A Directional Antenna-based Leader-follower Robotic Convoy System (2013 - 18)
Description: In this research, we present
a directional antenna-based leader-follower robotic relay
system capable of building end-to-end communication in
complicated and dynamically changing environments. The
proposed system consists of multiple networked robots - one is
a mobile end node and the others are leaders or followers
acting as radio relays. Every follower uses directional
antennas to relay a communication radio and to estimate the
location of the leader robot as a sensory device. For bearing
estimation, we employ a weight centroid algorithm (WCA) and
present a theoretical analysis of the use of WCA for this
work. Using a robotic convoy method, we develop online,
distributed control strategies that satisfy the scalability
requirements of robotic network systems and enable cooperating
robots to work independently. The performance of the proposed
system is evaluated by conducting extensive real-world
experiments that successfully build actual communication
between two end nodes.
Grants: Purdue University
People: Sangjun Lee, Ramviyas Parasuraman
Selected
Publications:
- Byung-Cheol Min, Ramviyas Parasuraman, Sangjun Lee, Jin-Woo Jung, and Eric T. Matson, "A Directional Antenna based Leader-Follower Relay System for End-to-End Robot Communications", Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Vol. 101, pp. 57-73, March 2018. Download PDF, Download Video I, Download Video II
- Byung-Cheol Min, Eric T. Matson, and Jin-Woo Jung, “Active Antenna Tracking System with Directional Antennas for Enhancing Wireless Communication Capabilities of a Networked Robotic System", Journal of Field Robotics, Vol. 33, Issue 3, pp. 391-406, May 2016. Download PDF
Interactive Indoor Navigation Aid System for Visually Impaired People (2015 - 18)
Description: World Health Organization
(WHO) estimates that 285 million people in the world are
visually impaired, of whom 39 million are blind. Although
safe and independent mobility is a critical element of
modern life, traveling in unfamiliar environments can be
challenging and often daunting for visually impaired people
due to the lack of appropriate navigation aid tools. In
order to get familiarity with new places, visually impaired
people usually take many times of mobility training through
orientation & mobility instructors or their family.
However, this training is time consuming and expensive for
all the parties. Furthermore, it often appears to be
challenging for visually impaired people to memorize all the
steps to navigate new places independently. The objective of
this project is to develop improved and appropriate
navigation aid tools that will enable visually impaired
people to travel unfamiliar environments safely and
independently with minimal training and effort.
Grants: Purdue University
People: Yeonju Oh
Selected Publications:
- Yeonju Oh, Wei-Liang Kao, and Byung-Cheol Min, "Indoor Navigation Aid System Using No Positioning Technique for Visually Impaired People", HCI International 2017 - Poster Extended Abstract, Vancouver, Canada, 9-14 July, 2017. Download PDF, Download Video
Emergency and Non – Emergency Response Using Smartphone-based Indoor Localization (2016 - 17)
Description: The purpose of this study
is for a blind user to request help based on emergency and
non-emergency situation using indoor navigation application.
Usage of indoor navigation application is to serve the
purpose of sending the exact location of a blind user to the
responders when the blind user is in indoor settings. The
goal of the study is twofold. The first goal of this
research is to build an android application and achieve
accuracy of one meter or less using Wi-Fi signals inside the
building. The second goal of this study is to evaluate the
usefulness of providing the exact location i.e., room
number, floor, floor map and building name to the emergency
responders to reach the destination promptly. The main idea
behind this project is to evaluate, if providing exact
location of a user inside a building helps emergency or
non-emergency responders to reach location inside the
building quicker rather than searching entire building for
the victim. As a preliminary study, an accuracy of one meter
was achieved around 70 percent of the time in our test runs,
and this accuracy implies that we were able to send the
exact location of the blind user with one-meter accuracy to
the responders 70 percent of the times.
Grants: Purdue University
People: Manoj Penmetcha, Arabinda Samantaray
Selected
Publications:
- Manoj Penmetcha, Arabinda Samantaray, and Byung-Cheol Min, "SmartResponse: Emergency and Non-Emergency Response for Smartphone based Indoor Localization applications", HCI International 2017 - Poster Extended Abstract, Vancouver, Canada, 9-14 July, 2017. Download PDF
Examine the Potential of Robots to Teach Emotional Concepts (2015 - 16)
Description: Autistic people is a
special group who have impaired ability in social
interaction, social communication and imagination. Several
approaches have been used to help them, among which humanoid
robot is emerging as a new tool to teach them recently,
since it could offer more simplified physical features and
controllable environment which is preferred by autistic
children. At the same time, a robot could offer a
human-friendly conversational environment which is
appropriate to emotion and social skills learning. This
project is trying to design a set of robot body movements
which is supposed to express different emotions and a
robot-mediated instruction prototype to explore the
potential of robots to teach emotional concepts to autistic
children.
Grants: Purdue University
People: Huanhuan Wang, Pai-Ying Hsiao
Selected Publications:
- Huanhuan Wang, Pai-Ying Hsiao, and Byung-Cheol Min, "Examine the Potential of Robots to Teach Autistic Children Emotional Concepts", The Eight International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR), Kansas City, USA, Nov. 1-3, 2016. Download PDF
Learn Braille Device (2015 - 16)
Description: Braille is a language
that was developed with the sole intention of providing a
medium for users who are blind or have low-vision to
understand text the same way humans read and write text.
Due to the loss of at least one sensory input, this
language systems relies on a user’s ability to touch and
feel. However, historically, in order to learn braille,
the user must rely on additional help to understand how to
obtain information from braille. Especially in this era
when there are less teaching professionals qualified to
teach braille. Therefore, we present a novel approach that
provides an alternative to helping users who are blind or
low-blind disabilities to learn braille by use of
affordable technologies.
Grants: Purdue University
People: Wei Kao, Robert Hinh
Adaptive Learning System in Language based Environment for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (2015 - 16)
Description: Autism spectrum
disorder (ASD) is one of the most significant public
health concerns in the United States and also
worldwide. Children with ASD are often lack in verbal
ability. Even though early interventions can improve
it greatly, high cost and difficult access to special
education services challenge families with a child
with ASD. This research study proposes a technical
methodology that can be easily deployed in a daily
environment of children with ASD and teach language to
them with low cost, based on embedded devices and
semantic information which can be extended to a
cyber-physical system in the future. This method will
provide verbal descriptions of objects and also adapt
the level of descriptions to the child's learning
achievements. This project is collaborated with the M2M
Lab at Purdue University.
Grants: Purdue University
People: Sangmi Shin
Selected
Publications:
- Sangmi Shin, Byung-Cheol Min, Julia Rayz, and Eric T. Matson, "Semantic Knowledge-based Language Education Device for Children with Developmental Disabilities", IEEE Robotic Computing (IRC) 2017, Taichung, Taiwan, April 10-12, 2017. Download PDF
Establishment of End-to-End Wireless Network with Mobile Robots (2013 - 16)
Description: In this
research we tackle the fundamental problem of
finding the optimal location and allocation of
mobile robots in an application of the
establishment of an immediate end-to-end
communication. Often this is called the
multi-robot deployment problem in networked
robotics. To this end, we formulate an
end-to-end communication problem, in a general
optimization form, with constraints that
consider the operation of robots and the types
of antennas. Additionally,
constraints on the propagation of
radio signals and infeasible locations of robots
within physical obstacles are also taken into
consideration for a dense space. To solve the
optimization problem we explore the use of
evolutionary optimization techniques such as
Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle Swarm
Optimization (PSO).
Grants: Purdue University
People: Sangjun Lee
Selected Publications:
- Byung-Cheol Min, Yongho Kim, Sangjun Lee, Jin-Woo Jung, and Eric T. Matson, “Finding the Optimal Location and Allocation of Relay Robots for Building a Rapid End-to-end Wireless Communication", Ad Hoc Networks, Vol. 39, Issue 15, pp. 23-44, March 2016. Download PDF