Human Action Recognition for Human-Robot Collaboration

Introduction:

The Centre for Robotics of MINES ParisTech, PSL Université Paris, is involved in several research projects on human motion pattern recognition applied to the Factory of the Future, the Creative and Cultural Industries and the Autonomous Vehicles. The main objective of these projects is the development of novel methodologies and technological paradigms that improve the perception of the machine and allows for natural body interactions in human-machine partnerships.

Topic:

MINES ParisTech is opening a position on Human Action Recognition for Human-Robot Collaborationin the context of the H2020 Collaborate project. HRC requires a smooth, natural and efficient spatio-temporal coordination between robots and human operators, which goes beyond and far simple co-presence and cooperation scenarios. During collaborative tasks, it is crucial to establish a safe framework for the human worker by improving the robot’s perception. The machine, whether a Humanoid Robot or an AGV, must be able to detect: 1/ not only the human presence (e.g. operator or visitor) but also 2/ specific actions/intentions and/or gestures. The operators perform these gestures in production lines (e.g. to screw, to assembly, etc.) or generally in space (e.g. when a human tends to cut the motion trajectory of the AGV or is giving to it basic gestural commands, e.g. to charge or not a palette, to go back to the starting point, etc.). To achieve this goal, the candidate will develop End-to-End Deep Learning architectures which receives egocentric images as input and outputs the action classes in real-time. The classes that will be recognise should follow an hierarchical structure: movement primitives, actions, gestures. The candidate will deliver a generic methodology and a technological prototype for professional gesture and intentions recognition, which will be tested in some of the following use-cases: a. car starter assembly, b. windshield visual quality control, c. LCD TV assembly and d. aircrafts parts manufacturing.

This position will give the possibility to the candidate to work with other European researchers both in the project and in the wider academic community, as well as opportunities to work directly with industrial partners. Moreover, the candidate will acquire transferable skills that will enhance future employability through leading and contributing to highly interactive and collaborative work. Finally, the candidate will be autonomous and concentrated on his/her work and will contribute to the project management tasks, such as preparation of the project meetings (distance calls or physical meetings in different European countries – 3 per year), reports and deliverables. Active assistance in the teaching duties of the Post-Master’s Degree AIMove is also expected.