We study the problem of dispersing a group of small robots in an unknown environment. The objective is to
cover the environment as much as possible while staying within communications range. We assume there is no
central control, the environment is unknown and with complex obstacles, the robots operate without any central
control, and have only limited communications with other robots and limited sensing capabilities. We present
algorithms and validate them experimentally in the Player/Stage simulation environment.
We have designed and built a set of miniature robots and developed a distributed software system to control them. We present experimental results on a surveillance task in which multiple robots patrol an area and watch for motion. We discuss how the limited communication bandwidth affects robot performance in accomplishing the task and analyze how performance depends on the number of robots that share the bandwidth.
KEYWORDS: Sensors, Robots, Actuators, Mobile robots, Environmental sensing, Signal processing, Process control, Robotics, Feedback control, Data processing
To be useful in the real world, robots need to be able to move safely in unstructured environments and achieve their given tasks despite unexpected environmental changes or failures of some of their sensors. The variability of the world makes it impractical to develop very detailed plans of actions before execution since the world might change before execution begins and thus invalidate the plan. We propose to generate the very detailed plan of actions needed to control a robot at execution time. This allows to obtain up-to-date information about the environment through sensors and to use it in deciding how to achieve the task. Our theory is based on the premise that proper application of knowledge in the integration and utilization of sensors and actuators increases the robustness of execution. In our approach we produce the detailed plan of primitive actions and execute it by using an object-oriented approach, in which primitive components contain domain specific knowledge and knowledge about the available sensors and actuators. These primitives perform signal and control processing as well as serve as an interface to high-level planning processes. This paper addresses the issue of what knowledge needs to be available about sensors, actuators and processes in order to be able to integrate their usage, and control them during execution. The proposed methods of execution works for any sensor/actuator existing on the robot when given such knowledge.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.