Robotics Commons^™

Resource Optimization In Wireless Sensor Networks For An Improved Field Coverage And Cooperative Target Tracking, Husam Sweidan

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

There are various challenges that face a wireless sensor network (WSN) that mainly originate from the limited resources a sensor node usually has. A sensor node often relies on a battery as a power supply which, due to its limited capacity, tends to shorten the life-time of the node and the network as a whole. Other challenges arise from the limited capabilities of the sensors/actuators a node is equipped with, leading to complication like a poor coverage of the event, or limited mobility in the environment. This dissertation deals with the coverage problem as well as the limited power and …

Crop Height Estimation With Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Carrick Detweiler, David Anthony, Sebastian Elbaum

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can be configured for crop height estimation. In some examples, the UAV includes an aerial propulsion system, a laser scanner configured to face downwards while the UAV is in flight, and a control system. The laser scanner is configured to scan through a two-dimensional scan angle and is characterized by a maxi mum range. The control system causes the UAV to fly over an agricultural field and maintain, using the aerial propulsion system and the laser scanner, a distance between the UAV and a top of crops in the agricultural field to within a programmed …

Development Of A Locomotion And Balancing Strategy For Humanoid Robots, Emile Bahdi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The locomotion ability and high mobility are the most distinguished features of humanoid robots. Due to the non-linear dynamics of walking, developing and controlling the locomotion of humanoid robots is a challenging task. In this thesis, we study and develop a walking engine for the humanoid robot, NAO, which is the official robotic platform used in the RoboCup Spl. Aldebaran Robotics, the manufacturing company of NAO provides a walking module that has disadvantages, such as being a black box that does not provide control of the gait as well as the robot walk with a bent knee. The latter disadvantage, …

Review Of Deep Learning Methods In Robotic Grasp Detection, Shehan Caldera, Alexander Rassau, Douglas Chai

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

For robots to attain more general-purpose utility, grasping is a necessary skill to master. Such general-purpose robots may use their perception abilities to visually identify grasps for a given object. A grasp describes how a robotic end-effector can be arranged to securely grab an object and successfully lift it without slippage. Traditionally, grasp detection requires expert human knowledge to analytically form the task-specific algorithm, but this is an arduous and time-consuming approach. During the last five years, deep learning methods have enabled significant advancements in robotic vision, natural language processing, and automated driving applications. The successful results of these methods …

An Unmanned Aerial System For Prescribed Fires, Evan M. Beachly

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Prescribed fires can lessen wildfire severity and control invasive species, but some terrains may be difficult, dangerous, or costly to burn with existing tools. This thesis presents the design of an unmanned aerial system that can ignite prescribed fires from the air, with less cost and risk than with aerial ignition from a manned aircraft. The prototype was evaluated in-lab and successfully used to ignite interior areas of two prescribed fires. Additionally, we introduce an approach that integrates a lightweight fire simulation to autonomously plan safe flight trajectories and suggest effective fire lines. Both components are unique in that they …

Formal Performance Guarantees For An Approach To Human In The Loop Robot Missions, Damian Lyons, Ron Arkin, Shu Jiang, Matt O'Brien, Feng Tang, Peng Tang

Faculty Publications

Abstract— A key challenge in the automatic verification of robot mission software, especially critical mission software, is to be able to effectively model the performance of a human operator and factor that into the formal performance guarantees for the mission. We present a novel approach to modelling the skill level of the operator and integrating it into automatic verification using a linear Gaussians model parameterized by experimental calibration. Our approach allows us to model different skill levels directly in terms of the behavior of the lumped, robot plus operator, system.

Using MissionLab and VIPARS (a behavior-based robot mission verification …

Developing Grounded Goals Through Instant Replay Learning, Lisa Meeden, Douglas S. Blank

Computer Science Faculty Research and Scholarship

This paper describes and tests a developmental architecture that enables a robot to explore its world, to find and remember interesting states, to associate these states with grounded goal representations, and to generate action sequences so that it can re-visit these states of interest. The model is composed of feed-forward neural networks that learn to make predictions at two levels through a dual mechanism of motor babbling for discovering the interesting goal states and instant replay learning for developing the grounded goal representations. We compare the performance of the model with grounded goal representations versus random goal representations, and find …

Motion Planning For Simple Two-Wheeled Robots, Ronald I. Greenberg, Jeffery M. Karp

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper considers various simple ways of navigating in a 2-dimensianal territory with a two-wheeled robot of a type typical in educational robotics. We determine shortest paths under various modes of operation and compare.

A Robotics Framework For Simulation And Control Of A Robotic Arm For Use In Higher Education, Craig Christensen

MS in Computer Science Project Reports

Robotic arms have been in common use for a several decades now in many areas from manufacturing and industrial uses to hobby projects and amusement park rides. However, there have been very few attempts to make an inexpensive robot arm with a software stack for use in higher education. This paper will outline a control and interfacing software stack built on the Robot Operating System (ROS) and a simulation of the 5 degree of freedom (DoF) robotic arm.

An Approach To Robust Homing With Stereovision, Fuqiang Fu, Damian Lyons

Faculty Publications

Visual Homing is a bioinspired approach to robot navigation which can be fast and uses few assumptions. However, visual homing in a cluttered and unstructured outdoor environment offers several challenges to homing methods that have been developed for primarily indoor environments. One issue is that any current image during homing may be tilted with respect to the home image. The second is that moving through a cluttered scene during homing may cause obstacles to interfere between the home scene and location and the current scene and location. In this paper, we introduce a robust method to improve a previous developed …

Pythagorean Approximations For Lego: Merging Educational Robot Construction With Programming And Data Analysis, Ronald I. Greenberg

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Abstract. This paper can be used in two ways. It can provide reference information for incorporating diagonal elements (for bracing or gear meshing) in educational robots built from standard LEGO kits. Alternatively, it can be used as the basis for an assignment for high school or college students to recreate this information; in the process, students will exercise skills in both computer programming and data analysis. Using the paper in the second way can be an excellent integrative experience to add to an existing course; for example, the Exploring Computer Science high school curriculum concludes with the units “Introduction to …

Performance Verification For Robot Missions In Uncertain Environments, Damian Lyons, Ron Arkin, Shu Jiang, Matt O'Brien, Feng Tang, Peng Tang

Faculty Publications

Abstract—Certain robot missions need to perform predictably in a physical environment that may have significant uncertainty. One approach is to leverage automatic software verification techniques to establish a performance guarantee. The addition of an environment model and uncertainty in both program and environment, however, means the state-space of a model-checking solution to the problem can be prohibitively large. An approach based on behavior-based controllers in a process-algebra framework that avoids state-space combinatorics is presented here. In this approach, verification of the robot program in the uncertain environment is reduced to a filtering problem for a Bayesian Network. Validation results …

Establishing A-Priori Performance Guarantees For Robot Missions That Include Localization Software, Damian Lyons, Ron Arkin, Shu Jiang, Matt O'Brien, Feng Tang, Peng Tang

Faculty Publications

One approach to determining whether an automated system is performing correctly is to monitor its performance, signaling when the performance is not acceptable; another approach is to automatically analyze the possible behaviors of the system a-priori and determine performance guarantees. Thea authors have applied this second approach to automatically derive performance guarantees for behaviorbased, multi-robot critical mission software using an innovative approach to formal verification for robotic software. Localization and mapping algorithms can allow a robot to navigate well in an unknown environment. However, whether such algorithms enhance any specific robot mission is currently a matter for empirical validation. Several …

2d Vector Map And Database Design For Indoor Assisted Navigation, Luciano Caraciolo Albuquerque

Dissertations and Theses

In this paper we implemented a 2D Vector Map, map editor and Database design intended to provide an efficient way to convert cad files from indoor environments to a set of vectors representing hallways, doors, exits, elevators, and other entities embedded in a floor plan, and save them in a database for use by other applications, such as assisted navigation for blind people.

A graphical application as developed in C++ to allow the user to input a CAD DXF file, process the file to automatically obtain nodes and edges, and save the nodes and edges to a database for posterior …

Evaluating Intention To Use Remote Robotics Experimentation In Programming Courses, Pericles Leng Cheng

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Digital Agenda for Europe (2015) states that there will be 825,000 unfilled vacancies for Information and Communications Technology by 2020. This lack of IT professionals stems from the small number of students graduating in computer science. To retain more students in the field, teachers can use remote robotic experiments to explain difficult concepts. This correlational study used the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to examine if performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions can predict the intention of high school computer science teachers in Cyprus, to use remote robotic experiments in their classes. …

Android Drone: Remote Quadcopter Control With A Phone, Aubrey John Russell

Computer Engineering

The purpose of the “Android Drone” project was to create a quadcopter that can be controlled by user input sent over the phone’s Wi-Fi connection or 4G internet connection. Furthermore, the purpose was also to be able to receive live video feedback over the internet connection, thus making the drone an inexpensive option compared to other, equivalent drones that might cost thousands of dollars. Not only that, but the Android phone also has a host of other useful features that could be utilized by the drone: this includes GPS, pathing, picture taking, data storage, networking and TCP/IP, a Java software …

Formal Performance Guarantees For Behavior-Based Localization Missions, Damian Lyons, Ron Arkin, Shu Jiang, Matt O'Brien, Feng Tang, Peng Tang

Faculty Publications

Abstract— Localization and mapping algorithms can allow a robot to navigate well in an unknown environment. However, whether such algorithms enhance any specific robot mission is currently a matter for empirical validation. In this paper we apply our MissionLab/VIPARS mission design and verification approach to an autonomous robot mission that uses probabilistic localization software.

Two approaches to modeling probabilistic localization for verification are presented: a high-level approach, and a sample-based approach which allows run-time code to be embedded in verification. Verification and experimental validation results are presented for two different missions, each using each method, demonstrating the accuracy …

Landmark Detection With Surprise Saliency Using Convolutional Neural Networks, Feng Tang, Damian Lyons, Daniel Leeds

Faculty Publications

Abstract—Landmarks can be used as reference to enable people or robots to localize themselves or to navigate in their environment. Automatic definition and extraction of appropriate landmarks from the environment has proven to be a challenging task when pre-defined landmarks are not present. We propose a novel computational model of automatic landmark detection from a single image without any pre-defined landmark database. The hypothesis is that if an object looks abnormal due to its atypical scene context (what we call surprise saliency), it then may be considered as a good landmark because it is unique and easy to spot by …

Vision-Based Motion For A Humanoid Robot, Khalid Abdullah Alkhulayfi

Dissertations and Theses

The overall objective of this thesis is to build an integrated, inexpensive, human-sized humanoid robot from scratch that looks and behaves like a human. More specifically, my goal is to build an android robot called Marie Curie robot that can act like a human actor in the Portland Cyber Theater in the play Quantum Debate with a known script of every robot behavior. In order to achieve this goal, the humanoid robot need to has degrees of freedom (DOF) similar to human DOFs. Each part of the Curie robot was built to achieve the goal of building a complete humanoid …

Pythagorean Combinations For Lego Robot Building., Ronald I. Greenberg

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper provides tips for LEGO robot construction involving bracing or gear meshing along a diagonal using standard Botball kits.

A Simulation-Based Layered Framework Framework For The Development Of Collaborative Autonomous Systems, Ioannis Sakiotis

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to introduce a simulation-based software framework that facilitates the development of collaborative autonomous systems. Significant commonalities exist in the design approaches of both collaborative and autonomous systems, mirroring the sense, plan, act paradigm, and mostly adopting layered architectures. Unfortunately, the development of such systems is intricate and requires low-level interfacing which significantly detracts from development time. Frameworks for the development of collaborative and autonomous systems have been developed but are not flexible and center on narrow ranges of applications and platforms. The proposed framework utilizes an expandable layered structure that allows developers to define …

Inferring Intrinsic Beliefs Of Digital Images Using A Deep Autoencoder, Seok H. Lee

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Training a system of artificial neural networks on digital images is a big challenge. Often times digital images contain a large amount of information and values for artificial neural networks to understand. In this work, the inference model is proposed in order to absolve this problem. The inference model is composed of a parameterized autoencoder that endures the loss of information caused by the rescaling of images and transition model that predicts the effect of an action on the observation. To test the inference model, the images of a moving robotic arm were given as the data set. The inference …

Efficient Algorithms For Clustering Polygonal Obstacles, Sabbir Kumar Manandhar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Clustering a set of points in Euclidean space is a well-known problem having applications in pattern recognition, document image analysis, big-data analytics, and robotics. While there are a lot of research publications for clustering point objects, only a few articles have been reported for clustering a given distribution of obstacles. In this thesis we examine the development of efficient algorithms for clustering a given set of convex obstacles in the 2D plane. One of the methods presented in this work uses a Voronoi diagram to extract obstacle clusters. We also consider the implementation issues of point/obstacle clustering algorithms.

Flying By Fire: Making Controlled Burns Safer For Humans And Uavs, Rebecca Horzewski, Carrick Detweiler

UCARE: Research Products

A temperature sensing circuit board was developed that will allow Nimbus Lab's controlled burn starting UAV to react to the temperatures around it.

Learning In Vision And Robotics, Daniel P. Barrett

Open Access Dissertations

I present my work on learning from video and robotic input. This is an important problem, with numerous potential applications. The use of machine learning makes it possible to obtain models which can handle noise and variation without explicitly programming them. It also raises the possibility of robots which can interact more seamlessly with humans rather than only exhibiting hard-coded behaviors. I will present my work in two areas: video action recognition, and robot navigation. First, I present a video action recognition method which represents actions in video by sequences of retinotopic appearance and motion detectors, learns such models automatically …

An Evaluation Of Robotics In Nursing Homes To Reduce Adverse Drug Events, Ozell Ueal Jr.

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Adverse drug events (ADE) cause many deaths annually in addition to affecting the quality of life of many others. The descriptive mixed methods approach, specifically exploratory case study and experimental design that guided this research utilized the survey and focus group methods to evaluate perceptions about robotic technology (RT) to reduce the rate of ADEs in U.S. nursing homes (NH). There is a lack of scholarly research into whether a conceptual approach rooted in RT can be implemented to assist with drug administrations in NHs. The purpose of this study was twofold. The first purpose was to evaluate the causes …

Using Eye And Head Movements As A Control Mechanism For Tele-Operating A Ground-Based Robot And Its Payload, Kathryn C. Hicks

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

To date, eye and head tracking has been used to indicate users' attention patterns while performing a task or as an aid for disabled persons, to allow hands-free interaction with a computer. The increasing accuracy and the reduced cost of eye- and head-tracking equipment make utilizing this technology feasible for explicit control tasks, especially in cases where there is confluence between the visual task and control.

The goal of this research was to investigate the use of eye-tracking as a more natural interface for the control of a camera-equipped, remotely operated robot in tasks that require the operator to simultaneously …

Formal Specification And Refinement Of The Navigation Tasks Of Autonomous Robots, Eman Rabiah

Theses

Autonomous robots are hybrid systems whose role in our daily life is becoming increasingly critical. They are tasked with various activities requiring reliability, safety, and correctness of their software-controlled behavior. Formal methods have been proved effective in addressing development issues associated with these software qualities. However, even though autonomous robot navigation is a primordial function, there is no research dealing with enhancing reliability of the navigation algorithms. Thus, our focus is to investigate this type of algorithms, and specifically path planning, a fundamental and critical functionality supporting autonomy. We formally address the issue of enhancing reliability of the widely-used A* …

Reducing The Control Burden Of Legged Robotic Locomotion Through Biomimetic Consonance In Mechanical Design And Control, Caitrin Elizabeth Eaton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Terrestrial robots must be capable of negotiating rough terrain if they are to become autonomous outside of the lab. Although the control mechanism offered by wheels is attractive in its simplicity, any wheeled system is confined to relatively flat terrain. Wheels will also only ever be useful for rolling, while limbs observed in nature are highly multimodal. The robust locomotive utility of legs is evidenced by the many animals that walk, run, jump, swim, and climb in a world full of challenging terrain.

On the other hand, legs with multiple degrees of freedom (DoF) require much more complex control and …

Designing A Biomimetic Testing Platform For Actuators In A Series-Elastic Co-Contraction System, Ryan Tyler Schroeder

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Actuators determine the performance of robotic systems at the most intimate of levels. As a result, much work has been done to assess the performance of different actuator systems. However, biomimetics has not previously been utilized as a pretext for tuning a series elastic actuator system with the purpose of designing an empirical testing platform. Thus, an artificial muscle tendon system has been developed in order to assess the performance of two distinct actuator types: (1) direct current electromagnetic motors and (2) ultrasonic rotary piezoelectric motors. Because the design of the system takes advantage of biomimetic operating principles such as …