Results 1 - 10
of
319
Modeling swarm robotic systems: A case study in collaborative distributed manipulation
- Int. Journal of Robotics Research
, 2004
"... In this paper, we present a time-discrete, incremental methodology for modeling, at the microscopic and macroscopic level, the dynamics of distributed manipulation experiments using swarms of autonomous robots endowed with reactive controllers. The methodology is well-suited for nonspatial metrics s ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 116 (26 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
In this paper, we present a time-discrete, incremental methodology for modeling, at the microscopic and macroscopic level, the dynamics of distributed manipulation experiments using swarms of autonomous robots endowed with reactive controllers. The methodology is well-suited for nonspatial metrics since it does not take into account robots ’ trajectories or the spatial distribution of objects in the environment. The strength of the methodology lies in the fact that it has been generated by considering incremental abstraction steps, from real robots to macroscopic models, each with well-defined mappings between successive implementation levels. Precise heuristic criteria based on geometrical considerations and systematic tests with one or two real robots prevent the introduction of free parameters in the calibration procedure of models. As a consequence, we are able to generate highly abstracted macroscopic models that can capture the dynamics of a swarm of robots at the behavioral level while still being closely anchored to the characteristics of the physical set-up. Although this methodology has been and can be applied to other experiments in distributed manipulation (e.g., object aggregation and
A Prototype Infrastructure for Distributed Robot-Agent-Person Teams
, 2003
"... Effective coordination of robots, agents and people promises to improve the safety, robustness and quality with which shared goals are achieved by harnessing the highly heterogeneous entities' diverse capabilities. Proxy-based integration architectures are emerging as a standard method for coor ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 97 (40 self)
- Add to MetaCart
Effective coordination of robots, agents and people promises to improve the safety, robustness and quality with which shared goals are achieved by harnessing the highly heterogeneous entities' diverse capabilities. Proxy-based integration architectures are emerging as a standard method for coordinating teams of heterogeneous entities. Such architectures are designed to meet imposing challenges such as ensuring that the diverse capabilities of the group members are effectively utilized, avoiding miscoordination in a noisy, uncertain environment and reacting flexibly to changes in the environment. However, we contend that previous architectures have gone too far in taking coordination responsibility away from entities and giving it to proxies. Our goal is to create a proxy-based integration infrastructure where there is a beneficial symbiotic relationship between the proxies and the team members. By leveraging the coordination abilities of both proxies and socially capable team members the quality of the coordination can be improved. We present two key new ideas to achieve this goal. First, coordination tasks are represented as explicit roles, hence the responsibilities not the actions are specified, thus allowing the team to leverage the coordination skills of the most capable team members. Second, building on the first idea, we have developed a novel role allocation and reallocation algorithm. These ideas have been realized in a prototype software proxy architecture and used to create heterogeneous teams for an urban disaster recovery domain. Using the rescue domain as a testbed, we have experimented with the role allocation algorithm and observed results to support the hypothesis that leveraging the coordination capabilities of people can help the performance of the te...
Auction-Based Multi-Robot Routing
, 2005
"... Recently auction methods have been investigated as effective, decentralized methods for multi-robot coordination. Experimental research has shown great potential, but has not been complemented yet by theoretical analysis. In this paper we contribute a theoretical analysis of the performance of auc ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 84 (11 self)
- Add to MetaCart
Recently auction methods have been investigated as effective, decentralized methods for multi-robot coordination. Experimental research has shown great potential, but has not been complemented yet by theoretical analysis. In this paper we contribute a theoretical analysis of the performance of auction methods for multi-robot routing. We suggest a generic framework for auction-based multi-robot routing and analyze a variety of bidding rules for different team objectives. This is the first time that auction methods are shown to offer theoretical guarantees for such a variety of bidding rules and team objectives.
Consensus-based decentralized auctions for robust task allocation
- IEEE Transactions on Robotics
, 2009
"... Abstract—This paper addresses task allocation to coordinate a fleet of autonomous vehicles by presenting two decentralized algorithms: the consensus-based auction algorithm (CBAA) and its generalization to the multi-assignment problem, i.e., the consensus-based bundle algorithm (CBBA). These algorit ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 79 (28 self)
- Add to MetaCart
Abstract—This paper addresses task allocation to coordinate a fleet of autonomous vehicles by presenting two decentralized algorithms: the consensus-based auction algorithm (CBAA) and its generalization to the multi-assignment problem, i.e., the consensus-based bundle algorithm (CBBA). These algorithms utilize a market-based decision strategy as the mechanism for decentralized task selection and use a consensus routine based on local communication as the conflict resolution mechanism to achieve agreement on the winning bid values. Under reasonable assumptions on the scoring scheme, both of the proposed algorithms are proven to guarantee convergence to a conflict-free assignment, and it is shown that the converged solutions exhibit provable worst-case performance. It is also demonstrated that CBAA and CBBA produce conflict-free feasible solutions that are robust to both inconsistencies in the situational awareness across the fleet and variations in the communication network topology. Numerical experiments confirm superior convergence properties and performance when compared with existing auction-based task-allocation algorithms. Index Terms—Distributed robot systems, networked robots, task allocation for multiple mobile robots. I.
Development environments for autonomous mobile robots: A survey
- Autonomous Robots
, 2007
"... 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 ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 65 (1 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
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
Call and Response: Experiments in Sampling the Environment
- IN PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2ND INTERNATIONAL
, 2004
"... Monitoring of environmental phenomena with embedded networked sensing confronts the challenges of both unpredictable variability in the spatial distribution of phenomena, coupled with demands for a high spatial sampling rate in three dimensions. For example, low distortion mapping of critical solar ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 64 (12 self)
- Add to MetaCart
Monitoring of environmental phenomena with embedded networked sensing confronts the challenges of both unpredictable variability in the spatial distribution of phenomena, coupled with demands for a high spatial sampling rate in three dimensions. For example, low distortion mapping of critical solar radiation properties in forest environments may require two-dimensional spatial sampling rates of greater than 10 samples/m 2 over transects exceeding 1000 m 2. Clearly, adequate sampling coverage of such a transect requires an impractically large number of sensing nodes. This paper describes a new approach where the deployment of a combination of autonomous-articulated and static sensor nodes enables sufficient spatiotemporal sampling density over large transects to meet a general set of environmental mapping
A distributed coordination framework for wireless sensor and actor networks
- In Proceedings of the 6th ACM international
, 2005
"... a large number of heterogeneous nodes called sensors and actors. The collaborative operation of sensors enables the distributed sensing of a physical phenomenon, while the role of actors is to collect and process sensor data and perform appropriate actions. In this paper, a coordination framework fo ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 61 (4 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
a large number of heterogeneous nodes called sensors and actors. The collaborative operation of sensors enables the distributed sensing of a physical phenomenon, while the role of actors is to collect and process sensor data and perform appropriate actions. In this paper, a coordination framework for WSANs is addressed. A new sensor-actor coordination model is proposed, based on an event-driven clustering paradigm in which cluster formation is triggered by an event so that clusters are created on-the-fly to optimally react to the event itself and provide the required reliability with minimum energy expenditure. The optimal solution is determined by mathematical programming and a distributed solution is also proposed. In addition, a new model for actor-actor coordination is introduced for a class of coordination problems in which the area to be acted upon is optimally split among different actors. An auction-based distributed solution of the problem is also presented. Performance evaluation shows how global network objectives, such as compliance with real-time constraints and minimum energy consumption, can be reached in the proposed framework with simple interactions between sensors and actors that are suitable for large-scale networks of energy-constrained devices. Categories and Subject Descriptors:
Building Multirobot Coalitions Through Automated Task Solution Synthesis -- A group of robots can move to, or push boxes to, specified locations by sharing information when individual robots cannot perform the tasks separately
, 2006
"... This paper presents a reasoning system that enables a group of heterogeneous robots to form coalitions to accomplish a multirobot task using tightly coupled sensor sharing. Our approach, which we call ASyMTRe, maps environmental sensors and perceptual and motor control schemas to the required flow ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 56 (16 self)
- Add to MetaCart
This paper presents a reasoning system that enables a group of heterogeneous robots to form coalitions to accomplish a multirobot task using tightly coupled sensor sharing. Our approach, which we call ASyMTRe, maps environmental sensors and perceptual and motor control schemas to the required flow of information through the multirobot system, automatically reconfiguring the connections of schemas within and across robots to synthesize valid and efficient multirobot behaviors for accomplishing a multirobot task. We present the centralized anytime ASyMTRe configuration algorithm, proving that the algorithm is correct, and formally addressing issues of completeness and optimality. We then present a distributed version of ASyMTRe, called ASyMTRe-D, which uses communication to enable distributed coalition formation. We validate the centralized approach by applying the ASyMTRe methodology to two application scenarios: multirobot transportation and multirobot box pushing. We then validate the ASyMTRe-D implementation in the multirobot transportation task, illustrating its fault-tolerance capabilities. The advantages of this new approach are that it: 1) enables robots to synthesize new task solutions using fundamentally different combinations of sensors and effectors for different coalition compositions and 2) provides a general mechanism for sharing sensory information across networked robots.
Teamwork in Self-Organized Robot Colonies
, 2009
"... Swarm robotics draws inspiration from decentralized self-organizing biological systems in general and from the collective behavior of social insects in particular. In social insect colonies, many tasks are performed by higher order group or team entities, whose task-solving capacities transcend thos ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 43 (21 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
Swarm robotics draws inspiration from decentralized self-organizing biological systems in general and from the collective behavior of social insects in particular. In social insect colonies, many tasks are performed by higher order group or team entities, whose task-solving capacities transcend those of the individual participants. In this paper, we investigate the emergence of such higher order entities. We report on an experimental study in which a team of physical robots performs a foraging task. The robots are “identical ” in hardware and control. They make little use of memory and take actions purely on the basis of local information. Our study advances the current state of the art in swarm robotics with respect to the number of real-world robots engaging in teamwork (up to 12 robots in the most challenging experiment). To the best of our knowledge, in this paper we present the first self-organized system of robots that displays a dynamical hierarchy of teamwork (with cooperation also occurring among higher order entities). Our study shows that teamwork requires neither individual recognition nor differences between individuals. This result might also contribute to the ongoing debate on the role of these characteristics in the division of labor in social insects.
Game theoretic control for robot teams
- In Proc. of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
, 2005
"... Abstract — In the real world, noisy sensors and limited communication make it difficult for robot teams to coordinate in tighty coupled tasks. Team members cannot simply apply single-robot solution techniques for partially observable problems in parallel because they do not take into account the rec ..."
Abstract
-
Cited by 43 (1 self)
- Add to MetaCart
(Show Context)
Abstract — In the real world, noisy sensors and limited communication make it difficult for robot teams to coordinate in tighty coupled tasks. Team members cannot simply apply single-robot solution techniques for partially observable problems in parallel because they do not take into account the recursive effect that reasoning about the beliefs of others has on policy generation. Instead, we must turn to a game theoretic approach to model the problem correctly. Partially observable stochastic games (POSGs) provide a solution model for decentralized robot teams, however, this model quickly becomes intractable. In previous work we presented an algorithm for lookahead search in POSGs. Here we present an extension which reduces computation during lookahead by clustering similar observation histories together. We show that by clustering histories which have similar profiles of predicted reward, we can greatly reduce the computation time required to solve a POSG while maintaining a good approximation to the optimal policy. We demonstrate the power of the clustering algorithm in a real-time robot controller as well as for a simple benchmark problem.
