64,197 research outputs found
Output consensus of nonlinear multi-agent systems with unknown control directions
In this paper, we consider an output consensus problem for a general class of
nonlinear multi-agent systems without a prior knowledge of the agents' control
directions. Two distributed Nussbaumtype control laws are proposed to solve the
leaderless and leader-following adaptive consensus for heterogeneous multiple
agents. Examples and simulations are given to verify their effectivenessComment: 10 pages;2 figure
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
Robust Cooperative Manipulation without Force/Torque Measurements: Control Design and Experiments
This paper presents two novel control methodologies for the cooperative
manipulation of an object by N robotic agents. Firstly, we design an adaptive
control protocol which employs quaternion feedback for the object orientation
to avoid potential representation singularities. Secondly, we propose a control
protocol that guarantees predefined transient and steady-state performance for
the object trajectory. Both methodologies are decentralized, since the agents
calculate their own signals without communicating with each other, as well as
robust to external disturbances and model uncertainties. Moreover, we consider
that the grasping points are rigid, and avoid the need for force/torque
measurements. Load distribution is also included via a grasp matrix
pseudo-inverse to account for potential differences in the agents' power
capabilities. Finally, simulation and experimental results with two robotic
arms verify the theoretical findings
Markov Decision Processes with Applications in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) consist of autonomous and resource-limited
devices. The devices cooperate to monitor one or more physical phenomena within
an area of interest. WSNs operate as stochastic systems because of randomness
in the monitored environments. For long service time and low maintenance cost,
WSNs require adaptive and robust methods to address data exchange, topology
formulation, resource and power optimization, sensing coverage and object
detection, and security challenges. In these problems, sensor nodes are to make
optimized decisions from a set of accessible strategies to achieve design
goals. This survey reviews numerous applications of the Markov decision process
(MDP) framework, a powerful decision-making tool to develop adaptive algorithms
and protocols for WSNs. Furthermore, various solution methods are discussed and
compared to serve as a guide for using MDPs in WSNs
Least-square based recursive optimization for distance-based source localization
In this paper we study the problem of driving an agent to an unknown source
whose location is estimated in real-time by a recursive optimization algorithm.
The optimization criterion is subject to a least-square cost function
constructed from the distance measurements to the target combined with the
agent's self-odometry. In this work, two important issues concerning real world
application are directly addressed, which is a discrete-time recursive
algorithm for concurrent control and estimation, and consideration for input
saturation. It is proven that with proper choices of the system's parameters,
stability of all system states, including on-board estimator variables and the
agent-target relative position can be achieved. The convergence of the agent's
position to the target is also investigated via numerical simulation
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