Computer Engineering Commons^™

Techniques And Directions For Building Very Large Agent Teams, Paul Scerri, Joseph A. Giampapa, Katia Sycara

Joseph Andrew Giampapa

We have developed probabilistic algorithms that leverage the associates network for distributed plan instantiation, role allocation, information sharing and adjustable autonomy with a team. By developing such new algorithms, we have been able to build teams of hundreds of cooperating agents, and test specific behaviors among tens of thousands of agents. In this paper, we describe the algorithms that we have developed, the tests that we subjected them to, and sketch some of the key challenges that remain to be addressed.

Evaluation Criteria For The Morse Simulation Environment, Joseph A. Giampapa

Joseph Andrew Giampapa

Abstract: "This document is intended for researchers who will be using the MORSE simulator for their team-oriented experiments. It specifies some initial criteria that can be used to evaluate the performance of the test subjects. This document also specifies the log events that are generated by MORSE and that can be used for such evaluations."

A Review Of Research Literature On Bilateral Negotiations, Cuihong Li, Joseph Giampapa, Katia Sycara-Cyranski

Joseph Andrew Giampapa

Abstract: "Automated bilateral negotiations are an important mechanism to realize efficient distributed matching in the Navy detailing system, and the presence of outside options is an outstanding feature of the negotiations. In this report we provide an extensive literature review on the research of bilateral negotiations in the fields of Economics and Artificial Intelligence. Three important dimensions are described to identify the negotiation environment and to build a research model. Preliminary considerations and suggestions are given in these dimensions on modelling the system. The review suggests that negotiations with outside options is a new and important research problem, yet it …

Financial News Analysis For Intelligent Portfolio Management, Young-Woo Seo, Joseph A. Giampapa, Katia Sycara

Joseph Andrew Giampapa

Abstract: "In this paper, we present Warren, a multi-agent system for intelligent portfolio management, which is motivated by the great benefits of working in teams within the domain of Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI) and TextMiner which takes advantage of information retrieval techniques to complement quantitative financial information. In the portfolio management domain, software agents that evaluate the risks associated with the individual companies in a portfolio should be able to read news articles that indicate the financial outlook of a company. There is a positive correlation between news reports on a company's financial outlook and its attractiveness as an investment. …

Walking And Running On Yielding And Fluidizing Ground, Feifei Quan, Tingnan Zhang, Chen Li, Pierangelo Masarati, Aaron M. Hoover, Paul Birkmeyer, Andrew Pullin, Ronald S. Fearing, Daniel I. Goldman

Aaron M. Hoover

We study the detailed locomotor mechanics of a small, lightweight robot (DynaRoACH, 10 cm, 25 g) which can move on a granular substrate of closely packed 3 mm diameter glass particles at speeds up to 50 cm/s (5 body length/s), approaching the performance of small, highperforming, desert-dwelling lizards. To reveal how the robot achieves this high performance, we used high speed imaging to capture kinematics, and developed a numerical multi-body simulation of the robot coupled to an experimentally validated discrete element method (DEM) simulation of the granular media. Average forward speeds measured in both experiment and simulation agreed well, and …

Getting It Right The First Time: Robot Mission Guarantees In The Presence Of Uncertainty, Damian Lyons, Ronald Arkin, Paramesh Nirmal, Shu Jiang, Tsung-Ming Liu, J Deeb

Peng Tang

Certain robot missions need to perform predictably in a physical environment that may only be poorly characterized in advance. We have previously developed an approach to establishing performance guarantees for behavior based controllers in a process-algebra framework. We extend that work here to include random variables, and we show how our prior results can be used to generate a Dynamic Bayesian Network for the coupled system of program and environment model. Verification is reduced to a filtering problem for this network. Finally, we present validation results that demonstrate the effectiveness of the verification of a multiple waypoint robot mission using …

Development Of A Novel Handheld Device For Active Compensation Of Physiological Tremor, Abhijit Saxena

Abhijit Saxena

In microsurgery, the human hand imposes certain limitations in accurately positioning the tip of a device such as scalpel. Any errors in the motion of the hand make microsurgical procedures difficult and involuntary motions such as hand tremors can make some procedures significantly difficult to perform. This is particularly true in the case of vitreoretinal microsurgery. The most familiar source of involuntary motion is physiological tremor. Real-time compensation of tremor is, therefore, necessary to assist surgeons to precisely position and manipulate the tool-tip to accurately perform a microsurgery. In this thesis, a novel handheld device (AID) is described for compensation …

Spatial Computing In An Orbital Environment: An Exploration Of The Unique Constraints Of This Special Case To Other Spatial Computing Environments, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

The creation of an orbital services model (where spacecraft expose their capabilities for use by other spacecraft as part of a service-for-hire or barter system) requires effective determination of how to best transmit information between the two collaborating spacecraft. Existing approaches developed for ad hoc networking (e.g., wireless networks with users entering and departing in a pseudo-random fashion) exist; however, these fail to generate optimal solutions as they ignore a critical piece of available information. This additional piece of information is the orbital characteristics of the spacecraft. A spacecraft’s orbit is nearly deterministic if the magnitude and direction of its …

Haptography: Capturing And Recreating The Rich Feel Of Real Surfaces, Katherine J. Kuchenbecker, Joseph Romano, William Mcmahan

William McMahan

Haptic interfaces, which allow a user to touch virtual and remote environments through a hand-held tool, have opened up exciting new possibilities for applications such as computer-aided design and robot-assisted surgery. Unfortunately, the haptic renderings produced by these systems seldom feel like authentic re-creations of the richly varied surfaces one encounters in the real world. We have thus envisioned the new approach of haptography, or haptic photography, in which an individual quickly records a physical interaction with a real surface and then recreates that experience for a user at a different time and/or place. This paper presents an overview of …

Image Sequence Geolocation With Human Travel Priors, Evangelos Kalogerakis, Olga Vesselova, James Hays, Alexei Efros, Aaron Hertzmann

Evangelos Kalogerakis

This paper presents a method for estimating geographic location for sequences of time-stamped photographs. A prior distribution over travel describes the likelihood of traveling from one location to another during a given time interval. This distribution is based on a training database of 6 million photographs from Flickr.com. An image likelihood for each location is defined by matching a test photograph against the training database. Inferring location for images in a test sequence is then performed using the Forward- Backward algorithm, and the model can be adapted to individual users as well. Using temporal constraints allows our method to geolocate …

Robust Course-Boundary Extraction Algorithms For Autonomous Vehicles, Chris Roman, Charles Reinholtz

Christopher N. Roman

Practical autonomous robotic vehicles require dependable methods for accurately identifying course or roadway boundaries. The authors have developed a method to reliably extract the boundary line using simple dynamic thresholding, noise filtering, and blob removal. This article describes their efforts to apply this procedure in developing an autonomous vehicle.

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles As Tools For Deep-Submergence Archaeology, Christopher N. Roman, Ian Roderick Mather

Christopher N. Roman

Marine archaeology beyond the capabilities of scuba divers is a technologically enabled field. The tool suite includes ship-based systems such as towed side-scan sonars and remotely operated vehicles, and more recently free-swimming autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Each of these platforms has various imaging and mapping capabilities appropriate for specific scales and tasks. Broadly speaking, AUVs are becoming effective tools for locating, identifying, and surveying archaeological sites. This paper discusses the role of AUVs in this suite of tools, outlines some specific design criteria necessary to maximize their utility in the field, and presents directions for future developments. Results are presented …

Development Of A New Lagrangian Float For Studying Coastal Marine Ecosystems, Alex Schwithal, Chris Roman

Christopher N. Roman

This paper presents an overview and initial testing results for a shallow water Lagrangian float designed to operate in coastal settings. The presented effort addresses the two main characteristics of the shallow coastal environment that preclude the direct of use of many successfully deep water floats, namely the higher variation of water densities near the coast compared with the open ocean and the highly varied bathymetry. Our idea is to develop a high capacity dynamic auto-ballasting system that is able to compensate for the expected seawater density variation over a broad range of water temperatures and salinities while using measurements …

Development Of A New Lagrangian Float For Studying Coastal Marine Ecosystems, Alex Schwithal, Chris Roman

Christopher N. Roman

This paper presents an overview and initial testing results for a shallow water Lagrangian float designed to operate in coastal settings. The presented effort addresses the two main characteristics of the shallow coastal environment that preclude the direct of use of many successfully deep water floats, namely the higher variation of water densities near the coast compared with the open ocean and the highly varied bathymetry. Our idea is to develop a high capacity dynamic auto-ballasting system that is able to compensate for the expected seawater density variation over a broad range of water temperatures and salinities while using measurements …

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

Christopher N. Roman

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 …

From Engineering To Mechatronics Management, Edmond Hajrizi, Peter Kopacek, L. Stapleton

Edmond Hajrizi