Miniature mobile robots for plume tracking and source localization research

Abstract

Cooperating robots have the potential to achieve tasks more quickly and with a higher probability of success than a single robot acting alone. This paper describes a system of miniature mobile robots and the algorithms used to demonstrate cooperative plume tracking and source localization. The robots share sensor information, but individually decide a course of action based on their estimate of the plume eld. This algorithm was implemented on a group of miniature mobile robots capable of measuring temperature plumes. Experimental results are presented for a representative test run. We also describe a 'next-generation' miniature mobile robot under development that occupies only 0.25 cubic inches in volume.

Algorithms and analysis for underwater vehicle plume tracing.

“…For example, if the j th and i th positions all occur in a constant z plane, then the 10 th entry in v 11 is nonzero, which corresponds to the z 2 coefficient a 9 . Consequently, there is no quadratic z dependence and columns [4,6,7,10] from D are removed, whereas columns [1,2,3,5,8,9] are retained. The reduced plume model is then a quadratic function of x and y only.…”

“…A.5 input r2.m % input file nx=2; ny=5; nz=1; % total number of bugs nxy=nx*ny*nz; % close boun= [-20,20,-20,20,0,10]; bounp=boun; % far %boun= [-50,50,-50,50,0,10]; %bounp=boun; %boun=1.3*[28,22,28,22,1,9]; %bounp=1.3* [-30,30,-30,30,0,10]; aleft=boun(1); aright=boun (2); % left/right boundaries bleft=boun (3); bright=boun (4); % left/right boundaries cleft=boun (5); cright=boun(6); % left/right boundaries apl=bounp (1); apr=bounp (2); % left/right boundaries for plotting bpl=bounp (3); bpr=bounp(4); cpl=bounp (5); cpr=bounp(6); dx=(aright-aleft)/nx; % partition up the grid dy=(bright-bleft)/ny; dz=(cright-cleft)/nz; dxmax=1; dymax=1; dzmax=1; % max allowable dx,dy step for optimization dxmax=dxmax*ones (1,nxy); dymax=dymax*ones (1,nxy); dzmax=dzmax*ones(1,nxy); sensornoise=0 * 1/500*(rand(nxy,1)-0.5); rangenoise= 0 * 1/10*(rand(nxy,1)-0.5); percentSN = 0; scrmin = 100; scrmax = 100;…”

“…; end xLS(k+1,:)=xa; yLS(k+1,:)=ya; zLS(k+1,:)=za; end figure(1), subplot(221), plot3(xa,ya,za,'ko','markersize',6,'linewidth',2); %plot(xb,yb,'ro','markersize',6,'linewidth',2); for i=1:nxy, plot3(xLS(:,i),yLS(:,i),zLS(:,i),'k:','linewidth',1); end %for i=1:nxy, plot(xTLS(:,i),yTLS(:,i),'r','linewidth',1); end xlabel('x','fontsize',14,'fontweight','bold'), ylabel('y','fontsize',14,'fontweight','bold'), title('Robot movement is x to o','fontsize',14,'fontweight','bold'); zlabel('z','fontsize',14,'fontweight','bold'), h=gca; set(h,'fontsize',14); grid on hold off subplot(222), plot3(xa,ya,za,'ko','markersize',6,'linewidth',2); for i=1:nxy, plot3(xLS(:,i),yLS(:,i),zLS(:,i),'k:','linewidth',1); end xlabel('x','fontsize',14,'fontweight','bold'), ylabel('y','fontsize',14,'fontweight','bold'), title('Robot movement is x to o','fontsize',14,'fontweight','bold'); zlabel('z','fontsize',14,'fontweight','bold'), h=gca; set(h,'fontsize',14); grid on hold off view (2) subplot(223), plot3(xa,ya,za,'ko','markersize',6,'linewidth',2); for i=1:nxy, plot3(xLS(:,i),yLS(:,i),zLS(:,i),'k:','linewidth',1); end xlabel('x','fontsize',14,'fontweight','bold'), ylabel('y','fontsize',14,'fontweight','bold'), title('Robot movement is x to o','fontsize',14,'fontweight','bold'); zlabel('z','fontsize',14,'fontweight','bold'), h=gca; set(h,'fontsize',14); grid on hold off view(90,0) subplot(224), plot3(xa,ya,za,'ko','markersize',6,'linewidth',2); for i=1:nxy, plot3(xLS(:,i),yLS(:,i),zLS(:,i),'k:','linewidth',1); end xlabel('x','fontsize',14,'fontweight','bold'), ylabel('y','fontsize',14,'fontweight','bold'), title('Robot movement is x to o','fontsize',14,'fontweight','bold'); zlabel('z','fontsize',14,'fontweight','bold'), h=gca; set(h,'fontsize',14); grid on hold off view(0,0) % XTRAS %xcm=zeros(nstep+1,1); ycm=zeros(nstep+1,1); %xcm(1,1)=sum(xa)/nxy; ycm(1,1)=sum(ya)/nxy; %plot(xa,ya,'bx',xcm (1,1),ycm (1,1),'mx'); hold on, %plot(xcm(:,1),ycm(:,1),'m') %plot(xcm(nstep+1,1),ycm(nstep+1,1),'mo') A.8 Local3DSN.m function [xLS,yLS,zLS]=dscc3D(fcn,nstep) % function [xLS,yLS,xTLS,yTLS]=dscc(fcn,cflag,nstep,xa,ya,za) % % fcn: character string of function (must also have input fcn name) % nstep: number of steps (updates) to perform % xa, ya: if cflag='onn', then starting positions for continuation % if cflag='off', then this will be reset % % (xa,ya,za,'kx','markersize',10,'linewidth',2); hold on, subplot(222), plot3 (xa,ya,za,'kx','markersize',10,'linewidth',2); hold on, subplot(223), plot3 (xa,ya,za,'kx','markersize',10,'linewidth',2); hold on, subplot(224), plot3 (xa,ya,za,'kx','markersize',10,'linewidth',2); hold on, for k=1:nstep % for update at once % eval(['bLS=' fcn '(xa,ya,za);']); % bLS = bLS*(1 + percentSN/100 * 2*(rand(1,nxy)-0.5)); for i=1:nxy % for update when ready eval (['bLS=' fcn '(xa,ya,za);']); bLS = bLS*(1 + percentSN/100 * 2*(rand(1,nxy)-0.5)); xa = xa + percentPN * 2*(rand(1,nxy)-0.5); ya = ya + percentPN * 2*(rand(1,nxy)-0.5);…”

Design of a Micro-Autonomous Robot for Use in Astronomical Instruments

“…A number of small robots have previously been developed such as ANTS (McLurkin 1996), Epsons robot Monsieur, SWARM-BOT (Mondada et al 2003), ALICE (Caprari et al 1998;Caprari et al 2000;Caprari 2003;Caprari et al 2001) amongst others (Byrne et al 2002;Fukuda and Eeyama 1994;Fukuda et al 1999;Mitsumoto et al 1995;Kim et al 1996;Dario et al 1998). Unfortunately these robots are part of research programs and are not available as off-the-shelf items.…”

Omni-directional Mobile Microrobots on a Millimeter Scale for a Microassembly System

“…The Microprocessor and Interface Lab of EPEL developed a 1cm 3 car-like microrobot with two Smoovy 3 mm motors. Sandia National Lab developed a 4cm 3 volume and 28g weight microrobot for plume tracking with two Smoovy micromotors with a car-like steering (Byrne et al, 2002). AI lab in MIT designed Ants microrobot with a 36.75cm 3 volume and 33g weight, driven like a tank with pedrail (Mclurkin, 1996).…”