No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Abstract-The goal of a robot formation control architecture is to get a number of robots into a specified form. To be effective and practical, the control architecture must be able to transition a group of robots from an initial swarm to a final formation. It must then be able to handle real-world events that could disrupt the formation, thus, requiring formation repair, obstacle avoidance, and changes in the formation. In previous work, we presented a distributed, reactive cellular automatabased formation control architecture capable of controlling any number of robots in formation at once. In this paper, we examine our architecture with respect to necessary characteristics to handle real-world occurrences. To address issues of formation repair and obstacle avoidance, the control architecture is extended by a distributed auctioning method that allows the robot formation to reconfigure autonomously.

Real-world systems are comprised of interdependent components creating integrated systems. These systems are developed by multidisciplinary teams. The goal of this project is the development of a comprehensive undergraduate course in robotics that encompasses various fields that are integral to robotic systems: Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. A main pedagogical goal of the course is to teach group dynamics and the skills necessary for interaction with people in different disciplines in multidisciplinary teams. Descriptions of the course and the hands-on lab assignments are presented along with course assessment.