PhD Thesis Proposal - Shihan Lu

Title: Analysis, Synthesis, and Perception of Multimodal Feedback for Humans and Robots

Committee: Heather Culbertson (Chair), Stefanos Nikolaidis, Gaurav Sukhatme, Jernej Barbic, Shrikanth Narayanan

Date: Tuesday, April 25, 11 am - 1 pm PST

Abstract: Multimodal feedback, including haptic and auditory feedback, is often overlooked in interactive and contact-rich scenarios in the studies with both humans and robots, such as writing on the back of an envelope with a pen or grasping a block in a Jenga game. In this work, I focus on three perspectives related to the multimodal feedback in interactions: (1) Analysis â“ how to extract useful and interpretable features from multimodal feedback; (2) Synthesis â“ how to simulate realistic virtual feedback; and (3) Perception â“ how humans and robots respond to the feedback. I explore these perspectives through tasks of sound modeling, haptic texture design, large-scale texture classification, and state-aware robot manipulation. With these tasks, the objective is to enhance the interactive experience in virtual reality, improve the understanding of crossmodal relationships, and complement visual and tactile sensing in challenging robot manipulation tasks.

Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 306

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Melissa Ochoa

Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/93301568398?pwd=RjYxRTRSU1hrbktzN0wweWZxT0JDQT09 ; Meeting ID: 933 0156 8398 ; Passcode: 311777