Learning Emergent Behavior in Robot Swarms with NEAT

When researching robot swarms, many studies observe complex group behavior emerging from the individual agents' simple local actions. However, the task of learning an individual policy to produce a desired emergent behavior remains a challenging and largely unsolved problem. We present a method of training distributed robotic swarm algorithms to produce emergent behavior. Inspired by the biological evolution of emergent behavior in animals, we use an evolutionary algorithm to train a 'population' of individual behaviors to approximate a desired group behavior. We perform experiments using simulations of the Georgia Tech Miniature Autonomous Blimps (GT-MABs) aerial robotics platforms conducted in the CoppeliaSim simulator. Additionally, we test on simulations of Anki Vector robots to display our algorithm's effectiveness on various modes of actuation. We evaluate our algorithm on various tasks where a somewhat complex group behavior is required for success. These tasks include an Area Coverage task, a Surround Target task, and a Wall Climb task. We compare behaviors evolved using our algorithm against 'designed policies', which we create in order to exhibit the emergent behaviors we desire

Structural Health Monitoring Using Neural Network Based Vibrational System Identification

Composite fabrication technologies now provide the means for producing high-strength, low-weight panels, plates, spars and other structural components which use embedded fiber optic sensors and piezoelectric transducers. These materials, often referred to as smart structures, make it possible to sense internal characteristics, such as delaminations or structural degradation. In this effort we use neural network based techniques for modeling and analyzing dynamic structural information for recognizing structural defects. This yields an adaptable system which gives a measure of structural integrity for composite structures.Comment: 4 page

Local Area Damage Detection in Composite Structures Using Piezoelectric Transducers

An integrated and automated smart structures approach for structural health monitoring is presented, utilizing an array of piezoelectric transducers attached to or embedded within the structure for both actuation and sensing. The system actively interrogates the structure via broadband excitation of multiple actuators across a desired frequency range. The structure's vibration signature is then characterized by computing the transfer functions between each actuator/sensor pair, and compared to the baseline signature. Experimental results applying the system to local area damage detection in a MD Explorer rotorcraft composite flexbeam are presented.Comment: 7 page

UAV Routing for Enhancing the Performance of a Classifier-in-the-loop

Some human-machine systems are designed so that machines (robots) gather and deliver data to remotely located operators (humans) through an interface in order to aid them in classification. The performance of a human as a (binary) classifier-in-the-loop is characterized by probabilities of correctly classifying objects of type $T$ and $F$. These two probabilities depend on the dwell time, $d$, spent collecting information at a point of interest (POI or interchangeably, target). The information gain associated with collecting information at a target is then a function of dwell time $d$ and discounted by the revisit time, $R$, i.e., the duration between consecutive revisits to the same target. The objective of the problem of routing for classification is to optimally route the vehicles and determine the optimal dwell time at each target so as to maximize the total discounted information gain while visiting every target at least once. In this paper, we make a simplifying assumption that the information gain is discounted exponentially by the revisit time; this assumption enables one to decouple the problem of routing with the problem of determining optimal dwell time at each target for a single vehicle problem. For the multi-vehicle problem, we provide a fast heuristic to obtain the allocation of targets to each vehicle and the corresponding dwell time

Evolutionary computational approaches to solving the multiple traveling salesman problem using a neighborhood attractor schema

This paper presents a variation of the Euclidean Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), the Multiple Traveling Salesman Problem (MTSP), and compares a variety of evolutionary computation algorithms and paradigms for solving it. Techniques implemented, analyzed, and discussed herein with regard to MTSP include use of a neighborhood attractor schema (a variation on k-means clustering), the "shrink-wrap " algorithm for local neighborhood optimization, particle swarm optimization, Monte-Carlo optimization, and a range of genetic algorithms and evolutionary strategies