SysConTalks
SysConTalks is an initiative by the Ph.D. students of the Systems and Control group at IIT Bombay. We organize seminars by researchers at the forefront of Academia and the Industry, and our aim is to provide an engaging platform for students such as ourselves to learn from the best minds in the broad areas of systems and control, optimization, and data science.
Never miss an update: Click here to join the google group
Upcoming events
Dr. Hoam Chung
Monash University
Title: Learning to Assist and Communicate with Novice Drone Pilots for
Expert Level Performance
Schedule: 4:00 PM, November 28, 2023
Venue: SysCon Seminar Room
Abstract
Multi-task missions for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) involving inspection and landing tasks are challenging for novice pilots due to the difficulties associated with depth perception and the control interface. We propose a shared autonomy system, alongside supplementary information displays, to assist pilots to successfully complete multi-task missions without any pilot training. Our approach comprises of three modules: (1) a perception module that encodes visual information onto a latent representation, (2) a policy module that augments pilot's actions, and (3) an information augmentation module that provides additional information to the pilot. The policy module is trained in simulation with simulated users and transferred to the real world without modification in a user study (n=29), alongside alternative supplementary information schemes including learnt red/green light feedback cues and an augmented reality display. The pilot’s intent is unknown to the policy module and is inferred from the pilot’s input and UAV’s states. The assistant increased task success rate for the landing and inspection tasks from [16.67% & 54.29] respectively to [95.59% & 96.22]. With the assistant, inexperienced pilots achieved similar performance to experienced pilots. Red/green light feedback cues reduced the required time by 19.53\% and trajectory length by 17.86% for the inspection task, where participants rated it as their preferred condition due to the intuitive interface and providing reassurance. This work demonstrates that simple user models can train shared autonomy systems in simulation, and transfer to physical tasks to estimate user intent and provide effective assistance and information to the pilot.
Biography
Hoam Chung received the B.A. and M.S. degrees in precision mechanical engineering from Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea, in 1997 and 1999, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California Berkeley, in May 2006. After working for three years in the Intelligent Machines and Robotics Laboratory at the UC Berkeley as a postdoctoral researcher and a research scientist, he joined the Faculty of Engineering at Monash University, Clayton, Australia in 2010, and is now a Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. His current research interests include shared autonomy, receding horizon control theory and its applications, multi-agent systems, human motion data analyses for medical diagnosis, and autonomous unmanned systems.