3,965 research outputs found
Systematic and Realistic Testing in Simulation of Control Code for Robots in Collaborative Human-Robot Interactions
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016. Industries such as flexible manufacturing and home care will be transformed by the presence of robotic assistants. Assurance of safety and functional soundness for these robotic systems will require rigorous verification and validation. We propose testing in simulation using Coverage-Driven Verification (CDV) to guide the testing process in an automatic and systematic way. We use a two-tiered test generation approach, where abstract test sequences are computed first and then concretized (e.g., data and variables are instantiated), to reduce the complexity of the test generation problem. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, we developed a testbench for robotic code, running in ROS-Gazebo, that implements an object handover as part of a humanrobot interaction (HRI) task. Tests are generated to stimulate the robot’s code in a realistic manner, through stimulating the human, environment, sensors, and actuators in simulation. We compare the merits of unconstrained, constrained and model-based test generation in achieving thorough exploration of the code under test, and interesting combinations of human-robot interactions. Our results show that CDV combined with systematic test generation achieves a very high degree of automation in simulation-based verification of control code for robots in HRI
Safe, Remote-Access Swarm Robotics Research on the Robotarium
This paper describes the development of the Robotarium -- a remotely
accessible, multi-robot research facility. The impetus behind the Robotarium is
that multi-robot testbeds constitute an integral and essential part of the
multi-agent research cycle, yet they are expensive, complex, and time-consuming
to develop, operate, and maintain. These resource constraints, in turn, limit
access for large groups of researchers and students, which is what the
Robotarium is remedying by providing users with remote access to a
state-of-the-art multi-robot test facility. This paper details the design and
operation of the Robotarium as well as connects these to the particular
considerations one must take when making complex hardware remotely accessible.
In particular, safety must be built in already at the design phase without
overly constraining which coordinated control programs the users can upload and
execute, which calls for minimally invasive safety routines with provable
performance guarantees.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, 3 code samples, 72 reference
Situation Coverage Testing for a Simulated Autonomous Car -- an Initial Case Study
It is hard to test autonomous robot (AR) software because of the range and
diversity of external situations (terrain, obstacles, humans, peer robots) that
AR must deal with. Common measures of testing adequacy may not address this
diversity. Explicit situation coverage has been proposed as a solution, but
there has been little empirical study of its effectiveness. In this paper, we
describe an implementation of situation coverage for testing a simple simulated
autonomous road vehicle, and evaluate its ability to find seeded faults
compared to a random test generation approach. In our experiments, the
performance of the two methods is similar, with situation coverage having a
very slight advantage. We conclude that situation coverage probably does not
have a significant benefit over random generation for the type of simple,
research-grade AR software used here. It will likely be valuable when applied
to more complex and mature software
Autonomous Systems, Robotics, and Computing Systems Capability Roadmap: NRC Dialogue
Contents include the following: Introduction. Process, Mission Drivers, Deliverables, and Interfaces. Autonomy. Crew-Centered and Remote Operations. Integrated Systems Health Management. Autonomous Vehicle Control. Autonomous Process Control. Robotics. Robotics for Solar System Exploration. Robotics for Lunar and Planetary Habitation. Robotics for In-Space Operations. Computing Systems. Conclusion
Simulation-based Testing for Early Safety-Validation of Robot Systems
Industrial human-robot collaborative systems must be validated thoroughly
with regard to safety. The sooner potential hazards for workers can be exposed,
the less costly is the implementation of necessary changes. Due to the
complexity of robot systems, safety flaws often stay hidden, especially at
early design stages, when a physical implementation is not yet available for
testing. Simulation-based testing is a possible way to identify hazards in an
early stage. However, creating simulation conditions in which hazards become
observable can be difficult. Brute-force or Monte-Carlo-approaches are often
not viable for hazard identification, due to large search spaces. This work
addresses this problem by using a human model and an optimization algorithm to
generate high-risk human behavior in simulation, thereby exposing potential
hazards. A proof of concept is shown in an application example where the method
is used to find hazards in an industrial robot cell
A Corroborative Approach to Verification and Validation of Human--Robot Teams
We present an approach for the verification and validation (V&V) of robot assistants in the context of human-robot interactions (HRI), to demonstrate their trustworthiness through corroborative evidence of their safety and functional correctness. Key challenges include the complex and unpredictable nature of the real world in which assistant and service robots operate, the limitations on available V&V techniques when used individually, and the consequent lack of confidence in the V&V results. Our approach, called corroborative V&V, addresses these challenges by combining several different V&V techniques; in this paper we use formal verification (model checking), simulation-based testing, and user validation in experiments with a real robot. We demonstrate our corroborative V&V approach through a handover task, the most critical part of a complex cooperative manufacturing scenario, for which we propose some safety and liveness requirements to verify and validate. We construct formal models, simulations and an experimental test rig for the HRI. To capture requirements we use temporal logic properties, assertion checkers and textual descriptions. This combination of approaches allows V&V of the HRI task at different levels of modelling detail and thoroughness of exploration, thus overcoming the individual limitations of each technique. Should the resulting V&V evidence present discrepancies, an iterative process between the different V&V techniques takes place until corroboration between the V&V techniques is gained from refining and improving the assets (i.e., system and requirement models) to represent the HRI task in a more truthful manner. Therefore, corroborative V&V affords a systematic approach to 'meta-V&V,' in which different V&V techniques can be used to corroborate and check one another, increasing the level of certainty in the results of V&V
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