Recent work in wireless embedded networked systems has followed heterogeneous designs, incorporating a mixture of elements from extremely constrained 8- or 16-bit “Motes ” to less resourceconstrained 32-bit embedded “Microservers.” Emstar is a software environment for developing and deploying complex applications on such heterogeneous networks. Emstar is designed to leverage the additional resources of Microservers by trading off some performance for system robustness in sensor network applications. It enables fault isolation, fault tolerance, system visiblity, in-field debugging, and resource sharing across multiple applications. In order to accomplish these objectives, Emstar is designed to run as a multiprocess system and consists of libraries that implement message-passing IPC primitives, services that support networking, sensing, and time synchronization, and tools that support simulation, emulation, and visualization of live systems, both real and simulated. We evaluate this work by discussing the Acoustic ENSBox, a platform for distributed acoustic sensing that we built using Emstar. We show that by leveraging existing Emstar services, we are able to significantly reduce development time This work was made possible with support from The Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS) under the NSF Cooperative Agreement CCR-0120778, and the UC MICRO program (grant

Robotic Development Environments (RDEs) have come to play an increasingly important role in robotics research in general, and for the development of architectures for mobile robots in particular. Yet, no systematic evaluation of available RDEs has been performed; establishing a comprehensive list of evaluation criteria targeted at robotics applications is desirable that can subsequently be used to compare their strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, there are no practical evaluations of the usability and impact of a large selection of RDEs that provides researchers with the information necessary to select an RDE most suited to their needs, nor identifies trends in RDE research that suggest directions for future RDE development. This survey addresses the above by selecting and describing nine open source, freely available RDEs for mobile robots, evaluating and comparing them from various points of view. First, based on previous work concerning agent systems, a conceptual framework of four broad categories is established, encompassing the characteristics and capabilities that an RDE supports. Then, a practical evaluation of RDE usability in designing, implementing, and executing robot architectures is presented. Finally, the impact of specific RDEs on the field of robotics is addressed by providing a list of published applications and research projects that give concrete examples of areas in which systems have been used. The comprehensive evaluation and comparison of the nine RDEs concludes with suggestions of how to use the results of this survey and a brief discussion of future trends in RDE design. 1

This paper presents an algorithm for the complete coverage of free space by a team of mobile robots. Our approach is based on a single robot coverage algorithm, which divides the target two-dimensional space into regions called cells, each of which can be covered with simple back-and-forth motions; the decomposition of free space in a collection of such cells is known as the Boustrophedon decomposition. Single robot coverage is achieved by ensuring that the robot visits every cell. The new multi-robot coverage algorithm uses the same planar cell-based decomposition as the single robot approach, but provides extensions to handle how teams of robots cover a single cell and how teams are allocated among cells. This method allows planning to occur in a two-dimensional configuration space for a team of N robots. The robots operate under the restriction that communication between two robots is available only when they are within line of sight of each other.

Abstract — This paper presents a feasibility study of using socially-aware autonomous robots to assist hospitals in reducing the effects of nursing shortages. A hands-off assistive robot is described that provides motivation and support for cardiac patients who must perform regular but painful breathing exercises. Initial validation of the system has garnered positive responses from test subjects and shows that robots have a potential to aid nursing staff in some tasks requiring patient interaction. I.

Em* is a software environment for developing and deploying Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) applications on Linux-class hardware platforms (called "Microservers"). Em* consists of libraries that implement message-passing IPC primitives, tools that support simulation, emulation, and visualization of live systems, both real and simulated, and services that support for networking, sensing, and time synchronization. While Em*'s design has favored ease of use and modularity over efficiency, the resulting increase in overhead has not been an impediment to any of our current projects.

Abstract. Robots can free humankind from everyday chores, they can entertain us, and even educate our children. They can carry loads, walk, dance, sing, and express emotions. Hundreds of different robots are already sold in shops, and complex applications are being developed actively around the globe. So why are robots so not present today? In our experience the lack of standard in robotics, be it from the hardware or software point of view, makes the development of advanced applications for robotics unproductive. This is very similar to the early days of personal computers, until the emerging of sufficiently widespread Operating Systems increased the return-on-investment for software development. The Urbi platform sits on top of the large variety of software and/or hardware components for robotics, and provides the user with a unified, standardized, interface with which complex and portable applications can be developed. In this paper, with present the Urbi platform and some of its prominent components.

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Abstract. This paper discusses experiments with a “model-based ” approach for developing verified distributed systems in which program development is carried out by stepwise refinement: we encode, specifications and algorithm archetypes in the PVS theorem prover, carry out stepwise refinement and concomitant proofs, and obtain collections of verified algorithms encoded in PVS. Finally we transform algorithms from PVS to programs in Java. We consider a class of systems in which state spaces may be continuous and state transitions may be continuous or discrete. Coordinated multi-vehicle systems are examples of this class. Temporal properties of this class of problems are specified in terms of convergence: the system state gets arbitrarily close to a limit as time tends to infinity. Our meta-theorems for verifying convergence are extensions from control theory to a temporal logic of continuous time and state spaces. 1