Publications | Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems

2015

am ei van Hoof, H., Peters, J., Neumann, G. Learning of Non-Parametric Control Policies with High-Dimensional State Features In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics, 38, pages: 995–1003, (Editors: Lebanon, G. and Vishwanathan, S.V.N. ), JMLR, AISTATS, 2015 (inproceedings)

Towards a Learning Theory of Cause-Effect Inference

Lopez-Paz, D., Muandet, K., Schölkopf, B., Tolstikhin, I.

In Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference on Machine Learning, 37, pages: 1452–1461, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: F. Bach and D. Blei), JMLR, ICML, 2015 (inproceedings)

Web [BibTex]

ei Lopez-Paz, D., Muandet, K., Schölkopf, B., Tolstikhin, I. Towards a Learning Theory of Cause-Effect Inference In Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference on Machine Learning, 37, pages: 1452–1461, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: F. Bach and D. Blei), JMLR, ICML, 2015 (inproceedings)

Web [BibTex]

BundleMAP: Anatomically Localized Features from dMRI for Detection of Disease

Khatami, M., Schmidt-Wilcke, T., Sundgren, P., Abbasloo, A., Schölkopf, B., Schultz, T.

In 6th International Workshop on Machine Learning in Medical Imaging, 9352, pages: 52-60, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, (Editors: L. Zhou, L. Wang, Q. Wang and Y. Shi), Springer, MLMI, 2015 (inproceedings)

ei Khatami, M., Schmidt-Wilcke, T., Sundgren, P., Abbasloo, A., Schölkopf, B., Schultz, T. BundleMAP: Anatomically Localized Features from dMRI for Detection of Disease In 6th International Workshop on Machine Learning in Medical Imaging, 9352, pages: 52-60, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, (Editors: L. Zhou, L. Wang, Q. Wang and Y. Shi), Springer, MLMI, 2015 (inproceedings)

Data-Driven Online Decision Making for Autonomous Manipulation

Kappler, D., Pastor, P., Kalakrishnan, M., Wuthrich, M., Schaal, S.

In Proceedings of Robotics: Science and Systems, Rome, Italy, 2015 (inproceedings)

am Kappler, D., Pastor, P., Kalakrishnan, M., Wuthrich, M., Schaal, S. Data-Driven Online Decision Making for Autonomous Manipulation In Proceedings of Robotics: Science and Systems, Rome, Italy, 2015 (inproceedings)

Predicting Human Reaching Motion in Collaborative Tasks Using Inverse Optimal Control and Iterative Re-planning

Mainprice, J., Hayne, R., Berenson, D.

In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2015 (inproceedings)

am Mainprice, J., Hayne, R., Berenson, D. Predicting Human Reaching Motion in Collaborative Tasks Using Inverse Optimal Control and Iterative Re-planning In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2015 (inproceedings)

Hierarchical Label Queries with Data-Dependent Partitions

Kpotufe, S., Urner, R., Ben-David, S.

In Proceedings of the 28th Conference on Learning Theory, 40, pages: 1176-1189, (Editors: Grünwald, P. and Hazan, E. and Kale, S. ), JMLR, COLT, 2015 (inproceedings)

ei Kpotufe, S., Urner, R., Ben-David, S. Hierarchical Label Queries with Data-Dependent Partitions In Proceedings of the 28th Conference on Learning Theory, 40, pages: 1176-1189, (Editors: Grünwald, P. and Hazan, E. and Kale, S. ), JMLR, COLT, 2015 (inproceedings)

Semi-Autonomous 3rd-Hand Robot

Lopes, M., Peters, J., Piater, J., Toussaint, M., Baisero, A., Busch, B., Erkent, O., Kroemer, O., Lioutikov, R., Maeda, G., Mollard, Y., Munzer, T., Shukla, D.

In Workshop on Cognitive Robotics in Future Manufacturing Scenarios, European Robotics Forum, 2015 (inproceedings)

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am ei Lopes, M., Peters, J., Piater, J., Toussaint, M., Baisero, A., Busch, B., Erkent, O., Kroemer, O., Lioutikov, R., Maeda, G., Mollard, Y., Munzer, T., Shukla, D. Semi-Autonomous 3rd-Hand Robot In Workshop on Cognitive Robotics in Future Manufacturing Scenarios, European Robotics Forum, 2015 (inproceedings)

video pdf preprint Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

FlowCap: 2D Human Pose from Optical Flow

Romero, J., Loper, M., Black, M. J.

In Pattern Recognition, Proc. 37th German Conference on Pattern Recognition (GCPR), LNCS 9358, pages: 412-423, Springer, GCPR, 2015 (inproceedings)

Abstract

We estimate 2D human pose from video using only optical flow. The key insight is that dense optical flow can provide information about 2D body pose. Like range data, flow is largely invariant to appearance but unlike depth it can be directly computed from monocular video. We demonstrate that body parts can be detected from dense flow using the same random forest approach used by the Microsoft Kinect. Unlike range data, however, when people stop moving, there is no optical flow and they effectively disappear. To address this, our FlowCap method uses a Kalman filter to propagate body part positions and ve- locities over time and a regression method to predict 2D body pose from part centers. No range sensor is required and FlowCap estimates 2D human pose from monocular video sources containing human motion. Such sources include hand-held phone cameras and archival television video. We demonstrate 2D body pose estimation in a range of scenarios and show that the method works with real-time optical flow. The results suggest that optical flow shares invariances with range data that, when complemented with tracking, make it valuable for pose estimation.

ps Romero, J., Loper, M., Black, M. J. FlowCap: 2D Human Pose from Optical Flow In Pattern Recognition, Proc. 37th German Conference on Pattern Recognition (GCPR), LNCS 9358, pages: 412-423, Springer, GCPR, 2015 (inproceedings)

video pdf preprint Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

Neural Adaptive Sequential Monte Carlo

Gu, S., Ghahramani, Z., Turner, R. E.

Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 28, pages: 2629-2637, (Editors: Corinna Cortes, Neil D. Lawrence, Daniel D. Lee, Masashi Sugiyama, and Roman Garnett), 29th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), 2015 (conference)

PDF Supplementary [BibTex]

ei Gu, S., Ghahramani, Z., Turner, R. E. Neural Adaptive Sequential Monte Carlo Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 28, pages: 2629-2637, (Editors: Corinna Cortes, Neil D. Lawrence, Daniel D. Lee, Masashi Sugiyama, and Roman Garnett), 29th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), 2015 (conference)

PDF Supplementary [BibTex]

Discovering Temporal Causal Relations from Subsampled Data

Gong, M., Zhang, K., Schölkopf, B., Tao, D., Geiger, P.

In Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference on Machine Learning, 37, pages: 1898–1906, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: F. Bach and D. Blei), JMLR, ICML, 2015 (inproceedings)

ei Gong, M., Zhang, K., Schölkopf, B., Tao, D., Geiger, P. Discovering Temporal Causal Relations from Subsampled Data In Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference on Machine Learning, 37, pages: 1898–1906, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: F. Bach and D. Blei), JMLR, ICML, 2015 (inproceedings)

Active Nearest Neighbors in Changing Environments

Berlind, C., Urner, R.

In Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference on Machine Learning, 37, pages: 1870-1879, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: Bach, F. and Blei, D. ), JMLR, ICML, 2015 (inproceedings)

ei Berlind, C., Urner, R. Active Nearest Neighbors in Changing Environments In Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference on Machine Learning, 37, pages: 1870-1879, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: Bach, F. and Blei, D. ), JMLR, ICML, 2015 (inproceedings)

Learning Inverse Dynamics Models with Contacts

Calandra, R., Ivaldi, S., Deisenroth, M., Rückert, E., Peters, J.

In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pages: 3186-3191, ICRA, 2015 (inproceedings)

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am ei Calandra, R., Ivaldi, S., Deisenroth, M., Rückert, E., Peters, J. Learning Inverse Dynamics Models with Contacts In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pages: 3186-3191, ICRA, 2015 (inproceedings)

A Probabilistic Framework for Semi-Autonomous Robots Based on Interaction Primitives with Phase Estimation

Maeda, G., Neumann, G., Ewerton, M., Lioutikov, R., Peters, J.

In Proceedings of the International Symposium of Robotics Research, ISRR, 2015 (inproceedings)

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am ei Maeda, G., Neumann, G., Ewerton, M., Lioutikov, R., Peters, J. A Probabilistic Framework for Semi-Autonomous Robots Based on Interaction Primitives with Phase Estimation In Proceedings of the International Symposium of Robotics Research, ISRR, 2015 (inproceedings)

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

Peer grading in a course on algorithms and data structures

Workshop on Machine Learning for Education (ML4Ed) at the 32th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 2015 (conference)

ei Sajjadi, M. S. M., Alamgir, M., von Luxburg, U. Peer grading in a course on algorithms and data structures Workshop on Machine Learning for Education (ML4Ed) at the 32th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 2015 (conference)

Extended version on arXiv link (url) [BibTex]

Joint 3D Object and Layout Inference from a single RGB-D Image

(Best Paper Award)

Geiger, A., Wang, C.

In German Conference on Pattern Recognition (GCPR), 9358, pages: 183-195, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer International Publishing, 2015 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Inferring 3D objects and the layout of indoor scenes from a single RGB-D image captured with a Kinect camera is a challenging task. Towards this goal, we propose a high-order graphical model and jointly reason about the layout, objects and superpixels in the image. In contrast to existing holistic approaches, our model leverages detailed 3D geometry using inverse graphics and explicitly enforces occlusion and visibility constraints for respecting scene properties and projective geometry. We cast the task as MAP inference in a factor graph and solve it efficiently using message passing. We evaluate our method with respect to several baselines on the challenging NYUv2 indoor dataset using 21 object categories. Our experiments demonstrate that the proposed method is able to infer scenes with a large degree of clutter and occlusions.

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pdf suppmat video project DOI [BibTex]

avg ps Geiger, A., Wang, C. Joint 3D Object and Layout Inference from a single RGB-D Image In German Conference on Pattern Recognition (GCPR), 9358, pages: 183-195, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer International Publishing, 2015 (inproceedings)

pdf suppmat video project DOI [BibTex]

Removing systematic errors for exoplanet search via latent causes

Schölkopf, B., Hogg, D., Wang, D., Foreman-Mackey, D., Janzing, D., Simon-Gabriel, C. J., Peters, J.

In Proceedings of The 32nd International Conference on Machine Learning, 37, pages: 2218–2226, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: Bach, F. and Blei, D.), JMLR, ICML, 2015 (inproceedings)

ei Schölkopf, B., Hogg, D., Wang, D., Foreman-Mackey, D., Janzing, D., Simon-Gabriel, C. J., Peters, J. Removing systematic errors for exoplanet search via latent causes In Proceedings of The 32nd International Conference on Machine Learning, 37, pages: 2218–2226, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: Bach, F. and Blei, D.), JMLR, ICML, 2015 (inproceedings)

Extended version on arXiv link (url) [BibTex]

Causal Inference by Identification of Vector Autoregressive Processes with Hidden Components

Geiger, P., Zhang, K., Schölkopf, B., Gong, M., Janzing, D.

In Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference on Machine Learning, 37, pages: 1917–1925, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: F. Bach and D. Blei), JMLR, ICML, 2015 (inproceedings)

ei Geiger, P., Zhang, K., Schölkopf, B., Gong, M., Janzing, D. Causal Inference by Identification of Vector Autoregressive Processes with Hidden Components In Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference on Machine Learning, 37, pages: 1917–1925, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: F. Bach and D. Blei), JMLR, ICML, 2015 (inproceedings)

Brain-Computer Interfacing in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Implications of a Resting-State EEG Analysis

Jayaram, V., Widmann, N., Förster, C., Fomina, T., Hohmann, M. R., Müller vom Hagen, J., Synofzik, M., Schölkopf, B., Schöls, L., Grosse-Wentrup, M.

In Proceedings of the 37th IEEE Conference for Engineering in Medicine and Biology, pages: 6979-6982, EMBC, 2015 (inproceedings)

ei Jayaram, V., Widmann, N., Förster, C., Fomina, T., Hohmann, M. R., Müller vom Hagen, J., Synofzik, M., Schölkopf, B., Schöls, L., Grosse-Wentrup, M. Brain-Computer Interfacing in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Implications of a Resting-State EEG Analysis In Proceedings of the 37th IEEE Conference for Engineering in Medicine and Biology, pages: 6979-6982, EMBC, 2015 (inproceedings)

Fomina, T., Hohmann, M. R., Schölkopf, B., Grosse-Wentrup, M.

Identification of the Default Mode Network with Electroencephalography

In Proceedings of the 37th IEEE Conference for Engineering in Medicine and Biology, pages: 7566-7569, EMBC, 2015 (inproceedings)

ei Fomina, T., Hohmann, M. R., Schölkopf, B., Grosse-Wentrup, M. Identification of the Default Mode Network with Electroencephalography In Proceedings of the 37th IEEE Conference for Engineering in Medicine and Biology, pages: 7566-7569, EMBC, 2015 (inproceedings)

Fomina, T., Schölkopf, B., Grosse-Wentrup, M.

Towards Cognitive Brain-Computer Interfaces for Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

In 7th Computer Science and Electronic Engineering Conference, pages: 77-80, Curran Associates, Inc., CEEC, 2015 (inproceedings)

ei Fomina, T., Schölkopf, B., Grosse-Wentrup, M. Towards Cognitive Brain-Computer Interfaces for Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis In 7th Computer Science and Electronic Engineering Conference, pages: 77-80, Curran Associates, Inc., CEEC, 2015 (inproceedings)

Towards Learning Hierarchical Skills for Multi-Phase Manipulation Tasks

Kroemer, O., Daniel, C., Neumann, G., van Hoof, H., Peters, J.

In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pages: 1503 - 1510, ICRA, 2015 (inproceedings)

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am ei Kroemer, O., Daniel, C., Neumann, G., van Hoof, H., Peters, J. Towards Learning Hierarchical Skills for Multi-Phase Manipulation Tasks In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pages: 1503 - 1510, ICRA, 2015 (inproceedings)

Mahsereci, M., Hennig, P.

Probabilistic Line Searches for Stochastic Optimization

In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 28, pages: 181-189, (Editors: C. Cortes, N.D. Lawrence, D.D. Lee, M. Sugiyama and R. Garnett), Curran Associates, Inc., 29th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), 2015 (inproceedings)

Abstract

In deterministic optimization, line searches are a standard tool ensuring stability and efficiency. Where only stochastic gradients are available, no direct equivalent has so far been formulated, because uncertain gradients do not allow for a strict sequence of decisions collapsing the search space. We construct a probabilistic line search by combining the structure of existing deterministic methods with notions from Bayesian optimization. Our method retains a Gaussian process surrogate of the univariate optimization objective, and uses a probabilistic belief over the Wolfe conditions to monitor the descent. The algorithm has very low computational cost, and no user-controlled parameters. Experiments show that it effectively removes the need to define a learning rate for stochastic gradient descent. [You can find the matlab research code under `attachments' below. The zip-file contains a minimal working example. The docstring in probLineSearch.m contains additional information. A more polished implementation in C++ will be published here at a later point. For comments and questions about the code please write to mmahsereci@tue.mpg.de.]

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Matlab research code link (url) [BibTex]

ei pn Mahsereci, M., Hennig, P. Probabilistic Line Searches for Stochastic Optimization In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 28, pages: 181-189, (Editors: C. Cortes, N.D. Lawrence, D.D. Lee, M. Sugiyama and R. Garnett), Curran Associates, Inc., 29th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), 2015 (inproceedings)

Matlab research code link (url) [BibTex]

Force estimation and slip detection/classification for grip control using a biomimetic tactile sensor

Su, Z., Hausman, K., Chebotar, Y., Molchanov, A., Loeb, G. E., Sukhatme, G. S., Schaal, S.

In IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), pages: 297-303, 2015 (inproceedings)

am Su, Z., Hausman, K., Chebotar, Y., Molchanov, A., Loeb, G. E., Sukhatme, G. S., Schaal, S. Force estimation and slip detection/classification for grip control using a biomimetic tactile sensor In IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), pages: 297-303, 2015 (inproceedings)

BACKSHIFT: Learning causal cyclic graphs from unknown shift interventions

Rothenhäusler, D., Heinze, C., Peters, J., Meinshausen, N.

Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 28, pages: 1513-1521, (Editors: C. Cortes, N.D. Lawrence, D.D. Lee, M. Sugiyama and R. Garnett), Curran Associates, Inc., 29th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), 2015 (conference)

ei Rothenhäusler, D., Heinze, C., Peters, J., Meinshausen, N. BACKSHIFT: Learning causal cyclic graphs from unknown shift interventions Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 28, pages: 1513-1521, (Editors: C. Cortes, N.D. Lawrence, D.D. Lee, M. Sugiyama and R. Garnett), Curran Associates, Inc., 29th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), 2015 (conference)

Particle Gibbs for Infinite Hidden Markov Models

Tripuraneni*, N., Gu*, S., Ge, H., Ghahramani, Z.

Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 28, pages: 2395-2403, (Editors: Corinna Cortes, Neil D. Lawrence, Daniel D. Lee, Masashi Sugiyama, and Roman Garnett), 29th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), 2015, *equal contribution (conference)

ei Tripuraneni*, N., Gu*, S., Ge, H., Ghahramani, Z. Particle Gibbs for Infinite Hidden Markov Models Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 28, pages: 2395-2403, (Editors: Corinna Cortes, Neil D. Lawrence, Daniel D. Lee, Masashi Sugiyama, and Roman Garnett), 29th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), 2015, *equal contribution (conference)

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

Peer grading in a course on algorithms and data structures

Workshop on Crowdsourcing and Machine Learning (CrowdML) Workshop on Machine Learning for Education (ML4Ed) at at the 32th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 2015 (conference)

ei Sajjadi, M. S. M., Alamgir, M., von Luxburg, U. Peer grading in a course on algorithms and data structures Workshop on Crowdsourcing and Machine Learning (CrowdML) Workshop on Machine Learning for Education (ML4Ed) at at the 32th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 2015 (conference)

3D Object Class Detection in the Wild

Pepik, B., Stark, M., Gehler, P., Ritschel, T., Schiele, B.

In Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops (CVPRW), IEEE, Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops (CVPRW), 2015 (inproceedings)

ps Pepik, B., Stark, M., Gehler, P., Ritschel, T., Schiele, B. 3D Object Class Detection in the Wild In Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops (CVPRW), IEEE, Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops (CVPRW), 2015 (inproceedings)

Discrete Optimization for Optical Flow

Menze, M., Heipke, C., Geiger, A.

In German Conference on Pattern Recognition (GCPR), 9358, pages: 16-28, Springer International Publishing, 2015 (inproceedings)

Abstract

We propose to look at large-displacement optical flow from a discrete point of view. Motivated by the observation that sub-pixel accuracy is easily obtained given pixel-accurate optical flow, we conjecture that computing the integral part is the hardest piece of the problem. Consequently, we formulate optical flow estimation as a discrete inference problem in a conditional random field, followed by sub-pixel refinement. Naive discretization of the 2D flow space, however, is intractable due to the resulting size of the label set. In this paper, we therefore investigate three different strategies, each able to reduce computation and memory demands by several orders of magnitude. Their combination allows us to estimate large-displacement optical flow both accurately and efficiently and demonstrates the potential of discrete optimization for optical flow. We obtain state-of-the-art performance on MPI Sintel and KITTI.

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pdf suppmat project DOI [BibTex]

avg ps Menze, M., Heipke, C., Geiger, A. Discrete Optimization for Optical Flow In German Conference on Pattern Recognition (GCPR), 9358, pages: 16-28, Springer International Publishing, 2015 (inproceedings)

pdf suppmat project DOI [BibTex]

A Random Riemannian Metric for Probabilistic Shortest-Path Tractography

Hauberg, S., Schober, M., Liptrot, M., Hennig, P., Feragen, A.

In 18th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention, 9349, pages: 597-604, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, MICCAI, 2015 (inproceedings)

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ei pn Hauberg, S., Schober, M., Liptrot, M., Hennig, P., Feragen, A. A Random Riemannian Metric for Probabilistic Shortest-Path Tractography In 18th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention, 9349, pages: 597-604, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, MICCAI, 2015 (inproceedings)

Recent Methodological Advances in Causal Discovery and Inference

Spirtes, P., Zhang, K.

In 15th Conference on Theoretical Aspects of Rationality and Knowledge, pages: 23-35, (Editors: Ramanujam, R.), TARK, 2015 (inproceedings)

ei Spirtes, P., Zhang, K. Recent Methodological Advances in Causal Discovery and Inference In 15th Conference on Theoretical Aspects of Rationality and Knowledge, pages: 23-35, (Editors: Ramanujam, R.), TARK, 2015 (inproceedings)

Web Project Page [BibTex]

Policy Learning with Hypothesis Based Local Action Selection

Sankaran, B., Bohg, J., Ratliff, N., Schaal, S.

In Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making, 2015 (inproceedings)

Abstract

For robots to be able to manipulate in unknown and unstructured environments the robot should be capable of operating under partial observability of the environment. Object occlusions and unmodeled environments are some of the factors that result in partial observability. A common scenario where this is encountered is manipulation in clutter. In the case that the robot needs to locate an object of interest and manipulate it, it needs to perform a series of decluttering actions to accurately detect the object of interest. To perform such a series of actions, the robot also needs to account for the dynamics of objects in the environment and how they react to contact. This is a non trivial problem since one needs to reason not only about robot-object interactions but also object-object interactions in the presence of contact. In the example scenario of manipulation in clutter, the state vector would have to account for the pose of the object of interest and the structure of the surrounding environment. The process model would have to account for all the aforementioned robot-object, object-object interactions. The complexity of the process model grows exponentially as the number of objects in the scene increases. This is commonly the case in unstructured environments. Hence it is not reasonable to attempt to model all object-object and robot-object interactions explicitly. Under this setting we propose a hypothesis based action selection algorithm where we construct a hypothesis set of the possible poses of an object of interest given the current evidence in the scene and select actions based on our current set of hypothesis. This hypothesis set tends to represent the belief about the structure of the environment and the number of poses the object of interest can take. The agent's only stopping criterion is when the uncertainty regarding the pose of the object is fully resolved.

am Sankaran, B., Bohg, J., Ratliff, N., Schaal, S. Policy Learning with Hypothesis Based Local Action Selection In Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making, 2015 (inproceedings)

Web Project Page [BibTex]

Joint 3D Estimation of Vehicles and Scene Flow

Menze, M., Heipke, C., Geiger, A.

In Proc. of the ISPRS Workshop on Image Sequence Analysis (ISA), 2015 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Three-dimensional reconstruction of dynamic scenes is an important prerequisite for applications like mobile robotics or autonomous driving. While much progress has been made in recent years, imaging conditions in natural outdoor environments are still very challenging for current reconstruction and recognition methods. In this paper, we propose a novel unified approach which reasons jointly about 3D scene flow as well as the pose, shape and motion of vehicles in the scene. Towards this goal, we incorporate a deformable CAD model into a slanted-plane conditional random field for scene flow estimation and enforce shape consistency between the rendered 3D models and the parameters of all superpixels in the image. The association of superpixels to objects is established by an index variable which implicitly enables model selection. We evaluate our approach on the challenging KITTI scene flow dataset in terms of object and scene flow estimation. Our results provide a prove of concept and demonstrate the usefulness of our method.

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avg ps Menze, M., Heipke, C., Geiger, A. Joint 3D Estimation of Vehicles and Scene Flow In Proc. of the ISPRS Workshop on Image Sequence Analysis (ISA), 2015 (inproceedings)

Learning Optimal Striking Points for A Ping-Pong Playing Robot

Huang, Y., Schölkopf, B., Peters, J.

In IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pages: 4587-4592, IROS, 2015 (inproceedings)

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am ei Huang, Y., Schölkopf, B., Peters, J. Learning Optimal Striking Points for A Ping-Pong Playing Robot In IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pages: 4587-4592, IROS, 2015 (inproceedings)

Model-Based Relative Entropy Stochastic Search

Abdolmaleki, A., Peters, J., Neumann, G.

In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 28, pages: 3523-3531, (Editors: C. Cortes, N.D. Lawrence, D.D. Lee, M. Sugiyama and R. Garnett), Curran Associates, Inc., 29th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), 2015 (inproceedings)

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am ei Abdolmaleki, A., Peters, J., Neumann, G. Model-Based Relative Entropy Stochastic Search In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 28, pages: 3523-3531, (Editors: C. Cortes, N.D. Lawrence, D.D. Lee, M. Sugiyama and R. Garnett), Curran Associates, Inc., 29th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), 2015 (inproceedings)

Modeling Spatio-Temporal Variability in Human-Robot Interaction with Probabilistic Movement Primitives

Ewerton, M., Neumann, G., Lioutikov, R., Ben Amor, H., Peters, J., Maeda, G.

In Workshop on Machine Learning for Social Robotics, ICRA, 2015 (inproceedings)

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am ei Ewerton, M., Neumann, G., Lioutikov, R., Ben Amor, H., Peters, J., Maeda, G. Modeling Spatio-Temporal Variability in Human-Robot Interaction with Probabilistic Movement Primitives In Workshop on Machine Learning for Social Robotics, ICRA, 2015 (inproceedings)

Extracting Low-Dimensional Control Variables for Movement Primitives

Rueckert, E., Mundo, J., Paraschos, A., Peters, J., Neumann, G.

In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pages: 1511-1518, ICRA, 2015 (inproceedings)

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am ei Rueckert, E., Mundo, J., Paraschos, A., Peters, J., Neumann, G. Extracting Low-Dimensional Control Variables for Movement Primitives In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pages: 1511-1518, ICRA, 2015 (inproceedings)

Hirsch, M., Schölkopf, B.

Self-calibration of optical lenses

In IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV 2015), pages: 612-620, IEEE, 2015 (inproceedings)

ei Hirsch, M., Schölkopf, B. Self-calibration of optical lenses In IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV 2015), pages: 612-620, IEEE, 2015 (inproceedings)

pdf link (url) DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Smooth Loops from Unconstrained Video

Sevilla-Lara, L., Wulff, J., Sunkavalli, K., Shechtman, E.

In Computer Graphics Forum (Proceedings of EGSR), 34(4):99-107, Eurographics Symposium on Rendering, 2015 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Converting unconstrained video sequences into videos that loop seamlessly is an extremely challenging problem. In this work, we take the first steps towards automating this process by focusing on an important subclass of videos containing a single dominant foreground object. Our technique makes two novel contributions over previous work: first, we propose a correspondence-based similarity metric to automatically identify a good transition point in the video where the appearance and dynamics of the foreground are most consistent. Second, we develop a technique that aligns both the foreground and background about this transition point using a combination of global camera path planning and patch-based video morphing. We demonstrate that this allows us to create natural, compelling, loopy videos from a wide range of videos collected from the internet.

ps Sevilla-Lara, L., Wulff, J., Sunkavalli, K., Shechtman, E. Smooth Loops from Unconstrained Video In Computer Graphics Forum (Proceedings of EGSR), 34(4):99-107, Eurographics Symposium on Rendering, 2015 (inproceedings)

pdf link (url) DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Telling cause from effect in deterministic linear dynamical systems

Shajarisales, N., Janzing, D., Schölkopf, B., Besserve, M.

In Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference on Machine Learning, 37, pages: 285–294, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: F. Bach and D. Blei), JMLR, ICML, 2015 (inproceedings)

ei Shajarisales, N., Janzing, D., Schölkopf, B., Besserve, M. Telling cause from effect in deterministic linear dynamical systems In Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference on Machine Learning, 37, pages: 285–294, JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings, (Editors: F. Bach and D. Blei), JMLR, ICML, 2015 (inproceedings)

A New Perspective and Extension of the Gaussian Filter

Wüthrich, M., Trimpe, S., Kappler, D., Schaal, S.

In Robotics: Science and Systems, 2015 (inproceedings)

Abstract

The Gaussian Filter (GF) is one of the most widely used filtering algorithms; instances are the Extended Kalman Filter, the Unscented Kalman Filter and the Divided Difference Filter. GFs represent the belief of the current state by a Gaussian with the mean being an affine function of the measurement. We show that this representation can be too restrictive to accurately capture the dependencies in systems with nonlinear observation models, and we investigate how the GF can be generalized to alleviate this problem. To this end we view the GF from a variational-inference perspective, and analyze how restrictions on the form of the belief can be relaxed while maintaining simplicity and efficiency. This analysis provides a basis for generalizations of the GF. We propose one such generalization which coincides with a GF using a virtual measurement, obtained by applying a nonlinear function to the actual measurement. Numerical experiments show that the proposed Feature Gaussian Filter (FGF) can have a substantial performance advantage over the standard GF for systems with nonlinear observation models.

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Web PDF Project Page [BibTex]

am ics Wüthrich, M., Trimpe, S., Kappler, D., Schaal, S. A New Perspective and Extension of the Gaussian Filter In Robotics: Science and Systems, 2015 (inproceedings)

Web PDF Project Page [BibTex]

A Cognitive Brain-Computer Interface for Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Hohmann, M. R., Fomina, T., Jayaram, V., Widmann, N., Förster, C., Müller vom Hagen, J., Synofzik, M., Schölkopf, B., Schöls, L., Grosse-Wentrup, M.

In Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, pages: 3187-3191, SMC, 2015 (inproceedings)

ei Hohmann, M. R., Fomina, T., Jayaram, V., Widmann, N., Förster, C., Müller vom Hagen, J., Synofzik, M., Schölkopf, B., Schöls, L., Grosse-Wentrup, M. A Cognitive Brain-Computer Interface for Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis In Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, pages: 3187-3191, SMC, 2015 (inproceedings)

Efficient Learning of Linear Separators under Bounded Noise

Awasthi, P., Balcan, M., Haghtalab, N., Urner, R.

In Proceedings of the 28th Conference on Learning Theory, 40, pages: 167-190, (Editors: Grünwald, P. and Hazan, E. and Kale, S.), JMLR, COLT, 2015 (inproceedings)

ei Awasthi, P., Balcan, M., Haghtalab, N., Urner, R. Efficient Learning of Linear Separators under Bounded Noise In Proceedings of the 28th Conference on Learning Theory, 40, pages: 167-190, (Editors: Grünwald, P. and Hazan, E. and Kale, S.), JMLR, COLT, 2015 (inproceedings)

Learning multiple collaborative tasks with a mixture of Interaction Primitives

Ewerton, M., Neumann, G., Lioutikov, R., Ben Amor, H., Peters, J., Maeda, G.

In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pages: 1535-1542, ICRA, 2015 (inproceedings)

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am ei Ewerton, M., Neumann, G., Lioutikov, R., Ben Amor, H., Peters, J., Maeda, G. Learning multiple collaborative tasks with a mixture of Interaction Primitives In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pages: 1535-1542, ICRA, 2015 (inproceedings)

Whole-body motor strategies for balancing on a beam when changing the number of available degrees of freedom

Chiovetto, E, Huber, M, Righetti, L., Schaal, S., Sternad, D, Giese, M.

In Progress in Motor Control X, Budapest, Hungry, 2015 (inproceedings)

am Chiovetto, E, Huber, M, Righetti, L., Schaal, S., Sternad, D, Giese, M. Whole-body motor strategies for balancing on a beam when changing the number of available degrees of freedom In Progress in Motor Control X, Budapest, Hungry, 2015 (inproceedings)

DOI Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

Combined FORC and x-ray microscopy study of magnetisation reversal in antidot lattices

Gräfe, J., Haering, F., Stahl, C., Weigand, M., Skripnik, M., Nowak, U., Ziemann, P., Wiedwald, U., Schütz, G., Goering, E.

In IEEE International Magnetics Conference (INTERMAG 2015), IEEE, Beijing, China, 2015 (inproceedings)

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mms Gräfe, J., Haering, F., Stahl, C., Weigand, M., Skripnik, M., Nowak, U., Ziemann, P., Wiedwald, U., Schütz, G., Goering, E. Combined FORC and x-ray microscopy study of magnetisation reversal in antidot lattices In IEEE International Magnetics Conference (INTERMAG 2015), IEEE, Beijing, China, 2015 (inproceedings)

DOI Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

Local control of domain wall dynamics in ferromagnetic rings

Richter, K., Mawass, M., Krone, A., Krüger, B., Weigand, M., Stoll, H., Schütz, G., Kläui, M.

In IEEE International Magnetics Conference (INTERMAG 2015), IEEE, Beijing, China, 2015 (inproceedings)

mms

mms Richter, K., Mawass, M., Krone, A., Krüger, B., Weigand, M., Stoll, H., Schütz, G., Kläui, M. Local control of domain wall dynamics in ferromagnetic rings In IEEE International Magnetics Conference (INTERMAG 2015), IEEE, Beijing, China, 2015 (inproceedings)

Developing neural networks with neurons competing for survival

Peng, Z, Braun, DA

pages: 152-153, IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, USA, 5th Joint IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and on Epigenetic Robotics (IEEE ICDL-EPIROB), August 2015 (conference)

Abstract

We study developmental growth in a feedforward neural network model inspired by the survival principle in nature. Each neuron has to select its incoming connections in a way that allow it to fire, as neurons that are not able to fire over a period of time degenerate and die. In order to survive, neurons have to find reoccurring patterns in the activity of the neurons in the preceding layer, because each neuron requires more than one active input at any one time to have enough activation for firing. The sensory input at the lowest layer therefore provides the maximum amount of activation that all neurons compete for. The whole network grows dynamically over time depending on how many patterns can be found and how many neurons can maintain themselves accordingly. We show in simulations that this naturally leads to abstractions in higher layers that emerge in a unsupervised fashion. When evaluating the network in a supervised learning paradigm, it is clear that our network is not competitive. What is interesting though is that this performance was achieved by neurons that simply struggle for survival and do not know about performance error. In contrast to most studies on neural evolution that rely on a network-wide fitness function, our goal was to show that learning behaviour can appear in a system without being driven by any specific utility function or reward signal.

ei Peng, Z, Braun, DA Developing neural networks with neurons competing for survival pages: 152-153, IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, USA, 5th Joint IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and on Epigenetic Robotics (IEEE ICDL-EPIROB), August 2015 (conference)

From Humans to Robots and Back: Role of Arm Movement in Medio-lateral Balance Control

Huber, M, Chiovetto, E, Schaal, S., Giese, M., Sternad, D

In Annual Meeting of Neural Control of Movement, Charleston, NC, 2015 (inproceedings)

am Huber, M, Chiovetto, E, Schaal, S., Giese, M., Sternad, D From Humans to Robots and Back: Role of Arm Movement in Medio-lateral Balance Control In Annual Meeting of Neural Control of Movement, Charleston, NC, 2015 (inproceedings)

Ultrafast demagnetization after laser pulse irradiation in Ni: Ab-initio electron-phonon scattering and phase space calculations

Illg, C., Haag, M., Fähnle, M.

In Ultrafast Magnetism I. Proceedings of the International Conference UMC 2013, 159, pages: 131-133, Springer Proceedings in Physics, Springer, Strasbourg, 2015 (inproceedings)

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mms Illg, C., Haag, M., Fähnle, M. Ultrafast demagnetization after laser pulse irradiation in Ni: Ab-initio electron-phonon scattering and phase space calculations In Ultrafast Magnetism I. Proceedings of the International Conference UMC 2013, 159, pages: 131-133, Springer Proceedings in Physics, Springer, Strasbourg, 2015 (inproceedings)

Trajectory generation for multi-contact momentum control

Herzog, A., Rotella, N., Schaal, S., Righetti, L.

In 2015 IEEE-RAS 15th International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), pages: 874-880, IEEE, Seoul, South Korea, 2015 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Simplified models of the dynamics such as the linear inverted pendulum model (LIPM) have proven to perform well for biped walking on flat ground. However, for more complex tasks the assumptions of these models can become limiting. For example, the LIPM does not allow for the control of contact forces independently, is limited to co-planar contacts and assumes that the angular momentum is zero. In this paper, we propose to use the full momentum equations of a humanoid robot in a trajectory optimization framework to plan its center of mass, linear and angular momentum trajectories. The model also allows for planning desired contact forces for each end-effector in arbitrary contact locations. We extend our previous results on linear quadratic regulator (LQR) design for momentum control by computing the (linearized) optimal momentum feedback law in a receding horizon fashion. The resulting desired momentum and the associated feedback law are then used in a hierarchical whole body control approach. Simulation experiments show that the approach is computationally fast and is able to generate plans for locomotion on complex terrains while demonstrating good tracking performance for the full humanoid control.

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am mg Herzog, A., Rotella, N., Schaal, S., Righetti, L. Trajectory generation for multi-contact momentum control In 2015 IEEE-RAS 15th International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), pages: 874-880, IEEE, Seoul, South Korea, 2015 (inproceedings)