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Arun Mahendra: March 2007 Successful Sigma Xi Research Proposal
PROPOSED INVESTIGATION: "A Behavior-Based Approach to Piloting Autonomous Mobile Robots"
Using scouts to gain information about the surroundings makes navigation simpler, less expensive, and less dangerous. A group of robots can navigate from one point to another efficiently (in the absence of dynamic changes) if sufficient information about the environment is available in advance. A "scout" robot with improved sensors and processing power can acquire more comprehensive and precise information about the environment and prepare a simple navigation plan to then be distributed to other "follower" robots. To ensure robustness and simplicity, the plan actually consists of a hierarchy of behaviors (in the sense of Brooks 1986) such as collision-avoidance, circling around obstacles, or not crowding the pilot.
Our work is part of the field of Cooperative or Collective Robotics, of which a popular representative is robot soccer. Applications range widely from search-and-rescue to space exploration to military. See Farinelli 2004 for an overview from the viewpoint of coordination.
For validation, we use as a scout an AmigoBot (TM) mounted with a VIA EPIA NL10000 Nano-ITX Mainboard for advanced processing and CMUcam(TM) for visual input in addition to 8 sonar units. It is a crucial step in this project to integrate the existing on-board microcontroller (MCU) of the AmigoBot (TM) with the Nano-ITX-based computer, since the existing MCU does not have sufficient computing power for visual processing. The follower is an unmodified AmigoBot (TM), which uses only a radio modem and sonar units.
A successful test would be a proof of method to confirm that this approach can be applied to pilot a group of robots from one location to another. Subsequent testing will quantify the robustness of the method and find its limitations.
BUDGET
Parts needed to build an embedded computer:
VIA EPIA NL10000 Nano-ITX Mainboard: $347.00
Serener GN-L01 Fanless Nano-ITX Case: $125.00
Transcend DDR2 533 Memory 1GB: $160.00
Notebook 2.5" IDE HD 30GB Hitachi Endurastar Extreme Environment: $295.00
Total amount requested from Sigma Xi = $927.00
Equipment covered by Tarleton State University ORG grant (see below), and other departmental funds: embedded computer kit identical to the one above ($927.00)
Available departmental resources for the project:
1) Robotic camera CMU CAM2: $140,00
2) Wireless-G Range Extender: $90 x 3 = $270.00
3) AmigoBot (TM) robot platforms: $2,300 x 2 = $4,600.00
4) Wireless router = $70.00
5) Wireless access points = $50 x 3 = $150.00
6) Computing facilities (PCs)
7) Utilities, lab space
ADDITIONAL FUNDS: Tarleton State University ORG grant 2007
PREVIOUS GRANTS: Tarleton State University ORG grant 2006
LITERATURE CITATIONS
B.A. Cartwright and T.S. Collett, Landmark Learning in Bees, Journal of Comparative Physiology, 151, 521-543 (1983)
R. Brooks, A Robust Layered Control System for a Mobile Robot, IEEE Journal of Robotics and Automation, 2, 14-23 (1986)
P. Maes and R. Brooks, Learning to Coordinate Behaviors, in Proceedings of the 8th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 796-82, Morgan Kaufman (1990)
M. Mataric, Integration of Representation into Goal-Driven Behavior-Based Robots, IEEE Trans. on Robotics and Automation, 8:3, 304-312 (1992)
M. Agapie, Preshaping Commands to Control Robotic Arm, technical report presented to the Department of Mechanics, Polytechnic Institute of Turin, Italy, June 1992.
U. Nehmzow, Animal and Robot Navigation, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 15:71-81 (1995)
R. Gutierrez-Osuna and R.C. Luo, Lola. Probalistic Navigation for Topological Maps, AI Magazine, Spring, 55-62 (1996)
T.S. Collett, Insect Navigation En Route to the Goal: Multiple Strategies for the Use of Landmarks, The Journal of Experimental Biology, 199, 227-235 (1996)
Y. Matsumoto et al., Visual Navigation Using Omnidirectional View Sequence, in proceedings of IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems - IROS '99, 317-322 (1999)
S. Marsland, et al., Learning to Select Distinctive Landmarks for Mobile Robot Navigation, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 37, 241-260 (2001)
A. Farinelli, Multi-Robot Systems: A Classification Focused on Coordination, IEEE Trans. Syst. Man, Cybern. B, vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 2015 (2004)
Mahendra, A. Behavior-based Robotics: A Wall-Following Behavior, 2006 (poster presented at Texas A&M "Pathways to the Doctorate" Student research symposium, Prairie View, TX)
Agapie, A. and Agapie, M., Transition Functions for Evolutionary Algorithms on Continuous State-Space, Journal of Mathematical Models and Algorithms (JMMA), published online: 23 Sept 2006
Mahendra, A., Behavior-based Robotics: Interacting Mobile Robots," 2007 (poster, to be presented at the TSU Sigma Xi Student research symposium)