Constrained Robotic Navigation on Preferred Terrains Using LLMs and Speech Instruction: Exploiting the Power of Adverbs

This paper explores leveraging large language models for map-free off-road navigation using generative AI, reducing the need for traditional data collection and annotation. We propose a method where a robot receives verbal instructions, converted to text through Whisper, and a large language model (LLM) model extracts landmarks, preferred terrains, and crucial adverbs translated into speed settings for constrained navigation. A language-driven semantic segmentation model generates text-based masks for identifying landmarks and terrain types in images. By translating 2D image points to the vehicle's motion plane using camera parameters, an MPC controller can guides the vehicle towards the desired terrain. This approach enhances adaptation to diverse environments and facilitates the use of high-level instructions for navigating complex and challenging terrains.

CARTIER: Cartographic lAnguage Reasoning Targeted at Instruction Execution for Robots

This work explores the capacity of large language models (LLMs) to address problems at the intersection of spatial planning and natural language interfaces for navigation.Our focus is on following relatively complex instructions that are more akin to natural conversation than traditional explicit procedural directives seen in robotics. Unlike most prior work, where navigation directives are provided as imperative commands (e.g., go to the fridge), we examine implicit directives within conversational interactions. We leverage the 3D simulator AI2Thor to create complex and repeatable scenarios at scale, and augment it by adding complex language queries for 40 object types. We demonstrate that a robot can better parse descriptive language queries than existing methods by using an LLM to interpret the user interaction in the context of a list of the objects in the scene.

ANSEL Photobot: A Robot Event Photographer with Semantic Intelligence

Our work examines the way in which large language models can be used for robotic planning and sampling, specifically the context of automated photographic documentation. Specifically, we illustrate how to produce a photo-taking robot with an exceptional level of semantic awareness by leveraging recent advances in general purpose language (LM) and vision-language (VLM) models. Given a high-level description of an event we use an LM to generate a natural-language list of photo descriptions that one would expect a photographer to capture at the event. We then use a VLM to identify the best matches to these descriptions in the robot's video stream. The photo portfolios generated by our method are consistently rated as more appropriate to the event by human evaluators than those generated by existing methods.