RESEARCH INTERESTS

Robotics
Affordance
Grasping
AI
EDUCATION

Ph.D Candidate in Robotics and Autonomous Systems
Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, CDT. Expected Graduation - November 2021

SEPTEMBER 2018 - CURRENT
EDINBURGH, UK

Master of Science in Robotics and Autonomous Systems
Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, CDT. Graduated with Distinction

AUGUST 2018
EDINBURGH, UK

Master of Science in Computer Vision and Robotics
VIBOT Erasmus Program. Graduated with Distinction

JUNE 2017
FRANCE, SPAIN, UK

Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering
John Brown University. Graduated cum laude

MAY 2013
ARKANSAS, USA



PUBLICATIONS

2021
P. Ardón, È. Pairet, K.S. Lohan, S. Ramamoorthy, R.P.A. Petrick, Building affordance relations for robotic agents - A review, In Proc. International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), 2021.



Ardón, P.; Maria E. Cabrera; Pairet È.; Petrick, R.; Ramamoorthy, S.; Lohan, K. S.; and Maya Cakmak "Affordance-Aware Handovers with Human Arm Mobility Constraints". IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L) Presented in ICRA. June 2021. Best Presentation award at Learning for Caregiving Robots (LCR) at ICRA.


BibTexAbstract

2020
Ardón, P.; Pairet È.; Petrick, R.; Ramamoorthy, S.; and Lohan, K. S. "Self-Assessment of Grasp Affordance Transfer". IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). October 2020.


BibTexAbstract


D.A Robb, M. I Ahmad, C. Tiseo, A. C Aracri S.and McConnell, V. Page, C. Dondrup, F. J Chiyah Garcia, HN. Nguyen, È. Pairet, Ardón, P., et al. "Robots in the Danger Zone: Exploring Public Perception through Engagement". In: Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction. 2020, pp. 93–102.


BibTexAbstract


Y. Carreno, E. Pairet, Ardón, P., Y. Petillot, and R.PA Petrick. "Task Allocation and Planning for Offshore Mission Automation". In: System demonstration at International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS). 2020


Abstract

2019
Ardón, P.; Pairet; È., Petrick, R., Ramamoorthy, S.; and Lohan, K. S. "Learning Grasp Affordance Reasoning through Semantic Relations". IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L). To be presented at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). November 2019.


BibTexAbstract


Pairet, È.; Ardón, P.; Mistry, M.; and Petillot, Y. "Learning Generalisable Coupling Terms for Obstacle Avoidance via Low-dimensional Geometric Descriptors". IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L). To be presented at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). November 2019.


BibTexAbstract


Ardón, P.; Pairet, È.; Petrick, R.; Ramamoorthy, S.; and Lohan, K. S. "Reasoning on Grasp-Action Affordances", in Conf. Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems. July 2019. Best Paper Award finalist.


BibTexAbstract


Pairet, È.; Ardón, P.; Mistry, M,; and Petillot, Y. "Learning and Composing Primitive Skills for Dual-arm Manipulation", in Conf. Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems. July 2019. Advanced Robotics at Queen Mary (ARQ) best paper award.


BibTexAbstract


Pairet, È.; Ardón, P.; Liu, X.; Lopes,J.; Hastie, H.; and Lohan, K. S. "A Digital Twin for Human-Robot Interaction", in ACM/IEEE Intl. Conf. on Human-Robot Interaction. March 2019.


BibTexAbstract

2018
Ardón, P.; Pairet, È.; Ramamoorthy, S.; and Lohan, K. S. Towards robust grasps: Using the environment semantics for robotic object affordances. 2018. In AAAI Fall Symposium. Reasoning and Learning in Real-World Systems for Long-Term Autonomy. AAAI Press.


BibTexAbstract


Pairet, È.; Ardón, P.; Brox, F.; Mistry, M.; and Petillot, Y. 2018a. Learning and generalisation of primitives skills towards robust dual-arm manipulation. In AAAI Fall Symposium. Artificial Intelligence for Reasoning and Learning in Real-World Systems for Long-Term Autonomy. AAAI Press.


BibTexAbstract


Ardón P.; Ramamoorthy, S.; Lohan, K.S.. Object affordances by inferring on the surroundings, In Proc. IEEE Workshop on Advance Robotics and its Social Impact, 2018. In press.


BibTexAbstract


Ardón P.; Dragone, M. and Erden, M. S.Reaching and Grasping of Objects by Humanoid Robots through Visual Servoing. 6 Jun 2018 Haptics: Science, Technology, and Applications. Springer, p. 353-365 13 p. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; vol. 10894).


BibTexAbstract



RESEARCH PROJECTS

PhD Research on Robotic Object Affordance

Investigate on action affordances for indoor environment objects with the purpose of improving reaching and grasp behaviours.

SEPTEMBER 2018 - CURRENT
EDINBURGH, UK

ORCA Hub

Integration and optimisation of the different robotic platforms and algorithms involved in the development of the project.

SEPTEMBER 2018 - CURRENT
EDINBURGH, UK

Master thesis on Reasoning Grasp-Action Affordances

Design and implement a reasoning technique for object grasp-action affordances.

SPRING 2018
EDINBURGH, UK

Master thesis on Visual Servoing and Grasping

Design and implement a visual servoing system on ALdebaran-Softbank platform for Peper robot to grasp objects.

SPRING 2017
EDINBURGH, UK

SLAM and Object Recognition - Pepper Robot

Group project - Implemented visual SLAM with object recognition based on ERL - service robots competition rules.

FALL 2016
EDINBURGH, UK

Lunabot NASA Project

Group project -Lunabotics Mining Competition Project (LMC) organized by NASA. Designed a fully functional prototype of a mining robot that works on the lunar environment collecting regolith. Worked on the electrical system: wireless communication, control and autonomy. Main focus on the IMU system, and autonomy software design.

SPRING 2013
FLORIDA, USA

Solar Panel Heater

Group project - Designed the electrical system for a solar panel heater. In charge of the design of: Solar tracking system, settings, monitoring temperature, and user interface features.

FALL 2012
ARKANSAS, USA



RECENT ACTIVITIES

Invited virtual speaker at Monash University (Monash Robotics)

Talk focussed on affordances for object handover.

April 2021
Online talk given COVID-19

IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) (IROS 20)

Presented our work on Self-Assessment of Grasp Affordance Transfer.

NOVEMBER 2020
Online conference given COVID-19

Academic Visit to the Human-Centre Robotics Lab (HCR) at University of Washington

Worked closely with Dr. Maya Cakmak for three months to achieve an inclusive handover technique. The method is under review at RA-L.

January 2020
Seattle, WA. USA

IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) (IROS 19)

Presented our work on Learning Grasp Affordance Reasoning through Semantic Relations.

OCTOBER 2019
Macau, Autonomous Regions in China

20th Conference on Towards Autonomous Robots and Systems (TAROS) 2019 (TAROS 19)

Presented our work on Reasoning on Grasp-Action Affordances and got nominated by Springer and Frontier as one of the three best papers in the conference.

JULY 2019
London, UK

Royal Society Summer exhibition (RSSE 2019)

Along with the ORCA team we exhibited our work in an attempt to get the new generation's attention on science.

JULY 2019
London, UK

Universities of Scotland, Scottish Parliament (Scotland's 19)

Along with Prof. Helen Hastie we shared the research that is being done in the Centre. Many of the people that we talked with knew the good reputation of the program and happily shared with us their ideas about new projects and how robotics and artificial intelligence might help develop those.

OCTOBER 2018
Edinburgh, UK

Reasoning and Learning in Real-World Systems for Long-Term Autonomy - AAAI Fall Symposium Series (LTA 2018)

Our work at the Artifical intelligence FSS. The symposium series was composed of eight different sessions, each of them with at least 16 presentations of academics and industry interested on improving our technologies in the area of artificial intelligence. The sessions lasted for three days on which not only presentations of the selected papers were held but also very interesting keynotes sharing their views of the field. During these three days, the presentations promoted questions ranging from technical to ethical subjects making the attendees to actively participate and passionately engage in the sessions.

OCTOBER 2018
ARLINGTON, USA

Edinburgh Centre for Robotics Annual Conference

I presented the results of my master thesis at the conference. The conference took place in the John McIntyre Conference centre at the University of Edinburgh. It was attended by over 120 students, academics and industry partners.

OCTOBER 2018
EDINBURGH, UK

IEEE Workshop on Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts (ARSO 2018)

I presented my Ph.D proposal on robotic affordances at the workshop. The workshop discussed advanced robotics R&D and its implications to economic and social systems, the focus was particularly on the impact of AI and AI empowered autonomous systems.

SEPTEMBER 2018
GENOVA, ITALY

Pitch Master Class

I assisted to the pitch master class at Heriot-Watt University in order to improve the presentation skills for both: Long presentations and pitch talks.

SEPTEMBER 2018
EDINBURGH, UK

TEDx talk

I assisted on the setup and showcases of different robotic platforms at the TEDx talk. Sethu Vijayakumar was giving a talk entitled 'Sending your robot to Mars? List of things to pack.'

SEPTEMBER 2018
GLASSGOW, UK

International Summer School on Deep Learning (ISSoDL 2018)

I assisted to the International Summer School on Deep Learning at Gdansk University of Technology.'

JULY 2018
GDANKS, POLAND

EuroHaptics Conference (EuroHaptics 2018)

I presented the work ”Reaching and Grasping of Objects by Humanoid Robot through Visual Servoing”.'

JULY 2018
PISA, ITALY

Creativity at Home workshop

I assisted to the two day Rocket Fuel workshop in Heriot-Watt University in order to improve the creativity skill for research purposes.

APRIL 2018
EDINBURGH, UK