A study of JAUS components for personal intelligent Electric Vehicle

研究成果の概要 (和文) : パーソナルEV知能化のためのJAUSコンポーネントの製作とその実装を行った.2010年度から2012年度までの間に行った研究は,主にJAUSを用いたローカルコンポーネントの開発および実験,既存のセンサをJAUSコンポーネントとして扱うことができるJAUSProtocolConverterの開発とJAUSシステムの統合に関する研究および実験を行った。そのJAUS準拠EVコンポーネントの実証実験およびデモンストレーションの場として,(1)米国で開催されたIGVC大会、(2)日本で開催されたつくばチャレンジへの参加出場、(3)第25回国際計量計測展のアカデミックプラザに出展し、JAUSProtocolConverterの試作モデルの展示を行った。研究成果の概要 (英文) : In this research, we develop a JAUS component for intelligent personal electric vehicle. Based on JAUS Reference Architecture AS5669A，AS5684， AS5710，AS6009, we carried out various types of JAUS components are developed during the period from 2010 to 2012. In order to build JAUS component rapidly, we develop general purpose JAUS protocol converter for existing conventional mobile robot sensor units. To evaluate effectiveness of the developed JAUS component, we demonstrate at (1) IGVC (Intelligent ground vehicle competition) 2010, 2011, 2012 in the U.S.A. and (2) Tsukuba Challenge 2010, 2011, 2012 in Japan and (3) Intermeasure 2012 in Japan

Service-oriented agent architecture for autonomous maritime vehicles

Advanced ocean systems are increasing their capabilities and the degree of autonomy more and more in order to perform more sophisticated maritime missions. Remotely operated vehicles are no longer cost-effective since they are limited by economic support costs, and the presence and skills of the human operator. Alternatively, autonomous surface and underwater vehicles have the potential to operate with greatly reduced overhead costs and level of operator intervention. This Thesis proposes an Intelligent Control Architecture (ICA) to enable multiple collaborating marine vehicles to autonomously carry out underwater intervention missions. The ICA is generic in nature but aimed at a case study where a marine surface craft and an underwater vehicle are required to work cooperatively. They are capable of cooperating autonomously towards the execution of complex activities since they have different but complementary capabilities. The architectural foundation to achieve the ICA lays on the flexibility of service-oriented computing and agent technology. An ontological database captures the operator skills, platform capabilities and, changes in the environment. The information captured, stored as knowledge, enables reasoning agents to plan missions based on the current situation. The ICA implementation is verified in simulation, and validated in trials by means of a team of autonomous marine robots. This Thesis also presents architectural details and evaluation scenarios of the ICA, results of simulations and trials from different maritime operations, and future research directions

Interoperability in a Heterogeneous Team of Search and Rescue Robots

Search and rescue missions are complex operations. A disaster scenario is generally unstructured, time‐varying and unpredictable. This poses several challenges for the successful deployment of unmanned technology. The variety of operational scenarios and tasks lead to the need for multiple robots of different types, domains and sizes. A priori planning of the optimal set of assets to be deployed and the definition of their mission objectives are generally not feasible as information only becomes available during mission. The ICARUS project responds to this challenge by developing a heterogeneous team composed by different and complementary robots, dynamically cooperating as an interoperable team. This chapter describes our approach to multi‐robot interoperability, understood as the ability of multiple robots to operate together, in synergy, enabling multiple teams to share data, intelligence and resources, which is the ultimate objective of ICARUS project. It also includes the analysis of the relevant standardization initiatives in multi‐robot multi‐domain systems, our implementation of an interoperability framework and several examples of multi‐robot cooperation of the ICARUS robots in realistic search and rescue missions

JAUS to EtherCAT Bridge: Toward Real-Time and Deterministic Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems

The Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JAUS) is a communication standard that allows for interoperability between Unmanned Vehicles (UVs). Current research indicates that JAUS-compliant systems do not meet real-time performance guidelines necessary for internal systems in UVs. However, there is a lack of quantitative data illustrating the performance shortcomings of JAUS or clear explanations on what causes these performance issues or comparisons with existing internal communication systems. In this research, we first develop a basic C++ implementation of JAUS and evaluate its performance with quantitative data and compare the results with published performance data of Controller Area Network (CAN) to determine the feasibility of the JAUS standard. Our results indicate that the main reason of JAUS’s poor performance lies in the latency inherent in the hierarchical structure of JAUS and the overhead of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) messages, which has been used with JAUS and is slower than the high-speed CAN. Additionally, UDP has no scheduling mechanism, which makes it virtually impossible to guarantee messages meeting their deadlines. Considering the slow and nondeterministic JAUS communication from subsystems to components, which is JAUS Level 3 compliance, we then propose a solution by bringing Ethernet for Control Automation Technology (EtherCAT) to add speed, deterministic feature, and security. The JAUS-EtherCAT mapping, which we called a JEBridge, is implemented into nodes and components. Both quantitative and qualitative results are provided to show that JEBridge and JAUS Level 3 compliance can bring not only interoperability but also reasonable performance to UVs

Reference Model for Interoperability of Autonomous Systems

This thesis proposes a reference model to describe the components of an Un-manned Air, Ground, Surface, or Underwater System (UxS), and the use of a single Interoperability Building Block to command, control, and get feedback from such vehicles. The importance and advantages of such a reference model, with a standard nomenclature and taxonomy, is shown. We overview the concepts of interoperability and some efforts to achieve common refer-ence models in other areas. We then present an overview of existing un-manned systems, their history, characteristics, classification, and missions. The concept of Interoperability Building Blocks (IBB) is introduced to describe standards, protocols, data models, and frameworks, and a large set of these are analyzed. A new and powerful reference model for UxS, named RAMP, is proposed, that describes the various components that a UxS may have. It is a hierarchical model with four levels, that describes the vehicle components, the datalink, and the ground segment. The reference model is validated by showing how it can be applied in various projects the author worked on. An example is given on how a single standard was capable of controlling a set of heterogeneous UAVs, USVs, and UGVs

Service Oriented Robotic Architecture for Space Robotics: Design, Testing, and Lessons Learned

This paper presents the lessons learned from six years of experiments with planetary rover prototypes running the Service Oriented Robotic Architecture (SORA) developed by the Intelligent Robotics Group (IRG) at the NASA Ames Research Center. SORA relies on proven software engineering methods and technologies applied to space robotics. Based on a Service Oriented Architecture and robust middleware, SORA encompasses on-board robot control and a full suite of software tools necessary for remotely operated exploration missions. SORA has been eld tested in numerous scenarios of robotic lunar and planetary exploration. The experiments conducted by IRG with SORA exercise a large set of the constraints encountered in space applications: remote robotic assets, ight relevant science instruments, distributed operations, high network latencies and unreliable or intermittent communication links. In this paper, we present the results of these eld tests in regard to the developed architecture, and discuss its bene ts and limitations

A Study of Integration of JAUS-compliant sub-system for the mobile robot

研究成果の概要 (和文) : 移動ロボットのためのJAUS準拠サブシステムの開発と統合に関する研究を行うため、JAUS Referenceに基づき、サブシステムの開発・実装を行った。その実証、デモンストレーションの場としてつくばチャレンジ、Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competitionにて実験を行った。特にJAUSの実装では、IGVC2013のJAUS Challengeで優勝、IGVC2014のInterOperability Profiles Challengeで優勝、IGVC2015のIOP Challengeで6位入賞を果たし、実装において互換性のレベルの高さを示すことができた。研究成果の概要 (英文) : In this research, we develop a JAUS compliant subsystem for intelligent mobile robots. Based on JAUS Reference Architecture AS6009 (Mobility Service Set), AS6040 (HMI Service set), AS6057 (Manipulation Service set), AS6062 (Mission Spooling Service set), AS6060 (Environment Sensing set), we develop various types of JAUS compliant subsystems which are required for both IGVC and Tsukuba Challenge during the period from 2013 to 2015. Especially, practical implementation of JAUS in IGVC2013, we achieve 1st prize award at JAUS challenge. And also in IGVC2014, we achieve 1st prize award at Interoperability profiles challenge (which changed name from JAUS challenge). In IGVC2015, we achieve 6th prize award at Interoperability profiles challenge that demonstrates high level interoperability of our implementation about the JAUS

Command and Control Systems for Search and Rescue Robots

The novel application of unmanned systems in the domain of humanitarian Search and Rescue (SAR) operations has created a need to develop specific multi-Robot Command and Control (RC2) systems. This societal application of robotics requires human-robot interfaces for controlling a large fleet of heterogeneous robots deployed in multiple domains of operation (ground, aerial and marine). This chapter provides an overview of the Command, Control and Intelligence (C2I) system developed within the scope of Integrated Components for Assisted Rescue and Unmanned Search operations (ICARUS). The life cycle of the system begins with a description of use cases and the deployment scenarios in collaboration with SAR teams as end-users. This is followed by an illustration of the system design and architecture, core technologies used in implementing the C2I, iterative integration phases with field deployments for evaluating and improving the system. The main subcomponents consist of a central Mission Planning and Coordination System (MPCS), field Robot Command and Control (RC2) subsystems with a portable force-feedback exoskeleton interface for robot arm tele-manipulation and field mobile devices. The distribution of these C2I subsystems with their communication links for unmanned SAR operations is described in detail. Field demonstrations of the C2I system with SAR personnel assisted by unmanned systems provide an outlook for implementing such systems into mainstream SAR operations in the future

Development of a System Architecture for Unmanned Systems Across Multiple Domains

In the unmanned systems industry, there is no common standard for systems components, connections and relations. Such a standard is never likely to exist. Needless to say, a system needs to have the components that are required for the application, however, it is possible to abstract the common functionality out of an individual implementation. This thesis presents a universal unmanned systems architecture that collects all of the common features of an unmanned system and presents them as a set of packages and libraries that can be used in any domain of unmanned system operation. The research and design of the universal architecture results in a well-defined architecture that can be used and implemented on any unmanned system. The AUVSI student competitions are specifically analyzed and it is shown how this universal architecture can be applied to the challenges posed by the competitions in different domains