Martin Molina is a professor at the Department of Artificial Intelligence, Technical University of Madrid since 1994 (full professor since 2012). He received his Ph.D. in computer science and artificial intelligence in 1993 and his Licentiate Degree in information technology in 1990 from the Technical University of Madrid. He was a visiting researcher for approximately 3 years in several research centers in the USA (AT&T Labs–Research, Stanford University and University of California–Irvine). He runs a research group about intelligent systems at his university. His research focuses on data analytics (descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive analytics), knowledge representation, and architectures for intelligent systems. His recent research interests also include data visualization, natural language generation (e.g., applied to big data and sensor networks) and cognitive architectures for intelligent machines (e.g., applied to drones). He has authored more than 80 publications related to artificial intelligence and its applications, and he has more than 20 years of experience working with intelligent systems and their applications.
The concept of intelligent system has emerged in information technology as a type of system deriv... more The concept of intelligent system has emerged in information technology as a type of system derived from successful applications of artificial intelligence. The goal of this paper is to give a general description of an intelligent system, which integrates previous approaches and takes into account recent advances in artificial intelligence. The paper describes an intelligent system in a generic way, identifying its main properties and functional components. The presented description follows a pragmatic approach to be used in an engineering context as a general framework to analyze and build intelligent systems. Its generality and its use is illustrated with real-world system examples and related with artificial intelligence methods.
This paper deals with the problems and the solutions of fast coverage path planning (CPP) for mul... more This paper deals with the problems and the solutions of fast coverage path planning (CPP) for multiple UAVs. Through this research, the problem is solved and analyzed with both a software framework and algorithm. The implemented algorithm generates a back-and-forth path based on the onboard sensor footprint. In addition, three methods are proposed for the individual path assignment: simple bin packing trajectory planner (SIMPLE-BINPAT); bin packing trajectory planner (BINPAT); and Powell optimized bin packing trajectory planner (POWELL-BINPAT). The three methods use heuristic algorithms, linear sum assignment, and minimization techniques to optimize the planning task. Furthermore, this approach is implemented with applicable software to be easily used by first responders such as police and firefighters. In addition, simulation and real-world experiments were performed using UAVs with RGB and thermal cameras. The results show that POWELL-BINPAT generates optimal UAV paths to complete...
To specify missions in aerial robotics, many existing applications follow an approach based on a ... more To specify missions in aerial robotics, many existing applications follow an approach based on a list of waypoints, which has been proven to be useful and practical in professional domains (agriculture of precision, creation of terrain maps, etc.). However this approach has limitations to be used in other problems such as the one defined in the IMAV 2016 competition (e.g., a search and rescue mission). In this paper we describe a language to specify missions for aerial robotics that tries to overcome such limitations. This language has been designed as part of a complete software framework and architecture for aerial robotics called Aerostack. The paper describes the result of experimental evaluation in real flight and its adequacy for the IMAV 2016 competition.
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, 2020
A variety of open-source software tools are currently available to help building autonomous mobil... more A variety of open-source software tools are currently available to help building autonomous mobile robots. These tools have proven their effectiveness in developing different types of robotic systems, but there are still needs related to safety and efficiency that are not sufficiently covered. This article describes recent advances in the Aerostack software framework to address part of these needs, which may become critical in the case of aerial robots. The article describes a software tool that helps to develop the executive system, an important component of the control architecture whose characteristics significantly affect the quality of the final autonomous robotic system. The presented tool uses an original solution for execution control that aims at simplifying mission specification and protecting against errors, considering also the efficiency needs of aerial robots. The effectiveness of the tool was evaluated by building an experimental autonomous robot. The results of the e...
International Journal of Intelligent Computing and Cybernetics, 2017
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the specification language TML for adaptive miss... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the specification language TML for adaptive mission plans that the authors designed and implemented for the open-source framework Aerostack for aerial robotics. Design/methodology/approach The TML language combines a task-based hierarchical approach together with a more flexible representation, rule-based reactive planning, to facilitate adaptability. This approach includes additional notions that abstract programming details. The authors built an interpreter integrated in the software framework Aerostack. The interpreter was validated with flight experiments for multi-robot missions in dynamic environments. Findings The experiments proved that the TML language is easy to use and expressive enough to formulate adaptive missions in dynamic environments. The experiments also showed that the TML interpreter is efficient to execute multi-robot aerial missions and reusable for different platforms. The TML interpreter is able to verify the ...
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the specification language TML for adaptive
mi... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the specification language TML for adaptive mission plans that the authors designed and implemented for the open-source framework Aerostack for aerial robotics. Design/methodology/approach – The TML language combines a task-based hierarchical approach together with a more flexible representation, rule-based reactive planning, to facilitate adaptability. This approach includes additional notions that abstract programming details. The authors built an interpreter integrated in the software framework Aerostack. The interpreter was validated with flight experiments for multi-robot missions in dynamic environments. Findings – The experiments proved that the TML language is easy to use and expressive enough to formulate adaptive missions in dynamic environments. The experiments also showed that the TML interpreter is efficient to execute multi-robot aerial missions and reusable for different platforms. The TML interpreter is able to verify the mission plan before its execution, which increases robustness and safety, avoiding the execution of certain plans that are not feasible. Originality/value – One of the main contributions of this work is the availability of a reliable solution to specify aerial mission plans, integrated in an active open-source project with periodic releases. To the best knowledge of the authors, there are not solutions similar to this in other active open-source projects. As additional contributions, TML uses an original combination of representations for adaptive mission plans (i.e. task trees with original abstract notions and rule-based reactive planning) together with the demonstration of its adequacy for aerial robotics.
— In this paper a scalable and flexible Architecture for real-time mission planning and dynamic a... more — In this paper a scalable and flexible Architecture for real-time mission planning and dynamic agent-to-task assignment for a swarm of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) is presented. The proposed mission planning architecture consists of a Global Mission Planner (GMP) which is responsible of assigning and monitoring different high-level missions through an Agent Mission Planner (AMP), which is in charge of providing and monitoring each task of the mission to each UAV in the swarm. The objective of the proposed architecture is to carry out high-level missions such as autonomous multi-agent exploration, automatic target detection and recognition, search and rescue, and other different missions with the ability of dynamically re-adapt the mission in real-time. The proposed architecture has been evaluated in simulation and real indoor flights demonstrating its robustness in different scenarios and its flexibility for real-time mission re-planning and dynamic agent-to-task assignment.
— Personal drones are becoming part of every day life. To fully integrate them into society, it i... more — Personal drones are becoming part of every day life. To fully integrate them into society, it is crucial to design safe and intuitive ways to interact with these aerial systems. The recent advances on User-Centered Design (UCD) applied to Natural User Interfaces (NUIs) intend to make use of human innate features, such as speech, gestures and vision to interact with technology in the way humans would with one another. In this paper, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and several NUI methods are studied and implemented, along with computer vision techniques, in a single software framework for aerial robotics called Aerostack which allows for intuitive and natural human-quadrotor interaction in indoor GPS-denied environments. These strategies include speech, body position, hand gesture and visual marker interactions used to directly command tasks to the drone. The NUIs presented are based on devices like the Leap Motion Controller, microphones and small size monocular on-board cameras which are unnoticeable to the user. Thanks to this UCD perspective, the users can choose the most intuitive and effective type of interaction for their application. Additionally, the strategies proposed allow for multi-modal interaction between multiple users and the drone by being able to integrate several of these interfaces in one single application as is shown in various real flight experiments performed with non-expert users.
— To simplify the usage of the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), extending their use to a great numb... more — To simplify the usage of the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), extending their use to a great number of applications, fully autonomous operation is needed. There are many open-source architecture frameworks for UAS that claim the autonomous operation of UAS, but they still have two main open issues: (1) level of autonomy, being in most of the cases limited and (2) versatility, being most of them designed specifically for some applications or aerial platforms. As a response to these needs and issues, this paper presents Aerostack, a system architecture and open-source multipurpose software framework for autonomous multi-UAS operation. To provide higher degrees of autonomy, Aerostack's system architecture integrates state of the art concepts of intelligent, cognitive and social robotics, based on five layers: reactive, executive, deliberative, reflective, and social. To be a highly versatile practical solution, Aerostack's open-source software framework includes the main components to execute the architecture for fully autonomous missions of swarms of UAS; a collection of ready-to-use and flight proven modular components that can be reused by the users and developers; and compatibility with five well known aerial platforms, as well as a high number of sensors. Aerostack has been validated during three years by its successful use on many research projects, international competitions and exhibitions. To corroborate this fact, this paper also presents Aerostack carrying out a fictional fully autonomous indoors search and rescue mission.
To specify missions in aerial robotics, many existing applications follow an approach based on a ... more To specify missions in aerial robotics, many existing applications follow an approach based on a list of waypoints, which has been proven to be useful and practical in professional domains (agriculture of precision, creation of terrain maps, etc.). However this approach has limitations to be used in other problems such as the one defined in the IMAV 2016 competition (e.g., a search and rescue mission). In this paper we describe a language to specify missions for aerial robotics that tries to overcome such limitations. This language has been designed as part of a complete software framework and architecture for aerial robotics called Aerostack. The paper describes the result of experimental evaluation in real flight and its adequacy for the IMAV 2016 competition.
This paper argues about the utility of advanced knowledge-based techniques to develop web-based a... more This paper argues about the utility of advanced knowledge-based techniques to develop web-based applications that help consumers in finding products within marketplaces in e-commerce. In particular, we describe the idea of model-based approach to develop a shopping agent that dynamically configures a product according to the needs and preferences of customers. Finally , the paper summarizes the advantages provided by this approach.
Shopping agents are web-based applications that help consumers to find appropriate products in th... more Shopping agents are web-based applications that help consumers to find appropriate products in the context of e-commerce. In this paper we argue about the utility of advanced model-based techniques that recently have been proposed in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Engineering, in order to increase the level of support provided by this type of applications. We illustrate this approach with a virtual sales assistant that dynamically configures a product according to the needs and preferences of customers.
The concept of intelligent system has emerged in information technology as a type of system deriv... more The concept of intelligent system has emerged in information technology as a type of system derived from successful applications of artificial intelligence. The goal of this paper is to give a general description of an intelligent system, which integrates previous approaches and takes into account recent advances in artificial intelligence. The paper describes an intelligent system in a generic way, identifying its main properties and functional components. The presented description follows a pragmatic approach to be used in an engineering context as a general framework to analyze and build intelligent systems. Its generality and its use is illustrated with real-world system examples and related with artificial intelligence methods.
This paper deals with the problems and the solutions of fast coverage path planning (CPP) for mul... more This paper deals with the problems and the solutions of fast coverage path planning (CPP) for multiple UAVs. Through this research, the problem is solved and analyzed with both a software framework and algorithm. The implemented algorithm generates a back-and-forth path based on the onboard sensor footprint. In addition, three methods are proposed for the individual path assignment: simple bin packing trajectory planner (SIMPLE-BINPAT); bin packing trajectory planner (BINPAT); and Powell optimized bin packing trajectory planner (POWELL-BINPAT). The three methods use heuristic algorithms, linear sum assignment, and minimization techniques to optimize the planning task. Furthermore, this approach is implemented with applicable software to be easily used by first responders such as police and firefighters. In addition, simulation and real-world experiments were performed using UAVs with RGB and thermal cameras. The results show that POWELL-BINPAT generates optimal UAV paths to complete...
To specify missions in aerial robotics, many existing applications follow an approach based on a ... more To specify missions in aerial robotics, many existing applications follow an approach based on a list of waypoints, which has been proven to be useful and practical in professional domains (agriculture of precision, creation of terrain maps, etc.). However this approach has limitations to be used in other problems such as the one defined in the IMAV 2016 competition (e.g., a search and rescue mission). In this paper we describe a language to specify missions for aerial robotics that tries to overcome such limitations. This language has been designed as part of a complete software framework and architecture for aerial robotics called Aerostack. The paper describes the result of experimental evaluation in real flight and its adequacy for the IMAV 2016 competition.
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, 2020
A variety of open-source software tools are currently available to help building autonomous mobil... more A variety of open-source software tools are currently available to help building autonomous mobile robots. These tools have proven their effectiveness in developing different types of robotic systems, but there are still needs related to safety and efficiency that are not sufficiently covered. This article describes recent advances in the Aerostack software framework to address part of these needs, which may become critical in the case of aerial robots. The article describes a software tool that helps to develop the executive system, an important component of the control architecture whose characteristics significantly affect the quality of the final autonomous robotic system. The presented tool uses an original solution for execution control that aims at simplifying mission specification and protecting against errors, considering also the efficiency needs of aerial robots. The effectiveness of the tool was evaluated by building an experimental autonomous robot. The results of the e...
International Journal of Intelligent Computing and Cybernetics, 2017
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the specification language TML for adaptive miss... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the specification language TML for adaptive mission plans that the authors designed and implemented for the open-source framework Aerostack for aerial robotics. Design/methodology/approach The TML language combines a task-based hierarchical approach together with a more flexible representation, rule-based reactive planning, to facilitate adaptability. This approach includes additional notions that abstract programming details. The authors built an interpreter integrated in the software framework Aerostack. The interpreter was validated with flight experiments for multi-robot missions in dynamic environments. Findings The experiments proved that the TML language is easy to use and expressive enough to formulate adaptive missions in dynamic environments. The experiments also showed that the TML interpreter is efficient to execute multi-robot aerial missions and reusable for different platforms. The TML interpreter is able to verify the ...
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the specification language TML for adaptive
mi... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the specification language TML for adaptive mission plans that the authors designed and implemented for the open-source framework Aerostack for aerial robotics. Design/methodology/approach – The TML language combines a task-based hierarchical approach together with a more flexible representation, rule-based reactive planning, to facilitate adaptability. This approach includes additional notions that abstract programming details. The authors built an interpreter integrated in the software framework Aerostack. The interpreter was validated with flight experiments for multi-robot missions in dynamic environments. Findings – The experiments proved that the TML language is easy to use and expressive enough to formulate adaptive missions in dynamic environments. The experiments also showed that the TML interpreter is efficient to execute multi-robot aerial missions and reusable for different platforms. The TML interpreter is able to verify the mission plan before its execution, which increases robustness and safety, avoiding the execution of certain plans that are not feasible. Originality/value – One of the main contributions of this work is the availability of a reliable solution to specify aerial mission plans, integrated in an active open-source project with periodic releases. To the best knowledge of the authors, there are not solutions similar to this in other active open-source projects. As additional contributions, TML uses an original combination of representations for adaptive mission plans (i.e. task trees with original abstract notions and rule-based reactive planning) together with the demonstration of its adequacy for aerial robotics.
— In this paper a scalable and flexible Architecture for real-time mission planning and dynamic a... more — In this paper a scalable and flexible Architecture for real-time mission planning and dynamic agent-to-task assignment for a swarm of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) is presented. The proposed mission planning architecture consists of a Global Mission Planner (GMP) which is responsible of assigning and monitoring different high-level missions through an Agent Mission Planner (AMP), which is in charge of providing and monitoring each task of the mission to each UAV in the swarm. The objective of the proposed architecture is to carry out high-level missions such as autonomous multi-agent exploration, automatic target detection and recognition, search and rescue, and other different missions with the ability of dynamically re-adapt the mission in real-time. The proposed architecture has been evaluated in simulation and real indoor flights demonstrating its robustness in different scenarios and its flexibility for real-time mission re-planning and dynamic agent-to-task assignment.
— Personal drones are becoming part of every day life. To fully integrate them into society, it i... more — Personal drones are becoming part of every day life. To fully integrate them into society, it is crucial to design safe and intuitive ways to interact with these aerial systems. The recent advances on User-Centered Design (UCD) applied to Natural User Interfaces (NUIs) intend to make use of human innate features, such as speech, gestures and vision to interact with technology in the way humans would with one another. In this paper, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and several NUI methods are studied and implemented, along with computer vision techniques, in a single software framework for aerial robotics called Aerostack which allows for intuitive and natural human-quadrotor interaction in indoor GPS-denied environments. These strategies include speech, body position, hand gesture and visual marker interactions used to directly command tasks to the drone. The NUIs presented are based on devices like the Leap Motion Controller, microphones and small size monocular on-board cameras which are unnoticeable to the user. Thanks to this UCD perspective, the users can choose the most intuitive and effective type of interaction for their application. Additionally, the strategies proposed allow for multi-modal interaction between multiple users and the drone by being able to integrate several of these interfaces in one single application as is shown in various real flight experiments performed with non-expert users.
— To simplify the usage of the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), extending their use to a great numb... more — To simplify the usage of the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), extending their use to a great number of applications, fully autonomous operation is needed. There are many open-source architecture frameworks for UAS that claim the autonomous operation of UAS, but they still have two main open issues: (1) level of autonomy, being in most of the cases limited and (2) versatility, being most of them designed specifically for some applications or aerial platforms. As a response to these needs and issues, this paper presents Aerostack, a system architecture and open-source multipurpose software framework for autonomous multi-UAS operation. To provide higher degrees of autonomy, Aerostack's system architecture integrates state of the art concepts of intelligent, cognitive and social robotics, based on five layers: reactive, executive, deliberative, reflective, and social. To be a highly versatile practical solution, Aerostack's open-source software framework includes the main components to execute the architecture for fully autonomous missions of swarms of UAS; a collection of ready-to-use and flight proven modular components that can be reused by the users and developers; and compatibility with five well known aerial platforms, as well as a high number of sensors. Aerostack has been validated during three years by its successful use on many research projects, international competitions and exhibitions. To corroborate this fact, this paper also presents Aerostack carrying out a fictional fully autonomous indoors search and rescue mission.
To specify missions in aerial robotics, many existing applications follow an approach based on a ... more To specify missions in aerial robotics, many existing applications follow an approach based on a list of waypoints, which has been proven to be useful and practical in professional domains (agriculture of precision, creation of terrain maps, etc.). However this approach has limitations to be used in other problems such as the one defined in the IMAV 2016 competition (e.g., a search and rescue mission). In this paper we describe a language to specify missions for aerial robotics that tries to overcome such limitations. This language has been designed as part of a complete software framework and architecture for aerial robotics called Aerostack. The paper describes the result of experimental evaluation in real flight and its adequacy for the IMAV 2016 competition.
This paper argues about the utility of advanced knowledge-based techniques to develop web-based a... more This paper argues about the utility of advanced knowledge-based techniques to develop web-based applications that help consumers in finding products within marketplaces in e-commerce. In particular, we describe the idea of model-based approach to develop a shopping agent that dynamically configures a product according to the needs and preferences of customers. Finally , the paper summarizes the advantages provided by this approach.
Shopping agents are web-based applications that help consumers to find appropriate products in th... more Shopping agents are web-based applications that help consumers to find appropriate products in the context of e-commerce. In this paper we argue about the utility of advanced model-based techniques that recently have been proposed in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Engineering, in order to increase the level of support provided by this type of applications. We illustrate this approach with a virtual sales assistant that dynamically configures a product according to the needs and preferences of customers.
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mission plans that the authors designed and implemented for the open-source framework Aerostack for
aerial robotics.
Design/methodology/approach – The TML language combines a task-based hierarchical approach
together with a more flexible representation, rule-based reactive planning, to facilitate adaptability. This
approach includes additional notions that abstract programming details. The authors built an interpreter
integrated in the software framework Aerostack. The interpreter was validated with flight experiments for
multi-robot missions in dynamic environments.
Findings – The experiments proved that the TML language is easy to use and expressive enough to
formulate adaptive missions in dynamic environments. The experiments also showed that the TML
interpreter is efficient to execute multi-robot aerial missions and reusable for different platforms. The TML
interpreter is able to verify the mission plan before its execution, which increases robustness and safety,
avoiding the execution of certain plans that are not feasible.
Originality/value – One of the main contributions of this work is the availability of a reliable solution to
specify aerial mission plans, integrated in an active open-source project with periodic releases. To the best
knowledge of the authors, there are not solutions similar to this in other active open-source projects.
As additional contributions, TML uses an original combination of representations for adaptive mission
plans (i.e. task trees with original abstract notions and rule-based reactive planning) together with the
demonstration of its adequacy for aerial robotics.
mission plans that the authors designed and implemented for the open-source framework Aerostack for
aerial robotics.
Design/methodology/approach – The TML language combines a task-based hierarchical approach
together with a more flexible representation, rule-based reactive planning, to facilitate adaptability. This
approach includes additional notions that abstract programming details. The authors built an interpreter
integrated in the software framework Aerostack. The interpreter was validated with flight experiments for
multi-robot missions in dynamic environments.
Findings – The experiments proved that the TML language is easy to use and expressive enough to
formulate adaptive missions in dynamic environments. The experiments also showed that the TML
interpreter is efficient to execute multi-robot aerial missions and reusable for different platforms. The TML
interpreter is able to verify the mission plan before its execution, which increases robustness and safety,
avoiding the execution of certain plans that are not feasible.
Originality/value – One of the main contributions of this work is the availability of a reliable solution to
specify aerial mission plans, integrated in an active open-source project with periodic releases. To the best
knowledge of the authors, there are not solutions similar to this in other active open-source projects.
As additional contributions, TML uses an original combination of representations for adaptive mission
plans (i.e. task trees with original abstract notions and rule-based reactive planning) together with the
demonstration of its adequacy for aerial robotics.