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

A Survey on Rapidly Deployable Solutions for Post-disaster Networks

International audienceIn post-disaster scenarios, for example, after earthquakes or floods, the traditional communication infrastructure may be unavailable or seriously disrupted and overloaded. Therefore, rapidly deployable network solutions are needed to restore connectivity and provide assistance to users and first responders in the incident area. This work surveys the solutions proposed to address the deployment of a network without any a priori knowledge about the communication environment for critical communications. The design of such a network should also allow for quick, flexible, scalable, and resilient deployment with minimal human intervention

A Collaborative Authoring Workspace and Script-Based Control Platform for Heterogeneous Robots

A collaborative script authoring and control platform for multiple heterogeneous robots is developed. The developed platform consists of a remote sever providing a graphic user interface (GUI) authoring tool, and a local control platform controlling a group of heterogeneous robots by interpreting the designated scripts. Designed to encourage impromptu creativity among programming students in class, this Web-based authoring tool fosters collaborative creativity in the authorship of command scripts. The architecture of the local controller is composed of an embedded system for controlling the movement of robotic puppets, and a management server for the synchronization of live shows. Post-activity assessment indicates that the proposed platform provides strong support and encouragement for interactive robot learning in curriculum training and evaluation

Coordination of Multirobot Teams and Groups in Constrained Environments: Models, Abstractions, and Control Policies

Robots can augment and even replace humans in dangerous environments, such as search and rescue and reconnaissance missions, yet robots used in these situations are largely tele-operated. In most cases, the robots\u27 performance depends on the operator\u27s ability to control and coordinate the robots, resulting in increased response time and poor situational awareness, and hindering multirobot cooperation. Many factors impede extended autonomy in these situations, including the unique nature of individual tasks, the number of robots needed, the complexity of coordinating heterogeneous robot teams, and the need to operate safely. These factors can be partly addressed by having many inexpensive robots and by control policies that provide guarantees on convergence and safety. In this thesis, we address the problem of synthesizing control policies for navigating teams of robots in constrained environments while providing guarantees on convergence and safety. The approach is as follows. We first model the configuration space of the group (a space in which the robots cannot violate the constraints) as a set of polytopes. For a group with a common goal configuration, we reduce complexity by constructing a configuration space for an abstracted group state. We then construct a discrete representation of the configuration space, on which we search for a path to the goal. Based on this path, we synthesize feedback controllers, decentralized affine controllers for kinematic systems and nonlinear feedback controllers for dynamical systems, on the polytopes, sequentially composing controllers to drive the system to the goal. We demonstrate the use of this method in urban environments and on groups of dynamical systems such as quadrotors. We reduce the complexity of multirobot coordination by using an informed graph search to simultaneously build the configuration space and find a path in its discrete representation to the goal. Furthermore, by using an abstraction on groups of robots we dissociate complexity from the number of robots in the group. Although the controllers are designed for navigation in known environments, they are indeed more versatile, as we demonstrate in a concluding simulation of six robots in a partially unknown environment with evolving communication links, object manipulation, and stigmergic interactions

Towards a framework for socially interactive robots

250 p.En las últimas décadas, la investigación en el campo de la robótica social ha crecido considerablemente. El desarrollo de diferentes tipos de robots y sus roles dentro de la sociedad se están expandiendo poco a poco. Los robots dotados de habilidades sociales pretenden ser utilizados para diferentes aplicaciones; por ejemplo, como profesores interactivos y asistentes educativos, para apoyar el manejo de la diabetes en niños, para ayudar a personas mayores con necesidades especiales, como actores interactivos en el teatro o incluso como asistentes en hoteles y centros comerciales.El equipo de investigación RSAIT ha estado trabajando en varias áreas de la robótica, en particular,en arquitecturas de control, exploración y navegación de robots, aprendizaje automático y visión por computador. El trabajo presentado en este trabajo de investigación tiene como objetivo añadir una nueva capa al desarrollo anterior, la capa de interacción humano-robot que se centra en las capacidades sociales que un robot debe mostrar al interactuar con personas, como expresar y percibir emociones, mostrar un alto nivel de diálogo, aprender modelos de otros agentes, establecer y mantener relaciones sociales, usar medios naturales de comunicación (mirada, gestos, etc.),mostrar personalidad y carácter distintivos y aprender competencias sociales.En esta tesis doctoral, tratamos de aportar nuestro grano de arena a las preguntas básicas que surgen cuando pensamos en robots sociales: (1) ¿Cómo nos comunicamos (u operamos) los humanos con los robots sociales?; y (2) ¿Cómo actúan los robots sociales con nosotros? En esa línea, el trabajo se ha desarrollado en dos fases: en la primera, nos hemos centrado en explorar desde un punto de vista práctico varias formas que los humanos utilizan para comunicarse con los robots de una maneranatural. En la segunda además, hemos investigado cómo los robots sociales deben actuar con el usuario.Con respecto a la primera fase, hemos desarrollado tres interfaces de usuario naturales que pretenden hacer que la interacción con los robots sociales sea más natural. Para probar tales interfaces se han desarrollado dos aplicaciones de diferente uso: robots guía y un sistema de controlde robot humanoides con fines de entretenimiento. Trabajar en esas aplicaciones nos ha permitido dotar a nuestros robots con algunas habilidades básicas, como la navegación, la comunicación entre robots y el reconocimiento de voz y las capacidades de comprensión.Por otro lado, en la segunda fase nos hemos centrado en la identificación y el desarrollo de los módulos básicos de comportamiento que este tipo de robots necesitan para ser socialmente creíbles y confiables mientras actúan como agentes sociales. Se ha desarrollado una arquitectura(framework) para robots socialmente interactivos que permite a los robots expresar diferentes tipos de emociones y mostrar un lenguaje corporal natural similar al humano según la tarea a realizar y lascondiciones ambientales.La validación de los diferentes estados de desarrollo de nuestros robots sociales se ha realizado mediante representaciones públicas. La exposición de nuestros robots al público en esas actuaciones se ha convertido en una herramienta esencial para medir cualitativamente la aceptación social de los prototipos que estamos desarrollando. De la misma manera que los robots necesitan un cuerpo físico para interactuar con el entorno y convertirse en inteligentes, los robots sociales necesitan participar socialmente en tareas reales para las que han sido desarrollados, para así poder mejorar su sociabilida

The Alestle - Vol. 59 No. 57 - 04/19/2007

Vol. 59 No. 5

Environmental chemical sensing using small drones: A review

Recent advances in miniaturization of chemical instrumentation and in low-cost small drones are catalyzing exponential growth in the use of such platforms for environmental chemical sensing applications. The versatility of chemically sensitive drones is reflected by their rapid adoption in scientific, industrial, and regulatory domains, such as in atmospheric research studies, industrial emission monitoring, and in enforcement of environmental regulations. As a result of this interdisciplinarity, progress to date has been reported across a broad spread of scientific and non-scientific databases, including scientific journals, press releases, company websites, and field reports. The aim of this paper is to assemble all of these pieces of information into a comprehensive, structured and updated review of the field of chemical sensing using small drones. We exhaustively review current and emerging applications of this technology, as well as sensing platforms and algorithms developed by research groups and companies for tasks such as gas concentration mapping, source localization, and flux estimation. We conclude with a discussion of the most pressing technological and regulatory limitations in current practice, and how these could be addressed by future research