PhD Defense: Learning from Perception to Imagination: Towards General Multimodal Robot Manipulation

28 October 2024

PhD Colloquium by Wenkai Chen, Informatics Dept., University of Hamburg

Abstract:

The challenge of enabling robots to operate autonomously in real-world environments, characterized by variability and uncertainty, remains significant. As embodied AI advances, the capacity of robots to perceive and interact with their surroundings through physical structures becomes increasingly crucial.

This dissertation addresses these challenges by exploring innovative robot learning approaches that enable adaptability to unforeseen circumstances, where pre-programming detailed models is impractical. It investigates the interplay between perception and action, demonstrating how passive perception provides contextual understanding, how interactive perception from multimodal information enhances decision-making, and how intensive imagination in robotic manipulation is achieved through diffusion models and vision-language techniques. The presentation will be given in English.

Date and time: 28 October 2024, 14:00 a.m. Seminar Room F334, Informatikum, Vogt-Kölln-Str. 30, 22527 Hamburg.