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Nicholas Roy
PhD Student

No longer a member of RI.

For more information, see my personal homepage.

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I am interested in probabilistic approaches to machine learning and control, especially with respect to mobile robots. In the past I have worked on using partially observable Markov decision processes for path planning. I am currently working on applying those ideas to dialog management and human-computer interaction.

human-computer interaction, machine learning, mobile robots, and planning

• Reliable Autonomous Systems Lab - We are developing reliable, highly autonomous systems (especially mobile robots) that operate in rich, uncertain environments.
• Robot Learning Lab - Pursuing research on robot learning, mobile robotics, multi-robotics, human robot interaction, and basic machine learning.

• Amelia - An improved Xavier
• Grace - The Grace project is a collaboration among several schools and research labs to design a robot capable of fully performing the AAAI Grand Challenge.
• Mercator - Cooperative Multi-Robot Mapping and Planning
• Minerva - Minerva is an autonomous robot that daily moves through crowds at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
• Personal Robotic Assistants For The Elderly - Pearl will help researchers explore the ways autonomous mobile robots can help the elderly live independently in their own homes.
• Social Robots - We are developing robots with personality.

• Finding Approximate POMDP solutions Through Belief Compression
  N. Roy
  doctoral dissertation, tech. report CMU-RI-TR-03-25, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, September, 2003. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [2148 KB] copyrighted

• Towards robotic assistants in nursing homes: Challenges and results
  J. Pineau, M. Montemerlo, M. Pollack, N. Roy, and S. Thrun
  Special issue on Socially Interactive Robots, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Vol. 42, No. 3 - 4, 2003, pp. 271 - 281. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [391 KB] copyrighted

• Probabilistic control of human robot interaction: Experiments with a robotic assistant for Nursing Homes
  J. Pineau, M. Montemerlo, M. Pollack, N. Roy, and S. Thrun
  The second IARP/IEEE/RAS Joint Workshop on Technical Challenges for Robots in Human Environments (DRHE), October, 2002. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [461 KB], ps.gz [594 KB] copyrighted

• Experiences with a Mobile Robotic Elderly Guide for the Elderly
  M. Montemerlo, J. Pineau, N. Roy, S. Thrun, and V. Verma
  National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, AAAI, August, 2002. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [459 KB], ps.gz [823 KB] copyrighted

• Pearl: A Mobile Robotic Assistant for the Elderly
  M. Pollack, S. Engberg, J.T. Matthews, S. Thrun, L. Brown, D. Colbry, C. Orosz, B. Peintner, S. Ramakrishnan, J. Dunbar-Jacob, C. McCarthy, M. Montemerlo, J. Pineau, and N. Roy
  Workshop on Automation as Caregiver: the Role of Intelligent Technology in Elder Care (AAAI), August, 2002.

• A Hierarchical Approach to POMDP Planning and Execution
  J. Pineau, N. Roy, and S. Thrun
  Workshop on Hierarchy and Memory in Reinforcement Learning (ICML), June, 2001.
  Download: pdf [211 KB], ps.gz [84 KB] copyrighted

• Probabilistic Algorithms and the Interactive Museum Tour-Guide Robot Minerva
  S. Thrun, M. Beetz, M. Bennewitz, W. Burgard, A.B. Creemers, F. Dellaert, D. Fox, D. Hahnel, C. Rosenberg, N. Roy, J. Schulte, and D. Schulz
  International Journal of Robotics Research, Vol. 19, No. 11, November, 2000, pp. 972-999. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [1307 KB], ps.gz [2992 KB] copyrighted

• Spoken Dialog Management for Robots
  N. Roy, J. Pineau, and S. Thrun
  Proceedings of the ACL 2000, October, 2000. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [120 KB], ps.gz [116 KB] copyrighted

• Towards Personal Service Robots for the Elderly
  N. Roy, G. Baltus, D. Fox, F. Gemperle, J. Goetz, T. Hirsch, D. Margaritis, M. Montemerlo, J. Pineau, J. Schulte, and S. Thrun
  Workshop on Interactive Robots and Entertainment (WIRE 2000, 2000. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [351 KB], ps.gz [677 KB] copyrighted

• Experiences with two deployed interactive tour-guide robots
  S. Thrun, M. Bennewitz, W. Burgard, A.B. Cremers, F. Dellaert, D. Fox, D. Haehnel, G. Lakemeyer, C. Rosenberg, N. Roy, J. Schulte, D. Schulz, and W. Steiner
  Proceedings of the International Conference on Field and Service Robotics (FSR'99), Pittsburgh, PA, August, 1999.