text:
\section{Introduction}
\IEEEPARstart{S}{equential} decision-making problems have often been modelled as either fully-observable or partially observable. Fully observable models have no entropy in states and actions whilst partially observable models have high entropy in states and actions.
With these models have come classical planning approaches~\cite{a6,a11,b10,a12} for solving zero entropy problems and belief space planning approaches~\cite{pomcp,beliefpddlstream,a2} for solving high entropy problems.
Visualizing entropy as a spectrum, classical planning approaches plan with models on one extreme end of the entropy spectrum whilst belief space planning approaches plan with models on the other extreme.
Recent advances in robot perception systems, both in terms of inexpensive hardware~\cite{realsense} and fast and efficient algorithms~\cite{e1,e2,e3,e4,e5} have significantly  reduced the state estimation entropy when used for robot manipulation.
When a robot is equipped with such a low entropy perception system, the robot's sequential decision-making problem does not fall at either extremes of the entropy spectrum.
The problem falls in an intermediate region on the spectrum where neither family of approaches are equipped to exploit the low entropy nature of the problem to solve it efficiently.

\begin{figure}[t]
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth]{figures/teaser3_real.png}
    \caption{
    A sequential grocery packing task using LESAMPLE. The simulated Digit robot equipped with suction grippers is able to efficiently pack the groceries under low perceptual entropy to satisfy given goal constraints. }
    \label{fig:1}
\end{figure}

Classical planning approaches do not account for uncertainty so they often fail to generate feasible plans in uncertain domains. Some belief space planning approaches attempt to exactly solve for the optimal policy that maps belief states to actions \cite{vi}. Since solving for the optimal policy exactly  becomes intractable for realistic problems, other belief space planning approaches approximate the belief space through sampling \cite{pomcp, despot}. Although these approximate methods are tractable, they tend to be inefficient for low entropy state spaces.

Results from early work in Embodied Intelligence by Brooks et. al. \cite{elephants, aim} demonstrate that, methods that plan and act on loose models of the world and rely on sensor feedback to adjust their behavior are often more efficient and practical than their counterparts that perform explicit modelling of all possibilities before taking an action. These results are also echoed in more recent work \cite{b6, b7} that show replanning approaches to be more efficient in domains with stochastic action effects than probabilistic planning approaches. Inspired by these results, we hypothesize that for a state space with low perceptual entropy, a simple replanning approach that samples from the belief space and plans using this sample will be more efficient than belief space planning in solving the task at hand.

In light of this, we propose a decoupled approach to goal-directed robotic manipulation that builds on the respective strengths of classical and belief space planning.  As motivated by Sui et al.~\cite{e1}, task planning can be performed on state estimates from perceived belief distributions, and updated when the perceptual probability mass shifts to a different state estimate.
Building on this idea and recent work in replanning algorithms~\cite{b6}, we propose \textbf{Low Entropy Sampling planner} (\textbf{LESAMPLE}) as a simple and efficient online task planning algorithm for solving problems with low entropy in state estimation and deterministic action effects.

The concept of replanning with estimates from the belief space is not novel and has been employed in works like Yoon et. al. \cite{b6}. This paper does not claim to propose an entirely new algorithm. We instead aim to demonstrate the efficiency benefits a simple replanning approach could have over belief space planning methods, when used to solve low entropy planning problems.

We benchmark LESAMPLE against current classical planning and belief space planning approaches by solving low entropy goal-directed grocery packing tasks in simulation as shown in Figure \ref{fig:1}.
LESAMPLE outperforms these approaches with respect to  planning time, execution time, and task success rate in our simulation experiments.

\begin{figure}[t]
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth]{figures/spectrum2.png}
    \caption{ \small An illustration comparing the relative the computational tractability of planning algorithms and the level of perceptual entropy in problems they are designed to solve. Classical planning algorithms are computationally tractable (fast) and are designed to solve problems with no entropy in their state space. Belief space planning algorithms are generally slow on reasonably complex problems and are designed to solve problems with high perceptual entropy in their state space. Our algorithm, LESAMPLE, is designed to efficiently solve problems with low perceptual entropy. }%
    \label{fig:2}%
\end{figure}
\section{RELATED WORK}
\subsection{Classical Planning}
Classical planning approaches ~\cite{astar, clrs, dstar} are used to solve fully-observable and deterministic problems.
These approaches are fast and usually come with convergence and optimality guarantees, making them convenient to use on suitable problems.
They however do not account for entropy when planning so they often generate infeasible plans in uncertain domains.

To solve problems of a sequential nature such as grocery packing, the robot has to be able to reason over both symbolic states of the world  as well as continuous states. This family of problems is known as Task and Motion Planning Problems~\cite{a1,a2,a4,a6,a8,a10}. Works such as Kaelbling et. al.~\cite{a11}, Srivastava et. al.~\cite{a1} and  Garrett et. al.~\cite{a10} have focused on ways to interleave the symbolic planning involved in task planning with the continuous-space planning involved in motion planning in order for the robot to generate feasible plans and actions. In our proposed LESAMPLE method, we first generate a symbolic plan and later use continuous parameter sampling and sampling based motion planning \cite{birrt} to generate continuous trajectories for performing the task at hand.

\subsection{Belief Space Planning}
Sequential decision-making problems with high entropy in state estimation and action effects are often modelled as Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDP)~\cite{b1}.
The states in a POMDP are probability distributions called belief states.
To solve a POMDP is to find an optimal policy that maps belief states to actions.
However solving POMDPs exactly is intractable due to the curse of dimensionality ~\cite{b1} and the curse of history~\cite{b4}.
As such, belief space planning methods such as POMCP~\cite{pomcp} and DESPOT~\cite{despot} are used to solve POMDPs approximately.
POMCP~\cite{pomcp} uses Monte Carlo Sampling to sample the belief state  and belief transitions and uses Monte Carlo Tree Search~\cite{b8} to search for an optimal policy. DESPOT~\cite{despot} improves upon POMCP's worst case behavior by sampling a small number of scenarios and performing search over a determinized sparse partially observable tree.
Our proposed approach represents each state as a set of hypotheses which are weighted based on the robot's observation. We use weighted sampling~\cite{wsample} to sample from the weighted hypotheses to get a reliable estimate of the states. We evaluate LESAMPLE against POMCP and DESPOT in our experiments.

\subsection{Integrating Belief Space Representation with Classical Planning}
FF-Replan~\cite{b6}, a classical planning approach, attempts to solve problems with no entropy in state estimation but high entropy in action effects by constantly replanning.
FF-Replan determinizes the action effects through choosing the effect with the highest confidence. It then applies Fast-Forward~\cite{a12} to plan in the determinized domain and re-plans whenever there is an inconsistency caused by the disregard of the entropy in the domain.
This algorithm is shown to work quite well for certain problems and terribly for others depending on how well the determinization reflects the true action effects of the domain.
Other approaches such as BeliefPDDLStream~\cite{beliefpddlstream} use particles to represent the belief space and update the particles after each observation using a particle filter and replans using this estimate of the belief space.
Our proposed approach represents each state as a set of weighted hypotheses and use weighted sampling~\cite{wsample} to sample from the weighted hypotheses to get a reliable estimate of the states.
We then employ symbolic planning to plan in the sampled states and reweight, resample and replan when needed. Figure \ref{fig:2} shows a graphical comparison of LESAMPLE with other classical and belief space planning methods. We also evaluate LESAMPLE against FF-Replan and BeliefPDDLStream in our experiments.

\subsection{Embodied Intelligence}
Early research in Embodied Intelligence \cite{aim, elephants} demonstrated the efficiency of methods  that  plan and  act  on  loose  models  of  the  world  and  rely  on  sensor feedback  to  adjust  their  behavior. These approaches worked best for domains where execution errors were reversible. More recent work in planning under uncertainty \cite{b6, b7} have also produced results that show the efficiency of replanning approaches over deliberate probabilistic planning methods in partially observable domains. These early work also gave rise to approaches \cite{actsense1, actsense2,actsense4} that explicitly perform information gathering actions and decide the next best action based on the obtained sensory information. LESAMPLE updates its belief after every action taken and replans whenever the updated belief doesn't match the predicted effect of the executed action.

\subsection{Bin Packing}
A vast body of work has addressed the robot bin packing problem~\cite{c2,c8,c9}. Amongst these, Wang and Hauser ~\cite{c2}, Weng et. al.~\cite{c9} consider the problem from a geometric perspective and try to find the optimal packing arrangement of objects such that they use up a minimum number of bins and a minimum amount of space.
Wang and Hauser ~\cite{c8} goes further to optimize for space-efficient packing arrangements that result in stable object piles. With the grocery packing task considered in this work, our proposed approach, LESAMPLE, does not explicitly optimize for efficient space usage when packing. We mainly just sample free placement poses in the destination bin that are large enough for the item in hand to be placed at.

\section{PROBLEM FORMULATION}
The state space is represented as an object-centric scene graph. The scene graph, $\Psi$($V,E$), represents the structure of the scene. Vertices $V$ in the scene graph represent the objects present in the scene whilst the edges $E$ represent spatial relations between the objects.

We assume a perception system that takes robot observations and returns a belief $\mathcal{B}(\Psi)$ over scene graphs for the current scene. An example of such perception system is  described in Section \ref{sec:impl}. Given the task goal conditions $G$ and the current scene belief $\mathcal{B}(\Psi)$, the goal for the robot is to plan a sequence of actions $\{a_0, a_1, \dots\}$ to achieve the goal conditions $G$ under the perceptual uncertainty, and replan when needed.

\section{LESAMPLE}
The proposed planning algorithm, LESAMPLE, takes in goal conditions, $G$, and the belief over the current scene graph $\mathcal{B}(\Psi)$,  efficiently plans out a sequence of actions to achieve $G$ and replans when necessary. LESAMPLE is developed to solve problems with partially observed states and deterministic action effects.

As described in Algorithm \ref{alg:lesample}, LESAMPLE takes in goal conditions $G$ and the current belief over scene graphs $\mathcal{B}(\Psi)$ as input. LESAMPLE first samples a scene graph $\Psi_s$ from $\mathcal{B}(\Psi)$ (as described in section \ref{sec:impl}), and formulates  $\Psi_s$ and $G$ as a PDDL\cite{pddl} problem . LESAMPLE then uses a symbolic planner (Fast Downward~\cite{b10} in our implementation) to solve the PDDL problem and generate a task plan $\pi$. After taking each action in $\pi$, the robot takes a new observation $\Phi$. A validation function, $Validate(\Psi_s,a,\Phi)$, checks for inconsistency in the action effects. In particular, the validation returns $True$ if the new observation $\Phi$ after executing action $a$  matches the predicted observation based on $a$ and sampled scene graph $\Psi_s$, and returns $False$ otherwise. In our experiments, $Validate(.)$ checks if the object picked up by the robot matches the sampled scene graph hypothesis after every pick action. If the $Validate$ function returns $True$, robot continues to execute the next action in $\pi$. Otherwise, $\pi$ is discarded, the scene belief $\mathcal{B}(\Psi)$ is updated based on the observation $\Phi$ and LESAMPLE is then called recursively with the original goal condition $G$ and the updated $\mathcal{B}(\Psi)$ as parameters. LESAMPLE runs until either the last action in the current plan $\pi$ is successfully executed or timeout is reached.

We provide details on the continuous motion parameters used in action execution in Section \ref{sec:continuous}.
By combining belief samples from belief space representation with the fast, goal-directed classical planning, LESAMPLE is able to efficiently plan for sequential decision making tasks with low entropy belief states.

\begin{algorithm}
\SetAlgoLined
\KwIn{Goal conditions, $G$, and Belief of current scene graph, $\mathcal{B}(\Psi)$}
\SetKwFunction{FMain}{LESAMPLE}
\SetKwProg{Fn}{Function}{:}{}
\Fn{\FMain{$G$, $\mathcal{B}(\Psi)$}}{
$\Psi_{s} ~\leftarrow ~ \text{sample from} \  \mathcal{B}(\Psi)$\\
$\pi \leftarrow ~FastDownward~ (\Psi_{s},~ G)$ \\
\ForEach{$ a \in \pi $}
        {
        $\text{take action} \ a$  \\
        $\text{take new observation} \  \Phi$\\
        $valid ~\leftarrow Validate(\Psi_{s}, a, \Phi$)\\
        \If{$valid = False$}
            {
            $\text{update belief} \  \mathcal{B}(\Psi) ~\text{given}\  \Phi$ \\
             $\text{LESAMPLE} \ (G, \mathcal{B}(\Psi))$ \\
             $\textbf{return}$
            }
        }
        \textbf{return}
}
\textbf{End Function}
\caption{LESAMPLE algorithm}
\label{alg:lesample}
\end{algorithm}

\section{Implementation}\label{sec:impl}
\subsection{Belief over Scene Graphs}\label{sec:belief}
For our experiments, we build a perception system that returns a $\mathcal{B}(\Psi)$ belief  over scene graphs given robot observation. We trained a Faster R-CNN~\cite{d4} detector for the 8 grocery object classes that we considered in the simulation experiments. For the $i$th detected object, the detector returns a confidence vector, which is then interpreted as the belief over object classes, $\mathcal{B}_i(c), c \in C$. $C$ is the set of all possible object classes. The spatial relations between detected objects given their detected locations are deterministically derived. With the assumption that the objects are independent from one another, we approximate the belief over scene graphs $\mathcal{B}(\Psi)$ as
$$\mathcal{B}(\Psi) \propto \displaystyle\prod_{i}^{N} \mathcal{B}_i(c)$$ where $N$ is the number of detected objects.

The belief over $i$th detected object, $\mathcal{B}_i(c)$, is approximated by a set of weighted object hypotheses $\{(o_k, p_k) | k=1, \dots , |C|
\}$, where $o_k =(c_k, a_k, r_k)$. For each hypothesis, $c_k$ is the object class, $a_k$ is object attributes, $r_k$ is its spatial relations with other objects in the scene graph, and $p_k$ is the weight of the hypothesis, which is equivalent to the detection confidence score corresponding to $c_k$. The object attributes $a_k$ (e.g. heavy or light) are deterministically associated with object class.

In order to draw one scene graph sample $\Psi_s$ from $\mathcal{B}(\Psi)$, we individually draw one object hypothesis $o_k$ from each $\mathcal{B}_i(c)$, such that
$$\Psi_s = \{o_k^i | i=1,\dots, N\}$$
where again $N$ is the number of detected objects. We used weighted sampling~\cite{wsample} to sample the individual object hypothesis.

\subsection{Grocery Packing Goal Conditions}
For the grocery packing task in our experiments, for each object hypotheses $o_k=(c_k, a_k, r_k)$ in the scene graph, we consider the object to be either a heavy or light, i.e. $a_k \in \{heavy, light\}$. The goal condition for the grocery packing task, which is specified as symbolic predicates in PDDL, is to have all objects packed into the box such that, heavy grocery objects are placed at the bottom of the box, and light grocery objects are placed on top of them.

\subsection{Action schemas} \label{sec:agg}
A plan is made up of a sequence of \textit{action schemas}. An action schema consists of a set of free parameters (\texttt{\textbf{:parameters}}), conjunctive boolean pre-conditions (\texttt{\textbf{:precondition}}) that must hold for the action to be applicable  and conjunctive boolean effects (\texttt{\textbf{:effect}}) that describe the changes in the state after the action is executed. Boolean conjunctive operators used are \texttt{or, not, and}. The pick and place action schemas used in our experiments are described below:\\

\noindent \texttt{\small
 (\textbf{:action} pick \\
\noindent\textbf{:parameters} (?x)\\
\small\textbf{:precondition} (and (topfree ?x) (handempty))\\
\small\textbf{:effect}  (and (holding ?x) (not (handempty)) (not (topfree ?x)))\\
)}\\
\texttt{
(\small\textbf{:action} place\\
\small\textbf{:parameters} (?x ?y)\\
\small\textbf{:precondition} (and (holding ?x) (topfree ?y)) \\
\small\textbf{:effect} (and (not (holding ?x)) (on ?x ?y) (handempty) (not (topfree ?y)) (topfree ?x))\\
)
}

\subsection{Continuous Variables}\label{sec:continuous}
In executing actions in a plan, the robot requires certain continuous values such as collision-free arm trajectories, object grasp poses and object placement poses. We use the BiRRT \cite{birrt} motion planning algorithm to generate collision-free trajectories for \texttt{pick} and \texttt{place} actions. We determine the grasp pose of an object by querying its 6D pose from the simulator and computing a corresponding grasp configuration of the robot's gripper to pick the object from the top. The \texttt{place} actions specify destination surfaces on which to place the picked item. For example, the action \texttt{(place banana bowl)}, requires that the \texttt{banana} is placed on the surface of \texttt{bowl}. We query the Axis-Aligned Bounding Box (AABB) of both the item in hand (\texttt{banana}) and the destination surface (\texttt{bowl}) and sample legal placement poses on the surface of the AABB of the destination surface where we can place the item in hand. The first sampled legal placement pose is chosen as the placement pose of the object in hand.

\section{Quantifying Entropy}
The state space of all possible scene graphs is beyond tractability for modern computing. This space can be composed of all possible classes of objects, all possible number of objects, all possible enumerations of the 6D pose of objects,  all possible spatial relations between objects and the attributes of objects. To be computationally tractable, we make the following assumptions to constrain the state space:

\begin{itemize}
    \item The set of all possible object classes is finite and known.
    \item The perception system detects objects that are not fully occluded by other objects from the robot's field of view. Note that, the robot does not have prior knowledge of the total number of objects to expect. Thus the scene graph is made up of only detected objects and their spatial relations.
    \item The perception system can deterministically infer the 6D pose of detected objects. Note that, there is uncertainty in the recognition of the class of detected objects.
     \item The perception system can deterministically infer spatial relations between detected objects from a 3D observation. In this work, we only consider the stacking spatial relations. In the PDDL problem description, the stacking relations are represented with axiomatic assertions \texttt{(on $o_i$ $o_j$)} for the assertion that object $o_i$ is stacked on object $o_j$ and \texttt{(topfree $o_i$)} for the axiomatic assertion that no objects are stacked on object $o_i$.
     \item We deterministically associate detected objects with their respective attributes (either heavy or light).
\end{itemize}

As a result, the constrained state space of scene graphs, $\Psi$, will include scene graphs that have the same number of vertices as the number of detected objects, with each graph consisting of all possible enumerations of the object classes.

We quantify the entropy of the belief over scene graphs $\mathcal{B}(\Psi)$ as the normalized sum of Shannon entropies~\cite{shannon} of the beliefs of detected objects, i.e.
\begin{equation}\label{eq:entropy}
H  =  -\frac{1}{H_{max}} \cdot \sum_{i=1}^{N}  \sum_{c \in C} p^c _i \log_{2} p^c _i
\end{equation}
where $C$ is the set of all possible object classes, $N$ is the number of detected objects, $p^c_i$ is the probability of class $c$ of $i$th detected object in belief $\mathcal{B}_i(c)$, as explained in Section \ref{sec:belief}. $H_{max}$ is the maximum possible entropy occurring when the belief over scene graphs is uniformly distributed. i.e.
\begin{equation}\label{eq:max}
H_{max}  =  -\sum_{i=1}^{N}  \sum_{c \in C} p^c _i \log_{2} p^c _i
\end{equation}
where $p_i ^c$ follows a uniform distribution.

For the grocery packing task we consider in this work, we use Equation \ref{eq:entropy} to classify the perceptual entropy levels of grocery packing tasks.  On one extreme, $H = 0$ for a scene graph estimate with no uncertainty. On the other extreme, $H = 1$ for a scene graph with high uncertainty.
In our experiments, we perform grocery packing on scene graphs with $H$ values from $0.1$ to $0.9$.

\section{EXPERIMENTS}
We compare the performance of LESAMPLE with replanning and belief space planning methods on low entropy grocery packing tasks ($H$ values between $0.3$ and $0.5$), shown in results in Table \ref{table:results} and  Figures \ref{fig:timing}, \ref{fig:mistakes} and \ref{fig:actions} and a broader range of entropy values ($H$ values from $0.1$ to $0.9$), shown in results in Figure \ref{fig:entropies}. The simulation environment we use is depicted in Figure \ref{fig:1}.
The goal condition for the grocery packing task is to have all items packed into the box such that, heavy grocery items are placed at the bottom of the box, and light grocery items are placed on top of them.
Experiments were run in the Pybullet simulation~\cite{d1}. We use a simulated Digit robot \cite{digit} equipped with suction grippers on both arms. 8 3D models of grocery items from the YCB dataset~\cite{d2} were used as grocery items in the experiments. A Faster R-CNN~\cite{d4} object detector is trained to detect these grocery items and return a confidence score vector for each detected object. We normalize these confidence scores, add entropy based on the specific \textit{H} value of the task, as prescribed in Equation \ref{eq:entropy}, and form the belief over scene graphs $\mathcal{B}(\Psi)$. The experiments were run on a laptop with 2.21GHz Intel Core i7 CPU, 32GB RAM and a GTX 1070 GPU. We also demonstrate our approach on a real world grocery packing task with a physical Digit robot. A summary of our approach as well as the real world demo can be seen in the accompanying video and at this url: {\url{https://youtu.be/im6tve9-9A0}}.

The following methods are benchmarked in this experiment:
\begin{itemize}

    \item \textbf{FF-REPLAN}: This algorithm \cite{b6} performs symbolic planning on a determinized belief over detected objects. It determinizes the belief over scene graphs by choosing the hypothesis with the highest probability in $\mathcal{B}_i(c)$ for each detected object, $i$. The algorithm then formulates the determinized scene graph and the goal conditions (Section V-B) as a PDDL~\cite{pddl} problem and solves it using Fast Downward~\cite{b10} to generate a plan to pack objects into the box. The algorithm uses the \textit{Validate} function (same as in LESAMPLE in Algorithm \ref{alg:lesample}) to check if the object picked up by the robot matches the determinized scene graph after every pick action. If \textit{Validate} returns \textit{True}, the next action in the plan is executed. If \textit{Validate} returns \textit{False}, a replan request is triggered. The belief over detected objects is updated and determinized again. A new plan is generated accordingly. The robot plans and executes until either all the objects are packed or the 15-minute timeout is reached.

    \item \textbf{LESAMPLE}: This algorithm performs LESAMPLE on the belief over detected objects to pack them into the box. LESAMPLE terminates either when all the objects are packed into the box or when the 15-minute timeout is reached.

    \item \textbf{BPSTREAM*}: This algorithm is a variation of BeliefPDDLStream \cite{beliefpddlstream} adapted to suit our grocery packing task. We replace the streams in the original BeliefPDDLStream with simple parameter samplers for sampling motion plans and other continuous action parameters as described in Section \ref{sec:continuous}. We use a set of 8 weighted particles to represent the belief of each detected object.

    \item \textbf{POMCP-ER}: POMCP-ER is a variation of the POMCP \cite{pomcp} belief space planning algorithm  with episodic rewards. Here, the robot receives a reward of 10 whenever an item is packed into the container, a reward of 100 when the arrangement satisfies the packing conditions and a reward of -10 when the arrangement fails to satisfy the packing conditions. POMCP-ER is also restricted to 10 iterations, each with a rollout depth of 10 and represents the belief set with 10 particles. Since grocery packing is a goal-directed task, we set the discount factor to 1, thus future rewards are just as valuable as immediate ones. To narrow the focus of the Monte Carlo Tree Search in POMCP, as prescribed by~\cite{pomcp}, we use domain knowledge by specifying the subset of preferred actions at each node in the search tree.

    \item \textbf{DESPOT}: We use an anytime and regularized version of the DESPOT belief space planning algorithm\cite{despot}. DESPOT improves upon POMCP's poor worst case behavior by  sampling a small number of scenarios (3 scenarios in our implementation) and searching over a determinized sparse partially observable tree. Here, we use the same reward function, maximum number of iterations, maximum rollout depth and discount factor as POMCP-ER.
\end{itemize}

\begin{figure}[t!]%
    \centering
     \subfloat[]{{\includegraphics[width=0.15\textwidth]{figures/pile3.png} }}%
    \qquad
     \subfloat[]{{\includegraphics[width=0.15\textwidth]{figures/pile8.png} }}%
    \caption{ Examples of initial cluttered scenes}%
    \label{fig:arr}%
\end{figure}

The methods are benchmarked on low-entropy Grocery Packing tasks. Their performance results are displayed in Table \ref{table:results} and  Figures \ref{fig:timing}, \ref{fig:mistakes} and \ref{fig:actions}.

We run each planning method on 5 different initial arrangements of the grocery items, examples of which are showin in Figure \ref{fig:arr}. In Figure \ref{fig:timing}, we show planning time and execution time averaged across 5 initial scenes. For each initial scene, we run each method 5 times.

As shown in Table \ref{table:results} and Figures \ref{fig:timing}, \ref{fig:mistakes} and \ref{fig:actions}, across all tasks in our experiments, LESAMPLE  outperforms other baseline methods by having the least completion times, making the least number of mistakes and as such requiring the least number of pick-and-place actions to complete the task. BPSTREAM* has a slightly higher execution time than LESAMPLE and a significantly higher planning time than both FF-REPLAN and LESAMPLE. The belief space planning algorithms, DESPOT and POMCP-ER, have the worst results for every metric. DESPOT and POMCP-ER make fewer number of mistakes because they spend majority of the time planning and are only able to take a few actions before the 15 minute timeout is reached. DESPOT however performs slightly better than POMCP-ER and is able to successfully pack over half of the groceries before the 15 minute timeout.

FF-REPLAN chooses the most likely hypothesis and disregards the inherent entropy in the state space. As a result, FF-REPLAN makes a mistake when the most likely hypothesis does not correspond to the true state. On the other hand by employing the belief space representation of belief space planning, LESAMPLE is able to maintain a belief of the various scene hypotheses and update this belief in the next replanning cycle even after it samples a false hypothesis. This makes LESAMPLE more robust to noisy state estimation.
It is worth noting that, in scenarios where the most likely hypothesis of the scene estimate represents the true scene graph, FF-REPLAN performs less number of actions than LESAMPLE. This is because LESAMPLE does not always sample the true scene graph hypothesis and could potentially perform more actions than necessary. Such scenarios however do not occur often enough in the low entropy tasks to make FF-REPLAN a more efficient approach than LESAMPLE.

BPSTREAM* aggressively performs online planning. It only executes the first action in the generated plan and replans even when no mistake is committed. As such, even thoug
h BPSTREAM* employs the belief space representation and samples from the belief space, it ends up planning much more often LESAMPLE, resulting in its higher planning time. Because it samples from the belief space, BPSTREAM* commits less mistakes than FF-REPLAN.

\begin{table}
\centering
\resizebox{\linewidth}{!}{
\begin{tabular}{|c||c|c|c|}
\hline
\textbf{Algorithm} & Total time spent(s) & Avg. time per action & Avg. num. packed items  \\
\hline \hline
LESAMPLE &  \textbf{411.3} & \textbf{11.5} & \textbf{8.0} \\
  \hline
FF-Replan & 658.3 & 13.2 & 8.0 \\
\hline
BPSTREAM* & 770.4 & 20.3 & 8.0 \\
\hline
DESPOT & 900.0**  & 71.0 & 4.5   \\
\hline
POMCP-ER & 900.0** & 539.9 & 1.0 \\
\hline
\end{tabular}}
\caption{Summary of results from experiments for low entropy tasks (\textit{H} values between 0.3 and 0.5). **DESPOT and POMCP-ER could not complete the tasks before the 900 second timeout so we set their total time spent to 900 seconds}
\label{table:results}
\end{table}

\begin{figure}[t!]
    \centering
    \scalebox{0.6}{\includegraphics[trim=4 4 4 4,clip]{figures/planning_duration.png}}
    \caption{\textbf{Planning and Execution time} results for  LESAMPLE and the benchmarked algorithms from performing the low entropy Grocery Packing Tasks (\textit{H} values between 0.3 and 0.5). Error bars represent one standard deviation from the mean. The maximum time allocated for each task is 900 seconds.}
    \label{fig:timing}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[t!]
    \centering
    \scalebox{0.5}{\includegraphics[trim=4 4 4 4,clip]{figures/num_mistakes.png}}
    \caption{Experimental results for \textbf{Number of Mistakes} for  LESAMPLE and the benchmarked algorithms from performing the low entropy Grocery Packing Tasks (\textit{H} values between 0.3 and 0.5). Error bars represent one standard deviation from the mean. Note that POMCP-ER and DESPOT make few mistakes because the planning time takes up most of the allocated time per task. Hence they barely take any actions before timeout is reached.}
    \label{fig:mistakes}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[t!]
    \centering
    \scalebox{0.5}{\includegraphics[trim=4 4 4 4,clip]{figures/num_actions.png}}
    \caption{ Experimental results for \textbf{Number of Actions} for  LESAMPLE and the benchmarked algorithms from performing the low entropy Grocery Packing Tasks (\textit{H} values between 0.3 and 0.5). }
    \label{fig:actions}
\end{figure}

POMCP-ER performs the worst in planning time, execution time and number of items packed. It is unable to complete any of the packing tasks. It also packs significantly fewer objects than LESAMPLE, FF-REPLAN and BPSTREAM*. This is because of the high branching factor in the Monte Carlo search tree.  DESPOT searches over a sparser tree than POMCP-ER, making it faster and better performing than POMCP-ER. DESPOT however still falls short when compared with BPSTREAM*, FF-REPLAN and LESAMPLE which perform symbolic planning on a determinized belief space.

Belief Space Planning approaches like POMCP-ER and DESPOT are developed to solve problems with high entropy state spaces. As such, they spend a lot of computation in deciding the approximately optimal action to take next. This makes them inefficient for state spaces with low entropy. By adopting the fast, goal-directed features of classical planning through the use of a symbolic planner, LESAMPLE is able to efficiently solve low entropy problems by directly acting upon a sampled scene graph. This makes LESAMPLE a favorable choice for solving low perceptual entropy tasks.

\begin{figure}[t!]
    \centering
    \scalebox{0.5}{\includegraphics[]{figures/alg_entropy.png}}
    \caption{ Experimental results for the \textbf{Planning Times and Execution Times} for  LESAMPLE and the benchmarked algorithms from performing the Grocery Packing Task for increasing entropy values (\textit{H} values from 0.1 to 0.9). The maximum time allocated for each task is 900 seconds. DESPOT and POMCP-ER do not complete any of the tasks before the 900 second time-out for any of the \textit{H} values.}
    \label{fig:entropies}
\end{figure}

We also compare the average planning and execution times of LESAMPLE with the benchmarked algorithms for tasks with increasing perceptual entropy as shown in the results in Figure \ref{fig:entropies}. FF-REPLAN has the least planning time at the lowest \textit{H} value because at such entropy levels, FF-REPLAN makes little to no mistakes and as such, does not have to re-plan often. As the \textit{H} value increases however FF-REPLAN expends more planning and execution time than LESAMPLE because it makes more mistakes and replans more often. BPSTREAM* consistently spends more planning time than LESAMPLE across all \textit{H} values because it, by design, replans after every action, whether or not a mistake is committed. DESPOT and POMCP-ER do not complete any of the tasks across the \textit{H} values before the 900 second time-out, resulting in their relatively lower execution times. Even though DESPOT and POMCP-ER are belief space planning approaches designed for high entropy state spaces, they still spend significant amounts of time to plan for a single action and are, as a result, out-performed by fast replanning approaches even in high entropy scenarios in our experiments. As such, for reversible tasks like grocery packing where action effects could be reversed through taking other actions, it is more efficient in the long run to employ fast replanning approaches that are able to quickly plan actions and replan to recover from mistakes. This resonates with results by Little et. al. \cite{b7}. However, for tasks where action effects are irreversible or where the penalty for making mistakes is significant, the more deliberative belief space planning approaches like DESPOT and POMCP-ER are more appropriate.

\section{CONCLUSION}

We presented LESAMPLE as an online planning method for efficiently solving sequential decision-making tasks with low perceptual entropy. The key idea is to use classical planning on estimates resulting from belief space inference over perceptual observations.  As a result, LESAMPLE can perform more efficient goal-directed reasoning under scenarios of low-entropy perception. We demonstrated the efficiency of this method on grocery packing tasks. LESAMPLE demonstrated advantages in low-entropy scenarios where classical planning cannot handle uncertainty and belief space planning is unnecessarily computationally expensive.

\ifCLASSOPTIONcaptionsoff
  \newpage
\fi

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


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On the road with a flipbook artist
Portraits in Motion
By Volker Gerling
World Stage 2016
Harbourfront Theatre Centre, Toronto
April 13 to 16, 2016
As viewers take their seats, Volker Gerling lurks in the shadows near the stage, where a podium with an overhead projector is prepared for his performance, a woman's face already projected on the screen. This is a photographer, one thinks; he must be closely observing us all – are we potential subjects for his latest wanderings?
Gerling is more than a man with a camera; he's a flâneur, that poetry-inclined stroller whose observations transcend external reality and become a work of art. It all began, he tells us in rather stilted English, with his purchase of a camera that snaps a series of photos in 12 seconds for processing into a flipbook. He experimented with a friend, a young woman in a red coat with lots of curly hair, whom he instructed to walk between two trees and hide behind them. The shoot was a failure, but out of that came the concept of the dropbook: Gerling flops down under the projector lamp a series of colour prints that reveal the sequence of the peek-a-booing friend, her disappearing shoulder and a couple of close-ups of tree trunks.
Around the same time, Gerling, whose show has toured 16 countries and won an award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, got into long-distance walking. His first big walk was from his home in Berlin to Basel Switzerland, a distance of 1,300 kilometres. Walking led to more subjects for his flipbooks, as well as the concept of the travelling exhibition, which consists of Gerling walking his route bearing a large backpack and a tray strapped to his front. The flipbooks are arrayed on the tray for the curious, who are invited to flip through them.
As for the photographs themselves, they are nothing remarkable, but for the way the subjects respond to being snapped multiple times. As Gerling remarks, 12 seconds can be a long stretch. On stage, Gerling thumb flips his books under the projector three times each so we can notice the sometimes minute changes of pose on the big screen. A man who looks like the artist Christopher Pratt barely moves, but appears to give a small sigh. A mother and daughter confront the camera and then turn to each other. A shirtless boy in front of a canal outside Münster wipes his nose.
Some subjects get into the role with gusto; a woman at a bar pulls up her sweater to show us her breasts, daring the camera to keep shooting. Others try defiance. In one flipbook where the portrait of a man and a boy appears unchanged over 12 seconds, Gerling asks us to notice a moving blade of grass – proof that the sequence is authentic.
The walks introduced Gerling to some colourful characters, including an old widower he met on the road who took the photographer into his home. But Gerling is not a born storyteller and his sing-song delivery and awkward phrasing make one feel he's merely making fun of this charming old German. When he found that by creating bigger time gaps between shots he released "power and poetry," Gerling embarked on some epic projects: photographing a building over many hours so that the moon appears to fly across the sky; shooting a scene from his Berlin building over four seasons; or following the movements of men using the urinals in a public washroom over an evening. In some cases, like the woman who posed for seven and a half hours while a candle burned down, we grow weary with this work.
By the end of the 75-minute show we've seen enough, although Gerling does get laughs and maybe even some customers. Viewers are invited up on stage to see the flipbooks, priced at $30 each.
Volker Gerling with his travelling exhibition of flipbooks. Photo by Susanne Schule
Posted on April 14, 2016 by susanwalkerartsblog This entry was posted in theatre. Bookmark the permalink.
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text:
Tag Archives: Encores
Tuesday, 17th January, 2017 by azuriteenigma
Elgar's Cello Concerto
with Bergen Philharmonic and Edward Gardner
Tuesday 17th January, 2017 – 7:30pm
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Edward Gardner – conductor
Truls Mørk – cello
Grieg – Peer Gynt Suite No 1
Elgar – Cello Concerto
Walton – Symphony No 1
Truls Mørk's encore – Bach –
Bergen Philharmonic's encores – Elgar – Nimrod, and Grieg – March of the Trolls
A great Norwegian orchestra meets great British music, as Edward Gardner conducts Grieg, Walton, and Elgar's Cello Concerto. Truls Mørk is the soloist, and his take on Elgar's hugely popular concerto is both fresh and deeply thoughtful. Gardner, meanwhile, became Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in 2015. Together, they've got a real chemistry – so whether in Walton's explosive First Symphony or Peer Gynt (by Bergen's hometown hero Edvard Grieg), expect some serious energy tonight.
6:15pm: Pre-concert conversation with Edward Gardner. This conversation will be signed by a British Sign Language interpreter.
Tagged Bach, BC 2016/17, Bergen Philharmonic, Edward Gardner, Elgar, Encore, Encores, Grieg, Truls Mork, Walton
Saturday, 14th May, 2016 by azuriteenigma
Moscow State Symphony Orchestra
Perform Shostakovich's Symphony No 5
Saturday 14th May, 2016, 7:30pm
Pavel Kogan – conductor
John Lill – piano
Behemoth Dances 7'
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini 22'
Symphony No 5 44'
MSSO encores:
Rachmaninov – Vocalise
Vincent Youmans (orch. Shostakovich) – Tea for Two – Tahiti Trot
Mariano Mores – El Firulete
Rachmaninov'sPaganini Rhapsody is more than just that rapturous 18th variation; and Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony is more than just one of the great symphonic blockbusters. And Pavel Kogan, John Lill and the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra will show you why. Nothing compares to Russian music played by Russian performers, and for Kogan and his orchestra, it's in the blood.
6.15pm Pre-concert conversation with Stephen Johnson and Jonathan James.
This conversation will be signed by a British Sign Language interpreter
http://www.THSH.co.uk
"Stephen Johnson is a much respected presenter and writer about music. As we discovered in Saturday's concert from the remarkable Moscow State Symphony Orchestra he is also an accomplished composer.
Possibly the Russians took an interest in his Behemoth Dances because of Johnson's passionate interest in the culture of their country. The scenario of this vibrant piece is based on a satirical Russian novel, but we don't actually need to know that, as this well-imagined score speaks for itself.
Its gripping, urgent opening has something of William Walton's brio about it, with bold, firmly-etched rhythms riding under confident orchestral sonorities. Darker interludes intervene, and there is particularly atmospheric use of the vibraphone.
Behemoth Dances' bristling energy was generously conveyed by the MSSO under Pavel Kogan's empowering baton, with the Hereford-based composer present to acknowledge the immense, well-deserved applause." …
Review by Richard Ely, BachTrack:
… "A Russian orchestra will have a particular emotional investment to make in this symphony. Kogan's forceful intent was demonstrated from the beginning, with strings plunging into the first movement's exposition with the force of someone being thrown bodily into a vat of cold water. The developmental section was judged perfectly, so that when the martial theme emerged, propelled by the side-drum, it had exactly the jolting effect the composer intended; the movement's conclusion provided another magical moment, where time became stationary, as concertmaster Alexandra Zhavoronkova's violin and Elena Kazna's celesta trailed off into silence.
The same thrust and concern for dynamics was evident in the scherzo, which had never sounded more like a death waltz, for all its sprightliness. But even in a work as veiled as this, there has to be a heart-on-the-sleeve moment and the Largo is the closest Shostakovich comes to unburdening his soul. Kogan and his orchestra played it for all its worth, finding intense feeling in the movement's expressivo climax that held the audience so rapt that the beginning of the Allegro final movement had the effect of a slap across the face. The note of sour triumphalism on which the symphony ends was precisely caught in a performance of astonishing alacrity: the whole piece clocked in at just forty minutes!
The reception fairly took the roof off and we were treated to a generous three encores: Rachmaninov's Vocalise was sensuously melancholic, Shostakovich's Tea for Two gave us some necessary light relief (you need to see this piece performed to understand just how funny it is!) and the tango El Firulate by the recently deceased Argentinian composer Mariano Mores. A triumphant evening. "
"Behemoth Dances. Who dances? You know, Behemoth, the huge demonic black cat who cakewalks through Stalin's Moscow in Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita spreading mayhem and magic; the spirit – as quoted by Bulgakov, and taken by Stephen Johnson as a sort of motto for his new orchestral work – "that always wills evil, but always does good". A sardonic fanfare announces his appearance, before the orchestra whizzes away on a bustling, bristling spree. Woodwinds squeal and skirl, the surface glitters, and a piano throws in a few deadpan comments.
But this isn't just a deliciously orchestrated successor to one of Walton's comedy overtures. There's something going on beneath the surface here: solemn chants, dark undercurrents, and a spreading, quietly insistent sense that we're actually hearing something profoundly sad. And with Pavel Kogan conducting the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra – and if you didn't know the composer lives in Herefordshire – you could be convinced that Behemoth Dances is showing you something remarkably like the Russian soul.
And yes, this is the same Stephen Johnson (pictured) we know from Radio Three's sorely missed Discovering Music – the authority on Bruckner, Shostakovich and Sibelius, the award-winning documentary-maker, and the writer of music criticism so lucid, so readable and so generous that it makes the rest of us feel like giving up. I can't deny that part of the pleasure of this almost-premiere (it was first heard in Moscow last month) was seeing a fellow gamekeeper make such a terrific job of turning poacher. Johnson has been reticent about his composing, though he trained under Alexander Goehr. Hopefully no longer: Behemoth Dances shows that he has a voice, he has technique, and he can connect with an audience. The Birmingham audience cheered." …
Tagged BICS 2015/16, Encores, John Lill, Mores, Pavel Kogan, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Stephen Johnson, Youmans
Saturday, 12th March, 2016 by azuriteenigma
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra
Performs Mahler Symphony No. 5
Part of Birmingham International Concert Season 2015/16 Concert Package, SoundBite, Piano Highlights and Birmingham International Concert Season 2015/16
Saturday 12th March, 2016
Vasily Petrenko conductor
Simon Trpčeski piano
6:15pm Pre-concert conversation with Vasily Petrenko.
Lyric Suite Op 54 17'
Piano Concerto No 2 33'
Simon Trpceski's encore with cellist Louisa Tuck – Rachmaninov – Vocalise
Oslo Philharmonic's encore – Schubert – Moment Musical no. 3 in F Minor (for strings)
Long acclaimed as Scandinavia's finest orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra has found a fresh energy under its dynamic new music director Vasily Petrenko. In Mahler's Fifth Symphony, Petrenko and the Oslo Phil will make a compelling pairing; in Rachmaninov, meanwhile, Petrenko and pianist Simon Trpc˘ eski have already been hailed by critics as a 'dream team'!
… The concerto was Rachmaninov Two, the soloist the much-loved Simon Trpceski (…)playing with a confident rubato and empathy with his collaborators. This was a joint triumph for pianist and orchestra (full-throated strings, eloquent woodwind), Trpceski bringing warmth as well as glitter to rippling passage-work, and always a freshly-minted response to this well-worn work.
Applause from a packed auditorium came in huge waves, rewarded with a lovely encore, Trpceski modestly accompanying cello principal Louisa Tuck in Rachmaninov's poignant little Vocalise.
Petrenko drew a tight, compact sound from the OPO for Mahler's mighty Fifth Symphony. Strings dug deep, and the brass soloists (horn, trumpet, trombone), so important throughout this work laden with symbolic imagery, were a constantly commanding presence." …
Tagged BICS 2015/16, Encores, Grieg, Louisa Tuck, Mahler, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Rachmaninov, Schubert, Simon Trpčeski, Vasily Petrenko
Monday, 26th October, 2015 by azuriteenigma
Stephen Hough in Recital
Part of Birmingham International Concert Season 2015/16 Concert Package,
SoundBite, Piano Highlights and Birmingham International Concert Season 2015/16
Monday 26th October, 2015
Stephen Hough piano
Sonata in A minor D784 22'
Prelude, Chorale and Fugue 22'
Valse Oubliées Nos 1 and 2 3' & 6'
Transcendental Etude No 11 (harmonies du soir) 10'
Transcendental Etude No 10 5'
Stephen Hough is a phenomenon: a pianist of astonishing technical skill with the ability to find profundity in even the flashiest of keyboard fireworks. Tonight he traces the darkness-to-light journeys of three great pianist-composers, and gives a recital that explores every side of his artistic personality: thinker, creator and consummate virtuoso.
Tagged Debussy, Encores, Franck, Liszt, Schubert, Stephen Hough
Tuesday, 3rd March, 2015 by azuriteenigma
Hong Kong Philharmonic play Beethoven and Dvořák
Part of Birmingham International Concert Season 2014/15 Concert Package, SoundBite, Birmingham International Concert Season 2014/15 and Orchestral Music
Tuesday 3rd March 2015
Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra Jaap van Zweden conductor Ning Feng violin
Fung Lam
Quintessence 11'
Symphony No 9, From the New World 40'
Ning Feng's encore – Paganini – Caprice No. 7
Hong Kong Philharmonic's encores – Wagner – Ride of the Valkyries, Dvořák – Slavonic Dance No.8
The Hong Kong Philharmonic is one of China's most established orchestras, and under music director Jaap van Zweden it's been called 'the Berlin Philharmonic of Asia'. Dvořák's much loved New World Symphony and Beethoven's Violin Concerto (with the award-winning Ning Feng) provide a wonderfully enjoyable showcase. Plus, there's the chance to hear Quintessence, the new piece by orchestra's 35-year-old resident composer Fung Lam, which received its World Premiere in London in June 2014 (read a Financial Times review of the concert here). Classic FM's John Suchet says:
Now celebrating their 41st professional season, this is a fantastic opportunity to hear the esteemed Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra play one of the most popular symphonies of all time, Dvořák's New World Symphony, along with the only concerto ever written for violin by one of the defining figures in the history of Western music: Ludwig van Beethoven.
Review by Sam Chipman, ThePublicReviews:
… "The great Leonard Bernstein himself encouraged Dutch born Jaap van Zweden to conduct, and he does so with such vigour. He tactfully directs his orchestra as they play a rousing rendition of the famous symphony. Where the concerto lacks in drama, this piece does not. It is a very brash and dark interpretation of the famous symphony played with great attack. The woodwind section are excellent throughout the Largo, with the Cor Anglais solo really adding to the dark undertone of the playing. When the strings swell it is almost euphoric, so delightful is the tone and harmony, particularly at the opening of the Adagio. The Allegro con fuoco sees the return of the memorable themes to end the evening with a flourish. Rousing work from the Hong Kong Philharmonic and Jaap van Zweden.
Breath-taking in parts, with a slight stumble in others. The Dvořák is played magnificently, but the Beethoven a little lacking – but the tuneful 9th Symphony will leave you feeling energised as you exit the auditorium."
Review by Richard Bratby, Birmingham Post:
… "And yet, Lam doesn't really draw on this orchestra's greatest strengths. The opening bars of Dvorak's 9th Symphony laid those out unmistakably: a rich, focussed and gloriously warm-sounding string section, phrasing and moving together, plus as characterful and expressive a woodwind and horn team as you could hope to find anywhere in Bohemia.
Conductor Jaap van Zweden shaped a brisk but intensely lyrical performance – with long, singing lines that gave a really epic sense of sweep, notwithstanding van Zweden's tendency to micromanage phrase endings and tempo changes. The whispered string phrases that underscored Kwan Sheung-fung's plangent cor anglais solo in the Largo were wonderfully expressive and tender.
The sheer beauty of the orchestral sound was also the most enjoyable aspect of Beethoven's Violin Concerto, with Ning Feng as soloist." …
Tagged Beethoven, Dvorak, Encores, Fung Lam, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Jaap van Sweden, Ning Feng
Wednesday, 7th May, 2014 by azuriteenigma
Tchaikovsky from the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Part of Birmingham International Concert Season 2013/14 Concert Package, SoundBite and Birmingham International Concert Season 2013/14
Tuesday 6th May 2014
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Yuri Simonov conductor
Natalie Clein cello
Symphonic Poem, Francesca da Rimini 22'
Cello Concerto No 1 28'
Natalie Clein's encore – Britten – Cello Suite No 3 – Introduzione: Lento
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra's encores! –
Tchaikovsky – Alla Tedesca from Symphony No 3
Shostakovich – Polka from the Golden Age Ballet
Elgar – Nimrod
Dvořák – Slavonic Dance 10
Dvořák – Slavonic Dance 8
It's hard to define, but when a Russian orchestra plays Russian music, something very special happens. The Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra is drenched in that tradition, and under veteran Music Director Yuri Simonov, we can expect intensely committed readings of two of Tchaikovsky's most personal works.
Natalie Clein, meanwhile, is always popular at Symphony Hall: tonight she has near-perfect partners for Shostakovich's taut political thriller of a cello concerto. http://www.thsh.co.uk
… "Tchaikovsky had been the main element in the programme, beginning with Francesca da Rimini, timbres dark and sombre at the opening, strings leaping and searing under Simonov's understated beat, and with a sorrowingly searching clarinet narrative. Also remarkable were the splendid cellos, lamenting under fluttering flutes in this wonderful piece.
Even more wonderful is Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, tortured yet determined, and there was much to admire here, with stirring brass, sweeping phrasing and often organ-like chording. Woodwind nuances were delicate, but sometimes overwhelmed by the surging strings, and Simonov's tempo for the famous pizzicato scherzo was decidedly staid; I think he was trying to make some kind of point, but its relevance escaped me.
Never mind; as a concept this interpretation was shattering.
Interspersed was Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto, a work laden with coded messages I am sure, and delivered with unremitting energy and impassioned line-unfolding by soloist Natalie Clein." …
… "Like a good many Russian orchestras, it retains a distinctively Soviet sound albeit with some of the harder edges smoothed out slightly. The portentous opening to Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini featured an upbeat from a particularly full-throated double bass section, highly responsive to Simonov's gestures. The conductor adopted a statuesque posture throughout Tchaikovsky's symphonic poem, somehow managing to summon terrifying blasts of sound in climactic moments with only discreet, staccato movements. In this respect, Dante's Inferno was spectacularly and vividly conjured by Simonov and the orchestra.
Francesca herself was well-represented by a lovely clarinet cadenza, with the ensuing central section providing some much needed relief from the swirling vortices of sound, though hers is a melody laced with melancholy, as might be expected from this composer. The wind soloists of this orchestra were particularly fine, if not always possessing infallible intonation in some of the tutti sections. The brassy peroration featured a notably 'narrow-bore' sound and led to a terrifying climax." …
Tagged Dvorak, Elgar, Encores, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Natalie Clein, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky
Thursday, 19th May, 2011 by azuriteenigma
Handel from Il Giardino Armonico
Thu 19 May 7:30pm at Town Hall
Il Giardino Armonico
Giovanni Antonini director
Handel Concerto Grosso Op 6, No 1 12'
Vivaldi Concerto in F for Strings and Recorder, La Tempesta Di Mare 7'
Handel Concerto Grosso Op 6, No 12 11'
Geminiani Concerto Grosso Op 5, No 12, La Follia 11'
'As Italian as the music itself', wrote Gramophone of Il Giardino Armonico, 'brightly coloured, individualistic, confident, stylish, arrestingly decorated, bubbling with enthusiasm.' They are one of Europe's leading Baroque ensembles, at the top of their game, their revelatory performances packed with freshness and pizzazz. Their Town Hall concert includes the sparkling Concerti Grossi of Handel and music by his Italian contemporaries. www.thsh.co.uk
Click here to see a promotional video of Il Giardino Armonico and Handel 12 Concerti grossi, op.6
Tagged Encores, Geminiani, Giovanni Antonini, Handel, Il Giardino Armonica, Vivaldi


text:
What Brexit could mean for your ferret
If Britain is classified as an unlisted third country, owners of ferrets like this one pictured in Australia could face months of preparing paperwork before any trip to the EU
Britain laid out Monday the potential impact of Brexit for ferrets in case no deal is reached with the EU, along with warnings on air travel, freight transport and copyrights.
Under the best case scenario, dog, cat and ferret owners hoping to travel to Europe with their pets would face little change to current arrangements with a valid EU pet passport, according to the government's technical guidance.
But if the EU classifies Britain as an unlisted third country, pet owners could have to start discussing their plans to travel to Europe with their vet at least four months in advance in order to get the necessary paperwork ready.
Brexit minister Dominic Raab told the BBC that there were "some risks of short-term disruption" but the government was spelling out the guidance "so that everyone knows what they need to do well in advance".
On flights to and from the EU, "the UK would envisage granting permission to EU airlines to continue to operate," the notices said.
"We would expect EU countries to reciprocate in turn.
"It would not be in the interest of any EU country or the UK to restrict the choice of destinations that could be served, though if such permissions are not granted, there could be disruption to some flights."
For airlines from one of the 17 non-EU countries with whom air services to Britain are currently provided for by virtue of its EU membership, "replacement arrangements will be in place before exit day", the notices said.
The papers upheld the government's commitment to maintaining the Common Travel Area of free movement between the UK, Britain's crown dependencies and the Republic of Ireland.
"It goes to the heart of the relationship between these islands," the notices said.
London also issued guidance for businesses who make "geographical indication" protected products, such as Scotch whisky, Cornish pasties, Stilton cheese, Melton Mowbray pork pies and Herefordshire cider.
There are 86 GI-protected UK product names, which together make up a quarter of the value of Britain's food and drink exports.
A British GI scheme would be set up with a new logo and producers were advised to consider preparing to apply for GI status in the European Union.
UK plans medicine airlift in no-deal Brexit
Citation: What Brexit could mean for your ferret (2018, September 24) retrieved 19 January 2020 from https://phys.org/news/2018-09-brexit-ferret.html
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Posts tagged: Jewish Religious & Holiday Music
High Holy Days Collection
By Recorded Sound Archives, September 14, 2015 2:25 pm
In years past, the Recorded Sound Archives Judaic collection or the Judaica Sound Archives as most know it has highlighted the music of Leibele Waldman, Gershon Sirota and Moishe Oysher for the High Holy Days along with some of today's finest cantors.
This year the Recorded Sound Archives has created a High Holy Days collection for you to share and enjoy with your family. Included in this collection is a mixture of cantors, and other musicians such as Shimon and Ilana Gewirtz, Ramon Tasat and Cindy Paley.
Click here to view this collection.
Click here to view past blog posts on the High Holy Days.
Cantorial/liturgical music, High Holy Days, Judaic Collection, On-line music collections, Online Access, Performers |	 High Holy Days, Jewish Holidays, Jewish Religious & Holiday Music, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur
Cantor Elias Rosemberg
By Recorded Sound Archives, May 28, 2014 11:56 am
Growing up in a family of Hazzans and Klezmer musicians, Cantor Elias Rosemberg may have been born to perform.
From his early days as a wedding singer in Buenos Aires to his present position as the Cantor for Temple Emanuel in Newton, MA. (the largest Conservative synagogue in New England) his talent and energy have made him a stand-out performer. No stranger to radio, television, and the recording industry, he won the "Argentina Sings for Israel" vocal contest in 1998.
Since coming to the United States in 2000, he has continued to receive honors and recognition for his talent as a great singer and as a gifted Hazzan. His repertoire includes Cantorial, Israeli, Yiddish, and Ladino, as well as opera and Broadway selections. True to his Argentinean roots, he also enjoys singing Tango. At the Cantors Assembly Convention in 2002 he was asked to sing the memorial prayer at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC.
You can visit his YouTube channel to see live performances.
The Judaica Sound Archives is proud to include these four wonderful recordings by Cantor Rosemberg. Click album cover to play.
Digital Conversion, Judaic Collection, On-line music collections, Online Access, Performer Biographies, Performers |	 Cantor Elias Rosemberg, Elias Rosemberg, Jewish Religious & Holiday Music, online collection
Cantor Joseph Gross
Cantor Joseph Gross is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge about Jewish liturgy, Cantorial music, Cantorial voices and the history of the Cantorate in North America.
A delightful gentleman who has stored a lifetime of learning into his diminutive frame, Cantor Joseph Gross showed up at the Judaica Sound Archives a little over three years ago wondering if he could be of any help. His warmth and his big smile took us in immediately. But what captivated us was his encyclopedic knowledge of all things Cantorial and liturgical.
As he spoke I could not help but think that he has probably forgotten more than most of us will ever know on the topic. But as he continued, I realized that he is blessed with almost perfect recall. Not much seems to have been forgotten at all. You may have heard of people with photographic memories, but Cantor Gross is the only person I have ever met with "phonographic memory," i.e. he can recall voice and music impeccably.
A master cantor and composer, Joseph Gross has been a regular volunteer at the JSA for over three years now. Several of our Cantorial music restoration projects have been possible only with his guidance and help.
The JSA has created three albums from the original tape recordings of Cantor Gross. These recordings are not available anywhere else and have never been commercially released. They were restored under the vigilant supervision of the Cantor himself.
Judaic Collection, On-line music collections, Performer Biographies, Performers, Restoration & Preservation |	 Cantor Joseph Gross, Cantorial music, cantorial songs, Jewish liturgical music, Jewish Religious & Holiday Music
Thanksgivukkah 2013
By Recorded Sound Archives, November 18, 2013 9:07 am
The last time it happened was in 1888. Chanukah and Thanksgiving…..at the same time!
Some might call it "Thanksgivukkah." But whatever you call it, you can be sure that it won't happen again for tens of thousands of years to come.
This year American Jews may be enjoying crispy, hot latkes with their Thanksgiving turkey. Sounds like a delicious combo to me. Yummmm.
Yet, despite this year's rare opportunity to celebrate a double dose of survival and gratitude, some things will always remain the same. The Story of Chanukah reaches back in time way past the struggling Pilgrims on New England's rocky coast. It reaches back to 167 BCE when the Syrian king Antiochus desecrated the Temple and outlawed Jewish practices. The five sons of the Jewish priest, Mattithius, were incited to revolt. Chanukah celebrates their victory and the miracle of the light that lasted for eight days during the Temple's re-dedication.
This year the Judaica Sound Archives has created a special Chanukah Sing-a-long video featuring one of the songs sung by Gladys Gewirtz from Menorah's "Chanukah Song Parade" album. Menorah Records which produced phonograph recordings during the 1940s and 1950s was a pioneer in producing recordings for Jewish children.
General Interest, Judaic Collection, On-line music collections, Online Access |	 A Chanukah Quiz, Chanukah, Gladys Gewirtz, Hannukah, Jewish Religious & Holiday Music, Menorah Records, Thanksgivukkah
High Holy Days in a Conservative Synagogue
By Recorded Sound Archives, August 22, 2013 12:59 pm
5774 A new year. In case you haven't noticed…the world is changing.
I've heard it a thousand times, "things just aren't the way they used to be!"
The future is unpredictable. Like a wind storm moving things helter-skelter, we never know where things will end up.
The past, on the other hand, is well-known and stable. The values, traditions and perspectives of our parents, grandparents and ancestors do not change. We may cherish the past or we may discard it. You get to choose.
Ask yourself, "What happens to the past when you are no longer around to remember it?" Does it disappear? Or does it remain as a treasure trove of discovery for future generations?
High Holy Days in the Conservative Synagogue sung by Cantor Moshe Schwimmer is just one example of how the Judaica Sound Archives attempts to bring the unique qualities of early 20th century European liturgical music into the present. And, hopefully, the future.
This wonderful recording was created by the JSA from the private recordings of Cantor Moshe Schwimmer and can only be heard on this website. Moshe Schwimmer was a cantor whose beautiful voice and soulful singing touched audiences for decades. Yet, his voice might have been lost forever were it not for one man's strong desire to cherish his brother's memory and protect his legacy.
Zalman Schwimmer (a.k.a. Sydney), personally hand-carried his brother's private tape recordings (along with some memorabilia and biographical information) to the Wimberly Library on Florida Atlantic University's Boca Raton campus. He told us about his brother, "He never made any commercial recordings. That wasn't for him. He didn't want to be famous. He didn't try to please others. He was just always striving for perfection."
The Judaica Sound Archives is proud of its role in the preservation of Jewish culture. We believe that by bringing the unique qualities of early 20th century European liturgical music into the present we contribute to its survival into the future.
If you enjoyed this blog post be sure to like us on Facebook.
General Interest, Judaic Collection, On-line music collections, Online Access, Performer Biographies |	 5776, Cantor Moshe Schwimmer, Conservative synagogue, cultural preservation, High Holy Days, Jewish Religious & Holiday Music, One-of-a-kind recordings, Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur
L'dor vador: From generation to generation
By RSA Guest Blogger, August 14, 2013 3:28 pm
One family's ancestor remembered…a shared culture preserved.
The music of the traditional synagogue in America has strong roots in the culture and shtetls of 19th and early 20th century Eastern Europe. Like many of the greats of the Golden Era of Hazzanut Cantor Gedalie Bargad was a gifted hazzan who grew out of the chassidic environment.
Born in 1898 on Kol Nidre evening in the small town of Slavuta (Volhynia Province, Russia), his promising career as a cantor was disrupted by war, civil strife and his family's struggle for survival. Eventually Bargad and his bride were able obtain travel documents and arrived in Boston on May 25, 1921.
He found work in the shul in Lynn, MA almost immediately, and by 1926 he was officiating at the Elm Street Synagogue in Chelsea, MA. where he sang until 1963. His son, Dr. Warren Bargad, former director of the Center for Jewish Studies, University of Florida – Gainesville, reminisced about those days. "As a youth I remember the shul packed with people – about 500 – 600. . . My father was a commanding presence on the bima. When he sang he would often send shockwaves through the eardrums of the choirboys who stood near him. . . There was a bit of the actor in him. . . [but] he was also down-to-earth, a great story-teller, and often quite comic (album liner notes, 1980)."
Cantor Bargad went on to serve at Temple Emanuel in Chelsea, MA until his death in 1968. His grandson, Robert Bargad (Professor of Jazz piano at Karntnerlandeskonservator ium in Austria) remembers his grandfather "leading the congregation in the singing of prayers with very beautiful melodies, many of which he himself had composed and arranged. I recall how sometimes his voice would suddenly swell and sustain such a great and mournful note, causing the entire congregation to wait for his release before continuing. . . In those moments I was completely overcome and I remember thinking that the walls of the temple were shaking from the emotional power of his voice and the pure magic in his performance. I believe the impact of Gedalie's singing has influenced me to this day – as I try to infuse my own compositions and performances with that kind of tradition and soulfulness." (Personal communication, 2013)."
A recording of the September 23, 1962 service at the Elm Street Synagogue was preserved and then meticulously restored by Chicago record producer, Barry Serota in 1980. The Judaica Sound Archives at FAU Libraries is proud to follow in the footsteps of Barry Serota who devoted his life to the preservation of great Cantorial music. Streaming audio of this album is available only on our website.
Robert Bargad
RSA Guest Blogger, Robert Bargad, is a Professor of Jazz Piano at Karntner Landeskonservatorium in Austria, he is the grandson of Cantor Gedalie Bargad.
General Interest, Judaic Collection, On-line music collections, Online Access, Performer Biographies |	 Elm Street Synagogue, Gedalie Bargad, Jewish Religious & Holiday Music, Robert Bargad, Warren Bargad
Cantor Stephen Texon
By Recorded Sound Archives, July 29, 2013 10:22 am
Equally at home on the opera stage and in the synagogue, Stephen Texon's successful and distinguished singing career spans decades.
The Judaica Sound Archives is delighted to add the voice of Cantor Stephen Texon to its distinguished online collection of Cantorial and operatic recordings. A native New Yorker, Texon studied at Yeshiva University and NYU. His rich baritone voice was a natural for the opera stage and he was inspired to pursue operatic training in Geneva, Switzerland and at the Met in NYC.
Growing up during the heyday of the Catskill Mountain resorts, Texon was chosen by Sholem Secunda (legendary Yiddish theater composer and conductor) to be the baritone soloist in his choir at the Concord Hotel.
His operatic talents allowed him to perform on stage with such stars as Richard Tucker, Robert Merrill, Placido Domingo and Jerome Hines. But it was the experience of actually performing in a full dress rehearsal performance of "La Traviata" as the understudy for Robert Merrill that remains both a personal and professional highlight for Stephen Texon.
Click here to listen to the music of Stephen Texon.
General Interest, Judaic Collection, On-line music collections, Online Access, Performer Biographies |	 Cantorial music, Jewish Religious & Holiday Music, opera, Stephen Texon
JSA Featured Performer: Cantor Dale Lind
By Recorded Sound Archives, February 7, 2013 12:34 pm
For five generations, the Lind Family, descended from Belzer Hassidim in Galicia, sang the songs of the synagogue. It was from this lineage that Joshua Lind (1890—1973) rose to prominence as a composer, cantor and teacher. Joining his father's synagogue choir at the age of 5, young David Lind quickly became a Cantorial wunderkind touring the country and recording for RCA Victor.
Together with his brothers, Murray and Phil, David formed the Lind Brothers Trio in 1937. They became quite popular performing a repertoire especially created for them by their father, Cantor Joshua Lind.
The Trio not only had great success in the pulpit, they also became well-known popular entertainers, appearing in night clubs, on the radio, on TV, and in films (Universal International Pictures).
During WWII David and his brothers entertained troops and shared the stage with such stars as Danny Kaye and Betty Hutton. Following the war they headlined in Las Vegas, Hollywood, and on Broadway.
Dale eventually returned to Chicago to pursue a career as a solo performer and cantor, officiating at the Congregation Sons of Joshua since 1974.
Click to hear Cantor Lind's recordings.
Judaic Collection, On-line music collections, Online Access, Performer Biographies, Performers |	 Cantorial music, Dale Lind, David Lind, Jewish Religious & Holiday Music, Lind Brothers Trio, pop music


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Loch Lomond 10k
Thank you for your interest in the Loch Lomond 10k. I'm afraid the race is now full. If you still wish to fundraise for St Margaret of Scotland Hospice please contact our fundraising team on 0141 435 7018 or email Fundraising@smh.org.uk
Date: Saturday 22nd June 2019 – 10am
Cost: FREE!
Minimum Sponsorship: £50
Join St Margaret of Scotland Hospice at the Loch Lomond 10k on Saturday 22nd June and make a real difference to our patients' lives
Starting and finishing on the banks of the world famous Loch, the Loch Lomond is the ideal race to raise much needed funds for St Margaret of Scotland Hospice and help our patients get the specialist treatment they need. Whether you are entering the race for the first time or wanting to smash your PB, The Hospice's fundraising team will be there to support you every step of the way.
"I came to see mum in the garden at the Hospice after I'd run the Edinburgh Marathon last year. I showed mum the medal and she said, 'This is my medal' – it really cheered her up."
Catherine Macnaughton
The Loch Lomond 10k starts and finishes on the banks of the world famous Loch it is named after. The route leaves Balloch Castle Country Park and follows the River Leven till the Bonhill Bridge where the runners turn back towards the park.
Route map for Loch Lomond 10K by Angus MacDonald on plotaroute.com
Loch Lomond 10k Registration Form
It couldn't be easier to sign up to the Loch Lomond 10k to raise money for St Margaret of Scotland Hospice. Just fill out the form below, set up a Just Giving page and we'll do all the rest. If you have your own place in the race but would like to fundraise for The Hospice, all you have to do is set up a Just Giving fundraising page by visiting www.justgiving.com/smh and click on Fundraise for Us
Please direct all enquiries to: fundraising@smh.org.uk


Thoughts on Library Hours for AY 09/10?
If you have any thoughts on library hours – all branches – for 09/10, please post your comments here by noon on Monday 8/3. Thanks!
When using the Millennium client, if you click on Help –> About, you will see information about your current session, including the JRE version, current Login and Initials, current Scope and Server PID.
That last will be helpful to us when a session is hung and we need to kill it. By knowing the PIDs of the sessions that are running, we can kill the bad one without asking everyone to log off.
How long have you been working for LIS?
Check out the new College homepage mockups. Let the Middlebury Web Makeover Team know what you think!


This position will be located in Queens, NY.
Our team has an immediate need for an experienced Project Administrative Assistant whom will be responsible for a variety of administrative/clerical support tasks in specific project, business, or technical unit. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to assist on a number of different projects and may be located in the office or on a construction site.
Performs a variety of administrative/clerical tasks in functional areas such as finance, purchasing, or for a specific business or technical unit.


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Home / Save on ORG Vinyl & Digital!
Jon Hendricks Fast Livin' Blues Numbered Limited Edition 180g 45rpm 2LP
Brand/Label/Format: *ORG Original Recordings Group Columbia 180g 45rpm LP* (2LP)
Item Number: ORGLP0121-45
TAS Super LP List! Special Merit: Informal
Mastered by Bernie Grundman from the Original Analog Master Tapes & Pressed at RTI!
Numbered Deluxe Laminated Gatefold Jackets! Only 2500 Numbered Limited Edition Copies Worldwide!
Bluesman Jon Hendricks is in Superb Form Here! Featuring such Major Sidemen as Pony Poindexter and Billy Mitchell, this Spirited Album is Essential to Any Audiophile's Collection!
Jon Hendricks helped to originate vocalese, which is an art form of adding lyrics to existing instrumentals and replacing instruments with vocalists. He is also considered to be one of the best scat performers. Jazz critic and historian Leonard Feather called him the "Poet Laureate of Jazz". Al Jarreau has called him "pound-for-pound the best jazz singer on the planet - maybe that's ever been".
After his service in the Army during World War II, Hendricks attended the University of Toledo as a pre-law major. Just as he was about to enter the graduate law program, his G.I. benefits ran out, which forced him to choose a different career path. Recalling that Charlie Parker had encouraged him to come to New York two years earlier to look him up, Hendricks took him up on his offer and moved there and began his singing career. In 1968, he moved his family to London, England to further his solo career and so his five children could receive a better education.
"Qualities one associates with the jazz vocal group Lambert, Hendricks & Ross - swing, hipness, and witty, offbeat lyrics - were very much in evidence when band member Jon Hendricks released Fast Livin' Blues in 1962. A looser approach, however, allowed more room for the instrumentalists to both stretch out and insert perfectly-timed fills with an air of spontaneity... For someone who has the blues in all kinds of ways, the front man sure seems to be having a good time, spinning tales of friendship, fast living, and fish fries that will inspire smiles more than sadness. Again I applaud Original Recordings Group for picking a less-than-obvious title that well deserves a reassessment and for capturing a natural sound on noise-free 180-gram 45rpm pressings. Every time the horn section kicks in, it's exquisite - rich, sweet-sounding brass in all its glory." - Jeff Wilson, The Absolute Sound, February 2013, Music 3.5/5, Sonics 4.5/5
Jon Hendricks, vocals
Pony Poindexter, soprano & tenor sax
Billy Mitchell, tenor sax
Joe Newman, trumpet
Al Grey, trombone
Gildo Mahones, piano
Stu Martin, drums
• Numbered Deluxe Laminated Double Gatefold Jackets
• Only 2500 Numbered Limited Edition Copies Worldwide!
• Audiophile 180g, 45rpm Vinyl
• Double LP
• Pressed at RTI
• Mastered by Bernie Grundman from the Original Analog Master Tapes!
LP1 - Side A:
1. What Would You Do?
2. Fast Livin' Blues
LP1 - Side B:
1. Saturday Night Fish Fry
2. Do You Call That A Buddy
LP2 - Side C:
1. I'll Die Happy
2. Another Get Together
3. Good Old Lady
LP2 - Side D:
1. Contemporary Blues
2. Stop and Go Blues
3. I Never Get Enough Of You


Regular listeners to Saint FM on a Sunday afternoon, will be pleased to know that the Enthronement Service of Bishop Elect, Dale Bowers will be broadcast direct from St. Paul's Cathedral from 3 pm (1500 GMT).
The service is expected to last approximately two hours. This will be the first direct radio broadcast of a church service from St. Paul's Cathedral since 2009 when Radio St. Helena was in operation.
The Enthronement Service will be conducted by the Arch Bishop of the Anglican Church of the Provence of the Diocese of Southern African. History is being made on St. Helena as this will be the second St. Helenian to be enthroned as bishop of St. Helena and Ascension Island, and the seventeenth bishop of the Diocese of parish of St. Helena.