Supervisory control of fuzzy discrete event systems with applications to mobile robotics

Fuzzy Discrete Event Systems (FDES) were proposed in the literature for modeling and control of a class of event driven and asynchronous dynamical systems that are affected by deterministic uncertainties and vagueness on their representations. In contrast to classical crisp Discrete Event Systems (DES), which have been explored to a sufficient extent in the past, an in-depth study of FDES is yet to be performed, and their feasible real-time application areas need to be further identified. This research work intends to address the supervisory control problem of FDES broadly, while formulating new knowledge in the area. Moreover, it examines the possible applications of these developments in the behavior-based mobile robotics domain. An FDES-based supervisory control framework to facilitate the behavior-based control of a mobile robot is developed at first. The proposed approach is modular in nature and supports behavior integration without making state explosion. Then, this architecture is implemented in simulation as well as in real-time on a mobile robot moving in unstructured environments, and the feasibility of the approach is validated. A general decentralized supervisory control theory of FDES is then established for better information association and ambiguity management in large-scale and distributed systems, while providing less complexity of control computation. Furthermore, using the proposed architecture, simulation and real-time experiments of a tightly-coupled multi-robot object manipulation task are performed. The results are compared with centralized FDES-based and decentralized DES-based approaches. -- A decentralized modular supervisory control theory of FDES is then established for complex systems having a number of modules that are concurrently operating and also containing multiple interactions. -- Finally, a hierarchical supervisory control theory of FDES is established to resolve the control complexity of a large-scale compound system by modularizing the system vertically and assigning multi-level supervisor hierarchies. As a proof-of-concept example to the established theory, a mobile robot navigation problem is discussed. This research work will contribute to the literature by developing novel knowledge and related theories in the areas of decentralized, modular and hierarchical supervisory control of FDES. It also investigates the applicability of these contributions in the mobile robotics arena

A Hierarchical Hybrid Architecture for Mission-Oriented Robot Control

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03413-3_26In this work is presented a general architecture for a multi physical agent network system based on the coordination and the behaviour management. The system is organised in a hierarchical structure where are distinguished the individual agent actions and the collective ones linked to the whole agent network. Individual actions are also organised in a hybrid layered system that take advantages from reactive and deliberative control. Sensing system is involved as well in the behaviour architecture improving the information acquisition performance.This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the CICYT project Mission Based Control (COBAMI): DPI2011-28507-C02-02, under coordinated project High Integrity Partitioned Embedded Systems (Hi-PartES): TIN2011-28567-C03-03, and under the collaborative research project supported by the European Union MultiPARTES Project: FP7-ICT 287702. 2011-14.Muñoz Alcobendas, M.; Munera Sánchez, E.; Blanes Noguera, F.; Simó Ten, JE. (2013). A Hierarchical Hybrid Architecture for Mission-Oriented Robot Control. En ROBOT2013: First Iberian Robotics Conference: Advances in Robotics, Vol. 1. Springer. 363-380. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03413-3_26S363380Aragues, R.: Consistent data association in multi-robot systems with limited communications. 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Integration of low-cost supervisory mobile robots in domestic wireless sensor networks

This paper presents a communication interface between supervisory low-cost mobile robots and domestic Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) based on the Zig Bee protocol from different manufacturers. The communication interface allows control and communication with other network devices using the same protocol. The robot can receive information from sensor devices (temperature, humidity, luminosity) and send commands to actuator devices (lights, shutters, thermostats) from different manufacturers. The architecture of the system, the interfaces and devices needed to establish the communication are described in the paper

Optimal, Multi-Modal Control with Applications in Robotics

The objective of this dissertation is to incorporate the concept of optimality to multi-modal control and apply the theoretical results to obtain successful navigation strategies for autonomous mobile robots. The main idea in multi-modal control is to breakup a complex control task into simpler tasks. In particular, number of control modes are constructed, each with respect to a particular task, and these modes are combined according to some supervisory control logic in order to complete the overall control task. This way of modularizing the control task lends itself particularly well to the control of autonomous mobile robot, as evidenced by the success of behavior-based robotics. Many challenging and interesting research issues arise when employing multi-modal control. This thesis aims to address these issues within an optimal control framework. In particular, the contributions of this dissertation are as follows: We first addressed the problem of inferring global behaviors from a collection of local rules (i.e., feedback control laws). Next, we addressed the issue of adaptively varying the multi-modal control system to further improve performance. Inspired by adaptive multi-modal control, we presented a constructivist framework for the learning from example problem. This framework was applied to the DARPA sponsored Learning Applied to Ground Robots (LAGR) project. Next, we addressed the optimal control of multi-modal systems with infinite dimensional constraints. These constraints are formulated as multi-modal, multi-dimensional (M3D) systems, where the dimensions of the state and control spaces change between modes to account for the constraints, to ease the computational burdens associated with traditional methods. Finally, we used multi-modal control strategies to develop effective navigation strategies for autonomous mobile robots. The theoretical results presented in this thesis are verified by conducting simulated experiments using Matlab and actual experiments using the Magellan Pro robot platform and the LAGR robot. In closing, the main strength of multi-modal control lies in breaking up complex control task into simpler tasks. This divide-and-conquer approach helps modularize the control system. This has the same effect on complex control systems that object-oriented programming has for large-scale computer programs, namely it allows greater simplicity, flexibility, and adaptability.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Egerstedt, Magnus; Committee Member: Ferri, Bonnie; Committee Member: Lee, Chin-Hui; Committee Member: Reveliotis, Spyros; Committee Member: Yezzi, Anthon

Overcoming barriers and increasing independence: service robots for elderly and disabled people

This paper discusses the potential for service robots to overcome barriers and increase independence of elderly and disabled people. It includes a brief overview of the existing uses of service robots by disabled and elderly people and advances in technology which will make new uses possible and provides suggestions for some of these new applications. The paper also considers the design and other conditions to be met for user acceptance. It also discusses the complementarity of assistive service robots and personal assistance and considers the types of applications and users for which service robots are and are not suitable

New Approaches in Automation and Robotics

The book New Approaches in Automation and Robotics offers in 22 chapters a collection of recent developments in automation, robotics as well as control theory. It is dedicated to researchers in science and industry, students, and practicing engineers, who wish to update and enhance their knowledge on modern methods and innovative applications. The authors and editor of this book wish to motivate people, especially under-graduate students, to get involved with the interesting field of robotics and mechatronics. We hope that the ideas and concepts presented in this book are useful for your own work and could contribute to problem solving in similar applications as well. It is clear, however, that the wide area of automation and robotics can only be highlighted at several spots but not completely covered by a single book