Michael William Lanighan

Transcription

1 Michael William Lanighan Contact Information lanighan Computer Science Building 140 Governors Drive Amherst, MA USA Education Ph.D. in Computer Science, Expected Fall 2018 M.S. in Computer Science, Spring 2015 Canisius College B.S. in Computer Science and Physics, May 2012, Summa Cum Laude Amherst, MA, USA, USA Research and Industry Experience Amherst, MA Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics Fall Present My research goal is to enable robust, autonomous robots. Through hardware and software development (in ROS) on the ubot mobile manipulator, my research focuses on developing belief-space planning techniques that enable robots to overcome situational uncertainty. By focusing on salient subsets of state information and mitigating risk, these techniques lead to robust systems that require less frequent human intervention. I have proposed a hierarchical belief space planning framework to achieve robust decision making under uncertainty. The approach has been demonstrated in mobile manipulation domains which require long term autonomous interaction with unstructured environments. I have made contributions that enable robots to: actively control uncertainty in their environment, make traditional task planning more reliable in partially observable environments, and recover from errors and failures at run-time. TRACLabs Houston, TX Robotics Intern June August 2016 I returned to TRACLabs in the summer of 2016 to continue work on the NASA-GM Robonaut-2 under the CRAFTSMAN project. Additionally, I contributed to an industrial project by developing perception tools and a simulator for an industrial pick and place assembly cell in ROS. Robotics Engineer July September 2015 As an on-site contractor with SRI International in Palo Alto, CA, I helped develop a prototype multi-robot cooperative work-cell for industrial automotive applications. The project required three Denso VS axis arms to cooperatively assemble a door latch in 5 seconds, with a total throughput of 600 parts per hour. The project was developed in ROS with extensive use of the Moveit! planning framework. Along with system integration I developed visuo-haptic calibration routines and a state machine to drive the system. Robotics Intern May July 2015 As part of NASA Phase II SBIR A Planning and Control Toolkit for Dual Arm Manipulation I developed force control and haptic sensing visualization tools for use on the NASA-GM Robonuat 2 using Python and C++ in ROS. Additionally, I developed probabilistic reasoning tools to support tasks that Robonaut 2 would likely perform on the International Space Station.

2 Canisius College Research Team Leader Fall Spring 2012 Led a team of undergraduate students in developing and constructing a responsive robotic agent based upon LEGOs, a Microsoft Kinect and PIC Microcontrollers. When I left the project, an expressive robot muppet had been constructed. Research Assistant to Debra Burhans and Robert Selkowitz Spring Spring 2012 Developed and constructed a robotic chess-playing agent on a shoestring budget out of LEGOs using Java for the AAAI 2011 Small Scale Manipulation Challenge. The robot: Shallow Blue, placed third at the competition and was featured in AI Magazine Vol 33, No 1. Object recognition for chess pieces was later incorporated and demoed at AAAI 2012 in exhibition matches. Research Assistant to Michael Wood Summer Summer 2012 Developed a distributed, multi-threaded data-analysis software package in Java to allow researchers to interface with Pre-shower Calorimeter (PCAL), a detector being built for the 12 GeV upgrade at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. Software included graphical user interfaces and physics packages to re-construct reactions that occur in the detector. Research Assistant to Debra Burhans and H. David Sheets Spring Spring 2011 Developed and explored applications of PIC Microcontrollers and serial protocols. Novel uses for microcontrollers were developed, including control of a 1960s era slide projector and a laser harp constructed from inexpensive laser pointers. Publications M.W. Lanighan, T. Takahashi, and R.A. Grupen. Planning Robust Manual Tasks in Hierarchical Belief Spaces. In Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS). Delft, The Netherlands, June M.W. Lanighan, T. Takahashi, and R.A. Grupen. Robust Simple Assembly via Hierarchical Belief Space Planning. Robotics: Science and Systems Workshop on POMDPs in Robotics: State of The Art, Challenges, and Opportunities. Boston, MA, USA, July T. Takahashi, M.W. Lanighan, and R.A. Grupen. Hybrid Task Planning Grounded in Belief: Constructing Physical Copies of Simple Structures. In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS). Pittsburgh, PA, USA, June 2017 (Authors contributed equally). S.M. Jordan, D. Ruiken, T.Q. Liu, T. Takahashi, M.W. Lanighan, and R.A. Grupen. Summary of Experiments in Belief-Space Planning at the Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics. In Proceedings of the 2017 AAAI Spring Symposia on Interactive Multi-Sensory Object Perception for Embodied Agents, Stanford, CA, USA, March, D. Ruiken, J.M. Wong, T.Q. Liu, M. Hebert, T. Takahashi, M.W. Lanighan, and R.A. Grupen. Affordance-Based Active Belief: Recognition using Visual and Manual Actions. In Proceedings of the 2016 International Conference on Robotics and Systems (IROS), Daejeon, Korea, October, J.P. Cummings, D. Ruiken, E.L. Wilkinson, M.W. Lanighan, R.A. Grupen, and F.C. Sup IV. A Compact, Modular Series Elastic Actuator. ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, August 2016, Vol. 8, S. Gee, M.W. Lanighan, B. Ames, and R. Burridge. Toward Performing a Filter-Vacuuming Procedure Using a Humanoid Robot on ISS. In Proceedings of The International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (i-sairas 2016). Beijing, China, June B. Ames, S. Gee, M.W. Lanighan, and R. Burridge. Seat Track Localization and Tracking for Robonaut 2 Mobility on the International Space Station. In Proceedings of The International

3 Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (i-sairas 2016). Beijing, China, June D. Ruiken, M.W. Lanighan, and R.A. Grupen. Path Planning for Dexterous Mobility. In Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS). Portsmouth, New Hampshire, June D. Burhans, R. Selkowitz, J. Sikorskyj, and M.W. Lanighan. Shallow Blue: A low-cost platform for embodied chess play In Proceedings of the 6th Annual IEEE International Conference on Technologies for Practical Robot Applications (TePRA). Boston, Massachusetts, April D. Ruiken, M.W. Lanighan, and R.A. Grupen. Postural Modes and Control for Dexterous Mobile Manipulation: the UMass ubot Concept. In Proceedings of the 13th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots. Atlanta, Georgia, October Best Paper Award Finalist. M.W. Lanighan, J. Sikorskj, D. Burhans, and R. Selkowitz. Lego Plays Chess: A Low-Cost, Low- Complexity Approach to Intelligent Robotics. In Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence. San Francisco, California August Invited Talks Toward Capable and Robust Autonomous Robots: Planning in Hierarchical Belief Spaces. Canisius College,, October 2017 Academic Honors and Awards Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium 2014 Summer Fellowship recipient 13th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots Best Paper Award Finalist National Science Foundation Honorable Mention, 2012 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Canisius College, 2017 Inductee to Inaugural Griffs Under 40 Recognizing Success as a Young Alumni The Computer Science Department Excellence in Academics Award 2012 The Computer Science Department Excellence in Research Award 2012 The Valerian A. Ruskiewicz Memorial Prize for Distinction in Experimental Physics 2012 Poster Presentations New England Manipulation Symposium, Boston, USA, June Robust Simple Assembly via Hierarchical Belief Space Planning M.W. Lanighan, T. Takahashi, and R.A. Grupen New England Manipulation Symposium, Cambridge, USA, May Cost Sensitive Whole-Body Mobility D. Ruiken, M.W. Lanighan, and R.A. Grupen AAAI 2012 Robotics Fair, Toronto, CA, July 22-26, 2012 Shallow Blue M.W. Lanighan, J. Sikorskj, D. Burhans, and R. Selkowitz NY Sectional Meeting of the APS, 105th Topical Symposium, October 7-8, 2011 PCAL Event Reconstruction M.W. Lanighan, A. Piascenzy, J. Sikorskj, and M. Wood

4 Teaching Experience Amherst, MA Workshop Mentor Summer 2017 Volunteered as a mentor for 2017 Holyoke Girls Inc. Eureka! workshop organized by Dr. Ben Marlin, a continuation of the 2014 workshop which introduces middle and high school girls to programming concepts with Scratch. Teaching Assistant: Reasoning About Uncertainty (CMPSCI 240) Fall 2015 Assisted Dr. Benjamin Marlin by developing homework assignments and an auto-grader for programming projects. Additionally held weekly office hours and managed undergraduate graders. Workshop Leader Summer 2014 Developed and lead a robotics unit of a workshop organized by Dr. Ben Marlin for Holyoke Girls Inc. Eureka! project. The workshop introduced middle and high school girls to programming concepts with Scratch. The workshop was featured in the School of Computer Science Fall 2014 newsletter: Significant Bits. Teaching Assistant: Robotics (CMPSCI 603) Spring 2014 Assisted Dr. Roderic Grupen by developing and maintaining the mobile manipulator simulator Roger the Crab. Guest lecturer for three lectures covering the topics of Kinematics and Manipulation. Teaching Assistant: Embedded Systems (CMPSCI 503) Fall 2013 Assisted Dr. Roderic Grupen by taking inventory and preparing class projects. Teaching Assistant: Intro to Problem Solving with Computers (CMPSCI 121) Fall 2012 Assisted Dr. Robert Moll by leading discussion sessions, holding office hours, and grading student assessments for introductory programming in Java. Canisius College Teaching Assistant: Introductory Physics I Lab (PHY 223L) Spring 2012 Assisted Dr. Robert Selkowitz in the preparation of labs and aided students in lab for physical science majors. Teaching Assistant: Introductory Physics III Lab (PHY 225L) Spring 2012 Assisted Dr. Kenneth Scherkoske in the preparation of labs, graded lab reports, and aided students in lab for physical science majors. Teaching Assistant: Physical Computing (CSE 121) Fall 2011 Assisted Dr. William Sack in the preparation and development of labs and course exercises and aided students in lab. The labs and course work dealt with introductory C programming applications with PIC microcontrollers. Workshop Mentor : Physics Department: The Electronica Project Fall 2011 Mentored students in an informal, interdisciplinary, weekly educational initiative focusing on basic electrical skills and circuit theory through the design and construction of electronic musical instruments and interactive electronics. Teaching Assistant: Introductory Electromagnetism Lab (PHY 202L, 224L) Spring 2011, Fall 2010 Assisted Dr. Robert Selkowitz in the preparation of labs and aided students in lab. State University of New York at Buffalo Computer Technology Instructor: Biomedical STEP program Mentored and instructed high school students in technology, particularly focusing on green technology and robotics. Students learned about alternative energy in the fall semester by building solar powered toy cars and learned programming and robotic skills in the spring semester by building and programming Parallax Sumo-Bots.

5 Service IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) Reviewer for 2017, 2018 IEEE-RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) Reviewer for 2016, 2017 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots Reviewer for 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 Robotics and Autonomous Systems Reviewer for 2014, 2015, 2016 Organized various outreach tours of LPR, Memberships Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Student Member, 2013-Present IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Student Member, 2013-Present Alpha Sigma Nu (Jesuit College Honor Society) Member, Present Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Student Member, ,