Robotics Commons^™

Reconode: Towards An Autonomous Multi-Robot Team Agent For Usar, Kang Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Urban search and rescue (USAR) robots can benefit from small size as it facilitates movement in cramped quarters. Yet, small size limits actuator power, sensor payloads, computational capacity and battery life. We are alleviating these issues by developing the hardware and software infrastructure for high performance, heterogeneous, dynamically-reconfigurable miniature USAR robots, as well as a host of other relevant applications. In this thesis, a generic modular embedded system architecture based on the RecoNode multiprocessor is proposed, which consists of a set of hardware and software modules that can be configured to construct various types of robot systems for dynamic and …

Multiple Robot Boundary Tracking With Phase And Workload Balancing, Michael Jay Boardman

Master's Theses

This thesis discusses the use of a cooperative multiple robot system as applied to distributed tracking and sampling of a boundary edge. Within this system the boundary edge is partitioned into subsegments, each allocated to a particular robot such that workload is balanced across the robots. Also, to minimize the time between sampling local areas of the boundary edge, it is desirable to minimize the difference between each robot’s progression (i.e. phase) along its allocated sub segment of the edge. The paper introduces a new distributed controller that handles both workload and phase balancing. Simulation results are used to illustrate …

Monocular Vision And Image Correlation To Accomplish Autonomous Localization, Matthew Paul Schlachtman

Master's Theses

For autonomous navigation, robots and vehicles must have accurate estimates of their current state (i.e. location and orientation) within an inertial coordinate frame. If a map is given a priori, the process of determining this state is known as localization. When operating in the outdoors, localization is often assumed to be a solved problem when GPS measurements are available. However, in urban canyons and other areas where GPS accuracy is decreased, additional techniques with other sensors and filtering are required.

This thesis aims to provide one such technique based on monocular vision. First, the system requires a map be generated, …

Control System Performance And Efficiency For A Mid-Depth Lagrangian Profiling Float, B. Mcgilvray, C. Roman

Christopher N. Roman

This paper presents the development of a new mid-depth Lagrangian profiling float with a primary emphasis on the control system performance and efficiency. While deep water floats have demonstrated much success in open ocean environments, many are not suited for the additional challenges associated with coastal regions. To study these regions, which are often subject to varying bathymetry within the operating range and higher variations in water density, a more advanced system is required. This new design utilizes pressure and altitude feedback to drive a high volume auto-ballasting system (ABS). The main operating modes of this float include step inputs …

Application Of Structured Light Imaging For High Resolution Mapping Of Underwater Archaeological Sites, Chris Roman, Gabrielle Inglis, James Rutter

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

This paper presents results from recent work using structured light laser profile imaging to create high resolution bathymetric maps of underwater archaeological sites. Documenting the texture and structure of submerged sites is a difficult task and many applicable acoustic and photographic mapping techniques have recently emerged. This effort was completed to evaluate laser profile imaging in comparison to stereo imaging and high frequency multibeam mapping. A ROV mounted camera and inclined 532 nm sheet laser were used to create profiles of the bottom that were then merged into maps using platform navigation data. These initial results show very promising resolution …

Constrained Stereo Correspondence For 3d Sea-Floor Reconstruction, Gabrielle Inglis, Chris Roman

Christopher N. Roman

No abstract provided.

Anomaly Detection In Unknown Environments Using Wireless Sensor Networks, Yuanyuan Li

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the problem of distributed anomaly detection in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). A challenge of designing such systems is that the sensor nodes are battery powered, often have different capabilities and generally operate in dynamic environments. Programming such sensor nodes at a large scale can be a tedious job if the system is not carefully designed. Data modeling in distributed systems is important for determining the normal operation mode of the system. Being able to model the expected sensor signatures for typical operations greatly simplifies the human designer’s job by enabling the system to autonomously characterize the expected …

Detection And Filtering Of Landmark Occlusions Using Terrain Spatiograms, Damian M. Lyons

Faculty Publications

A team of robots cooperating to quickly produce a map needs to share landmark information between members so that the local maps can be accurately merged. However, the appearance of landmarks as seen by members of the team can change dramatically due to the phenomenon of occlusion.

We have previously presented an approach to landmark representation using Terrain Spatiograms – an extension to image spatiograms in which the spatial information relates to the scene rather than the image. Because this representation preserves depth structure, it is possible to identify and filter potential occlusions.

We present an approach to identifying and …

A Visual Imagination Approach To Cognitive Robotics, Damian M. Lyons, Sirhan Chaudhry, D. Paul Benjamin

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Cooperative Remote Sensing And Actuation Using Networked Unmanned Vehicles, Haiyang Chao

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation focuses on how to design and employ networked unmanned vehicles for remote sensing and distributed control purposes in the current information-rich world. The target scenarios are environmental or agricultural applications such as river/reservoir surveillance, wind profiling measurement, and monitoring/control of chemical leaks, etc. AggieAir, a small and low-cost unmanned aircraft system, is designed based on the remote sensing requirements from environmental monitoring missions. The state estimation problem and the advanced lateral flight controller design problem are further attacked focusing on the small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platform. Then the UAV-based remote sensing problem is focused with further flight …

Decentralized Coordination Of Multiple Autonomous Vehicles, Yongcan Cao

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation focuses on the study of decentralized coordination algorithms of multiple autonomous vehicles. Here, the term decentralized coordination is used to refer to the behavior that a group of vehicles reaches the desired group behavior via local interaction. Research is conducted towards designing and analyzing distributed coordination algorithms to achieve desired group behavior in the presence of none, one, and multiple group reference states.

Decentralized coordination in the absence of any group reference state is a very active research topic in the systems and controls society. We first focus on studying decentralized coordination problems for both single-integrator kinematics and …

A Computer Vision Application To Accurately Estimate Object Distance, Kayton B. Parekh

Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Honors Projects

Scientists have been working to create robots that perform manual work for years. However, creating machines that can navigate themselves and respond to their environment has proven to be difficult. One integral task to such research is to estimate the position of objects in the robot's visual field.

In this project we examine an implementation of computer vision depth perception. Our application uses color-based object tracking combined with model-based pose estimation to estimate the depth of specific objects in the view of our Pioneer 2 and Power Wheels robots. We use the Camshift algorithm for color-based object tracking, which uses …

Integrating Perception And Problem Solving To Predict Complex Object Behaviors, Damian M. Lyons, Sirhan Chaudhry, Marius Agica, John Vincent Monaco

Faculty Publications

One of the objectives of Cognitive Robotics is to construct robot systems that can be directed to achieve realworld goals by high-level directions rather than complex, low-level robot programming. Such a system must have the ability to represent, problem-solve and learn about its environment as well as communicate with other agents. In previous work, we have proposed ADAPT, a Cognitive Architecture that views perception as top-down and goaloriented and part of the problem solving process.

Our approach is linked to a SOAR-based problem-solving and learning framework. In this paper, we present an architecture for the perceptive and world modelling components …

Developing An Effective And Efficient Real Time Strategy Agent For Use As A Computer Generated Force, Kurt Weissgerber

Theses and Dissertations

Computer Generated Forces (CGF) are used to represent units or individuals in military training and constructive simulation. The use of CGF significantly reduces the time and money required for effective training. For CGF to be effective, they must behave as a human would in the same environment. Real Time Strategy (RTS) games place players in control of a large force whose goal is to defeat the opponent. The military setting of RTS games makes them an excellent platform for the development and testing of CGF. While there has been significant research in RTS agent development, most of the developed agents …

Thermal Robotic Arm Controlled Spraying Via Robotic Arm And Vision System, Dermot Breen

Doctoral

The Tribology Surface Engineering industry is a worldwide multi billion euro industry with significant health and safety risks. The thermal spraying sector of this industry employs the technique of applying molten surface coating material to a substrate via a thermal spray process which is implemented either by manual spraying or pre-programmed robotic systems. The development of autonomous robotic systems for thermal spraying surface coating would significantly improve production and profitability over pre-programmed systems and improve health and safety over manual spraying. The aim of this research was to investigate and develop through software simulation, physical modelling and testing the development …

Augmented Reality Navigation Interfaces Improve Human Performance In End-Effector Controlled Telerobotics, Keshav Chintamani

Wayne State University Dissertations

On the International Space Station (ISS) and space shuttles, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has used robotic manipulators extensively to perform payload handling and maintenance tasks. Teleoperating robots require expert skills and optimal performance is crucial to mission completion and crew safety. Degradation in performance is observed when manual control is mediated through remote camera views, resulting in poor end-effector navigation quality and extended task completion times. This thesis explores the application of three-dimensional augmented reality (AR) interfaces specifically designed to improve human performance during end-effector controlled teleoperations. A modular telerobotic test bed was developed for this purpose …

Detection And Filtering Of Landmark Occlusions Using Terrain Spatiograms, Damian M. Lyons

Posters

A team of robots cooperating to quickly produce a map needs to share landmark information between team members so that the local maps can be accurately merged. However, a landmark visible to one robot may be partially occluded to another! Terrain Spatiograms are a landmark representation in which the image spatial information relates to the scene rather than the image. This makes it possible to identify and filter potential landmark occlusions. We present an approach to identifying and filtering occlusions using Terrain Spatiograms, and we report experimental results on 20 landmark datasets for varying states of occlusion. We show that …

Synchronizing Real And Predicted Synthetic Video Imagery For Localization Of A Robot To A 3d Environment, Damian M. Lyons, Sirhan Chaudhry, D. Paul Benjamin

Faculty Publications

A mobile robot moving in an environment in which there are other moving objects and active agents, some of which may represent threats and some of which may represent collaborators, needs to be able to reason about the potential future behaviors of those objects and agents. In previous work, we presented an approach to tracking targets with complex behavior, leveraging a 3D simulation engine to generate predicted imagery and comparing that against real imagery. We introduced an approach to compare real and simulated imagery using an affine image transformation that maps the real scene to the synthetic scene in a …

Adaptive Pid Control Based On Rbf Network Approximating The Satellite Clock Thermal Model, Bin Xu

Bin Xu

The accuracy o f t ime information prov ided by sate llite clock g reat ly depends on its frequency stab ili􀀁 ty, w hich is up to the stability o f the co re tempera ture. Th is paper introduces an adaptive PID control for the sate llite c lock system whose mode l is approx imated based on RBF neural netw orks. Simu lation resu lts demonstrate the va lid ity o f the proposed contro.l

E-Quality: Using Dimensional Index Values Towards Improving Classification Accuracy, Prashanth Devaram

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

E-quality is a process through which inspection of the process and quality of the part produced is done online resulting in the improvement of the process and reduction in the amount of time consumed for the overall process. Automated quality control involves using a methodology to classify the parts based on the dimensions of the features on a part. However, achieving 100% classification accuracy is not an easy task, especially in area of quality control where small differences in dimensions result in part fall into a different category. In this study, a novel approach for modifying the data before being …