{"327391":{"#nid":"327391","#data":{"type":"news","title":"New RFID technology helps robots find household objects","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMobile robots could be much more useful in homes, if they could locate people, places and objects. Today\u2019s robots usually see the world with cameras and lasers, which have difficulty reliably recognizing things and can miss objects that are hidden in clutter. A complementary way robots can \u201csense\u201d what is around them is through the use of small ultra-high frequency radio-frequency identification (UHF RFID) tags. Inexpensive self-adhesive tags can be stuck on objects, allowing an RFID-equipped robot to search a room for the correct tag\u2019s signal, even when the object is hidden out of sight. Once the tag is detected, the robot knows the object it\u2019s trying to find isn\u2019t far away.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cBut RFID doesn\u2019t tell the robot where it is,\u201d said \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/charliekemp.com\u0022\u003ECharlie Kemp\u003C\/a\u003E, an associate professor in Georgia Tech\u2019s Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. \u201cTo actually find the object and get close to it, the robot has to be more clever.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat\u2019s why Kemp, former Georgia Tech student \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.travisdeyle.com\/\u0022\u003ETravis Deyle\u003C\/a\u003E and University of Washington Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.ee.washington.edu\/people\/faculty\/reynolds_matt\/\u0022\u003EMatthew Reynolds\u003C\/a\u003E developed a new search algorithm that improves a robot\u2019s ability to find and navigate to tagged objects. \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/youtu.be\/Op4QxSJJS6o\u0022\u003EThe team has implemented their system on a PR2 robot\u003C\/a\u003E, allowing it to travel through a home and correctly locate different types of tagged household objects, including a medication bottle, TV remote, phone and hair brush. The research \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.hsi.gatech.edu\/hrl\/pdf\/iros2014_in_home_rfid_deyle_reynolds_kemp.pdf\u0022\u003Ewas presented\u003C\/a\u003E September 14-18 in Chicago at the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.iros2014.org\/\u0022\u003EIEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems\u003C\/a\u003E (IROS).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers have equipped a PR2 robot with articulated, directionally sensitive antennas and a new algorithm that allows the robot to successfully find and navigate to the intended object. Due to the physics of radio-frequency propagation, these antennas tend to receive stronger signals from a tag when they are closer to it and pointed more directly at it. By moving around the antennas on its shoulders and driving around the room, the PR2 can figure out the direction it should move to get a stronger signal from a tag and thus become closer to a tagged object. \u0026nbsp;In essence, the robot plays the classic childhood game of \u201cHotter\/Colder\u201d with the tag telling the PR2 when it\u2019s getting closer to the target object.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn contrast to other approaches, the robot doesn\u2019t explicitly estimate the 3D location of the target object, which significantly reduces the complexity of the algorithm.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cInstead the robot can use its mobility and our special behaviors to get close to a tag and oriented toward it,\u201d said Deyle, who conducted the study in \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.hsi.gatech.edu\/hrl\/\u0022\u003EKemp\u2019s lab\u003C\/a\u003E while earning his doctoral degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDeyle, who currently works at Google, says the research has implications for future home robots and is particularly compelling for applications such as helping people with medicine, as RFID is able to provide precise identification information about an object or a person.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis could allow a robot to search for, grasp and deliver the right medication to the right person at the right time,\u201d he added. \u201cRFID provides precise identification, so the risk of delivering the wrong medication is dramatically reduced. Creating a system that allows robots to accurately locate the correct tag is an important first step.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EReynolds added, \u201cWhile we have demonstrated this technology with a few common household objects, the RFID tags can uniquely identify billions of different objects with essentially zero false positives. This is important because many objects look alike, yet must be uniquely identified \u2013 for example, identifying the correct medication bottle that should be delivered to a specific person.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWith a little modification of the objects in your home, a robot could quickly take inventory of your possessions and navigate to an object of your choosing,\u201d said Kemp, a professor in Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Biomedical Engineering. \u201cAre you looking for something? The robot will show you where it is.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECITATION\u003C\/strong\u003E: Travis Deyle, Matt Reynolds and Charles C. Kemp, \u201c\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.hsi.gatech.edu\/hrl\/pdf\/iros2014_in_home_rfid_deyle_reynolds_kemp.pdf\u0022\u003EFinding and Navigating to Household Objects with UHF RFID Tags by Optimizing RF Signal Strength\u003C\/a\u003E.\u201d IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2014.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFUNDING\u003C\/strong\u003E: \u003Cem\u003EThis work was supported in part by National Science Foundation (NSF) awards CBET-0932592 and CBET-0931924, an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program award and Willow Garage. Any conclusions or opinions are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the sponsoring agency.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA team of researchers has developed a new search algorithm that improves a robot\u2019s ability to find and navigate to tagged objects. \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/youtu.be\/Op4QxSJJS6o\u0022\u003EThe team has implemented their system on a PR2 robot\u003C\/a\u003E, allowing it to travel through a home and correctly locate different types of tagged household objects, including a medication bottle, TV remote, phone and hair brush.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Researchers have developed a new search algorithm that improves a robot\u2019s ability to find and navigate to tagged objects"}],"uid":"27560","created_gmt":"2014-09-22 09:19:25","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:17:07","author":"Jason Maderer","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-09-22T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-09-22T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"327331":{"id":"327331","type":"image","title":"PR2 robot","body":null,"created":"1449245064","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:04:24","changed":"1475895039","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:39","alt":"PR2 robot","file":{"fid":"200251","name":"pr2_antennas.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/pr2_antennas_0.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/pr2_antennas_0.png","mime":"image\/png","size":1120247,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/pr2_antennas_0.png?itok=ezeVvzvT"}},"327361":{"id":"327361","type":"image","title":"PR2 and medication botte","body":null,"created":"1449245064","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:04:24","changed":"1475895039","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:39","alt":"PR2 and medication botte","file":{"fid":"200252","name":"loc2.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/loc2_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/loc2_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":100973,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/loc2_0.jpg?itok=H-BqMrmD"}},"327401":{"id":"327401","type":"image","title":"Charlie Kemp and PR2","body":null,"created":"1449245064","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:04:24","changed":"1475895039","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:39","alt":"Charlie Kemp and PR2","file":{"fid":"200254","name":"charlie_kemp.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/charlie_kemp_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/charlie_kemp_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1924175,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/charlie_kemp_0.jpg?itok=Wkps6M_m"}}},"media_ids":["327331","327361","327401"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.hsi.gatech.edu\/hrl\/pdf\/iros2014_in_home_rfid_deyle_reynolds_kemp.pdf","title":"Research Paper"},{"url":"http:\/\/youtu.be\/Op4QxSJJS6o","title":"Video Demo"}],"groups":[{"id":"1183","name":"Home"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"2157","name":"Charlie Kemp"},{"id":"7466","name":"medication"},{"id":"524","name":"medicine"},{"id":"10488","name":"PR2"},{"id":"503","name":"RFID"},{"id":"1356","name":"robot"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39521","name":"Robotics"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003ENational Media Relations\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-385-2966\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["maderer@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}