34,407 research outputs found
Sensor networks and distributed CSP: communication, computation and complexity
We introduce SensorDCSP, a naturally distributed benchmark based on a real-world application that arises in the context of networked distributed systems. In order to study the performance of Distributed CSP (DisCSP) algorithms in a truly distributed setting, we use a discrete-event network simulator, which allows us to model the impact of different network traffic conditions on the performance of the algorithms. We consider two complete DisCSP algorithms: asynchronous backtracking (ABT) and asynchronous weak commitment search (AWC), and perform performance comparison for these algorithms on both satisfiable and unsatisfiable instances of SensorDCSP. We found that random delays (due to network traffic or in some cases actively introduced by the agents) combined with a dynamic decentralized restart strategy can improve the performance of DisCSP algorithms. In addition, we introduce GSensorDCSP, a plain-embedded version of SensorDCSP that is closely related to various real-life dynamic tracking systems. We perform both analytical and empirical study of this benchmark domain. In particular, this benchmark allows us to study the attractiveness of solution repairing for solving a sequence of DisCSPs that represent the dynamic tracking of a set of moving objects.This work was supported in part by AFOSR (F49620-01-1-0076, Intelligent Information Systems Institute and MURI F49620-01-1-0361), CICYT (TIC2001-1577-C03-03 and TIC2003-00950), DARPA (F30602-00-2- 0530), an NSF CAREER award (IIS-9734128), and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship. The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of the US Government
Multi-Agent Deployment for Visibility Coverage in Polygonal Environments with Holes
This article presents a distributed algorithm for a group of robotic agents
with omnidirectional vision to deploy into nonconvex polygonal environments
with holes. Agents begin deployment from a common point, possess no prior
knowledge of the environment, and operate only under line-of-sight sensing and
communication. The objective of the deployment is for the agents to achieve
full visibility coverage of the environment while maintaining line-of-sight
connectivity with each other. This is achieved by incrementally partitioning
the environment into distinct regions, each completely visible from some agent.
Proofs are given of (i) convergence, (ii) upper bounds on the time and number
of agents required, and (iii) bounds on the memory and communication
complexity. Simulation results and description of robust extensions are also
included
A Causal And-Or Graph Model for Visibility Fluent Reasoning in Tracking Interacting Objects
Tracking humans that are interacting with the other subjects or environment
remains unsolved in visual tracking, because the visibility of the human of
interests in videos is unknown and might vary over time. In particular, it is
still difficult for state-of-the-art human trackers to recover complete human
trajectories in crowded scenes with frequent human interactions. In this work,
we consider the visibility status of a subject as a fluent variable, whose
change is mostly attributed to the subject's interaction with the surrounding,
e.g., crossing behind another object, entering a building, or getting into a
vehicle, etc. We introduce a Causal And-Or Graph (C-AOG) to represent the
causal-effect relations between an object's visibility fluent and its
activities, and develop a probabilistic graph model to jointly reason the
visibility fluent change (e.g., from visible to invisible) and track humans in
videos. We formulate this joint task as an iterative search of a feasible
causal graph structure that enables fast search algorithm, e.g., dynamic
programming method. We apply the proposed method on challenging video sequences
to evaluate its capabilities of estimating visibility fluent changes of
subjects and tracking subjects of interests over time. Results with comparisons
demonstrate that our method outperforms the alternative trackers and can
recover complete trajectories of humans in complicated scenarios with frequent
human interactions.Comment: accepted by CVPR 201
Optimal dynamic operations scheduling for small-scale satellites
A satellite's operations schedule is crafted based on each subsystem/payload operational needs, while taking into account the available resources on-board. A number of operating modes are carefully designed, each one with a different operations plan that can serve emergency cases, reduced functionality cases, the nominal case, the end of mission case and so on. During the mission span, should any operations planning amendments arise, a new schedule needs to be manually developed and uplinked to the satellite during a communications' window. The current operations planning techniques over a reduced number of solutions while approaching operations scheduling in a rigid manner. Given the complexity of a satellite as a system as well as the numerous restrictions and uncertainties imposed by both environmental and technical parameters, optimising the operations scheduling in an automated fashion can over a flexible approach while enhancing the mission robustness. In this paper we present Opt-OS (Optimised Operations Scheduler), a tool loosely based on the Ant Colony System algorithm, which can solve the Dynamic Operations Scheduling Problem (DOSP). The DOSP is treated as a single-objective multiple constraint discrete optimisation problem, where the objective is to maximise the useful operation time per subsystem on-board while respecting a set of constraints such as the feasible operation timeslot per payload or maintaining the power consumption below a specific threshold. Given basic mission inputs such as the Keplerian elements of the satellite's orbit, its launch date as well as the individual subsystems' power consumption and useful operation periods, Opt-OS outputs the optimal ON/OFF state per subsystem per orbital time step, keeping each subsystem's useful operation time to a maximum while ensuring that constraints such as the power availability threshold are never violated. Opt-OS can provide the flexibility needed for designing an optimal operations schedule on the spot throughout any mission phase as well as the ability to automatically schedule operations in case of emergency. Furthermore, Opt-OS can be used in conjunction with multi-objective optimisation tools for performing full system optimisation. Based on the optimal operations schedule, subsystem design parameters are being optimised in order to achieve the maximal usage of the satellite while keeping its mass minimal
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