Towards the role of humanoid robots as squad mates in urban operations and other domains, we identified doors as a major area lacking capability development. In this paper, we focus on the ability of humanoid robots to navigate and deal with doors. Human-sized doors are ubiquitous in many environment domains and the humanoid form factor is uniquely suited to operate and traverse them. We present an architecture which incorporates GPU accelerated perception and a tree based interactive behavior coordination system with a whole body motion and walking controller. Our system is capable of performing door traversals on a variety of door types. It supports rapid authoring of behaviors for unseen door types and techniques to achieve re-usability of those authored behaviors. The behaviors are modelled using trees and feature logical reactivity and action sequences that can be executed with layered concurrency to increase speed. Primitive actions are built on top of our existing whole body controller which supports manipulation while walking. We include a perception system using both neural networks and classical computer vision for door mechanism detection outside of the lab environment. We present operator-robot interdependence analysis charts to explore how human cognition is combined with artificial intelligence to produce complex robot behavior. Finally, we present and discuss real robot performances of fast door traversals on our Nadia humanoid robot. Videos online at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXuyT8w3JVgMPaB5nWNRNHtqzRK8i68dy.

Process integrated mechanisms (PIM) offer a new approach to the problem of coordinating the activity of physically distributed systems or devices. Current approaches to coordination all have well-recognized strengths and weaknesses. We propose a novel architecture to add to the mix, called the Process Integrated Mechanism (PIM), which enjoys the advantages of having a single controlling authority while avoiding the structural difficulties that have traditionally led to its rejection in many complex settings. In many situations, PIMs improve on previous models with regard to coordination, security, ease of software development, robustness and communication overhead. In the PIM architecture, the components are conceived as parts of a single mechanism, even when they are physically separated and operate asynchronously.

A new generation of dexterous robots are making strides faster than ever before - literally. Advances in both mechanics and intelligent software designed after members of the animal kingdom - including humans - are pushing an increasing number of robotics companies closer to parity with the fastest members of their kind. As reported by Popular Mechanics, organizations like the Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC) have been plucking away at making a robot called the Planar Elliptical Runner (PER) - a bipedal bot that relies mostly on mechanics. A motor on PER drives the bots propulsion and moves its legs in an oval motion that help to balance weight and prevent it from tipping over. As The Verge notes, that locomotion is achieved without the use of sophisticated machine-vision that has found its way into other mobile robots.

Probabilistic programming has emerged as a powerful paradigm in statistics, applied science, and machine learning: by decoupling modelling from inference, it promises to allow modellers to directly reason about the processes generating data. However, the performance of inference algorithms can be dramatically affected by the parameterisation used to express a model, requiring users to transform their programs in non-intuitive ways. We argue for automating these transformations, and demonstrate that mechanisms available in recent modeling frameworks can implement non-centring and related reparameterisations. This enables new inference algorithms, and we propose two: a simple approach using interleaved sampling and a novel variational formulation that searches over a continuous space of parameterisations. We show that these approaches enable robust inference across a range of models, and can yield more efficient samplers than the best fixed parameterisation.

The robotics group at the Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC) in Pensacola, Fla., has an enormous amount of experience with walking robots. They came in second at the DARPA Robotics Challenge with their Running Man Atlas, one of just three teams to score a perfect 8 out of 8, and they've continued to advance bipedal locomotion using both Atlas and NASA's Valkyrie. We write about their research all the time--just a few months ago, they taught Atlas to walk with straight legs, much like a human does. Humans set a very high standard for bipedal mobility. We're well designed for it in both hardware and software, and we can do some absolutely amazing things.

In shows like HBO's "Westworld" and AMC's "Humans," Hollywood pits robots, with artificial intelligence, against humans. Half a century ago, a science fiction film about a space mission planted the first seeds of doubt about just how the human race could coexist with man-made sentient beings. "Consider the fictional robot HAL in '2001: A Space Odyssey,' " said Ken Ford, a computer scientist and founder and CEO of the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, in Pensacola, which has won awards for its robotics innovations. HAL eventually turned on its master in that classic film, sending shivers down the spines of moviegoers everywhere. Some of that wariness about artificial intelligence still exists, but Ford said the fear is unwarranted, and in the case of fictional robots, misplaced.

In shows like HBO's "Westworld" and AMC's "Humans," Hollywood pits robots, with artificial intelligence, against humans. Half a century ago, a science fiction film about a space mission planted the first seeds of doubt about just how the human race could coexist with man-made sentient beings. "Consider the fictional robot HAL in '2001: A Space Odyssey,' " said Ken Ford, a computer scientist and founder and CEO of the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, in Pensacola, which has won awards for its robotics innovations. HAL eventually turned on its master in that classic film, sending shivers down the spines of moviegoers everywhere. Some of that wariness about artificial intelligence still exists, but Ford said the fear is unwarranted, and in the case of fictional robots, misplaced.

Arthur Renowitzky can't help but command attention as he walks down the street on a sunny autumn morning. A driver lowers her window to flash a smile and a thumbs-up. "You got this," she says. Renowitzky has been paralyzed since 2007 after being shot in the chest for $20 and a fake gold chain. But he can stand and walk, using crutches for balance, when wearing an exoskeleton suit with motorized hips and knees powering his movements.

Arthur Renowitzky can't help but command attention as he walks down the street on a sunny autumn morning. A driver lowers her window to flash a smile and a thumbs-up. "You got this," she says. Renowitzky has been paralyzed since 2007 after being shot in the chest for $20 and a fake gold chain. But he can stand and walk, using crutches for balance, when wearing an exoskeleton suit with motorized hips and knees powering his movements.

In recent years, the engineers over at Boston Dynamics have been doing some of the most advanced robotics work on the planet. They've also been diligent about documenting their work and posting videos. For the dedicated robot video enthusiast, the company's YouTube channel is the gift that keeps on giving. The latest video featuring Boston Dynamics' robotic stars actually comes from the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC), and shows BD's Atlas robot balancing -- on one foot -- atop the edge of a plywood board less than an inch thick. It's a short clip, just under 30 seconds, and might not seem like much at first glance.