"Rolland" - The Bremen Autonomous Wheelchair

Safety in Cognitive Robotics and Behaviour-Based Navigation

Headed by Professor Dr. Bernd Krieg-Brückner, the group "Cognitive Robotics" in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the Universität Bremen is developing an intelligent means of transport for elder and handicapped persons - the Bremen Autonomous Wheelchair "Rolland". The power wheelchair Meyra Genius 1.522 is equipped with sensors and a PC. It is both, a scientific platform for experiments within the priority program "Spatial Cognition" of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) as well as a demonstrator for the use of formal methods in the development of safety-critical embedded systems.

The research with respect to spatial cognition focusses on navigation. On one hand, experiences from psychology and (neuro-)biology are used, on the other hand, open questions in these fields are to be answered by the technical realisation on a robot. The latter is especially interesting for cognitive psychology, because it is pretty easy to determine the a-priori knowledge of a robot-proband - in contrast to the one of animals or persons. In addition to the theoretical examination of the basics of navigation, robust techniques are developed which enable the wheelchair to learn even complex behaviours by combining several elementary behaviours such as wall-following or doorway-passage. The navigation approaches implemented are based on the optical recognition of routemarks (natural or artificial points of reference): Significant objects in the environment are (re-)cognized with a video camera.

The Bremen Autonomous Wheelchair is used as an example for the developement of safe systems with the help of formal methods because of the high relevance of safety aspects in the field of rehabilitation robotics. In contrast to classical industrial robotics, people live in the immediate vicinity and often also in a direct dependence on a rehabilitation robot as Rolland. Therefore, such systems must be devoloped safely with respect to collision freeness and following the user's commands. With the help of a hazard analysis, safety requirements were defined. From this specification, a safety module was developed that was partially verified. It is the interface between the application to be developed and the safe wheelchair.

As first application, a driving assistent was implemented that adapts the speed ordered by the user via the joystick to the current obstacle situation. Thus the wheelchair gradually slows down when approaching an obstacle. In addition, the driving assistent supports the user by passing door-frames and by turning round. In the next development step, the wheelchair will be enhanced - among other things - by a speech input control interface.

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Publications

 

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2005     Back to top

	U. Frese, P. Larsson, T. Duckett (2005). A Multilevel Relaxation Algorithm for Simultaneous Localization and Mapping. In IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 21 (2), pp. 1–12.
	C. Mandel, K. Huebner, T. Vierhuff (2005). Towards an Autonomous Wheelchair: Cognitive Aspects in Service Robotics. In Proceedings of Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS 2005), pp. 165–172.

2003     Back to top

Axel Lankenau, Thomas Röfer, Bernd Krieg-Brückner (2003). Self-Localization in Large-Scale Environments for the Bremen Autonomous Wheelchair. In Christian Freksa, Wilfried Brauer, Christopher Habel, Karl F. Wender (Eds.), Spatial Cognition III, Vol. 2685, pp. 34–61, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer.

2002     Back to top

	Axel Lankenau, Thomas Röfer (2002). Mobile Robot Self-Localization in Large-Scale Environments. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation 2002 (ICRA-2002), pp. 1359–1364. IEEE.
	Thomas Röfer (2002). Using Histogram Correlation to Create Consistent Laser Scan Maps. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics Systems (IROS-2002), pp. 625–630. EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland.
	Thomas Röfer, Axel Lankenau (2002). Route-Based Robot Navigation. In Christian Freksa (Ed.). Künstliche Intelligenz - Themenheft Spatial Cognition, pp. 29–31. Fachbereich 1 der Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V., arenDTaP.

2001     Back to top

	A. Lankenau (2001). Avoiding Mode Confusion in Service-Robots. In M. Mokhtari (Ed.), Integration of Assistive Technology in the Information Age, Proc. of the 7th Int. Conf. on Rehabilitation Robotics, pp. 162–167. IOS Press.
	Axel Lankenau, Thomas Röfer (2001). A Safe and Versatile Mobility Assistant. In Reinventing the Wheelchair. IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, Vol. 7, pp. 29–37.
	Axel Lankenau, Thomas Röfer (2001). Selbstlokalisation in Routengraphen. In Paul Levi, Michael Schanz (Eds.), Autonome Mobile Systeme 2001, pp. 157–163, Informatik aktuell. Springer.
	Thomas Röfer (2001). Konsistente Karten aus Laser Scans. In Paul Levi, Michael Schanz (Eds.), Autonome Mobile Systeme 2001, pp. 171–177, Informatik aktuell. Springer.
	Thomas Röfer (2001). Building Consistent Laser Scan Maps. In Proceedings of the 4th European Workshop on Advanced Mobile Robots (Eurobot 2001), Vol. 86, pp. 83–90. Lund University Cognitive Studies.

2000     Back to top

	Jörg Kollmann, Thomas Röfer (2000). Echtzeitkartenaufbau mit einem 180°-Laser-Entfernungssensor. In Rüdiger Dillmann, Heinz Wörn, Markus von Ehr (Eds.), Autonome Mobile Systeme 2000, pp. 121–128, Informatik aktuell. Springer.
	Axel Lankenau, Thomas Röfer (2000). Smart Wheelchairs - State of the Art in an Emerging Market. In Künstliche Intelligenz. Schwerpunkt Autonome Mobile Systeme, No. 4, pp. 37–39. Fachbereich 1 der Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V., arenDTaP.
	Axel Lankenau, Thomas Röfer (2000). Rollstuhl "Rolland" unterstützt ältere und behinderte Menschen. In FIfF-Kommunikation. Informationstechnik und Behinderung, No. 2, pp. 48–50. Forum InformatikerInnen für Frieden und gesellschaftliche Verantwortung (FIfF).
	Axel Lankenau, Thomas Röfer (2000). The Role of Shared Control in Service Robots - The Bremen Autonomous Wheelchair as an Example. In Thomas Röfer, Axel Lankenau, Reinhard Moratz (Eds.), Service Robotics - Applications and Safety Issues in an Emerging Market. Workshop Notes, pp. 27–31.
	Alexandra Musto, Klaus Stein, Andreas Eisenkolb, Thomas Röfer, Wilfried Brauer, Kerstin Schill (2000). From Motion Observation to Qualitative Motion Representation. In Christian Freksa, Wilfried Brauer, Christopher Habel, Karl F. Wender (Eds.), Spatial Cognition II, Vol. 1849, pp. 115–126, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer.
	Rolf Müller, Thomas Röfer, Axel Lankenau, Alexandra Musto, Klaus Stein, Andreas Eisenkolb (2000). Coarse Qualitative Descriptions in Robot Navigation. In Christian Freksa, Wilfried Brauer, Christopher Habel, Karl F. Wender (Eds.), Spatial Cognition II, Vol. 1849, pp. 265–276, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer.
	Thomas Röfer (2000). Route Navigation and Panoramic Image Processing. In Künstliche Intelligenz. Schwerpunkt Autonome Mobile Systeme, No. 1, pp. 62–64. Fachbereich 1 der Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V., arenDTaP.
	Thomas Röfer, Axel Lankenau (2000). Architecture and Applications of the Bremen Autonomous Wheelchair. In Paul P. Wang (Ed.), Information Sciences, Vol. 1-4 (126), pp. 1–20. Elsevier Science BV.
	Thomas Röfer, Axel Lankenau, Reinhard Moratz (Eds.) (2000). Service Robotics - Applications and Safety Issues in an Emerging Market. Workshop Notes. European Conference on Artificial Intelligence 2000 (ECAI-2000).

1999     Back to top

	A. Lankenau, O. Meyer (1999). Formal Methods in Robotics: Fault Tree Based Verification. In Proc. of Quality Week Europe.
	Alexandra Musto, Klaus Stein, Andreas Eisenkolb, Thomas Röfer (1999). Qualitative and Quantitative Representations of Locomotion and their Application in Robot Navigation. In Proceedings of the 16th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-99), pp. 1067–1073. Morgan Kaufman Publishers, Inc, San Francisco, CA.
	Thomas Röfer (1999). Route Navigation Using Motion Analysis. In Christian Freksa, David M. Mark (Eds.), Proceedings of the Conference on Spatial Information Theory (COSIT-99), Vol. 1661, pp. 21–36, Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer.
	Thomas Röfer (1999). Route Navigation and Panoramic Image Processing. In Ausgezeichnete Informatikdissertationen 1998, pp. 132–141. B. G. Teubner, Stuttgart, Leipzig.
	Thomas Röfer, Axel Lankenau (1999). Ensuring Safe Obstacle Avoidance in a Shared-Control System. In Josep M. Fuertes (Ed.), Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Emergent Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA-99), pp. 1405–1414.
	Thomas Röfer, Axel Lankenau (1999). Ein Fahrassistent für ältere und behinderte Menschen. In Günther Schmidt, Uwe Hanebeck, Franz Freyberger (Eds.), Autonome Mobile Systeme 1999, pp. 334–343, Informatik aktuell. Springer.

1998     Back to top

	A. Behrens, S. Kubon (1998). Objektverfolgung durch aktive Konturen und Objekterkennung. In A. Bühlmeier, J. Kollmann, B. Krieg-Brückner, T. Röfer (Eds.), Sensomotorik autonomer Systeme, Informatik Bericht. ISSN 0722-8996. Universität Bremen.
	Bernd Krieg-Brückner, Thomas Röfer, Hans-Otto Carmesin, Rolf Müller (1998). A Taxonomy of Spatial Knowledge for Navigation and its Application to the Bremen Autonomous Wheelchair. In Christian Freksa, Christopher Habel, Karl F. Wender (Eds.), Spatial Cognition, Vol. 1404, pp. 373–397, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer.
	A. Lankenau, O. Meyer, B. Krieg-Brückner (1998). Safety in Robotics: The Bremen Autonomous Wheelchair. In Proceedings of the 5th Int. Workshop on Advanced Motion Control (AMC '98), pp. 524–529.
	Axel Lankenau, Thomas Röfer (1998). Architecture of the Bremen Autonomous Wheelchair. In Bernd Hildebrand, Reinhard Moratz, Christian Scheering (Eds.), Architectures in Cognitive Robotics. Technical Report, No. 98/13, pp. 19–24. SFB 360 "Situierte Künstliche Kommunikatoren". Universität Bielefeld.
	Thomas Röfer (1998). Routenbeschreibung durch Odometrie-Scans. In Heinz Wörn, Rüdiger Dillmann, Dominik Henrich (Eds.), Autonome Mobile Systeme 1998, pp. 122–129, Informatik aktuell. Springer.
	Thomas Röfer (1998). Strategies for Using a Simulation in the Development of the Bremen Autonomous Wheelchair. In Richard Zobel, Dietmar Moeller (Eds.), Simulation-Past, Present and Future, pp. 460–464. Society for Computer Simulation International.
	Thomas Röfer (1998). Panoramic Image Processing and Route Navigation. No. 7, BISS Monographs. Shaker-Verlag.
	Thomas Röfer, Axel Lankenau (1998). Architecture and Applications of the Bremen Autonomous Wheelchair. In Paul P. Wang (Ed.), Proceedings of the 4th Joint Conference on Information Systems, Vol. 1, pp. 365–368. Association for Intelligent Machinery.
	Thomas Röfer, Rolf Müller (1998). Navigation and Routemark Detection of the Bremen Autonomous Wheelchair. In Tim Lüth, Rüdiger Dillmann, Paolo Dario, Heinz Wörn (Eds.), Distributed Autonomous Robotics Systems, pp. 183–192. Springer.

1997     Back to top

	Jörg Kollmann, Axel Lankenau, Andreas Bühlmeier, Bernd Krieg-Brückner, Thomas Röfer (1997). Navigation of a Kinematically Restricted Wheelchair by the Parti-Game Algorithm. In Spatial Reasoning in Mobile Robots and Animals, AISB-97 Workshop, pp. 35–44. Manchester University.
	A. Lankenau, O. Meyer (1997). Der autonome Rollstuhl als sicheres eingebettetes System. Master's Thesis.
	Thomas Röfer (1997). Controlling a Wheelchair with Image-based Homing. In Spatial Reasoning in Mobile Robots and Animals, AISB-97 Workshop, pp. 66–75. Manchester University.
	Thomas Röfer (1997). Routemark-Based Navigation of a Wheelchair. In Proceedings of the 3rd ECPD International Conference on Advanced Robotics, Intelligent Automation and Active Systems, pp. 333–338.
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