Multi-robot Exploration for Environmental Monitoring

Multi-robot Exploration for Environmental Monitoring PDF

Author: Kshitij Tiwari

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2019-11-29

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 0128176083

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Multi-robot Exploration for Environmental Monitoring: The Resource Constrained Perspective provides readers with the necessary robotics and mathematical tools required to realize the correct architecture. The architecture discussed in the book is not confined to environment monitoring, but can also be extended to search-and-rescue, border patrolling, crowd management and related applications. Several law enforcement agencies have already started to deploy UAVs, but instead of using teleoperated UAVs this book proposes methods to fully automate surveillance missions. Similarly, several government agencies like the US-EPA can benefit from this book by automating the process. Several challenges when deploying such models in real missions are addressed and solved, thus laying stepping stones towards realizing the architecture proposed. This book will be a great resource for graduate students in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Robotics, Machine Learning and Mechatronics. Analyzes the constant conflict between machine learning models and robot resources Presents a novel range estimation framework tested on real robots (custom built and commercially available)

Robot Ecology

Robot Ecology PDF

Author: Magnus Egerstedt

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-12-28

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 069121168X

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A revolutionary new framework that draws on insights from ecology for the design and analysis of long-duration robots Robots are increasingly leaving the confines of laboratories, warehouses, and manufacturing facilities, venturing into agriculture and other settings where they must operate in uncertain conditions over long timescales. This multidisciplinary book draws on the principles of ecology to show how robots can take full advantage of the environments they inhabit, including as sources of energy. Magnus Egerstedt introduces a revolutionary new design paradigm—robot ecology—that makes it possible to achieve long-duration autonomy while avoiding catastrophic failures. Central to ecology is the idea that the richness of an organism’s behavior is a function of the environmental constraints imposed by its habitat. Moving beyond traditional strategies that focus on optimal policies for making robots achieve targeted tasks, Egerstedt explores how to use survivability constraints to produce both effective and provably safe robot behaviors. He blends discussions of ecological principles with the development of control barrier functions as a formal approach to constraint-based control design, and provides an in-depth look at the design of the SlothBot, a slow and energy-efficient robot used for environmental monitoring and conservation. Visionary in scope, Robot Ecology presents a comprehensive and unified methodology for designing robots that can function over long durations in diverse natural environments.

Data Fusion for Situation Monitoring, Incident Detection, Alert and Response Management

Data Fusion for Situation Monitoring, Incident Detection, Alert and Response Management PDF

Author: E. Shahbazian

Publisher: IOS Press

Published: 2006-03-02

Total Pages: 832

ISBN-13: 1607501244

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Data Fusion is a very broad interdisciplinary technology domain. It provides techniques and methods for; integrating information from multiple sources and using the complementarities of these detections to derive maximum information about the phenomenon being observed; analyzing and deriving the meaning of these observations and predicting possible consequences of the observed state of the environment; selecting the best course of action; and controlling the actions. Here, the focus is on the more mature phase of data fusion, namely the detection and identification / classification of phenomena being observed and exploitation of the related methods for Security-Related Civil Science and Technology (SST) applications. It is necessary to; expand on the data fusion methodology pertinent to Situation Monitoring, Incident Detection, Alert and Response Management; discuss some related Cognitive Engineering and visualization issues; provide an insight into the architectures and methodologies for building a data fusion system; discuss fusion approaches to image exploitation with emphasis on security applications; discuss novel distributed tracking approaches as a necessary step of situation monitoring and incident detection; and provide examples of real situations, in which data fusion can enhance incident detection, prevention and response capability. In order to give a logical presentation of the data fusion material, first the general concepts are highlighted (Fusion Methodology, Human Computer Interactions and Systems and Architectures), closing with several applications (Data Fusion for Imagery, Tracking and Sensor Fusion and Applications and Opportunities for Fusion).

Achieving Consensus in Robot Swarms

Achieving Consensus in Robot Swarms PDF

Author: Gabriele Valentini

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-02-14

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13: 3319536095

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This book focuses on the design and analysis of collective decision-making strategies for the best-of-n problem. After providing a formalization of the structure of the best-of-n problem supported by a comprehensive survey of the swarm robotics literature, it introduces the functioning of a collective decision-making strategy and identifies a set of mechanisms that are essential for a strategy to solve the best-of-n problem. The best-of-n problem is an abstraction that captures the frequent requirement of a robot swarm to choose one option from of a finite set when optimizing benefits and costs. The book leverages the identification of these mechanisms to develop a modular and model-driven methodology to design collective decision-making strategies and to analyze their performance at different level of abstractions. Lastly, the author provides a series of case studies in which the proposed methodology is used to design different strategies, using robot experiments to show how the designed strategies can be ported to different application scenarios.

Planning and Decision Making for Aerial Robots

Planning and Decision Making for Aerial Robots PDF

Author: Yasmina Bestaoui Sebbane

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2014-01-10

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 3319037072

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This book provides an introduction to the emerging field of planning and decision making for aerial robots. An aerial robot is the ultimate form of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, an aircraft endowed with built-in intelligence, requiring no direct human control and able to perform a specific task. It must be able to fly within a partially structured environment, to react and adapt to changing environmental conditions and to accommodate for the uncertainty that exists in the physical world. An aerial robot can be termed as a physical agent that exists and flies in the real 3D world, can sense its environment and act on it to achieve specific goals. So throughout this book, an aerial robot will also be termed as an agent. Fundamental problems in aerial robotics include the tasks of spatial motion, spatial sensing and spatial reasoning. Reasoning in complex environments represents a difficult problem. The issues specific to spatial reasoning are planning and decision making. Planning deals with the trajectory algorithmic development based on the available information, while decision making determines priorities and evaluates potential environmental uncertainties. The issues specific to planning and decision making for aerial robots in their environment are examined in this book and categorized as follows: motion planning, deterministic decision making, decision making under uncertainty and finally multi-robot planning. A variety of techniques are presented in this book, and a number of relevant case studies are examined. The topics considered in this book are multidisciplinary in nature and lie at the intersection of Robotics, Control Theory, Operational Research and Artificial Intelligence.

Trends in Control and Decision-Making for Human–Robot Collaboration Systems

Trends in Control and Decision-Making for Human–Robot Collaboration Systems PDF

Author: Yue Wang

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-01-24

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 3319405330

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This book provides an overview of recent research developments in the automation and control of robotic systems that collaborate with humans. A measure of human collaboration being necessary for the optimal operation of any robotic system, the contributors exploit a broad selection of such systems to demonstrate the importance of the subject, particularly where the environment is prone to uncertainty or complexity. They show how such human strengths as high-level decision-making, flexibility, and dexterity can be combined with robotic precision, and ability to perform task repetitively or in a dangerous environment. The book focuses on quantitative methods and control design for guaranteed robot performance and balanced human experience from both physical human-robot interaction and social human-robot interaction. Its contributions develop and expand upon material presented at various international conferences. They are organized into three parts covering: one-human–one-robot collaboration; one-human–multiple-robot collaboration; and human–swarm collaboration. Individual topic areas include resource optimization (human and robotic), safety in collaboration, human trust in robot and decision-making when collaborating with robots, abstraction of swarm systems to make them suitable for human control, modeling and control of internal force interactions for collaborative manipulation, and the sharing of control between human and automated systems, etc. Control and decision-making algorithms feature prominently in the text, importantly within the context of human factors and the constraints they impose. Applications such as assistive technology, driverless vehicles, cooperative mobile robots, manufacturing robots and swarm robots are considered. Illustrative figures and tables are provided throughout the book. Researchers and students working in controls, and the interaction of humans and robots will learn new methods for human–robot collaboration from this book and will find the cutting edge of the subject described in depth.

Robotic Mapping and Exploration

Robotic Mapping and Exploration PDF

Author: Cyrill Stachniss

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2009-05-06

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 3642010970

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"Robotic Mapping and Exploration" is an important contribution in the area of simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) for autonomous robots, which has been receiving a great deal of attention by the research community in the latest few years. The contents are focused on the autonomous mapping learning problem. Solutions include uncertainty-driven exploration, active loop closing, coordination of multiple robots, learning and incorporating background knowledge, and dealing with dynamic environments. Results are accompanied by a rich set of experiments, revealing a promising outlook toward the application to a wide range of mobile robots and field settings, such as search and rescue, transportation tasks, or automated vacuum cleaning.

Recent Advances in Robot Path Planning Algorithms: a Review of Theory and Experiment

Recent Advances in Robot Path Planning Algorithms: a Review of Theory and Experiment PDF

Author: Hadi Jahanshahi

Publisher:

Published: 2020-03-23

Total Pages: 135

ISBN-13: 9781536167955

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The dominant theme of this book is to introduce the different path planning methods and present some of the most appropriate ones for robotic routing; methods that are capable of running on a variety of robots and are resistant to disturbances; being real-time, being autonomous, and the ability to identify high risk areas and risk management are the other features that will be mentioned in the introduction of the methods. The introduction of the profound significance of the robots and delineation of the navigation and routing theme is provided in the first chapter of the book. The second chapter is concerned with the subject of routing in unknown environments. In the first part of this chapter, the family of bug algorithms including are described. In the following, several conventional methods are submitted. The last part of this chapter is dedicated to the introduction of two recently developed routing methods. In Chapter 3, routing is reviewed in the known environment in which the robot either utilizes the created maps by extraneous sources or makes use of the sensor in order to prepare the maps from the local environment. The robot path planning relying on the robot vision sensors and applicable computing hardware are concentrated in the fourth chapter. The first part of this chapter deals with routing methods supported mapping capabilities. The second part manages the routing dependent on vision sensor typically known as the best sensor within the routing subject. The movement of two-dimensional robots with two or three degrees of freedom is analyzed within the third part of this chapter. In Chapter 5, the performance of a few of the foremost important routing methods initiating from the second to fourth chapters is conferred regarding the implementation in various environments. The first part of this chapter is engaged in the implementation of the algorithms Bug1, Bug2, and Distbug on the pioneering robot. In the second part, a theoretical technique is planned to boost the robot's performance in line with obstacle collision avoidance. This method, underlying the tangential escape, seeks to proceed the robot through various obstacles with curved corners. In the third and fourth parts of this chapter, path planning in different environments is preceded in the absence and the presence of danger space. Accordingly, four approaches, named artificial fuzzy potential field, linguistic technique, Markov decision making processes, and fuzzy Markov decision making have been proposed in two following parts and enforced on the Nao humanoid robot.