Talking Robotics

Talking Robotics

Ross Mead

Date:

Speaker

Dr. Ross Mead is the Founder and CEO of Semio. Ross received his PhD and MS in Computer Science from the University of Southern California in 2015, and his BS in Computer Science from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 2007. Ross’s dissertation work focused on socially assistive robots, specifically, on the principled design and computational modeling of fundamental social behaviors (such as speech, gestures, eye gaze, social spacing, etc.) that serve as building blocks for automated recognition and control in face-to-face human-robot interactions. His research provides the foundations upon which Semio software is being built. Beyond Semio, Ross serves on the Board of Directors for two organizations: (1) AI LA to promote artificial intelligence in the Los Angeles community; and (2) the KISS Institute for Practical Robotics to promote robotics and STEM in K-12 education around the globe, with a focus on underrepresented populations. In 2018, he co-founded the Social Robot Community Slack team to spark an international community around robotics and natural language technologies. Previously, Ross also served as a technical and scientific advisor to Disney, Intel, and National Geographic, among others.

Speaker Links: Website - GoogleScholar - Linkedin

Abstract

The robotics ecosystem is evolving, as technological advances have paved the way for the coming robotics revolution. Soon, robots will be part of our everyday lives. Despite these advances, robots are currently about as exciting and easy to use as the command line on the personal computer. We’re in the “DOS days” of robotics. So what is the Windows of robotics? How will end-users unlock the potential of personal robots in their homes and workplaces?

In this talk, Dr. Ross Mead will discuss the technological advances paving the way for the personal robotics revolution, and the robotics hardware companies leading the charge along that path. He will also introduce the software innovations in development at Semio for bringing robots to life.

Papers covered during the talk

  • Mead, R. and Matarić, M.J. (2016) “Robots Have Needs Too: How and Why People Adapt Their Proxemic Behavior to Improve Robot Social Signal Understanding”, in the Journal of Human-Robot Interaction (JHRI), Volume 5, Issue 2, pp. 48-68. http://dx.doi.org/10.5898/JHRI.5.2.Mead.
  • Mead, R. and Matarić, M.J. (2016) “Autonomous Human-Robot Proxemics: Socially Aware Navigation based on Interaction Potential”, in Autonomous Robots, pp. 1-13. DOI: 10.1007/s10514-016-9572-2.
  • Mead, R. and Matarić, M.J. (2016) “Perceptual Models of Human-Robot Proxemics”, in Experimental Robotics, Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, Volume 109, pp. 261-276. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-23778-7_18.
  • Mead, R., Atrash, A., and Matarić, M.J. (2013) “Automated Proxemic Feature Extraction and Behavior Recognition: Applications in Human-Robot Interaction”, in the International Journal of Social Robotics, Volume 5, Issue 3, pp. 367-378. DOI: 10.1007/s12369-013-0189-8.
  • Mead, R., Atrash, A., Kaszubski, E., St. Clair, A., Greczek, J., Clabaugh, C., Kohan, B., and Matarić, M.J. (2014) “Building Blocks of Social Intelligence: Enabling Autonomy for Socially Intelligent and Assistive Robots”, in the Technical Report of The 2014 Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Fall Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI), Arlington, Virginia, November 2014.

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