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Sayem Nazmuz Zaman

Publications and source records attributed to Sayem Nazmuz Zaman.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

When Automata Meet Streams: Temporal Logic Compilation for Stream-Based Robotics Task and Motion Planning

Stream-based robotics Task and Motion Planning (TAMP) integrates discrete symbolic planning with dynamically generated continuous geometric parameters, such as poses, grasps, and trajectories. However, stream-based planners typically reason only about goal reachability, whereas long-horizon tasks also demand adherence to temporal specifications, such as safety-critical ordering, invariance, and liveness constraints. No methods currently exist to enforce such temporal constraints for stream-based solvers because streams generate an expanding geometric object set via iterative stream refinement loops during planning, rendering existing temporal-logic compilation techniques incompatible. We therefore present Synchronous Action Monitoring with Token Destruction (SAM-TD), a compilation method that enforces arbitrary Linear Temporal Logic over finite traces ($\textrm{LTL}_f$) specifications in stream-based TAMP. SAM-TD translates arbitrary $\textrm{LTL}_f$ constraints into automata and embeds regressed automaton guards into action schemas, which are pre-specified before planning begins. By doing so, SAM-TD can handle objects generated by streams during planning, thus circumventing the need to enumerate a fixed object set or modify the underlying planner. During search, SAM-TD synchronously updates automaton states and uses a validity token shared across all automata to prune constraint-violating branches. We show that SAM-TD supports dynamically generated stream objects from iterative stream refinements during plan search. Experimental results provide the first ever demonstration of stream-based TAMP under $\textrm{LTL}_f$ constraints in three robotics PDDLStream environments. Furthermore, on standard discrete PDDL benchmarks, SAM-TD is competitive with state-of-the-art temporal-constraint compilation methods.

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AutoCam: Hierarchical Path Planning for an Autonomous Auxiliary Camera in Surgical Robotics

Incorporating an autonomous auxiliary camera into robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (RAMIS) enhances spatial awareness and eliminates manual viewpoint control. Existing path planning methods for auxiliary cameras track two-dimensional surgical features but do not simultaneously account for camera orientation, workspace constraints, and robot joint limits. This study presents AutoCam: an automatic auxiliary camera placement method to improve visualization in RAMIS. Implemented on the da Vinci Research Kit, the system uses a priority-based, workspace-constrained control algorithm that combines heuristic geometric placement with nonlinear optimization to ensure robust camera tracking. A user study (N=6) demonstrated that the system maintained 99.84% visibility of a salient feature and achieved a pose error of 4.36 $\pm$ 2.11 degrees and 1.95 $\pm$ 5.66 mm. The controller was computationally efficient, with a loop time of 6.8 $\pm$ 12.8 ms. An additional pilot study (N=6), where novices completed a Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery training task, suggests that users can teleoperate just as effectively from AutoCam's viewpoint as from the endoscope's while still benefiting from AutoCam's improved visual coverage of the scene. These results indicate that an auxiliary camera can be autonomously controlled using the da Vinci patient-side manipulators to track a salient feature, laying the groundwork for new multi-camera visualization methods in RAMIS.

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The Quiet Eye Phenomenon in Minimally Invasive Surgery

In this paper, we report our discovery of a gaze behavior called Quiet Eye (QE) in minimally invasive surgery. The QE behavior has been extensively studied in sports training and has been associated with higher level of expertise in multiple sports. We investigated the QE behavior in two independently collected data sets of surgeons performing tasks in a sinus surgery setting and a robotic surgery setting, respectively. Our results show that the QE behavior is more likely to occur in successful task executions and in performances of surgeons of high level of expertise. These results open the door to use the QE behavior in both training and skill assessment in minimally invasive surgery.

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