annual report 2004 - Ãrebro universitet

Annual Report 2004 

Örebro universitet Örebro University 

Institutionen för teknik Department of technology 

701 82 Örebro SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden

Annual Report 2004 1 

Contents 

SUMMARY 2 

PREFACE 3 

1. CENTER FOR APPLIED AUTONOMOUS SENSOR SYSTEMS (AASS) 5 

1.1 ORGANISATION 9 

1.2 MANAGEMENT 12 

1.3 FUNDING 14 

1.4 UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION 16 

1.5 GRADUATE EDUCATION 18 

1.6 CO-OPERATION 23 

1.7 DISSIMINATION OF INFORMATION 28 

2 RESEARCH LABS 34 

2.1 BIOLOGICAL INSPIRED SYSTEMS LAB 35 

2.2 MOBILE ROBOTICS LAB 42 

2.3 INTELLIGENT CONTROL LAB 56 

2.4. LEARNING SYSTEMS LAB 68 

3. PUBLICATIONS 80 

3.1 BOOKS (INCL. PHD/LIC THESIS) AND EDITED VOLUMES 80 

3.2 CHAPTERS IN EDITED VOLUMES 80 

3.3 JOURNALS 80 

3.4 CONFERENCE PAPERS 81 

3.5 WORKSHOP AND SYMPOSIUM PAPERS 82

2 AASS – Center for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems 

Summary 

The Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems Centre (AASS) organizes all research and graduate 

education in the area of Autonomous Systems and also is responsible for the undergraduate 

and MSc programs in Computer Engineering (Datateknik) at the Dept. of Technology, at 

Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden. The research effort has a pronounced interdisciplinary 

character being a fusion of a variety of disciplines from Systems and Control, Measurement 

Technology and Sensors, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, and Operations 

Research but, with emphasis on Intelligent Control and Sensors, Machine Learning, Planning 

and Automated Reasoning, and Biologically Inspired Systems. The Applied Autonomous 

Sensor Systems Centre is organized in four laboratories, responsible for research and graduate 

education in their respective areas: 

1. Biologically Inspired Systems Laboratory (BIS) 

2. Mobile Robotics Laboratory (MR) 

3. Intelligent Control Laboratory (IC) 

4. Learning Systems Laboratory (LS) 

The common research focus for the four research laboratories is the subject of perception 

and autonomy in diverse un- and/or semi-structured environments. This subject is 

pursued using a common research methodology, which is strictly applied: all technologies 

under investigation should answer actual needs that emerge from an application, and their 

effectiveness is always validated on the application. Applications considered by AASS 

include mobile platforms, e.g., mobile robots, and immobile platforms, e.g., industrial plants 

and processes. 

This report presents AASS organization and management, developments in education, research 

and industrial co-operation, activities within the national/international research community, and 

various forms of societal interaction that have taken place in year 2004. In this context, some 

important developments that characterize year 2004 are as follows: 

• Control and systems (Reglerteknik) was approved as a separate study program 

(forskarutbildningsämne) in graduate education. Prof. I. Kalaykov (IC Lab, AASS) is 

responsible for the new program and two Ph.D. students were already admitted in it. 

• AASS started an international cooperation under the framework of the "Ubiquitous robot 

companion" program, sponsored by the Korean government through its research agency 

ETRI. This is one of the most ambitious public programs in cognitive robotics in the world 

today. 

• S. Coradeschi has obtained a three-year grant from Vetenskapradet for the project 

"Anchoring Symbols to Sensor Data". This was the only 3-year grant awarded by 

Vetenskapsrådet to Örebro University this year. 

• During 2003/2004 the BIS lab underwent re-organization, including changes in its staff 

and research directions. As a result, the BIS lab has now streamlined its activities within 

two related research directions: biologically inspired sensing and dexterous manipulation.


Preface 

The Centre for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems (AASS) was formally established in 

1996 at the Department of Technology with a grant from the KK-Foundation aimed at 

establishing the basis for a concentrated effort on interdisciplinary research in the area of 

Autonomous Systems with contributions to education. In the period 1996-2004, AASS has 

developed from a research group of 2 researchers and 2 PhD students to a full-fledged 

research centre with 4 professors, 2 associated professor (docent), 2 visiting professor (from 

industry), 4 researchers (PhD), 24 Ph.D. students, and technical and administrative personnel 

of 6. Now AASS plays an important educational role within the Department of Technology as 

well as has a leading position in the 4th strategic research profile of Örebro University – 

“Human senses, autonomous sensor systems, and industrial processes”. 

It also has achieved national/international recognition for its research results, established wellfunctioning 

industrial co-operation, and strong industrial presence with its participation in the 

Robotdalen - the largest Swedish 10-year innovation program in robotics funded by industry 

and the state innovation agency VINNOVA with the amount of 200 M SEK. In the context of 

these achievements, AASS has, during year 2004, also had a measurable societal impact in a 

number of ways such as 

1. Industrial relevance: Partner in large-scale industrial projects with Atlas Copco Rock 

Drills AB (Örebro), ESAB AB (Laxå), Volvo Construction equipment AB (Eskilstuna), 

and Optab-Optronikinnovation AB (Karlskoga). 

2. European dimension: Co-operation within two EC research networks (EURON, and 

CLAWAR II) and a coordinator for EU FP5 Marie Curie Training Site. 

3. World dimension: AASS started an international cooperation under the framework of the 

"Ubiquitous robot companion" program, sponsored by the Korean government through its 

research agency ETRI. This is one of the most ambitious public programs in cognitive 

robotics in the world today. 

4. National dimension: Founding member of the VINNVÄXT/VINNOVA 10-year national 

innovation program "Robotdalen" together with MdH Mälardalen, and a large number of 

industrial and societal partners and public bodies. 

5. Public acceptance: responsible for the implementation of the Robotdalen project 

“Technology transfer and competence development (Teknikspridning och kompetenshöjning)'' 

for the Örebro-node of Robotdalen. 

However, our most important contribution with long-term societal impact is our educational 

activity. Improving the content, quality, and degree-level of the undergraduate education in 

the Department of Technology in general and in Computer Engineering in particular is of 

highest priority. Thus undergraduate students with BSc, MSc, and Engineering degrees will 

remain our most important "output" - these students are to play important role in the 

development of regional and national industrial and business enterprises.


In this context, the preparatory work aimed at establishing a new engineering education (civing, 

180 p) in Mechatronics at the Dept. of Technology is completed and an application will 

be submitted to the Dept. of Higher Education (Högskoleverket) in the beginning of 2005. At 

the same time research and graduate education will be key factors in keeping with up-to-date 

technological developments, maintaining and further developing the scientific relevance and 

quality of undergraduate education, and last but not least, increasing the attractivity of Örebro 

University as an educational centre in a regional, national, and international perspective. On 

the other hand, our research and graduate education is of great value in itself – by doing 

research in the area of Autonomous Systems we contribute to the advancement of 

technologies at one of the frontiers of modern interdisciplinary science. A particular 

"practical" benefit is the reunification of Measurement, Control, and Computer Sciences into 

a disciplinary and technological continuum - a reunification that sadly is lacking today, to the 

growing discontent of industry. Thus, industrial co-operation will ensure that these 

technological advancements are adopted and their business potential is exploited. 

Certain "key" figures indicating that the development of the AASS research and educational 

profile is on the right track are: 

• Number of students in the Computer Engineering undergraduate program 2004: 85 

• Number of MSc students in the Computer Engineering MSc program 2004: 23. 

• Number of MSc theses completed under AASS supervision 2004: 4. 

• Number of PhD students 2004: 24 (1 PhD and 3 Licentiate degrees awarded in 2004). 

• Number of ex-jobs completed under AASS supervision 2004: 2. 

• Number of publications 2004: 51 

• External funding 2004: 54.2% of the total AASS budget. 

A continued strong support from our founders and academic/industrial partners shows that we 

have all reasons to be optimistic about our further development and contributions to 

education, industry, and society.


1. Centre for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems (AASS) 

The Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems Centre was formally established in 1996 with a 

grant from the KK-Foundation with the purpose of establishing the basis for a concentrated 

research effort in the interdisciplinary area of Autonomous Systems with expected 

contributions to education and industrial co-operation. 

Today AASS is nationally and internationally recognized for its research results and plays an 

important educational role within the Department of Technology and in the 4th strategic 

research profile of Örebro University – “Human senses, autonomous sensor systems, and 

industrial processes”. AASS has established well-functioning industrial co-operation - a 

number of industrial partners have developed a strong interest in AASS and support the 

research effort in terms of industrial PhD students, joint research projects, research-relevant 

equipment (hardware and software), and expertise (industrial employees acting as part-time 

AASS researchers). 

The industrial co-operation will be made even stronger as a result of our participation in the 

VINNOVA Robotdalen innovation program. The AASS research effort is organized on the 

basis of the following 4-pronged vision: 

1. Recognition by the international and national scientific community not only for AASS's 

active contributions to the state-of-the-art in core research areas, but also for its innovative 

role in establishing novel research topics that expand the frontiers of the science and 

technology for autonomous systems. 

2. Significant, long-term industrial interest in utilizing AASS's research results and 

educational capacity that will allow improvement of existing industrial technologies and 

products as well as, provide possibilities for exploring radically new solutions and future 

products. 

3. Significant contributions to educational programs at BSc, MSc and PhD-level of 

education. 

4. Leading role within the Örebro University's strategic research profile "Human Senses, 

autonomous sensor systems, and industrial processes''. 

In engineering terms, the fulfilment of the above vision will lead to: 

• Providing practitioners with methods for the design of engineering systems at all levels of 

control and sensing (low, supervisory and task-level) and whose needs are not met by 

existing conventional approaches. In educational terms, the fulfilment of the above vision 

will lead to: 

• The reunification of Measurement, Control, and Computer Sciences into an 

interdisciplinary disciplinary continuum - a reunification, which sadly is lacking today 

from existing educational programs.


Autonomous Systems 

Autonomous systems are mobile as well as immobile platforms that employ a vast array of 

sensors in order to analyze and/or influence highly dynamic environments. Examples of such 

systems include robotic systems, complex process control systems, flexible 

manufacturing/inspection systems, automotive systems, and unmanned underwater/land and 

air/space vehicles. 

In order to achieve an autonomous operation the system has to be supplied with the ability to: 

plan and schedule control/sensing actions at varying levels of detail and functionality; acquire 

and integrate sensory information at different levels of granularity and abstraction; learn how 

to adapt to initially unknown or changing environments; identify events that threaten the 

system's operation and react to these by reconfiguring its control and sensing routines. 

The design and analysis of autonomous systems has a pronounced interdisciplinary character 

being a fusion of a variety of disciplines from Systems and Control, Measurement 

Technology and Sensors, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, and Operations 

Research. This fusion is with emphasis on certain modern developments such as Fuzzy 

Systems, Intelligent Control and Sensors, Machine Learning, Planning and Automated 

Reasoning, and Biologically-inspired Systems. 

There are four major research areas that constitute the basis for autonomous systems research 

and development: Perception Science and Technology, Reasoning Science and Technology, 

Action Science and Technology, and Learning Science and Technology. These four research 

areas and the challenges posed by them are well recognized by the international research 

community and underpin the mainstream international research effort in the area of 

autonomous systems. Perception provides the means to gather information about the working 

environment - information that permits operations such as manufacturing, process control, 

navigation, monitoring, and manipulation to be accomplished safely and robustly. Reasoning 

is the "smarts" of an autonomous sensor system - it is the capacity to reason that provides the 

connection between perception and action. 

Action is ability to move in space and to manipulate objects in a safe and reliable manner - in 

case of robotic systems, or maintain certain desired behaviour in industrial plants/processes 

despite disturbances and limited knowledge of process/plant dynamics. Learning is needed to 

make technologies from the areas of Perception, Reasoning, and Action play a practical role 

in a variety of real-world dynamic, uncertain and unstructured environments. 

AASS research reflects these major research areas and - what is more important - aims at their 

integration in order to "produce" complete autonomous systems solutions. With the 

integration issues in mind 2004 is the starting year for a number of joint inter-lab projects. 

The integration projects are seen as central means for cross-fertilisation between the four 

laboratories and serve as a convincing demonstration platform towards industry and funding 

bodies. The joint projects address issues like: human-like motion control of robot arms; 

hybrid maps for mobile robots; Ready-to-eat-food assembly; and human-robot interaction. 

Their potential application is in a number of industrially relevant areas: inspection of 

industrial sites and installations, inspection of hazardous waste sites and waste manipulation, 

product and material monitoring in manufacturing, and rescue operations. Their industrial 

relevance is further reinforced by the present inadequacy of the predominant number of 

mobile robots/manipulators in industrial use: very limited autonomy, limited task range,


predictability of behaviour only in well-structured and predictable environments, and limited 

sensing capabilities. AASS is organized around the following interrelated and mutually 

dependent permanent activities: 

1. Research projects, including technical support and pertaining to particular lab or "interlab" 

projects. 

2. Robotdalen projects, industrial projects defined within the Robotdalen framework. 

3. The AASS Graduate program, leading to both Licentiate and PhD degrees. 

4. The MSc program in Computer Engineering - an educational program at the Department 

of Technology reflecting AASS related research. 

5. Undergraduate studies in Computer Engineering at the Department of Technology. 

6. EU Marie Curie Training Program in advanced autonomous robotic systems - duration 

2002-2005.


Group picture, AASS Staff 

From the top left: Per Munkevik (PhD-student), Mikael Broström (Computer Support), Robert Lundh 

(PhD-student), Peter Wide (Professor), Anani Ananiev (Senior Researcher), 

Upper middle row: Ester Liljedahl (Administrative Manager), Abdelbaki Bouguerra (PhD-student), 

Henrik Andreasson (PhD-student), Lars Karlsson (Senior Researcher), Martin Magnusson (PhDstudent), 

Mikael Soron (PhD-student), Ivan Kalaykov (Lab leader, Professor), Kevin LeBlanc (PhDstudent), 

Lower middle row: Johan Larsson (PhD-student), Boyko Iliev (Lab leader, Senior Researcher), 

Mathias Broxvall (Senior Researcher), Grzegorz Cielniak (PhD-student), Malin Lindquist (PhDstudent), 

Linn Robertsson (PhD-student), Thorsten Michelfelder (PhD-student), Alexander Skoglund 

(PhD-student), Gustav Tolt (PhD-student), Per Sporrong (Research Engineer), 

Front row: Cipriano Andrades (Marie Curie-student), Jessica Karlsson (Information assistant), Silvia 

Coradeschi (Senior Researcher). 

Not present: Dimiter Driankov (Research Manager), Barbro Alvin (Administrative assistant), Pär 

Buschka (PhD-student), Tom Duckett (Lab leader), George Fodor (Adj. Professor), Lars Jennergren 

(PhD-student), Jun Li (PhD-student), Christer Lindkvist (PhD-student), Amy Loutfi (PhD-student), 

Jack Pencz (PhD-student), Martin Persson (PhD-student), Alessandro Saffiotti (Lab leader, Professor), 

Bo-Lennart Silverdahl (Research Engineer) Henrik Sturve (Economy assistant), Thomas Uppgård 

(PhD-student), Christoffer Wahlgren (PhD-student), Zbigniew Wasik (PhD-student).


1.1 Organisation 

AASS is organized in matrix form, as shown in the figure below. 

AASS Management 

Prof. D. Driankov, Research Director 

E. Liljedahl, Administrative Manager 

Research Laboratories 

BIS Lab 

B.Iliev, PhD 

MR Lab 

Prof. A Saffiotti 

IC Lab 

Prof. I. Kalaykov 

LS Lab 

T. Duckett, Docent 

Research Projects 

Technical and Adm. Support Group: P.Sporrong, B-L.Silfverdal B. Alvin, J.Karlsson and H.Sturve 

Robotdalen Projects 

Project coordinators: D.Driankov and E.Liljedahl 

Graduate Program 

Director: L. Karlsson, PhD 

MSc Program in Computer Engineering 

Program Leader: L. Karlsson, PhD 

Undergraduate Studies at Division of Computer Engineering 

Director of Studies: S. Coradeschi, PhD 

EU Marie Curie Training Program in Autonomous Robotics (2002-2005) 

Program Coordinator Prof. D. Driankov 

The research labs reflect the four main directions in the research area of Autonomous 

Systems, i.e., BIS - Perception Science and Technology; ML - Reasoning Science and 

Technology; IC - Action Science and Technology; and LS - Learning Systems and 

Technology. Thus they represent competence areas within which basic research is conducted. 

According to their disciplinary competence, e.g., Computer Science, Computer Engineering, 

AI, Systems and Control, Machine Learning etc., they also provide resources - courses, 

teachers, and supervisors - for the graduate and undergraduate studies programs and the rest 

of the horizontal entries in the above figure:


1. Research projects are defined within labs (lab-specific projects), across labs (inter-lab 

projects), and/or cooperation with external partners (external projects). The lab leaders are 

responsible for the budget and project work on lab-specific projects and external projects. 

The AASS Research Director is also responsible for inter-lab projects. The technical 

support group provides technical assistance in the design and maintenance of robot 

platforms, sensor systems and the associated work with these software environments and 

programming tools: 

2. Robotdalen projects are industrial projects defined by the industrial partners from 

Robotdalen. These are typical “technology transfer” projects and at least one industrial 

PhD student is part of such a project while the scientific supervision is provided by AASS. 

At the current time there are three such projects. In addition AASS runs a project for 

dissemination of technology “Teknikspridning och Kompetenshöjning”, which aims to 

increase the interest, as well as the knowledge, for robotics and technology of youth and 

children. 

3. AASS Graduate program defines the PhD studies curriculum for all graduate students at 

AASS independent of their specific research area. The director of the program is 

responsible for its structure and contents, as well as the enrolment of graduate students 

and supervision of the formal aspects of progress in their PhD studies. The actual PhD 

thesis work and its supervision are done within the research labs. AASS graduate students 

have the possibility also to be enrolled in the Swedish National Graduate School in 

Computer Science (CUGS) where Örebro is one of the participating universities. The 

Director of the AASS Graduate program also is a member of the steering committee of 

CUGS. 

4. MSc program in Computer Engineering is a 4-year studies program, which upon its 

completion provides for 160 points of studies and leads to the degree “MSc in 

Technology, with profile in Computer Engineering”. The first two years of this program 

are common with the 3-year undergraduate program in Computer Engineering at the Dept. 

of Technology. The decision whether to join the MSc program is done upon the 

completion of the second year of the 3-year undergraduate program. The leader of the 

MSc program is responsible for the program's structure and courses’ content it’s 

monitoring and “marketing, contact with students, and BSc theses. In its current form the 

program contains courses directly related to the disciplinary and research competence at 

AASS. 

5. Undergraduate education in Computer Engineering is a 3-year studies program given 

within the Computer Engineering Division of the Department of Technology. The director 

of AASS also is director of the Computer Engineering Division, and Silvia Coradeschi, a 

researcher at AASS, is a director of studies for the Computer Engineering program who is 

responsible for both the three and four years programs. The responsibilities of the director 

include program teaching staff assignment and budget work etc. AASS research staff and 

PhD students are a natural part of the teaching staff. 

6. EU Marie Curie Training Program in Autonomous Robotics is a 4-year, EU-funded 

program, aimed at providing support for the training and mobility of PhD students 

throughout Europe. This scheme supports short stays by young researchers pursuing 

doctoral studies in the area of Autonomous Systems, providing them with the possibility 

of undertaking part of their doctoral studies in a country other than their own, and


allowing them the benefit of working within an internationally recognized group - in this 

case AASS - in their specialized area of research - a particular AASS laboratory. The 

coordinator of the program is responsible for all organizational, management, and budget 

work as well as for contacts with the EU Commission, “marketing”, selection and 

enrolment of candidates. Actual research work supervision is done within the respective 

labs. In 2004 AASS has received 3 international Ph.D. students as Marie Curie fellows.


1.2 Management 

The management, evaluation, and monitoring of AASS activities are performed by the AASS 

Management Body, which consists of the AASS Research Director, Administrative Manager, 

and Lab-leaders. The major decisions made by the Management Body concern: 

1. Budget; 

2. Research strategies; 

3. Research/Education integration in the Computer Science (Datateknik) program; 

4. Long-term research/education planning and industrial cooperation; 

5. Recruitment; 

6. Personnel career development; 

7. AASS university/department role 

The AASS Research Director who chairs the steering committee is responsible for 

recruitment, career development, and interface with the department, the university and with 

industry and funding bodies. The Research Manager is also responsible for the formulation 

and progress of inter-lab projects, industrial projects, long-term research planning and 

recruitment needs, and planning and coordination of research grant applications. He also 

monitors the AASS Graduate Studies Program and prepares and organizes progress reports 

and evaluations concerning AASS activities. Two such reports, the AASS Activity Plan and 

AASS Annual Report, are each year submitted to the KK-Foundation (in January and March 

respectively). 

The AASS Administrative Manager is responsible for the budget preparation and the 

overview of the economy during the year. She also is responsible for agreements and our 

duties with reports and financial reporting towards the external partners. Marketing, external 

as well as internal information is some of the other duties. She is responsible for the AASS 

Support group, which also means recruitment and personnel planning for the long term as 

well as short-term work of the group. 

The Lab leaders are responsible for all issues pertaining to lab organization, management, and 

development. This includes, planning and coordination of lab-specific research projects as 

well as lab administration, e.g. budget handling, lab "marketing'' (internal and external), lab 

contributions to teaching, etc. 

The AASS Reference Group (RG) meets two times a year (December and June) and reviews 

AASS research and progress from both a scientific and industrial perspective. The RG can 

propose that certain corrections are made in order to keep AASS on the right track. At the RG 

December-meeting, the AASS Activity Plan is presented and approved. At the RG Junemeeting, 

the year after, the state of the AASS Activity Plan is reviewed. 

Currently the RG consists of: 

• Torbjörn Widmark, PhD, AssiDomän Frövi, Product Development & Technical Service, 

Frövi, Sweden - RG Chairman. 

• Thomas Christaller, Dr. Professor at Fraunhofer Institute for Autonomous Intelligent 

Systems, Germany.


• Gu Chun-Yuan, Program manager Mechatronics, ABB Corporate Research, Västerås, 

Sweden. 

• Toshio Fukuda, Professor at Dept. of Micro System Engineering and Mechano- 

Informatics and Systems, Nagoya University, Japan. 

• Alexander Lauber, Professor in Measurement Technology, Department of Technology, 

Kalmar University, Kalmar, Sweden. 

• Emil M. Petriu, Dr. Eng., P. Eng., Professor, School of Information Technology and 

Engineering, University of Ottawa, Canada. 

• Giulio Sandini, Dr. Professor at LIRA-Lab, Dist-University of Genova, Italy. 

• Mel Siegel, Professor at Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA.


1.3 Funding 

AASS funding comes from a number of sources. The major ones are as follows: 

1. KK-Foundation grants 

In the year 2004 these grants amounted to a total of 7,3 MSEK (excl. VAT). 0,9MSEK of 

this amount consist of two grants, which two of our PhD students received from the KKfoundation. 

During the years 2002- 2008 the KK-Foundation stays for a grant of up to 36 

MSEK. This grant, won in a tough competition with other Swedish research centres and 

groups, is intended to help achieving internationally competitive research profile, 

establishing a long-term development potential and developing sufficient alternative 

(other than the KK-Foundation) funding sources. Furthermore the grant is to facilitate 

active industrial cooperation where the latter is ensured by requiring 1-to-1 match between 

the KK-Foundation grant and funding from industry. This yields a total of up to 72 MSEK 

for a period of 6 years. This requirement has had quite a positive effect regarding AASS 

industrial cooperation - existing one has been further strengthened and new industrial 

partners have been found. The matching funding provided by industry is mainly in the 

form of, industrial graduate students, part-time participation of industry personnel in 

external research projects, and expensive equipment. 

2. Faculty funding 

For the year 2004 it amounts to 9,2 MSEK. This funding allows AASS to conduct more 

basic research and for maintaining and developing the size and quality of AASS 

participation in undergraduate/graduate education. 

3. Vetenskapsrådet (VR) – Swedish Council of Research grants 

This is a traditional funding source though characterized by its extreme competitiveness. 

A VR grant of 1,2 MSEK covering a period of 3 years started in 2001 for research on the 

subject of signal-to-symbol conversion in mobile autonomous robots. Another VR grant 

of 1,813 MSEK and covering a period of 3 years was obtained in 2002 for research on the 

subject of Sensor-based planning for mobile robotics. A third grant of 1 824 000 is 

obtained for the period 2005-2008. 

4. Regional funding 

During 2004 regional industry has supported AASS with about 490 000 SEK for 

equipment. 

5. Robotdalen “funding” 

Currently there are three Robotdalen projects each with one industrial PhD student. The 

cost of these PhD students is covered by Robotdalen and the respective industrial partners 

involved. For the project “Teknikspridning och Kompetenshöjning” we received 363 600 

during 2004. In January 2005 we received an additional 189 500 for 2004 as well. In total 

553 000 SEK. 

As a measure of having achieved the objectives set by the KK-Foundation AASS has adopted 

the ratio between internal (faculty/university) and external (KK-Foundation, industry, 

research funding agencies) funding. For year 2004 this ratio was 54,2% for external funding. 

According to the agreement the funding from the KK-Foundation profile should be not more 

than 38% of the total AASS budget. For 2004 this was 29%.


The diagram from below summarizes the different funding sources in year 2004. 

Funding 2004 

Internal income for teaching 

4,0% 

EU-networks 

0,9% 

Other income 

0,2% 

KK-foundation, Profile 

29,2% 

KK-foundation, IT 

4,1% 

Faculty 

41,8% 

ABB, Instr. & Control, KKrelated 

0,5% 

Regional companies 

2,2% 

ETRI 

0,5% 

NIROS 

4,5% 

CUGS 

3,3% 

Robotdalen 

3,0% 

Vetenskapsrådet 

5,4% 

Income from other universities 

0,4% 

The chart below shows the increasing funding levels for the years 1997-2004, which 

illustrates the rapid AASS development. (All amounts in thousand SEK.) 

AASS funding growth 1997-2004 

25 000 

20 000 

15 000 

10 000 

5 000 

0 

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004


1.4 Undergraduate Education 

AASS is responsible for the 3-year Computer Engineering Program and the 4-year MSc 

Program in Computer Engineering. AASS contributions are in terms of management, 

administration, program and course development, and teaching. Silvia Coradeschi, AASS, is 

the director of studies for the Computer Engineering Division including both the 3 and 4 years 

programs. Her responsibilities include budget and staff management for the undergraduate 

education within the division. Lars Karlsson is the leader for the MSc program. His 

responsibilities include development, information, course scheduling, and thesis 

administration. 

1.4.1 Computer engineering program 

The Computer Engineering Program is a study program consisting of 120 credit points 

(corresponding to three years of studies). The program can be characterized as a fixed study 

program with some options during year 3. It leads to a University Diploma in engineering (sv. 

"Högskoleingenjörsexamen"), 120 points, and/or a bachelor (BSc) degree. Details about the 

program's study plan can be found at: 

http://www.oru.se/templates/oruExtNormal.aspx?id=4690 

The following courses were taught in 2004 by AASS researchers: 

• Artificial Intelligence, Mathias Broxvall 

• Artificial Neural Networks, Tom Duckett 

• Real Time Programming, Mathias Broxvall 

• Artificial Intelligence for Mobile Robots, Alessandro Saffiotti. 

• Computer Graphic, Mathias Broxvall 

AASS PhD students have been teaching assistants for the following courses in year 2004: 

• Numerical Methods, Li Jun 

• Artificial Intelligence for Mobile Robots, Kevin LeBlanc 

• Computer use, Linn Robertson 

• Computer Architecture, Pär Buschka 

• Computer Communication, Henrik Andreasson 

• Software System, Robert Lundh 

• Artificial Intelligence, Amy Loutfi 

• Artificial Neural Networks, Henrik Andreasson, Malin Lindquist 

• Java Programming, Zbigniew Wasik 

• Real Time programming, Malin Lindquist, Pär Buschka 

• Database, Abdelbaki Bouguerra 

BSc Theses 

• Göksu Gabriel och Demir Viktor “Röststyrning av robot via taligenkänning” Supervisors: 

Tom Duckett and Henrik Andreasson. 

• Pettersson Morgan, Arm Controller for Robot Waiter. Supervisor: I: Kalaykov (Started in 

2003).


1.4.2 MSc in computer engineering 

The MSc Computer Engineering Program is a 4-year study program leading to a Master of 

Science with a major in Computer Engineering. The first 2 years of the program are in 

common with the 3-year Computer Engineering program, and students choose between the 

two programs at the end of the second year. The program belongs to the technological study 

sector. The program was started in the autumn of 2001 and the first class is graduated in 2002. 

Currently there are 40 students enrolled in the program. Details about the program's study 

plan can be found at www.oru.se, Department of technology's web pages. 

During the year, AASS members and PhD students have been involved in teaching related to 

the program as follows. 

Teaching 

The following courses were taught in 2004 by AASS researchers: 

• Computer Graphics, Mathias Broxvall (lectures) 

• Artificial Intelligence in Mobile Robotics, Alessandro Saffiotti (lectures), Kevin LeBlanc 

(assistant) 

• Program Development and Project Management, Robert Lundh (assistant) 

• Pattern Recognition, Gustav Tolt (lectures). 

MSc Theses 

The following MSc theses in Computer Engineering were completed during year 2004 at 

AASS. 

• Andersson, Karin “Functionality test with the electronic tongue”. 

Supervisor: S.Eskiizmirliler (started in 2003) 

• Sivebratt, Mikael. "GUI for artificial sensory head". 

Supervisor: S. Eskiizmirliler (started in 2003). 

• Ellkvist, Tommy och Sheikh Mohammed, Omar “Implementation of an image processing 

server for a mobile robot”. 

Supervisor: M. Broxvall 

• Magnusson, Daniel och Nord, Lasse “Människa och ABB's FlexPicker robot spelar 

airhockey”. 

Supervisor: I. Kalaykov 

Two additional MSc.theses (20 points each) started during spring 2004 but await completion 

in 2005. 

1.4.3 Other study programs 

AASS members and PhD students were also involved in a number of courses for other study 

programs: 

• Course in Power Point for University Personnel, Martin Persson 

• Soft Computing for Control, Ivan Kalaykov.


1.5 Graduate Education 

An integrated vital part of research at AASS is its Graduate Program and perhaps the most 

important "output" of AASS is highly qualified PhD's and Licentiates whose contributions 

provide further strength to Swedish industry and academic community. 

AASS is performing interdisciplinary research in the field of autonomous embedded systems, 

integrating theories, technologies and tools from sensors and measurement technology, 

control, artificial intelligence and computer science. Therefore, the AASS graduate program 

aims at giving graduate students a strong interdisciplinary background in these different areas 

with emphasis on topics relevant to autonomous systems. It is assumed that the students 

already have adequate knowledge in the basics of engineering and/or computer science. 

Finally, the program prepares students for a career in academia or industry by including topics 

such as pedagogy, management and presentation techniques. 

60 study points are required for a PhD. Of these, 25 points (or more) should be from a core 

curriculum courses, an additional 25 points should be from other courses or self studies in 

research relevant topics, and 10 points can be chosen freely. The Director of the Graduate 

program is Lars Karlsson, PhD. 

1.5.1 Core curriculum 

There are five courses that are given on a regular basis. These courses constitute the AASS 

core curriculum. They cover the different fields that are researched in AASS. In order to 

ensure that students acquire the interdisciplinary knowledge that characterizes AASS, the core 

courses are compulsory. The core courses are as follows: 

• AI for embedded systems. 5 points + 3 optional points for advanced studies. 

Teacher: Alessandro Saffiotti, Mobile Robotics Lab. 

• Soft computing for control. 5 points + 3 optional points for advanced studies. 

Teacher: Ivan Kalaykov, Intelligent Control Lab. 

• Embodied learning. 5 points + 3 optional points for advanced studies. 

Teacher: Tom Duckett, Learning Systems Lab. 

• Research Methodology for Computer Science and Engineering, 5 points, 

Teacher: Jan Gustafsson, Mälardalen University.


1.5.2 Occasional courses 

The core courses are complemented by courses that are provided on a more occasional basis - 

on request - when a visiting researcher provides for such an opportunity, or when a subject of 

interest is covered by a graduate course at another university. During 2004, one occasional 

course was given: 

• Introduction to Markov Decision Processes. Teacher: Lars Karlsson. 

1.5.3 Self-study course work 

This type of course work is done within supervised self-study circles (smaller courses), or 

individual studies. There was one organized study circle: 

• Introduction to reinforcement learning. Teacher: Tom Duckett. 

1.5.4 Cooperation with other graduate programs 

As recognition of the research effort at AASS, Örebro University has become one of the 

participants in CUGS (the Swedish National Graduate School in Computer Science). CUGS is 

commissioned by the Swedish government and the Swedish Board of Education and Lars 

Karlsson is a member of the CUGS steering Committee. 

Because of CUGS, AASS students have now the additional possibility to get enrolled as 

CUGS students or to follow some courses of interest provided by the CUGS study program. 

Currently, 2 students from the Mobile Robotics Laboratory are enrolled in CUGS, receiving a 

total funding of 700,000 SEK: 

• Robert Lundh (topic: cooperative robotics, supervisor: Alessandro Saffiotti) 

• Kevin Leblanc (topic: cooperative anchoring, supervisor: Alessandro Saffiotti) 

The scientific scope of CUGS includes central parts of the core computer science (sv. 

datalogi) and computer engineering (sv. datorsystem). In this regard, CUGS puts an emphasis 

on programming languages, algorithms, software engineering, also including related areas of 

autonomous systems, real-time systems, embedded systems, knowledge-based systems and 

artificial intelligence. Other members of CUGS are the universities/university colleges in 

Linköping (host), Lund, Mälardalen, and Skövde. 

AASS offered one advanced graduate course for CUGS: 

• Introduction to Markov Decision Processes. Teacher: Lars Karlsson. 

Detailed information about CUGS can be found at: 

http://www.ida.liu.se: 9080/groups/cugs/FrontPage. 

1.5.5 European graduate programs 

As recognition for the quality of its graduate education and research The European 

Commission 2002 has granted AASS the status of a Marie Curie Training Site in the area of 

Autonomous Robotics. The Commission, during the next four years, will provide the funding 

necessary for accommodating PhD students from European countries for periods of stay 

between 3 and 12 months. During their stay at AASS the guest-students will participate in


projects related to AASS research and also take courses offered within the AASS Graduate 

Program. Prof. D. Driankov is the responsible coordinator for the program. 

During 2004 we have had 3 Marie Curie Fellows: 

• André Treptow, Tuebingen University, Department of Computer Science, Jul.-Oct. 2004, 

Active Recognition of People by Mobile Robots. 

• Peter Biber, Tuebingen University, Department of Computer Science, 

August-November 2004, Lifelong SLAM by Mobile Robots. 

• Cipriano Galindo. University of Malaga, Spain. Period: Sep-Nov 2004 

(3 months). Research projects: Hybrid Maps and Perceptual Anchoring. 

More information regarding the Marie Curie Training Programs can be found at: 

http://improving.cordis.lu/mc 

1.5.6 Graduate students 

Biologically Inspired Systems Lab 

PhD-student First advisor Second Employed at Enrolled at 

advisor 

Lindquist, Peter Wide Boyko Iliev ÖU ÖU 

Malin 

Robertsson, Peter Wide Boyko Iliev ÖU ÖU 

Linn 

Spännar , Jan Peter Wide George Fodor Högskolan 

Dalarna 

ÖU 

Mobile Robotics Lab 


advisor 

Bouguerra, Alessandro Lars Karlsson ÖU ÖU 

Abdelbaki Saffiotti 

Buschka, Pär Alessandro Tom Duckett ÖU ÖU 

Saffiotti 

Loutfi, Amy Alessandro Silvia ÖU ÖU 

Saffiotti Coradeschi 

Larsson, Alessandro Mathias Atlas Copco ÖU 

Johan Saffiotti Broxvall 

Lundh, 

Robert 

Alessandro 

Saffiotti 

Lars Karlsson ÖU ÖU and 

CUGS 

LeBlanc, 

Kevin 

Alessandro 

Saffiotti 

Silvia 

Coradeschi 

ÖU ÖU and 

CUGS 

Pettersson, Alessandro Lars Karlsson ÖU ÖU 

Ola Saffiotti 

Wasik, Alessandro Dimiter ÖU ÖU


Zbigniew Saffiotti Driankov 

Pencz, Jack Alessandro Silvia 

Saffiotti Coradeschi 

Intelligent Control Lab 

ÖU 

ÖU 


advisor 

Jennergren, Ivan Anani SIK ÖU 

Lars Kalaykov Ananiev 

Thomas George Fodor Ivan ÖU ÖU 

Uppgård 

Kalaykov 

Lindkvist, George Fodor Peter Wide ÖU ÖU 

Christer 

Tolt, Gustav Ivan Dimiter ÖU ÖU 

Kalaykov Driankov 

Skoglund, 

Alexander 

(50%) 

Ivan 

Kalaykov 

Tom Duckett ÖU ÖU 

Soron, Mikael Ivan 

Kalaykov 

Learning Systems Lab 

Anani 

Ananiev 

Esab Welding 

Equip. AB 


advisor 

Andreasson, Alessandro Tom Duckett ÖU ÖU 

Henrik Saffiotti 

Martin Dimiter Tom Duckett Aerotech ÖU 

Persson Driankov 

Telub AB 

Cielniak, Peter Wide Tom Duckett ÖU ÖU 

Grzegorz 

Jun, Li Peter Wide Tom Duckett ÖU ÖU 

Magnusson, Alessandro Tom Duckett Atlas Copco ÖU 

Martin Saffiotti 

Skoglund, Ivan Tom Duckett ÖU ÖU 

Alexander 

(50%) 

Kalaykov 

Munkevik, 

Per 

Peter Wide Tom Duckett SIK ÖU 

Officially registered as PhD-students by the end of February 2004. 

ÖU


1.5.7 PhD theses 

During 2004 one PhD thesis was defended: 

• Ola Pettersson. Model-free Execution Monitoring in Behaviour-based Mobile Robots. 

PhD Thesis, Örebro University Studies in Technology Series, 2004. 

1.5.8 Licentiate theses 

During 2004 the following licentiate theses were completed: 

• Jennergren, Lars. Flexible Assembly of Ready-to-eat Meals. Licentiate thesis, Örebro 

University Studies in Technology Series, 2004. 

• Jun, Li. Towards Online Learning of Reactive Behaviours in Mobile Robotics. Licentiate 

thesis, Örebro University Studies in Technology Series, 2004. 

• Lindquist, Malin, Electronic Tongue for Water Quality Assessment. Licentiate thesis, 

Örebro University Studies in Technology Series, 2004.


1.6 Co-operation 

The AASS research effort builds upon two types of co-operation: industrial and academic. 

The former one is of two types: 1) KK-Foundation related according to the 1-to-1 funding 

scheme and supports general research themes in autonomous systems and may, or may not 

include specific industrial projects; and 2) VINNOVA Robotdalen related, which involves 

specific industrial projects. The academic co-operation has both national and international 

dimension. 

1.6.1 Industrial cooperation: KK-Foundation related 

The following industrial companies and the related to those companies’ activities constitute 

the basis for the 1-to-1 funding required by the KK-Foundation: 

• ABB Automation Technology Products AB/Robotics: the company sponsors AASS with 

equipment (flex-picker robot and IRB140), software and software support and the main 

receiver is the Intelligent Control Systems lab: 

• ABB Automation Technology Products AB/Instrumentation and Control: i) a visiting 

professor (adjungerad prof. G. Fodor) from the company supervises 2 AASS PhD 

students, ii) one of those (Thomas Uppgård) being an industrial PhD student with AASS; 

iii) one of the company's engineers (with a PhD degree from AASS, P. Bergsten) works 

part time at AASS on the subject of fuzzy control. In addition they sponsor with 

equipment and licenses. 

• FFV Aerotech Telub AB, Örebro: an industrial PhD student (Martin Persson) works in the 

project Semi-Autonomous Mapping (SAM) by UAV-UGV Cooperation at the Learning 

Systems Lab. January 2005 another industrial PhD student (Christer Wahlgren) started his 

PhD studies at AASS. 

• DELFOI (Göteborg): the company has provided AASS with licences for the use of the 

software products related to digital 3D manufacturing solutions as well as the training 

courses needed for the use of those products. The software is used in the IC lab projects 

on flexible assembly of ready-to-use food, i.e., flexible food-cell and sensory analysis in 

the food-factory-of-the-future. 

• AssiDomän (Frövi): the company provided equipment (vision platform) for the project 

“Behaviour-based mobile manipulation'' at the MR Lab; Torbjörn Widmark, employed 

with the company, chairs the AASS Reference Group and is thus very much involved in 

the organization and the proceedings of the two annual meetings of the Reference group. 

• SIK, Göteborg, Sweden (a research organization in the area of automation in food 

manufacturing): 2 SIK/AASS PhD students (Lars Jennergren and Per Munkevik) work on 

projects in the IC Lab and LS Lab regarding robotics technologies for the food-factory-ofthe-future. 

Lars Jennergren finished his Lic. Thesis during 2004.


1.6.2 Industrial cooperation: VINNOVA-Robotdalen related 

The following Robotdalen projects have been running at AASS during 2004: 

• Robot station friction stir welding: the project involves a cluster of industrial companies in 

Laxå (Esab Welding Equipment AB, Specma Automation AB, ABB-Laxå) and the IC Lab 

at AASS represented by one industrial PhD student and Prof. I. Kalaykov. 

• Navigation system for automated loaders: the project involves Atlas Copco Rock Drills 

AB (Örebro), Volvo Construction Equipment (Eskilstuna), and the MR Lab at AASS 

represented by one industrial PhD student and Prof. A. Saffiotti. 

• Tunnel profile scanner: the project involves Atlas Copco Rock Drills AB (Örebro), Optab 

Optronikinnovation AB (Karlskoga), and the LS Lab at AASS represented by one 

industrial PhD student and Dr. T. Duckett. 

• Teknikspridning och kompetenshöjning: the focus of the project is on: i) the dissemination 

of knowledge about robotics and related technical systems aimed at schools in the Örebroregion; 

ii) further education of school teachers in the area of robotics; and iii) girls-intechnology 

efforts. The project involves KomTek (Örebro, Laxå and Karlskoga), 

industrial companies (ESAB, ABB, Lasertech) and AASS as a whole, where E. Liljedahl 

is the project co-ordinator. 

1.6.3 National Co-operation 

1.6.3.1 Scientific cooperation 

• WITAS-project (unmanned helicopter), Univ. of Linköping, Dept. of Computer Science: 

development of Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model based visual servoing controllers for 

unmanned aerial vehicles. 

• Mälardalens högskola, Västerås: development of Vision on Chip system for robotic 

applications, funded by Robotdalen. 

• SIK, Göteborg: development of robotic technologies for the Food Factory of the Future. 

1.6.3.2 National networks, societies, programs 

• Founding member of the VINNOVA Robotdalen program 

• Coordinator of Team Sweden (team of 3 univ: Lund Univ., Blekinge Institute of 

Technology, Orebro Univ.). 

• Member of CUGS (participating with two PhD students). 

• Member of SLSS (Swedish Learning Systems Society). 

• Member of the Swedish IEEE chapter on Signal Processing. 

• Affiliated to LiFT (Livsmedelsproduktion med Framtidens Teknologier) - industryoriented 

Swedish programme for research and PhD education. 

• Member of SWIRA (Swedish Industrial Robotics Association)


1.6.4 International Cooperation 

1.6.4.1 EC Networks/Programs 

AASS researchers are members and participate in the work of a number of EU networks and 

programs: 

• The European Community Network of Excellence on Robotics Research (EURON) 

Cooperative Robotics coordinator. 

• The European Community Thematic Network on Walking and Climbing Robots 

(CLAWAR II). 

• Marie Curie Training Site (coordinator). 

• SCIP Working Group (Soft Computing in Image Processing, 

http://fuzzy.rug.ac.be/SCIP/). 

1.6.4.2 Participation in scientific events (more info on participation to be found in the 

project descriptions from Section 2) 

• IASTED Conf. on Visualization, Imaging and Image Processing, Marbella, Spain, 2004. 

• FUZZ-IEEE Conference, Budapest, 27-29 July 2004. 

• IFAC Symposium on Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles, 5-7 July, Lisbon, Portugal, 2004. 

• Second IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics, INDIN'04, 24-26 June, 

Berlin, Germany, 2004. 

• The 30-th IEEE Annual Conference on Industrial Electronics IECON 2004 Conference, 

Nov. 2-6, 2004, Busan, Korea. 

• ICEF9 International Conference on Engineering and Food, Montpellier, France, 7-11 

March, 2004. 

• International Conference on Intelligent Manipulation and Grasping, Genoa, Italy, 1-2 July, 

2004. 

• Food Factory 2004 Conference, France, 6-8 October, 2004. 

• International Conference on Mechatronics and Robotics ’04, Aachen, Germany, 13-15 

September 2004. International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots 

CLAWAR’04, Madrid, Spain 

1.6.4.3 Scientific cooperation 

AASS’s scientific partnerships are reflected in the project descriptions from Section 2. Each 

scientific partnership also includes visits from/to AASS. 

1.6.5 Services to the research community 

1.6.5.1 Membership in professional organizations/societies/management-bodies 

- The Board of Trustees of the RoboCup International Federation. 

- The Advisory Board of the International Conference on AI. 

- The European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence (ECCAI).


- The Scandinavian RoboCup Committee. 

- Executive committee of the International RoboCup Federation. 

- Membership in IEEE Computer Soc.; the IEEE Robotics and Automation Soc.; the IEEE 

System, Man and Cybernetics Soc. 

- The American Assoc. for Artificial Intelligence. 

- The Intelligent Autonomous Systems Soc. 

- IEEE CSS/SP societies; SPIE and EUSFLAT. 

- AAAI (American National Association for Artificial Intelligence). 

- SLSS member (Swedish Learning Systems Society). 

- EvoNet - The Network of Excellence in Evolutionary Computing. 

- International Association for Pattern Recognition. 

- IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. 

- SSAB - Swedish Society for Automated Image Analysis. 

- The Swedish Learning Systems Group. 

- The Board of SWIRA, Swedish Industrial Robot Association. 

- The Örebro University board. 

- The Faculty board (Natural Science, Technology and Medicine). 

- The Institutional board (Department of Technology) – two members. 

- IEEE Technical Committee on Intelligent Control, Section: Fuzzy Control. 

- Editorial Board International Journal of Uncertainty, Fuzziness, and Knowledge-Based 

Systems, World Scientific Publ. 

- Editorial Board Journal of Systems Architectures, The Euromicro Journal, Elsevier. 

- Advisory Board of the Electrical and Computer Science Department, Western Michigan 

University, USA. 

- IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement society - Chairman Technical Committee TC 27.


1.6.5.2 Organization of scientific events 

AASS researchers have participated in at least a dozen Program/Organizing Committees, 

evaluation of EU FP6 projects and served as reviewers for numerous international journals 

and scientific events.


1.7 Dissemination of information 

The dissemination of information pertaining to AASS activities has the overriding goal to 

establish a firm and clear identity and acceptance of the AASS research profile, its industrial 

relevance, and societal contributions. 

To achieve the above goal our dissemination of information activities are towards the 

following three audiences: 

A. Industry, public authorities, and research funding bodies; 

B. Research community and university students; and 

C. General public 

Further information about our goals and philosophy regarding dissemination of information 

you can find in our Information Policy for 2005. 

1.7.1 Activities during March 2004-February 2005 

FAIRS 

Activity Time Performance Target group 

Technical fair for 

women, Örebro 

AAAI-2004 

Workshop 

Robotdalens dag, 

Örebro 

Technical fair, 

Stockholm 

040307-08 Presentation by Amy Loutfi “Putting 

A, C 

Olfaction into Action: Using electronic 

noses with artificial sensor systems.” 

040626 Arranged by A.Saffiotti and S.Coradeschi. B 

040909 Presentation of projects and co-operation 

that AASS is involved within the 

Robotdalen project. E. Liljedahl, A. 

Skoglund, B-L Silfverdal, P.Sporrong, 

B.Alvin 

041019-23 Participation in Robotdalens stand, 

demonstration of robot dogs and 

presentation of AASS and PhD-studies, by 

Mikael Soron and Kevin LeBlanc. 

A 

A, B


VISITS 


Study visit 040129 School class from Alléskolan åk 3, 

C 

Hallsberg. Introduction to AASS’ robots, 

research and education. Tom, Ivan, Henrik, 

Mathias, Gustav, Kevin 

Study visit 040202 Tullängsskolan, Elektro åk 3. Introduction C 

to AASS’ robots, research and education. 

Tom, Ivan, Henrik, Mathias, Gustav, Kevin 

Study visit 040205 Alléskolan åk 3, Hallsberg. Introduction to C 

AASS’ robots, research and education. 

Tom, Ivan, Henrik, Mathias, Gustav, Kevin 

Study visit 040209 Study visit by school class (Year 3, 

C 

Tullängsskolan, Örebro), Tom, Ivan, 

Henrik, Mathias, Gustav, Kevin 

Study visit 040212 Study visit by school class (Year 3, 

C 

Alléskolan, Hallsberg), Tom, Ivan, Henrik, 

Mathias, Gustav, Kevin 

Visit 040226 Presentation for representatives from the A 

KK-foundation 

Demonstration 040315 Presentation by Amy Loutfi for Susan 

A 

Kennarl from the Banft Centre,Canada 

Demonstration 040318 Lab demonstration for representatives from B, C 

Karlstads university (the Education and 

Research department), 35 people 

Study visit 040420 Study visit by school class (D8, 

C 

Vivallaskolan, Örebro), 20 pupils, 

Alexander Skoglund 

Presentation 040422 Presentation for Kristian Luuk by Amy C 

Loutfi 

Study visit 040503 Lab presentations for professor Jim Little, B 

Computer Science, UBC. 

Study visit 040505 Study visit by school class (Vivallaskolan, C 

Örebro), 40 pupils, Alexander Skoglund 

Study visit 040616 Study visit by Young Entrepreneurs, 25 C 

pupils from gymnasiums all over Sweden 

participation in an annual competition in 

Örebro, Henrik Andreasson 

Study visit June Study visit by KomTek Laxå summer 

C 

school for girls (7 pupils), Alexander 

Skoglund 

Study visit 040929 Study visit by school class from 

C 

Vivallaskolan, Örebro (20 pupils), 


Visit at Örebro 041004 Presentation of AASS and Robotdalen by A


university by local 

Ester Liljedahl 

politicians 










Visit 041105 NIROS-demonstration, Dimiter Driankov 

and Mathias Broxvall 

C 

C 

C 

A,C 

OTHER PRESENTATIONS 


Annual graduate 040123 Presentation of research topics by graduate B 

symposium at AASS 

students 

Annual academic February Public lecture by Ivan Kalaykov C 

festivities, Örebro 

Annual Report March Annual Report 2003 was published on A and B 

AASS web and sent out to different 

contacts. 

RoboCup 040627- Competitions with the Robotic dogs and B,C 

040705 seminars. Alessandro, Kevin 

Doctoral dissertation 041001 Ola Peterssons doctoral dissertation 

A, B 

”Model-Free Execution Monitoring in 

Behaviour-Based Mobile Robotics” was 

presented 

Licentiate dissertation 041001 Lars Jennergrens licentiate dissertation A, B 

“Flexible Assembly of Ready-to-eat Meals” 

was presented 

Research folder October AASS research folder was updated (in time A, B 

for the Technical fair in Stockholm) 

Visit by Invest in 

Sweden Agency 

041012 Presentation of AASS and Robotdalen by 

Dimiter Driankov and Ester Liljedahl, 

arranged by Business Region Örebro at 

A 

Seminar “Roads to 

technology”, Örebro 

university 

No Limits 

Annual academic 

festivities (årshögtid) 

Atlas Copco, Örebro 

041021 Presentation of summer school for girls by 

Ester Liljedahl 

November Participation in First Lego Leaguecompetition, 

in co-operation with the 

Örebro community technical school 

February Public lecture by Ola Pettersson and 

received his doctor’s degree 

C 

A, B


PRESS RELEASES 

During the year press releases were sent out and also published on Örebro universities web 

(http://www.oru.se/templates/oruExtNormal____19607.aspx). 

Time Subject Target group 

2004-09-08 Ola Petterssons doctoral dissertation *) (Robotar kan lära av A, B 

sina misstag) 

2004-09-06 Robotdalens dag (Robotar ökar tillväxten) A 

2004-08-02 Summer course for girls (Legorobotar lockar tjejer till 

teknikstudier) 

C 

*) The press release about Ola Petterssons dissertation was also translated into English by the 

Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) and sent out internationally. 

MEDIA 


Nerikes Allehanda March Article about Amy Loutfis research A, B 

Nerikes Allehanda March Article about KK-foundation supporting A, B, C 

research at Örebro university 

Örebrokuriren August Article about summer course for girls 

A, C 

(before the course) 

Örebrokuriren August Article about summer course for girls (after A, C 

the course) 

TV4 Bergslagen August News presentation about summer course for A, C 

girls 

OruMagasinet 12/2004 Article about Amy Loutfi and her research A, B, C 

www.oru.se, Nyheter September Article about Robotdalens dag A, B, C 

Nerikes Allehanda September Article about an industrial co-operation A 

within Robotdalen (published the day before 

Robotdalens dag) 

Nerikes Allehanda September Robotdalens dag (from the day) A, C 

Örebrokuriren September Robotdalens dag (about the day) A, C 

The European 

Commissions 

Research website 

(http://europa.eu.int/c 

omm/research/headlin 

es/news/article_04_09 

_27_en.html 

September Article about Ola Petterssons doctoral 

dissertation ” Model-Free Execution 

Monitoring in Behaviour-Based Mobile 

Robotics” 

A, B 

Mobile Robotics news 

website 

(www.mobilerobotics. 

org/robots/) 

September Article about Ola Petterssons doctoral 

dissertation ” Model-Free Execution 

Monitoring in Behaviour-Based Mobile 

Robotics” 

www.oru.se/aass October Article and information about AASS 

participation at the Technical fair in 

Stockholm 

A, B 

A


www.robotdalen.org October Article and pictures from Robotdalens stand A 

at the Technical fair 

Nerikes Allehanda November Article from First Lego League-competition C 

Nerikes Allehanda, November Article about research funds from the 

A, B 

www.oru.se (som 

forskningsnyhet) and 

www.oru.se/aass 

Swedish Research council to a project at 

AASS run by Silvia Coradeshi. 

www.oru.se November Article about study visits for pupils at 

C 

AASS during October. 

Nerikes Allehanda February Article about public lecture by Ola 

C 

Pettersson at annual academic festivities 

Nerikes Allehanda February Article about Robotdalen co-operation A 

In September 2004 AASS new web (www.oru.se/aass) was published. From September 2004 – 

February 2005 17 articles were published covering seminars, research and activities that 

AASS participated in (http://www.oru.se/templates/oruExtNormal____21544.aspx). 

1.7.2 Industry, public authorities, and research funding bodies 

Well-established means for disseminating information about AASS research results and their 

industrial potential amongst these parts of the Swedish industry that can directly/indirectly 

benefit from it are: 

- Joint projects: See section 1.6.4.3 

- Industrial PhD students: See section 1.6.1 

- AASS Seminars: See section 1.7.5.1 

- Industrial fairs and exhibitions: See 1.7.1 

- Industrial associations and interest groups: Robotdalen, SWIRA, SIK, 

OIC (Orebro Innovation Centre), NIROS 

1.7.3 Research Community and university students 

Disseminating information about AASS research profile and its educational role and potential 

is done via the traditional dissemination channels, such as: 

- Publications 

- Conference participation 

- Organisation of scientific events 

- AASS guest-researchers, guest-students, and visits 

- National/international networks 

- Joint research projects 

1.7.4 General Public 

The general public and various civil authorities are informed via the web, public lectures, and 

media presence such as newspaper articles. AASS had several articles in the University's 

magazine, which is spread to more than 2000 companies and organizations. We also arranged 

several "open houses" with demos for the general public as well as public seminars that we 

have regularly see 1.7.1 and 1.7.5.1.


Seminars 

1.7.5.1 Regular AASS Seminars 

Schedule for March 2004- February 2005 

Date Speaker Title of seminar 

040301 Prof. Gurvinder S. Smelling mobile robots 

Virk, University of 

Leeds, UK 

040308 Mathias Broxvall, 

AASS 

Have another look: On Failures and Recovery Planning in 

Perceptual Anchoring 

041001 Joachim Hertzberg, Towards Cognitive Robotics in 7D 

Osnabrück University, 

Germany 

041011 André Treptow, 

Tübingen University, 

Germany 

Active People Recognition Using Thermal and Grey 

Images on Mobile Robots 

041011 Cipriano Galindo, 

University of Malaga, 

Spain 

Modelling robot environments through a multihierarchical 

fashion: the Multi-AH-graph model 

041012 Rainer Palm Multi-step-ahead prediction in control systems using 

Gaussian Processes and TS-Fuzzy Models 

041122 Peter Biber, Tübingen 

university, Germany 

Dynamic Maps for Long-Term Operation of Mobile 

Service Robots 

041213 Tom Ziemke, Skövde Agent-environment state machines 

university, Sweden 

050110 Abdelbaki Bouguerra Execution failure recovery in mobile robotics: a survey 

050214 Henrik Andreasson, 

PhD-student AASS 

Improving model extraction by fusing Vision and 3D 

laser data


2. Research Labs 

At the present time AASS consists of four research laboratories that have joined their 

expertise to cover and integrate the broad spectrum of scientific disciplines needed for the 

design and implementation of industrially relevant autonomous systems. This would be 

practically impossible for any individual laboratory, but is achievable by a joint effort, which 

is organized in the form of AASS. This joint effort is aimed not only at expanding the 

frontiers of the science of autonomous sensor systems, but also gradually incorporating it in 

the graduate and undergraduate curriculum, and producing physical demonstrators of 

autonomous sensor systems with industrial and educational relevance. 

The common scientific denominator for the four research laboratories is the subject of 

"perception and autonomy in diverse un- and/or semi-structured environments''. We 

pursue this subject using a common research methodology, which is strictly applied: all 

technologies that we investigate should answer actual needs that emerge from an application, 

and their effectiveness is always validated on the application. 

Note that under each research project funding by KK-Foundation implies corresponding 

amount of support from the following companies: 

• ABB Automation Technology Products AB/Robotics, 

• ABB Automation Technology Products AB/Instrumentation and control 

• FFV Aerotech Telub AB 

• DELFOI 

• AssiDomän 

• SIK


2.1 Biologically Inspired Systems Lab 

Our objective is to advance the state-of-the-art in the area of biologically inspired sensing, 

perception and control systems. That is, the development of sensors, actuators and methods 

for sensory information perception and fusion that mimic the structure and capabilities of 

biological systems. Achieving this objective would provide, on one hand, more reliable and 

accurate measurement and quality assessment devices. On the other hand, it contributes to the 

development of artificial intelligent systems, helping humans to avoid repetitive, unskilful, 

and hazardous tasks. Our current research activities are focused in two major directions: 

biologically inspired sensing and information fusion, and dexterous manipulation. 

2.1.1 Research directions 

• Sensing and information fusion 

We design robust and compact sensors, which are able to 

perform human-like smell- and taste sensing in a variety of 

real world environments. To complement the sensors 

systems, we also investigate methods for pattern recognition, 

sensory information fusion and active perception. 

The projects in this direction include electronic tongues for 

online quality assessment of water and food products. A 

further extension of this concept is the artificial sensory head 

which is equipped with sensors, related to the five primary 

human senses (taste, smell, sound, vision and touch). 

• Dexterous manipulation 

This research direction addresses different aspects of the control of a five-fingered artificial 

hand, ranging from actuator control to grasping and manipulation. The objective of the project 

is to develop new methods for dexterous manipulation in complex, unstructured environments 

by mimicking the way humans use their hands. To deal with the high complexity of the 

problem, we will employ a biologically inspired motor control scheme, tightly integrated with 

the sensing and perception part of the system. The artificial hand can be used as a research 

platform for advanced robotic applications or as a test bed for development of prosthetic 

devices.


2.1.2 Research Projects in 2004 

Project: Electronic tongue for water quality assessment, J413. 

Project leader: Peter Wide 

Staff: Malin Lindquist, Boyko Iliev 

Funding: KK-foundation and Faculty 

Partners: HVR Water Purification 

Synopsis: 

The project belongs to the research area of Sensing and Information Fusion. The objective is 

to build up a new integrated, robust, reliable, low mass/power, electronic tongue for water 

quality assessment. It can be used in an under water vehicle (or robot) in order to provide real 

time water quality monitoring in drinking water reservoir. Previous version of the electronic 

tongue included four electrodes: gold, platinum, iridium and rhodium and a reference 

electrode. Relays are used to switch between the different electrodes. Since the reference 

electrode was made of fragile glass, it was not suitable for use in mobile platforms. The new 

tongue will be made of a stainless steel tube including two gold and platinum electrodes 

placed on its inner part. To measure a sample, the water must fill up the tube. A second 

prototype of the tongue will be adapted for continuous quality monitoring of streaming water. 

In this version, the complementing electronic unit will perform all necessary data processing 

and inform the user about the quality with the help of light signals. The project will end in 

2005. 

Results in 2004: 

- Licentiate thesis of Malin Lindquist; 

- A more robust version of the electronic tongue for water quality assessment is developed 

and tested. 

- One article presented on Sensors for Industry Conference, SICON’04, New Orleans, 

USA, Feb 2004. 

- One article presented on International Measurement Technology Conference IMTC’04, 

Como, Italy, July 2004. 

Future developments: 

- Extensive reliability testing and evaluation in different working conditions, including 

measurements of streaming water. 

- Water quality assessment application in real environment. 

- Completion of the doctoral thesis of Malin Lindquist.


Project: Electronic tongue for food quality assessment, J423 

Project leader: Boyko Iliev 

Staff: Malin Lindquist, Peter Wide 

Funding: Faculty and KK-foundation 

Partners: None 

Synopsis: 

The project belongs to the research area of Sensing and Information Fusion. The objective is 

to build up an electronic tongue, which could be adaptable to the structural and functional 

constraints of the new artificial sensory head. This tongue will also be used to test the mixture 

of tastes. Therefore its output will be separately subjected to the wavelet transform based 

feature extraction and to the hybrid ANN based classification method. Study and 

implementation of the human-like cognitive perspective to the linguistic descriptions of the 

taste is envisaged. This project is closely connected to the development of the electronic 

tongue for water quality assessment since the projects share certain hardware and software 

components. The main difference between the projects come from the fact that the variation 

in the content of food samples is much higher than in water samples. This requires dedicated 

solutions for both the measurement procedure and data analysis. Currently, the focus of the 

project has shifted towards the more general problem of food quality assessment and is no 

longer restricted to the artificial head platform. Therefore, the work will continue during 

2005. 


- A methodology for testing solid food samples is under development. Initial experiments 

with baby food were performed. 

- An algorithm for online quality assessment based on fuzzy logic. 

- One article submitted. 


- Refinement of the methodology for measurements of solid food products. 

- Feature extraction technique based on wavelet transform, which is able to deal with the 

high variations in content of the food samples.


Project: Artificial sensory head, J439 


Staff: Linn Robertsson, Peter Wide 


Partners: Intelligent Control Lab 

Synopsis: 

The project belongs to the Sensing and Information Fusion research direction. The objective 

is to complete the artificial sensory head by equipping it with sensors, dedicated to the five 

primaries human-like senses, so it can be used for food quality assessment. However, the 

whole system should also be considered as a common application platform for any sensory 

and/or data fusion based research activities. Our main goal is to bring the second version (2G) 

of the previous electronic head closer to its biological counterpart in the sense of sensation 

and perception processes. Furthermore, the sensing and clustering/classification algorithms 

will also be associated with facial expression by means of 3D facial animation software from 

Cambridge Research Laboratory. The project will be completed in 2005. 


- One conference article presented on Information Processing and Management of 

Uncertainty in Knowledge Based Systems, IPMU’04, Perugia, Italy, July 2004. 

- Completed motion control and data acquisition modules. 


- Experiments on food quality assessment and development of appropriate sensor fusion 

methods. 

- Experimental evaluation of perception and sensor fusion models.


Project: Artificial Hand, J444 


Staff: Rainer Palm 

Funding: Faculty 

Partners: Elumotion Ltd. UK, INSERM 483-Paris 6 

Synopsis: 

The project mainly belongs to the Dexterous Manipulation research area. The objective is to 

supply dexterous grasp capabilities for a 5-fingered anthropomorphic hand. The prototype 

hand has 15 joints (5DIP+5PIP+5MCP) and is equipped with force (tactile) and joint angle 

sensors. To achieve higher degree of anthropomorphism, electrically active polymer (EAP) 

artificial muscles will actuate the hand. Our goal is to implement intelligent sensory-motor 

control schemes for visually guided reach and grasp, which incorporates biological constraints 

in terms of architecture and behaviour. The work will be based on the interaction of four 

fundamental elements of movement control: 1) Task related anticipatory information 

concerning goal selection (Motion planning), 2) Visual information, 3) Tactile information, 

and 4) Execution related information. The hand design is such that it can be mounted on both 

already existing 6 degrees of freedom lightweight robot arms of the Intelligent Control Lab. 

Due to the serious technical problems of the currently available EAP muscles, the hand was 

actuated with electrical motors. However, if the capabilities of the future EAP muscles satisfy 

the performance requirements, they will be considered in an alternative actuation scheme. The 

project will continue in 2005. 


- New design specification of the hand, based on DC motors. 

- According to the new design, the hand has now 11 individually actuated degrees of 

freedom. Elumotion Ltd. Designed and installed the actuation stage. 

- Hand simulation environment and low-level control programs are developed. 


- Completion of the control system of the hand. 

- Applications in sensor-based dexterous manipulation.


2.1.3 Staff 

Prof. Peter Wide received his MSc. Eng. and Licentiate-of-Technology degrees in 1984 and 

1987 from the Dept. of Measurement Technology, University of Linköping, Sweden. In 

parallel to his academic career he has worked in different electronic industries for more than 

15 years as test engineer, development manager, and technical consultant. He received his 

PhD in Measurement Science and Technology from Linköping University in 1996. Peter 

Wide has been a visiting researcher at the Siemens Corporate R & D Fuzzy Research 

Laboratory in Munich, Germany in 1994 and at the School of Information Technology and 

Engineering (SITE), University of Ottawa, Canada, in 1997. 

Peter Wide is one of the founders of the Centre for Applied Autonomous Sensor System, 

where he is now the director. During the last four years he has authored and co-authored 

about 60 conference/journal papers. He serves in the program committees of several 

international conferences and as a reviewer for IEEE-journals. He is an active member of the 

IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement (IM) Society. His professional interests are mainly 

related to the fields of sensors, feature extraction, sensor data fusion and quality 

measurements. 

Rainer Palm is Adjunct Professor at the Department of Technology (AASS), University 

Örebro since 2004. Until 2004 he was a Principal Research Scientist in the Neural 

Computation Department of the Siemens Corporate Research Technology in Munich, 

Germany, working both in research projects and industrial applications of Automatic Control, 

Fuzzy Control, Modelling of Dynamic Systems, and Distributed Systems. 

He has been active as a control engineer since 1972 doing research and development in the 

field of testing machines for electronic devices. He received his Dipl. Ing. Degree from the 

Technical University of Dresden, Germany, in 1975. From 1982 on he worked in the robotic 

research area in particular in the field of sensor-guided robots. He received the Dr. Ing. 

Degree from the Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany, in 1981, and the Dr. sc. tech. degree 

from the Academy of Sciences, Germany, in 1989. 

Since 1991 Rainer Palm has held a position at the a fuzzy logic task force group at Siemens 

AG in which he developed several fuzzy control methods used in industrial prototypes and 

applications. Since 1992 he had a close co-operation with the Department of Computer 

Science, Linköping University, and since 1998 with the Department of Technology (AASS), 

University Örebro. He is author /co-author, editor/co-editor of 15 books or chapters in books, 

author/ co-author of 15 articles in journals, and author /co-author of 30 articles in Conference 

proceedings. He is also author / co-author of 14 patents. His research interests include 

automatic control, fuzzy control, and robotics. 

Boyko Iliev is a research associate at the Department of Technology (AASS), Örebro 

University. He received his M.Sc. in Control Systems Engineering from the Technical 

University, Sofia, Bulgaria in 1997. During the period 1997-1998 he worked as a research 

assistant at the Central Laboratory for Parallel Processing, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. In 

October 1998 he became a graduate student at the Centre for Applied Autonomous Sensor 

Systems (AASS), Örebro University and received a Licentiate of Technology degree in 2002. 

He received the Ph.D. degree from Örebro University in 2004 in the area of Industrial 

Measurement Technology. Since March 2004 he is with the Centre for Applied Autonomous


Sensors Systems and a leader of the Biologically Inspired Systems Lab. He is an author/coauthor 

of over 15 conference and journal publications. 

His research interests include fuzzy and sliding mode control, and biologically inspired 

systems and dexterous manipulation. 

Malin Lindquist was born in Örebro, Sweden on November 5, 1975. She received her MSc 

degree in automation engineering in 2001 from Örebro University. She has been a graduate 

student at the Centre for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems, Örebro University, Sweden 

since 2000. Her current research interests are in biologically inspired sensors and specifically 

electronic tongues. She received a Licentiate of Technology degree from Örebro University in 

2004. 

Jan Spännar was born in Smedjebacken, Sweden on March 23, 1964. He received a Master 

degree in Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering at Linköping Institute of Technology, 

Sweden in 1989. Since fall 1999 he has been a graduate student at the Centre for Applied 

Autonomous Sensor Systems, Örebro University. He received his licentiate-of-technology 

degree from AASS, Örebro Univ. in 2002. His current research interests include modelling 

and identification with applications to process measurement. 

Linn Robertsson was born in Örebro in 1979. She was awarded the degree of Master of 

Science in Engineering with the specialization on aerospace technology at Luleå University of 

Technology in 2001. Since fall 2002 she has been a graduate student at the Centre of Applied 

Autonomous Sensor Systems, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden. Her current research 

interests are biologically inspired Sensory Information Fusion Systems and feature extraction 

methods.


2.2. Mobile Robotics Lab 

The main project structure in this Lab in 2004 was the same as the one in 2003. All the work 

done by this Lab in 2004 concentrated around three vertical research lines, plus one horizontal 

line. The project structure is described in the next subsection. The following sub-section 

reports the activities within each individual project. 

2.2.1. Research directions 

The general objective of the AASS Mobile Robotics Lab is the development of autonomous 

mobile robots that can operate without the need human intervention in unmodified 

environments. Our specific research focus is the crucial problem of the integration of higherlevel 

cognitive processes into a physically embedded system. The intended scientific 

breakthrough of this focus is to provide the "missing link" between the field of Artificial 

Intelligence, especially in the area of knowledge representation and reasoning, and the field of 

Autonomous Robotics, especially in the area of sensor-based control of autonomous systems. 

We address in particular three facets of the integration problem: (i) integration between 

reasoning about goals and performance of actions, (ii) integration between models of the 

world at different levels of abstraction, and (iii) integration between symbols and sensor data. 

In all cases, we study the above problems both in the case of a single robot, and in the case of 

multiple cooperating robots. 

These facets are reflected in our four research lines: 

1. Behavioural plans 

We study how a robot can form plans for actions, and then execute them in the face of 

uncertainty and changing conditions in the environment. 

2. Hybrid maps 

The environment of the robot can be represented at different levels of abstraction, like the 

geometry of a room, the topology of a building, or the roadmap of a city. We study the 

problem of how to integrate these representations, and how to exploit the synergies 

between them. 

3. Perceptual anchoring 

Humans often use symbolic names to refer to objects, like "Room-22", when 

programming a robot or interacting with it. The robot, however, can only access sensor 

data, like an image from a camera. We have pioneered the field of "perceptual anchoring", 

that is, the connection between symbols and sensor data that refer to the same physical 

objects. 

4. Cooperation 

We study how to deal with the previous issues in the case of a team consisting of multiple 

robots and possibly humans. This research line is "horizontal" in the sense that it considers 

all the above issues, adding the additional dimension of cooperation.


2.2.2. Projects in 2004 

Project: Model-free execution monitoring, J412 

Project leader: Ola Pettersson 

Staff: Alessandro Saffiotti, Lars Karlsson 


Synopsis: 

Intelligent mobile robots need the ability to integrate robust navigation facilities with higher 

level reasoning. This project aims at combining results and techniques from the areas of robot 

navigation and of intelligent agency. In particular, we investigate techniques that allow the 

robot to decide when to go on with execution, and when to stop and ponder about a new 

situation. Our current efforts are directed towards the monitoring of the current execution of a 

B-Plan (Behavioural Plan) in order to detect and identify possible failures. We focus on the 

use of pattern recognition techniques that avoid the need for a predictive model of the system. 

This project belongs to the research line "Behavioural plans". The objective is to investigate 

the use of model-free techniques for execution monitoring. The main "pull" is academic. 


- PhD thesis by Ola Pettersson, titled “Model-Free Execution Monitoring in Behaviour- 

Based Mobile Robots”. The thesis was defended on October 1, 2004. 

- Submission of a journal paper summarizing part of the PhD thesis. A second journal 

submission is in preparation. 

Partners: None. 


- The project was completed in 2004 and it will not be continued in 2005.


Project: Hybrid maps, J415 

Project leader: Pär Buschka 

Staff: Alessandro Saffiotti 

Funding: KK-foundation - IT and Faculty. 

Synopsis: 

Autonomous mobile robots need to use spatial information about the environment in order to 

effectively plan and execute navigation tasks. This information can be represented at different 

level of abstractions and of locality. Each level is adequate for some sub-tasks, but not for 

others. In this project we study hybrid maps, representations of the space that integrate 

different levels of locality and abstraction. Hybrid maps are expected to provide a way for 

robots to scale up to much larger environments, which cannot be modelled using metric maps. 

This project belongs to research direction "Hybrid Maps". The objective is to define H-Maps, 

and the processes needed to build them and to use them in autonomous agents. The main 

"pull" is academic. 


- Presented a paper on the analysis and definition of the concept of "hybrid maps" at the Int. 

Conf. on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS, Amsterdam, NL, April 2004). 

- Presented a paper on fuzzy maps at the Int. Robocup Symposium (Lisbon, PT, July 2004). 

Joint work with project J-448. 

- Paper on the survey and classification of hybrid maps submitted to a journal. 

- Implemented experimental system to build hybrid maps, and used for extensive 

experimentation. 

- Started the integration between hybrid maps and multi-hierarchical maps, joint work with 

University of Malaga. 

Partners: 

- University of Malaga, Spain. 

- AASS Learning Systems Lab. 


- Submission of journal paper on the integration between hybrid maps and multihierarchical 

maps. 

- PhD Thesis of Pär Buschka expected to be completed during the first half of 2005.


Project: Behaviour-based control of a mobile manipulator, J416 

Project leader: Zbigniew Wasik 

Staff: Alessandro Saffiotti 


Synopsis: 

In this project, we investigate new solutions to the mobile manipulation problem. The 

investigation proceeds along two lines: (i) to develop a behaviour-based approach to real-time 

visual serving of a manipulator; and (ii) to extend the "Thinking Cap" architecture to cope 

with the simultaneous control of the manipulator and of the mobile platform on which the arm 

is mounted. The target tasks will include the ability to grasp and move objects in an 

unmodified indoor environment. This project belongs to the research line "Behavioural 

plans". The objective is to investigate the use of behaviour-based plans to control more 

complex plants than a mobile platform, e.g., a mobile manipulator. The main "pull" is 

academic, but flexible mobile manipulation is also expected to have industrial relevance in the 

future. 


- Extension of the behaviour-based manipulation system to perform combined mobility and 

manipulation. 

- The writing of the PhD thesis of Zbigniew Wasik has been completed. 

Partners: 

- University of Rome-3, Italy. 


- The project will be completed with the defence of the PhD thesis of Zbigniew Wasik, in 

Spring 2005.


Project: Symbolic reasoning for perception, J424 

Project leader: Amy Loufti 

Staff: Silvia Coradeschi, Alessandro Saffiotti 

Funding: KK-foundation and Faculty 

Synopsis: 

In this research line we investigate the use of symbolic reasoning techniques for robot 

perception. We focus in particular on one challenging perception problem: the use of an 

electronic nose (e-nose). The e-nose is a type of sensor which is rapidly gaining popularity 

because of its many potential applications. We consider the problem of integrating the 

information provided by the e-nose with both prior information and information from other 

sensors (e.g., vision), as well as the problem of deciding when, how and where the e-nose 

should be activated. We will consider ideas developed in the field of AI for diagnosis and for 

planning of perceptual actions. We will also use, and possibly extend, the framework for 

"perceptual anchoring" developed in project J-445 to connect symbolic techniques to the 

sensor data provided by the e-nose. Experiments will be performed on a mobile robot 

equipped with an e-nose together with a variety of more conventional sensors, including 

vision. This project belongs to the research line "Perceptual anchoring". The general 

objective is to investigate the use of symbolic reasoning techniques for perception, with 

special focus on the use of e-noses. The main "pull" is academic. 


- Submission of journal paper summarizing the results of the Licentiate of Amy Loutfi. 

- Publication of a paper on forming odour categories (European Conf on AI, Valencia, 

Spain). 

- Publication of a paper on the use of sensor planning in olfaction (Int. Conf. on Intelligent 

Robots and Systems, Sendai, Japan). Joint work with project J-446. 

- Contributed a chapter on artificial perceptual systems to the Handbook of Sensor 

Networks (CRC Press). 

- Thesis plan for Amy Loutfi defined. 

- Integration of the software for the e-nose into the Thinking Cap platform. 

Partners: 

- BIS Lab at AASS. 


- Submission of paper on perception management to IJCAI-05. 

- Extensive experimental evaluation of the integration between olfaction and other sensing 

modalities through anchoring. 

- Work toward the completion of the PhD thesis of Amy Loutfi, expected in 2006.


Project: Perceptual anchoring, J445 

Project leader: Silvia Coradeschi 

Staff: Alessandro Saffiotti, Mathias Broxvall, Kevin LeBlanc 

Funding: Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) and CUGS 

Synopsis: 

Intelligent agents embedded in physical environments need the ability to connect the symbols 

used to perform abstract reasoning to the physical entities to which these symbols refer. 

Anchoring is the process of creating and maintaining the correspondence between symbols 

and sensor data that refer to the same physical objects. Anchoring must deal with indexical 

and objective references, definite and indefinite identifiers, and temporary impossibility to 

perceive physical entities. Furthermore it needs to rely on sensor data which is inherently 

affected by uncertainty, and to deal with ambiguities. This project belongs to the research line 

"Perceptual anchoring". The objective is the definition and the in-depth study of the problem 

of anchoring, and of its use in autonomous agents. The main "pull" is academic: the problem 

of anchoring has been defined as such at AASS, and this project aims at maintaining the 

position of AASS as the leader of a new research community working around this problem. 


- A three year extension grant was awarded to this project by the Swedish Vetenskapsrådet. 

- Organized a Workshop on Anchoring at AAAI-04 (San Jose, CA, July 2004). Chairs: S. 

Coradeschi and A. Saffiotti. 

- Publication of 2 papers on dealing with ambiguities in anchoring (Int. Conf. on Intelligent 

Autonomous Systems, Amsterdam, NL; and ECAI Workshop on Cognitive Robotics, 

Valencia, Spain). Joint work with project J-446. 

- Publication of 1 workshop papers on anchoring in conceptual spaces (AAAI Workshop on 

Anchoring, San Jose, CA). 

Partners: 

- University of Palermo, Italy 


- A new PhD student will be enrolled on this project, supported by the above grant. 

- Continue work on the resolution of ambiguities in perceptual anchoring using planning 

techniques. 

- Continue joint work with Univ. of Palermo on anchoring in conceptual spaces.


Project: Sensor-based planning for mobile robots, J446 

Project leader: Lars Karlsson 

Staff: Abdelbaki Bouguerra, Mathias Broxvall, Silvia Coradeschi, Alessandro Saffiotti 

Funding: Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) and KK-foundation. 

Synopsis: 

The problem we investigate is conditional planning under uncertainty for autonomous robots. 

A conditional planner is able to account for different contingencies, and to plan in advance for 

detecting when these contingencies occur. For this purpose, we intend to research both the 

issues of representation, search etc for a conditional planner, and the integration of the planner 

into an actual robotic system. The planning techniques used will be based on an existing 

planner, PTLplan, which generates conditional plans taking into account probabilistic or 

possibilistic uncertainty, but which so far (like its competitors) has a simplified treatment of 

sensing. This project belongs to the research line "Behavioural plans". The objective is to 

extend existing planning techniques to better suit the needs of autonomous robotic 

applications. The main "pull" is academic. 


- Paper on hierarchical task planning under uncertainty presented at the Italian Workshop 

on Planning and Scheduling (Perugia, Italy). 

- Defined plan for Licentiate by Abdelbaki Bouguerra. 

- Publication of 2 papers on the use of planning to solve perceptual ambiguities (Int. Conf. 

on Intelligent Autonomous Systems, Amsterdam, NL; and ECAI Workshop on Cognitive 

Robotics, Valencia, Spain). Joint work with project J-445. 

- Publication of a paper on the use of sensor planning in olfaction (Int. Conf. on Intelligent 

Robots and Systems, Sendai, Japan). Joint work with project J-424. 

Partners: 

EC Network of Excellence on Planning: PLANET. 


- Continue the study on the generation of on-the-fly plans to recover from failures in 

execution. 

- Journal submission of the work on hierarchical planning under uncertainty. 

- Licentiate by Abdelbaki Bouguerra to be produced by the end of 2005.


Project: Robot team-work, J447 

Project leader: Robert Lundh 

Staff: Lars Karlsson, Alessandro Saffiotti 

Funding: CUGS and Faculty 

Synopsis: 

The objective of this project is to develop models and techniques to dynamically configure 

and re-configure a team of collaborating physical agents to adapt to the current tasks, 

situations and resources. Agents may be homogeneous or heterogeneous robots, and human 

agents may also be included in the team. The point of view is to see the team as a unique 

system, and each agent as providing set of functionalities. The configuration of the team is 

defined in terms of which agent provides which functionalities, to whom, and how. This 

project belongs to research line "Behavioural Plans", to which it adds the special focus on 

cooperation. The main "pull" of this project is academic. 

Partners: 

- EURON, the European Research Network 

- University of Murcia, Spain 


- Defined a framework for team configurations and implemented it in the Thinking Cap. 

- Published a paper about this framework at a workshop (ECAI Workshop on Agents in 

Dynamic and Real-Time Environments. Valencia, Spain). 

- Licentiate plan of Robert Lundh defined. 

- Set-up of an experimental platform, based on the Thinking Cap, for robot planning, 

navigation, and cooperation. 


- Paper submission on configuration planning to IROS-05. 

- Work toward the licentiate of Robert Lundh (expected late 2005 – early 2006). 

- There will be a 6 month pause in 2006 due to parental leave.


Project: RoboCup, J448 

Project leader: Kevin LeBlanc 

Staff: Robert Lundh, Kevin LeBlanc, Alessandro Saffiotti. 

Funding: CUGS and Faculty 

Synopsis: 

RoboCup is an international robot soccer competition. AASS is the leader of Team Sweden, a 

multi-university team currently including three Swedish universities (Orebro Univ, Lund 

Univ, and Blekinge Institute of Technology) and a Spanish one (Univ. of Murcia). Team 

Sweden has participated in all competitions since 1999, using the Sony AIBO robots as its 

robotic platforms. The objective of this project was to develop a team of autonomous robots 

able to compete in the RoboCup 2003 competition. This project belongs to the research line 

"Behavioural Plans", with a strong emphasis on the cooperation aspect. It has a mainly 

academic pull. 


- Participation in the RoboCup 2004 international competition in Lisbon, Portugal. 

- Presented a paper on cooperative object localization at the Int. Robocup Symposium 

(Lisbon, PT, July 2004). Joint work with project J-463. 

- Presented a paper on fuzzy maps at the Int. Robocup Symposium (Lisbon, PT, July 2004). 

Joint work with project J-415. 

- Presented a paper on localization with natural landmarks at the Int. Conf. on Information 

Processing and Management of Uncertainty (Perugia, Italy). Joint work with project J- 

415. 

Partners: 

Team Sweden (Orebro Univ, Lund Univ, and Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden; 

plus Univ of Murcia in Spain). 


- This project will be discontinued in 2005.


Project: Navigation System for Automatic Loaders, J449 

Project leader: Johan Larsson 

Staff: Mathias Broxvall, Alessandro Saffiotti. 

Funding: Robotdalen, Atlas Copco and Faculty 

Synopsis: 

This project comprises development of a robust and flexible navigation system for 

underground mine loaders (LHD, Load Haul Dump) that has only modest requirements in 

terms of infrastructure. The goal is to enable autonomous operation of these vehicles. This is 

accomplished by combining the mobile robotics skills at the AASS Mobile Robotics Lab with 

the knowledge of “real-world” applications of Atlas Copco Rock Drills AB. The idea is to 

have a navigation system that supports collections of sensors sufficient for operation in both 

open and closed environments. This project belongs to the research line "Behavioural plans". 

The objective is to use the B-plan technology to develop an autonomous system for Load- 

Haul-Dump operation in underground mines. The main "pull" is industrial. 


- Analyzed the state of the art in autonomous mining 

vehicles. 

- Defined the main approach and technologies. 

- Defined the sensors to be used, analyzing data 

collected in a test mine. 

- Developed a first version of a laboratory demonstrator 

running at high speed. 

Partners: 

Atlas Copco Rock Drills AB. 


- Integrate RFID-based localization in the laboratory 

demonstrator, and test it in a mining environment. 

- Paper submission to the IFR conference. 

- Start the porting of the technique to the real vehicle.


Project: Cooperative perceptual anchoring, J463 

Project leader: Kevin LeBlanc 

Staff: Silvia Coradeschi, Alessandro Saffiotti 

Funding: Faculty and CUGS 

Synopsis: 

The objective of this project is to extend the notion of anchoring to capture "cooperative 

anchoring". This is the problem of how to create and maintain inter-agent agreement about the 

meaning of the words used in the exchange of information about a common physical 

environment. A typical example is the problem of establishing the correspondence between 

the linguistic symbols used by two different robots to refer to the same physical object. 

Cooperative anchoring is also needed for efficient human-robot cooperation. This project 

belongs to research line "Perceptual Anchoring", with a strong emphasis on the cooperation 

aspect. The main "pull" of this project is academic. 


- Developed experimental tool for the systematic evaluation of multi-robot localization 

under uncertainty. 

- Presented a paper on cooperative object localization at the Int Robocup Symposium 

(Lisbon, PT, July 2004). Joint work with project J-448. 

- Defined Licentiate plan for Kevin LeBlanc. 

Partners: 

University of Murcia, Spain. 


- Systematic experimental evaluation of different techniques for fuzzy information sharing. 

- Licentiate thesis by Kevin LeBlanc expected during 2005.


2.2.3. Staff 

Alessandro Saffiotti, PhD, is a professor of Computer Science at the Centre for Applied 

Autonomous Sensors Systems of Örebro University, Sweden, where he heads the Mobile 

Robotics Lab. He has previously been a researcher with the University of Pisa (Italy), with 

SRI International (USA), and with the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). His research 

interests encompass autonomous robotics, soft computing, and non-standard logics for 

common-sense reasoning. He has published more than 80 research papers in international 

journals and conferences, and co-edited a book on fuzzy logic techniques for autonomous 

navigation. 

He was a chair of the 1999, 2001 and 2003 IJCAI workshops on ``Reasoning with uncertainty 

in robotics'', of two workshops on “Anchoring symbols to sensor data” (at AAAI 2001 fall 

symposium and at AAAI 2004), and of two workshops on “Cooperative robotics” (at IROS 

2002 and at ICRA 2005). In 2002 he co-organized the First European Summer School on 

cooperative robotics. In 2003 he was the chair of the 4-legged league at the International 

Robocup Competition. He will serve as chair for the poster track of IJCAI 2005. He is a 

member of IEEE, AAAI, and IAS. 

Mathias Broxvall, PhD, is a lecturer of Computer Science at the Centre for Applied 

Autonomous Sensor Systems of Örebro University. He presented his thesis, A Study in the 

Computational Complexity of Temporal Reasoning, at Linköping University within the field 

of temporal reasoning and constraint solving. His current research interests are autonomous 

robotics and planning. He has journal publications and articles in several well established 

international conferences. For teaching he has given programming, database, logics and 

artificial intelligence courses. On the side he has also contributed to and authored several 

large open-source projects. 

Silvia Coradeschi is an assistant professor at the Centre for Applied Autonomous Sensor 

Systems at Örebro University. She has received a master degree in Philosophy at the 

University of Florence, a master degree in Computer Science at the University of Pisa, and a 

PhD in Computer science at Linköping University. She is a member of the board of trustees 

of the RoboCup Federation and was general chair of the Third Robot World Cup Soccer 

Games and Conferences (RoboCup-99). She is also a member of the Advisory Board for the 

Seventeenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-01) and member 

of the board of the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence. 

Silvia Coradeshi is director of the undergraduate studies for the Computer Engineering 

Division at Örebro University and she is vice-head of the Technology Department. She has 

published 18 conference/journal papers and her main research interest is in establishing the 

connection (anchoring) between the symbols used to perform abstract reasoning and the 

physical entities, which these symbols refer to. She also works in multi-agent systems and 

cooperative robotics.


Lars Karlsson is an assistant professor at the Centre for Applied Autonomous Sensor 

Systems at Örebro University. He received a MSc. degree in Computer Science at Linköping 

University in 1993, and a PhD in 1999. He was a co-chair of the Third Robot World Cup 

Soccer Games and Conferences (RoboCup-99). He is the coordinator for the MSc program in 

Computer Engineering at Örebro University, and he is the director for graduate education in 

AASS. He has 18 conference/journal publications and his research interests include planning 

under uncertainty, reasoning about actions and integration between reasoning and 

action/perception in autonomous systems. 

Pär Buschka was born in Gothenburg, Sweden on April 22, 1966. He received the MSc 

degree in computer science and engineering in 1996 from Chalmers University of Technology 

in Gothenburg, Sweden. Since autumn 1999 he has been a graduate student at the Centre for 

Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden. His current 

research interests include mobile robot localization and navigation using hybrid maps. 

Ola Pettersson was born in Falkenberg, Sweden on March 7, 1972. He received the BSc 

degree in electrical engineering in 1994, and the MSc degree in electrical engineering in 1995 

(specialization in photonics and image analysis), both from Halmstad University, Halmstad, 

Sweden. In 2000 he received a Licentiate of Technology in computer science from Linköping 

University, Linköping, Sweden. Since fall 1996 he has been a graduate student at the Centre 

for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden. His current 

research interests include mobile robot action control, planning, and execution monitoring. 

Zbigniew Wasik was born in Nowy Dwor Mazowiecki, Poland on October 13, 1973. He 

received both the BSc degree and the MSc degree in electrical engineering in 1998 

(specialization in Automation and Robotics) from Wroclaw University of Technology, 

Wroclaw, Poland. Since fall 1998 he has been a graduate student at the Centre for Applied 

Autonomous Sensor Systems, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden. His current research 

includes a behaviour-based approach to real-time visual servoing of a mobile manipulator. 

Kevin LeBlanc was born in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, on November 11, 1977. He 

received his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering with a Computer Engineering Option at the 

University of New Brunswick in May 2001. In the fall of 2002 he began graduate studies at 

the Centre for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems, Orebro University, Orebro, Sweden. His 

research falls within the cooperative perception area; his primary focus deals with cooperative 

perceptual anchoring. 

Robert Lundh was born in Jämshög, Sweden on September 17, 1978. He received the MSc 

degree in Computer Technology in 2002 from Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden. Since late 

spring 2002 he has been a graduate student at the Centre for Applied Autonomous Sensor 

Systems, Orebro University, Orebro, Sweden. His current research is within the field of 

cooperative robotics. 

Abdelbaki Bouguerra was born in M'sila, Algeria on October 10, 1974. He received an 

Engineering degree in Computer Science in 1997 (in Computer Systems) from The National 

Institute of Computer Science, Algiers, Algeria, and a Master degree in Computer Science in 

2001 (specialization Industrial Computer Science) from the National Military Polytechnics 

School, Algiers, Algeria. He joined Schlumberger-Geoquest as a data management Engineer 

in the same year where he worked for approximately one year, and then he joined the 

department of computer science at Linköping University as a visiting scholar for six months.


Since January 2003, he has been a graduate student at the Centre for Applied Autonomous 

Sensor Systems, Orebro University, Orebro, Sweden. His current research includes planning 

and execution for mobile robots. 

Johan Larsson was born in Norrköping Sweden, in July 1970. He received the MSc degree 

in mechanical engineering (specialization in mechatronics) in 1996, from the Royal Institute 

of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. In 1998 he joined Atlas Copco Rock Drills, Örebro, 

where he has developed software for the underground drill rig control systems. Since 

February 2004 he has been a graduate student at the Centre for Applied Autonomous Sensor 

Systems, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden. His current research focuses on the 

autonomous navigation of industrial vehicles in underground mines.


2.3 Intelligent Control Lab 

The objective of the lab is to build perception-based control systems able to perform humanlike 

motions and operations by bringing together the sensation and the control in mechatronic 

systems. We emphasize on two types of activities: 

• Development of new methodologies, 

technologies and equipment for 

implementing complex control systems. 

• Integrating above with soft computing 

methods, control algorithms and sensing 

technology to achieve high-speed motion 

control systems with embedded intelligence. 


Our work and expertise is concentrated in three major research directions: 

• Advanced Mechatronic Systems: we design, develop and prototype specific robotic 

constructions for performing dedicated stand-alone desktop operations or for integration 

with a mobile platform. Desired dynamic properties, balanced kinematics, minimum 

energy consumption, higher flexibility and compliance are combined for accomplishing 

maximum performance. Various interfacing and integration types of problems are 

addressed for achieving properties that outperform existing systems. 

• Advanced Control and Industrial Applications: we develop methods to control robots that 

are designed at our lab for performing complex behaviour like executing a motion for a 

minimum time, studying human arms motions for transferring them to a robot for given 

task. Another aspect is the industrial orientation of our work aimed at the transfer of the 

advanced technologies developed in the lab to industry. 

• Vision, Image and Signal Processing Systems: we apply, in a novel way, fuzzy similarity 

ideas to the development of new methods and algorithms for very efficient real-time 

vision and image processing, operating at high speed, and needed for any high speed 

motion control system. The concept of fired-rules-hyper-cube was introduced by us and 

implemented on FPGA-chips for fuzzy logic based control, high frequency signal and 

real-time image processing. 

In what follows we describe the work done during 2004 on specific projects from the above 

three research directions.


2.3.2 Projects in 2004 

Project: Fast fuzzy logic image processing and fast vision system, J432 

Project leader: Ivan Kalaykov 

Staff: Gustav Tolt 

Funding: KK-foundation - IT and Faculty 

Synopsis: 

The project belongs to the research direction "Vision, image and signal processing". The 

objective is to develop techniques for high-speed image processing and high-speed vision 

system able to provide over 50-60 frames per second for the low and medium levels of image 

processing. This performance is needed for real-time image processing systems such as fast 

vision systems in visual-servoing tasks when it is necessary to control high-speed motion. 

This project is based completely on the academic challenge to outperform the current 

industrial vision systems, which generally limit the frequency band of robot motion control. 

However, the fast image processing algorithms can be used in various applications where the 

processing time is an important factor. 



- One publication, two others in final stage of preparation. 

- Simulated image processing functions in VHDL-based; development system. 

- Doctoral dissertation by Gustav Tolt draft available; planned for defence in April 2005. 

Major contributions include: 

- Unified approach to image processing based on the fuzzy similarity principle. 

- High performance algorithms both in terms of speed and quality of the processing. 

- Set of hardware structures for implementing the typical image processing algorithms. 

- Embedded high-speed image processing algorithms using fuzzy logic. 


Short-term goals: 

- Development and completing the theoretical issues of the unified approach to low and 

medium level image processing based on fuzzy similarity principle. 

- Experimental tests of the developed concepts and algorithms on prototype hardware 

system, possibly for some industrial applications under Robotdalen. 

Long-term goals: 

- Further development of the fuzzy similarity concept for higher level of image processing 

and for higher complexity of image-based scenarios. 

- Expansion of the research by opening new PhD student position(s), as this direction is 

foreseen as fundamental for the IC lab. 

- Experimental hardware platform by cooperation with the Mälardalens högskolan under a 

joint Robotdalen project. 

- Performing tests in industrial environments.


Project: Redundant robots, J441 

Project leader: Anani Ananiev 

Staff: Thorsten Michelfelder, Ivan Kalaykov 


Synopsis: 

The project belongs to the research direction "Advanced Mechatronic Systems". The 

objective is to overcome problems with strength, navigation and locomotion that have 

restricted the use of snake-like robots. The mechanical and the electronic design of the snake 

will be based on minimalist approach with as simple as possible mechanical construction and 

simplest control system. The development of environment-specific movement strategies is 

currently a hot topic of research. 

Partners: 

Velox Devices, LLC, New York, USA 


- One publication. 

- Working prototype with basic modes of motion. 

- Demo is available, demonstrated at ISR’2004, Paris. 


- Unique approach for motion transmission system embodied in the robot using only one 

irreversible motor. 

- Optimised ratio of weight and force. 


Short-term goals: 

- To complete the snake-robot with the minimum set of sensors and functionalities for 

performing a pre-specified set of tasks in rescue-related scenarios. 

- To study the electromechanical properties of the innovative driving mechanism and the 

respective control approaches for obtaining certain dynamical properties. 

- To study the constraints of the driving mechanism and the limitations on the total 

construction of a hyper-redundant robot of this type. 

Long-term goals: 

- To extend the approach for building hyper-redundant robots of other configurations for 

performing high-complexity tasks in industrial environments. This goal will be coordinated 

with ABB Robotics, which expressed their interests to be active industrial 

partner. 

- To build complete dynamical model of the hyper-redundant robot with this kinematics 

structure and unique driving mechanism


Learning Control of Robot Arms by Emulating Human Actions, J460 

Project leader: Tom Duckett 

Staff: Alexander Skoglund: a PhD student at the Intelligent Control Lab (50%) and at the 

Learning Systems Lab (50%), Rainer Palm, Ivan Kalaykov. 

Note: 

This is a common project with the Learning Systems lab. For detailed description look at 

Section 2.3 (J460).


Project: Cooperating arms, J465 


Staff: Anani Ananiev, Thorsten Michelfelder 


Synopsis: 

The project belongs to the research direction "Advanced Mechatronic Systems". The 

objective is to develop techniques for performing cooperating actions of two (or more) robotic 

arms in executing common tasks where one arm is needed to do the main action and the other 

is complementing the first, for example providing support. The cooperative actions are based 

on embedded learned/pre-programmed behaviours and visual guidance. Additional sensory 

information will be used depending on the concrete application. This project is based on 

purely academic idea, however certain applications are envisioned. 



- Preparation of an experimental set-up. 


- Decision to discontinue the project was made due to limited manpower and absence of 

possibility to employ a PhD student. Some issues on cooperating arms are foreseen as part 

of the hyper-redundant robot project J441.


Project: Flexible food cell, J466 


Staff: Anani Ananiev, Lars Jennergren 

Funding: KK-foundation 

Synopsis: 

The project belongs to the research direction "Advanced Mechatronic systems". The objective 

is to create an intelligent assembly cell for ready to eat meals. The production has to be 

customer oriented, which leads to shorter and more irregular production series with an 

increased number of different products. During the entire project the hygienic aspects and 

mechanical and thermal restriction of food assembly are considered. The project is started in 

co-operation with SIK (The Swedish institute for food and biotechnology). The work is 

strongly related to the food factory of the future, which is one of the major projects at SIK. 

The results will hopefully improve its capacity. 

Partners: 

SIK, Göteborg 


- Three publications. 

- Licentiate thesis officially presented and defended in August 2004. 


- Hygienic and robust manipulation of specific food groups. 

- A flexible cell layout that is easy to reconfigure for new product variants. 

- A demonstration cell that can assemble a set of pre-specified products. 


- Increasing the level of intelligence in all phases of preparing the execution plan. 

- Increasing the robustness of the entire system by introducing continuous visual feedback 

during the plan execution (assembly of meals). 

- The project is discontinued as the employment of Lars Jennergren at SIK has finished and 

no further funding is available.


Project: Friction Steer Welding (FSW) Robot Welding, J467 

Leader: Anani Ananiev 

Staff: Mikael Soron, Ivan Kalaykov 

Funding: 

Robotdalen, ESAB Welding Equipment AB, Specma Automation, ABB Robotics and Faculty 

Project synopsis 

Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a relatively new welding method invented by the TWI 

Company in UK in 1991. It is used for welding mainly of aluminium, for example in airplane 

and space industry. There exists a need for developing a technology for three-dimensional 

welding of large and small objects for various other industries such as car manufacturing. The 

goal of this project, supported by Robotdalen, is to contribute to finding proper solution based 

on the competence at the Intelligent Control Laboratory in robot kinematics and dynamics, 

and visual-servoing and force feedback control as well. 

Duration 

Started in September 2003, ends in 2005. 

Collaborations 

ESAB, Laxå 

Specma Automation, Laxå 

ABB Robotics, Västerås 

Results achieved in 2004 

- Survey and analysis of publications. 

- Concept of a licentiate thesis. 

- Preliminary test of feasible methods 

- Development and test of force-feedback system for ABB robot. 

Expected results 2005 

- Completed primary tests for the functionality of the demonstration platform. 

- Completed licentiate thesis of M. Soron. 


- Developing techniques for force-feedback control of industrial robot with compensation 

of gravity in 3D space. 

- Development of fully operational demonstration platform with ABB robot force sensor 

and FSW-tool. 


- Development of user-friendly environment for off-line planning and verifying of 3Dwelding 

trajectories. 

- Development of integrated hardware/software in the loop system for increasing the 

effectiveness of the set-up operations.


Project: Vision-Based Control of Continuous Webs and Flows, J468 

Project leader: George Fodor 

Staff: Thomas Uppgård, George Fodor, Ivan Kalaykov 

Funding: KK-foundation and Faculty. 


The project belongs to two research directions “Advanced control and industrial applications” 

and “Vision, image and signal processing”. The objective is to develop and test new 

techniques for quality monitoring and direct control of web/texture materials flowing with 

high speed. This is one form of direct application of the results of the “Fast vision system” 

project in industry wherever appropriate. 

Duration 

Started in October 2003, continues till end of 2008. 

Collaboration 

ABB Automation Technology Products, Instrumentation and Control 


- Survey and analysis of publications. 

- Concept of a licentiate thesis. 

Expected results 2005 

- Preliminary test of feasible methods 

- Publications 

Milestones 

March-April 2006: licentiate thesis 


- Developing new techniques for quality monitoring and direct control of web/texture 

materials and real-time control of the respective machines. 

Relation to other projects 

Input from J432 (Fast fuzzy logic image processing and fast vision system): the processing 

unit and the respective hardware structure.


The Robot Air-hockey Player, integration project, J4XX 


Staff: Gustav Tolt, Mikael Soron, ex-job students Lasse Nord, Daniel Magnusson 

Funding: KK-foundation – IT, Robotdalen and Faculty. 


The goal is to make interactive demonstrations where humans and robots share the same 

space or perform a co-operative task in the form of playing a game between a human and 

robot. The challenging problem of fast eye-to-hand reaction is in: (i) evaluating the strike of 

the opponent; (ii) detecting the direction of puck’s motion; (iii) predicting its trajectory and 

(iv) activating arm-hand motion to intercept the puck and implement counter strike to the 

opponent’s field. The main difficulty is the extremely short time interval to complete all these 

actions. To be winning, the human players must train certain time otherwise only good luck 

can provide victory. The task is very advanced for robot players. Extremely fast image 

processing and fast robots are only prerequisites for achieving such performance. 

Duration 

Started in January 2004, continued till June 2004. 

Collaboration 

None 


- Developed effective control system for rapidly changing and poorly modelled 

environment with sensor noise and error. 

- Developed an accurate prediction procedure of target motion with the least computational 

load. 

- Developed a switching planning and execution control strategy, based on the estimated 

and predicted trajectory of the puck, before entering the robot’s play field. 

- Integration of all components and achieving reasonable (within the limitations caused by 

the available hardware components) behaviour of the entire hybrid in nature high-speed 

two-dimensional ballistic manipulation system. 

- M.Sc. thesis presented and accepted. 


- Topics are clarified, but not possible to be planned for implementation, as it will depend 

on available resources in the next years for eventual continuation of the project.


2.3.3 Staff 

Prof. Ivan Kalaykov received his Dipl. Eng. in Electrical Engineering, Ph.D. in Control 

Engineering from the Technical University of Sofia, Bulgaria, 1972 and 1985 respectively. In 

January 2004 he became a professor at the Dept. of Technology, Örebro University. He has 

been an Associate Professor at: Dept. of Control and Systems Engineering, Technical 

University of Sofia, since 1987; Dept. of Physics, Trömsoe University, Norway, 1998-1999; 

and the Dept. of Technology, Örebro University since 2000, where he is now the head of the 

Intelligent Control Lab. He has been a visiting researcher at the Control Laboratory of Dept. 

of Electrical Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands and Institute for 

Peripheral Microelectronics, University of Kassel, Germany. He has been also Chairman and 

Vice-chairman of the Bulgarian Union of Automation and Informatics (UAI - the professional 

society of control engineers). 

Ivan Kalaykov served as IPC-member of many scientific events and has more than 60 

conference/journal publications. His research interests include adaptive control systems, 

intelligent control systems, fuzzy logic control, fuzzy logic hardware, and visual servoing for 

robot manipulation. He is a member of IEEE, SPIE and EUSFLAT. 

Prof. George Fodor received his M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the 

Polytechnic Institute of Cluj, Romania, in 1979, and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Sciences 

from the Linköping University, Sweden, in 1995. He is currently the head of the Systems 

Development Dept. for Force Measurement and Systems at ABB Automation Products, 

Sweden. He is an Adjunct Professor at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, USA, from 

1997 and member of the Advisory Board of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty 

at the same university from 1998. He is an associated professor at Örebro University, Sweden, 

from 2000. His research interests include discrete control, control of complex industrial 

systems, discrete fault detection and isolation, ontological control, software architectures. He 

is the author of one book and some 30 conference and journal articles. 

Doc. Anani Ananiev is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Applied Autonomous Sensor 

Systems at Örebro University. He received his Dipl.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering and 

Ph.D. in Robotics and Automation from the Technical University of Sofia in 1987 and 1992 

respectively. He is an associate professor (on leave) at the Dept. of Robotics and 

Mechatronics, Institute of Mechanics, Bulgarian Academy of Science. He has been a visiting 

researcher at the Robotics Laboratory of the Wuppertal University, Germany, 1994 -1998; 

and Dept. of Robotics at the Institute Superior Technico, Lisbon, 1995-1997. He has 65 

conference/journal publications, 27 patents and has received 2 bronze medals at INPEX IX 

(US Invention New Product Trade Show) in 1993. His research interests include robotics, 

lightweight robot arms, and hyper-redundant robots. 

Prof. Dimiter Driankov received the BSc Math degree, the MSc degree in Computer Science 

from the University of Sofia, Faculty of Mathematics, Sofia, Bulgaria, and the PhD degree in 

Computer Science from the Univ. of Linköping, Linköping, Sweden in 1973, 1975, and 1988 

respectively. From 1985 to 2000 he was with the Dept. of Comp. Sci., Univ. of Linköping 

where he was heading the Autonomous Systems Lab (1996-1999). At present he is a visiting 

researcher with the Division for Artificial Intelligence and Integrated Computer Systems at 

this department and a member of the Wallenberg Lab for Information Technology and


Autonomous Systems. Since 2001 he is a professor at the Technology Dept., Örebro Univ., 

Örebro, Sweden acting as a research coordinator for the Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems 

Centre. During the period 1990--1997 he has spent a total of three years as Visiting Scientist 

at Siemens Corporate R & D, Munich, Germany. 

Dimiter Driankov is a member of the IEEE Technical Committee on Intelligent Control and 

on the editorial board of the Int. Journal of Uncertainty, Fuzziness and Knowledge-based 

Systems. He has co-authored and authored more than 40 conference, journal articles, and 

book chapters, 2 books, and 3 edited volumes in the areas of fuzzy logic and fuzzy control. He 

is a coordinator for a EC Marie Curie Training Site in the area of autonomous robotic 

systems. His current research interests and activities are in the areas of model-based fuzzy 

control, computational theories of perception, and perception-based control of autonomous 

vehicles. 

Christer Lindkvist was born in Örebro, Sweden, on December 23, 1954. He received his 

BSc degree in 1988 from Örebro University. From July 1, 1989 he works as teacher in the 

Department of Technology, Örebro University. In the fall of 2001 he became a graduate 

student with AASS, Örebro University. His current research interests include distributed 

component-based systems. 

Gustav Tolt was born in Örebro, Sweden, on January 14, 1975. He received MSc degree in 

engineering physics (specialization in signal processing and image analysis) from Chalmers 

University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. Since February 2000 he is a graduate student 

at AASS, Örebro University. His research interests include high-speed image processing and 

computer vision. 

Lars Jennergren received his MSc in Mechanical engineering at the Technical University of 

Luleå, Sweden in 2002. His main subject was production engineering; this was also the area 

of his thesis work conducted at SKF, Gothenburg, Sweden. Since April 2002 he is a graduate 

student within a project conducted in co-operation between SIK, Swedish institute for food 

and biotechnology, and AASS, Örebro University, Sweden. His research includes 

requirements and building of a flexible assembly cell for ready-to-eat meals including topics 

such as production strategies, flexible cell layout, grasping and manipulation of fragile items, 

such as food. 

Thorsten Michelfelder was born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, in 1977. He received his 

BEng degree in mechatronics at FH Karlsruhe. Now he is completing his MSc at Örebro 

University and is a part-time research assistant at AASS. His research interests include 

mechatronics systems and robotics. 

Thomas Uppgård was born in Avesta, Sweden on Mars 8, 1978. He received the MSc degree 

in Computer Engineering from Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden 2002. He is since fall 

2003 an industrial PhD student at the Centre for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems at 

Örebro University in cooperation with ABB Automation Technology Products. His research 

interests are visual based control of continuous webs and flows.


Alexander Skoglund is a Ph.D. student at the Dept. of Technology, Örebro University 

between the Learning Systems and Intelligent Control Laboratories at AASS. He received the 

B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 1998 and his M.Sc. degree in 

Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 2002, both from Örebro University. Between 2000- 

2001 he worked at AerotechTelub as a radio engineer, and from 2001-2003 at AASS, Dept. of 

Technology, Örebro University as a research engineer. Since February 2003 he has been a 

graduate student with research interests in robotic manipulation and learning. 

Mikael Soron was born in Motala, Sweden, on February 12, 1975. He received his MSc 

degree in Computer Technology in 2003 from Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden. Since 

June 2003 he is an industrial PhD student at AASS, Örebro University, in co-operation with 

Robotdalen. His research interests include robotic control for Friction Stir Welding.


2.4 Learning Systems Lab 

Our objective is to advance the state-of-the-art in the theory and practice of learning and 

adaptation in autonomous sensor systems. This will be achieved by developing strongly 

autonomous agents with the capacity to learn from experience and thus to adapt to highly 

dynamic and uncertain environments and working scenarios. 

These situations are very difficult to model by traditional methods of numerical analysis due 

to the highly unpredictable nature of both the agent's sensory perceptions and the effects of 

motor actions, and the presence of other agents such as humans. We therefore focus on 

learning and adaptation through interaction of the agent with the user and environment. The 

techniques that we apply include unsupervised, supervised and reinforcement learning 

algorithms, including artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms, self-organisation, etc. 


The research focus of the Learning Systems Lab is the development of robots and 

autonomous systems that can improve performance by learning from their own sensor 

information and/or sensor-motor experience. We concentrate on three major research 

directions in particular: 

1. Navigation systems 

This covers learning of spatial representations and behaviours in mobile robotic systems 

that have various levels of autonomy, by application of state-of-the-art in sensor and 

measurement technology. 

2. Learning control 

This covers learning of robotic skills and behaviours from human demonstration, selforganisation 

and reinforcement learning, including control of both mobile robots and 

robotic manipulators. 

3. Perception systems 

This covers pattern recognition and self-organisation in robotics and automation, 

including recognition of people, objects and places by autonomous robots, and automatic 

sensory analysis in the Future Food Factory. 

The research methodology of the Learning Systems Lab is based on developing theoretically 

sound solutions to real world problems, and places strong emphasis on empirical methods, 

including use of performance metrics, quantitative comparisons of actual systems, and 

statistical tests of significance. 

In what follows we describe the work done in 2004 on specific projects from the above three 

research directions.


2.4.2 Projects in 2004 

Project: Hierarchical learning of robot behaviours, J450 


Staff: Li Jun 

Funding: KK-foundation, Faculty and regional funding 

Synopsis: 

The project belongs to the research direction Learning Control. The project will develop a 

generic architecture for learning sensor-motor behaviours in robotic systems, without 

requiring pre-programmed symbolic representations. Instead, the robot will develop its own 

internal representations through a process of incremental on-line learning. One application of 

this technology would be programming by demonstration, where the human operator simply 

shows the robot what to do (e.g., "water my plants", "clean my bathroom", etc.). The 

behaviours acquired will be complex, non-linear and non-achievable by a purely reactive 

system, so the learning system must incorporate representations, which encode the temporal 

and spatial context of the task and environment. A particular challenge will be to carry out all 

of the learning in real-time. The project investigates the implementation of a hierarchy of 

fast, on-line learning algorithms that are integrated by layered learning. The techniques 

investigated include, but are not limited to, embedded machine learning algorithms such as 

self-organisation, recurrent artificial neural networks and reinforcement learning. 

Partners: 

University of Alicante, Spain (Assoc. Prof. Tomas Martinez). 


Li Jun successfully defended his Licentiate thesis in November 2004 (previously planned for 

May 2004), and a journal article has been submitted based on this work. 


Li Jun should be ready to defend Ph.D. Thesis around November 2005. This will 

involve incorporating reinforcement learning into the architecture for teaching by 

demonstration, based on the earlier work using growing RBF networks for function 

approximation in perception-based robot control. More substantial results and several more 

publications are urgently required.


Project: Enabling robot-human cooperation, J451 


Staff: Grzegorz Cielniak, Andre Treptow (Marie Curie fellow, Tuebingen University). 

Funding: KK-foundation, Faculty, regional funding and EU. 

Synopsis: 

The project belongs to the research direction Perception Systems. The ability to interact with 

people is an important requirement for robots, which operate in populated environments. In 

tasks such as cleaning, housekeeping, rehabilitation, entertainment, inspection and 

surveillance, so-called service robots need to communicate and cooperate with people. To 

enable this interaction, the robot needs to know how many people there are in the 

neighbourhood, their position, and who they are (the three fundamental problems of people 

detection, localisation and identification). 

The platform for this research is a mobile robot equipped with vision, thermal, omnidirectional 

vision and laser sensors. In current work, we are integrating methods for detection, 

localisation and identification of persons by a mobile robot using vision, thermal and laser 

data. The eventual goal is to obtain 95% recognition performance within a few seconds by a 

moving mobile platform on a database comprising the members of AASS. Possible themes for 

future research include recognition, interpretation and prediction of human behaviour. 

Partners: 

Autonomous Intelligent Systems Group, Freiburg University, Germany (Prof. Wolfram 

Burgard). 

University of Tuebingen, Computer Science Dept., Germany. (Prof. Andreas Zell). 


Two journal articles accepted for publication: one appeared in 2004 (J. Intelligent and Fuzzy 

Systems) and one will appear in 2005 (Int. J. Robotics Research). Paper presented at 

SAIS/SLSS Workshop in Lund, Sweden, April 15-16, 2004. A major development was the 

visit of Andre Treptow, a Marie Curie fellow and Ph.D. student from Tuebingen University. 

This resulted in a working system for tracking of people in thermal images and then tracking 

of the face region in a greyscale image using Particle Filters, and some first results in 

identification using Eigenfaces. 


Grzegorz Cielniak to defend Ph.D. Thesis around December 2005. Subsequent work for the 

Ph.D. will include person identification, e.g., by improved face recognition, integration of the 

two previous works on high-level/global tracking with Abstract Hidden Markov Models (with 

Freiburg Univ.) and lower-level/local tracking with Particle Filters (with Tuebingen Univ.), 

and final evaluation of the complete system with respect to the project goals.


Project: Simultaneous localisation and mapping, J452 


Staff: Peter Biber (Marie Curie fellow, Tuebingen University). 

Funding: Faculty and EU (Marie Curie programme) 

Synopsis: 

The project belongs to the research direction Navigation Systems. Maps are essential for 

mobile robots navigating in non-trivial environments, being needed for tasks such as path 

planning, manipulation of objects, and communication with humans. To navigate in unknown 

environments, an autonomous robot requires the ability to build its own map while 

simultaneously maintaining an estimate of its own position. This is a hard problem because 

the same, noisy sensor data must be used for both mapping and self-localisation. 

Most existing solutions to the problem of simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) 

work by decoupling the localisation and mapping processes, assuming that the data 

association problem (i.e., landmark identification) is already solved when measurements are 

updated into the map. However, this assumption is bound to fail eventually for robots 

operating in difficult or populated environments. This project investigates robust SLAM 

algorithms that take into account both the measurement uncertainty (e.g., due to sensor noise) 

and identification uncertainty (e.g., due to perceptual aliasing). 

Partners: 

BISS, University of Bremen, Germany (Dr. Udo Frese). 

WSI-GRIS, Tuebingen University, Germany (Prof. Wolfgang Strasser) 

Results in 2003: 

Journal article (IEEE Trans. Robotics) on multi-level relaxation accepted for publication (with 

Bremen Univ.). Paper on 3D modelling presented at IROS’04, Japan (with Tuebingen Univ. 

and Henrik Andreasson, AASS). A major development was the visit of Peter Biber, a Marie 

Curie fellow and Ph.D. student from Tuebingen University. This resulted in the development 

of a new approach for lifelong learning in dynamic environments, so that the robot’s map is 

adapted perpetually over time. 


Future work will include further theoretical and practical developments, including more work 

on evolutionary algorithms for handling the data association problem in SLAM, and 

experiments in outdoor mapping.


Project: Navigation by smell, J453 


Staff: none yet. 


Synopsis: 

The project belongs to the research direction Navigation Systems. Smell is perhaps the least 

studied sense in robotic applications. Gas sensor systems known as "electronic noses" have 

been widely used under laboratory conditions, e.g., for food analysis, but so far there have 

been few applications on mobile platforms in real world environments, e.g., for use by 

intelligent service robots. There are a number of reasons why this should be so, including the 

complexity of the sample handling process and environmental influences such as air 

turbulence. 

This project investigates mechanisms for navigation using olfaction, especially concerning the 

problem of gas source localisation in indoor environments that are not artificially ventilated 

(thus a strong constant airflow cannot be assumed, as in other works). Several different 

approaches are considered, including gas concentration mapping, reactive sensor-motor 

behaviours, and re-implementation of the navigation strategies used by biological systems. 

Partners: 

Computer Science Dept., University of Tuebingen, Germany (Dr. Achim Lilienthal). 


Two journal articles were published in 2004 (RSJ J. Advanced Robotics, Robotics and 

Autonomous Systems) with Achim Lilienthal (Tuebingen Univ.) 


Depends on whether an additional full time researcher can be recruited to the Learning 

Systems Lab.


Project: Sensory analysis in the future food factory, J455 


Staff: Per Munkevik Gunnar Hall (SIK, Gothenburg). 

Funding: Faculty, regional funding, SIK, Gothenburg and Delfoi AB. 

Synopsis: 

The project belongs to the research direction Perception Systems. The most common way 

today to make descriptions, analyses and inspections of food products is to use people, either 

in the production line or in sensory evaluation panels. In the production line they discriminate 

invalid products from valid ones but they are also a possible source for contamination of the 

food. There are two kinds of sensory evaluation panels; one is a customer panel and the other 

is an expert panel used to describe the properties of the evaluated food product. 

This project tries to find a solution to make inspections, descriptions and sensory evaluations 

of food, especially ready meals, without using people. The main approach at the moment is to 

use a sensor system consisting of a digital camera and an electronic nose to get samples of 

meals. A segmentation algorithm is used to extract the contents of the meal. Several features 

are extracted for each component, e.g., concerning its shape and position on the plate and its 

sensory properties. A pattern recognition system is then used to make a quality evaluation of 

the meal. 

Partners: 

SIK (The Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology), Gothenburg. 


Paper presented at International Conference on Engineering and Food (ICEF9), Montpellier, 

France, March 7-11, 2004. All research work completed for Lic. Thesis. 


Per Munkevik to defend Lic. Thesis in March. 2005. Project ends unless further funding to 

Ph.D. can be found. Two journal articles to be submitted.


Project: Learning control of robot arms, J460 


Staff: Alexander Skoglund, Rainer Palm (AASS Intelligent Control Lab). 

Funding: KK-foundation, Faculty. In addition the three month stay of a student financed by 

EU (Marie Curie programme). 

Synopsis: 

The project belongs to the research direction Learning Control. To manually program a robot 

is a tedious job for anyone. It would be much more convenient to just show the robot what to 

do, and for the robot to learn the required behaviour automatically (this type of learning is 

often known as "teaching by demonstration" or "teaching by showing"). How to capture and 

apply a human's control abilities for driving a robot arm to perform human-like actions is the 

main objective of this research. Moreover, the goal is to create a solution such that the 

developed techniques are embedded in the control system of an actual robot arm. 

Our approach is to measure and model the human behaviour, without restricting the motion of 

the human. The eventual aim of the project is to substitute the human subject (e.g., an 

operator at a machine) with the robot arm. The platform for this project incorporates a 

"shapetape" sensor for human motion capture, which measures bend and twist at 16 sensor 

locations along the human arm, and a lightweight robot arm PANDI-1 developed in-house 

within the Intelligent Control Laboratory at AASS. Future work will investigate other sensors 

mounted on the robot arm to enable autonomous operation. 

Partners: 

Parma University, Italy (previous Marie Curie student, Jacopo Aleotti). 

Siemens AG, Munich, Germany. (Dr. Rainer Palm). 


Paper presented at International Conf. on Manipulation and Grasping (IMG’04), Genoa, Italy, 

July 1-2, 2004 (with Parma University). Initial experiments in reinforcement learning and 

development of a demonstration system based on a human arm model. 


Integration of human arm demonstration system within the framework of supervised 

reinforcement learning, as a general methodology for teaching by showing. Specific 

experimental work on robotic manipulators. More substantial results and further publications 

are needed.


Project: Object recognition by autonomous robots, J457 


Staff: Henrik Andreasson 

Funding: KK-foundation, Faculty and regional funding. 

Synopsis: 

The project belongs to the research direction Perception Systems. Object recognition has been 

a topic of interest for researchers in computer vision, artificial intelligence, the cognitive 

sciences and robotics. Without this ability, the possibilities for robots to carry out useful tasks 

remains limited. The object recognition systems that exist today are usually solved on a 

system-by-system basis, using recognition techniques that are hand-crafted for a small class 

of objects in one particular application. 

This project tries to find a more general way of doing object recognition without requiring 

pre-installed specifications or models of the object to be recognised. The main approach 

investigated in current work is using the motion of a robot to acquire an internal 

representation of a given object using structure from motion or optic flow. The main sensor 

used for current experiments is an Omni-directional camera. 

Partners: 

Autonomous Intelligent Systems Group, Freiburg University, Germany (Prof. Wolfram 

Burgard). 

University of Tuebingen, Computer Science Dept., Germany. (Prof. Andreas Zell). 


Paper on place recognition using local features presented at Symposium on Intelligent 

Autonomous, Portugal, July 5-7, 2004, and extension of this work to the global localisation 

problem with Particle Filters accepted for ICRA’05, Barcelona, April 18-22 (with Tuebingen 

Univ.). A major development was the visit of Henrik Andreasson to Freiburg University as a 

Marie Curie fellow. This resulted in a new approach for fusing 3D-laser and colour 

information for environment modelling. 


Fusion of 3D range-finder data and colour information for object recognition by mobile 

robots, focussing on this topic for the Ph.D. Thesis, and eventual defence around 2007.


Project: Semi-autonomous mapping by UAV-UGV cooperation, J417 


Staff: Martin Persson 

Funding: KK-foundation, AerotechTelub AB and Faculty. 

Synopsis: 

This project belongs to the research direction Navigation Systems. Mapping an outdoor 

environment implies new challenges for mobile robots. This project investigates the use of 

Semi-autonomous mapping, SAM, in this context. The basic idea is to use some a priori 

information in the form of a sketch map to assist the mapping process. The sensor 

measurements of the robot are used to add information to the map and to correct the sketch 

map where it is wrong. The sketch map may contain information extracted from an aerial 

image, hand-drawn map, geographic information system, etc. It may have low resolution, 

incorrect scale, and contain errors. 

The platform for this research is an integrated robotic system comprising an unmanned aerial 

vehicle, UAV, and its commands to an unmanned ground vehicle, UGV. The UAV is 

simulated in a simulation environment for aerial visual servoing (SEAVS) that uses 

orthographic satellite and aerial images. These are draped on an elevation grid giving realistic 

3D images from a nadir view. The UGV is a real ATRV-Jr mobile robot equipped with an 

array of positioning, vision and range finder sensors for autonomous outdoor navigation. 

Applications of this technology would include terrain and urban mapping, search and rescue 

operations, and planetary exploration. 

Partners: 

Aerotech Telub, AB. 


Research project on extraction of man-made structures from aerial images, paper submitted to 

forthcoming CIRA’05 workshop in Finland. 


Investigate detection of the same structures by an outdoors-mobile robot using on-board 

sensors, extraction of relevant features from a hand-drawn sketch, and data fusion in a single 

map representation. More substantial results and further publications are needed.


Project: Learning Optimal Control, J456 


Staff: none. 


Synopsis: 

This project documents the work carried out by Assoc. Prof. Tomas Martinez of Alicante 

University, Spain, on his research visits to AASS in 2003 and 2004. The work concerns a 

visual servoing approach for a mobile manipulation task, in which the Peoplebot mobile robot 

has to move towards an object located on a table (docking) and then pick up that object with 

its gripper (grasping). The approach belongs to the family of techniques known as imagebased 

visual servoing. A novel reinforcement learning algorithm incorporating planning is 

used to learn a time-optimal control policy. 

Partners: 

University of Alicante, Spain (Assoc. Prof. Tomas Martinez). 


Paper published in proceedings of IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics 

(RAM’04), Singapore, December 1-3, 2004. Paper accepted for IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics and 

Automation (ICRA’05), Spain, April 18-22, 2005. 


Further experiments and submit journal article.


2.4.3 Staff 

Tom Duckett is a Docent (Associate Professor) at the Dept. of Technology, Örebro 

University and leader of the AASS Learning Systems Lab. He received the B.Sc.(Hons) 

degree in Computer and Management Sciences from Warwick University, U.K., in 1991. 

After working in industry as an Analyst/Programmer for several years, he was awarded an 

M.Sc. with distinction in Knowledge Based Systems by Heriot-Watt University, U.K., in 

1995. His M.Sc. dissertation was carried out as an ERASMUS exchange student at Karlsruhe 

University, Germany. 

Tom Duckett received his Ph.D. on concurrent map building and self-localisation for mobile 

robot navigation from Manchester University, U.K., in 2000, including a research visit to 

Bremen University, Germany, on landmark selection for mobile robot navigation. He has 

authored 8 journal articles and 33 full paper refereed conference papers, and is a regular 

reviewer for many international conferences and journals. He also has 9 years of teaching 

experience at university level. His research interests include mobile robotics, navigation, 

SLAM, machine learning, AI, learning control, robotic olfaction, and recognition systems for 

autonomous robots. 

Li Jun is a Ph.D. student at the Dept. of Technology, Örebro University in the AASS 

Learning Systems Lab. He received the B.S. and M.S. degree from Gui Zhou University of 

Technology, Gui Zhou, China, in 1982 and 1985 respectively. His current research interests 

include theory and application of artificial neural network learning, specifically for 

autonomous mobile robotic systems. 

Grzegorz Cielniak is a Ph.D. student at the Dept. of Technology, 

Örebro University in the AASS Learning Systems Lab. He was born 

in Krapkowice, Poland in 1975. He received his MSc degree in 

robotics in 2000 at the Wroclaw University of Technology, Wroclaw, 

Poland. Since January 2001 he has been a graduate student at AASS. 

His current research interests include artificial intelligence, robot 

learning and vision systems. 

Henrik Andreasson is a Ph.D. Student at the Dept. of Technology, 

Örebro University in the AASS Learning System Lab since October 

2002. He received his M.Sc. degree in Mechatronics at the Royal 

Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden in 2001. Since October 

2002 he has been a graduate student at AASS. His current research 

interests include robotic vision and learning. 

Per Munkevik is a joint Ph.D. student between the AASS Learning 

Systems Lab at the Dept. of Technology, Örebro University, and SIK, 

Gothenburg since November 2002. He received the M.Sc. degree in 

Computer Science in 2002 at Luleå University of Technology. His 

current research includes pattern recognition, artificial neural 

networks, sensory science and learning algorithms for food quality 

evaluation. The objective is to perform automatic sensory evaluations 

of food products, especially ready meals.


Martin Persson was born in Lund, Sweden, on June 1, 1970. He received his M.Sc. in 

Applied Physics and Electronic Engineering from the University of Linköping, Sweden, in 

1994. AerotechTelub has employed him since 1994 as a system engineer working mainly with 

guidance, control and simulation models for dispenser weapon systems and stand-off missiles. 

Since 1999 he has been an industrial PhD student with AASS at Örebro University. He 

received his Licentiate degree from AASS, Örebro University in 2002. His research interests 

include visual servoing in aerial applications and semi-autonomous mapping for mobile 

robots. 

Alexander Skoglund is a Ph.D. student at the Dept. of Technology, Örebro University 

between the Learning Systems and Intelligent Control Laboratories at AASS. He received the 

B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 1998 and his M.Sc. degree in 

Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 2002, both from Örebro University. Between 2000- 

2001 he worked at AerotechTelub as a radio engineer, and from 2001-2003 at AASS, Dept. of 

Technology, Örebro University as a research engineer. Since February 2003 he has been a 

graduate student with research interests in robotic manipulation and learning.


3. Publications 

3.1 Books (incl. PhD/Lic theses) and edited volumes 

1. Lindquist, Malin. Electronic Tongue for Water Quality Assessment, Licentiate thesis, 

Örebro University Studies in Technology 15, 2004. 

2. B. Iliev. Minimum-time Sliding Mode Control of Robot Manipulators. Doctoral 

Dissertation, Örebro University Studies in Technology Series, 2004. 

3. L. Jennergren. Flexible Assembly of Ready-to-eat Meals, Licentiate thesis, Örebro 

University Studies in Technology Series, 2004. 

4. Pettersson, O. Model-Free Execution Monitoring in Behaviour-Based Mobile Robots. 

PhD thesis, Örebro University Studies in Technology Series, 2004. 

5. S. Coradeschi and A. Saffiotti (Eds.) Proceedings of the AAAI-04 Workshop on 

Anchoring Symbols to Sensor Data. AAAI Press (Menlo Park, CA, 2004). 

3.2 Chapters in edited volumes 

1. Loutfi, A., Lindquist M. and Wide P. Artificial Perceptual Systems, Book chapter, In 

Handbook of Sensor Networks, CRC Press, 2004 

3.3 Journals 

1. R. Palm. Synchronization of Decentralized Multiple-Model Systems by Market-Based 

Optimization. IEEE Trans. SMC B, Vol. 34, No 1 Feb. 2004, pp. 665-672 

2. G. Cielniak and Tom Duckett. People Recognition by Mobile Robots. Journal of 

Intelligent and Fuzzy Systems, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 21-27, 2004 

3. Achim Lilienthal and Tom Duckett, Experimental Analysis of Gas-Sensitive Braitenburg 

Vehicles. RSJ Journal of Advanced Robotics, Vol. 18, No. 8, pp. 817-834, 2004. 

4. Achim Lilienthal and Tom Duckett, Building Gas Concentration Gridmaps with a Mobile 

Robot. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Vol. 48, No. 1, pp. 3-16, 2004. 

5. E. Pagello, E. Menegatti, A. Bredenfel, P. Costa, T. Christaller, A. Jacoff, D. Polani, M. 

Riedmiller, A. Saffiotti, E. Sklar, T. Tomoichi. RoboCup-2003: New Scientific and 

Technical Advances. AI Magazine 25(2):81-98, 2004 

6. B. Kadmiry, Pr. D. Driankov: Fuzzy Gain Scheduler for Attitude Control of an 

Unmanned Helicopter (*) (Special issue) on IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems 

Journal (TFS), ISSN: 0163-6706, Vol.12 /4, pp. 502-515, August 2004


3.4 Conference papers 

1. M. Lindquist, P. Wide, New Sensor System for Drinking Water Quality. In Sensors for 

Industry Conference, New Orleans, USA, Feb 2004. 

2. B. Iliev, I. Kalaykov. Minimum-time sliding mode control for second-order systems. 

In Proc. American Control Conference, ACC'04, June 30-July 3, 2004, Boston, USA. 

3. I. Hristozov, B. Iliev and S. Eskiizmirler. A combined feature extraction method for an 

electronic nose, In Proc. of Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty 

IPMU’ 04, Perugia, Italy, July 2004. 

4. L. Robertsson and P. Wide. Analysis bacteriological growth using wavelet transform. In 

Proceedings IMTC’04, Como, Italy 2004 

5. I. Hristozov, B. Iliev and S. Eskiizmirler. A combined feature extraction method for an 

electronic nose, In Proc. of Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty 

IPMU’ 04, Perugia, Italy, July 2004. 

6. Tolt, G. A Fuzzy Approach for Detecting Multi-junctions in Edgeness Images. Proc. of 

IASTED Conf. on Visualization, Imaging and Image Processing, pages 420-424, 

Marbella, Spain, 2004. 

7. J. L. Granter, R. Gottipati, G. A Fodor, Fuzzy Logic Enabled Software Agents for 

Supervisory Control. Proc. of the FUZZ-IEEE Conference, Budapest, 27-29 July 2004. 

8. T. Martínez-Marín and T. Duckett, Reinforcement Learning in a Visual Servoing 

Framework. Proc. IEEE Int. Conference on Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics 

(RAM'04), Singapore, December 1-3, 2004. 

9. Peter Biber, Henrik Andreasson, Tom Duckett and Andreas Schilling. 3D Modelling of 

Indoor Environments by a Mobile Robot with a Laser Scanner and Panoramic Camera. 

Proc. IEEE/RSJ Int. Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2004), Sendai, 

Japan, September 28 - October 2, 2004. 

10. Jacopo Aleotti, Alexander Skoglund and Tom Duckett. Teaching Position Control of a 

Robot Arm by Demonstration with a Wearable Input Device. Proc. IMG04, International 

Conference on Intelligent Manipulation and Grasping, Genoa, Italy, July 1-2, 2004. 

11. Per Munkevik, Tom Duckett and Gunnar Hall. Vision System Learning for Ready Meal 

Characterisation Proc. International Conference on Engineering and Food (ICEF9), 

Montpellier, France, March 7-11, 2004. 

12. Grzegorz Cielniak and Tom Duckett. People Recognition by Mobile Robots. Proc. AILS- 

2004, 2nd Joint SAIS/SSLS Workshop Lund, Sweden, April 15-16, 2004.


13. Tom Duckett, Grzegorz Cielniak, Henrik Andreasson, Li Jun, Achim Lilienthal and Peter 

Biber. An Electronic Watchman for Safety, Security and Rescue Operations (abstract). 

Proc. SIMSafe 2004, Improving Public Safety through Modelling and Simulation, 

Karlskoga, Sweden, June 15-17, 2004. 

14. P. Buschka and A. Saffiotti. Some Notes on the Use of Hybrid Maps for Mobile Robots. 

Proc. of the 8th Int. Conf. on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS) pp. 547-556. 

Amsterdam, NL, 2004. 

15. M. Broxvall, L. Karlsson and A. Saffiotti. Steps Towards Detecting and Recovering from 

Perceptual Failures. Proc. of the 8th Int. Conf on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS) 

pp. 793-800. Amsterdam, NL, 2004. 

16. A. Loutfi and S. Coradeschi. Forming Odour Categories Using an Electronic Nose. Proc. 

of the European Conf. on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI) 119-124. Valencia, Spain, 2004. 

17. R. Lundh, L. Karlsson and A. Saffiotti. Dynamic Configuration of a Team of Robots. 

Proc. of the ECAI-04 Workshop on Agents in Dynamic and Real-Time Environments. 

Valencia, Spain, 2004. 

18. A. Loutfi, S. Coradeschi, L. Karlsson and M. Broxvall. Putting Olfaction into Action: 

Using an Electronic Nose on an Multi-Sensing Mobile Robot Proc. of the IEEE/RSJ Int. 

Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). Sendai, Japan, 2004. 

19. Janos L. Grantner, R. Gottipati, G.A. Fodor, Intelligent Fuzzy Controllers Laboratory, 

Proceedings of the 2004 ASEE Annual Conference. 

20. G. A. Fodor, The Case for Hierarchy-Mobile Agents in Industrial Informatics. Keynote 

talk. Proc. of the second IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics, 

INDIN'04, 24-26 June, Berlin, Germany, 2004. 

21. G. A. Fodor, Formal and Architectural Competitive Factors in Industrial Informatics, 

Proc. of the second IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics, INDIN'04, 

24-26 June, Berlin, Germany, 2004. 

22. L. Jennergren, I. Kalaykov, L. Ahrne. Requirements for assembly of ready-to-eat meals. 

Proc. of ICEF9 International Conference on Engineering and Food, Montpellier, France, 

7-11 March, 2004. 

23. L. Jennergren, Optimizing the flexible assembly of ready-to-eat meals. Proc. of 

International Conference on Intelligent Manipulation and Grasping, Genoa, Italy, 1-2 

July, 2004. 

24. L. Jennergren, I. Kalaykov. Human-free flexible assembly of ready-to-eat meals using 

visual feedback. Proc. of Food Factory 2004 Conference, France, 6-8 October, 2004.


25. A. Ananiev, I. Kalaykov, E. Petrov, B. Hadjiyski. Single-motor driven construction of 

hyper-redundant robot. Proc. of International Conference on Mechatronics and Robotics 

’04, Aachen, Germany, 13-15 September, 2004, vol. 2, p. 543-547. 

3.5 Workshop and Symposium papers 

26. R. Palm. Multi-Step-Ahead Prediction in Control Systems using Gaussian Processes and 

TS-Fuzzy Models. In Proceedings 14th Workshop Fuzzy Systeme und Computational 

Intelligence. Schriftenreihe d. Inst. f. Angew. Informatik/ Automatisierungstechnik Univ. 

Karlsruhe (TH) Band 6, 2004, Universitätsverlag Karlsruhe, pp. 42-54. 

27. Henrik Andreasson and Tom Duckett. Topological Localization for Mobile Robots using 

Omni-directional Vision and Local Features. Proc. IAV2004, The 5th Symposium on 

Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles, Lisbon, Portugal, July 5-7, 2004. 

28. Tom Duckett, Grzegorz Cielniak, Henrik Andreasson, Li Jun, Achim Lilienthal, Peter 

Biber and Tomás Martínez. Robotic Security Guard - Autonomous Surveillance and 

Remote Perception (abstract). Proc. IEEE International Workshop on Safety, Security, 

and Rescue Robotics, Bonn, Germany, May 24-26, 2004. 

29. Dimiter Driankov, Tom Duckett and Alessandro Saffiotti. A System for Vision Based 

Human-Robot Interaction (short paper). Proc. IEEE International Workshop on Safety, 

Security, and Rescue Robotics, Bonn, Germany, May 24-26, 2004. 

30. D. Herrero Pérez, H. Martínez Barberá and A. Saffiotti. Fuzzy Self-Localization using 

Natural Features on an AIBO Robot. Proc. of the Int. RoboCup Symposium. Lisbon, 

Portugal, 2004. 

31. J.P Cánovas, K. LeBlanc and A. Saffiotti. Multi-Robot Object Localization by Fuzzy 

Logic. Proc. of the Int. RoboCup Symposium. Lisbon, Portugal, 2004. 

32. A. Chella, S. Coradeschi, M. Frixione and A. Saffiotti. Perceptual Anchoring via 

Conceptual Spaces. Proc. of the AAAI-04 Workhsop on Anchoring. San Jose, CA, 2004. 

33. R. Lundh, L. Karlsson and A. Saffiotti. Dynamic Configuration of a Team of Robots. 

Proc. of the ECAI-04 Workshop on Agents in Dynamic and Real-Time Environments. 

Valencia, Spain, 2004. 

34. K. Bergstrand, K. Carlsson, P. Wide, B. Lindgren. Sound Detection in Noisy 

Environment – Location Drilling Sound by using an Artificial Ear. Proceedings of the 

2004 International workshop on Robot Sensing. ROSE’2004. Graz, Austria, 2004. 

35. M. Broxvall, S. Coradeschi, L. Karlsson and A. Saffiotti. Have Another Look: On 

failures and recovery planning in perceptual anchoring. Proc. Of the ECAI-04 Workshop 

on Cognitive Robotics. Valencia, Spain, 2004. 

36. A. Bouguerra and L. Karlsson. Hierarchical Task Planning under Uncertainty. Proc. Of 

the 3 rd Italian Workshop on Planning and Scheduling. Perugia, Italy, 2004.


37. Lucia Vacariu, B. P. Csaba, I. A. Letia, G. A. Fodor, O. Cret, A Multi-Agent Cooperative 

Mobile Robotics Approach for Search and Rescue Missions, IFAC Symposium on 

Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles, 5-7 July, Lisbon, Portugal, 2004. 

38. G. Fodor, Information-Effective Industrial Architectures, Workshop paper, Proc of the 

IECON 2004 Conference (The 30-th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial 

Electronics Society), Nov. 2-6, 2004, Busan, Korea.

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