Navigation of Distinct Euclidean Particles via Hierarchical Clustering

We present a centralized online (completely reactive) hybrid navigation algorithm for bringing a swarm of n perfectly sensed and actuated point particles in Euclidean d space (for arbitrary n and d) to an arbitrary goal configuration with the guarantee of no collisions along the way. Our construction entails a discrete abstraction of configurations using cluster hierarchies, and relies upon two prior recent constructions: (i) a family of hierarchy-preserving control policies and (ii) an abstract discrete dynamical system for navigating through the space of cluster hierarchies. Here, we relate the (combinatorial) topology of hierarchical clusters to the (continuous) topology of configurations by constructing “portals” — open sets of configurations supporting two adjacent hierarchies. The resulting online sequential composition of hierarchy-invariant swarming followed by discrete selection of a hierarchy “closer” to that of the destination along with its continuous instantiation via an appropriate portal configuration yields a computationally effective construction for the desired navigation policy

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

All about the war /

Cover title.; "Tells you just what you want to know about armies, fleets, alliances, neutrality, contraband, trade, food supplies, right of capture, position of non-combatants, populations, etc., etc."; Also available online http://nla.gov.au/nla.aus-vn1959350; FERG copy from Ferguson First World War, 1914-1919 pamphlet collection

A feedback control scheme for multiple independent dynamic non-point agents

The Decentralized Navigation Functions’(DNF) based methodol-ogy, established in our previous work([8],[17]) on multi-agent systems with kinematic models of motion, is extended to the case where dy-namic models of motion for both holonomic and nonholonomic agents must be treated. The proposed control scheme guarantees collision avoidance and global convergence of the multi-agent team to the de-sired goal configuration. The volume of each agent is taken into ac-count and non-point models are considered. The satisfaction of the imposed system specifications under the proposed control scheme are verified and depicted through non-trivial computer simulations. 1