Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content

BWIBots: A platform for bridging the gap between AI and human–robot interaction research

  • Piyush Khandelwal
  • , Shiqi Zhang
  • , Jivko Sinapov
  • , Matteo Leonetti
  • , Jesse Thomason
  • , Fangkai Yang
  • , Ilaria Gori
  • , Maxwell Svetlik
  • , Priyanka Khante
  • , Vladimir Lifschitz
  • , Aggarwal
  • , Raymond Mooney
  • , Peter Stone
  • Department of Computer Science
  • Cleveland State University
  • University of Leeds
  • Schlumberger Software Technology Innovation Center
  • The University of Texas at Austin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

86 Scopus citations

Abstract

Recent progress in both AI and robotics have enabled the development of general purpose robot platforms that are capable of executing a wide variety of complex, temporally extended service tasks in open environments. This article introduces a novel, custom-designed multi-robot platform for research on AI, robotics, and especially human–robot interaction for service robots. Called BWIBots, the robots were designed as a part of the Building-Wide Intelligence (BWI) project at the University of Texas at Austin. The article begins with a description of, and justification for, the hardware and software design decisions underlying the BWIBots, with the aim of informing the design of such platforms in the future. It then proceeds to present an overview of various research contributions that have enabled the BWIBots to better (a) execute action sequences to complete user requests, (b) efficiently ask questions to resolve user requests, (c) understand human commands given in natural language, and (d) understand human intention from afar. The article concludes with a look forward towards future research opportunities and applications enabled by the BWIBot platform.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)635-659
Number of pages25
JournalInternational Journal of Robotics Research
Volume36
Issue number5-7
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1 2017

Keywords

  • Artificial intelligence
  • Human-robot interaction
  • Indoor autonomous navigation
  • Multi-robot system
  • Natural language dialog system
  • Robot task planning

Cite this