25,854 research outputs found
Development of personal area network (PAN) for mobile robot using bluetooth transceiver
The work presents the concept of providing a Personal Area Network (PAN) for microcontroller based mobile robots using Bluetooth transceiver. With the concept of replacing cable, low cost, low power consumption and communication range between 10m to 100m, Bluetooth is suitable for communication between mobile robots since most mobile robots are powered by batteries and have high mobility. The network aimed to support real-time control of up to two mobile robots from a master mobile robot through communication using Bluetooth transceiver. If a fast network radio link is implemented, a whole new world of possibilities is opened in the research of robotics control and Artificial Intelligence (AI) research works, sending real time image and information. Robots could communicate through obstacles or even through walls. Bluetooth Ad Hoc topology provides a simple communication between devices in close by forming PAN. A system contained of both hardware and software is designed to enable the robots to form a PAN and communicating, sharing information. Three microcontroller based mobile robots are built for this research work. Bluetooth Protocol Stack and mobile robot control architecture is implemented on a single microcontroller chip. The PAN enabled a few mobile robots to communicate with each other to complete a given task. The wireless communication between mobile robots is reliable based from the result of experiments carried out. Thus this is a platform for multi mobile robots system and Ad Hoc networking system. Results from experiments show that microcontroller based mobile robots can easily form a Bluetooth PAN and communicate with each other
A Passivity-Based Distributed Reference Governor for Constrained Robotic Networks
This paper focuses on a passivity-based distributed reference governor (RG)
applied to a pre-stabilized mobile robotic network. The novelty of this paper
lies in the method used to solve the RG problem, where a passivity-based
distributed optimization scheme is proposed. In particular, the gradient
descent method minimizes the global objective function while the dual ascent
method maximizes the Hamiltonian. To make the agents converge to the agreed
optimal solution, a proportional-integral consensus estimator is used. This
paper proves the convergence of the state estimates of the RG to the optimal
solution through passivity arguments, considering the physical system static.
Then, the effectiveness of the scheme considering the dynamics of the physical
system is demonstrated through simulations and experiments.Comment: 8 pages, International Federation of Automatic Conference 2017, 8
figure
Optimal Probabilistic Ring Exploration by Asynchronous Oblivious Robots
We consider a team of identical, oblivious, asynchronous mobile robots
that are able to sense (\emph{i.e.}, view) their environment, yet are unable to
communicate, and evolve on a constrained path. Previous results in this weak
scenario show that initial symmetry yields high lower bounds when problems are
to be solved by \emph{deterministic} robots. In this paper, we initiate
research on probabilistic bounds and solutions in this context, and focus on
the \emph{exploration} problem of anonymous unoriented rings of any size. It is
known that robots are necessary and sufficient to solve the
problem with deterministic robots, provided that and are coprime.
By contrast, we show that \emph{four} identical probabilistic robots are
necessary and sufficient to solve the same problem, also removing the coprime
constraint. Our positive results are constructive
A Certified Universal Gathering Algorithm for Oblivious Mobile Robots
We present a new algorithm for the problem of universal gathering mobile
oblivious robots (that is, starting from any initial configuration that is not
bivalent, using any number of robots, the robots reach in a finite number of
steps the same position, not known beforehand) without relying on a common
chirality. We give very strong guaranties on the correctness of our algorithm
by proving formally that it is correct, using the COQ proof assistant. To our
knowledge, this is the first certified positive (and constructive) result in
the context of oblivious mobile robots. It demonstrates both the effectiveness
of the approach to obtain new algorithms that are truly generic, and its
managability since the amount of developped code remains human readable
Distributed allocation of mobile sensing swarms in gyre flows
We address the synthesis of distributed control policies to enable a swarm of
homogeneous mobile sensors to maintain a desired spatial distribution in a
geophysical flow environment, or workspace. In this article, we assume the
mobile sensors (or robots) have a "map" of the environment denoting the
locations of the Lagrangian coherent structures or LCS boundaries. Based on
this information, we design agent-level hybrid control policies that leverage
the surrounding fluid dynamics and inherent environmental noise to enable the
team to maintain a desired distribution in the workspace. We establish the
stability properties of the ensemble dynamics of the distributed control
policies. Since realistic quasi-geostrophic ocean models predict double-gyre
flow solutions, we use a wind-driven multi-gyre flow model to verify the
feasibility of the proposed distributed control strategy and compare the
proposed control strategy with a baseline deterministic allocation strategy.
Lastly, we validate the control strategy using actual flow data obtained by our
coherent structure experimental testbed.Comment: 10 pages, 14 Figures, added reference
A mosaic of eyes
Autonomous navigation is a traditional research topic in intelligent robotics and vehicles, which requires a robot to perceive its environment through onboard sensors such as cameras or laser scanners, to enable it to drive to its goal. Most research to date has focused on the development of a large and smart brain to gain autonomous capability for robots. There are three fundamental questions to be answered by an autonomous mobile robot: 1) Where am I going? 2) Where am I? and 3) How do I get there? To answer these basic questions, a robot requires a massive spatial memory and considerable computational resources to accomplish perception, localization, path planning, and control. It is not yet possible to deliver the centralized intelligence required for our real-life applications, such as autonomous ground vehicles and wheelchairs in care centers. In fact, most autonomous robots try to mimic how humans navigate, interpreting images taken by cameras and then taking decisions accordingly. They may encounter the following difficulties
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
Monocular Vision as a Range Sensor
One of the most important abilities for a mobile robot is detecting obstacles in order to avoid collisions. Building a map of these obstacles is the next logical step. Most robots to date have used sensors such as passive or active infrared, sonar or laser range finders to locate obstacles in their path. In contrast, this work uses a single colour camera as the only sensor, and consequently the robot must obtain range information from the camera images. We propose simple methods for determining the range to the nearest obstacle in any direction in the robotâs field of view, referred to as the Radial Obstacle Profile. The ROP can then be used to determine the amount of rotation between two successive images, which is important for constructing a 360Âș view of the surrounding environment as part of map construction
- âŠ