ORIon-UTBMan

A joint robotics competition team between University of Oxford and University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard.

The Toyota Human Support Robot (HSR)

The Human Support Robot (HSR) is a compact mobile cobot (collaborative robot) platform from Toyota that can move around and fetch objects using a multi-degree-of-freedom arm while avoiding obstacles. Operable by voice command or by tablet PC, HSR has a highly maneuverable, compact, and lightweight cylindrical body with a folding arm that enables it to pick up objects off the floor, suction up thin objects, retrieve objects from high locations, open curtains, and perform other household tasks. The intention is that HSR will be able to assist those who are unable to move on their own, with everyday tasks.

Team ORIon

We are the Oxford Robotics Institute's (ORI) official student robotics competition team. Our aim is to develop robust and intelligent autonomous behaviours, which use experience to learn and refine a growing set of robot skills, and demonstrate them on the Toyota Human Support Robot (HSR) at international robotics competitions and public science outreach events.

Team UTBMan

UTBMan has a double entendre. On the one hand, it means that we are human beings from the University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard (UTBM), including students and faculty, and our passion for mobile robotics brings us together. On the other hand, it represents our expectations and concerns for future robots: "the Ultimate roboT Becomes huMan."

Research Highlights

Here we showcase our research highlights done on the HSR over the past years.

Achievements and highlights

Team ORIon Robocup Bangkok 2022

In July 2022, Team ORIon competed in its first RoboCup since 2019.

ORI demonstrates HSR to Prince Williams

THE Royal family meet a lot of different people on visits across the country -- but it's not often that they meet robots.

Team ORIon World Robot Summit 2018

In October 2018 Team ORIon headed to the World Robot Summit (WRS) held in Tokyo, participating in the Service Robotics category and competing in the Partner Robot Challenge.

Team ORIon Robocup 2019

In July 2019, the ORI’s competition team, Team ORIon, took part in it’s first RoboCup.

Team UTBMan World Robot Challenge 2018

5th place (out of 14 on-site teams) in the Partner Robot Challenge (Real Space).

Team UTBMan World Robot Challenge 2020

2nd place (out of 5 remote teams) in the Partner Robot Challenge (Real Space).

Simultaneous Scene Reconstruction and Whole-Body Motion Planning for Safe Operation in Dynamic Environments

Finean MN, Merkt W & Havoutis I (2021), Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE International Workshop on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)

Where Should I Look? Optimised Gaze Control for Whole-Body Collision Avoidance in Dynamic Environments

Finean MN, Merkt W & Havoutis I (2021), IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 7(2), 1095-1102

The STRANDS Project: Long-Term Autonomy in Everyday Environments

Hawes N, Burbridge C, Jovan F, Kunze L, Lacerda B et al. (2017), IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, 24(3), 146-156

A Quantifiable Stratification Strategy for Tidy-up in Service Robotics

Zhi Yan, Nathan Crombez, Jocelyn Buisson, Yassine Ruichek, Tomas Krajnik, and Li Sun. IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics and Its Social Impacts (ARSO), 2021.

Monocular Teach-and-repeat Navigation Using a Deep Steering Network with Scale Estimation

Cheng Zhao, Li Sun, Tomas Krajnik, Tom Duckett, and Zhi Yan. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2021.

Toward Benchmarking of Long-term Spatio-temporal Maps of Pedestrian Flows for Human-aware Navigation

Tomas Vintr, Jan Blaha, Martin Rektoris, Jiri Ulrich, Tomas Roucek, George Broughton, Zhi Yan, and Tomas Krajnik. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 2022.