14,656 research outputs found
Robot swarming applications
This paper discusses the different modes of operation of a swarm of robots: (i) non-communicative swarming, (ii) communicative swarming, (iii) networking, (iv) olfactory-based navigation and (v) assistive swarming. I briefly present the state of the art in swarming and outline the major techniques applied for each mode of operation and discuss the related problems and expected results
A robot swarm assisting a human fire-fighter
Emergencies in industrial warehouses are a major concern for fire-fighters. The large dimensions, together with the development of dense smoke that drastically reduces visibility, represent major challenges. The GUARDIANS robot swarm is designed to assist fire-fighters in searching a large warehouse. In this paper we discuss the technology developed for a swarm of robots assisting fire-fighters. We explain the swarming algorithms that provide the functionality by which the robots react to and follow humans while no communication is required. Next we discuss the wireless communication system, which is a so-called mobile ad-hoc network. The communication network provides also the means to locate the robots and humans. Thus, the robot swarm is able to provide guidance information to the humans. Together with the fire-fighters we explored how the robot swarm should feed information back to the human fire-fighter. We have designed and experimented with interfaces for presenting swarm-based information to human beings
Platform Relative Sensor Abstractions across Mobile Robots using Computer Vision and Sensor Integration
Uniform sensor management and abstraction across different robot platforms is a difficult task due to the sheer diversity of sensing devices. However, because these sensors can be grouped into categories that in essence provide the same information, we can capture their similarities and create abstractions. An example would be distance data measured by an assortment of range sensors, or alternatively extracted from a camera using image processing. This paper describes how using software components it is possible to uniformly construct high-level abstractions of sensor information across various robots in a way to support the portability of common code that uses these abstractions (e.g. obstacle avoidance, wall following). We demonstrate our abstractions on a number of robots using different configurations of range sensors and cameras
Technical Report: Cooperative Multi-Target Localization With Noisy Sensors
This technical report is an extended version of the paper 'Cooperative
Multi-Target Localization With Noisy Sensors' accepted to the 2013 IEEE
International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).
This paper addresses the task of searching for an unknown number of static
targets within a known obstacle map using a team of mobile robots equipped with
noisy, limited field-of-view sensors. Such sensors may fail to detect a subset
of the visible targets or return false positive detections. These measurement
sets are used to localize the targets using the Probability Hypothesis Density,
or PHD, filter. Robots communicate with each other on a local peer-to-peer
basis and with a server or the cloud via access points, exchanging measurements
and poses to update their belief about the targets and plan future actions. The
server provides a mechanism to collect and synthesize information from all
robots and to share the global, albeit time-delayed, belief state to robots
near access points. We design a decentralized control scheme that exploits this
communication architecture and the PHD representation of the belief state.
Specifically, robots move to maximize mutual information between the target set
and measurements, both self-collected and those available by accessing the
server, balancing local exploration with sharing knowledge across the team.
Furthermore, robots coordinate their actions with other robots exploring the
same local region of the environment.Comment: Extended version of paper accepted to 2013 IEEE International
Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA
Synchronized computational architecture for generalized bilateral control of robot arms
A master six degree of freedom Force Reflecting Hand Controller (FRHC) is available at a master site where a received image displays, in essentially real time, a remote robotic manipulator which is being controlled in the corresponding six degree freedom by command signals which are transmitted to the remote site in accordance with the movement of the FRHC at the master site. Software is user-initiated at the master site in order to establish the basic system conditions, and then a physical movement of the FRHC in Cartesean space is reflected at the master site by six absolute numbers that are sensed, translated and computed as a difference signal relative to the earlier position. The change in position is then transmitted in that differential signal form over a high speed synchronized bilateral communication channel which simultaneously returns robot-sensed response information to the master site as forces applied to the FRHC so that the FRHC reflects the feel of what is taking place at the remote site. A system wide clock rate is selected at a sufficiently high rate that the operator at the master site experiences the Force Reflecting operation in real time
GUARDIANS final report part 1 (draft): a robot swarm assisting a human fire fighter
Emergencies in industrial warehouses are a major concern for fire fighters. The large dimensions together with the development of dense smoke that drastically reduces visibility, represent major challenges. The Guardians robot swarm is designed to assist re ghters in searching a
large warehouse. In this paper we discuss the technology developed for a swarm of robots assisting re ghters. We explain the swarming algorithms which provide the functionality by which the robots react to and follow humans while no communication is required. Next we discuss the wireless communication system, which is a so-called mobile ad-hoc network. The communication network provides also the means to locate the robots and humans. Thus the robot swarm is able to provide guidance information to the humans. Together with the fire fighters we explored how
the robot swarm should feed information back to the human fire fighter. We have designed and experimented with interfaces for presenting swarm based information to human beings
Aerial-Ground collaborative sensing: Third-Person view for teleoperation
Rapid deployment and operation are key requirements in time critical
application, such as Search and Rescue (SaR). Efficiently teleoperated ground
robots can support first-responders in such situations. However, first-person
view teleoperation is sub-optimal in difficult terrains, while a third-person
perspective can drastically increase teleoperation performance. Here, we
propose a Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV)-based system that can autonomously provide
third-person perspective to ground robots. While our approach is based on local
visual servoing, it further leverages the global localization of several ground
robots to seamlessly transfer between these ground robots in GPS-denied
environments. Therewith one MAV can support multiple ground robots on a demand
basis. Furthermore, our system enables different visual detection regimes, and
enhanced operability, and return-home functionality. We evaluate our system in
real-world SaR scenarios.Comment: Accepted for publication in 2018 IEEE International Symposium on
Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics (SSRR
Living IoT: A Flying Wireless Platform on Live Insects
Sensor networks with devices capable of moving could enable applications
ranging from precision irrigation to environmental sensing. Using mechanical
drones to move sensors, however, severely limits operation time since flight
time is limited by the energy density of current battery technology. We explore
an alternative, biology-based solution: integrate sensing, computing and
communication functionalities onto live flying insects to create a mobile IoT
platform.
Such an approach takes advantage of these tiny, highly efficient biological
insects which are ubiquitous in many outdoor ecosystems, to essentially provide
mobility for free. Doing so however requires addressing key technical
challenges of power, size, weight and self-localization in order for the
insects to perform location-dependent sensing operations as they carry our IoT
payload through the environment. We develop and deploy our platform on
bumblebees which includes backscatter communication, low-power
self-localization hardware, sensors, and a power source. We show that our
platform is capable of sensing, backscattering data at 1 kbps when the insects
are back at the hive, and localizing itself up to distances of 80 m from the
access points, all within a total weight budget of 102 mg.Comment: Co-primary authors: Vikram Iyer, Rajalakshmi Nandakumar, Anran Wang,
In Proceedings of Mobicom. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 15 pages, 201
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