17,605 research outputs found
Robust Environmental Mapping by Mobile Sensor Networks
Constructing a spatial map of environmental parameters is a crucial step to
preventing hazardous chemical leakages, forest fires, or while estimating a
spatially distributed physical quantities such as terrain elevation. Although
prior methods can do such mapping tasks efficiently via dispatching a group of
autonomous agents, they are unable to ensure satisfactory convergence to the
underlying ground truth distribution in a decentralized manner when any of the
agents fail. Since the types of agents utilized to perform such mapping are
typically inexpensive and prone to failure, this results in poor overall
mapping performance in real-world applications, which can in certain cases
endanger human safety. This paper presents a Bayesian approach for robust
spatial mapping of environmental parameters by deploying a group of mobile
robots capable of ad-hoc communication equipped with short-range sensors in the
presence of hardware failures. Our approach first utilizes a variant of the
Voronoi diagram to partition the region to be mapped into disjoint regions that
are each associated with at least one robot. These robots are then deployed in
a decentralized manner to maximize the likelihood that at least one robot
detects every target in their associated region despite a non-zero probability
of failure. A suite of simulation results is presented to demonstrate the
effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method when compared to existing
techniques.Comment: accepted to icra 201
An efficient genetic algorithm for large-scale planning of robust industrial wireless networks
An industrial indoor environment is harsh for wireless communications
compared to an office environment, because the prevalent metal easily causes
shadowing effects and affects the availability of an industrial wireless local
area network (IWLAN). On the one hand, it is costly, time-consuming, and
ineffective to perform trial-and-error manual deployment of wireless nodes. On
the other hand, the existing wireless planning tools only focus on office
environments such that it is hard to plan IWLANs due to the larger problem size
and the deployed IWLANs are vulnerable to prevalent shadowing effects in harsh
industrial indoor environments. To fill this gap, this paper proposes an
overdimensioning model and a genetic algorithm based over-dimensioning (GAOD)
algorithm for deploying large-scale robust IWLANs. As a progress beyond the
state-of-the-art wireless planning, two full coverage layers are created. The
second coverage layer serves as redundancy in case of shadowing. Meanwhile, the
deployment cost is reduced by minimizing the number of access points (APs); the
hard constraint of minimal inter-AP spatial paration avoids multiple APs
covering the same area to be simultaneously shadowed by the same obstacle. The
computation time and occupied memory are dedicatedly considered in the design
of GAOD for large-scale optimization. A greedy heuristic based
over-dimensioning (GHOD) algorithm and a random OD algorithm are taken as
benchmarks. In two vehicle manufacturers with a small and large indoor
environment, GAOD outperformed GHOD with up to 20% less APs, while GHOD
outputted up to 25% less APs than a random OD algorithm. Furthermore, the
effectiveness of this model and GAOD was experimentally validated with a real
deployment system
Object Detection and Classification in Occupancy Grid Maps using Deep Convolutional Networks
A detailed environment perception is a crucial component of automated
vehicles. However, to deal with the amount of perceived information, we also
require segmentation strategies. Based on a grid map environment
representation, well-suited for sensor fusion, free-space estimation and
machine learning, we detect and classify objects using deep convolutional
neural networks. As input for our networks we use a multi-layer grid map
efficiently encoding 3D range sensor information. The inference output consists
of a list of rotated bounding boxes with associated semantic classes. We
conduct extensive ablation studies, highlight important design considerations
when using grid maps and evaluate our models on the KITTI Bird's Eye View
benchmark. Qualitative and quantitative benchmark results show that we achieve
robust detection and state of the art accuracy solely using top-view grid maps
from range sensor data.Comment: 6 pages, 4 tables, 4 figure
Encoderless Gimbal Calibration of Dynamic Multi-Camera Clusters
Dynamic Camera Clusters (DCCs) are multi-camera systems where one or more
cameras are mounted on actuated mechanisms such as a gimbal. Existing methods
for DCC calibration rely on joint angle measurements to resolve the
time-varying transformation between the dynamic and static camera. This
information is usually provided by motor encoders, however, joint angle
measurements are not always readily available on off-the-shelf mechanisms. In
this paper, we present an encoderless approach for DCC calibration which
simultaneously estimates the kinematic parameters of the transformation chain
as well as the unknown joint angles. We also demonstrate the integration of an
encoderless gimbal mechanism with a state-of-the art VIO algorithm, and show
the extensions required in order to perform simultaneous online estimation of
the joint angles and vehicle localization state. The proposed calibration
approach is validated both in simulation and on a physical DCC composed of a
2-DOF gimbal mounted on a UAV. Finally, we show the experimental results of the
calibrated mechanism integrated into the OKVIS VIO package, and demonstrate
successful online joint angle estimation while maintaining localization
accuracy that is comparable to a standard static multi-camera configuration.Comment: ICRA 201
Human Swarm Interaction: An Experimental Study of Two Types of Interaction with Foraging Swarms
In this paper we present the first study of human-swarm interaction comparing two fundamental types of interaction, coined intermittent and environmental. These types are exemplified by two control methods, selection and beacon control, made available to a human operator to control a foraging swarm of robots. Selection and beacon control differ with respect to their temporal and spatial influence on the swarm and enable an operator to generate different strategies from the basic behaviors of the swarm. Selection control requires an active selection of groups of robots while beacon control exerts an influence on nearby robots within a set range. Both control methods are implemented in a testbed in which operators solve an information foraging problem by utilizing a set of swarm behaviors. The robotic swarm has only local communication and sensing capabilities. The number of robots in the swarm range from 50 to 200. Operator performance for each control method is compared in a series of missions in different environments with no obstacles up to cluttered and structured obstacles. In addition, performance is compared to simple and advanced autonomous swarms. Thirty-two participants were recruited for participation in the study. Autonomous swarm algorithms were tested in repeated simulations. Our results showed that selection control scales better to larger swarms and generally outperforms beacon control. Operators utilized different swarm behaviors with different frequency across control methods, suggesting an adaptation to different strategies induced by choice of control method. Simple autonomous swarms outperformed human operators in open environments, but operators adapted better to complex environments with obstacles. Human controlled swarms fell short of task-specific benchmarks under all conditions. Our results reinforce the importance of understanding and choosing appropriate types of human-swarm interaction when designing swarm systems, in addition to choosing appropriate swarm behaviors
Mathematical and computer modeling of electro-optic systems using a generic modeling approach
The conventional approach to modelling electro-optic sensor systems is to develop separate models for individual systems or classes of system, depending on the detector technology employed in the sensor and the application. However, this ignores commonality in design and in components of these systems. A generic approach is presented for modelling a variety of sensor systems operating in the infrared waveband that also allows systems to be modelled with different levels of detail and at different stages of the product lifecycle. The provision of different model types (parametric and image-flow descriptions) within the generic framework can allow valuable insights to be gained
High Accuracy Volume Flow Rate Measurement Using Vortex Counting
A prototype device for measuring the volumetric flow-rate by counting vortices has been designed and realized. It consists of a square-section pipe in which are placed a two-dimensional bluff body and a strain gauge force sensor. These two elements are separated from each other, unlike the majority of vortex apparatus currently available. The principle is based on the generation of a separated wake behind the bluff body. The volumetric flow-rate measurement is done by counting vortices using a flat plate placed in the wake and attached to the beam sensor. By optimizing the geometrical arrangement, the search for a significant signal has shown that it was possible to get a quasi-periodic signal, within a good range of flow rates so that its performances are well deduced. The repeatability of the value of the volume of fluid passed for every vortex shed is tested for a given flow and then the accuracy of the measuring device is determined. This quantity is the constant of the device and is called the digital volume (V_p). It has the dimension of a volume and varies with the confinement of the flow and with the Reynolds number. Therefore, a dimensionless quantity is introduced, the reduced digital volume (V_r) that takes into account the average speed in the contracted section downstream of the bluff body. The reduced digital volume is found to be independent of the confinement in a significant range of Reynolds numbers, which gives the device a good accuracy
Coherent control of plasma dynamics
Coherent control of a system involves steering an interaction to a final
coherent state by controlling the phase of an applied field. Plasmas support
coherent wave structures that can be generated by intense laser fields. Here,
we demonstrate the coherent control of plasma dynamics in a laser wakefield
electron acceleration experiment. A genetic algorithm is implemented using a
deformable mirror with the electron beam signal as feedback, which allows a
heuristic search for the optimal wavefront under laser-plasma conditions that
is not known a priori. We are able to improve both the electron beam charge and
angular distribution by an order of magnitude. These improvements do not simply
correlate with having the `best' focal spot, since the highest quality vacuum
focal spot produces a greatly inferior electron beam, but instead correspond to
the particular laser phase that steers the plasma wave to a final state with
optimal accelerating fields
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