Dean Pomerleau

Robotics Institute
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
The goal of my work is to bring computer vision and robotics to the common man by creating systems that make the task of driving easier and safer. A key system requirement in the domain of driving is the ability to adapt to changing conditions, since the appearance of the car’s surroundings can change dramatically depending on environmental conditions and the type of road the car is on. My work and that of my students focuses on the development of adaptive techniques to achieve this flexibility.
Collision Warning/Avoidance Systems: Over forty thousand people die on US roads every year in traffic accidents. One of my goals is to save some of these lives through the development of systems that warn the driver of impending collisions, and potentially take momentary control of the vehicle to prevent a crash. My students and I are currently focused on the problem of single vehicle roadway departure crashes, in which the vehicle drifts off the road because the driver isn’t paying attention, has fallen asleep, or is in some way impaired (intoxicated, medical emergency, etc.). Using a video camera to monitor the road ahead, in conjunction with digital maps, we are developing prototype systems on the Navlab test vehicle that sound an audible tone when the vehicle begins to drift from its lane. If the driver doesn’t respond to the warning, the system can assume momentary control of the steering wheel to return the vehicle to the roadway. Critical research issues associated with the problem include reliable perception of the vehicle’s surroundings to minimize false alarms, adaptive warning algorithms to accommodate different driving styles, and man-machine interfaces to effectively alert the driver and avoid the crash.
Automated Highway System (AHS): A more futuristic effort my students and I are involved in is the Automated Highway System (AHS). The ambitious goal of this project is to improve safety and reduce congestion on our nations highways by fully automating the driving task. A key research issue in this domain is reliable perception of the road, other vehicles and obstacles. We are investigating solutions to this problem using various image processing techniques, as well as alternative sensing modalities like infrared lasers and millimeter wave radar. Another important area we are addressing is the planning and coordination of vehicle maneuvers such as lane changes and obstacle avoidance. Finally, we are developing control techniques that allow the vehicle to actually execute these maneuvers.
Using the results of our research, we have demonstrated systems capable of autonomously driving the Navlab vehicle for long distances at speeds of up to 90 mph. One such vision system, called RALPH (Rapidly Adapting Lateral Position Handler) steered the Navlab for 98.2% of a trip from Washington, DC to San Diego, CA, a distance of over 2800 miles. When augmented with a millimeter wave radar for sensing obstacles, the system can detect vehicles ahead and automatically change lanes when appropriate.
Brian Coltin, Joydeep Biswas, Dean Pomerleau and Manuela Veloso
Conference Paper, Proceedings of the RoboCup Symposium, Istanbul, Turkey, July 2011, July, 2011
Mark Palatucci, Dean Pomerleau, Geoffrey Hinton and Tom Mitchell
Conference Paper, Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), December, 2009
Mei Chen, Takeo Kanade and Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, Fifth IEEE Workshop on Applications of Computer Vision, pp. 114 - 119, December, 2000
Mei Chen, Takeo Kanade, Dean Pomerleau and Jeff Schneider
Conference Paper, September, 1999
Mei Chen, Takeo Kanade, Dean Pomerleau and Jeff Schneider
Tech. Report, CMU-RI-TR-99-16, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, July, 1999
Mei Chen, Takeo Kanade, Dean Pomerleau and Jeff Schneider
Tech. Report, CMU-RI-TR-98-35, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Medical Imag Computing & Computer-Assisted Intervention, December, 1998
Mei Chen, Takeo Kanade and Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, Proceedings of the Image Understanding Workshop, November, 1998
Parag Batavia, Dean Pomerleau and Chuck Thorpe
Conference Paper, Proceedings of the IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, October, 1998
Mei Chen, Takeo Kanade, Henry Rowley and Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, pp. 304 - 310, June, 1998
Mei Chen, Takeo Kanade, Henry Rowley and Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, June, 1998
Frank Dellaert, Dean Pomerleau and Chuck Thorpe
Conference Paper, International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May, 1998
Mei Chen, Takeo Kanade, Henry Rowley and Dean Pomerleau
Tech. Report, CMU-RI-TR-98-05, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, March, 1998
Shumeet Baluja and Dean Pomerleau
Journal Article, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Vol. 22, No. 4-Mar, pp. 329-344, December, 1997
Mei Chen, Takeo Kanade, Dean Pomerleau and Henry Rowley
Conference Paper, NASA Image Registration Workshop, November, 1997
Mei Chen, Takeo Kanade, Henry Rowley and Dean Pomerleau
Tech. Report, CMU-RI-TR-97-41, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, November, 1997
Parag Batavia, Dean Pomerleau and Chuck Thorpe
Conference Paper, Proceedings of the IEEE Transportation Systems Conference, pp. 729 - 734, November, 1997
Chuck Thorpe, Todd Jochem and Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, IEEE Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems, pp. 496 - 501, November, 1997
Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, IEEE Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems, pp. 906 - 911, November, 1997
Rahul Sukthankar, Dean Pomerleau and Chuck Thorpe
Conference Paper, SPIE: Intelligent Systems and Advanced Manufacturing, October, 1997
Chuck Thorpe, Todd Jochem and Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, International Symposium on Robotics Research, October, 1997
Dean Pomerleau, Chuck Thorpe and Lloyd Emery
Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 4th World Congress on Intelligent Transportation Systems, October, 1997
J.A. Hadden, J.H. Everson, D.B. Pape, V.K. Narendran and Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, 30th International Symposium on Automotive Technology and Automation, pp. 343-350, June, 1997
Mei Chen, Todd Jochem and Dean Pomerleau
Tech. Report, CMU-RI-TR-97-21, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, May, 1997
Parag Batavia, Dean Pomerleau and Chuck Thorpe
Tech. Report, CMU-RI-TR-97-28, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, January, 1997
Shumeet Baluja and Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, Artificial Intelligence 97, pp. 381-395, January, 1997
Chuck Thorpe, Todd Jochem and Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, 1997 International Symposium on Robotics Research, January, 1997
Todd Jochem and Dean Pomerleau
Book Section/Chapter, In Intelligent Unmanned Ground Vehicles, January, 1997
Parag Batavia, Dean Pomerleau and Chuck Thorpe
Tech. Report, CMU-RI-TR-96-31, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, October, 1996
Todd Jochem, Dean Pomerleau and Chuck Thorpe
Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 1996 IEEE Symposium on Intelligent Vehicles, pp. 391 - 396, September, 1996
Louis Tijerina, James J. Jackson, Dean Pomerleau, Richard A. Romano and Andrew D. Pertersen
Conference Paper, ITS America Sixth Annual Meeting, April, 1996
Dean Pomerleau and Todd Jochem
Journal Article, Photonics Spectra, pp. 80-85, April, 1996
Dean Pomerleau and Todd Jochem
Journal Article, IEEE Expert: Special Issue on Intelligent System and their Applications, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 19-27, April, 1996
D.B. Pape, V.K. Narendran, M.J. Koenig, J.A. Hadden, J.H. Everson and Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, International Congress 81 Exposition, February, 1996
Rahul Sukthankar, John Hancock, Dean Pomerleau and Chuck Thorpe
Conference Paper, Proceedings of AI, Simulation and Planning in High Autonomy Systems, January, 1996
Rahul Sukthankar, John Hancock, Shumeet Baluja, Dean Pomerleau and Chuck Thorpe
Conference Paper, Proceedings AAAI '96, January, 1996
Todd Jochem and Dean Pomerleau
Journal Article, AI Magazine, Vol. 17, No. 2, January, 1996
Todd Jochem, Dean Pomerleau, Bala Kumar and Jeremy Armstrong
Conference Paper, IEEE Symposium on Intelligent Vehicles, pp. 107 - 112, September, 1995
Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, IEEE Symposium on Intelligent Vehicles, pp. 506 - 511, September, 1995
Rahul Sukthankar, Dean Pomerleau and Chuck Thorpe
Conference Paper, Proceedings of Intelligent Vehicles '95, pp. 332 - 337, September, 1995
Todd Jochem, Dean Pomerleau and Chuck Thorpe
Conference Paper, IEEE Symposium on Intelligent Vehicles, pp. 30 - 35, September, 1995
Mei Chen, Todd Jochem and Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, IEEE Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Human Robot Interaction and Cooperative Robots, Vol. 1, pp. 243 - 248, August, 1995
Todd Jochem, Dean Pomerleau and Chuck Thorpe
Conference Paper, IEEE Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS '95), Vol. 3, pp. 344 - 349, August, 1995
Shumeet Baluja and Dean Pomerleau
Tech. Report, CMU-CS-95-143, Computer Science Department, Carnegie Mellon University, May, 1995
B. Motazed, D. Patukas, Alonzo Kelly, Dean Pomerleau and Todd Jochem
Conference Paper, Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Meeting of IVHS America, March, 1995
Dean Pomerleau
Book Section/Chapter, The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks, January, 1995
Chuck Thorpe and Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, Proceedings of ISRR-7, January, 1995
Shumeet Baluja and Dean Pomerleau
Book Section/Chapter, Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, pp. 451-458, January, 1995
Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, Neural Information Processing Systems 7 (NIPS 7), December, 1994
Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, 1994 Government Microcircuit Applications Conference, pp. 358-362, November, 1994
Dean Pomerleau, Chuck Thorpe, Dirk Langer, Julio Rosenblatt and Rahul Sukthankar
Conference Paper, Proceedings of Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems, January, 1994
Dean Pomerleau
Journal Article, Machine Learning, Vol. 15, pp. 125-135, January, 1994
Shumeet Baluja and Dean Pomerleau
Tech. Report, CMU-CS-94-102, Computer Science Department, Carnegie Mellon University, January, 1994
David S. Touretzky and Dean Pomerleau
Journal Article, Cognitive Science, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 345-353, January, 1994
Dean Pomerleau
Journal Article, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Vol. 12, pp. 113-119, January, 1994
J. Everson, E. Kopala, L. Lazofson, H. Choe and Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, (ITS) Applications, Proceedings of SPIE International Symposium on Photonics for Electronic Products, Vol. 2344, January, 1994
Shumeet Baluja, Dean Pomerleau and Todd Jochem
Journal Article, Journal of Connection Science, Vol. 6, No. 2 and 3, pp. 325-354, January, 1994
Shumeet Baluja, Dean Pomerleau and Todd Jochem
Journal Article, Connection Science, Vol. 6, No. 2 & 3, pp. 325-354, January, 1994
Shumeet Baluja and Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, Vol. 6, pp. 753-760, January, 1994
Shumeet Baluja, Dean Pomerleau and Todd Jochem
Tech. Report, CMU-CS-93-198, Computer Science Department, Carnegie Mellon University, October, 1993
Chuck Thorpe, R. Craig Coulter, Martial Hebert, Todd Jochem, Dirk Langer, Dean Pomerleau, Julio Rosenblatt, W. Ross and Anthony (Tony) Stentz
Conference Paper, Proceedings of WORLD MED93, October, 1993
Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 1993 Intelligent Vehicles Conference, pp. 19 - 24, July, 1993
Rahul Sukthankar, Dean Pomerleau and Chuck Thorpe
Tech. Report, CMU-RI-TR-93-09, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, April, 1993
Dean Pomerleau and David S. Touretzky
Conference Paper, International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS-3) contitle:Understanding Neural Network Internal Representations through Hidden Unit Sensitivity Analysis, pp. 572-581, February, 1993
Todd Jochem, Dean Pomerleau and Chuck Thorpe
Conference Paper, Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems, February, 1993
Dean Pomerleau
Book Section/Chapter, Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, January, 1993
Dean Pomerleau
Book Section/Chapter, Robot Learning, January, 1993
Shumeet Baluja and Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, Working Notes: AAAI Fall Symposium Series, Machine Learning in Computer Vision: What, Why and How?, January, 1993
Rahul Sukthankar, Dean Pomerleau and Chuck Thorpe
Conference Paper, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Robotics Research, January, 1993
Dean Pomerleau and David S. Touretzky
Conference Paper, Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems, January, 1993
Kerien Fitzpatrick, Martial Hebert, Dean Pomerleau and Hagen Schempf
Conference Paper, Proceedings of the United States Postal Service 5th Advanced Technology Conference, December, 1992
Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 1992 Intelligent Vehicles Conference, pp. 391-396, June, 1992
Dean Pomerleau, Jay Gowdy and Chuck Thorpe
Journal Article, Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 279 - 285, January, 1991
Dean Pomerleau
Journal Article, Neural Computation, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 88-97, January, 1991
Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, Proceedings of SPIE Conference on Aerospace Sensing, January, 1991
Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 3, pp. 429-435, January, 1991
G.L. Gusciora, Dean Pomerleau, David S. Touretzky and H.T. Kung
Book Section/Chapter, Artificial Neural Networks: Applications and Implementations, January, 1990
Dean Pomerleau
Book Section/Chapter, Vision and Navigation: The CMU Navlab, pp. 83-92, January, 1990
Dean Pomerleau
Journal Article, Neural Network Review, Vol. 4 pub_number: 1, January, 1990
David S. Touretzky and Dean Pomerleau
Journal Article, BYTE, Vol. 14 pub_number: 8, pp. 227-233, August, 1989
Dean Pomerleau
Conference Paper, Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 1, January, 1989
Dean Pomerleau, G.L. Gusciora, David S. Touretzky and H.T. Kung
Conference Paper, Proceedings of IEEE International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, Vol. 2, pp. 143 - 150, July, 1988
Dean Pomerleau
Tech. Report, CMU-CS-87-165, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, September, 1987