Publications

Attention-Based Multi-Agent RL for Multi-Machine Tending Using Mobile Robots

Abdalwhab Abdalwhab

David St-Onge

Robotics can help address the growing worker shortage challenge of the manufacturing industry. As such, machine tending is a task collaborat… (see more)ive robots can tackle that can also greatly boost productivity. Nevertheless, existing robotics systems deployed in that sector rely on a fixed single-arm setup, whereas mobile robots can provide more flexibility and scalability. We introduce a multi-agent multi-machine-tending learning framework using mobile robots based on multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) techniques, with the design of a suitable observation and reward. Moreover, we integrate an attention-based encoding mechanism into the Multi-Agent Proximal Policy Optimization (MAPPO) algorithm to boost its performance for machine-tending scenarios. Our model (AB-MAPPO) outperforms MAPPO in this new challenging scenario in terms of task success, safety, and resource utilization. Furthermore, we provided an extensive ablation study to support our design decisions.

2025-10-01

Applied Informatics (published)

doi.org

Attention-Based Multi-Agent RL for Multi-Machine Tending Using Mobile Robots

Abdalwhab Bakheet Mohamed Abdalwhab

Giovanni Beltrame

Samira Ebrahimi Kahou

David St-Onge

2025-10-01

AI (published)

doi.org

A Blockchain Framework for Equitable and Secure Task Allocation in Robot Swarms

Alexandre Pacheco

Marco Dorigo

Recent studies demonstrate the potential of blockchain to enable robots in a swarm to achieve secure consensus about the environment, partic… (see more)ularly when robots are homogeneous and perform identical tasks. Typically, robots receive rewards for their contributions to consensus achievement, but no studies have yet targeted heterogeneous swarms, in which the robots have distinct physical capabilities suited to different tasks. We present a novel framework that leverages domain knowledge to decompose the swarm mission into a hierarchy of tasks within smart contracts. This allows the robots to reach a consensus about both the environment and the action plan, allocating tasks among robots with diverse capabilities to improve their performance while maintaining security against faults and malicious behaviors. We refer to this concept as equitable and secure task allocation. Validated in Simultaneous Localization and Mapping missions, our approach not only achieves equitable task allocation among robots with varying capabilities, improving mapping accuracy and efficiency, but also shows resilience against malicious attacks.

2025-10-01

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (published)

doi.org

Combining virtual reality and hypnosis to alleviate chronic pain in elderly with hand arthritis: protocol for a randomised phase II clinical trial

Valentyn Fournier

Marie-Fania Simard

Sai Yan Yuen

Joséphine Guiné

Floriane Rousseaux

Julie Lebeau

Karim Jerbi

Philippe Richebé

Mathieu Landry

Pierre Rainville

David Ogez

Abstract Introduction Chronic pain is a common health condition that significantly impacts the quality of life of those affected, affecting … (see more)one in five people in Canada. The prevalence of this condition tends to increase with age, making it a major health issue given the ageing population. However, its management remains inadequate and requires significant mobilisation of healthcare professionals as well as the development of multiple therapeutic solutions. Among these, non-pharmacological interventions such as hypnosis and virtual reality have proven effective. Nevertheless, while the existing literature seems promising, it presents methodological limitations. Therefore, this study aims to assess the effectiveness of an intervention combining virtual reality and hypnosis in an ageing population suffering from a widespread chronic pain condition, that is, hand arthritis. Methods and analysis This study will be a single-centre randomised clinical trial. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two conditions: one receiving an intervention combining virtual reality and hypnosis, and the other receiving only virtual reality. The effectiveness of the intervention on current perceived pain before and after the intervention (primary outcome) will be evaluated. Secondary outcomes will include anxiety and depressive symptoms, quality of life, relaxation and fatigue. Exploratory analyses will also be conducted to contribute to the emerging literature by examining physiological variables such as heart rate variability, respiratory rate and electrodermal activity during the intervention, and their relationship with primary and secondary outcomes. Ethics and dissemination The project was approved by the Research Ethical Committee of the Hospital Maisonneuve-Rosemont (Project no 2024-3539). Participants will be asked to provide written consent for their participation. Results from this study will be shared through peer-reviewed publications, as well as oral and poster presentations at scientific events. The protocol for this study was preregistered on Open Science Framework and raw anonymised data will be available on this platform (https://osf.io/vbh72/?view_only=1d17c5708f894faab6669d85e1fde75d). Trial registration number NCT06833905.

2025-10-01

BMJ Open (published)

doi.org

Current landscape of clinical genetics knowledge and attitudes among Non-Geneticist Physicians - the McGill genetics education survey (McGES)

Sarah Abdullah-Maklan

Yannis Trakadis

2025-10-01

Journal of Community Genetics (published)

doi.org

Current landscape of clinical genetics knowledge and attitudes among Non-Geneticist Physicians - the McGill genetics education survey (McGES).

Sarah Abdullah-Maklan

Yannis Trakadis

2025-10-01

Journal of Community Genetics (published)

doi.org

Current landscape of clinical genetics knowledge and attitudes among Non-Geneticist Physicians - the McGill genetics education survey (McGES).

Sarah Abdullah-Maklan

Yannis Trakadis

2025-10-01

Journal of Community Genetics (published)

doi.org

Equivariant Geometric Scattering Networks via Vector Diffusion Wavelets

David R. Johnson

Rishabh Anand

Smita Krishnaswamy

Michael Perlmutter

2025-10-01

ArXiv (preprint)

arxiv.org

Equivariant Geometric Scattering Networks via Vector Diffusion Wavelets

David R. Johnson

Rishabh Anand

Smita Krishnaswamy

Michael Perlmutter

We introduce a novel version of the geometric scattering transform for geometric graphs containing scalar and vector node features. This new… (see more) scattering transform has desirable symmetries with respect to rigid-body roto-translations (i.e.,

2025-10-01

ArXiv (preprint)

arxiv.org