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Title: P300 BCI for ALS patient
Description: Recovery, integration and adaptation of P300 BCI (hardware and software) stubs to generate a working interface for a speller. The aim is to develop a working prototype for an ALS affected patient.
Tutor: MatteoMatteucci
Additional Info: CFU 2 - 20 / Master of Science, PhD / Thesis

Title: Point cloud SLAM with Microsoft Kinect
Description: Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) is one of the basic functionalities required from an autonomous robot. In the past we have developed a framework for building SLAM algorithm based on the use of the Extended Kalman Filter and vision sensors. A recently available vision sensor which has tremendous potential for autonomous robots is the Microsoft Kinect RGB-D sensor. The thesis aims at the integration of the Kinect sensor in the framework developed for the development of a point cloud base system for SLAM.

Material:

• Kinect sensor and libraries
• A framework for multisensor SLAM
• PCL2.0 library for dealing with point clouds

Expected outcome:

• Algorithm able to build 3D point cloud representation of the observed scene
• Point clouds processing could be used to improve the accuracy of the filter as well

Required skills or skills to be acquired:

• Basic background in computer vision
• Basic background in Kalman filtering
• C++ programming under Linux
  

Tutor: MatteoMatteucci
Additional Info: CFU 10 - 20 / Master of Science / Thesis

Title: Embedded Inertial Measurement Unit for Unmanned Aerial Vehihcles
Description: We have developed the electronics of an Inertial Measurement Unit based on an ARM microcontroller to be integrated on an autonomous embedded aerial platform. The IMU has already some attitude heading reference system (AHRS) code implemented, but we are interested in:

• implementing embedded algorithms for the estimation of the IMU attitude to be compared with the actual one (e.g., Kalman filter, DCM, Madgwick, etc.)
• developing a, easy to use, procedure for the calibration of IMU parameters
• making a comparison with commercial units using a robot arm as testbed
• validate the accuracy of the IMU on a flying platform
• integrate the measurements from a GPS to reduce drift and provide accurate positiong (this will make it definitely a MS thesis)

Material

• electronic board and eclipse based C development toolkit for ARM processors
• papers describing the algorithms we are interested in implementing

Expected outcome:

• few different AHRS algorithms with comparative results
• user-friendly procedure to calibrate the IMU
• a sistem which integrated IMU and GPS to provide accurate positioning

Required skills or skills to be acquired:

• C programming on ARM microcontroller
• background on kalman filtering and attitude estimation
  

Tutor: AndreaBonarini, MartinoMigliavacca, MatteoMatteucci
Additional Info: CFU 2 - 20 / Bachelor of Science, Master of Science / Course, Thesis

Title: ROS_navigation_local_planner
Description: The project will be focused on the implementation of a planner and tracking algorithms for Ackermann vehicles
Tutor: MatteoMatteucci,
Additional Info: CFU 2 - 20 / Master of Science / Thesis

Title: Real-time removal of ocular artifact from EEG
Description: In a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) based on electroencephalogram (EEG), one of the most important sources of noise is related to ocular movements. Algorithms have been devised to cancel the effect of such artifacts. The project consists in the in the implementation in real time of an existing algorithm (or one newly developed) in order to improve the performance of a BCI.

• J.R. Wolpaw et al. Brain-computer interfaces for communication and control (http://tinyurl.com/yhq27pq)
• R.J. Croff, R.J. Barry. Removal of ocular artifact from the EEG: a review (http://tinyurl.com/ykk6ks9)
  

Tutor: MatteoMatteucci
Additional Info: CFU 2.5 - 5 / Bachelor of Science, Master of Science / Course

Title: Robocentric implementation in the MoonSLAM framework
Description: Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) is one of the basic functionalities required from an autonomous robot. In the past we have developed a framework for building SLAM algorithm based on the use of the Extended Kalman Filter and vision sensors. The actual implementation of the EKF SLAM in the framework developed uses a world-centric approach, but from the literature it is known that a robocentric approach can provide higher performances on small maps. We would like to have both implementation to compare the results in two scenarios: pure visual odometry, conditional independent submapping.

Material

• A framework for multisensor SLAM using the world centric approach
• Papers and report about robocentric slam

Expected outcome:

• a fully functional robocentric version of the MoonSLAM framework

Required skills or skills to be acquired:

• Basic background in computer vision
• Background in Kalman filtering
• C++ programming under Linux
  

Tutor: MatteoMatteucci, SimoneCeriani
Additional Info: CFU 20 - 20 / Master of Science / Thesis

Title: Robot Games
Description: Projects may include the design of an interactive game on an existing or a new robot, and its evaluation. These projects allow to experiment with real mobile robots and interaction devices. Some games may be designed for disabled children. The project can be considered a MS thesis if it can produce a new game and, possibly, a new robot, and includes adapting the behavior of the robot to the player.
Tutor: AndreaBonarini
Additional Info: CFU 2 - 20 / Bachelor of Science, Master of Science / Course, Thesis

Title: Scan Matching Odometry and Multisensor SLAM
Description: Starting from some C/C++ code for laser scan alignment and the covariance information associated to the matching, we are interested in the development of a library for the matching and fusion of laser scans under the ROS (www.ros.org) environment. From this we are interested in the development of an odometric system based on laser scan matching and in a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping system integrating scan matching with visual SLAM. The result is a complete navigation system that fuses laser and visual information to build consisten maps in an EKF-based environment.

Material:

• a MS thesis which describes the scan matching algorithms
• a BS thesis which implements a prototype of the system

Expected outcome:

• a complete system that build maps integrating laser scan and visual informtion

Required skills or skills to be acquired:

• Background on Kalman filtering
• C++ programming under Linux
  

Tutor: MatteoMatteucci, SimoneCeriani, DavideCucci
Additional Info: CFU 10 - 20 / Bachelor of Science, Master of Science / Thesis

Title: Scripting language on embedded platforms
Description: JOINT PROJECT with the Embedded Systems group (contact: Patrick Bellasi http://home.dei.polimi.it/bellasi/) When developing embedded applications it is common the need to test some algorithm in some fast way, without to re-program the whole firmware every time. PAWN (http://www.compuphase.com/pawn/) is a *simple and lightweight scripting language with a C-like syntax*. Execution speed, stability, simplicity and a small footprint were essential design criteria for both the language and the abstract machine, making PAWN suitable for embedded applications.

This project aims to port the abstract machine to ARM Cortex-M3 microcontrollers, add a set of functions to interface with the underlying hardware peripherals and then to embed it as ChibiOS/RT (http://www.chibios.org) thread.
Tutor: AndreaBonarini, MartinoMigliavacca
Additional Info: CFU 2 - 5 / Bachelor of Science, Master of Science / Course

Title: Self calibration of multiple odometric sensors mounted on the same platform
Description: An odometric sensor measures the path followed by a robot in an incremental way (e.g., wheel mounted encoders, visual odometry, scan matching based odometry, etc.) . Having several odometry sensors mounted on the same platform can significantly improve the accuracy and robustness of the overall system but requires proper calibration of relative positioning and possible biases. We are interested in the development of techniques for the self calibration of a multi sensor based odometry sensor. These techniques could be inspired by classical non-linear optimization techniques used in the hand and eye problem but they could use techniques from Simultaneous Localization and Mapping. According to the setup, some information on the real position of the system may exists (i.e., external tracking system or GPS); the approach should be able to use this information as well.

Material:

• datasets with real data
• a few odometric system implementations
• C++ libraries for non linear optimization

Expected outcome:

• software for the self calibration of a set of odometry systems mounted on the same robot

Required skills or skills to be acquired:

• C++ programming under Linux
  

Tutor: MatteoMatteucci, SimoneCeriani, DavideCucci
Additional Info: CFU 20 - 20 / Master of Science / Thesis

Title: Simulation_in_robotics_using_UDK_USARSIM
Description: USARSim (Unified System for Automation and Robot Simulation) is a high-fidelity simulation of robots and environments based on UDK (Unreal Development Kit), the free edition of the Unreal Engine 3 game engine. It is intended as a research tool and is the basis for the RoboCup Rescue Virtual Robot Competition. The proposed project is aimed at extending USARSim along two directions:

• Development of a tool for automatically generating realistic 3D worlds for robot testing. This task involves work on 3D game modelling and development using the UDK engine.
• Create test arenas and perform experiment in USARSim. Simulation tools as USARSim are powerful tools for robotics, but in order to consider the results obtained in a virtual environment also valid in the real case, simulated environments must be validated through experiments performed both in virtually and with real robots.

Results will be included in the USARSim project and used by the RoboCup community.
Tutor: FrancescoAmigoni, MatteoLuperto, AlbertoQuattriniLi
Additional Info: CFU 10 - 20 / Master of Science / Thesis

Title: Soccer Robots
Description: Projects are available in different areas:

• Implementation of mechanical and electronical parts of the robots for the management of the ball and kicking
• Design of robot behaviors (fuzzy systems)
• Coordination of robots
• New sensors

These projects allow to experiment with real mobile robots. Participation to the championships is a unique experience (2000 people, with 800 robots playing all sort of games...)

The project can be turned into a thesis by facing different problems in depth.
Tutor: MarcelloRestelli
Additional Info: CFU 5 - 20 / Bachelor of Science, Master of Science / Course, Thesis

Title: Social Network Data Extraction From Online Communities
Description: With the growth of the Web and the emergence of online communities, a huge amount of data regarding social relationships is now available, that was unthinkable until a few years ago. The network of connections may unveil precious information about communities structures and dynamics and the spreading of information in the Web. Aim of this project is to design and develop a software tool to extract this kind of information from a single social network platform (decided by the student). It may be required also some kind of analysis or visual representation of the collected data.
Tutor: DavidLaniado, RiccardoTasso, MarcoColombetti
Additional Info: CFU 5 - 20 / Bachelor of Science, Master of Science / Course, Thesis

Title: Stability and motion control of a balancing robot
Description: This project is focused on the control of both stability and motion of TiltOne, a balancing robot.

TiltOne is a robot with only two wheels that can stand in vertical position following an unstable equilibrium point. The control is applied by commanding an amount of torque to the wheels, allowing the robot to mantain it's gravity center vertical aligned to the wheel axis.

The aim of the project proposal is to implement and compare different control solutions, based on classical approach (as PID and LQR control) and Machine Learning approach (as Reinforcement Learning control policies), that allow the robot to move following a given trajectory at a given speed.
Tutor: AndreaBonarini, MartinoMigliavacca
Additional Info: CFU 5 - 20 / Master of Science / Course, Thesis

Title: Statistical inference for phylogenetic trees
Description: The project will focus on the study, implementation, comparison, and analysis of different statistical inference techniques for phylogenetic trees. Phylogenetic trees (1, 2, 3) are evolutionary trees used to represent the relationships between different species with a common ancestor. Typical inference tasks concern the construction of a tree starting from DNA sequences, involving both the choice of the topology of the tree (i.e., model selection) and the values of the parameters (i.e., model fitting). The focus will be a probabilistic description of the tree, given by the introduction of stochastic variables associated to both internal nodes and leaves of the tree.

The project will focus on the understanding of the problem and on the implementation of different algorithms, so (C/C++ or Matlab or R) coding will be required. Since the approach will be based on statistical models, the student is supposed to be comfortable with notions that come from probability and statistics courses.

The project is thought to be extended to master thesis, according to interesting and novel directions of research that will emerge in the first part of the work. Possible ideas may concern the proposal and implementation of new algorithms, based on recent approaches to phylogenetic inference available in the literature, as in (3) and (4). In this case the thesis requires some extra effort in order to build and consolidate some background in math in oder to understand some recent literature, especially in (mathematical) statistics and, for example, in the emerging field of algebraic statistics (5).

Other possible novel applications of phylogenetic trees have been proposed in contexts different from biology, as in (6). Malware (malicious software) is software designed to infiltrate a computer without the owner's informed consent. Often malwares are related to previous programs thought evolutionary relationships, i.e., new malwares appear as small mutations of previous softwares. We are interested in the use of techniques from phylogenetic trees to create a taxonomy of real world malwares.

Picture taken from http://www.tolweb.org/tree/ and http://www.blogscienze.com

Bibliography

1. Felsenstein 2003: Inferring Phylogenies
2. Semple and Steel 2003: Phylogenetics: The mathematics of phylogenetics
3. Louis J. Billera, Susan P. Holmes and and Karen Vogtmann Geometry of the space of phylogenetic trees. Advances in Applied Math 27, 733-767 (2001)
4. Evans, S.N. and Speed, T.P. (1993). Invariants of some probability models used in phylogenetic inference. Annals of Statistics 21, 355-377.
5. Lior Pachter, Bernd Sturmfels 2005, Algebraic Statistics for Computational Biology.
6. A. Walenstein, E-Md. Karim, A. Lakhotia, and L. Parida. Malware Phylogeny Generation Using Permutations of Code, Journal in Computer Virology, v1.1, 2005.
   

Tutor: MatteoMatteucci, LuigiMalago, StefanoZanero
Additional Info: CFU 5 - 20 / Master of Science / Course, Thesis

Title: Tesi/Stage in Milestone
Description: Sono disponibili tre tesi/stage in collaborazione con Milestone (http://www.milestone.it) nell’ambito dei videogiochi di corse automobilistiche e motociclistiche. I candidati ideali devono avere una forte motivazione personale, passione per i videogiochi e conoscenza del C++

Per maggiori informazioni, inviare una mail a lanzi@elet.polimi.it

Comportamenti di Gruppo in Videogiochi di Corse Automobilistiche

Questa tesi prevede lo studio delle dinamiche dei comportamenti dei piloti in competizioni automobilistiche su circuito e lo sviluppo di una intelligenza artificiale in grado di imitare i comportamenti di un vero mevero pilota. In particolare, il lavoro di tesi si concentrerà su comportamenti di gruppo come i sorpassi, le manovre per evitare collisioni con altri veicoli, il recupero da situazioni di emergenza, ecc. Terminatala fase di analisi e l’implementazione di un prototipo, verrà valutata la possibilità di inserire tale implementazione all’interno di un videogioco di ultima generazione.

Comportamenti di Gruppo in Videogiochi di Corse Motociclistiche

Questa tesi prevede lo studio delle dinamiche dei comportamenti dei piloti in competizioni motociclistiche su circuito e lo sviluppo di una intelligenza artificiale in grado di imitare i comportamenti di un vero vero pilota. In particolare, il lavoro di tesi si concentrerà su comportamenti di gruppo come i sorpassi, le manovre per evitare collisioni con altre moto, il recupero da situazioni di emergenza, ecc. Terminata la fase di analisi e l’implementazione di un prototipo, verrà valutata la possibilità di inserire tale implementazione all’interno di un videogioco di ultima generazione.

Intelligenza Artificiale in Videogiochi di Corse Motociclistiche

La tesi prevede l’analisi e l’implementazione dell’intelligenza artificiale per un videogioco di corse motociclistiche. Il sistema dovrà essere in grado di eseguire in modo corretto ed efficace un insieme di manovre complesse quali: l’accelerazione da fermo, la frenata in situazioni limite, l’approccio ad una curva che preveda la fase di stacco, di impostazione, di percorrenza e di uscita, l’approccio a serie di curve, ecc. Si valuterà la possibilità di inserire tale implementazione all’interno di un videogioco di ultima generazione.
Tutor: PierLucaLanzi
Additional Info: CFU 5 - 20 / Bachelor of Science, Master of Science / Thesis

Title: A critical review on the state of the art in visual navigation for unmanned aerial vehicles
Description: Visual navigation is becoming more and more important in the development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The goal of this thesis/tesina is to review in a structured way the current state of art in the field from different perspective: research teams, projects, platforms, tasks, algorithms. The latter is the most important aspect obviously and the project should provide a clear view on what is done today, and obtaining which results. Two kind of operations are of most interest: tracking of fixed and mobile targets (and how this impact on the UAV path), navigation on a geo-referenced map. Implementing one of the standard approaches on a mini unmanned aerial vehicle would be the ideal ending of the work to turn it into a thesis.

Material:

• papers from major journals and conferences
• reports from research projects

Expected outcome:

• a report with a detailed review of the state of the art organized according to the main relevant aspects (to be identified during the work)
• an implementation of some state of the art algorithms for tracking or navigation

Required skills or skills to be acquired:

• proficiency in english
• basic understanding of computer vision
• basic understanding of filtering techniques
  

Tutor: MatteoMatteucci
Additional Info: CFU 10 - 20 / Bachelor of Science, Master of Science / Thesis

Title: Use case design and implementation for semantic annotation
Description: Semantic annotations offer a variety of possibilities to enhance the user experience while browsing the Web. Aim of this project is to propose one scenario in which their usefulness is exploited for a specific community of users. In detail the project requires to design a simple ontology which describes some kind of domain to annotate resources on the Web and implement an interface to query it and insert assertions inside a semantic store (through SPARQL).

One possible example is the annotation of mp3 files available on the Web. They can be classified in genres or associated to datatype properties, such as rating, title, length and release date... also exploiting data already available in http://musicbrainz.org/
Tutor: DavideEynard, DavidLaniado, RiccardoTasso, MarcoColombetti
Additional Info: CFU 5 - 10 / Bachelor of Science, Master of Science / Course, Thesis

Title: Visibility Rating under Foggy Conditions
Description: The aim of this project is to try different approaches to evaluate the visibility range under foggy condition using a camera mounted on a car
Tutor: VincenzoCaglioti
Additional Info: CFU 5 / Bachelor of Science / Course

Title: Visual Odometry for an Omni-directional Camera
Description: An omnidirectional camera can acquire panoramic views of the surrounding environment. The purpose of this thesis is to design, develop, and test an odometric system (odometry = measurement of the path) based on the images taken by an omnidirectional camera during motion. The reference paper to start from is (Taddei, Ferran, Caglioti. IJCV 2012) and the result should be able to extract “feature points” from the images, match them in a robust way, and then apply the machinery for visual odometry on the resulting set of correspondences. A calibration procedure for the system should be provided together with an experimental validatio of the resulting system.

• Pierluigi Taddei, Ferran Espuny, Vincenzo Caglioti: Planar Motion Estimation and Linear Ground Plane Rectification using an Uncalibrated Generic Camera. International Journal of Computer Vision 96(2): 162-174 (2012)

Material:

• reference paper to start from and reference datasets
• C++ library for extraction and manipulation of features (OpenCV)

Expected outcome:

• working system able to perform visual odometry using an omnidirectional camera

Required skills or skills to be acquired:

• computer vision and 3D reconstruction
  

Tutor: VincenzoCaglioti
Additional Info: CFU 10 - 20 / Bachelor of Science, Master of Science / Thesis