Potential information fields for mobile robot exploration

We present a decision theoretic approach to mobile robot exploration. The method evaluates the reduction of joint path and map entropy and computes a potential information field in robot configuration space using these joint entropy reduction estimates. The exploration trajectory is computed descending on the gradient of this field. The technique uses Pose SLAM as its estimation backbone. Very efficient kernel convolution mechanisms are used to evaluate entropy reduction for each sensor ray, and for each possible robot orientation, taking frontiers and obstacles into account. In the end, the computation of this field on the entire configuration space is shown to be very efficient. The approach is tested in simulations in a pair of publicly available datasets comparing favorably both in quality of estimates and in execution time against an RRT∗-based search for the nearest frontier and also against a locally optimal exploration strategy.This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Project DPI-2011-27510 and by the EU Project CargoANTs FP7-605598.Peer Reviewe

Quantum Robot: Structure, Algorithms and Applications

A kind of brand-new robot, quantum robot, is proposed through fusing quantum theory with robot technology. Quantum robot is essentially a complex quantum system and it is generally composed of three fundamental parts: MQCU (multi quantum computing units), quantum controller/actuator, and information acquisition units. Corresponding to the system structure, several learning control algorithms including quantum searching algorithm and quantum reinforcement learning are presented for quantum robot. The theoretic results show that quantum robot can reduce the complexity of O(N^2) in traditional robot to O(N^(3/2)) using quantum searching algorithm, and the simulation results demonstrate that quantum robot is also superior to traditional robot in efficient learning by novel quantum reinforcement learning algorithm. Considering the advantages of quantum robot, its some potential important applications are also analyzed and prospected.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

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

Experiences on a motivational learning approach for robotics in undergraduate courses

This paper presents an educational experience carried out in robotics undergraduate courses from two different degrees: Computer Science and Industrial Engineering, having students with diverse capabilities and motivations. The experience compares two learning strategies for the practical lessons of such courses: one relies on code snippets in Matlab to cope with typical robotic problems like robot motion, localization, and mapping, while the second strategy opts for using the ROS framework for the development of algorithms facing a competitive challenge, e.g. exploration algorithms. The obtained students’ opinions were instructive, reporting, for example, that although they consider harder to master ROS when compared to Matlab, it might be more useful in their (robotic related) professional careers, which enhanced their disposition to study it. They also considered that the challenge-exercises, in addition to motivate them, helped to develop their skills as engineers to a greater extent than the skeleton-code based ones. These and other conclusions will be useful in posterior courses to boost the interest and motivation of the students.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

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 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

Spatial context-aware person-following for a domestic robot

Domestic robots are in the focus of research in terms of service providers in households and even as robotic companion that share the living space with humans. A major capability of mobile domestic robots that is joint exploration of space. One challenge to deal with this task is how could we let the robots move in space in reasonable, socially acceptable ways so that it will support interaction and communication as a part of the joint exploration. As a step towards this challenge, we have developed a context-aware following behav- ior considering these social aspects and applied these together with a multi-modal person-tracking method to switch between three basic following approaches, namely direction-following, path-following and parallel-following. These are derived from the observation of human-human following schemes and are activated depending on the current spatial context (e.g. free space) and the relative position of the interacting human. A combination of the elementary behaviors is performed in real time with our mobile robot in different environments. First experimental results are provided to demonstrate the practicability of the proposed approach

Past, Present, and Future of Simultaneous Localization And Mapping: Towards the Robust-Perception Age

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM)consists in the concurrent construction of a model of the environment (the map), and the estimation of the state of the robot moving within it. The SLAM community has made astonishing progress over the last 30 years, enabling large-scale real-world applications, and witnessing a steady transition of this technology to industry. We survey the current state of SLAM. We start by presenting what is now the de-facto standard formulation for SLAM. We then review related work, covering a broad set of topics including robustness and scalability in long-term mapping, metric and semantic representations for mapping, theoretical performance guarantees, active SLAM and exploration, and other new frontiers. This paper simultaneously serves as a position paper and tutorial to those who are users of SLAM. By looking at the published research with a critical eye, we delineate open challenges and new research issues, that still deserve careful scientific investigation. The paper also contains the authors' take on two questions that often animate discussions during robotics conferences: Do robots need SLAM? and Is SLAM solved