- Date: May 13, 2024 - May 17, 2024
Where: Yokohama, Japan
MERL Contacts: Anoop Cherian; Radu Corcodel; Stefano Di Cairano; Chiori Hori; Siddarth Jain; Devesh K. Jha; Jonathan Le Roux; Diego Romeres; William S. Yerazunis
Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Optimization, Robotics, Speech & Audio
Brief - MERL made significant contributions to both the organization and the technical program of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2024, which was held in Yokohama, Japan from May 13th to May 17th.
MERL was a Bronze sponsor of the conference, and exhibited a live robotic demonstration, which attracted a large audience. The demonstration showcased an Autonomous Robotic Assembly technology executed on MELCO's Assista robot arm and was the collaborative effort of the Optimization and Robotics Team together with the Advanced Technology department at Mitsubishi Electric.
MERL researchers from the Optimization and Robotics, Speech & Audio, and Control for Autonomy teams also presented 8 papers and 2 invited talks covering topics on robotic assembly, applications of LLMs to robotics, human robot interaction, safe and robust path planning for autonomous drones, transfer learning, perception and tactile sensing.
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- Date: June 3, 2022
Where: IEEE Spectrum
MERL Contacts: Avishai Weiss; William S. Yerazunis
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Communications, Robotics
Brief - MERL's research on on-orbit manufacturing was recently featured in an IEEE Spectrum article. The article, titled How Satellites Will 3D Print Their Own Antennas in Space gives an overview of MERL's efforts towards developing a system that construct spacecraft parts in their natural environment-- that is, in space. The technology, called OOM for On-Orbit Manufacturing, provides a way to manufacture not just antenna dishes, but general freeform sturctures on orbit and in a vacuum, using an solar-hardened resin based approach. This technology includes both a special high performance liquid resin, as well as a 3D freeform printer capable of building objects far larger than the as-launched satellite.
An important aspect of the special resin is that all components have extremely low vapor pressures and do not boil away even in a vacuum. When exposed to solar ultraviolet, the resin hardens by polymerization crosslinking, forming a tough, rigid solid in a few seconds of exposure. No separate UV source is needed, making the entire process very energy efficient. Additionally, the crosslinking resin is heat resistant, and is unaffected to at least 400 degrees C. The 3D printer needed to print the resin is unlike common liquid-resin SLA printers- there is no vat of liquid resin, instead a shielded nozzle delivers the liquid resin directly to where the resin is needed. The result is the ability to construct large and very large structures, not just parabolic dishes, but also solar panel supports and structural trusswork, while in orbit. The system could even construct parts that were unanticipated during mission design and launch.
MERL's On-Orbit Manufacturing Technology had previously been featured in a Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Press Release and was recently on display at a recent press exhibition in Tokyo, Japan.
IEEE Spectrum is the flagship magazine and website of the IEEE, the world’s largest professional organization devoted to engineering and the applied sciences. IEEE Spectrum has a circulation of over 400,000 engineers worldwide, making it one of the leading science and engineering magazines.
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- Date: May 17, 2022
Where: Tokyo, Japan
MERL Contacts: Avishai Weiss; William S. Yerazunis
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Communications
Brief - Mitsubishi Electric Corporation announced that the company has developed an on-orbit additive-manufacturing technology that uses photosensitive resin and solar ultraviolet light for the freeform printing of satellite antennas in the vacuum of outer space.
The novel technology makes use of a newly developed liquid resin that was custom formulated for stability in vacuum. The resin enables structures to be fabricated in space using a low-power process that utilizes the sun’s ultraviolet rays for photopolymerization. The technology specifically addresses the challenge of equipping small, inexpensive spacecraft buses with large structures, such as high-gain antenna reflectors, and enables on-orbit fabrication of structures that greatly exceed the dimensions of launch vehicle fairings. Resin-based on-orbit manufacturing is expected to enable spacecraft structures to be made thinner and lighter than conventional designs, which must survive the stresses of launch and orbital insertion, thereby reducing both total satellite weight and launch costs.
Mitsubishi Electric’s resin-based on-orbit manufacturing enables small satellites to have large satellite capability, which reduces launch costs and allows for satellite technology to be used more than ever in applications such as communication and Earth observation. The technology is based on recent research by MERL's Control for Autonomy and Data Analytics groups.
Links:
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Press Release
SatMagazine: UV In The Sky With Resin: A novel, on-orbit manufacturing technique
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- Date: November 17, 2021
Awarded to: Elevators and Escalators Division of Mitsubishi Electric US, Inc.
MERL Contacts: Daniel N. Nikovski; William S. Yerazunis
Research Areas: Data Analytics, Machine Learning, Signal Processing
Brief - The Elevators and Escalators Division of Mitsubishi Electric US, Inc. has been recognized as a 2022 CES® Innovation Awards honoree for its new PureRide™ Touchless Control for elevators, jointly developed with MERL. Sponsored by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the CES Innovation Awards is the largest and most influential technology event in the world. PureRide™ Touchless Control provides a simple, no-touch product that enables users to call an elevator and designate a destination floor by placing a hand or finger over a sensor. MERL initiated the development of PureRide™ in the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic by proposing the use of infra-red sensors for operating elevator call buttons, and participated actively in its rapid implementation and commercialization, resulting in a first customer installation in October of 2020.
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- Date: June 25, 2019 - June 28, 2019
Where: Naples, Italy
MERL Contacts: Scott A. Bortoff; Ankush Chakrabarty; Stefano Di Cairano; Devesh K. Jha; Christopher R. Laughman; Daniel N. Nikovski; Diego Romeres; William S. Yerazunis
Research Areas: Control, Machine Learning, Optimization
Brief - The European Control Conference is the premier control conference in Europe. This year MERL was well represented with papers on control for HVAC, machine learning for estimation and control, robot assembly, and optimization methods for control.
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- Date: October 15, 2018 - October 19, 2018
Where: CEATEC'18, Makuhari Messe, Tokyo
MERL Contacts: Devesh K. Jha; Daniel N. Nikovski; Diego Romeres; William S. Yerazunis
Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Data Analytics, Robotics
Brief - MERL's work on robot learning algorithms was demonstrated at CEATEC'18, Japan's largest IT and electronics exhibition and conference held annually at Makuhari Messe near Tokyo. A team of researchers from the Data Analytics Group at MERL and the Artificial Intelligence Department of the Information Technology Center (ITC) of MELCO presented an interactive demonstration of a model-based artificial intelligence algorithm that learns how to control equipment autonomously. The algorithm developed at MERL constructs models of mechanical equipment through repeated trial and error, and then learns control policies based on these models. The demonstration used a circular maze, where the objective is to drive a ball to the center of the maze by tipping and tilting the maze, a task that is difficult even for humans; approximately half of the CEATEC'18 visitors who tried to steer the ball by means of a joystick could not bring it to the center of the maze within one minute. In contrast, MERL's algorithm successfully learned how to drive the ball to the goal within ten seconds without the need for human programming. The demo was at the entrance of MELCO's booth at CEATEC'18, inviting visitors to learn more about MELCO's many other AI technologies on display, and was seen by an estimated more than 50,000 visitors over the five days of the expo.
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- Date: February 14, 2018
Where: Tokyo, Japan
MERL Contacts: Devesh K. Jha; Daniel N. Nikovski; Diego Romeres; William S. Yerazunis
Research Areas: Optimization, Computer Vision
Brief - New technology for model-based AI learning for equipment control was demonstrated by MERL researchers at a recent press release event in Tokyo. The AI learning method constructs predictive models of the equipment through repeated trial and error, and then learns control rules based on these models. The new technology is expected to significantly reduce the cost and time needed to develop control programs in the future. Please see the link below for the full text of the Mitsubishi Electric press release.
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- Date: June 25, 2015
MERL Contact: William S. Yerazunis
Research Area: Data Analytics
Brief - The CRM114 Discriminator, an open-source spam filter / text classifier created by William Yerazunis in MERL's Data Analytics group, continues to turn up in interesting places - and apparently one of them is in the US Department of Transportation's process for analysis of car safety defect reports.
Although CRM114 is usually used as a spam filter, CRM114 has been used to analyze resumes for jobseekers, scanning outgoing emails to detect accidental confidential information leaks, perusing blogs for relevance, scanning syslog files for interesting events, and now, apparently, searching complaints sent to NHTSA to find safety-related vehicle malfunctions.
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- Date: May 13, 2015 - May 15, 2015
MERL Contacts: Bingnan Wang; William S. Yerazunis
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Electric Systems
Brief - Description: Bingnan Wang presented a paper, 'Circularly Polarized Near Field for Resonant Wireless Power Transfer' at the recently held IEEE Wireless Power Transfer Conference in Boulder, Colorado from May 13-15, 2015.
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- Date: May 15, 2013
Where: Proceedings of IEEE
MERL Contacts: Bingnan Wang; William S. Yerazunis Brief - The article "Wireless Power Transfer: Metamaterials and Array of Coupled Resonators" by Wang, B., Yerazunis, W. and Teo, K.H. was published in Proceedings of IEEE.
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- Date: May 15, 2013
Where: IEEE Wireless Power Transfer Conference (WPTC)
MERL Contacts: Bingnan Wang; William S. Yerazunis
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Electric Systems
Brief - The paper "Wireless Power Transfer with Artificial Magnetic Conductors" by Wu, J., Wang, B., Yerazunis, W.S. and Teo, K.H. was presented at the IEEE Wireless Power Transfer Conference (WPTC).
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- Date: March 14, 2013
Where: Proceedings of the IEEE
MERL Contacts: Bingnan Wang; William S. Yerazunis
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Electric Systems
Brief - The article "Wireless Power Transfer: Metamaterials and Array of Coupled Resonators" by Wang, B., Yerazunis, W. and Teo, K.H. was published in Proceedings of the IEEE.
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- Date: October 29, 2012
Where: IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (ISAP)
MERL Contacts: Bingnan Wang; William S. Yerazunis
Research Area: Electric Systems
Brief - The paper "Power Delivery Optimization for a Mobile Power Transfer System based on Resonator Arrays" by Yerazunis, W., Wang, B. and Teo, K.H. was presented at the IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (ISAP).
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- Date: June 23, 2011
Where: Applied Physics Letters
MERL Contacts: Bingnan Wang; Jinyun Zhang; William S. Yerazunis
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Electric Systems
Brief - The article "Experiments on Wireless Power Transfer with Metamaterials" by Wang, B., Teo, K.H., Nichino, T., Yerazunis, W., Barnwell, J. and Zhang, J. was published in Applied Physics Letters.
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- Date: April 11, 2011
Where: European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP)
MERL Contacts: Bingnan Wang; William S. Yerazunis
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Electric Systems
Brief - The paper "Wireless Power Transfer with Metamaterials" by Wang, B., Teo, K.H., Nishino, T., Yerazunis, W., Barnwell, J. and Zhang, J. was presented at the European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP).
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- Date: July 24, 2010
Where: Black Hat Technical Security Conference
MERL Contact: William S. Yerazunis
Research Area: Data Analytics
Brief - The paper "Keeping the Good Stuff In: Confidential Information Firewalling with the CRM114 Spam Filter & Text Classifier" by Yerazunis, W.S., Kato, M., Kori, M., Shibata, H. and Hackenberg, K. was presented at the Black Hat Technical Security Conference.
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- Date: February 28, 2010
Where: The Forum on Data Engineering and Information Management (DEIM)
MERL Contact: William S. Yerazunis
Research Area: Data Analytics
Brief - The paper "An Automatic Training Data Collection Method for Confidential E-mail Detection" by Shibata, H., Kato, M., Kori, M. and Yerazunis, W. was presented at the The Forum on Data Engineering and Information Management (DEIM).
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- Date: February 1, 2010
Awarded to: Hideya Shibata, Mamoru Kato, Mitsunori Kori and William Yerazunis
Awarded for: "An Automatic Training Data Collection Method for Confidential E-mail Detection"
Awarded by: The Forum on Data Engineering and Information Management (DEIM)
MERL Contact: William S. Yerazunis
Research Area: Data Analytics
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- Date: September 25, 2007
Where: SPIE Advanced Environmental, Chemical and Biological Sensing Technologies
MERL Contact: William S. Yerazunis
Research Area: Data Analytics
Brief - The paper "Autonomous Field-deployable Device for the Measurement of Phosphate in Natural Water" by Slater, C., Cleary, J., McGraw, C.M., Yerazunis, W.S., Lau, K.T. and Diamond, D. was presented at SPIE Advanced Environmental, Chemical and Biological Sensing Technologies.
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- Date: June 26, 2006
Where: Eurographics Symposium on Rendering (EGSR)
MERL Contact: William S. Yerazunis
Research Area: Data Analytics
Brief - The paper "Practical, Real-time Studio Matting using Dual Imagers" by McGuire, M., Matusik, W. and Yerazunis, W. was presented at the Eurographics Symposium on Rendering (EGSR).
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- Date: April 26, 2006
Where: Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical
MERL Contact: William S. Yerazunis
Research Area: Data Analytics
Brief - The article "Quantitative Colorimetric Analysis of Dye Mixtures Using an Optical Photometer Based on LED Array" by Lau, K.-T., Yerazunis, W.S., Shepherd, R.L. and Diamond, D. was published in Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical.
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- Date: November 15, 2005
Where: NIST Text REtrieval Conference (TREC)
MERL Contact: William S. Yerazunis
Research Area: Data Analytics
Brief - The paper "CRM114 versus Mr. X: CRM114 Notes for the TREC 2005 Spam Track" by Assis, F., Yerazunis, W., Siefkes, C. and Chhabra, S. was presented at the NIST Text REtrieval Conference (TREC).
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- Date: October 23, 2005
Where: ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST)
MERL Contact: William S. Yerazunis Brief - The papers "DTLens: Multi-user Tabletop Spatial Data Exploration" by Forlines, C. and Shen, C., "Zoom-and-Pick: Facilitating Visual Zooming and Precision Pointing with Interactive Handheld Projectors" by Forlines, C., Balakrishnan, R., Beardsley, P., van Baar, J. and Raskar, R. and "DT Controls: Adding Identity to Physical Interfaces" by Dietz, P.H., Harsham, B., Forlines, C., Leigh, D., Yerazunis, W., Shipman, S., Schmidt-Nielsen, B. and Ryall, K. were presented at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST).
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- Date: January 21, 2005
Where: MIT Spam Conference
MERL Contact: William S. Yerazunis
Research Area: Data Analytics
Brief - The paper "A Unified Model of Spam Filtration" by Yerazunis, W.S., Chhabra, S., Siefkes, C., Assis, F. and Gunopulos, D. was presented at the MIT Spam Conference.
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- Date: October 24, 2004
Where: ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST)
MERL Contact: William S. Yerazunis
Research Area: Data Analytics
Brief - The papers "Automatic Projector Calibration with Embedded Light Sensors" by Lee, J.C., Dietz, P.H., Maynes-Aminzade, D., Raskar, R. and Hudson, S.E. and "Haptic Pen: A Tactile Feedback Stylus for Touch Screens" by Lee, J.C., Dietz, P.H., Leigh, D., Yerazunis, W.S. and Hudson, S.E. were presented at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST).
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