The Taub Faculty of Computer Science Events and Talks

In many realistic settings, a robot is tasked with grasping an object without knowing the object's exact pose. Instead, the robot relies on a probabilistic estimation of the object pose to decide how to attempt to grasp the object. We offer a novel measure, called Value of Assistance, or VOA, for assessing the expected effect a specific observation will have on the robot's ability to successfully grasp the object. VOA supports the decision of where and when it would be most beneficial to perform a sensing action, such as taking a picture of the scenario, to the grasping task at hand.