BRENNA D. ARGALL
http://www.eecs.northwestern.edu/~argallEECS, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Tech Inst. Rm L359, Evanston, IL 60208 USA
[email protected] · +1 847 467 0862
June and Donald Brewer Junior Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University Assistant Professor, PM&R, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University
Faculty Research Scientist, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Assistant Professor, September 2011 – present, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), McCormick School of Engineering, and the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R), Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Evanston IL, USA.
Faculty Research Scientist, September 2011 – present, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL, USA.
Postdoctoral Fellow, May 2009 – July 2011, Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory (LASA), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland. Design and development of algorithms to learn motion control from demonstration and tactile feedback; extensive literature research; software development in Matlab and C++ for implementation on a humanoid robot; lab representative at quarterly RoboSkin project meetings. Research Intern, Summer 2008, Autonomous Systems Laboratory, ICT Centre, CSIRO, Brisbane, Australia. Design and development of a self-supervised learning approach for enriching a robot's skill base; software development in Matlab and C++ for implementation on a large autonomous industrial robot.
Teaching Assistant, Spring 2007, Carnegie Mellon University Qatar Campus, Doha, Qatar. Introduction to robot programming course, in Java. Selected lecture writing and presentation, selected lab and homework design, grading criterion determination and application for the evaluation of student work. Robot operation and hardware maintenance, coursework software in Java. Robot platform: Amigobots (small differential drive wheeled robots). Computational Biologist, September 2003 – July 2004, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, NIMH, NIH, Bethesda MD, USA. Collection and analysis of fMRI data; software development.
Post-Baccalaureate IRTA Fellow, August 2002 - September 2003, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, NIMH, NIH, Bethesda MD, USA. Collection and analysis of fMRI data; software development.
EDUCATION
Ph.D. in Robotics, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA, USA, March 2009 Advisors : Brett Browning, Ph.D. and Manuela Veloso, Ph.D.
Thesis : Learning Mobile Robot Motion Control from Demonstration and Corrective Feedback Research topic : Machine learning and human feedback for the development of robot motion control policies. Visiting Graduate Student, Carnegie Mellon University Qatar Campus, Doha, Qatar, Spring 2007 M.S. in Robotics, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA, USA, December 2006
B.S. in Mathematical Sciences, MCS, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA, USA, May 2002 Concentration : Computational and Applied Mathematics
Minors : Biological Sciences and Music
Visiting Undergraduate Student, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland, Fall 2000
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
My research interests focus on integrating human feedback into machine learning techniques that build robot motion control policies, and the blending of manual and automated control for assistive rehabilitation robots.
Rehabilitation Robotics, September 2011 – present, Northwestern University and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL, USA. Research in automation for assistive devices, hybrid human-robot control, learning from demonstration and correction. Role: Laboratory founder and head.
Robot Learning with Tactile Corrections, May 2009 – July 2011, Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory (LASA), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, and in collaboration with multiple other European Universities (a European Commission consortium). The RoboSkin project includes hardware development of a soft skin of sensors for multi-modal tactile detection by a robot, and software development for its incorporation into robot behaviors with validation on multiple robot platforms. LASA contribution uses the skin in the development of robot behaviors; specifically, tactile feedback from a human teacher is used to refine and reuse motion control policies learned from demonstration. Postdoctoral research topic. Robot platform: iCub (child-sized 53 degree-of-freedom humanoid). Role: Lead algorithm development, collaborative robot operation, simulation and robot software development in C++ and Matlab.
Mobile Robot Learning with Teacher Feedback, March 2006 – March 2009, CORAL Research Group, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA, USA. The development of robot motion control policies through demonstration learning, focusing on novel policy improvement techniques that synthesize new data from human teacher feedback and student executions. Dissertation research topic. Matlab code delivered to Boeing sponsors. Robot platform: Segway RMP (dynamically balancing differential drive wheeled robot). Role: Lead algorithm development, robot operation and hardware maintenance, robot and simulation code software development in C++ and Matlab.
Boeing Treasure Hunt, September 2004 – December 2008, CORAL Research Group, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA, USA, and in collaboration with Boeing and other Carnegie Mellon research groups. Heterogeneous teams of humans and robots, each with some capability unique to them and required of the task, coordinate in pursuit of treasure. C++ and Ruby code delivered to Boeing sponsors. Robot platform: Segway RMP. Role: Robot operation and single robot behavior control policy development in C++ and Ruby, mentor to undergraduate researchers.
Automation of Industrial Vehicles, Summer 2008, Autonomous Systems Laboratory, ICT Centre, CSIRO, Brisbane, Australia. Automation of a hot metal carrier forklift used in the aluminum smelting industry, with a focus on practical learning approaches that inject intelligence and enrich the robot's skill base. Robot platform: hot metal carrier (large outdoor industrial wheeled robot). Role: Learning algorithm design and software development in Matlab and C++. Segway Soccer, September 2004 – 2006, CORAL Research Group, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA, USA. Teams of humans and robots organize and cooperate in soccer competitions against other human-robot teams (Robocup Segway Soccer league). Participant in the 2005 Robocup US Open. Robot platform: Segway RMP. Role: Development of single robot behavior control policies and software in C++, robot operation and hardware maintenance, mentor to undergraduate researchers.
Neuroscience Research and fMRI Data Visualization Software Development, August 2002 – July 2004, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, and in collaboration with the Scientific and Statistical Computing Core, NIMH, NIH, Bethesda MD, USA. Development within an function MRI (fMRI) data visualization software suite (SUMA); in particular, development of a method for inter-subject cortical surface averaging across subjects. Investigations into human brain regions of audio-visual processing overlap. Role: Acquisition and analysis of fMRI scan data (software used: AFNI, SUMA, and Matlab), algorithm and software development in C.
AWARDS and HONORS
June and Donald Brewer Junior Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, September 2011, Northwestern University, Evanston IL.
Invited Lectures
University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, July 2011. Invited Talks
Northwestern University, Chicago IL, USA, March 2011. SUNY University at Buffalo, Buffalo NY, USA, February 2011. Oregon State University, Corvallis OR, USA, February 2011. University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, February 2011. Willow Garage, Menlo Park CA, USA, June 2010.
Carnegie Mellon University – Qatar Campus, Doha, Qatar, March 2010.
Robotics Institute Ph.D. Fellowhip, August 2004, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA. Post-Baccalaureate IRTA Fellowship, August 2002, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda MD. College Honors, May 2002, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA, granted with B.S. Degree.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS BOOK CHAPTERS
B. D. Argall, B. Browning and M. M. Veloso. Mobile Robot Motion Control from Demonstration and Corrective Feedback. In From Motor to Interaction Learning in Robots. J. Peters and O. Sigaud, editors. Springer, New York, NY, 2009.
JOURNAL ARTICLES
B. D. Argall, M. Veloso, and B. Browning. Feedback for the Refinement of Learned Motion Control on a Mobile Robot. Under submission.
Eric L. Sauser, B. D. Argall, Giorgio Metta and A. G. Billard. Iterative Grasp Adaptation Learning with Tactile Corrections. Robotics and Autonomous Systems. To appear.
B. D. Argall, M. Veloso, and B. Browning. Teacher Feedback to Scaffold and Refine Demonstrated Motion Primitives on a Mobile Robot. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 59(3-4), 243-255, 2011.
B. D. Argall, Eric L. Sauser and A. G. Billard. Tactile Guidance for Policy Adaptation. Foundation and Trends in Robotics, 1(2), 79-133 , 2010.
B. D. Argall and A. G. Billard. A Survey of Tactile Human-Robot Interactions. Robotics and Autonomous Systems. 58(10): 1159-1176, 2010.
B. D. Argall, S. Chernova, M. Veloso, and B. Browning. A Survey of Robot Learning from Demonstration. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 57(5): 469-483, 2009.
B. D. Argall, Z. S. Saad, and M. S. Beauchamp. Simplified Intersubject Averaging on the Cortical Surface Using SUMA. Human Brain Mapping, 27(1):14-27, 2006.
M. S. Beauchamp, K. E. Lee, B. D. Argall, and A. Martin. Integration of Auditory and Visual Information about Objects in Superior Temporal Sulcus. Neuron, 41:809-823, 2003.
Ph.D. DISSERTATION
B. D. Argall. Learning Mobile Robot Motion Control from Demonstration and Corrective Feedback. Ph.D. Thesis, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, March 2009. Technical report CMU-RI-TR-09-13.
REFERRED CONFERENCE PUBLICATIONS
B. Argall, E. Sauser and A. Billard. Tactile Guidance for Policy Refinement and Reuse. In Proceedings of the 9th IEEE
International Conference on Development and Learning, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, August 2010.
B. Argall, E. Sauser and A. Billard. Demonstration, Tactile Correction and Multiple Training Data Sources for Robot Motion Control. In NIPS 2009 Workshop on Learning from Multiple Sources with Application to Robotics, Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, December 2009.
B. Argall, B. Browning, and M. Veloso. Learning Mobile Robot Motion Control from Demonstrated Primitives and Human Feedback. In Proceedings of the 14th International Symposium on Robotics Research, Luzern, Switzerland, August 2009.
B. Argall, B. Browning, and M. Veloso. Automatic Weight Learning for Multiple Data Sources when Learning from Demonstration. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Kobe, Japan, May 2009. B. Argall, B. Browning, and M. Veloso. Learning Robot Motion Control with Demonstration and Advice-Operators. In Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Nice, France, September 2008. M. B. Dias, B. Kannan, B. Browning, E. G. Jones, B. Argall, M. F. Dias, M. B. Zinck, M. Veloso and A. Stentz. Sliding Autonomy for Peer-to-Peer Robot Teams. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems, Baden Baden, Germany, July 2008.
B. Argall, B. Browning, and M. Veloso. Learning to Select State Machines using Expert Advice on an Autonomous Robot. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Rome, Italy, April 2007.
B. Argall, B. Browning, and M. Veloso. Learning by Demonstration with Critique from a Human Teacher. In Proceedings of the Second Annual Conference on Human-Robot Interactions, Washington D.C., USA, March 2007.
B. Argall, Y. Gu, B. Browning, and M. Veloso. The First Segway Soccer Experience: Towards Peer-to-Peer Human-Robot Teams. In Proceedings of the First Annual Conference on Human-Robot Interactions, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, March 2006. (Also Carnegie Mellon University Technical Report, CMU-CS-05-161, 2005.)
B. D. Argall, Z. S. Saad, A. Martin, M. S. Beauchamp. A Comparison between Surface and Volume-based Averaging Techniques for Cross-Subject fMRI Analysis. In Proceedings of the 33rd Meeting for the Society for Neuroscience, Abs. 863.12, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, November 2003.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Conference Organizer:Local chair HRI 2011.
Organizing Committee Member: RSS 2011 Workshop on The State of Imitation Learning: Understanding its Applications and Promoting its Adoption (full day), IJCAI 2011 Workshop on Agents Learning Interactively from Human Teachers (two days), ICRA 2010 Tutorial on Robot Learning from Demonstration (half day), AAMAS 2010 Workshop on Agents Learning Interactively from Human Teachers (full day).
Program Committee Member: RSS (2011), RO-MAN (Associate editor, 2011), TAROS (2011), AAMAS (2010). Journal Reviewer: Journal of Field Robotics (April 2006-present), IEEE Transactions on Robotics (2010), Robotics and Autonomous Systems (2010), International Journal of Service Robotics (2010), Autonomous Robots (2009). Conference Reviewer: ICRA (2006-2008, 2010-2012), IROS (2008, 2010), AAMAS (2006-2006, 2010), AAAI (2005-2006, 2010), RO-MAN (2010), ICDL (2010), Humanoids (2010), HRI (2007-2008, 2011-2012), ICSR (2010), AAAI Spring Symposium (2009), Robocup (2006).
Society Member: IEEE (2007-present), RAS (2010-present), Society for Neuroscience (2002-2004).
Other Community Service: Judge for the FIRST LEGO League tournament (2008) and the Pittsburgh Regional Science and Engineering Fair (2008). General conference volunteer at ICRA (2007), HRI (2006, 2007), and Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (2006).
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Community Service: Volunteer with Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh PA, 2005-2009), Birmingham Free Health Clinic (Pittsburgh PA, 2006), Washington Free Health Clinic (Washington D.C., 2003-2004), Carnegie Mellon University Preceptorship Program (Pittsburgh PA, 2001), and St. Mary's Ozaukee Hospital ER (Mequon WI, 2000).
Other Interests: Singer with the Chœur Vivace (Lausanne, Switzerland, 2009-present), the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh PA, 2004-2008) and the Master Chorale of Washington (Washington D.C., 2003-2004); high school academic tutor (2003-2004).