RecoNode: A reconfigurable node for heterogeneous multi-robot search and rescue

Abstract

Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.upenn.edu/mlab_papers Part of the Engineering CommonsSuggested Citation: Voyles, R.M.; Povilus, S.; Mangharam, R.; Kang Li; , "RecoNode: A reconfigurable node for heterogeneous multi-robot search and rescue," Safety Security and Rescue Robotics (SSRR), 2010 IEEE International Workshop on , vol., no., pp.1-7, 26-30 July 2010 doi: 10.1109/SSRR.2010 ©2010 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE. AbstractSearch and rescue robots can benefit from small size as it facilitates access to voids and movement in cramped quarters. Yet, small robots cannot be the entire answer for urban search and rescue because small size limits the size of actuators, sensor payloads, computational capacity and battery capacity. Nonetheless, we are attempting to alleviate these limitations by developing the hardware and software infrastructure for heterogeneous, wireless sensor/actuator/control networks that is well-suited to miniature search and rescue robots, as well as a host of other relevant applications. These networks of application-specific sensors, actuators and intelligence will be assembled from a backbone that includes scalable computing, a flexible I/O bus, and multi-hop data networking. But two things will ultimately give our wireless infrastructure its novelty: a dual-baseband communications layer and the embedded virtual machine. The dual-baseband communications layer augments the standard data communication layer with a secondary, sub-millisecond synchronization layer to permit high-fidelity, deterministic, distributed control across the network. The determinism of this dual-baseband communications layer, in turn, enables the creation of the embedded virtual machine, which is a programming construct that abstracts away the physical sensor/actuator/control nodes. With this infrastructure, programming will not be done at the node level, as in conventional wireless sensor networks. Instead, programming will be done at the task level with port-based objects distributed across physical resources as necessary at either compile-time or run-time. At compile-time, the system can assist in the specification of the physical network, while at run-time the system can react to changes in configuration, such as nodes exhausting their batteries or losing connectivity. This paper describes progress todate on developing this scalable infrastructure, specifically the RecoNode high-performance, dynamicallyreconfigurable computational node for the Terminator-Bot crawling robot and the FireFly mid-performance node, as well as their real-time software. Abstract -Search and rescue robots can benefit from small size as it facilitates access to voids and movement in cramped quarters. Yet, small robots cannot b...

A heterogeneous system architecture for low-power wireless sensor nodes in compute-intensive distributed applications

“…While the RecoNode [Voyles2010] utilizes the visual information in search and rescue applications, [Shahzad2014] describes a visual particle detection mechanism for a condition monitoring system. Another hardware accelerator used for chemical process monitoring is proposed by [Goh2012].…”

A self-adaptation framework for resource constrained miniature search and rescue robots

“…The RecoNode is a high performance Reconfigurable Node of a heterogeneous wireless sensor and actuator network comprising both software and hardware components that are fully reconfigurable, both statically (offline) and dynamically (online) [11]. Illustrated in Fig.…”

“…More specifically, the EVM is the systems software around the embedded real-time operating system (RTOS) in each node, which facilitates the mechanisms to parametrically and programmatically control the operation of the node at runtime. It enables the control logic to dynamically assign tasks to controllers at runtime through task and network slot migration, partition and reallocation [11].…”

Fast‐Moving and Highly Adaptable Hollow Piezoelectric Miniature Robot

“…[1][2][3] They can access confined spaces or harsh conditions that conventional actuators cannot do due to their compact size, lightweight, straightforward design, and great adaptability. [4,5] As can be seen, there is a wide range of potential applications for miniature robots, including disaster relief, [6] remote reconnaissance, [7] and medical treatment. [8] There have been advances in the development of micro crawling robots, [9] microflying machines, [10] and micro underwater robots, [11] however, the focus of this work is on millimeter to centimeter-scale mobile robots.…”