Computer Engineering Commons^™

Distributed Control For Robotic Swarms Using Centroidal Voronoi Tessellations, Shelley Rounds

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis introduces a design combining an emerging area in robotics with a well established mathematical research topic: swarm intelligence and Voronoi tessellations, respectively. The main objective for this research is to design an economical and robust swarm system to achieve distributed control. This research combines swarm intelligence with Voronoi tessellations to localize a source and create formations. Extensive software coding must be implemented for this design, such as the development of a discrete centroidal Voronoi tessellation (CVT) algorithm.

The ultimate purpose of this research is to advance the existing Mobile Actuator and Sensor Network (MASnet) platform to eventually develop …

Deep Sea Underwater Robotic Exploration In The Ice-Covered Arctic Ocean With Auvs, Clayton Kunz, Chris Murphy, Richard Camilli, Hanumant Singh, John Bailey, Ryan M. Eustice, Chris Roman, Michael Jakuba, Claire Willis, Taichi Sato, Ko-Ichi Nakamura, Robert A. Sohn

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

The Arctic seafloor remains one of the last unexplored areas on Earth. Exploration of this unique environment using standard remotely operated oceanographic tools has been obstructed by the dense Arctic ice cover. In the summer of 2007 the Arctic Gakkel Vents Expedition (AGAVE) was conducted with the express intention of understanding aspects of the marine biology, chemistry and geology associated with hydrothermal venting on the section of the mid-ocean ridge known as the Gakkel Ridge. Unlike previous research expeditions to the Arctic the focus was on high resolution imaging and sampling of the deep seafloor. To accomplish our goals we …

Enhancing Canine Disaster Search, James Tran, Alexander Ferworn, Cristina Ribeiro, Mieso Denko

Publications and Scholarship

This paper describes canine augmentation technology (CAT) for use in urban search and rescue (USAR). CAT is a WiFi enabled sensor array that is worn by a trained canines deployed in urban disasters. The system includes, but is not limited to, cameras that provide emergency responders with real-time data to remotely monitor, analyze and take action during USAR operations. An analysis is made of the current tools available to USAR workers including rescue robots and canine search teams. From this analysis came the design of CAT-a system that extracts the strengths of each available USAR tool and combines them to …

High-Resolution Optical Imaging For Deep-Water Archaeology, Hanumant Singh, Christopher Roman, Oscar Pizarro, Brendan Foley, Ryan Eustice, Ali Can

Christopher N. Roman

No abstract provided.

Analysis And Experiments For Tendril-Type Robots, Lara Cowan

All Theses

New models for the Tendril continuous backbone robot, and other similarly constructed robots, are introduced and expanded upon in this thesis. The ability of the application of geometric models to result in more precise control of the Tendril manipulator is evaluated on a Tendril prototype. We examine key issues underlying the design and operation of 'soft' robots featuring continuous body ('continuum') elements. Inspiration from nature is used to develop new methods of operation for continuum robots. These new methods of operation are tested in experiments to evaluate their effectiveness and potential.

Comparing Discrimination And Cfa For Selecting Tracking Features, Damian M. Lyons, D. Frank Hsu

Faculty Publications

The ability of a tracker to isolate the foreground target from the background of an image is crucially dependent on the set of features selected for tracking. Collins & Liu [2] propose an on-line, adaptive approach to selecting the set of features based on the insight that the set of features that best discriminate between target and background classes is the best set to use for tracking. In previous work [10], we have proposed an approach based on Combinatorial Fusion Analysis for selecting features for Real-Time tracking. We discuss the relative merits of the two methods and motivate their combination …

Implementación De Una Interfaz Hmi Para La Operación Del Módulo Control De Procesos Del Laboratorio De Robótica, Jhon Jairo Grueso Delgado

Ingeniería en Automatización

Para poder implementar una interfaz humano-máquina en el modulo control de procesos, se deben conocer los distintos tipos de software diseñados para el diseño de esta aplicación así como el estándar utilizado para la comunicación entre PLC y computador. Antes de entrar a implementar la interfaz se realizó una descripción del modulo para conocer sus componentes y realizar pruebas a los mismos. Se hizo una revisión a los planos existentes, realizando algunos cambios en las conexiones eléctricas para poner en funcionamiento el equipo, después de estar funcionando se procedió a realizar la configuración del PLC que es uno de los …

An Improved Robust Projection Identification Algorithm To Manned Maneuvering Units, Bin Xu

Bin Xu

空间载人机动装置(MMU )在进行救援过程中, 其动力学参数存在很大的不确定性。为解决这一辨识问题, 本文首先推导系统关于各动力学参数的线性化模型, 然后结合该线性模型的特点, 提出了一种用于估计动力学参数的改进鲁棒投影算法, 并在理论上分析了该算法的收敛性质, 数字仿真验证了方法的有效性。

Design Concepts And Process Analysis For Transmuter Fuel Manufacturing, Georg F. Mauer

Fuels Campaign (TRP)

The safe and effective manufacturing of actinide-bearing fuels for any transmutation strategy requires that the entire manufacturing process be contained within a shielded hot cell environment. To ensure that the fabrication process is feasible, the entire process must be designed for remote operation. The equipment must be reliable enough to perform over several decades, and also easy to maintain or repair remotely. The facility must also be designed to facilitate its own decontamination and decommissioning. In addition to these design factors, the potential viability of any fuel fabrication process will also be impacted by a number of variables, such as …

Byzantium Beneath The Black Sea, Bridget Buxton, Robert Ballard, Michael Brennan, Dwight Coleman, Katy Croff, Christopher Roman, Dan Davis, Dennis Piechota, Sergiy Voronov

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

This poster reports on the August 2007 Black Sea Expedition of the Institute for Archaeological Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island (IAO) and the Institute for Exploration (IFE), in collaboration with the Department of the Underwater Heritage of Ukraine. This year’s work marks a new phase in a multi-year (2000–2012) archaeological and oceanographic survey of the Black Sea. 2007 fieldwork focuses on two Byzantine shipwrecks. The 10th century C.E. shipwreck Chersonesos A (discovered in 2006) lies at 140 m depth in the suboxic zone off the Crimean peninsula. The ship carried a cargo of one-handled jars of a widely …

Byzantium Beneath The Black Sea, Bridget Buxton, Robert Ballard, Michael Brennan, Dwight Coleman, Katy Croff, Christopher Roman, Dan Davis, Dennis Piechota, Sergiy Voronov

Christopher N. Roman

This poster reports on the August 2007 Black Sea Expedition of the Institute for Archaeological Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island (IAO) and the Institute for Exploration (IFE), in collaboration with the Department of the Underwater Heritage of Ukraine. This year’s work marks a new phase in a multi-year (2000–2012) archaeological and oceanographic survey of the Black Sea. 2007 fieldwork focuses on two Byzantine shipwrecks. The 10th century C.E. shipwreck Chersonesos A (discovered in 2006) lies at 140 m depth in the suboxic zone off the Crimean peninsula. The ship carried a cargo of one-handled jars of a widely …