TRACLabs, Inc. Robotics and Automation

David Kortenkamp, PhD, President and CEO
Dr. Kortenkamp is a recognized international expert in intelligent robotics and automation. A co-designer of the 3T intelligent control architecture, he has designed and developed intelligent control applications in support of NASA robotics programs since 1994. Dr. Kortenkamp was chair of the 1999 IJCAI Workshop on Adjustable Autonomy Systems, was on the program committee for AAAI-96 through AAAI-2005 and IJCAI-2003 and was the co-organizer of the 1998 AAAI Mobile Robot Contest. He co-chaired the AAAI 2003 Spring Symposium on Human Interaction with Autonomous Agents in Complex Environments and was chair of the organizing committee of the 2002 International NASA Workshop on Planning and Scheduling in Space. He was guest editor of a special issue of the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence devoted to robot architectures and a guest editor of a special issue of Autonomous Robots. He, along with Pete Bonasso and Robin Murphy, edited the book Artificial Intelligence and Mobile Robots published by MIT Press in 1998. Dr. Kortenkamp serves as associate editor of the MIT Press Series on Intelligent Robotics and Autonomous Agents. Dr. Kortenkamp recently co-authored a NASA Exploration Team (NExT) report on the state-of-the-art in space robotics. He is currently technical lead of the Execution and Commanding area of NASA’s Spacecraft Autonomy project.

Education:

1988 B.S. Computer Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis MN
1990 M.S. Computer Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI
1993 Ph.D. Computer Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI

Key Publications:

David Kortenkamp and Reid Simmons, ``Robotic Systems Architectures and Programming, Springer Handbook of Robotics, Springer-Verlag, 2008.
David Kortenkamp, R. Peter Bonasso and Debra Schreckenghost, A Procedure Representation Language for Human Spaceflight Operations, in The 9th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (i-SAIRAS-08) .
Liam Pedersen, David Kortenkamp, David Wettergreen and Illah Nourbakshk, A Survey of Space Robotics in The 7th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (i-SAIRAS-03), 2003.

Bryn Wolfe, Director of Commercialization
Bryn Wolfe has a B.S. and M.S. in computer engineering and is currently employed with TRACLabs where he develops modular robotic controllers for research and industrial institutions. He has designed custom FPGA electronics for real-time image processing and manages the design and sale of all TRACLabs commercial products, including the MARS (Modular Anthropomorphic Robotic System) arm, Biclops pan/tilt mechanism, a variety of single- and multi-axis motor control boards. Past work includes development of immersive telepresence robot interfaces for the International Space Station and avionics design for the Station Training Facility. His current research interests include modular controls, robot vision, teleoperation, and automated security systems.

Debra Schreckenghost, Human-System Interaction
Debra Schreckenghost is a recognized expert in the field of human interaction with intelligent systems and robotics. Her research in human computer interaction includes adjustable autonomy, personal software agents for operations, human-robot interaction, and intelligent aids for the cognitively impaired. She has formulated concepts for space operations with automation as a member of NASA Tiger Teams, including (1) Making Intelligent Systems Team Players (1991), (2) Operations Concepts for Human Exploration of Mars (2000), (3) Space Launch Initiative Cockpit Architecture Roadmap Team (2002), (4) JPL/JSC Human & Robotics Ops Infrastructure Task (2004), (5) Interoperable Command and Control for Constellation (2005), and (6) Constellation Autonomy and Automation Roadmap (2005). She was the technical lead to develop adjustable control autonomy for an air revitalization system used during the Lunar/Mars Life Support Test Program Phase III test at JSC in 1997. More recently she investigated adjustable autonomy using NASA procedures for Constellation missions. She is the principal investigator of the multi-agent software system: the Distributed Collaboration and Interaction (DCI) system. DCI provides personal software agents for space operations personnel. DCI agents have been deployed to assist control engineers managing advanced life support systems and to assist personnel supervising NASA robots including JSC’s Robonaut and ARC’s K10. She is conducting research into human-robot interaction for NASA missions and is the principal investigator of a project to develop a software framework for robotic health and performance monitoring. She also is conducting research funded by DARPA and NIH into software aids for the cognitively impaired, including automated instructional guidance and scheduling assistance for everyday tasks. Since 2002 she has been on the organizing committees for multiple workshops, including ICAPS, AAAI Symposia, AAMAS, and the NASA Workshop on Planning and Scheduling for Space. For her work at NASA she has received the Space Act award as well as numerous Certificates of Appreciation and Letters of Commendation.

Education:

B.S in Electrical Engineering from the University of Houston in 1980
Masters in Electrical Engineering from Rice University in 1982

Key Publications:

Debra Schreckenghost, Terrence Fong, Tod Milam, Estrellina Pacis, and Hans Utz. Real-time Assessment of Robot Performance During Remote Exploration Operations. IEEE Aerospace Conference. March 2009.
Schreckenghost, Debra, R. Peter Bonasso, David Kortenkamp, Scott Bell, Tod Milam, Carroll Thronesbery. Adjustable Autonomy with NASA Procedures. The 9th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space, Pasadena, CA, March 2008.
Edmund F. LoPresti, Richard C. Simpson, Ned Kirsch, Debra Schreckenghost, and Stephen Hayashi. Distributed cognitive aid with scheduling and interactive task guidance. Journal of Rehabilitation Research ad Development. 45(4). 2008.
Schreckenghost, D., C. Thronesbery, P. Bonasso, D. Kortenkamp, and C. Martin. "Applying Human-Centered Computing to Intelligent Control of Life Support for Space Missions". IEEE Intelligent Systems, special issue on Human-Centered Computing at NASA. Sept/Oct 2002.

Robert Burridge, PhD, Robotic Control
Dr. Burridge is a world-recognized robotics expert with over a dozen publications in prestigious international robotics conferences and journals. His doctoral thesis, which was chaired by Professor Daniel Koditschek, described a formal method for generating stable mode-switching robot control laws. From 1997 to 2002, Dr. Burridge was a Senior Scientist with Metrica and S&K Electronics. During this time, he was Project Manager for a NASA Phase II SBIR on Traded Control of a robot for adjustable autonomy and also provided robotics expertise to NASA Johnson Space Center’s Intelligent Systems Branch and Robotic Technologies Branch. At JSC, he participated in several projects, including the Lunar/Mars Life Support Phase 3 experiment, Ranger autonomy demonstration, Robonaut controls group, and EVA Robotic Assistant (ERA). He was Project Lead for the ERA project from 2000 to 2002, where he was responsible for management, budget, technical direction, establishing collaborations with other NASA groups and research institutions, and field testing. He also provided electrical, mechanical, and software engineering support for this project as needed. In 2002, Dr. Burridge became a Senior Research Scientist at Georgia Institute of Technology in the Mobile Robot Laboratory, working with Professor Ron Arkin. In this position, he was involved in three DARPA projects and helped manage the technical direction of about twenty students, both undergraduate and graduate. One of these projects involved the development of a user interface for a team of autonomous robots. In 2003, he joined the R&D department of DVT Corporation – a small business in Atlanta producing camera systems for machine vision. In 2005, Dr. Burridge returned to Metrica to continue providing robotics expertise to JSC in the Robonaut group. He was Robonaut’s lead for the Peer-to-Peer project led by NASA ARC, which sought to improve human-robot teamwork. Currently, he is the autonomy lead for the “Centaur” – Robonaut mounted on a 4-wheeled outdoor rover.

Education:

B.A. in Mathematics and Electrical Sciences (Electrical) from Yale University in 1988
M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1992 and 1996 respectively

Key Publications:

T.W. Fong, J. Sholtz, J. Shah, L. Flueckiger, C. Kunz, D. Lees, J. Schreiner, M. Siegel, L. Hiatt, I. Nourbakhsh, R. Simmons, R. Ambrose, R. Burridge, B. Antonishek, M. Bugajska, A. Shultz, and J.G. Trafton, “A Preliminary Study of Peer-to-Peer Human-Robot Interaction.” In Proceedings, IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, October 2006.
Robert R. Burridge, “Software Architectures for Robots Capable of Intelligent Autonomy: A Survey of the State of the Art.” In Proceedings of the American Helicopter Society Forum, 2003. May 5-7, 2003.
Robert Burridge, Jeffrey Graham, Kimberly Shillcutt, Robert Hirsh, and David Kortenkamp, “The EVA Robotic Assistant: Results of 2002 Field Tests.” In Proceedings, the 7th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation in Space. Nara, Japan 2003.
Robert R. Burridge, Alfred A. Rizzi, Daniel E. Koditschek, “Sequential Composition of Dynamically Dexterous Robot Behaviors.” In International Journal of Robotics Research, 18(6):534-555, 1999

Peter Bonasso, Intelligent Control
Pete Bonasso is a principal designer of the 3T intelligent control architecture, and since 1995, has investigated the application of 3T to autonomous robotics and advanced life support systems, where the key requirement has been the minimization of human vigilance. Since 2000 he has been involved with distributed monitoring and control systems, such as those used for the Agents for Distributed Team Operations (ADTO), the Distributed Collaboration and Interaction (DCI) project and distributed control of advanced life support. He is currently researching the integration of planning and scheduling information into NASA’s Procedural Representation Language (PRL) for NASA’s Automation for Operations (A4O) program. He has served on the program committees for the National AI Conference and the annual Agent Theory, Architectures, and Languages conference. He is also an editor of Artificial Intelligence and Mobile Robots, with David Kortenkamp and Robin Murphy, published by the MIT Press in 1998.

Education:

B.S. in engineering from the United States Military Academy in 1968
M.S. in computer utilization and operations research from Stanford University in 1974

Key publications:

Bonasso, R.P., D. Kortenkamp, and J. Kowing. Distributed, Embedded Control for Life Support Developement. in ICES 2007. 2007: SAE
Bonasso, R. P., Kortenkamp, D., and Thronesbery, C. 2003. Intelligent Control of a Water Recovery System: Three Years in the Trenches. AI Magazine 24 (1): 19-44.
R. P. Bonasso, R. J. Firby, E. Gat, David Kortenkamp, D. Miller, and M. Slack, Experiences with an Architecture for Intelligent, Reactive Agents,Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence , Vol. 9, No. 1, 1997

Eric Huber, Computer Vision
Mr. Huber is a leading researcher in computer vision and pattern recognition. He has been published in numerous international journals and conferences. In 1986 he joined the Robotics and Automation group of the Army Research and Development Center at Picatinny Arsenal. There he developed techniques for combining visual servoing with force feedback for automated parts assembly. In 1988 Mr. Huber joined the Robotic Systems group of General Electric's Astro-Space Division. At GE he performed concept design studies and dynamic analysis of long flexible manipulators for spacecraft servicing missions. Mr. Huber joined MITRE Corp. in 1990 where he developed techniques for fusing multi-perspective video data for manipulator control at Goddard Space Flight Center. Starting in 1991 Mr. Huber has been under contract to provide machine vision expertise to NASA – Johnson Space Center. Over this period his efforts have concentrated on developing real-time 3D vision algorithms in support of NASA’s mobile robot and autonomous manipulation projects. Highlights of this work include support of the EVA Retriever zero-G experiments and Robonaut’s autonomous tool manipulation capability. The scope of his work includes human tracking, gesture recognition, and complex object pose tracking. His most recent interest involves recognition of 3D geometric primitives in cluttered domains.

Education:

B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rutgers University in 1985
Masters in Robotics from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1991

Key Publications:

Eric Huber and Ferid Gharsalli, “Implementation of 3D, LIDAR-Based, Vision to Improve the Safety of Grading and Excavation Machines,” in Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Engineering, Science, Construction, and Operations in Challenging Environments, 2008.
Eric Huber and Kenneth Baker, “Using a Hybrid of Silhouette and Range Templates for Real-time Pose Estimation“, in Proceedings of the 2004 IEEE Intnl. Conf on Robotics and Automation, New Orleans, LA, 1652- 1657 Vol.2, April 2004
Eric Huber and David Kortenkamp, “A Behavior-based Approach to Active Stereo Vision for Mobile Robots”, in Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 11, pp. 229-243, 1998

Patrick Beeson, Robot Perception and Navigation
Dr. Beeson is internationally recognized for his research on combining probabilistic metrical mapping methods with discrete symbolic inference methods to produce robots that have hierarchical, hybrid models of their environment. He has experience in building SLAM systems for indoor mapping robots, indoor/outdoor wheelchair robots, and outdoor unmanned autonomous vehicles. His past research accomplishments include reliable detection and description of important places in indoor environments, topological solutions to the loop closing problem, a human-inspired hierarchy for robot spatial reasoning, and schemes for using stereo-vision point clouds for real-time 6-DOF navigation. In addition to robot mapping, he has research publications on developmental learning for robotics and human-robot interaction. Prior to his position at TRACLabs, he was a faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught undergraduate robotics courses and oversaw an undergraduate robotics research stream for the College of Natural Sciences' Freshmen Research Initiative. He was also the lead software engineer and lead programmer of the Austin Robot Technology autonomous vehicle, which competed in the semifinals of the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge.

Currently, Dr. Beeson is researching sensor-to-symbol architectures in order to produce general purpose sensing systems that can handle novel domains, addition and subtraction of sensors, and sensor failures without the need to reprogram the robot.

Education:

1999 B.S. Computer Science, Tulane University, New Orleans LA
2008 Ph.D. Computer Science, University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX

Publications:

Patrick Beeson, Joseph Modayil, and Benjamin Kuipers. Factoring the mapping problem: Mobile robot map-building in the Hybrid Spatial Semantic Hierarchy. International Journal of Robotics Research, 2010. Available at IJRR Online
Patrick Beeson, Jack O'Quin, Bartley Gillan, Tarun Nimmagadda, Mickey Ristroph, David Li, and Peter Stone. Multiagent interactions in urban driving. Journal of Physical Agents, 2(1):15--30,
March 2008. Special issue on Multi-Robot Systems.
Patrick Beeson, Aniket Murarka, and Benjamin Kuipers. Adapting proposal distributions for accurate, efficient mobile robot localization. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2006.
Benjamin Kuipers and Patrick Beeson. Bootstrap learning for place recognition. In Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2002.

Website