Visually Guided Cooperative Robot Actions Based on Information Quality

Sujan, Vivek A.; Dubowsky, Steven

doi:10.1007/s10514-005-6013-2

Cited by 13 publications

(16 citation statements)

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“…The most closely related work to the one presented here is probably that of [27] and [28]. In [27] the authors derive an entropy-based metric for determining optimal sensing poses for mobile robot agents that create a detailed three dimensional model of their environment.…”

Section: Entropy-based Approaches In Sensor Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In [27] the authors derive an entropy-based metric for determining optimal sensing poses for mobile robot agents that create a detailed three dimensional model of their environment. The main difference between [27] and our approach is that the underlying statistics are completely different. Here, radiation measurement statistics results in closed loop controllers which are both state and time dependent, making the stability analysis considerably more difficult.…”

Section: Entropy-based Approaches In Sensor Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Information Surfing for Radiation Map Building

Abdallah¹,

Cortez²,

Tanner³

et al. 2011

International Journal of Robotics and Automation

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We develop a control scheme for a group of mobile sensors to map radiation over a given planar polygonal region. The advantage of this methodology is that it provides quick situational awareness regarding radiation levels, which is being updated and refined in real-time as more measurements become available. The control algorithm is based on the concept of information surfing, where navigation is done by following information gradients, taking into account sensing performance and the dynamics of the observed process. It is tailored to cases of weak radioactivity, where source signals may be buried in background. We steer mobile sensors to locations which are critical points of a function that quantifies the information content of the measured signal, while * Corresponding author the time-asymptotic properties of the selected information metric facilitate the stability of the group motion. Information surfing allows for reactive mobile sensor network behavior and adaptation to environmental changes, as well as human retasking. Computer simulations and experiments are conducted to verify the asymptotic behavior of the robot group, and its distributed sensing and mapping capabilities.Key words: Sensor networks, cooperative control, radiation sensing MotivationThis work is motivated by the emerging threat of contamination from a malicious attack or accidental release of radioactive material. In such a case, a radiation map can be a valuable tool for rescue, response, and cleanup efforts. Although our focus is on an unexpected release of nuclear contaminants, our methods can also be applied to a wide range of other problems such as nuclear forensics and non proliferation, where robots could investigate the possibility that fissile material has been processed, by searching for small specks of that material.Existing technology in radiation detection is not well suited for the type of scenario described. Currently, searching for radiation sources is usually either done manually, by operators waving radiation counters in front of them as they walk, or by stationary portal monitors. The latter technology is used to detect radioactive sources in cargo or shipping containers at places such as ports of entry.Handheld radiation detectors do not provide any visual or statistical data map of the area in question. If human operators are used in the nuclear forensics problem, it is unlikely that their counters register any measurement at all, coming from a small amount of radioactive material or shielded special nuclear material (snm). Portal monitor systems on the other hand, while able to address the problem of scanning cargo for radioactive sources, lack the mobility needed when measurements are taken over a large area. Related ResearchExisting control design methods for multiple mobile robot coordination apply to problems ranging from topological mapping to formation and flocking tasks, as well as reconfigurable sensor networks. Sensor network deploymentReference [1] employs potential fields to reconfigure a mobile se...

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Section: Entropy-based Approaches In Sensor Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Entropy-based Approaches In Sensor Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information Surfing for Radiation Map Building

Abdallah¹,

Cortez²,

Tanner³

et al. 2011

International Journal of Robotics and Automation

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“…These tasks require robots to interact in a closely coordinated manner, which must often be dynamically determined. Although application-specific methods [7], [14] can be applied, they do not generalize or scale.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coalition coordination for tightly coupled multirobot tasks with sensor constraints

Parker

Kambhampati

2014

2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

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Abstract-Although many approaches have been developed to form robot coalitions that can achieve a multirobot task, no general methods exist to execute these coalitions, especially when the coordination among the robots is tightly coupled. In this paper, we propose a coordination mechanism as the first step to address coalition execution; it provides a flexible method to reason about synergies with overlapping coalitions (thus enabling multi-tasking robots in multi-robot tasks), which not only improves efficiency, but also reduces resource requirements in task execution. This means that our approach enables tasks that cannot be easily handled before, especially when critical resources are rare but commonly required. Our approach is based on the concept of sensor constraint, which is introduced by the tight coupling (e.g., information sharing) between the robots. We show that our algorithm is sound and complete in finding a coordination solution given a few assumptions, and discuss a distributed implementation. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the capabilities of this new approach.

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“…Compared with this problem, addressing multirobot tasks is more complex. Approaches that divide multirobot tasks into subtasks or roles using domain knowledge [1], [14] effectively reduce them to single-robot tasks so that the previous work can easily apply. Variants of the contract net protocol [15] are often used to coordinate the robots [8], [13], [16].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

IQ-ASyMTRe: Forming Executable Coalitions for Tightly Coupled Multirobot Tasks

Zhang

Parker

2013

IEEE Trans. Robot.

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Abstract-While most previous research on forming coalitions mainly concentrates on loosely coupled multirobot tasks, a more challenging problem is to address tightly coupled multirobot tasks that involve close robot coordinations, which often require capability sharing. General methods for autonomous capability sharing have been shown to greatly improve the flexibility of distributed systems. However, in addition to the interaction constraints between the robots and the environment as required by the tasks, these methods may introduce additional interaction constraints between the robots based on how the capabilities are shared. The satisfiability of these constraints in the current situation determines the feasibility of the potential coalitions. To achieve system autonomy, the ability to identify the potential coalitions that are feasible for task execution is critical. In this paper, we demonstrate a general approach that incorporates this capability based on the ASyMTRe architecture. The extended architecture, which is called IQ-ASyMTRe, is able to find coalitions in which these required constraints are satisfied. When used to form coalitions, IQ-ASyMTRe sets up only feasible coalitions, thus enabling tasks to be executed autonomously. We formally present the new architecture and prove that it is sound and complete, given certain assumptions. Simulations and experimental results are provided for different applications in which the robots are able to flexibly form coalitions that are ready to execute.

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Visually Guided Cooperative Robot Actions Based on Information Quality

Cited by 13 publications

References 50 publications

Information Surfing for Radiation Map Building

Information Surfing for Radiation Map Building

Coalition coordination for tightly coupled multirobot tasks with sensor constraints

IQ-ASyMTRe: Forming Executable Coalitions for Tightly Coupled Multirobot Tasks

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