB) pdf YouTube Sequences Code Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

ps Sevilla-Lara, L., Sun, D., Jampani, V., Black, M. J. Optical Flow with Semantic Segmentation and Localized Layers In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), pages: 3889-3898, IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), June 2016 (inproceedings)

video Kitti Precomputed Data (1.6GB) pdf YouTube Sequences Code Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

Learning Sparse High Dimensional Filters: Image Filtering, Dense CRFs and Bilateral Neural Networks

Jampani, V., Kiefel, M., Gehler, P. V.

In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), pages: 4452-4461, IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), June 2016 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Bilateral filters have wide spread use due to their edge-preserving properties. The common use case is to manually choose a parametric filter type, usually a Gaussian filter. In this paper, we will generalize the parametrization and in particular derive a gradient descent algorithm so the filter parameters can be learned from data. This derivation allows to learn high dimensional linear filters that operate in sparsely populated feature spaces. We build on the permutohedral lattice construction for efficient filtering. The ability to learn more general forms of high-dimensional filters can be used in several diverse applications. First, we demonstrate the use in applications where single filter applications are desired for runtime reasons. Further, we show how this algorithm can be used to learn the pairwise potentials in densely connected conditional random fields and apply these to different image segmentation tasks. Finally, we introduce layers of bilateral filters in CNNs and propose bilateral neural networks for the use of high-dimensional sparse data. This view provides new ways to encode model structure into network architectures. A diverse set of experiments empirically validates the usage of general forms of filters.

project page code CVF open-access pdf supplementary poster Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

ps Jampani, V., Kiefel, M., Gehler, P. V. Learning Sparse High Dimensional Filters: Image Filtering, Dense CRFs and Bilateral Neural Networks In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), pages: 4452-4461, IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), June 2016 (inproceedings)

project page code CVF open-access pdf supplementary poster Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

Recovery of non-linear cause-effect relationships from linearly mixed neuroimaging data

Weichwald, S., Gretton, A., Schölkopf, B., Grosse-Wentrup, M.

Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Pattern Recognition in NeuroImaging (PRNI 2016), June 2016 (conference)

PDF Arxiv Code DOI Project Page [BibTex]

ei Weichwald, S., Gretton, A., Schölkopf, B., Grosse-Wentrup, M. Recovery of non-linear cause-effect relationships from linearly mixed neuroimaging data Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Pattern Recognition in NeuroImaging (PRNI 2016), June 2016 (conference)

PDF Arxiv Code DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Approximate dual control maintaining the value of information with an application to building control

Klenske, E. D., Hennig, P., Schölkopf, B., Zeilinger, M. N.

In European Control Conference (ECC), pages: 800-806, June 2016 (inproceedings)

ei pn

PDF DOI [BibTex]

ei pn Klenske, E. D., Hennig, P., Schölkopf, B., Zeilinger, M. N. Approximate dual control maintaining the value of information with an application to building control In European Control Conference (ECC), pages: 800-806, June 2016 (inproceedings)

PDF DOI [BibTex]

Domain Adaptation with Conditional Transferable Components

Gong, M., Zhang, K., Liu, T., Tao, D., Glymour, C., Schölkopf, B.

Proceedings of the 33nd International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 48, pages: 2839-2848, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: Balcan, M.-F. and Weinberger, K. Q.), June 2016 (conference)

link (url) [BibTex]

ei Gong, M., Zhang, K., Liu, T., Tao, D., Glymour, C., Schölkopf, B. Domain Adaptation with Conditional Transferable Components Proceedings of the 33nd International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 48, pages: 2839-2848, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: Balcan, M.-F. and Weinberger, K. Q.), June 2016 (conference)

link (url) [BibTex]

Learning Causal Interaction Network of Multivariate Hawkes Processes

Etesami, S., Kiyavash, N., Zhang, K., Singhal, K.

Proceedings of the 32nd Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), June 2016, poster presentation (conference)

[BibTex]

ei Etesami, S., Kiyavash, N., Zhang, K., Singhal, K. Learning Causal Interaction Network of Multivariate Hawkes Processes Proceedings of the 32nd Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), June 2016, poster presentation (conference)

[BibTex]

Efficient Large-scale Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search on the GPU

Wieschollek, P., Wang, O., Sorkine-Hornung, A., Lensch, H. P. A.

29th IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), pages: 2027 - 2035, IEEE, June 2016 (conference)

DOI [BibTex]

ei Wieschollek, P., Wang, O., Sorkine-Hornung, A., Lensch, H. P. A. Efficient Large-scale Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search on the GPU 29th IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), pages: 2027 - 2035, IEEE, June 2016 (conference)

DOI [BibTex]

Stability of Controllers for Gaussian Process Forward Models

Vinogradska, J., Bischoff, B., Nguyen-Tuong, D., Romer, A., Schmidt, H., Peters, J.

Proceedings of the 33rd International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 48, pages: 545-554, Proceedings of Machine Learning Research, (Editors: Maria Florina Balcan and Kilian Q. Weinberger), PMLR, June 2016 (conference)

link (url) [BibTex]

Vinogradska, J., Bischoff, B., Nguyen-Tuong, D., Romer, A., Schmidt, H., Peters, J. Stability of Controllers for Gaussian Process Forward Models Proceedings of the 33rd International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 48, pages: 545-554, Proceedings of Machine Learning Research, (Editors: Maria Florina Balcan and Kilian Q. Weinberger), PMLR, June 2016 (conference)

link (url) [BibTex]

Occlusion boundary detection via deep exploration of context

Fu, H., Wang, C., Tao, D., Black, M. J.

In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), June 2016 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Occlusion boundaries contain rich perceptual information about the underlying scene structure. They also provide important cues in many visual perception tasks such as scene understanding, object recognition, and segmentation. In this paper, we improve occlusion boundary detection via enhanced exploration of contextual information (e.g., local structural boundary patterns, observations from surrounding regions, and temporal context), and in doing so develop a novel approach based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and conditional random fields (CRFs). Experimental results demonstrate that our detector significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art (e.g., improving the F-measure from 0.62 to 0.71 on the commonly used CMU benchmark). Last but not least, we empirically assess the roles of several important components of the proposed detector, so as to validate the rationale behind this approach.

pdf [BibTex]

ps Fu, H., Wang, C., Tao, D., Black, M. J. Occlusion boundary detection via deep exploration of context In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), June 2016 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Semantic Instance Annotation of Street Scenes by 3D to 2D Label Transfer

Xie, J., Kiefel, M., Sun, M., Geiger, A.

In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), June 2016 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Semantic annotations are vital for training models for object recognition, semantic segmentation or scene understanding. Unfortunately, pixelwise annotation of images at very large scale is labor-intensive and only little labeled data is available, particularly at instance level and for street scenes. In this paper, we propose to tackle this problem by lifting the semantic instance labeling task from 2D into 3D. Given reconstructions from stereo or laser data, we annotate static 3D scene elements with rough bounding primitives and develop a probabilistic model which transfers this information into the image domain. We leverage our method to obtain 2D labels for a novel suburban video dataset which we have collected, resulting in 400k semantic and instance image annotations. A comparison of our method to state-of-the-art label transfer baselines reveals that 3D information enables more efficient annotation while at the same time resulting in improved accuracy and time-coherent labels.

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pdf suppmat Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

avg ps Xie, J., Kiefel, M., Sun, M., Geiger, A. Semantic Instance Annotation of Street Scenes by 3D to 2D Label Transfer In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), June 2016 (inproceedings)

pdf suppmat Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

On the Identifiability and Estimation of Functional Causal Models in the Presence of Outcome-Dependent Selection

Zhang, K., Zhang, J., Huang, B., Schölkopf, B., Glymour, C.

Proceedings of the 32nd Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), pages: 825-834, (Editors: Ihler, A. and Janzing, D.), AUAI Press, June 2016 (conference)

link (url) [BibTex]

ei Zhang, K., Zhang, J., Huang, B., Schölkopf, B., Glymour, C. On the Identifiability and Estimation of Functional Causal Models in the Presence of Outcome-Dependent Selection Proceedings of the 32nd Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), pages: 825-834, (Editors: Ihler, A. and Janzing, D.), AUAI Press, June 2016 (conference)

link (url) [BibTex]

Active Uncertainty Calibration in Bayesian ODE Solvers

Kersting, H., Hennig, P.

Proceedings of the 32nd Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), pages: 309-318, (Editors: Ihler, A. and Janzing, D.), AUAI Press, June 2016 (conference)

Abstract

There is resurging interest, in statistics and machine learning, in solvers for ordinary differential equations (ODEs) that return probability measures instead of point estimates. Recently, Conrad et al.~introduced a sampling-based class of methods that are `well-calibrated' in a specific sense. But the computational cost of these methods is significantly above that of classic methods. On the other hand, Schober et al.~pointed out a precise connection between classic Runge-Kutta ODE solvers and Gaussian filters, which gives only a rough probabilistic calibration, but at negligible cost overhead. By formulating the solution of ODEs as approximate inference in linear Gaussian SDEs, we investigate a range of probabilistic ODE solvers, that bridge the trade-off between computational cost and probabilistic calibration, and identify the inaccurate gradient measurement as the crucial source of uncertainty. We propose the novel filtering-based method Bayesian Quadrature filtering (BQF) which uses Bayesian quadrature to actively learn the imprecision in the gradient measurement by collecting multiple gradient evaluations.

ei pn

link (url) Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

ei pn Kersting, H., Hennig, P. Active Uncertainty Calibration in Bayesian ODE Solvers Proceedings of the 32nd Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), pages: 309-318, (Editors: Ihler, A. and Janzing, D.), AUAI Press, June 2016 (conference)

link (url) Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

The Arrow of Time in Multivariate Time Serie

Bauer, S., Schölkopf, B., Peters, J.

Proceedings of the 33rd International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 48, pages: 2043-2051, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: Balcan, M. F. and Weinberger, K. Q.), JMLR, June 2016 (conference)

link (url) [BibTex]

ei Bauer, S., Schölkopf, B., Peters, J. The Arrow of Time in Multivariate Time Serie Proceedings of the 33rd International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 48, pages: 2043-2051, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: Balcan, M. F. and Weinberger, K. Q.), JMLR, June 2016 (conference)

link (url) [BibTex]

A Kernel Test for Three-Variable Interactions with Random Processes

Rubenstein, P. K., Chwialkowski, K. P., Gretton, A.

Proceedings of the Thirty-Second Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), (Editors: Ihler, Alexander T. and Janzing, Dominik), June 2016 (conference)

PDF Supplement Arxiv [BibTex]

ei Rubenstein, P. K., Chwialkowski, K. P., Gretton, A. A Kernel Test for Three-Variable Interactions with Random Processes Proceedings of the Thirty-Second Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), (Editors: Ihler, Alexander T. and Janzing, Dominik), June 2016 (conference)

PDF Supplement Arxiv [BibTex]

Continuous Deep Q-Learning with Model-based Acceleration

Gu, S., Lillicrap, T., Sutskever, I., Levine, S.

Proceedings of the 33nd International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 48, pages: 2829-2838, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: Maria-Florina Balcan and Kilian Q. Weinberger), JMLR.org, June 2016 (conference)

link (url) Project Page [BibTex]

ei Gu, S., Lillicrap, T., Sutskever, I., Levine, S. Continuous Deep Q-Learning with Model-based Acceleration Proceedings of the 33nd International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 48, pages: 2829-2838, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: Maria-Florina Balcan and Kilian Q. Weinberger), JMLR.org, June 2016 (conference)

link (url) Project Page [BibTex]

Bounded Rational Decision-Making in Feedforward Neural Networks

Leibfried, F, Braun, D

Proceedings of the 32nd Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), pages: 407-416, June 2016 (conference)

Abstract

Bounded rational decision-makers transform sensory input into motor output under limited computational resources. Mathematically, such decision-makers can be modeled as information-theoretic channels with limited transmission rate. Here, we apply this formalism for the first time to multilayer feedforward neural networks. We derive synaptic weight update rules for two scenarios, where either each neuron is considered as a bounded rational decision-maker or the network as a whole. In the update rules, bounded rationality translates into information-theoretically motivated types of regularization in weight space. In experiments on the MNIST benchmark classification task for handwritten digits, we show that such information-theoretic regularization successfully prevents overfitting across different architectures and attains results that are competitive with other recent techniques like dropout, dropconnect and Bayes by backprop, for both ordinary and convolutional neural networks.

[BibTex]

ei Leibfried, F, Braun, D Bounded Rational Decision-Making in Feedforward Neural Networks Proceedings of the 32nd Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), pages: 407-416, June 2016 (conference)

[BibTex]

Robot Arm Pose Estimation by Pixel-wise Regression of Joint Angles

Widmaier, F., Kappler, D., Schaal, S., Bohg, J.

In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2016, IEEE, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 2016 (inproceedings)

Abstract

To achieve accurate vision-based control with a robotic arm, a good hand-eye coordination is required. However, knowing the current configuration of the arm can be very difficult due to noisy readings from joint encoders or an inaccurate hand-eye calibration. We propose an approach for robot arm pose estimation that uses depth images of the arm as input to directly estimate angular joint positions. This is a frame-by-frame method which does not rely on good initialisation of the solution from the previous frames or knowledge from the joint encoders. For estimation, we employ a random regression forest which is trained on synthetically generated data. We compare different training objectives of the forest and also analyse the influence of prior segmentation of the arms on accuracy. We show that this approach improves previous work both in terms of computational complexity and accuracy. Despite being trained on synthetic data only, we demonstrate that the estimation also works on real depth images.

pdf DOI Project Page [BibTex]

am Widmaier, F., Kappler, D., Schaal, S., Bohg, J. Robot Arm Pose Estimation by Pixel-wise Regression of Joint Angles In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2016, IEEE, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 2016 (inproceedings)

pdf DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Optimizing for what matters: the Top Grasp Hypothesis

Kappler, D., Schaal, S., Bohg, J.

In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2016, IEEE, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 2016 (inproceedings)

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the problem of robotic grasping of objects when only partial and noisy sensor data of the environment is available. We are specifically interested in the problem of reliably selecting the best hypothesis from a whole set. This is commonly the case when trying to grasp an object for which we can only observe a partial point cloud from one viewpoint through noisy sensors. There will be many possible ways to successfully grasp this object, and even more which will fail. We propose a supervised learning method that is trained with a ranking loss. This explicitly encourages that the top-ranked training grasp in a hypothesis set is also positively labeled. We show how we adapt the standard ranking loss to work with data that has binary labels and explain the benefits of this formulation. Additionally, we show how we can efficiently optimize this loss with stochastic gradient descent. In quantitative experiments, we show that we can outperform previous models by a large margin.

pdf DOI Project Page [BibTex]

am Kappler, D., Schaal, S., Bohg, J. Optimizing for what matters: the Top Grasp Hypothesis In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2016, IEEE, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 2016 (inproceedings)

pdf DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Exemplar-based Prediction of Object Properties from Local Shape Similarity

Bohg, J., Kappler, D., Schaal, S.

In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2016, IEEE, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 2016 (inproceedings)

Abstract

We propose a novel method that enables a robot to identify a graspable object part of an unknown object given only noisy and partial information that is obtained from an RGB-D camera. Our method combines the benefits of local with the advantages of global methods. It learns a classifier that takes a local shape representation as input and outputs the probability that a grasp applied at this location will be successful. Given a query data point that is classified in this way, we can retrieve all the locally similar training data points and use them to predict latent global object shape. This information may help to further prune positively labeled grasp hypotheses based on, e.g. relation to the predicted average global shape or suitability for a specific task. This prediction can also guide scene exploration to prune object shape hypotheses. To learn the function that maps local shape to grasp stability we use a Random Forest Classifier. We show that our method reaches the same classification performance as the current state-of-the-art on this dataset which uses a Convolutional Neural Network. Additionally, we exploit the natural ability of the Random Forest to cluster similar data. For a positively predicted query data point, we retrieve all the locally similar training data points that are associated with the same leaf nodes of the Random Forest. The main insight from this work is that local object shape that affords a grasp is also a good predictor of global object shape. We empirically support this claim with quantitative experiments. Additionally, we demonstrate the predictive capability of the method on some real data examples.

pdf DOI Project Page [BibTex]

am Bohg, J., Kappler, D., Schaal, S. Exemplar-based Prediction of Object Properties from Local Shape Similarity In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2016, IEEE, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 2016 (inproceedings)

pdf DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Automatic LQR Tuning Based on Gaussian Process Global Optimization

Marco, A., Hennig, P., Bohg, J., Schaal, S., Trimpe, S.

In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pages: 270-277, IEEE, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 2016 (inproceedings)

Abstract

This paper proposes an automatic controller tuning framework based on linear optimal control combined with Bayesian optimization. With this framework, an initial set of controller gains is automatically improved according to a pre-defined performance objective evaluated from experimental data. The underlying Bayesian optimization algorithm is Entropy Search, which represents the latent objective as a Gaussian process and constructs an explicit belief over the location of the objective minimum. This is used to maximize the information gain from each experimental evaluation. Thus, this framework shall yield improved controllers with fewer evaluations compared to alternative approaches. A seven-degree- of-freedom robot arm balancing an inverted pole is used as the experimental demonstrator. Results of a two- and four- dimensional tuning problems highlight the method’s potential for automatic controller tuning on robotic platforms.

am ics pn

Video PDF DOI Project Page [BibTex]

am ics pn Marco, A., Hennig, P., Bohg, J., Schaal, S., Trimpe, S. Automatic LQR Tuning Based on Gaussian Process Global Optimization In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pages: 270-277, IEEE, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 2016 (inproceedings)

Video PDF DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Depth-based Object Tracking Using a Robust Gaussian Filter

Issac, J., Wüthrich, M., Garcia Cifuentes, C., Bohg, J., Trimpe, S., Schaal, S.

In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2016, IEEE, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 2016 (inproceedings)

Abstract

We consider the problem of model-based 3D- tracking of objects given dense depth images as input. Two difficulties preclude the application of a standard Gaussian filter to this problem. First of all, depth sensors are characterized by fat-tailed measurement noise. To address this issue, we show how a recently published robustification method for Gaussian filters can be applied to the problem at hand. Thereby, we avoid using heuristic outlier detection methods that simply reject measurements if they do not match the model. Secondly, the computational cost of the standard Gaussian filter is prohibitive due to the high-dimensional measurement, i.e. the depth image. To address this problem, we propose an approximation to reduce the computational complexity of the filter. In quantitative experiments on real data we show how our method clearly outperforms the standard Gaussian filter. Furthermore, we compare its performance to a particle-filter-based tracking method, and observe comparable computational efficiency and improved accuracy and smoothness of the estimates.

am ics

Video Bayesian Object Tracking Library Bayesian Filtering Framework Object Tracking Dataset link (url) DOI Project Page [BibTex]

am ics Issac, J., Wüthrich, M., Garcia Cifuentes, C., Bohg, J., Trimpe, S., Schaal, S. Depth-based Object Tracking Using a Robust Gaussian Filter In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2016, IEEE, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 2016 (inproceedings)

Video Bayesian Object Tracking Library Bayesian Filtering Framework Object Tracking Dataset link (url) DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Sperm-shaped magnetic microrobots: Fabrication using electrospinning, modeling, and characterization

Khalil, I. S., Tabak, A. F., Hosney, A., Mohamed, A., Klingner, A., Ghoneima, M., Sitti, M.

In Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2016 IEEE International Conference on, pages: 1939-1944, May 2016 (inproceedings)

Abstract

We use electrospinning to fabricate sperm-shaped magnetic microrobots with a range of diameters from 50 μm to 500 μm. The variables of the electrospinning operation (voltage, concentration of the solution, dynamic viscosity, and distance between the syringe needle and collector) to achieve beading effect are determined. This beading effect allows us to fabricate microrobots with similar morphology to that of sperm cells. The bead and the ultra-fine fiber resemble the morphology of the head and tail of the sperm cell, respectively. We incorporate iron oxide nanoparticles to the head of the sperm-shaped microrobot to provide a magnetic dipole moment. This dipole enables directional control under the influence of external magnetic fields. We also apply weak (less than 2 mT) oscillating magnetic fields to exert a magnetic torque on the magnetic head, and generate planar flagellar waves and flagellated swim. The average speed of the sperm-shaped microrobot is calculated to be 0.5 body lengths per second and 1 body lengths per second at frequencies of 5 Hz and 10 Hz, respectively. We also develop a model of the microrobot using elastohydrodynamics approach and Timoshenko-Rayleigh beam theory, and find good agreement with the experimental results.

DOI [BibTex]

pi Khalil, I. S., Tabak, A. F., Hosney, A., Mohamed, A., Klingner, A., Ghoneima, M., Sitti, M. Sperm-shaped magnetic microrobots: Fabrication using electrospinning, modeling, and characterization In Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2016 IEEE International Conference on, pages: 1939-1944, May 2016 (inproceedings)

DOI [BibTex]

Batch Bayesian Optimization via Local Penalization

González, J., Dai, Z., Hennig, P., Lawrence, N.

Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics (AISTATS), 51, pages: 648-657, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: Gretton, A. and Robert, C. C.), May 2016 (conference)

ei pn

link (url) Project Page [BibTex]

ei pn González, J., Dai, Z., Hennig, P., Lawrence, N. Batch Bayesian Optimization via Local Penalization Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics (AISTATS), 51, pages: 648-657, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: Gretton, A. and Robert, C. C.), May 2016 (conference)

link (url) Project Page [BibTex]

MuProp: Unbiased Backpropagation for Stochastic Neural Networks

Gu, S., Levine, S., Sutskever, I., Mnih, A.

4th International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR), May 2016 (conference)

Arxiv [BibTex]

ei Gu, S., Levine, S., Sutskever, I., Mnih, A. MuProp: Unbiased Backpropagation for Stochastic Neural Networks 4th International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR), May 2016 (conference)

Arxiv [BibTex]

Communication Rate Analysis for Event-based State Estimation

(Best student paper finalist)

Ebner, S., Trimpe, S.

In Proceedings of the 13th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems, May 2016 (inproceedings)

am ics

PDF DOI [BibTex]

am ics Ebner, S., Trimpe, S. Communication Rate Analysis for Event-based State Estimation In Proceedings of the 13th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems, May 2016 (inproceedings)

PDF DOI [BibTex]

An Improved Cognitive Brain-Computer Interface for Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Hohmann, M. R., Fomina, T., Jayaram, V., Förster, C., Just, J., M., S., Schölkopf, B., Schöls, L., Grosse-Wentrup, M.

Proceedings of the Sixth International BCI Meeting, pages: 44, (Editors: Müller-Putz, G. R. and Huggins, J. E. and Steyrl, D.), BCI, May 2016 (conference)

DOI [BibTex]

ei Hohmann, M. R., Fomina, T., Jayaram, V., Förster, C., Just, J., M., S., Schölkopf, B., Schöls, L., Grosse-Wentrup, M. An Improved Cognitive Brain-Computer Interface for Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Proceedings of the Sixth International BCI Meeting, pages: 44, (Editors: Müller-Putz, G. R. and Huggins, J. E. and Steyrl, D.), BCI, May 2016 (conference)

DOI [BibTex]

Auxetic Metamaterial Simplifies Soft Robot Design

Mark, A. G., Palagi, S., Qiu, T., Fischer, P.

In 2016 IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pages: 4951-4956, May 2016 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Soft materials are being adopted in robotics in order to facilitate biomedical applications and in order to achieve simpler and more capable robots. One route to simplification is to design the robot's body using `smart materials' that carry the burden of control and actuation. Metamaterials enable just such rational design of the material properties. Here we present a soft robot that exploits mechanical metamaterials for the intrinsic synchronization of two passive clutches which contact its travel surface. Doing so allows it to move through an enclosed passage with an inchworm motion propelled by a single actuator. Our soft robot consists of two 3D-printed metamaterials that implement auxetic and normal elastic properties. The design, fabrication and characterization of the metamaterials are described. In addition, a working soft robot is presented. Since the synchronization mechanism is a feature of the robot's material body, we believe that the proposed design will enable compliant and robust implementations that scale well with miniaturization.

link (url) DOI [BibTex]

pf Mark, A. G., Palagi, S., Qiu, T., Fischer, P. Auxetic Metamaterial Simplifies Soft Robot Design In 2016 IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pages: 4951-4956, May 2016 (inproceedings)

link (url) DOI [BibTex]

Movement Primitives with Multiple Phase Parameters

Ewerton, M., Maeda, G., Neumann, G., Kisner, V., Kollegger, G., Wiemeyer, J., Peters, J.

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pages: 201-206, IEEE, May 2016 (conference)

DOI Project Page [BibTex]

ei Ewerton, M., Maeda, G., Neumann, G., Kisner, V., Kollegger, G., Wiemeyer, J., Peters, J. Movement Primitives with Multiple Phase Parameters IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pages: 201-206, IEEE, May 2016 (conference)

DOI Project Page [BibTex]

TerseSVM : A Scalable Approach for Learning Compact Models in Large-scale Classification

Babbar, R., Muandet, K., Schölkopf, B.

Proceedings of the 2016 SIAM International Conference on Data Mining (SDM), pages: 234-242, (Editors: Sanjay Chawla Venkatasubramanian and Wagner Meira), May 2016 (conference)

DOI Project Page [BibTex]

ei Babbar, R., Muandet, K., Schölkopf, B. TerseSVM : A Scalable Approach for Learning Compact Models in Large-scale Classification Proceedings of the 2016 SIAM International Conference on Data Mining (SDM), pages: 234-242, (Editors: Sanjay Chawla Venkatasubramanian and Wagner Meira), May 2016 (conference)

DOI Project Page [BibTex]

A Lightweight Robotic Arm with Pneumatic Muscles for Robot Learning

Büchler, D., Ott, H., Peters, J.

Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pages: 4086-4092, IEEE, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 2016 (conference)

am ei

ICRA16final DOI Project Page [BibTex]

am ei Büchler, D., Ott, H., Peters, J. A Lightweight Robotic Arm with Pneumatic Muscles for Robot Learning Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pages: 4086-4092, IEEE, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 2016 (conference)

ICRA16final DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Probabilistic Approximate Least-Squares

Bartels, S., Hennig, P.

Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics (AISTATS), 51, pages: 676-684, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: Gretton, A. and Robert, C. C. ), May 2016 (conference)

Abstract

Least-squares and kernel-ridge / Gaussian process regression are among the foundational algorithms of statistics and machine learning. Famously, the worst-case cost of exact nonparametric regression grows cubically with the data-set size; but a growing number of approximations have been developed that estimate good solutions at lower cost. These algorithms typically return point estimators, without measures of uncertainty. Leveraging recent results casting elementary linear algebra operations as probabilistic inference, we propose a new approximate method for nonparametric least-squares that affords a probabilistic uncertainty estimate over the error between the approximate and exact least-squares solution (this is not the same as the posterior variance of the associated Gaussian process regressor). This allows estimating the error of the least-squares solution on a subset of the data relative to the full-data solution. The uncertainty can be used to control the computational effort invested in the approximation. Our algorithm has linear cost in the data-set size, and a simple formal form, so that it can be implemented with a few lines of code in programming languages with linear algebra functionality.

ei pn

link (url) Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

ei pn Bartels, S., Hennig, P. Probabilistic Approximate Least-Squares Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics (AISTATS), 51, pages: 676-684, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: Gretton, A. and Robert, C. C. ), May 2016 (conference)

link (url) Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

Drifting Gaussian Processes with Varying Neighborhood Sizes for Online Model Learning

Meier, F., Schaal, S.

In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2016, IEEE, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 2016 (inproceedings)

[BibTex]

am Meier, F., Schaal, S. Drifting Gaussian Processes with Varying Neighborhood Sizes for Online Model Learning In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2016, IEEE, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 2016 (inproceedings)

[BibTex]

A Transfer Learning Approach for Adaptive Classification in P300 Paradigms

Jayaram, V., Grosse-Wentrup, M.

Sixth International BCI Meeting (BCI), May 2016 (conference)

PDF DOI [BibTex]

ei Jayaram, V., Grosse-Wentrup, M. A Transfer Learning Approach for Adaptive Classification in P300 Paradigms Sixth International BCI Meeting (BCI), May 2016 (conference)

PDF DOI [BibTex]

Learning soft task priorities for control of redundant robots

Modugno, V., Neumann, G., Rueckert, E., Oriolo, G., Peters, J., Ivaldi, S.

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pages: 221-226, IEEE, May 2016 (conference)

DOI [BibTex]

ei Modugno, V., Neumann, G., Rueckert, E., Oriolo, G., Peters, J., Ivaldi, S. Learning soft task priorities for control of redundant robots IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pages: 221-226, IEEE, May 2016 (conference)

DOI [BibTex]

On the Reliability of Information and Trustworthiness of Web Sources in Wikipedia

Tabibian, B., Farajtabar, M., Valera, I., Song, L., Schölkopf, B., Gomez Rodriguez, M.

Wikipedia workshop at the 10th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM), May 2016 (conference)

[BibTex]

ei Tabibian, B., Farajtabar, M., Valera, I., Song, L., Schölkopf, B., Gomez Rodriguez, M. On the Reliability of Information and Trustworthiness of Web Sources in Wikipedia Wikipedia workshop at the 10th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM), May 2016 (conference)

[BibTex]

Peer Grading in a Course on Algorithms and Data Structures: Machine Learning Algorithms do not Improve over Simple Baselines

Sajjadi, M. S. M., Alamgir, M., von Luxburg, U.

Proceedings of the 3rd ACM conference on Learning @ Scale, pages: 369-378, (Editors: Haywood, J. and Aleven, V. and Kay, J. and Roll, I.), ACM, L@S, April 2016, (An earlier version of this paper had been presented at the ICML 2015 workshop for Machine Learning for Education.) (conference)

Arxiv Peer-Grading dataset request [BibTex]

ei Sajjadi, M. S. M., Alamgir, M., von Luxburg, U. Peer Grading in a Course on Algorithms and Data Structures: Machine Learning Algorithms do not Improve over Simple Baselines Proceedings of the 3rd ACM conference on Learning @ Scale, pages: 369-378, (Editors: Haywood, J. and Aleven, V. and Kay, J. and Roll, I.), ACM, L@S, April 2016, (An earlier version of this paper had been presented at the ICML 2015 workshop for Machine Learning for Education.) (conference)

Arxiv Peer-Grading dataset request [BibTex]

Towards Photo-Induced Swimming: Actuation of Liquid Crystalline Elastomer in Water

cerretti, G., Martella, D., Zeng, H., Parmeggiani, C., Palagi, S., Mark, A. G., Melde, K., Qiu, T., Fischer, P., Wiersma, D.

In Proc. of SPIE 9738, pages: Laser 3D Manufacturing III, 97380T, April 2016 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Liquid Crystalline Elastomers (LCEs) are very promising smart materials that can be made sensitive to different external stimuli, such as heat, pH, humidity and light, by changing their chemical composition. In this paper we report the implementation of a nematically aligned LCE actuator able to undergo large light-induced deformations. We prove that this property is still present even when the actuator is submerged in fresh water. Thanks to the presence of azo-dye moieties, capable of going through a reversible trans-cis photo-isomerization, and by applying light with two different wavelengths we managed to control the bending of such actuator in the liquid environment. The reported results represent the first step towards swimming microdevices powered by light.

link (url) DOI [BibTex]

pf cerretti, G., Martella, D., Zeng, H., Parmeggiani, C., Palagi, S., Mark, A. G., Melde, K., Qiu, T., Fischer, P., Wiersma, D. Towards Photo-Induced Swimming: Actuation of Liquid Crystalline Elastomer in Water In Proc. of SPIE 9738, pages: Laser 3D Manufacturing III, 97380T, April 2016 (inproceedings)

link (url) DOI [BibTex]

Appealing female avatars from 3D body scans: Perceptual effects of stylization

Fleming, R., Mohler, B., Romero, J., Black, M. J., Breidt, M.

In 11th Int. Conf. on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications (GRAPP), Febuary 2016 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Advances in 3D scanning technology allow us to create realistic virtual avatars from full body 3D scan data. However, negative reactions to some realistic computer generated humans suggest that this approach might not always provide the most appealing results. Using styles derived from existing popular character designs, we present a novel automatic stylization technique for body shape and colour information based on a statistical 3D model of human bodies. We investigate whether such stylized body shapes result in increased perceived appeal with two different experiments: One focuses on body shape alone, the other investigates the additional role of surface colour and lighting. Our results consistently show that the most appealing avatar is a partially stylized one. Importantly, avatars with high stylization or no stylization at all were rated to have the least appeal. The inclusion of colour information and improvements to render quality had no significant effect on the overall perceived appeal of the avatars, and we observe that the body shape primarily drives the change in appeal ratings. For body scans with colour information, we found that a partially stylized avatar was most effective, increasing average appeal ratings by approximately 34%.

pdf Project Page [BibTex]

ps Fleming, R., Mohler, B., Romero, J., Black, M. J., Breidt, M. Appealing female avatars from 3D body scans: Perceptual effects of stylization In 11th Int. Conf. on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications (GRAPP), Febuary 2016 (inproceedings)

pdf Project Page [BibTex]

Fabular: Regression Formulas As Probabilistic Programming

Borgström, J., Gordon, A. D., Ouyang, L., Russo, C., Ścibior, A., Szymczak, M.

Proceedings of the 43rd Annual ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (POPL), pages: 271-283, POPL ’16, ACM, January 2016 (conference)

DOI Project Page [BibTex]

ei Borgström, J., Gordon, A. D., Ouyang, L., Russo, C., Ścibior, A., Szymczak, M. Fabular: Regression Formulas As Probabilistic Programming Proceedings of the 43rd Annual ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (POPL), pages: 271-283, POPL ’16, ACM, January 2016 (conference)

DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Deep Discrete Flow

Güney, F., Geiger, A.

Asian Conference on Computer Vision (ACCV), 2016 (conference) Accepted

avg ps

pdf suppmat Project Page [BibTex]

avg ps Güney, F., Geiger, A. Deep Discrete Flow Asian Conference on Computer Vision (ACCV), 2016 (conference) Accepted

pdf suppmat Project Page [BibTex]

Proactive Human-Robot Collaboration with Interaction Primitives

Maeda, G., Maloo, A., Ewerton, M., Lioutikov, R., Peters, J.

9th International Workshop on Human-Friendly Robotics (HFR), pages: 40-45, 2016 (conference)

link (url) [BibTex]

Maeda, G., Maloo, A., Ewerton, M., Lioutikov, R., Peters, J. Proactive Human-Robot Collaboration with Interaction Primitives 9th International Workshop on Human-Friendly Robotics (HFR), pages: 40-45, 2016 (conference)

link (url) [BibTex]

Ensuring Ethical Behavior from Autonomous Systems

Anderson, M., Anderson, S. L., Berenz, V.

In Artificial Intelligence Applied to Assistive Technologies and Smart Environments, Papers from the 2016 AAAI Workshop, Phoenix, Arizona, USA, February 12, 2016, 2016 (inproceedings)

link (url) [BibTex]

am Anderson, M., Anderson, S. L., Berenz, V. Ensuring Ethical Behavior from Autonomous Systems In Artificial Intelligence Applied to Assistive Technologies and Smart Environments, Papers from the 2016 AAAI Workshop, Phoenix, Arizona, USA, February 12, 2016, 2016 (inproceedings)

link (url) [BibTex]

Advances in computational imaging: Benchmarking Deblurring Algorithms, Deep Neural Inpainting, Depth Estimation from Light Fields

Köhler, R.

Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, 2016 (phdthesis)

[BibTex]

ei Köhler, R. Advances in computational imaging: Benchmarking Deblurring Algorithms, Deep Neural Inpainting, Depth Estimation from Light Fields Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, 2016 (phdthesis)

[BibTex]

Tractable Structured Prediction using the Permutohedral Lattice

Kiefel, M.

ETH Zurich, 2016 (phdthesis)

[BibTex]

ei Kiefel, M. Tractable Structured Prediction using the Permutohedral Lattice ETH Zurich, 2016 (phdthesis)

[BibTex]

Towards Robust Online Inverse Dynamics Learning

Meier, F., Kappler, D., Ratliff, N., Schaal, S.

Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IEEE, IROS, 2016 (conference) Accepted

fmeier_iros_2016 [BibTex]

am Meier, F., Kappler, D., Ratliff, N., Schaal, S. Towards Robust Online Inverse Dynamics Learning Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IEEE, IROS, 2016 (conference) Accepted

fmeier_iros_2016 [BibTex]

Self-Supervised Regrasping using Spatio-Temporal Tactile Features and Reinforcement Learning

Chebotar, Y., Hausman, K., Su, Z., Sukhatme, G., Schaal, S.

In International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2016, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2016 (inproceedings)

pdf video [BibTex]

am Chebotar, Y., Hausman, K., Su, Z., Sukhatme, G., Schaal, S. Self-Supervised Regrasping using Spatio-Temporal Tactile Features and Reinforcement Learning In International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2016, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2016 (inproceedings)

pdf video [BibTex]