5 research outputs found
Route Swarm: Wireless Network Optimization through Mobility
In this paper, we demonstrate a novel hybrid architecture for coordinating
networked robots in sensing and information routing applications. The proposed
INformation and Sensing driven PhysIcally REconfigurable robotic network
(INSPIRE), consists of a Physical Control Plane (PCP) which commands agent
position, and an Information Control Plane (ICP) which regulates information
flow towards communication/sensing objectives. We describe an instantiation
where a mobile robotic network is dynamically reconfigured to ensure high
quality routes between static wireless nodes, which act as source/destination
pairs for information flow. The ICP commands the robots towards evenly
distributed inter-flow allocations, with intra-flow configurations that
maximize route quality. The PCP then guides the robots via potential-based
control to reconfigure according to ICP commands. This formulation, deemed
Route Swarm, decouples information flow and physical control, generating a
feedback between routing and sensing needs and robotic configuration. We
demonstrate our propositions through simulation under a realistic wireless
network regime.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, submitted to the IEEE International Conference on
Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 201
Robotic Wireless Sensor Networks
In this chapter, we present a literature survey of an emerging, cutting-edge,
and multi-disciplinary field of research at the intersection of Robotics and
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) which we refer to as Robotic Wireless Sensor
Networks (RWSN). We define a RWSN as an autonomous networked multi-robot system
that aims to achieve certain sensing goals while meeting and maintaining
certain communication performance requirements, through cooperative control,
learning and adaptation. While both of the component areas, i.e., Robotics and
WSN, are very well-known and well-explored, there exist a whole set of new
opportunities and research directions at the intersection of these two fields
which are relatively or even completely unexplored. One such example would be
the use of a set of robotic routers to set up a temporary communication path
between a sender and a receiver that uses the controlled mobility to the
advantage of packet routing. We find that there exist only a limited number of
articles to be directly categorized as RWSN related works whereas there exist a
range of articles in the robotics and the WSN literature that are also relevant
to this new field of research. To connect the dots, we first identify the core
problems and research trends related to RWSN such as connectivity,
localization, routing, and robust flow of information. Next, we classify the
existing research on RWSN as well as the relevant state-of-the-arts from
robotics and WSN community according to the problems and trends identified in
the first step. Lastly, we analyze what is missing in the existing literature,
and identify topics that require more research attention in the future
Geometric Problems in Robot Exploration
Robots are increasingly utilized to perform tasks in today\u27s world. This has varied from vacuuming to building advanced structures. With robots being used for tasks such as these, new challenges are introduced. Problems that have been previously researched to be performed, either theoretically or implemented, need to be redesigned to be able to better handle these challenges. In this thesis, I will discuss multiple problems that have previously been researched and I have redesigned to be possible to be implemented by robots or that I have developed a new way for the robots to solve the problem. I focus on geometric areas and robots tasked with performing exploration in the area. Exploration is a task in which an unknown area is completely traversed. In this work, I have develop multiple algorithms to perform online tasks that can be implemented by robots. With robots performing exploration, a limited viewing range and communication range increase difficulty. These algorithms are focused on utilizing robots to perform Exploration and Concave Decomposition. The results from this thesis are such that the Exploration algorithm that given a fleet of robots k, the total area n can be explored in O(n/k) time with all agents having work O(n/k). The Concave decomposition task has multiple algorithms focusing on a different aspect. In the first, with an online algorithm, with r reflex points, I perform the decomposition generating r + 1 convex areas. The other two online algorithms focus on interior cut length, which previously has not been researched. In response, have developed an algorithm which maintains interior length relative to the perimeter
Multi-Robot Coalition Formation for Distributed Area Coverage
The problem of distributed area coverage using multiple mobile robots is an important problem in distributed multi-robot sytems. Multi-robot coverage is encountered in many real world applications, including unmanned search & rescue, aerial reconnaissance, robotic demining, inspection of engineering structures, and automatic lawn mowing. To achieve optimal coverage, robots should move in an efficient manner and reduce repeated coverage of the same region that optimizes a certain performance metric such as the amount of time or energy expended by the robots. This dissertation especially focuses on using mini-robots with limited capabilities, such as low speed of the CPU and limited storage of the memory, to fulfill the efficient area coverage task. Previous research on distributed area coverage use offline or online path planning algorithms to address this problem. Some of the existing approaches use behavior-based algorithms where each robot implements simple rules and the interaction between robots manifests in the global objective of overall coverage of the environment. Our work extends this line of research using an emergent, swarming based technique where robots use partial coverage histories from themselves as well as other robots in their vicinity to make local decisions that attempt to ensure overall efficient area coverage. We have then extended this technique in two directions. First, we have integreated the individual-robot, swarming-based technique for area coverage to teams of robots that move in formation to perform area coverage more efficiently than robots that move individually. Then we have used a team formation technique from coalition game theory, called Weighted Voting Game (WVG) to handle situations where a team moving in formation while performing area coverage has to dynamically reconfigure into sub-teams or merge with other teams, to continue the area coverage efficiently. We have validated our techniques by testing them on accurate models of e-puck robots in the Webots robot simulation platform, as well as on physical e-puck robots
A Framework for Multi-Robot Node Coverage in Sensor Networks
Area coverage is a well-known problem in robotics. Extensive research has been conducted for the single robot coverage problem in the past decades. More recently, the research community has focused its attention on formulations where multiple robots are considered. In this paper, a new formulation of the multi-robot coverage problem is proposed. The novelty of this work is the introduction of a sensor network, which cooperates with the team of robots in order to provide coordination. The sensor network, taking advantage of its distributed nature, is responsible for both the construction of the path and for guiding the robots. The coverage of the environment is achieved by guaranteeing the reachability of the sensor nodes by the robots. Two distributed algorithms for path construction are discussed. The first aims to speed up the construction process exploiting a concurrent approach. The second aims to provide an underlying structure for the paths by building a Hamiltonian path and then partitioning it. A statistical analysis has been performed to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. In particular, three different indexes of quality, namely completeness, fairness, and robustness, have been studied